News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1896-10-01
GATE OF CARBUNCLE.
1T COMES BEFORE THE GATE OF
PEARL.

Trial Comes Before Heavenly Satisfac-
tion-A Sermon Appropriate to Indi-
vidual and National circumstances.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27.-From a neg
lected text and one to most people I'M
known Rev. DR.. Ialmage this morning
produces a sermon appropriate to indi-
vidual and national circumstances. The
subject was "Gates of Carbuncle," the
text being Isaiah liv, IL, "AndI will
make thy windows of agates and thy
gates Of carbuncles. F"
Perhaps because a human disease of
most painful and ofttimes fatal charac-
ter is named after it the church and the
world have never done justice to 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 a burning coal. The poet
puts it into rhythm as he writes
Like to the burning coal whence comes it's
name,
Among the Greeks as Anthrax known to fame.
God sets it high up in Bible crystal
Biography. He cuts itwith a divine CHS
ell, shapes it with precise geometry
and kindles its fire into an almost su-
pernatural flame Of beauty. Its law Of
symmetry, it's law of zones, its law of
parallelism, something to excite the
amazement Ct the scientist, chime the
cantos Of tie Poet and arouse the adora-
ton Of the Christian. No one but the
infinite God could fashion a carbuncle
as large as your thumb nail, and as if
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 Cf the Tyrian court the car
buncle is mentioned, the brilliancies of
the walls and CT the tesselated floors
suggested by the Bible sentence, "Thou
hast walked up and down in the midst
of the stones CT fire." But in my text
it is not q solitary specimen that | hand
you, as the keeper Of a museum might
take down from the shelf a precious
stone and allow you to examine it, 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 it lifted before our admiring
and astounded vision; aye, two gates OF
it; aye, many gates Of it, 81 will make
thy gates of oarbuncIes." What gates!
Gates of the church. Gates of anything
worth possessing. Gates of successful
enterprise. Gates Of salvation. Gates Of
national achievement. Isaiah, who
wrote this text, wrote also all that
about Christ Gas the lamb to the slaugh-
ter, +" and spoke Of Christ as saying, 81
have trod the wine press alone" and
wrote, "Who is this that cometh from
Edom, with dyed garments from Bee
rah?" And do you think that Isaiah in
my text merely happened to represent
the gates as red gates, as carmine gates,
as gates Of carbuncle? No. He means
that it 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 crys
utilization, because all the struggles are
over and there is beyond those gates
nothing but raptures and cantata anG
triumphal procession and everlasting
holiday and kiss of reunion, and so the
10 gates are ~ 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 fingers
and two thumbs are ON each gate, anC
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 hC
spoke of those gates as gates Of carbun
Gle.