DR. TALMAGE’S SERMON Seven in the Bible. “God bhicssel the seventh day." Genesis 2:3. THE mathematics of the Bible is noticeable; 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 men tioned 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 numeral seven, which the Arabians got from India, and all following ages have taken from the Arabians, It stands betweeen the figure six and the figure eight, In the Bible all the other numerals bow to it Over three hnndred timesis it mention- ed in the Scriptures, either alone or compounded with other words. In Genes!s the we: k is rounded into seven days, and I use my text because there this numeral is for the first time intro- dueed in a journey which halts not uuo- ti] in the close of the Book of Revela- tions its monument is built into the will of heaven in chrysolite, which, iu the strata of precious stones, is the seventh, A CURIOUS RECURRENCE, ln the Bible we find that Jacob bad to serve seven years to get Rachel, but she was well worth it: and, foretelling the vears 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 times: the dead child, when Elisha breathed into its mouth, signalled its arrival back into conscious- ness by speezing seven times: to the house that Ezekiel saw in vision, there were seven steps: the walls of Jericho, before they fell down, were compassed seven days: Zachariah describes a stone with s-ven eves: to cleanse a Jeprous house, tiie door must be sprinkled with pigeons’ blood seven times: in Caanan were overthrown seven nations: on one occasion Christ cast out seven devils: on a mountain He fed a multitude of people with seven loaves, the fragments left filling seven baskets: and the clos- ing passages of the Bible are magnilic- ent and overwhelming with the im- agery made up of seven churches, seven stars, seven candlesticks, seven seals, seven augels, and seven heads, and seven © and seven horns, and seven spirits, and seven vials, and seven plagues, and seven thunders. Y ea, the numeral seven seems A FAVORITE WITH THE DIVINE MIND Towns outside as well as inside the Bible, for are there not seven prismatic colors? And when God with the rainbow wrote the comforting thought that the world WOU er have another deluge, He wrote it vi the scroll of the sky iu ink of seveu lle grouped into the Pleiades seven stars Rowe, the capi- tal of the world, sat on seven | When God would make the most telligent thing om earth, the countenance, He fashioned seven teaturt the two ears, eyes, the Lwo nostrils, and the mouth. Yeu, our body lasts only seven years, and we gradually sbed it for another body after another seven years, and =o ou. for we are, as to our bodies, septen- nial an So the numeral 4 a! Ors, imals, seven ranges through nature and through revelation. It is the numberof perfect- sid 80 I use it while 1 speak of the seven candlesticks, the seven stars, the seve 1 thie seven thunders, on, kK «ils, and £ CHE SEVEN CANDLESTICKS were and are the churches, Mark you, the churches never were, aod never can be, candles. They are only candle. sticks, They are not they arc to hold the hight. A room in the night might have in it five hundred candlesticks, and yet you could not see yout hand before your face. The only use of a candlestick, and the ouly use of a church, is to hold up the light. You sve it is a dark world, the night of sin, the night of persecution, the night of poverty, the nigh® of sickness, the night of death; aye, about fifty nights have interlocked their shadows. The whole mace goes stumbling over pros. trated hopes and fallen fortunes and empty flour-barrels and desolated cra- dies and death-beds, Oh, how much we have USE FOR ALL THE SEVEN candlesticks, with lights blazing from the top of each one of them! Light of pardon for all sin! Light of comfort for all trouble! Light of encourage- ment for all despondency! Light of sternal riches for all poverty! Light of rescue for all persecution! Light of reunion for all the bereft! Light of heaven for all she dying! And that hight is Christ, who is the Light that shall yet irradiate the hemispheres, But, mark you, when I say churches are not candles, but candlesticks, I cast no slur on candlesticks, I believe in beautiful candlesticks. The candle- sticks that God ordered for