The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-07-22
who is worthy to loose the seals there

cap paper. paste them together and roll
them into scroll and have the scroll
at seven different places sealed with
sealing war. You u.ro!! the scroll until
you come to one of those seals, and hen
you can go no farther until you break
that seal. Then unroll again until you
come to another seal, and you can 60
farther until you break that seal. Then
you go on until all the seven seals are
broken and the contents of the entire
scroll are revealed. Now that scroll
with seven seals held. by the angel was
the prophecy of what was to come on
earth. 1t meant that the knowledge OF
the failure was with God, and no man
and no angel was worthy to open it,
but the Bible says Christ opened it and
broke all the seven seals. He broke he
| first seal and unrolled the scroll, and
there was picture Of white horse,
and that meant prosperity and triumph
| for the Roman empire, and so it really
came to pass that for 90 years virtuous
emperors succeeded each other-Nerva,
Trajan and Antoninus. Christ in the
vision broke the second seal and I'M
rolled again, and there was seal of
red horse, and that meant bloodshed,
and SO it really came to pass, and the
next 80 years were red with assassina-
tons and wars. Then Christ broke the
third seal and unrolled it, and there
was a picture of black horse, which
in all literature means famine, oppres-
sion and taxation, and so it really came
to pass. Christ went on until He broke
all the seven seals and opened all the
scroll. Well, the future of all of us is in
q sealed scroll, and am glad that no
one but Christ can open it. Do not let
us join that class of Christians in our
day who are trying to break the seven
! seals of the future. They are trying to
peep into things they have no business
with.
DO not go to some necromancer OF
spiritualist or soothsayer or fortune
teller to find out what is going to hap
pen to yourself or your family or your
friends. Wait till Christ breaks the
seal to find out whether in your own
personal life or the life of the nation
or the life of the world it is going to be
the white horse of prosperity or the red
horse of war or the black horse of fam
inc. You will soon enough see him paw
and hear him neigh. Take care Of
the present, and the future will take
care of itself. If man live 70 years,
his biography is in scroll having at
least seven seals. And let him not dur.
ing the first ten years of his life try
to look into the twenties, nor the TWEEN.
ties into the thirties, nor the thirties
into the forties, nor the forties into the
fifties, nor the fifties into the sixties,
the way the years have got the habit OF
racing along | guess you will not have
to wait a great while before all the
seals of the future are broken. Iwould
not give two cents to know how long
am going to live or in what day or what
year the world is going to be demol-
ished. would rather give $1,000 not
to know. Suppose some one could
break the next seal in the scroll OF
your personal history and should tell
you that on the next Fourth of July
1901, you were to die, the summer after
next, how much would you be good for
between this and that? 1t would from
now until then be prolonged funeral
You would be counting the months and
the days, and your family and friends
would be counting them, and next
Fourth of July you would rub your
hands together and whine: Zone year
from to-day am to go. Dear me!
wish no one had told me so long before
| wish that necromancy had not broken
the seal of the future" And meeting
some undertaken, you would say: 81
hope you will keep yourself tree for ar
engagement the Fourth of Jluy, 1901
That day you will be needed at my
) house. To save time you might as wei
take my measure now, S feet ]
inches" am glad that Christ dropped
a thick veil over the hour of our de
mise, and of the hour of the worlds de
struction when He said: "Of that day
and hour knoweth no man; no, not thu
angels, but My Father only" KeeI
your hands off the seven seals.
There is another mighty seven o
the Bible-namely, the seven thunders
What those thunders meant we are no
, told, and there has been much guessing
about them. But they are to come
we are told, before the end of all things
and the world cannot get along with
out them. Thunder is the speech o
lightning. There are evils in our worlt
which must be Numbered down ant
which will require at least seven vol
leys to PROSTATE them. We are al
doing nice, delicate, soft handed work
in churches and reformatory institu
tions, against the evils of the world
and much of 1t amounts to a teaspoon
dipped out of the Atlantic ocean, or ,
clam shell digging away at a mountain
or tack hammer shifting the Choral
tar. What is needed is thunderholts
and at least seven of them. There !
!, the long line of fraudulent Commercial
establishments, every stone in tn
foundation and every brick in the wal
and every nail in the rafter made GU
If dishonesty, skeletons of poorly-pai'
: sewing girls arms in every beam o
that establishment, human nerve