Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-10-03
GATE OF CARBUNCLE.
1T COMES BEFORE THE GATE or;
PEARL.

u OOMES 6GfChE lTE VA VI
PEARL.
Rev. DIR. Talmagc Shows How Earthly
Trial Comes Before Heavenly Satisfac-
tioa-A Sermon Appropriate to Indi-
vid,.nl and National Circumstances.
WASHINGTON. Sept. 27.-From neg
lected text and one to most people I'M
known Rev. Dr. 1almage this morning
produces sermon appropriate to indi-
yidual and national circumstances. The
subject was Gates of Carbuncle, the
text being Isaiah liv, II, "And will
make thy windows of agates and thy
gates of carbuncles.
Perhaps because human disease OF
most painful and ofttimes fatal charao-
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
luon. and tho Jasper and tho sapphire
and the amethyst which the apocalyptio
vision mnsoned into tho wall of heaven
have had proper recognition, but this.
in all the ages, is tho first sermon on
the carbunclc
This precious stone is found In the
East Indies, in color is an intense scar
let, and held up between your eye and
tho sun it is burning coal. The poet
puts it into rhythm as he writes;
Like to the burning coal whence comes Its
name
Among tho Greeks III Anthrax known to fame.
God sets it high up in Bible crystal
Biography. Ho cuts it with "a divine CHS
ell, shapes it with n precise geometry
and kindles its fire into OIL almost su-
pernatural famo of beauty. Its law of
symmetry, its law of zones, its law of
parallclism, 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 rs 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 priest s breastplate in olden
time and higher up than the onyx and
the emerald and the diamond, and in
EzelSiels prophecies concerning the
splendors Of the Tyrian court tho 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 tho stones Of fire. ~ But in my text
it is not solitary specimen that hand
YOU, rs the keeper of Il museum might
take down from tho shelf a precious
stouo and allow you to examine it. nor
is it tho panel of door that you might
stand and study for its unique carvings
or bronzed tracerics, but there is a whole
gate of it lifted before our admiring
and astounded vision; aye, two gates Of
it; aye, many gates of il, II will make
thy gates Of carbunclcs." What gatesf
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 las the lamb to tho slaugh-
ter" and spoke of Christ as saying, Il
have trod tho wine press alone and
wrote, who is this that cometh from
Edom, with dyed garments from Boz
rah?' And do you think that Isaiah In
my text merely happened to represent
the gates rs red gates, as carmine gates,
as gates of carbuncle? No. He means
that it is through atonement, through
blood red struggle, through agonics, we
get into anything worth getting into.
Heavens gates may we'll be mado Of
pearl, bright, pellucid, cheerful crys-
tallization, because all the struggles are
over and there is beyond those gates
nothing but raptures and oantata and
triumphal procession and everlasting
holiday and kiss Of reunion, and so the
70 gates are IL pearls and could be moth
ing else than pearls. But Christ hoist
cd 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 it leaned against
his forehead and took from it crimson
impress, and all those gates arc deeply
dyed, and Isaiah was right when he
spoke Of thosc 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 world
has seen vicarious suffering millions Of
times before Christ came and demon
strated it OIL q 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 a
name. LII faint whisper she said, Gall
him Ben-oni, 1" which means "son Of
my pain," and all modern travellers on
the road from Jerusalem to Bethel IN
cover their heads and stand reverently
ut tho tomb of Rachel who died for her
boy. But in ell ages how many mothers
die for their children, and in many
cases grown up children, who by recre-
ancy stab clear through the mothers
heart. Suffering for othersf Why, the
world is full Of it. "Jumpl" said the
engineer to the fireman on the locomo-
tive. "Ono 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
tho AZ who lost their lives the engineer
was found dead with one hand on the
throttle of the locomotive and the other
OF tho brake. Aye, there are hundreds
here today suffering for others. You
know and God knows that it is vicari-
Gus sacrifice. But on one limestone hill
about twice the height Of this church.
five minutes walk from the gates Of
Jerusalem. was the sublimest case Of