The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1899-07-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
THE NUMBER SEVEN" LAST
SUNDAY'S SUBJECT.
from Genesis, Chapter III, Verse 7, as
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
ticeable: 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 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 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 ana
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 multitude of peo-
pie with seven loaves, the fragments
left filling seven baskets: and the clos
ing passages of the Bible are magnln-
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
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 1t with seven
features-the two ears, the two eyes,
the two nostrils and the mouth. Yea,
our body lasts only seven years, ana
we gradually shed it 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
I use 1t while speak Of the seven
candlesticks, 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 glorl-
~ nv own. 1 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
nlaces 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-
conal Church; Matthew Simpson, OF
the Methodist Church; John Bowling,
of the Baptist Church; Samuel K. Tai
mage. of the Presbyterian Church;
Thomas Dewitt, of the Reformed
Church; John Chambers, of the 1nde-
pendert Church; and there stop, for
it so happens that 1 have mentioned
the seven stars of the seven churches.
l 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, WHO
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
hreal that seal. then unrOll again I'M