The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-10-08
I HlM.HGE's SERMON.
And / will make thy windows Of aeates
and thy gates of carbuncles.''-I IiV. II.

And 1 will make thy windows Of agates.
ana thy gates of carbuncles. Isaiah liv -.
I,efnapSsDecauSe human disease OF
most painful and Outlines fatal char
acter is named after it, the church and
the world has never done justice to
that intense and all-suggestive prec-
lous tone, the carbuncle The pearl
that Christ picked up to illustrate his
sermon, and the jasper, and the sap
phire, and the amethyst, which the.
apocalyptic vision masoned into the
wall OF heaven have had proper recog-
milton; but this, in all the ages, is the
tlrst sermon on the carbuncle This
precious stone is found in the East In
dies, in color is an intense scarlet, and
held up between your eye and the sun
it is burning coal The poet puts it
into rythm as he writes:
Like to the burning coal whence comes
it's name;
Among the Greeks an Anthrax known
to fame
\ God sets it high up in Bible crystallo-
graphy. It cuts it with divine CHS
el, Shapes it with precise geometry,
and klndles it's fire into an almost SUI
pernatural flame of beauty Its law of
symmetry, it's law Of zones, it's law of
parallelism, something to excite the
amazement Of the scientist, chime the
5cantos OF the poet and arouse the adj
grafton of the Christian. No one but
the Infinite God could fashion a car
Duncle as large as your .thunlb-nail,
ana as II to make all ages appreciate
TINS precious stone, he ordered it set
IN the first row of the high priests
breastplate in olden times, and higher
up than the onyz and the emerald and
the diamond, and in EzekieIs prophe-
cles concerning the splendors of the
Iyrlan court, the carbuncle is men
TONED, the brilliancies Of the walls and
OF the tessellated 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 sol
ltary specimen that hand you. as the
keeper OF museum might take down
from the shelf a precious stone and al
low you to examine it. Nor is it the
panel of door that you might stand
and study, for it's unique carvings or
bronzed traceries; but there is a whole
gate of it lifted before your admiring
ana astonlshed vision, aye two gates
OF 1t, aye! many gates Of it: II will
make thy gates of carbuncles." What
gates! Gates of the church. Gates Of
anything worth possessing Gates of
successful enterprise. Gates of saliva
ton. Gates Of national achievement.
Isaiah. who wrote this text. wrote, al
So all that about Christ ''as the lamb
to the slaughter" and spoke of Christ
as saying. II have trod the wine press
alone and wrote, 'Who is this that
cometh from Edom, with dyed gar
ments 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
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 well be made of pearl, a
bright, .pellucid, cheerful crystalliza-
ticn, because all the struggles are
over and there is beyond these gates
nothing but raptures and cantata and
triumphal procession and everlasting
holiday and kiss of reunion, and so
the twelve gates are twelve 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 he lifted the gate it
leaned against his forehead and took
from it a crimson impress, and all
these gates are deeply dyed, and .Isai-
all was right when he spoke Of these
gates as gates of carbuncle.
What is true in spirituals is true in
telnporals. There Are young men and
old men who hope, through the right
settlement Of this acrid controversy be-
tween Silver and gold, or the bimetal-
lie quarrel, that it will become easy to
make a living. That time will never
come. 1t never has been easy to make
a living. The men who have it very
easy now, went through the hardships
and self-denials to which most Young
men would never consent. Unless they
got it by inheritance, you cannot men
ton twenty 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
reason God has arranged it for all the
centuries that the only way for most
people to get q livelihood for them
selves 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 carbun-
Gle. For the benefit Of all young men,
if had the time, / would call the roll
of those who overcame obstacle. How
many of the mighty men who went
one way on Pennsylvania avenue and
reached the United States senate, or
walked the other way on Pennsylvania
avenue and reached the White House,
did not have to climb over political OBJ
loquy? Not one. How much scorn
and SEQ and brutal attack did Hor-
ace Mann endure between the time
when he first began to fight for a bet
ter 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-co1n.
mons?
What is true of individuals is true Of
nations. Was it mild spring morning
when the Pilgrim fathers landed on
Rock, and did they come in
a gilded yacht, gay streamers flying!
No. It was in cold December, and
y