Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-10-02
GATE OF CARBUNCLE.
IT COMES BEFORE THE GATE OF
PEARL.

PEARL.
Rev. DR.. TaImago Shows How Earthly
Trial Comes Before Heavenly satisfae-
tion-A Sermon Appropriate to Indi-
vlduaI and National Circumstances.
WASHINGTON, Sept 27.-From neg
lected text and one to most people un-
known Rev. DR.. Talmage this morning
produces sermon appropriate to indi-
yidual and national circumstances. The
subject was "Gates Of Carbuncle, the
text being Isaiah liv, -, "And 1 will
make thy windows Of agates and thy
gates Of carbuncles.
Perhaps because a human disease OF
most painful and ofttimes fatal charac-
ter is named after 1t the church and the
world have never done justice 10 that
intense and all suggestive precious
stone, the carbuncle. The pearl 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
have had proper recognition, but this,
in all the ages, is the first sermon on
the carbuncle.
This precious stone is found in the
East Indies, in color is an intense scar
] let, and held up between your eye and
the sun it is 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 30 fame
God sets It high up in Bible crystal
loQraphy. He cuts it with divine chls-
el, shapes it with a precise geometry
and kindles its fire into an almost su-
pernatural flame of beauty. Its law OF
symmetry, its law Of zones, its law OF
parallelism, something to excite the
amazement Of the scientist, chime the
cantos Of the poet and arouse the adora-
ton Of the Christian. No one but the
infinite God could fashion carbuncle
as large as your thumb nail, and as II
to make all ages appreciate this precious
stone he ordered it set in the first row
Of the high priests breastplate 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 car
buncle is mentioned, the brilliancies Of
the walls and of the tesselated floors
suggested by the Bible sentence, Thou
hast walked up and down in the midst
Of the stones of fire. But in my text
it is not n solitary specimen that hand
you. as the keeper Of museum might
take down from the shelf precious
stone and allow you to examine 1t, nor
is it the panel Of door that you might
stand and study for its unique carvings
or bronzed traceries, but there is whole
gate OF 1t lifted before our admiring
and astounded vision; aye, two gates OF
il; ave. many gates Of it, II will make
thy gates Of carbuncles. " What gatesl
Gates of the church. Gates Of anything
worth possessing. Gates OF successful
enterprise. Gates Of salvation. Gates oi
national achievement Isaiah, who
wrote this text, wrote also all tha'
about Christ "as the lamb to the slaugh
ter" and spoke of Christ as saying, u
have trod the wine press alone, anc
wrote, "Who is this that cometh from
Edom, with dyed garments from BOZ
rah?' And do you think that Isaiah IL
my text merely happened to represent
the gates as red gates, as carmine gates
as gates Of carbunclel No. He mean'
that it is through atonement, through
blood red struggle, through agonies, WI
get into anything worth getting into
Heavens gates may well be made o
nearl. a bright, pellucid, cheerful crys
tallization, because all the struggles ar
over and there is beyond those gate
nothing but raptures and cantata ant
triumphal procession and everlasting
holiday and kiss Of reunion, and 40 tn
12 gates are 3 pearls and could be moth
ing else than pearls. But Christ hoist
ed the gates of pardon in his owl
blood. and the marks Of eight finger
and two thumbs are ON each gate ant
as he lifted the gate it leaned agains
his forehead and took from it crimson
impress. and all those gates are deepl.
dyed. and Isaiah was right when b
smoke of those gates as gates Of carbun
Gle.
Suffering For Others.
What an odd thing it Is, think some
this idea Of vicarious suffering or suffer
ing for others. Not at all The wori
has seen vicarious suffering millions
times before Christ came and demon
strated it oil a scale that eclipsed 81
: that went before and all that shall com
after Rachel lived only long enoug
after the birth Of her son to give him
name. In faint whisper she said, "Cal
him Ben-oni," which means "soii {
nv pain" and all modern travellers
the road from Jerusalem to Bethel III
cover their heads and stand reverentl
at the tomb of Rachel who died for he
boy. But in all ages how many mother
die for their children, and in man
3 cases grown up children, who by recr'
ancy stab clear through the mother
heart. Suffering for othersl Why, n
world is full of it. "JumpP said IN
engineer TO the fireman ON the locom'
n tive Zone of us is enough to di'
Jumpr And so the engineer died
his post, trying TO save the train. Whe
this summer the two trains crashed INT