the ancient tabernacie were seinething exquisite, . They were a«dream’ of beauty carved out of loveliness, They were made of hammered gold, stood fo a foot of gold, and had six branches of gold Llcoming all along in six lilies of gold each, and lips of gold, from which the candles lifted their holy fire, And the best houses in ant shy ought to be the -churches—Lhe buili, the best venti- lated, the best sw the best window- ed, 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 W of the people live in palaces. ‘De not have a better place for youmelf than for your Lord and King. Do not live in a parlor and put your ¥ a # “0 TOHRIST IN A KITCHEN, These seven candlesticks of which i speak were not made out of pewter or iron; they wele candlesticks, and gold is metal. in church they must look dull, in order to be rev-rentinl, and many whose faces in other kinds of assemblages show all the different phases of emo- tion, have tn church no more expression than the back wheel of a hearse, Brighten up and be responsive. If you feel like weeping, weep. If you feel like smiling, smile, If you feel indig- nant at some wrong assailed from the pulpit, frown, Do not leave your nat uralness and resihency home because it is Sunday morning. If as officers of a church you meet people at the church- door with a black look, and have the music black, and the minister in black preach a black sermon, and from invo- cation to benediction have the impres- sion black, few will come; and those who do come will wish they had not come at all, Golden candlesticks! Scour up the six lilies on each branch, and know that the more lovely and bright they are, the more fit they are to hold the light. But a Christless light 18 a damage to the world rather than & gool. Crome well stabled his cavalry horses in Sk Paul's Cathedral, and many now use the church as a place in which to stable worldliness. A worldly church 1s A CANDLESTICK WITHOUT THE ( DLE, and it had its protolype in St, Sophia, AN~ but transform uses by Mohammed the Built out of colored marble; with twenty-four Constantine, Second. a cupola | ajc: galleries supported by eight col- | umns of porphyry and sixty-seven col- | umns of green jasper; nine bronze doors | with alto-relievo work, fascinating to the eye of any witist; vases anil vest. { ments encrusted with all manner of | precious stones. Four walls tire with indescribable splendor, Though | labor was cheap, the building cost vue | million five hundred thousand dollars, | Ecclesiastical structure, almost super- { natural in pomp and majesty. Mobammedanism tore down from the walls of that building all the saintly { and Christly images, and high up in the dome the figure of the cross was | rubbed that the crescent of the bar- bir might be substituted, A great but no Christ! A gorgeous %, but no candle! Ten iurches would not give the world much | as one home-made tallow candle by which i night some grandmother ib the © put her spectacles anl Psalms of David in large with the churches, by all means! dreds of them, thousand f the more the be 1 3 Ohl yi! thousand it € as ight 3 last 1 read the Up Hun- them, and lot itl euch o type, ne be a blaze o i thie world brighter iast shadow bas disappeared, A last of children of il have reached the land where have no need of or dle, neither light of the sun, Lord God giveth them light, ao and ever.” Turn now in your Bible to STARS, the suffering sh “ol can- for i i tok candlestick +1 E nF Yio : » : 1 shall reign forever I'fiE SEVEN “e are distin $s % “a wr clash, i Christian church tars bave been nunting £1 # wide or an Albert Barnes; and the were in pursuit of the other their own and some | could never again find it. Alas for the i heresy The best way to de- stroy error is to preach the truth, The i best way to scalier darkness is to strike There is in immensity room wugh for all the stars, and in the church room enough for all the minis. { ters. The ministers who give up righte- | ousness aud the truth will get punish- | ment enough anyhow, for they are **the wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever,” I should like, as a minister, when I am dying, to be able truthfully to say 4 ¥ tars fave Yas stars lost vide % Oris, ol them 5 53 1% «1 huntersi {fallen at the head of his column and to General Wolseley, who came to cone dole with him: *1 led them straight; | didn’t I lead them straight, General?"’ God has put us ministers as captains in this battie-fleld of truth against error. Great at last will be our chagrin if we fall leading the people the wrong way; but great will be our gladness if, when the battle is. over, we can hand our sword back to our great Commander, saying: ‘‘Lonl Jesus! We led the people straight; did't we lead them straight?” THE SEVEN SEALS, St. Jobn in vision saw a scroll with seven seals, and he heard an augel cry: “Who is worthy to loose the seals there- of?’ Take eight or ten sheets of fools. cap 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 #gain until you come to another seal, 4nd you can go on no further until you break that seal; then you go on until all the seven seals are broken, and the coitents of the en- tire scroll are revealed. Now, that scroll with seven seals bield by the angel was the prophecy of what was to come on the earth; it meant that the knowl- edge of the future was with God, and po man and no angel was worthy to it; but the Bible says Christ open- it and broke all the seven seals, He broke the first seal and unrolled the scroll, and there was a painting of a white horse, and that meant pros. perity and triumph for the Roman Em- pire, and 80 it really came to pass that for ninety years virtuous em Is suc- ceeded others Nerva, Trajan, and Antonius, Christ in the vision broke the second seal and unrolled again, and there was a painting of ared horse, and that meant b , and so it really came to pass, and the next ninety years were red with assassinations and wars, Then Christ broke the third seal and there was a paluting of which ino all literature means famine, 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 sealed scroll, and I am glad that no one but Christ can open it, There is another mighty seven of the Bible, viz., THE SEVEN THUNDERS, What those thunders meant we are not told, and there has been much guessing about them; but they are to come, Wwe are told, before the end of all things, and the world cannot get along without them. Thunder is the speech of light. ning. There are evils in our world which must be thundered down, and which will require at least seven volleys to pros- trace them, We are all doing nice, delicate, soft-handed work, In churches and reformatory institutions, against the evils of the world, and much of it amounts to a teaspoon dipping out the Atlantic Ocean, or a clam-shell digging away at a mountain, or a tack hammer smiting the Gibraltar. What Is needed is thunder-bolts, and at least seven of them. There isthe long hine of frawd- ulent commercial establishments; 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 gisls’ arms in every | beam of that establishment; human | nerves worked into every figure of that | embroidery; blood in the deep dye of | that - proffered upholstery; billions of dollars of | ACCUMULATED FRAUD | entrenched iu massive storehouses, and | stock companies manipulated by un scrupulous men, until the monopoly is aefiant of all earth and heaven, How maxim: Honesty is the best Or by soft 1iepetition of {on the policy? | gol we would have them do to us?’ No, it will not be done that way. What needed, and will come, is the thunders, There 18 drunkenness backed up by a | capital mightier than in any other busi- | ness, Intoxicating liquors enough in i this country to float a Davy. | grain to the amount of 67,950,000 bushels annually destroyed to make the { deadly liquid. Breweries, distilleries, gin shops, rum palaces, 1qUOr associa. | tions, our nation spending annually | seven hundred and forty millions of | dollars for rum, resul mnkrupiey { disease, pauperism, ith, assassi death, illimitable woe, What | them? High Licens Y laws? No. Chi sion? No. T nothing else wil Y onder are intrenches INFIDELITY AN their magazines of lit al our Christianity ing presses busy day a here thelr their drunken Tom Paines and libertine Vol- taires of the present as well as the past, reinforced by all lark nes hiiohioat HIgLeSL seven ! 