That fact which lends special beauty to this wonderful principle is that when once the significance of a number has been determined the student may from that time on rejoice in the confidence that wherever that number may be discovered in God's Word the significance is the same. Marvelous testimony to the unity of God's Book! Wondrous demonstration is this that the Bible is not the product of the mind of man, but the miraculous product of the mind of God. The Numerical Principle, once recognized, is calculated to bring to the soul of the child of God increased faith, comfort in the face of severest testing, a stimulation to study the Word of God, and an ever deepening yearning to meet that Perfect One Who has given to needy souls so perfect a revelation.

Let us proceed in the discussion of the significance of the numbers.

"SIX"

Six is the number of man. The very first appearance of SIX in the Word of God reveals this to be the case in the fact that man was created on the SIXTH day. The number SIX is a wonderful revelation of the powerlessness of anything which is an addition to grace, for five is the number of grace, and SIX is five plus one. To add to grace leads only to the weakness of man. Since SIX is the number of man, it will stand connected throughout God's Word with that which is evil, and corrupt, and Satanic, for man in the Garden of Eden, instead of choosing God to be his Master, yielded to temptation and chose Satan, and man became the dupe of the usurper. Back in the history of Judah a wicked usurper slew all the members of the royal family, — at least believed that she did — usurped the throne, and reigned, according to the inspired record, SIX years. This wicked queen was Athaliah. Twice in the Old Testament there steps on the scene characters of spec al wickedness who are the outspoken enemies of the living God. These characters tear the mark of the SIX. One was Goliath, who, according to the Word of God, was SIX cubits high. He bore upon his person SIX pieces of armor, and carried a prodigious spear, the head of which weighed SIX hundred shekels in iron. The other evil character was none other than the mighty king of Babylon, named Nebuchadnezzar, who with blasphemous effrontery erected upon the plain of Dura a stupendous image of himself. According to the Holy Spirit's own record the image was SIXTY cubits high, SIX cubits broad, and the signal to worship the image was to be the music of SIX definitely named instruments. The fact that the number SIX is literally pregnant with malignant significance is perhaps nowhere made more clear than by the Holy Spirit's record that Jesus was accused of having a demon exactly SIX times. These SIX wicked accusations were made by man, as though the Spirit of God would have us to know that in spite of man's vaunted pomp and pride he did not fail to sink to the most unspeakable depths in his thinking and in his words concerning the very Son of God Himself.

The number SIX, however, differs from some of the other numbers in this, — that the Holy Spirit does not compel us to rest our final conclusion as to its meaning upon cumulative evidence, but finally, in the thirteenth chapter of the book of the Revelation, gives us a Direct Statement:

"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a MAN; and his number is SIX HUNDRED THREE SCORE AND SIX" (Rev. 13:18).

What convincing evidence! What a revelation of the accuracy of Scripture! What a demonstration to the human mind is here presented as we see the concord existing between the Agreement Principle, the Direct Statement Principle, and the Context Principle, — all pointing to one specific meaning; for the number SIX!

"SEVEN"

Seven is the number of spiritual perfection. This does not mean that the spiritual perfection is always in the realm of the good. It may be a spiritual perfection of evil, and such is the case quite frequently in Clod's Book. The significance of this number is revealed in the second chapter of Genesis:

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

"And on the SEVENTH day God ended his work which He had made; and He rested on the SEVENTH day from all His work which He had made.

"And God blessed the SEVENTH day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made" (Gen. 2:1-3).

Thus we see in its very first occurrence that SEVEN stands connected with a completion, a perfecting, and since it was a perfecting of that which God had wrought, SEVEN in the Word of God is the number of spiritual perfection.

Built upon the SEVEN days of God's recreative work in the opening chapters of Genesis we now have a week of SEVEN days. And in God's testing out of the fallacies of the thinking of man, the Scripture reveals that God deals with man in SEVEN dispensations. According to the genealogy of the book of Luke the Lord Jesus Christ in His human relationship stands exactly SEVENTY SEVEN generations from God. And in the book of the Revelation, which is the book of judgment — God's own judgment upon a sin-cursed race, and consequently a perfect judgment — we find that the Holy Spirit has stamped the number SEVEN indelibly upon its pages. SEVEN churches, SEVEN golden candlesticks, SEVEN stars, SEVEN angels, SEVEN spirits of God, SEVEN lamps, SEVEN-scaled book, SEVEN horns, SEVEN eyes, SEVEN trumpets, SEVEN vials, SEVEN last plagues, a scarlet colored beast having SEVEN horns, — yea, and straight on through the book the mark of spiritual perfection, either in the realm of divine judgment or in the realm of Satanic perfection of evil, lies embedded the message.

