The Penn's Grove record., 1899-06-30

by the Divine Mind.
downright, Louis Klopsch, 1891
W~AsH1NaroH, d. C.-Many OF the most
.mnortant doctrines Of the Bible are by DR..
Taimage presented a. In this sermon in a very
unusual way. Genesis H., 3, "dod pressed
the seventh day
The mathematics Of the Bible Is notice.
able; the geometry and the arithmetici the
| aqunre in Ezekiel; the circle spoken OF IN
Isaiah; the curve alluded 10 IN 9op, the
| rule OF fractions mentioned In Danteli thsa
rule OF loss and gHin in Mark, where Chsss.
asks the people to cipher out. by that RUE
what lt would "proft II man II he gain tho
whole world and lose his SOUL But there
is one mathematical figure thar is crowheu
above all others in the BLDG, IL IS the
numeral seven, which the Arabians got
from India, and all following ages have
taken from the Arabians. 1t STANDS be-
tween the figure six and the figure eight.
In the Bible all the other numerals DOW TO
1t. Over $40 times 1t is mentioned In the
Scriptures, either alone or COMPOUNDED
with other words. In Genesis the week Is
rounded into seven days, and l use my text
because there this numeral Is for the nrst
time introduced in q journey which halts
nots1nti In the close Of the book OF Revela-
tion 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 mad to
serve seven years to get Rachel, but she
was well worth it, and, foretelling the
wears 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 his leprosy,
plunged in the Jordan seven timesi the
Gead child, when Elisha breathed into Its
mouth, ~signaled its arrival back into con-
seriousness by sneezlng seven times; to the
house that Ezekiel saw in vision there
were seven steps; the walls OF jericho, be-
fore they fell down, were compassea seven
days; Ze1hariah describes a stone with
ewes; to cleanse n leprous house the door
must be s%prinkled with pigeons blood
seven times; in Canaan were overtbrown
seven nations; on one occasion Christ cast
out seven devils; on a mountain lie feu a
multitude Of people with seven loaves, the
fragments left filling seven baskets, ana
the closing passages Of the Bible are mag
nifcent and overwhelming with the I'M
agery made up of seven churches, seven
stars, seven candlesticks, seven seals, seven
angels and seven heads and seven crowns
and seven horns and seven spirits and
seven walls and seven plaques and seven
thunders.
Yea, the mineral seven seems a favorlte
with the divine mind outside as well as In
HluE liz v i ~ nv ~ VI 80
matte colors? And when God with the
rainbow wrote the comforting thought
that the world would never have another
deluge He wrote 1t on the scroll of the sky
in ink of seven colors. He grouped into
the Pleiades seven stars. Rome, the capt.
tai of the world, sat on seven hills. When
God would make the most intelligent thing
on earth, the human c~ountenance, 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, and we gradually shed 1t for another
body after another seven years, and so on,
for we are, as to our bodies, septennial an
imals. SO the numeral seven ranges through
nature and though revelation. 1t Is the
number of perfection, and so | use it while
/ speak OF the seven candlesticks. the seven
stars, the seven seals and the seven thun-
ders.
Tho seven golden candlesticks were and
are the churches. Mark you, the churches
never were, and never can be, candles.
They are only candlesticks. They are not
the light, but they are to hold the light. A
room in the night might have In it 500 nm
dlesticks, and yet you could not see your
hand before your face. The only use OF q
candlestick and the only use OF a church is
to hold up the light. You see it is q dark
world, the night Of sin, the night OF trouble,
the night OF superstition, the night OF per-
secution, the night Of poverty, the night
of sickness, the night of death. Aye, about
fifty nights have interlocked their shnd-
ows. The whole race goes stumbling over
Frustrated hopes, and fallen fortunes, and
empty -four barrels, and desolated cradles
and deathbeds. How much we have use
for all the seven candlesticks, with lights
blazing from the top Of each one OF theml
Light OF pardon for all SIM Light OF COM
fort for all troubled Light OF encouaSSe-
ment for all despondency! Light OF eter-
nal riches for all poverty Light of
rescue for all persecution Light OF re-
union for all the bereft! Light OF heaven
for all the dying! And that light is Christ,
who is the light that shall yet irradiate the
hemispheres.
But, mark you, when l say churches ara
not candles, but candlesticks, l cast nc
slur on candlesticks. I believe in beauti-
Jul candlesticks. The candlesticks that
God ordered for the ancient tabernacle
were something exquisite. They were a
dream of beauty carved out OF loneliness.
They were made of hammered gold, stood
in a foot Of gold and had six branches OF
gold blooming all along In six lilies of gold
each and lips of gold, from which the can
dies lifted their holy fire. And the best
houses in any city ought to be the churches
the best. built, the best ventilated. the
best swept, the best Widowed and the best
chandeliered. Log cabins may do in
neighborhoods where most Of the people
live in log cabins, but let there be palatial
churches for regions where many of the
people live In palaces. Do not have a bet
ter place for yourself than for your Lord
and King. Do not live in a parlor and put
your Christ In a kitchen. These seven
candlesticks OF which l speak were not
made of pewter or iron; they were gold
en- candlesticks, and gold is not only
a valuable but a bright metal. Have every
thing about your church bright-your
ushers with smiling faces, your music iubi-
liant, your handshnking cordial, your en-
tire service attractive. Many people feel
that In church they must look dull, in or
der to look ieverential, and many whose
faces In other kinds of assemblage show all
the different phases OF emotion have in
church no more expression than the back
wheel OF a hearse. Brighten up and be re-
/. sponsive. II you feel like weeping, weep.
II YOU feel like smiling, smile. II you feel
indignant at some wrong assailed from the
pulpit, frown. Do not leave your natural
ness and resiliency home because it is Sun
day morning. II as officers of a church you
meet people at the church door with q
black look, and have the music black, and
the minister in black preach u black SER
mon, and from invocation to benediction
nave the impression black, few will come,
and those who do come will wish they had
not come at all.
Golden candlesticks! Scour IN the six
~ NA u pANhbhI u huOH lluk Ii
more lovely and bright they are the more
fit they are to hold the light. But a
Christless light is a damage to the world
rather than a good. Cromwell stabbed his
cavalry horses in st. Paul's Cathedral,
and many now use the church in which to
stable ~vanities and worldliness. A worldly
church is a candlestick without the candle,
and it had its prototype in st. Sophla's In
Constantinople, built to the glory OF God
by Constantine, but transformed to base
uses by Mohammed the Second. Built out
OF colored marble; u eupola with TWENTY
four window soaring to a height OF 1870
feet; the ceiling one great bewilderment of
mosaic; galleries supported by eight
columns Of porphyry and sixty-seven col
umns OF green jasper; nine bronze doors
with alto-relievo work, fascinating to the
eye OF any artist; vases and vestments in
cIusted with all manner OF precious stones.
Four walls on FIRE with indescribable
splendor. Though labor was cheap. the
building cost 81, 500, 900. Ecclesiastical
structure, almost supernatural in pomp
and majesty, But Mohammedanism tore
down from the walls of that building all the
sanity and Christly images, and high up
in the dome the figure OF the cross was
rubbed out that the crescent Of the bar
harOuS Turk might ba substituted