8 is y i# erature scol ; their Hoe print Bad nIgng, ¥ sys } “% 1 2 blaspheming aposties, the powers of { to lowest 1 ; | $3 Ln v lextirpate those IT nd atl in s £41 Gemon iat LS 5 heism? TI + | fs i veiled § Wall as which palace as well as v tohadd: f L048 AL) Aik £0 } ‘sy at the bad way you a rumbl heavy artillery. com the seven thunders of the Almighty? Don't let us try to wield them ourselves, they are too heavy and to fiery for us to | handle; but God can and God will; and things often down Bo, 1 $ » nos the 2 i On our means are exhausted, then judgment | will begin. Thunderbolts? Depend upon it, that what is not done under the flash of the seven i thunders, | potent numeral seven, where the Bible leaves it, imbedded in hat was ever built, or will be coustruct- | ed, the wall of heaven, Itis THE SEVEN STRATA | of precious stones that make up that | wall, | stones in that wall, the Bible cries out | “the seventh chrysolite!l” | lite is an exquisite green, and in that | seventh layer of the heavenly wall shall | be preserved forever the dominant | color of the earth we once inhabited. I | have sometimes been saddened at the thought that this world, according to Science and Revelation, is to be blotted out of existence, for it is such a beauti- ful world, But here in this layer of the heavenly wall, where the numeral seven is to be embedded, this strata of green | is to be photographed, and embalmed | and perpetuated, the chor of the grass that covers the earth, the color of the foliage thai fills the forest, the color of the deep sea. One glance at that green chrysolite, a million years after this planet has been extinguished, will bring and spring, and we will say to those who were born blind on earth, and never saw at all in this world, after they have obtained full eyesight in heaven: “If you would know how the earth ap- peared in June and August, look at that seventh layer of the heavenly wall, the green of the chrysolite,"’ And while we stand there and talk, spirit with spirit, that old color of the earth which had more sway thag all the other colors put ther, will bring back to us our earthly experiences, and noticing that this green chrysolite is the seventh layer of CHRISTALIZED MAGNIFICENCE we may bethink ourselves of thedomin- ation of that numeral seven over all merals, and thank God that in thunders having done their work have reverberation, and that the num. ceased eral seven, which did such tremendous work in the history of nations on earth, lus been given such a high place in that Niagara of colors, the wall of heaven, sthe first foundation of which is jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chal. cedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite. “When shall these eyes thy heaven-bullt walls And pearly gates behold; Thy bulwarks with salvation strong, And streets of sh ning gold? ——— A —— ANIMALS AND MUSIC. The Tunefulness of viny Loiterers of a Summer's Day. Some animals abhor music, at least some music; but most animals love music, A cow likes nothing better than singing and whistling, and her milk flows gladly for a chap that will sing to her, as she turns her head and kisses him with her tongue. A dog, so far 48 I know, hates music, except sing» ing and whistling, A piano sets him on edge, and a drum or fife makes him howl. Horses, 1 believe, love martial music best, Every horse is naturally a war horse, and likes parade and the dash of military life. Next to this he gine, I know of uo decent music that he dislikes, Cats, unlike dogs, like pianos and organs, Of course, we un- musical taste, although few have real skill. I know of but two real masters of song in our northern states, the bob- olink and catbird; although there are many more really sweet s ngers. like the dew of the early, | ing. One always associates them with | waterfalls aud the music of silvery in- struments, catbind is the | vel of all musicians. He Is i about what he will But what led me to sit down to write | was the music of the “tiny | loiterers of a susnmer’s day.” It isa mistake to suppose the chief occupa- | tion of these dipteras and hymenopteras is eating and werking—it is making music. You shoud go out time and sit downon a coc the middle of the day; and Li asd you give yourself to listening, | ed to you a new world. not be thinking But the LIATr~ able to do insects in baving ¢ of bay in again in the evel if you yyiv UE, ao! other