sake rather than for Egypt’s. Seven times pass over Nebu- chadnezzar, that he may learn that the God of his Jewish cap- tives is king over all the earth (partly quoted and partly con- densed from Trench’s “ Epistles to the Seven Churches”).
Seven also occurs as a sacred number in the New Testament. There are seven beatitudes, seven petitions in the Lord’s Prayer; seven parables in Matt. xiii.; seven loaves, seven words from the cross, seven deacons, seven graces (Rom. xii. 6-8), seven characteristics of wisdom (Jas. iii. 17). In the Apocalypse the prominence of the number is marked. To a remarkable extent the structure of that book is moulded by the use of numbers, especially of the numbers seven, four, and three. There are seven spirits before the throne; seven churches; seven golden candlesticks; seven stars in the right hand of Him who is like unto a son of man; seven lamps of fire burning before the throne; seven horns and seven eyes of the Lamb; seven seals of the book; and the thunders, the heads of the great dragon and of the beast from the sea, the angels with the trumpets, the plagues, and the mountains which are the seat of the mystic Babylon,—are all seven in num- ber.
So there are four living creatures round about the throne, four angels at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds; the New Jerusalem is foursquare. Authority is given to Death to kill over the fourth part of the earth, and he em- ploys four agents,
Again the use of the number three is, as Professor Milligan remarks, ‘so remarkable and continuous that it would require an analysis of the whole book for its perfect illustration.” There are three woes, three unclean spirits like frogs, three di- visions of Babylon, and three gates on each side of the heay- enly city. The Zrisagion, or “thrice holy,” is sung to God the Almighty, to whom are ascribed three attributes of glory.
Seven Churches. Not all the churches in Asia are meant, since the list of those addressed in the Apocalypse does not in- clude Colossz, Miletus, Hierapolis, or Magnesia. The seven named are chosen to symbolize the whole Church. Compare