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Show Number Seven Regarded Sacred and Symbolical The number seven is regarded by marry as especiaUy sacred, mystical and symbolical. The work of creation crea-tion having been completed in six days, the Creator rested on the seventh. sev-enth. The three pilgrim festivals of the Hebrews (the passover, the festival fes-tival of weeks, and the feast of the tabernacles) lasted each seven days, and between passover and the festival of weeks was an interval of seven weeks. Egypt's seven years of plenty were succeeded by seven years of dearth; for seven days the waters of Egypt were turned into blood. -The seventh year was a sabbatical sab-batical year, and the year following follow-ing the seven weeks of years was the year of jubilee. The golden candlestick in Solomon's temple had seven lamps. In the New Testament appear many groups of seven, as the seven churches of Asia, seven stars, seven trumpets, seven spirits, the seven horns and seven eyes of the lamb all these in the Apocalypse. Among the Greeks the number seven was sacred to Apollo and to Dionysos; and it held a conspicuous place in teachings of Pythagoras, who gave it many distinctive appellations. appel-lations. The sacraments of the Roman Catholic church are seven, and also the orders of the ministry in the same church, namely, four minor 1 and three major or sacred orders. Various reasons have been given for the peculiar regard had for this number, such as that seven is a symbol of completeness, being compounded of three and four, perfect per-fect numbers, they being rep-resentable rep-resentable in space by the triangle i and the square. |