your eyes and the sweel hi HOW Conscious f IDUSIC, Teadciis i 1 he LH in part, i . lions of them, Then | all sorts of fies and worl in the trees and lay your iy. FTASS a vast a number of musk makers 31 YOUT €4T8 AS ( arefalls eves, i 1 y Vi 3 t Crick +1 other 3 $ " $ id listen att ere ale n Iudeed, (; and you ngrer kKnes wa ive lus yl Tan ied ander that wg at sot like tag. Themis a very soll tie murmur of Lier $1 Hine, playi ne g Wings, adly au- They hve no other musical in- struments, but! am quite sure they en- # motion, but ti owdter, rae real m sir wig covers as instruments, he wigies to pipe the crickel { raises these coters and gether lengthwse, so that they work as a boy's cornstdk fiddle works. I con- fess the musié is not sweet, b is better than a Scotish bagpipe or dy gurdy. Bui the fun music is in ib element of ventrilos- I shotid like to see you select { one of these felows just now and go | directly to him following up his music, { You will go lif a dozen ways {you find him. Nearly all tie insects | have this poker, and i is no doubt | used in self pritection, joy not only ¢ sound. ut it | quism, | an instrument more like the sheepskin | drums of the Africans, or a primitive { taboret. | triangular spage, over which is situat~ | ed a thin menbrane, shutting of the wing covers, more or | less rapidly, produces the notes that | sound like kitydid. Only once | awhile there i8as distinct a katy didn’t. Perhaps both’ are true. Crickets and | katydids of bolh sexes are musicians, | and all night kng are to be heard calls | ing and respauding like the shepherd boys of easterflands, The cicades are musical only ib the male sex, and that | is quite enough; for if both sexes could beat the ketts drums we should be dinned deaf wiih the noise, On their sides are memiranes plaited over each other and covesing hollows, These are beaten with copls that relax and con- tract as boys pill rubber bands in con- tact with a restunding material. These fellows keep it ap all day, however, and as they ave abuadant there is no lack of thelr music. 1 have by no means recounted all the musical instruments one can hear at midday or of svenings in July or Au- gust, Many & the tiny bugs have power to emit singing sounds, From the to the least forms of life there is some way of expressing emo- tion. So Iliketo sit on these hillocks of hay and liten--just listen. It ms love that, after all, fills nature to it Only when love fai shriek indicates the pi SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON, Buspay, Novesnea 11, 1585, ——— ——— Calelys Inheritance, LESSON TEXT. Josh. 14 5-15. Memory verses, 10.13, LESSON PLAN. Toric oF THE QUARTEN: Promises Fulfilled, God's There ratled not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken the house of Israel ; all came to puss, —Josh. 21 : 45. witlo Lesson ward, Toric: Receiving the 1, The Reward Promised, va. 6.4, 2. The Reward Cisimedd, va. 9-12 8 The Heward Heceived, ve. 13.15, GOLDEN TEXT: and do good; so shall thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be yed,—1sa. “oy. i 28 « Lesson Outline: DAILY Hoye READINGS! M.—Josh, 14 :1-15. Recs reward, T Josh, 13: itance, W.—Num, earned, T.—Num. 14:1 ined, F.- Num, membered. Deut, 1: membered, me] 811, 3-45. fulness to Israel, rye 1 + villg Li 15 Mi Polls 13 ~ 3 213 ~ «i : 4 LESSON ANALYSIS I. THE REWALD PROMISED 1. Israel's Weakness : My breaturen the people melt rht 14 : 1). Our brethren melt { Deut The hearts of became as (3 Caleb's Fidelity © i} Lie walled IHL God's Graciousness Thou ki i wt HE I. God's Promise Remen bered i i 1 3 Yul REWARD CLAINEI] ine wiedged: Behold, the Lord hath kept me alive 10). {| His mercies are gt ! 1 will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever Sik. Who crownetl | mercies {Psa Great are thy tender (Psa. 119 : 156). {IL Ged's promises Claimed i Now therefore give me Lhis mous | whereof the Lord spake (12). { Thou hast j this unto thy servant (2 Sam, 7 ' O Lord..... keep with thy servant.... that which thou hast promised (1 Kings 8 : | O Lord God, let thy promise tablished {2 Chron, 1 : 9). | She counted him faithful promised (Heb, 11 : 11). 1. ‘““T'he land....shall be an tance to thee, ....because The land of promise; (2) The cer- tainty of inheritance; (3) The ground of bestowal. 