As we remarked last time there is an inner harmony and beauty to be seen in the world of numbers. Note first of all that there is an unfailing pattern of odd and even numbers in alternating order. One, three, five, seven and nine are all odd numbers in that they cannot be equally divided into two parts without the result being a fraction of a number. Two, four, six, eight and ten are the even numbers which appear respectively between these odd numbers. They can be divided in two: and the result is always a full number. And it makes no difference by what you multiply these even numbers, the result always is again an even number. But when you take an odd number and multiply it with the numbers beginning with one through any series of consecutive numbers, you will always find an alternating pattern of odd and even numbers. Take the number three for an example. One times three gives you a sum that is odd, namely, three. But two times three gives you six which is an even number. Did this come about by some evolutionistic process? Was it at one time different? And did these numbers juggle themselves and jockey themselves into such a harmonious and beautiful pattern? Of course not! An all-wise God designed these numbers according to this beautiful scheme.

Take again, if you will, the inner harmony and unchangeable pattern of the number five. In this table again you have an alternating pattern of odd and even numbers. What is more you have also in unchangeable pattern numbers that end alternately in five or zero. And in the table of tens you have one series of even numbers that end each time unwaveringly with a zero.

But the number that is for us the most intriguing of them all and the most demonstrative of the wisdom of God is the number nine. There just is no number like it. For the child it may be one of the hardest of the tables to learn—perhaps because the sums are larger than of any of the other digits from one through eight. And yet this ought not be the case. In some respects it is the easiest to “figure out.” If you will take a piece of paper—unless you can hold these figures clearly in your mind—and write down under each other the numbers of the table of nines you will observe a very startling thing, yea more than one startling thing that speaks so loudly of God’s beauty, harmony and wisdom. We want you to note four things in this table and therefore will ask the printer to set up this table before your eyes thus: 09 18 27 36 45 54 63 72 81 90

Now if you will take the numbers in the right hand column only and follow them down the column, you will see that we have the numbers from nine down to 0 in the very order in which they precede each other in our system of numbers. If, then, you will take the numbers in the left hand column and follow them down the column, you will have the reverse. The numbers will appear one after the other in the order that they follow each other in our system of numbering. Now, if in the third place, you will look across the columns an even more astounding thing will be noted. Add up these numbers and each time you will get the number nine. One and eight is nine. Two and seven is nine. Three and six is nine. And in the fourth place notice that each time the result of your multiplication begins with a number that is one less than the number by which you are multiplying the number nine. Thus two times nine is eighteen. And eighteen begins with a one which is one less than the two by which you are multiplying nine. Again, three times nine is twenty-seven, Twenty-seven begins with a two which is one number less than the three by which you are multiplying nine. So it proceeds through the whole table of nine from one times nine through ten times nine. You find that nowhere but in this table of nines.

Nor is that the extent of it. When we pursue this intriguing number to the next degree and multiply it by the numbers eleven through twenty we get a similarly startling list of numbers. Let us line them up again and look carefully at the series of numbers. This is the result of our multiplication: 99 108 117 126 135 144 153 162 171 180

We will notice that the same thing obtains here as in the nine times table taken from one through ten when we go down the right hand column. Once again the numbers follow in the order that they precede each other in our way of counting from one through ten. And when we take the left hand column—considering that the numbers are nine, ten, eleven, etc., so that we have but two columns of numbers, we find that here the numbers follow each other in the usual pattern from nine through eighteen. But here is a new thing, when we look at the list of numbers above and go across the column and consider each number to be composed of three separate numbers and then add these numbers up, we will each time, once again, get the number nine. This does not apply to the first number, namely ninety-nine, but to all that follow. Thus in the number one hundred eight above, if we add the one and the zero and the eight, we get nine. If we take the next number, one hundred seventeen, and add the numbers across, once again we get nine. For one and one and seven is nine. One other difference is that now the result of our multiplication is two less than the number by which we multiplied nine. Thus eleven times nine are ninety-nine. Nine, the first figure is two less than the eleven by which we multiplied nine. Twelve times nine is one hundred eight. Ten, the first part of this figure, is two less than the twelve by which we multiplied nine. And so we may continue with this. The reason why the number is now twice removed from the number by which we have multiplied nine is that we are now doing so beyond that first series of numbers from one to ten. In this series we were one behind. Now when we go on to the numbers eleven through twenty we are still this one behind plus the one of the new set of numbers. Then, too, considering once again that we have only two columns of numbers so that we add ten to eight, and eleven to seven, and twelve to six and so on down the line, our result will each time be eighteen. In the table when we multiply nine by the numbers one through ten, the result was nine; but now when we multiply nine by the numbers eleven through twenty, the result is just twice as much, or eighteen.

