Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1896-10-14
REV. DR., TALMAGE,
Subject: Coates of Carbuncle. "

Subject: Coates of Carbuncle.
TEXT: "And will make thy windows oi
agatee, and thy gates OF carbuncles. lisa.
hv., IL
Perhaps because IA human disease OF mos,
painful and Ofttimes fatal characters named
after it, the church and the world have never
done justice to that intense and ali-suggestiva
precious stone. the carbuncle. The pearl
that Christ picked up to illustrate His ser.
mon, and the jasper aud the sapphire and
the amethyst which the apocalyptic vision
masoned into the wall of heaven lave had
proper recognition, but this, in all the ages,
u the first sermon on the carbunc,a
This precious stone Is found iu the East
Indies. in color ia an intense scarlet, and
held up between your eye and the sun It Is a
burning GOAL. The poet puts 1t into rhythm
as 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 crystallography
He cuts 1t with divine chiseI, sharpens il
with precise geometry, and kinules its fire
into an almost supernatural flame OF beauty.
Its law OF symmetry, its law of zones, its law
OF paralleiism, something TO excite the
amaZement OF the scientist. chime the cantos
OF the poet and arouse the alteration OF the
Christian. No one but the infiufte God could
fashion a carbuncle as large as your thumb.
nail, and as IL TO make all ages appreciate
this precious stone He ordered 1t 10 be set In
the first row Of the high priests breast. plate
In olden time and higher up than the onyx
and the emerald and the diamond, and in
Ezekiels prophecies concerning the splendors
of the Tyrian court, the carbuncle is mon
toned, the briliiancies Of the walls and of
the tassellated floors suggested by the Bible
sentence: Thou hast walked up and down
in the midst Of the stones of fre!' But in
my text II Is not a solitary specimen that I
hand you, as the keeper of a museum might
stone and allow you to examine
it. Nor Is 1t in the panel of q
door that you might stand and study for its
unique carvings or bropzed traceries, but
there Is whole gate Of IL lifted before our
admiring and astounded vision, aye! two
gates OF 1t, aye! many gates Of It: 81 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
tioDal achievement. Isaiah, who wrote this
text, wrote also all that about Christ ''as the
as saying, 81 have trod the wine press alone, ~
and wrote, "Wbo 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, aS carmine gates. as gates Of car
buncle? No. He means that is through
atonement, through blood-red struggle,
through agonies we get into anything worth
getting into. Heavens gates may we'll be
made OF pearl, bright, pellucid. cheerful
capitalization. because all the struggles are
over and there is beyond those gates nothing
but raptures and cantata and triumphal pro-
cession and everlasting holiday and kiss OF
reunion, and so the twelve gates are twelve
pearls, and could be nothing less than pearls.
But Christ hoisted the gates of pardon in His
own blood. and the marks of eight fingers
and two thumbs are on each gate, and as He
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 Ct these gates as gates
of carbuncle.
Idea of vicarious suffering or suffering for
others! Not at all. The world had seen vi
carious suffering millions Of times before
Christ came and demonstrated it ON scale
that eclipsed all that went before and all that
shall 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 OF my
pain" and all modern travellers ON the road
from Jerusalem to Bethel uncover their heads
and stand reverently at the tomb of Rachel
who died for her boy. But in all ages how
AAAouy hObuCIo ulO AOI tuCAI CuiiuTcu, anu III
many cases grown up children, who by re-
creancy stab clear through the mothers
heart. Suffering for others? Why, the world
is full Of 1t. "Jump!" said the engineer to
the fireman on the locomotive. "One Of
us ts enough to die. Jump!' And 50 tho
engineer died at his post, trying to 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 hun
dreds here to-day suffering for others. You
know and God knows It is vtcarious sacrf-
6ce. But on one limestone hill about twice
the height Of this church, fve minutes walk
from the gates Of Jerusalem. was the sub
tmest case OF suffering for others that the
world ever saw or ever will see. Christ the
e1ecuttoner, the whole human race having
An overwhelming interest in the spectacle.
To open Q way for US sinful men and sinful
women into glorious pardon and high hope
and eternal oxultatfon, Christ, with hand
dripping with the rush of opened arteries,
swung back the gate, and behold! It IL a red
gate, gate OF deepest hue, gate Of oar
buncle.
What is true In spirituals is true in tenn
porais. There are young mon and older
men who hope, through the settlement of
this acrid controversy between silver and
Botos oA tho oikuctAAuC QustIIct, tudt u Will
become easy to make a living. That time
will never come. 1t never has been easy to
make living. The men who have it very
easy now, went through hardships and self
denials to which most young men would
never consent. Unless they got it by inheri-
tAnce, you cannot mention twenty-five men
who have como to honorable fortune tnat
did not fight their way, inch by inch, and
against fearful odds that 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
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, II
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 Pennsyl-
vania avenue and reached the White House,
did not have to climb over political obloquy?
Not one. How much scorn and scoff. and
brutal attack did Horace Mann endure be-
for 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 ''The Commons?"
Read the biography Of Robart Hall, the
Baptist preacher, who. though he had been
pEOuOU0Cou - 0uuC0 y SCuOOI, uV0O 10 tuItll
the world with hfs Christian eloquence; and
Of George Peabody, who never owned a car
riage and denied himself al 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 America; 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, OF
National library, and find at least every
other book an illustration OF overcome OBJ.
gtacle, and Of carmine gate that had to be
forced open.
What Is true of individuals is true of Ma
tions- Was 1t a mild spring morning when
the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth
Rock. and did they come In gllded yacht,
gay streamers flying? No. 1t was in cold
December, and from ship in which one
would not want to cross the Hudson or the