The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-10-21
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE
NOTED DIVINE.
Subject: "Gatcs Of Carbunclc.

liv., -.
Perhaps because human disease of most
painful and ofttimes fatal characteris named
after it, the church and the world have never
done justice to that intense and all-suggestive
precious stone, the carbunce. The pearl
that Christ picked up to illustrate His SER
mon, and the jasper and the sapphire and
the amethyst which the apocalyptic vision
.masonel into the wall OF heaven Eave had
proper recognition, but this, in all the ages,
10 the first sermon on the carbuncle.
This precious stone Is found i'll the East
Indies, in color is an intense scarlet, and
held up between your eye and he sun 1t is a
burning coal. The poet puts it 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 a divine chisel, sharpens it
with precise geometry, and kndles its fire
into IN almost supernatural flame OF beauty.
Its law OF symmetry, its law OF zones, its law
of palalelism, something 10 excite the
amazement of the scientist. chime the cantos
OF the poet and arouse the alteration of the
Christian. No one but the inflnite God could
fashion carbuncle as large as your thumb
nail, and as IL TO make all ages appreciate
this precious stone He ordered 1t TO be set in
the first row Of the high priests breast.pla
In olden time and higher up than the onyx
and the emerald and the diamond, and in
Ezekiers prophecies concerning the splendors
OF the Tyrian court, the carbuncle is msn-
toned, the brilliancies Of the walls and OF
the tassellated floors suggested by tho Bible
sentences: Thou hast walked up and down
in the midst OF the stones OF fire. But in
my text 1t is not a solitary specimen that
hand you, as the keeper OF museum might
take down from the shelf precious
stone and allow you to examine
it. Nor Is it in the panel of a
door that you might stand and study for its
unique carvings or bronzed traceries, but
there is whole gate Of IL lifted before our
admirinS and astounded vision, aye! two
gates Of it, aye! many gates OF 1t: 81 Will
make thy gates Of carcunc!es." 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 ''as the
lamb Of the slaughter" and spoke OF Christ
as saying, ~ 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
buncle? No. He means that Is through
atonement, through blood-red struggle,
through agonies we get into anything worth
getting into. Heavens gates may welt be
made Of pearl, bright, pellucid. cheer ul
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
I'll op1 ooul6 ha pofhi ~ leca fhon paarls
But Christ hoisted the gates OF pardon in His
OWE blood, and the marks OF eight fingers
and two thumbs are on each gate, and as He
lifted the gate 1t leaned against His forehead
and took from it crimson impress. and all
those gates are deeply dyed, and Isaiah was
right when he spoke cf these gates as gates
Of carbuncle.
What an odd thing It is. think some, this
idea OF vicarous suffering or suffering for
others! Not at all. The world had seen vi
carious suffering millions Of times before
Christ came and demonstrated 1t 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 "5on 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
many mothers die for their children, and in
many cases grown up children, who to 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 Is enough to die. Jump!" And so the
engineer died at his post, trying TO save the
train. When this summer the two trains
crashed into each other near Atlantic City,
opo ha rphn THAR
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 il Is vlcarious Sacri-
fee. But on one limestone hill about twice
the height Of this church, five minutes walk
from the gates OF Jerusalem, was the SUBJ
llmest case OF suffering for others that the
world ever saw or ever will see. Christ the
victim, human and satanic malevolence the
executioner, 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 exutation, Christ, with hand
dripping with the rush Of opened arteries,
swung back the gate, and behold! it is red
gate, gate Of deepest hue, gate OF car
buncle.
What Is true In spirituals is true in tenn
pOEdlS. luert young ulcu OlucI
men who hope, through the settlement of
this acrid controversy between silver and
gold. or the oimetallic quarrel, that 1t will
become easy to make living. That time
will never come. It never has been easy to
make living. The men who have 1t 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 come to honorable fortune that
did not fight their way, inch by inch, and
against fearful odds that again and again al
most destroyed them. For some goou rea-
son God has arranged it for all the centuries
that the only way for most people to get a
livelihood for themselves and their families
Is with both bands 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 PeDnsy!-
vania avenue and reached the White House,
did not have to climb over political obloQuy2
Not one. How much scorn and scoff. and
brutal attack did Horace Mann endure be-
tween the time when he first began to fight
for better common school system in Massu-
-chusetts, and the day when 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
pronounced Ounce school, lived to thrill
the world with his Christian eloquence; and
OF George Peabody, who never owned a 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 81 the poor people Of Eng
land and America; and Of Bishop James,
who In his boyhood worked his passage
from Iralnnd 70 America and henama the