Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-07-06
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
THE NUMBER SEVEN" LAST
! SUNDAYS SUBJECT.
From Genesis, Chapter III, Verse :, rs
Follows: God Blessed the Seventh
Day"-The Mineral Seven Is Favored
by Divine Choice

Copyright 1899 by Louis Klopsch)
The mathematics of the Bible Is no.
uceable: the geometry and the arith-
metic: the square in Ezekiel: the
circle spoken of in Isaiah: the curve
alluded to in Job: the rule of fractions
mentioned in Daniel: the rule of loss
and gain in Mark, where Christ asks
the people to cipher out by that rule
what it would profit a man If he gain
the whole world and lose his soul
But there is one mathematical figure
that is crowned above all others in the
| Bible: it is the mineral seven, which
the Arabians got from India, and all
following ages have taken from the
Arabians. 1t stands between the figure
six and the figure eight. In the Bible
all the other numerals bow to 1t. Over
three hundred times it is mentioned in
the Scriptures, either alone or COM
pounded with other words. In Genesis
| the week is rounded into seven days,
and l use my text because there this
mineral is for the first time introduced
in a journey which halts not until in
the close of the Book of Revelations
its monument is built into the wall OF
heaven in chrysolite, which, in the
strata Of precious stones Is the seventh.
In the Bible we find that Jacob had
to serve seven years to get Rachel,
but she was we'll worth it, and, fore
telling the years of prosperity and
famine in Pharaoh's time, the seven
fat oxen were eaten up Of the seven
lean oxen: and wisdom is said to be
built on seven pillars: and the ark was
left with the Philistines seven years:
and Naaman, for the cure of leprosy,
plunged in the Jordan seven times:
the dead child, when Elisha breathed
into its mouth, signaled its ar
rival back into consciousness by
sneezing seven times: to the house that
Ezekiel saw in vision, there were seven
steps: the walls of Jericho, before they
fell down, were comprised seven days:
Zechariah describes a stone with seven
eyes: to cleanse a leprous house, the
door must besprinkled with pigeons
blood seven times: in Canaan were
overthrown seven nations: on one oc-
casion Christ cast out seven devils: on
a mountain he fed a multitude Of peo-
pie with seven loaves, the fragments
left filling seven baskets: and the clos
ing passages of the Bible are magnih-
cent and overwhelming with the mag
cry made up of seven churches, seven
stars, seven candlesticks, seven seals,
seven angels, and seven heads, and sew
en- crowns and seven horns, and seven
spirits, and seven walls, and seven
plaques, and seven thunders.
Yea, the numeral seven seems a
favorite with the divine mind outside
as we'll as inside the Bible, for are
there not seven prismatic colors? And
when God with the rainbow wrote the
comforting thought that the world
would never have another deluge, he
wrote it on the scroll Of the sky in
ink of seven colors. He grouped into
the Pleiades seven stars. Rome, the
capital Of the world, sat on seven hills.
When God would make the most intel
ligent thing on earth, the human coun-
tenance, he fashioned it with seven
features-the two ears, the two eyes,
the two nostrils and the mouth. Yea,
our body lasts only seven years, and
we gradually shed 1t for another body
after another seven years, and SO on,
for we are, as our bodies septennial
animals. So the numeral seven ranges
through nature and through revelation.
It is the number of perfection, and so
use it while l speak Of the seven
candesticks, the seven stars, the seven
seals and the seven thunders.
The ministers are not all Pecksniffs
and canting hypocrites, as some would
have you think! Forgive me, if having
at other times glorified the medical
profession. and the legal profession
and the literary profession-I glori-
~ my own. l have seen them
in their homes and heard them in their
pulpits. and a grander array Of men
never breathed, and the Bible figure is
not strained when it calls them stars;
and whole consultations of glorious
ministers have already taken their
places on high, where they shine even
brighter than they shone on earth; Ed
ward n. Kirk, Of the Congregational
Church; Stephen H. Tying, of the Epis-
copal Church; Matthew Simpson, Of
the Methodist Church; John Bowling,
of the Baptist Church; Samuel X. Tai
mage, of the Presbyterian Church;
Thomas Dewitt of the Reformed
Church; John Chambers, Of the indie
pendent Church; and there / stop, for
it so happens that l have mentioned
the seven stars of the seven churches
| pass on to another mighty Bible
seven, and they are the seven seals. st.
John in vision saw scroll with seven
seals, and he heard an angel cry, VINO
is worthy to loose the seals thereof"
| Take eight or ten sheets of foolscap
paper, paste them together and roll
them into a SCROLL and have the scroll
at seven different places sealed with
sealing wax. You unroll the scroll till
you come to one of these seals, and
then you can go no further until you
break that seal; then unroll again I'M
| til you come to another seal, and you
can go no further 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
tie angel was the prophecy of what
was to come on the earth; it meant
that the knowledge of the future was
with God, and no man and no angel
was worthy to open it; but the Bible
| SAYS Christ nnpnpl IL and hrnke ALL