Buildings stand by the benefit of their foundations that sustain and support them, and of their buttresses that comprehend and embrace them, and of their contignations that knit and unite them.
This is the opening line of the sermon and it situates the controlling metaphor on which the entire thematic framework of the piece is constructed. The imagery of architectural creations which can only remain standing if there is proper support will be extended outward from the literal to the figurative in a comparison to belief in God and the understanding that God is the only path to salvation. While foundations and buttresses are relatively common enough terms, that other one is perhaps a head-scratcher to most: contignation is a long-since outmoded word describing the joining of wooden beams and boards.
“Unto God the lord belong the issues of death.”
This quotes from the Book of Psalms precedes the actual sermon, but more importantly is how much it permeates the sermon. A version of the quote constantly recurs, creating a motif that the author visits again and again. One of the defining literary elements of a sermon is repetition, of course, and repetition is popular because it works. Just ask anyone who works in advertising which is sort of the modern-day version of the good old-fashioned sermon. They are both designed peculiarly for the purpose of driving into the mind of the audience a few big ideas with the details mainly acting as window dressing to entice. The main point of this reiteration is God and God alone is responsible for all the pertinent issues of getting into heaven. God is the foundation and the buttresses and the contignation of this fundamental truth, so if you are really interested, you’d better get on the trolley and accept it.
But whether the gate of my prison be opened with an oiled key (by a gentle and preparing sickness), or the gate be hewn down by a violent death, or the gate be burnt down by a raging and frantic fever, a gate into heaven I shall have, for from the Lord is the cause of my life and with God the Lord are the issues of death.
Here we see one of those multiple recurrences of the quote from Psalm 68. This is to exemplify just how integral it is to the theme and how seamlessly integrated the repetition is to the framework of the composition. The point in this particular reference is to remind listeners that there are actual literal buildings and then there is the metaphor. The divide is clear and enormous. There is no key to heaven except by faith in God as the God of salvation. There are no workarounds: you bust through weakly joined beams with a sledgehammer to slip in without notice. Belief in God is the hardware that joined the beams and they don’t come apart so easily.
