The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-11-21
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Divine's Sermon De.
livsred In Washington.
Subject. "Gates of carbuncle. !"

Pernaps because human disease OF most
painful and ofttimes fatal characters named
after 1t. the church and the world have never
done justice to that intense and all-suggestive
precious stone, the carbuncIe. The pear
that Christ picked up to illustrate His ser.
mon, and the jasper and the sapphire and
the amethyst which the apocalyptic vision
masoned into the wall OF heaven Fave had
proper recognition, but this, in all the ages
Is the first sermon ON the carbunc.e.
This precious stone Is found in the East
Indies, in color is an intense scarlet, and
held up between your eye and the 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 crystalIography.
He cuts 1t with divine chisel, sharpens it
with precise geometry, and kindles its fire
into an almost supernatural flame OF beauty.
Its law of symmetry. its law OF zones, its law
oil paralelism, something TO excite the
amazement OF the scientist, chime the cantos
OF the poet and arouse the alteration of the
Christian. No ole but the intluite God could
fashion carbuncle as large as your thumb
nail, and as il 10 make all ages appreciate
this precious stone He ordered 1t TO 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
Ezekiel's prophecies concerning the splendors
OF the Tyrian court, the carbuncle Is men,
toned. the briiliancies of the walls and of
the tassellated floors suggested by the Bible
sentence: Thou hast walked ND and down
In The midst of the stones OF firer' But In
my text 1t is not a solitary specimen that I
hand you, as the keeper of a museum might
take down from the shelf a precious
stone and allow you to examine
1t. 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 a whole gate of Il lifted before our
admiring and astounded vision, ayel two
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, wro:e also all that about Christ 'sas the
lamb OF the slaughter" and spoke of Christ
as saying, 81 have trod the wine press alone, I"
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, "a carnnine 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 welt be
made of pearl, a 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 1t leaned against His forehead
and took from it a crimson impress. and all
those gates are deeply dyed, and Isaiah was
right wherhe spoke Ct these gates as gates
Of carbuncle.
What an odd thing it is, think some, this
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 II on a 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
n name. In faint whisper she said, s.Call
him Ben-oni," which means sson 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 by re-
creancy stab clear through the mothers
heart! Suffering for others2 Why, the world
Is full ofit. "Jumpr' said the engineer to
the fireman on the locomotive. Zone OF
US Is enough to die. Jumpr' 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,
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. Ayel there are hum
dreds here to-day suffering for others. You
know and God knows it is vicarious sacri-
Dee. But on one limestone hill about twice
he height of this church, five minutes walk
rom 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 malevolenoe the
the whole human race having
In Overwhelming interest in the spectacle.
To open way for us sinful men and sinful
romen into glorious pardon and high hope
md eternal exultation, Christ, with hand
tripping with the rush Of opened arteries,
'wung back the gate, and behold 1t is red
gate, a gate OF deepest hue, gate Of car
uncle.
What Is true in spirituals Is frue In tenn
,orais. There are young men and older.
men who hope, through the settlement OF
his acrid controversy between silver and
sold. or the 0imetallic quarrel, that It will
'ecome easy to make a living. That time
will never come. 1t never mas been easy to
make living. The men who have it very
'asy now, went through hardships and self
ienlas TO which most young men would
ance, YOU cannot mention twenty-five men
Who have come to honorable fortune that
lid not fight their way, inch by inch, and
Lgainet fearful odds that again and again al
most destroyed them. For some good rea-
on God has arranged it for all the centuries
hat the only way for most people to get a
livelihood for themselves and their families
8 with both hands and all the allied forces
Il body, mind and soul to push back and |
lush open the red gate, the gate OF carbun-
le. For the benefit of all young men, II I |
lad the time, would call the roll OF those |
pho overcame obstacle. How many of the |
nfghty men who went one way on Pennsyl- |
ania avenue and reached the United States |
enate, or walked the other way on Pennsy!- |
ania avenue and reached the White House,
Id not have to climb over political obloquy? |
lot one. How much scorn and scoff, and |
rutal attack did Horace Mann endure be- |
Or better common school system in Massa-
husetts, and the day when a statue in honor |
him was placed on the steps of the State |
louise overlooking "The Commons?'
Read the biography OF hobart Hall, the
aptist preacher, who, though he had been |
ronounced Ounce school, lived to thrill
ne world with his Christian eloquence; and
I George Peabody, who never owned car
age and denied himself all luxuries that
. might while living and after death,
,rough last will aud testament, de-
ote his uncounted millions to the
ducation 81 the poor people OF Eng
md and America. and If Rishon Janea |
tho In his boyhood worked his passage
'om Ireland to America, and became the
~ Of Methodism and a blessing to the race.
10 the biographical alcoye in city. State. or