St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-07-29
BIBLE MATHEMATICS.
D.. Talmage Discourses on the Mum
eral Seven.
A Favorite Number with the Divine
Mlnd-Take Care Of the Pres.
eat, God VIII Take Care
Of the Future.


ent, God VIII Take Care
of the Future.
CCopyright, 1889. by Louis Klopsch.l
Washington,
Many of the important doctrines Of
the Bible are by DR.. Talmage presented
ia this sermon in = very unusual way.
Genesis ii, ;: God blessed the seventh
day."
The mathematics of the Bible is mo-
ticeable; the geometry and the arith-
me:ic, the square in Ezekiel, the cir
Gle spoken of in Isaiah, the curve al
iuded 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. 1t is the mineral seven, which
the Arabians got from India and all
following ages have taken from the
Arabians. 1t stands between the fig
ure six and the figure eight. In the
Bible all the other numerals bow to it.
Over 800 times it is mentioned in the
Scriptures, either alone or compound
ed with other words. In Genesis the
week is rounded into seven days, and
I use my text because there this nu-
neral is for the first time introduced in
q journey which halts not until in the
close of the book of Revelation its mon
ument 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 well worth it, anu, fofetelling
the years of prosperity and famine in
Pharoah'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 his leprosy, plunged In
the Jordan seven times; to the house
that Ezekiel saw in vision there were
seven steps; the walls of Jericho, be-
fore they fell down, were comprised
seven days; Zechariah describes
stone with seven eyes: to cleanse
leprous house the door must be
sprinkled with pigeons blood seven
times; in Canaan were overthrown
seven nations; on one occasion Christ
cast out seven devils; on a mountain he
fed = muntitude Of people with seven
loaves, the fragments left filling seven
baskets, and the closing passages of
the Bible are magnificent and over
whelming with the imagery made up
of seven churches, seven stars, seven
seven seals, seven angels
and seven heads and seven crowns and
seven horns and seven spirits and seven
phials and seven plaques and seven
thunders.
Yea, the numeral seven seems = IA
vorite with the Divine mind outside as
well as inside the Bible, for are there
not seven prismatic colors? And when
God with the rainbow wrote the COM
forting 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 intelligent thing
on earth, the human countenance, He
fashioned it with seven features-the
Two ears, the two eyes, the two nos
Lrils and the mouth. Yea, our body
lasts only seven years, and we grad
ually shed it for another body after an
other seven years, and so on, for we
ire ss to our bodies septennial animals.
80 the numeral seven ranges through
nature and through revelation. 1t is
The number of perfection, and SO / use
t while / speak of the seven candle |
sticks, the seven stars, the seven seals !;
md the seven thunders.
The seven golden candlesticks were
md are the churches. Mark you, the |
churches never were and never can be |
They are only candlesticks.
They are not the light, but they are
10 hold the light. A room in the night !:
might have in it 500 candlesticks and |
yet you could not see your hand be-
lore your face. The only use of can
llesticl, and the only use of a church.
8 to hold up the light. You see 1t is
! dark world, the night of sin. the night |
If trouble, the night of superstition.
he night of persecution. the night Of !
the night Of sickness, the
hight Of death; ave, about SO nights
have interlocked their shadows. The
whole race goes stumbling over pros
rated hopes and fallen fortunes and !,
.mpty -four barrels and desolate era
lies and deathbedA How much We /
ave use for all the seven candlesticks,
With lights blazing from the top OF
.ach one of them! Light Of pardon
or all sin! Light of comfort for all
rouble! Light of encouragement for
II dependency! Light Of eternal
iches for all poverty! Light Of res
ne for all persecution! Light OF re-
lnion for all the bereft! Light Of
Ieaven for all the dying! And that
ight il Christ, who il the light that
hall yet irradiate the hemispheres.
But mark you. when say churches
re not candles. but candlesticks, 1 cast
70 slur on candlesticks. I believe in
candlesticks. The candle
ticks that God ordered for the ancient
abernacle were something exquisite.
hey were . dream Of beauty carved
ut of loneliness. They were made Of
gold, stood in foot Of gold
nd had six branches of gold blooming
II along in six lilies of gold each, and
ps of gold, from which the candies
fled their holy fire. And the best
ouses in any city ought to be the
best built, the best ven
lated, the best swept, the best win
owed and the best chandeliered. Log
lbins may do in neighbodhoods where
lost OF the people live in log cabins,
ut let there be palatial churches for /.
.gions where many Of the people live {
! palaces. Do not have I better place ,