The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1896-10-09
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE NOTED DEVINE's SUNDAY
SERMON

SERMON.
TEXT: "And will make thy windows OF
agates, and thy gates Of carbunekes. lisa.
Hv., ~.
Perhaps because a human disease of most
painful and ofttimes fatal character is named
after 1t, 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 apocalyptc vision
proper recognition, but this, In all the ages,
Is the first sermon on the carbuncle.
This precious stone Is found Ia the East
Indies, in color Is an intense scarlet, and
held up between your eye and the sun 1t Is q
burning coal. The poet puts It into rhythm
as he writes:
Like to the burning coal whence comes its
Among the Greeks as Anthrax known to
fame.
God sets it high up in Bible crystalloGraphy.
He cuts 1t with q divine chisel, sharpens ii
into an almost supernatural flame OF beauty.
Its law OF symmetry, Its law Of zones, its law
OF paralelism, something to excite the
amazement Of the scientist. chime tho cantos
otthe poet and arouse the alteration Of the
Christian. No one but the infinite God could
fashion carbuncle rs large as your thumb
nail, and as II TO make all ages appreciate
this precious stone He ordered 1t to be SET in
the first row OF the high priests breast-plate
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 Tyrlan court, the carbuncle Is mon
toned, the brillinncies Of tho walls and Of
the tassellated 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 a solitary specimen that
take down from the shelf n precious
stone and allow you TO examine
it, Nor is it in the panel of
door thar you might stand and study for it's
unique carvings or brouzed tracerics, but
there is a whole gate Of IL lifted before our
admiring aud astounded vision, aye! two
gates Of 1t, aye! many gates OF II: II will
make thy gates OF carcuncles." What gatesp
Gates OF the Church. Gates OF anything
worth possessing. Gates OF successful en-
terprise. Gates of salvation. Gates of Ma
tional achievement. Isuiah, who wrote this
text wrote also ali that about Christ "as tho
lamb Of the slaughter" and spoke of Christ
as saying. ~ have trod the wine press alone"
and wrote, "Who Is this that cometh from
Edom. with dyed garments from Bozrah2"
And do you think that Isaiah in my text
merely happened to represent the gates rs
red gates, as carmine gates. as gates OF car
atonement through blood-red struggle
through aSonies we get into anything worth
getting into. Heavens gates may we'll be
mGde of peurl, bright, pellucld. cheerful
crystalization. because all the struggles aro
over and there is beyond those gates nothing
but raptures and cantatn and triumphal pro-
eession und everlasting holiday and kiss of
reunion. and SO the twelve gates are twelve
pearls, and could be nothing less 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 cote, 6GG Gs He
lifted the gate it leaned against His forehead
Spa took from it crimson Impress. and all
e~a51.u1n and Isaiah was
tight when he spoke q :.sss gates as gates
e oAcLancle.
What an odd thing 1t is. think some, this
Idea of vicarious suffering or suffering for
others! Not at all The world had seen vi
cariouS suffering millions OF times before
Christ came and demonstrated it on a scale
that eclipsed all that went before and all that
shall come after. Rachael lived only long
enough after tho birth OF her son to givo him
name. In faint whisper she snid, Call
him Ben-oni." which means "son Of my
pain" and all modern travellers on tho road
from Jerusalem to Bethel uncover their heads
and stand revercntly ut 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 by re-
creancy stab clear through tho mother's
heart. Suffering for others? Why. the world
is full OF it. Jump said the engineer to
tho fireman on tho locomotive. "One OF
engineer died mt his post, trying to save tho
train. When this summer tho two trains
crashed into each other near Atlantic City,
among the fory-seven who lost their lives,
tho engineer was found dead with one hand
on tho throttle OF the locomotive and the
other on the brake. Aye! thcre are hun
dreds hero to-,lay suffering for Others. You
know and God knows 1t is vlcarlous sacrl-
flee. But on one limestone hill about twice
tho height of this church, five minutes walk
from the gales of Jerusalem, was tho sub
limest case Of suffering for Others that tho
world ever saw or ever will see. Christ the
victim. human and satanic malevolence tho
executioner, the whole human race having
IN overwhelming interest in tho spectacle.
To open a way for us sinful men and sinful
women into glorious pardon and high hope
and eternal OXuitatioD, Christ, with hand
dripping with the rush OF opened arteries,
swung back tho gate and behold! il is q rel
gate, n cato OF deepest hue, u gate of cur
Duncle.
What Is true In spirituals is true in tenn
porals. There arc young men and older
men who hope. through the settlement Of
this acrid controversy between silver and
gold. or the o!metallic quarrel that 1t will
Eecome easy to make q living. That time
will never come. 1t never has been easy TO
make living. The men who have 1t very
easy now, went through hardships and self
denials to which most young men would
never consent. Unless they got it by inheri-
tance, YOU cannot mention twenty-five men
who have come to honorable fortune that
did not fight their way, inch by iuch. and
against fearful odds that again and again al
most destroyed them. For some good rca-
son God has arranged it for all the centuries
that the only way for most people to get o
1iveli hood for themselves and their families
is with both hands and all the allied forces
OF body, mind and soul to push back ard
push open the red gate, the gate OF carhun-
ole. For the benefit Of all young men, If
had the time, would call tho roll OF those
who overcame obstacle. How many Of tho
mighty men who went one way on Pennsy-
vania avenue and reached the Unitch States
Senate. or walked the other way on Pennsy-
vania avenue and reached the White House,
did not hive to climb over pOliticnl oblOuu w