| Show A conspicuous NUMBER CAREERING through space at almost iBer incredible edible velocity we have just shot past another milepost mile post on our journey to the ocean of eternity it is marked 1887 this changes the last figure on the dial of time from 6 to 7 a number which in all ages and amid all nations has been held to be one of mystical significance the bible that book of books is full of instances of the prominence given to this number even f from rom the earliest dawn of sacred history bistor 31 dowa to the latest record of the vision of st joan IR IH the second chapter ot of genesis we bead that on the seventh day god ended his work which he had made a and nd he rested on the seventh day from all his work and god blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which he had created and made and in the new testament we have the seven churches the seven candlesticks the seven beven stars etc ell 1 then there were the seventy elders dil and at a later period there were said to be seventy nati pris and seventy ian languages T bages 0 the earth T the e jews we ve are told observed this day as commanded in the decalogue and after the lapse of seven times seven years came the year of jubilee when the debtor was released from uis nis obligations and the bondsman set free instances be multiplied almost without dimit Amit of the use of this number in sacred history again agaid who has not heard of the seven wise men of greece and of the seven wonders of the world the seven sleepers etc I 1 among the greeks the number seven massacred was sacred to apollo and dionysios Diony sos and w was i je particularly sacred in eubra where t the number was found to pervade es almost every sacred d and private relation the reason given by astro legers for the preference ot of this number is tile the tact fact that it consists of three the ber of the sides of a triangle and four foul the sides of a square those being the simplest figures another reason is also given viz the observation of the seven planets and the phases of tae moon changing every seventh day we are living in times pregnant with startling events we know not what a day may b ring bring forth much less the year upon w which we have just entered there may be a significance in this number of which we do not dot dream we do not wish in writing this however to attach undue importance to this nun mun ber we simply record the facts which are borne out in the history of all nations sacred and profane it will be remembered that the first dakof day of tte the year opened cloudy and gloomily but bit early in the day the aisis cleared off and the sun shone out oat in all its splendor let us hope it was typical tv arof of the year and that so 1 I in a 1887 all other clouds may roll away from our oar horizon |