2 “The Lond hath kept me alive.” (1) Continued life a gift of God; (2) Continued life a spur to praise, 3. “It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them | JI. Godl’s Mercies Ackno merce sromised good thing « E34 v le 20). be es. wh way inheri- £1) i ed help; (3) Anticipated victory. {1f, THE REWARD RECEIVED, 1. The Reward Bestowed: And Joshua....gave lebron unto Caleb (13). Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt (Num, 13 : 22). Unto Caleb... .he gave a portion,.... (the same is Hebron) (Josh. 15 : 13). They gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses had spoken {(Judg. 1 : 20). The fields of the city, and the villages thereof, they gave to Caleb, (1 Chron, | 6 : 56). i iL The Reward Enjoyed: : Hebron became the inheritance of) Caleb. .. .unto this day (14). Ye shall dwell in the land in safety {Lav, 25 : 18). w harkeneth unto me shail dwell securely (Prov. 1 : 33). The wu t shall dwell in the land (Prov. 2 : 21). He shall go out thence no more (Rev. TIL Reward Enlarged: And the land had rest from war (15). I will give peace in the land (Lev, 26:6 The Ew will ee people wi pence (Psa, 20 : 11). He maketh peace in thy borders (Psa, 147 : 14). My covenant was with him of life and peace (Mal, 2:5). 1. “Joshua blessed him.” {The source of blessing: (2) The nature of bless. ing; (3) The channel of blessing; (4) The grounds of blessing; (6) The re- sults of blessing. 2, “The inberitance of Caleb, . . . . unto this day.” (1) A rich inheritance; (2) A chosen inheritance; (3) A de- served inheritance; (4) An abiding inheritance, 3. “And the land had rest froin war.’ (1) Israel's toes; (2) Israel's con quests; (3) Israel's rest, i i i LESSON BIBLE READING, HERBEREOXN IN BIBLE HISTORY. Juda [ Jost 15: I'y ji i# Num, 13:2 The patriarchs 18: 35 : Burial place of 2, 17-20 20-51 ; 49: 1 Visited by the si » Mies { Abslom began 15: 7-10), LESSON SURROUNDINGS, The defeat at Al was at yy the discovery of the guilly x son of Achan (Josh, 7:14 inishment, which incl ¥ » % % » ¢ 3 family, was called ones follow- : $4 % ATLY 24-20). margin § Liu . + 4 * + gi fnsell even while iu the mad gavens., 1his prayer was granted. A bail cloud, with +} 161 the § gens onged there Is nd oral inn + SUZRESLION Laas ertaini Le Hebrew word transiated*‘godown,” as applied to the sun’s would better be rendered ‘come,’ in the sen of ome This explanation treated quite fully by a recent writer in I'he Church is worthy consideration by schol From chapter 10 : 28 to 12 : 24 there is a brief : various cessful campaligus, in the south, and then in the north. These seem 10 havecovered a period of about seven vears: some of them probably occur- ring afier the present lesson, but group. ed together for convenient narration, In chapter 13 we | a promise and cominand respecting the yet remaining territory. This territory is promised and allotted to the tribes occupying the territory west of the Jordau (chap. 13 : 1-7). There follows, as a recapitula- tion, a description of the territory east already in possession of and the balf tribe that oo. 8 KEE SSN Course, ot * * out.” 8 ¥ vy ¥ nan Oi account SUC. ind 11 | the two tribes The place of the lesson is first at teen at Hebron, a very ancleni city, sheba,~about twenty Roman miles The time was in the forty- seventh year after the exodus, forty- five vears after the spies returned to (see vs. 7-10). This would be in the sixth year of the con- quest, which was not yet complete, —-— Woman's “No” in Greenland. In Greenland It is an accepled fact in social philosophy that a woman's “No” means “Yes”! The priest calls upon the young woman and pleads the cause of her lover, assuring her that he is a good man, that be catches many seals, &c, It 1s the custom of the woman to reject ail proposals at Orst, but to yield at last in unwilling assent, If the priest thinks she is too obstinate, he generally remarks, “Ab, well, it is no matter. I can easily find another woman who will have sach a good pro- vider!” and turns to leave, which ac- tion brings the stubborn maiden to terms at once, The scintillation of stars, Montigny asserts, increase during auroras, the marked in winter, in the tensity of the storm. Considerable obscurity bangs about the whole ob ject