The Penn's Grove record., 1896-10-09
REV. DR. TALMAGE,
The Eminent Divine's Sunday
Discourse.
Subject: Coates of oarbuncle.'

N~Ah - NhAAnA
painful and ofttimes fatal character IL named
after 1t, the church and the world have never
done Justice to that intense and all-suggesfive
precious stone, the carbuneie. The pearl
that Christ picked up to illustrate His ser.
mon, and the jasper and the sapphire and
the amethyst which the apocaiyptic vision
masoned into the wall OF heaven ave had
proper recognition, bat this, In all the ages,
ts the first sermon on the ~carbuncle.
This precious stone is found In the East
Indies, in color is an intense scarlet, and
held up between your eye and the Gun 1t Is q
burning coal. The poet puts it into rhythm
as he writes:
Like to the burning coal whence comes ita
Among the Greeks as Anthrax known to
fame.
God sets 1t high up in Bible c~rystallography.
He cuts 1t with a divine chisel, sharpens II
Will precise geometry, and klndles Its hre
into an almost supernatural flame OF oeauty.
Its law OF symmetry, its law Of zones, its law
OF paralleltsm, something to excite the
amazement Of the scientist, chime tho cantos
OF the poet and arouse the alteration OF the
Christian. No one but the infinite God could
fashion n carbuncle as large as your thumb
nail, and as If 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 10
Ezekiel's prophecies concerning the splendors
of the Tyrian court, the carbuncte Is mem
toned, the brllliancies Of the walls and OF
the tassellated floors suggested by the Bible
sentence; Thou hast walke up and down
In the midst Of the stones OF firel' But 10
my text 1t is not a solitary specimen that l
hand you, as the keeper Of a museum might
take down from the shelf q precious
stone and allow you to examine
it. Nor is it in the panel OF q
door that you might stand and study for Its
unique carvings or bronzed traceries, but
there is a whole gate OF Ii lifted before our
admirlng and astounded vision, Ryel two
gates of 1t, aye! many gates OF IL: 81 Will
make thy gates of c~arcuncles." What gates?
Gates Of the Church. Gates of anything
worth possessing. Gates of successful en-
terprlse: 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, ~ have trod the zine press alone"
and wrote, "Wbo Is this that cometh from
Edom. with dyed garments from Bozrah2"
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
buncle2 No. He means that lie 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, cheersu
capitalization. because all the struggles are
over and there is beyond those gates nothing
but rapturss 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 q crimson Impress. and all
those gates are deeply dyed, and Isaiah was
right when he spoke Ct these gates as gates
of carbuncle.
What an odd thing 1t is. think some. this
idea of vicarious suffering or suffering for
others! Not at all. The world had seen vi
i carious suffering millions OF times before
Christ came and demonstrated 1t on a scale
that eclipsed all that went before and all that
shall com 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 r%everently at the tomb OF Rachel
who died for her boy. But In all age 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. "Jumpl' said the engineer to
the brennan on the locomotive. "One Of
US lie enough to die. Jumpl" And 30 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-sevsn who lost their lives,
the engineer was found dead with one hand
on the throttle Of the locomotive q the
other on the brake. Ayel there are hum
dreds here to-day suffering for Others. You
know and God knows 1t 10 yicarious sacri-
fee. But on one Limestone hill about twice
the height OF this church, five minutes walk
from the gales Of Jerusalem. was the sub
FINEST case OF suffering for others that the
world ever saw or ever will see. Christ the
victim, human md satanic m~alevolence the
executioner, the whole human race having
an overwhelming interest in the spectacle.
To open a way for rs sinful men and sinful
women into glorious pardon and high hope
and eternal oxuitation, Christ, with hand
swung back the gate, and behold 1t 10 q red
gate, a gate Of deepest hue, a gate OF car
buncle.
What is true In sp~irituals Is true In tenn
porals. There are young men and older
men who hope, through the settlement OF
this acrid controversy between silver and
gold, or the bimetaiuc quarrel, that It will
become easy to make a living. That time
will never come. II never has been easy to
make o living. The men who a 1t very
easy now, went through hardships and self
denials to which most young men would
never consent. Unless they got 1t by inherit
lance, 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 good rea-
son God has arranged 1t for all the centuries
that the only way for most people to get a
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 carbpn-
Gle. For the benefit OF all young men, If l
had the time, I 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-
yania avenue and reached the White House,
did not have to climb over political obloquyP
Not one. How much scorn and sconS and
brutal attack did Horace Mann endure be
tween the time when he first began to fight
for a 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 Commonsp'
Read the biography OF hobart Hall, the
Baptist preacher, who. though he had been
pronounced a Ounce a school, lived to thrill
the world with his Christian eioquenceI and
of George Peabody, who never owned . car
Rage and denied himself al Injuries that
he might while living and after death,
through last will n 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
nom Ireland to America, and became the
ioy Of Methodism and . blessing to the race.
Go the biographical alcove in city, State, OF
National library, and ind at least every
other book an illustration Of overcome OBJ
stacle, and Of carmine gate that had to b
forced open.
what Il true of individuals is true OF Ne
tions. Was It q mild spring morning when
the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth
mock, and did they some In q gilded yacht
gay streamers fiylng2 No. 1t was In a cold
December, and froma ship In which one
would not want to cross the Hudson or ths
Potomac River. Scalping knives all ready
to receive them, they landed, their only wei
some the Indian war-whoop. Red men OF
the beach. Red men IN the forest. Red mar
on the mountains. Red men in the valleys
Living gates Of red men. Gates OF car
bunclel
Aboriginal hostility pushed back, surely
- ""r forsfathers wsu have nothing 70 &c
aHewa. H-E 49,