Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1896-10-16
TALMAGE'S SERMON
INTERESTING THEME BY THE
WASHINGTON PREACHER.
Subject: "Gates of Carbuncle."

Perhaps because a human disease Of most
painful and oittimes fatal characferfs named
after il. the church and the world have never
done justice 70 that intense and all-surrestive
precious stone, the carbuncle. The pearl
that Christ picked up 10 illustrate His ser
mon, and the jasper and the sapphire and
the amethyst which the apOcalyptie vision
masonei into the wall OF heaven have had
proper recognition, but this, in all the ages,
is the first sermon on the carbUuc'e
This precious stone Is found ia the East
Indies, in color rs an intense scarlet and
held up between your eye and the sun il is q
burning coal. The poet puts it into rhythm
rs he writes
Like to the burning coal whence comes its
name;
Among the Greeks as Anthrax known to
fame.
God sets it high up in Bible crys,allorraphy.
He cuts it with a divine chiscl. sharpens il
with precise geometry, and kiuIles its fire
into an almost supernatural flame OF beauty
Its law Of symmetry. its law OF zones, its law
OF paraleism. something TO excite the
amaZement Of the scientist. chime tho cantus
OF the poet and arouse the alteration OF the
Christian. No one but the infinite God could
fashion a carbuncle as large as your thumb
nall and AS If 10 make all ages appreciate
this precious stone He ordered II TO be set in
the first row OF the high priests breast.pIate
in olden time and higher up than the ONYX
and the emerald and the diamond, and in
EzekieHs prophecies concerning the splendors
of the Tyrian court, the carbuncle Is men
toned, the brilliancies Of the walls and OF
the tassellated floors suggested by the Bible
sentence: Thou hast walked M and down
in the midst OF the stones OF llre" But in
my text it is not "a solitary specimen that l
handyou, as the keeper Of a museum might
take down from the shelf a precious
stone and allow You 10 examine
1t. Nor Is it in the panel of a
door that you might stand AMI study for its
unique carvings or brUnZed traceries, but
there is whole gate OF il lifted before our
admiring and astounded vision, aye! two
gates of it, aye! many gates OF it: al will
make thy gates Of Carcuncles." What gates?
Gates of the Church. Gates Of anything
worth possessing. Gates of successful en-
terprise Gates Of salvation. Gates of Ma
tional achievement. Isaiah who wrote this
text, wrote also all that about Christ las the
lamb OF the slaughter" and spoke of Christ
as saying, Il have trOd the wine press alone ~
and wrote, "Who is this that cometh from
Edom. with dyed garments from Bozrah?"
And do you think that Isaiah in my text
merely happened to represent the gates as
red gates, IA carmine gates, as gates Of car
buncle2 No. He means that is through
atonement, through blOOd-red struggle,
through agones we get into anything worth
getiIg into. Heavens gates may welt be
made OF pearl, bright, pellucid, cheerful
crystalization, because all the struggles are
over and there is beyond those gates nothing
but raptures and cantata and triumptal pro-
cession and everlasting holiday and kiss Of
reunion, and so the twelve gates are twelve
/ pearls, and could he nothing less than pearls.
| But Christ hoisted the gates OF pardon in His
own blood and the marks of eight fingers
! md tN.r9t l..
/ lifted the gate it leaned against His forehead
and took from it a crimson impress, and all
those gates are deeply dyed, and Isaiah was
/ right when he spoke Il these gates as gates
/ of carbunclc.
What an odd thing 1t is, think some, this
idea OF vicariOus suffering or suffering Tor
others! Not at ALL The world had seen vi
carious suffering millions of times before
Christ came and demonstrated it on a scale
that eclipsed all that went before and all that
ehall come after. Rachael lived only long
enough after the birth of her son to give him
a name. In faint whisper she said, "Call
him Ben-oni," which means "sOn or my
pain" and all modern travellers on the road
from Jerusalem 10 Bethel uncover their heads
and stand reverentlY at thy tomb OF Rachel
who died for her boy But in all ages how
many mothers die for their children, and in
many cases grown up children, who by re-
/ creancy stab clear through the mothers
heart, Suffering for others? Why, the world
is full of it. Jump said the engineer to
the fireman on the locomotive. zone Of
us is enough to die. jump" And so the
engineer died at his post, trying 10 save the
train. When this summer the two trains
crashed into each other near Atlantic CITY.
among the fOrty-seven who lost their lives
the engineer was found dead with one hand
on the throttle of the locomotive and the
other on the brake. Aye! there are hum
dreds here to-day suffering for others. You
know and God knows it is vtcarious sacri-
fee. But on one limestone hill about twice
the height Of this church, five minutes walk
from the gates Of Jerusalem. was the sub
finest case OF suffering for others that the
world ever saw or ever will see. Christ the
victim. human and satanic malevolence the
eXecutCner, the whole human race having
an overwhelming interest in the spectacle.
To open a way for us sinful men and sinful
women into glorious pardon and high hope
and eternal cXultation, Christ, with hand
dripping with the rush OF opened arteries
swung back the gate, and behold it is a red
gate, a gate OF deepest hue, gate OF car
buncle.
What is true in spirituals is true in tenn
porals. There are young men and Older
men who hope, through the settlement Of
TINS acrld controversy between silver and
gold. or the oimetlllic quarrel, that 1t will
become easy to make a living. That time
Will never come. 1t never has been easy to
make living. The men who have 1t very
easy now, went through hardships and self
denlaIs to which most young men would
never consent. Unless they got it by inherit
tance, YOU cannot mention twenty-five men
who have come to honorable fortune that
did not fight their way, inch by inch. and
against fearful odds thar again and again al
most destroyed them. For some good rea-
son God has arranged it for all the centuries
that the only way for most people to get q
livelihood for themselves and their families
is with both hands and all the allied forces
of body, mind and soul to push back and
push open the red gate, the gate Of carbun-
Gle. For the benefit of all young men, If
had the time, | would call the roll of those
who oVercame obstacle. How MANY of the
mighty men who went one way on Pennsyl-
vania avenue and reached the United States
Senate, or walked the other way on Pennsy-
vanta avenue and reached the White House.
did not have to climb over political oblouuv?
Not one. How much scOrn and scott. and
brutal attack did Horace Mann endure be-
tween the time when he first began to fight
Tor better common school system in MasSa-
chuSetts, and the day when a statue in honor
OF him was placed on the steps of the State
House overlooking 1.-The Commons"
Read the biography of hobart Hall, the
Baptist preacher, who, though he had been
pronounced Ounce a school, lived to thrill
the world with his Christian eloquence; and
of George Peabody, who never owned car
riage and denied himself all luXuries that
he might while living and after death,
through last will and testament, de-
vote his uncounted millions to the
education Of the poor people of Eng
land and American and OF Bishop James,
who in his boyhood worked his passage
from Ireland to America, and became the
joy of Methodism and blessing to the race.
Go the biographical alcove in city. State, or
National library, and find at least every
other book an illustration of overcome OBJ
stacle. and of carmine gate that had to be
forced open.