Agates are precious stones, partially transparent and uncrystallized.
They are mere varieties of quartz, variously coloured by admixtures of different earths; although the neutral tints arc the most frequent. They generally occur in rounded nodules, or in veins in igneous rocks, dropping out when such rocks decompose by the action of the elements, and being washed down to the places where they are found by mountain streams. They seem to be the product of elements fused by fire; and in this respect they carry out most faithfully the analogy between the condition of the Church and the nature of the promise, “o thou afflicted, tempest-tossed, and not comforted, behold, I will make thy windows of agates.” Out of those fiery trials precious media of spiritual vision will be constructed for it. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
Agate windows
I. Looking at the emblem in this light, we may suppose windows of agates to mean windows of FAITH. Agates are neither transparent as rock crystal, nor opaque as flint; so neither is faith dim as sense, nor bright as heavenly vision. Many things in creation, providence, and redemption are inscrutable to us; and the wider the circle of light spreads around us, the wider does the dark line of our ignorance extend also and touch it at every point. Gazing through these windows we behold things which we see nowhere else. We obtain such a realizing view of God’s presence, such an evidence of His perfections, as elevates and spiritualizes our minds, while, at the same time, it humbles us low by the contrast of our own imperfections and unworthiness. We behold His glory as in a glass, and are changed into the same image, saturated with the reflected light of His holiness, permeated with: the warmth the purity of His love. The “altogether lovely One looketh forth at these windows, showing Himself through the lattice in all the beauty of His person, the perfection of His righteousness, and the sufficiency of His grace. We have a satisfying and transforming view of His person, His atonement, His intercession, His example, His commands and promises, His government and kingdom, as revealed in the Gospel; so that we can enjoy His own prophetic benediction, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” From these upper windows of the soul we obtain the widest view of the horizon around us, and see glorious glimpses of the land that is very far off. Looking down from that elevation, how small and insignificant do the things that appeared great from their own level appear; how unworthy of the thought we bestowed upon them, or the anxiety with which we regarded them. On these western windows of the soul, too, the departing sun shines with concentrated radiance when all the rest of the horizon is wrapped in twilight gloom. It is from thence that another and a brighter world is discerned opening upon our view, while this world is sinking in shadow.
II. We may regard these windows as WINDOWS OF FEELING. By this it is meant, not that God will smite the smitten, afflict the afflicted, but that He will make those afflictions which the Church already experiences windows of agates--mediums of communication between the soul and the unseen world--means of deeper insight into, and richer experiences of spiritual things. The afflicted Christian is the only one who has just views of life, It takes a long and painful discipline to correct our early impressions, and show us things in their true aspects and relations. Through the dim windows of affliction how changed is the aspect of the world, how cold, and grey, and desolate; all its radiant glow departed; all its beauteous hues reduced to one dull leaden sadness. The tears of sorrow are like spiritual lenses, showing us the world in its true character as a poor, empty, unsatisfying inheritance. One glimpse through the agate windows of sickness, bereavement, or adversity will impress us more with the vanity of the world’s portion, and of a life of sense, than all that the most pensive poetry ever sang, or the most cynical philosophy ever taught. “I will make thy windows of agates;” not bright and transparent, for our weak eyes, dimmed with pain and weeping, cannot bear the strong sunshine; not dark and opaque, for the soul climbing up and straining to look out and see the light behind the cloud--the beauty beyond the shadow--and baffled in its efforts--would fall back upon itself morbid and despairing. They are windows of agates--neither transparent nor opaque--but mercifully tempered by Him who best knows the requirements of each individual case, and who in all our afflictions is afflicted.
III. We may suppose agate windows to be WINDOWS OF SPIRITUAL CHARACTER. In admiring a piece of beautiful scenery, we find nothing in it except what we ourselves brought to it. Nature wears the colour of the spirit; and her charms are reflections of charms within ourselves. It is so also in moral things. To the pure all things are pure; while the polluted heart finds impurity in the most innocent things. So also in the spiritual world. Its objects become real, tangible, true, worthy of love, and capable of influencing us, only so far as we ourselves are spiritualized. There is no window so clear as holiness of character, spirituality of mind, purity of heart, singleness of aim. Agate windows are most expressive symbols of our spiritual character. The purest agates are only semi-pellucid: while the great majority of specimens are clouded with dim spots, and streaked with dark lines. And so the purest spiritual character in this world is imperfect. The essential transparency remains, but objects seen through it are dim, distorted, and discoloured. Our indistinct and imperfect views of God, of providence, of the scheme of grace, of the eternal realities and transcendent glories of a perfect state--are owing to the imperfection of our own spiritual character, and the imperfect affinity of our hearts for what is best and purest. These windows of agates are of great practical importance. The principal use and design of ordinary windows in a dwelling is to admit light into the rooms, so that the inmates may see to perform their various household duties. And so, the use of these windows of agates, whether they be windows of faith, of feeling, or of spiritual character, is to let the light of heaven shine in upon our life, that we may discharge our various duties as members of the household of faith. We are not to sit all day long with folded hands at these windows, looking out listlessly or sadly, in mere religious reverie, or in despondent abstraction. The light which we gel through them is given to us to work. The light of heaven itself is given for usefulness as well as for beauty. It warms and fertilizes the earth, and ripens the corn. So let the light which streams in upon us through these windows of agates--costly light obtained from faith tried in the furnace; lambent light gleaming from painful afflictions, from the decays of nature; sparkling light struck from sore struggles with sin and self; light coloured by the experience through which it has passed; let that light warm, and quicken, and ripen our souls. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.)
