The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-09-30
GATE OF CARBUNCLE.
IT COMES BEFORE THE GATE OF
PEARL.

IT COMES BEFORE THE GATE or
PEARL.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Shows How Earthly
Trial ComeB Before Heavenly Satisfac-
tion-A Sermon Appropriate to Indi-
viduaI and National Circumstances.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27.-From a neg.
Iected text and one to most people un-
known Rev. DR.. Ialmags this morning
produces sermon appropriate to indi-
vidual and national circumstances. The
subject was Coates of Carbuncle, )" the
text being Isaiah liv, 10, "And l will
make thy windows of agates and thy
gates Of carbuncles. y"
Perhaps because q 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 oarbuncle. The pearl that
Christ picked up to illustrate his SER
mon, and the jasper and the sapphire
and the amethyst which the apocalyptio
vision masoned into the wall of heaven
have had proper recognition, but this,
in all the ages, is the first sermon on
the oarbuncle.
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 burning coal. The poet
puts it into rhythm as he writes:
Like to the burning coal whence comes its
name,
Among the Greeks CD Anthrax known to fame.
God sets it high up in Bible crystal
Biography. He cuts it with q divine chis-
el, shapes it with precise geometry
and kindles it's fire into an almost su-
pernatural fa1ae Of beauty. Its law of
symmetry, its law Of zones its law of
parallelism, something to excite the
amazement Of the scientist, chime the
cantes Of the poet and arouse the adora-
tion 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 of the Tyrian court the car
bunole is mentioned, the brillianoies Of
the walls and Of the tesselated 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 solitary specimen that I hand
you, as the keeper Of O museum might
take down fro1a the shelf 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, II will make
thy gates Of carbuncles. " 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 "as the lamb to the slaugh-
ter" and spoke Of Christ az saying, II
have trod the wine press alone" and
wrote, "Who is this chat cometh from
Edom, with dyed garments from Boz
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 well be made Of
pearl, bright, pellucid, cheerful crys-
tallization, 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 reunion, and so the
10 gates are l2 pearls and could be moth
ing else than pearls. But Christ hoist
ed the gates Of pardon in his own
blood, and he marks Of eight fingers
and two th mbs 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 are deeply
dyed, and Isaiah was right when he
spoke of those gates as gates of carbun-
Gle.
Suffering For Others.