The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-10-10
TAIMAGE'S SERMON.
A Timely Discourse Upon tho Con-
dition of National Affairs.
If Ever the Country Needed Divine Res
cue 1t ~ Now, with Misery and
Starvation staring So Many
la the Face.

F = =
Gates of Carbunclc," basing it on the
text:
Aud I will make thy windows OF ggates, ant
thy gates Of enthusiastically l!v., H.
Perhaps because Il human disease oil
most painful and ofttimcs fatal char
uctvr is named after it, the chlrcl
and the world have never done justice
to that intense and all-sugg estivc pre-
ciouS stone, the carbuncle. The pearl
that Christ picked up to illustrate His
sermon, and the Jasper and the
sapphire and the amethyst which the
apocalyptic vision masoncd into the
wall Of Heaven have had proper recog-
milton. but this, in all the ages, is the
first sermon on the carbunclc.
This precious stone is found in the
East Indies; in color it 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 It's
Among the Greeks as Anthrax known TO fame.
God sets it high mp in Bible crystal
Biography. lie cuts it with divine
chiscl, shapes it with II precise geOm.
etry, and i;indlcs its fire into an almost
supernatural flame Of beauty. Its law
Of symmetry, its law of zones, its law
of Daralleliam, something to excite
The amazcmcnt of the scientist. chine
the cantos of the poet, and arouse the
alteration of the Christian. No one
but the infinite God could fashion a
carbunclc as large as your thumb aail,
and, as If To make all ages appreciate
this precious stone, lie ordered it set
IN the first row of the high priests
brcast-piatc in olten time, and higher
up than the onyx and the emerald and
the diamond, and in Ezelliels prophe-
cies concerning the splcndors Of the
Iyrian cOurt the carbunclc is men
tiunrd, the brillanclcs of the walls
and Of the tcssellated floors suggested
by the Bible sentence: Thou hast
walked up and down in the midst of
iAc stones of iire!"
Bat in my text it is not solitary
specimen that hand you, as the keep
er of museum might take down from
the shelf II precious stone and allow
you to examine it. Nor is it the panel
of "a door that you might stand and
study it. for its unique carvings or
bronHed traccries, but there is u whole
gate of it lifted before our admiring
and nstounded vision; aye! two gates
of it; aye! many gates of it: Il will
make thy gates of carbuncles." What
gates? Gates of the church. Gates of
anything worth possessing. Gates of
successful enterprise. Gates of sal
walton. Gates of national achieve
ment. Isaiah. who wrote this text,
wrote also all that about Christ las
the Lamb to the slaughter" and spoke
of Christ as saying, II have trod the
wincpress alone" and wrote, 'Who is
tins 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, as carmine gates,
as gates of carbuncles? No. He
means that it is through atoncment,
through bloodred struggle, through
agunies we get into anything worth
getting into. Heavens gates may well
be made Of pearl, bright, pellucid,
cheerful cry stallization, because all the
struggles are over and there is beyond
those gates nothing but raptures and
cantata and triumphal procession and
everlasting holiday and kiss OF re-
union, and so the 10 gates are l2 pearls,
and could be nothing else 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 lie lifted the gate
it leaned against His forehead, and
took from it n crimson impress, and
all those gates are deeply dyed, and
Isaiah was right when he spoke Of
those gates rs gates of carbuncle.
. What an odd thing it is, think some,
this idea of vIcarious suffering or suf-
fering for others! Not at all. The
world has seen vicarious suffering
millions of limos before Christ came
and demonstrated IL on n scale that
eclipsed all that went before and all
that shall come after. Rachel lived
only long enough after the birth of
her son to give him name. In faint
whisper she said, Call him Ben oni, VI
which means son of my pain, and all
modern travellers on the road from
Jerusalem to Bethel uncover thair
heads and stand rcverentiy 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 10y recreancy stab
clear though the mothers heart! Suf-
fcring for others? Why the world is
full of it. 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, among
the ~ who lost their lives, the engi.
neer was found dead with one hand
on the trottle of the locomotive, and
the other on the brake. Aye! there
aro hundreds here to-day suffering
for others. You know and God
knows that it is vicarious sacri.
flee. But on one limestone hill about
twice the height Of this church, five
minutes walk from the gates of Jeru
salem, was tho sublimest case of suf.
feriDg for others that the world ever
saw or ever will see. Christ, the vic