“Thy windows of agates:”
Rather, as R.V., “pinnacles.” The word is derived from that for “sun,” and appears to denote those parts of the building which glitter in the sun’s rays. Compare the Arab “minaret, used primarily of a lantern or lighthouse. “Agates” (Eze_27:16), “sparkling stone, perhaps “rubies’ (R.V.). (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
The clarified vision
The Hebrew word here for window is unusual (shemashoth), and this is the only instance of its translation by “window.” It means “an opening for the sun.” It implies the admission into the house of more than ordinary reflected daylight--the sun streams through it. The agate (kadbod) is a glass-clear stone. The writer uses it evidently more because of its clarity than because of its preciousness. As a clear way for the sun, the agate window suggests the desirability of keeping the soul’s windows transparently clear.
I. THAN GOD, THE SOUL’S SUN, MAY SHINE IN WITHOUT IMPEDIMENT.
1. The Bible may be the agate window. Through it God shines in on man’s mind and spirit.
2. This, similarly, should be the office of religious teaching, as in creed and sermon. How important to keep the media of truth transparent.
II. THAT THE SOUL, LOOKING OUT, MAY SEE ACCURATELY. Bad glass, steam, or stain on a window confuses outlines. A fly in the telescope may twist the observer’s astronomy. All our views of life’s landscapes greatly depend on the window through which we look out. Sin stains it. Cynicism discolours it. The sun can shine through a hide or a thin shutter. But the soul can look out only through the clear window. God sees us, shines on us, when we do not see Him. Salvation depends not on His seeing us, but on our seeing Him.
III. THAT OUR LIGHT MAY SHINE OUT TO OTHERS. Some one wandering in the darkness may see the light that shines from our life, and be guided to safety. (Homiletic Review.)
Thy gates of carbuncles
The carbuncle
This precious stone is found in the East Indies, in colour is an intense scarlet, and held up between your eye and the sun it is a burning coal. The poet puts it into rhythm as he writes--“Like to the burning coal whence comes its name; Among the Greeks as Anthrax known to fame.” God sets it high up in Bible crystallography. He cuts it with a Divine chisel, shapes it with a precise geometry, and kindles its fire into an almost supernatural flame of beauty. Its law of symmetry, its law of zones, its law of parallelism, something to excite the amazement of the scientist, chime the cantos of the poet, and arouse the adoration 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-priest’s breast-plate in olden time and higher up than the onyx and the emerald and the diamond, and in Ezekiel’s prophecies concerning the splendours of the Tyrian court, the carbuncle is mentioned, 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!” (T. D. W. Talmage, D. D.)
Gates of carbuncles
In my text it is not a solitary specimen that I hand you, as the keeper of a museum might take down from the shelf a precious stone and allow you to examine it. Nor is it the panel of a door that you might stand and study for its unique carvings or bronzed traceries, but there is a whole gate of it lifted before our admiring and astounded vision, ay! two gates of it: ay! many gates of it: “I 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 slaughter,” and spoke of Christ as saying, “I have trodden the winepress alone,” and wrote, “Who is this that cometh from Eden, 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 carbuncle? No. He means that it is through atonement, through blood-red struggle, through agonies we get into anything worth getting into. Heaven’s gates may well be made of pearl, a bright, pellucid, cheerful crystallization, 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 twelve gates are twelve pearls, and could De nothing else than pearls. But Christ hung 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 those gates are deeply dyed, and Isaiah was right when he spoke of those gates as gates of carbuncle. (T. D. W. Talmage, D. D.)
Gate of carbuncle before gate of pearl
Mark well and underscore with heavy dashes of the pen the order of the gates. Gate of carbuncle before gate of pearl. Isaiah the Prince saw the one gate centuries before St. John the Exile saw the other. The one you must push open. The other stands open. Gate of a Saviour’s atonement before the gate of Divine pardon. Gate of poverty before gate of affluence. Gate of earthly trial before gate of heavenly satisfaction. Through much tribulation you enter the kingdom of God if you ever enter it at all. (T. D. W. Talmage, D. D.)
