Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-06-29

you can 20 no 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 the earth. 1t 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 opened
it and broke all the seven seals lie broke
the first seal and unroled the scroll, and
there was n picture of n white horse, and
that meant prosperity and triumph for
the Roman empire, and so II really came
to pass that for 90 years virtuous emper-
ors succeeded each other-Nerva, Ira jan
and Antonnus. Christ in the vision broke
the second seal and unrolled again, and
there was n picture of red horse, and
that meant bloodshed, and so it really
came to pass, and the next 30 years were
red with assassinntions and wars. Then
Christ broke the third seal and unrolled
1t, and there was a picture of n black
horse. which in all literature means fam
inc, oppression 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 a scaled scroll, and | am glad that
nc 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.
Take Care of the Present.
Do not go to some necromanccr or spir-
! itualist or soothsaycr or fortune teller to
find out what is going to happen TO your
self or your family or your friends. Wait
till Christ breaks the seal to find ont
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 pros
perity or the red horse OF war or the
black horse of famine. You will soon
enough see him paw and hear him neigh.
Take care of the present, and the future
will take care of itself. IL man live
20 years, his biography is in n scroll bav-
ing at least seven seals. And let him not
during the first ten years of his life try to
look into the twcnties nor the twentics
into the thirties, nor the thrties into the
forties, nor the fortes into the tiftes, nor
the fftics into the sixties, nor the sixties
into the seventies. From 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. ] would not give cents to
know how long | am going TO live or in
what day of what year the world is going
to be demolished. | would rather give
$1,000 not to know. Suppose some one
could break the next seal in the scroll uf
your personal history and should tell you
that on the next 4th 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 count
ing them. and next 4th of July You
would rub your hands together and
whine: "Onc year from today am to go.
Dear me. | wish no one had told me so
long before. | wish that necromancer
had not broken the seal of the future"
And meeting some undertaken. you would
say: IL hope you will keep yourself free
for an engagement the 4th of July, 1901.
That day you will be needed at my house.
To save time you might as well take my
measure now, 3 feet II inches" | am
glad that Christ dropped n thick veil over
the hour OF our demise and Of the hour OF
the worlds destruction when he said:
"Of that day and hour knoweth no man;
no, not the angels, but my Father only"
Keep your hands off the seven seals.
The seven Thunders.
There is another mighty seven of the
Bibe-namcy. the seven thunders. What
those thunders meant we are not 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 without them.
dor iS 40 Snappb nf lUb
are evils in our world which must be
thundered down and which will require
at least seven volleys to PROSTATE them
We are all doing nice. delicate, soft hand
ed work, in church .s and reformatory in
situations, against the evils of the world.
and much of it amounts to teaspoon
dipping out the Atlantic ocean. or clam
shell digging away at a mountain. or a
tack hammer shifting the Gibraltar.
What is needed is thunderbolts. and at
. least seven of them. There is the long
. line of fraudulent commercial establish
ments. every stone in the foundation and
. every brick in the wall, and every nail
, in the rafter made out Of dishonesty,
. skeletons of poorly paid sewing girls
, arms in every beam OF that establish
, ment, human nerves worked into every
figure of that embroidery, blood in the
, deep dye Of that refugcnt upholstery,
billions Of dollars Of accumulated fraud
, intrenched in massive storehouses and
, stock companies manipulated by unscru-
, pulous men. until the monopoly is defiant
of all earth and heaven. How shall the
evil be overcome! BY treatises on the
maxim, Honesty Is the best policyW Or
by soft repetition Of the golden rule that
, we must "Do unto others as we would
, have them do to u.s." No. it will not be
done that way. What is needed and will
come is the seven thunders
There is drunk enness backed up by a
capital mightier than in any other bust
4 ness. Intoxicating liquors enough in this
, country to feat Il navy. Good grain to
the amount of 61,0500O0 bushels annual
, ly destroyed to make the deadly liquid
+ Breweres, distilleries, gin shops, rum
4 palaces, liquor associations, our nation
spending annually $74O,000,000 for rum
resulting in bankruptcy, disease, pauper'
, ism, filth, assassination, death, illimita
BILE woe. What will stop them? High IL
= cense? No. Prohibition laws? No
, Churches? No, Moral suasion? No
. Thunderbolts will do it; nothing else will
| Seven thunders!
. Yonder are ntrenched inhdelity and
. atheism, with their magazines of litera
a ture scofling at our Christianity, theil
. Hoe printing presses busy day and night
L. ~.