"EIGHT"

CIGHT is the number of resurrection. It is a new beginning. The EIGHTH day begins a new week. When God would place upon the Jewish child in the ancient dispensation the mark of separation from the flesh, a picture of resurrection, He ordered that circumcision should be performed on the EIGHTH day. When the ark landed on the mountains of Ararat, having passed through the days of the flood — a picture of death — there came forth from that ark upon the devastated earth EIGHT persons, the whole type setting forth the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Our Saviour rose on the EIGHTH day. When Judah sinned with Tamar God pronounced upon the people of Israel a judicial death. The ban of that death was lifted from the nation when David, The EIGHTH son of Jesse, ascended to the throne. The or reeks had no numerals. Hence they ascribed to the letters of their alphabet numerical values and made the Letters serve both for the spelling of their words and enumeration. It is most remarkable indeed when we observe hat the total of the numerical values of the letters in the name of Jesus is EIGHT HUNDRED EIGHTY EIGHT.

"NINE"

NINE is the number of judgment. When Jesus hung on Calvary He took our place as man. But it was receive our judgment. And so the record tells us that darkness fell upon the earth from the sixth hour (man) into the NINTH hour (judgment). What a wondrous revelation of the unfailing agreement of Scripture! In he days of the Judges, when Israel sinned against God,; He turned them over to the Canaanites, whose captain vas a man named Sisera, in order that His people might be judged for their sin, and Sisera had NINE hundred chariots of iron. When finally the judgment of God fell upon the Northern Kingdom it was at the hand of the King of Assyria, and it fell in the NINTH year of King Hoshea.

"TEN"

Ten is the number of testing, and stands specially connected with Israel; so that we find TEN toes on the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, — a prophecy of the TEN-fold Kingdom which shall mark the hour of Great Tribulation, the dispensation of "Jacob's trouble" in the future. When God would specially test His people Israel He gave them the TEN commandments. The beast which pictures forth the Anti-Christ who shall arise in the Great Tribulation shall come upon Israel represented as having TEN horns. When Jesus would place in parabolic form the message of testing and tribulation which shall come upon His people, the seed of Abraham, He cast it into the parable of the TEN virgins. When the Holy Spirit seeks to place a type-prophecy of Israel's tribulation in the first chapter of Daniel, the choice young men are placed under the severest of testing for a period of TEN days.

"ELEVEN"

Eleven is the number of incompleteness. We do not see the number ELEVEN very frequently in the Bible. Two of the kings of Israel reigned ELEVEN years, the two reigns being terminated by the disastrous onslaughts of the Babylonish hordes. The last one was the reign of Zedekiah, and was closed by the breaking up of the city of Jerusalem. In the first chapter of Acts, when the disciples met, their number was the number of incompleteness; so immediately they set to work to elect another.

"TWELVE"

Twelve is the number of God manifest in human affairs. This is evidenced by the fact that when God would manifest Himself in the special nation of His own choice. He divided that nation into TWELVE tribes. And when God in His love and mercy manifested Himself in the midst of human affairs in human form, i. e., in the person of Jesus Himself, He called to His side TWELVE disciples. And when this blessed Saviour first presented Himself to the men of Israel, giving forth the message of the Father, He was exactly TWELVE years old. And, yonder in the future, in the future dispensation of the Tribulation, When the Church has been withdrawn, and God shall desire to manifest Himself in a special way to the men and women who shall be suffering under the tribulational horrors. He will send forth with His gospel exactly ONE HUNDRED FORTY FOUR THOUSAND preachers, sealed with the seal of God upon their foreheads, and filled with the Holy Ghost, — TWELVE THOUSAND from each of the TWELVE tribes of Israel. And sweeping on still farther into the future, when God shall manifest Himself on the earth, He will bring down to earth the Holy City, the Heavenly Jerusalem. This manifestation of God in human affairs is specially marked by TWELVE. The city shall have TWELVE foundations, and upon the TWELVE foundations the names of the TWELVE apostles of the Lamb. The walls shall be penetrated by TWELVE gates, and the TWELVE gates are TWELVE pearls, and the names written thereon are the names of the TWELVE tribes of Israel. And at the gates are TWELVE angels, and when the city is measured with the reed it is found to be TWELVE THOUSAND furlongs, and the wall thereof ONE HUNDRED FORTY FOUR cubits (12 X 12).

Is it possible that a thinking man can read the Word of God and question the significance of the numbers?