We can do that again. Multiply nine times the numbers twenty-one through thirty. The same underlying principle and pattern will be found. Now the left and right hand columns will proceed step by step up and down the series of numbers in their order. But now when we add the two columns across our result will be not nine, not eighteen, but the next step in the table of nines, namely, twenty-seven. Thus twenty-one times nine is 189. Take the 18 and the 9 and together they make twenty-seven. But take these numbers from twenty-three times nine on through thirty times nine and consider the sum to be three numbers, and unerringly again your result will be nine. Thus 23 times nine is 207. And 24 times 9 is 216. Add the two, the zero and the seven and you get nine. Likewise, add the two, the one and the six and you still get only nine. But did you note that now you get two numbers at the beginning that are exceptions? The sums of twenty-one times nine and twenty-two times nine when added up and across as three separate numbers total eighteen and not twenty-seven. Thus 189 and 198 added across—thus, one and eight and nine, or one and nine and eight—equal eighteen. When we multiplied nine times the second series of numbers, the numbers eleven through twenty, we got one exception. Now when we multiply nine times the third set of numbers, the numbers twenty, one through thirty, we get two exceptions. If we carry this on and multiply nine times a fourth set, the numbers thirty-one through forty, we will find three exceptions. And so you may continue also with this.

How shall we explain all this to our children? That we should call it to their attention in the arithmetic class is not only beneficial for the child but will also catch his interest in what otherwise might be considered by him to be a dull and boring subject. But how shall we do that? Is any man so foolish as to believe that this harmony between numbers and this unique and intriguing pattern of numbers is there by the ingenuity of man? Did man invent so intricate and yet so beautiful a system of arithmetic? To be sure man works with it, and for ages, yea from the beginning, has been busy with these numbers. And was not the possibility of the atom bomb determined exactly and demonstrated by mathematical figures? Man uses them, and man has become very skilled in the use of them. But they were there before man appeared on the face of this globe. Water froze at its prescribed temperature and boiled at its prescribed degree of heat before man was created on the sixth day. And what will the evolutionist say of all this? When his man did not appear for billions and billions of years, the water of this creation was still after the same mathematical formula of H2O as it is today. And there was no man to design this mathematical scheme.

This all belongs to the order of the creation which the ALL-wise God has made. And it all displays His infinite wisdom and beauty. Blessed is that child who may have the benefit of instruction that points this out to him and causes him to see how great his God is. That child will sing, “How Great Thou Art.”

And remember that this is true of the number nine in its combination with other numbers because of the value of these other numbers. This beauty, this harmony, this infinite wisdom is seen in the number nine as we multiply it by other numbers; but without these other numbers the nine does not display this wisdom. And so really it is the wisdom of God in the whole series of numbers, in all arithmetic and all mathematics that is to be seen in the tables of the multiplication of the nine. Indeed, vanity of vanities these numbers are alone. But taught in His fear they take on meaning and have beauty. We plan, the Lord willing, to continue this consideration of Jehovah as the God of arithmetic next time. There are other truths to be seen than the truth of the wisdom of God in the world of numbers which He designed and uses.

—J.A.H.