The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-26
THE TABERNACLE SERMONS.
|r. Talmage Discusses the Exalting
Principle of Suffering for Others,
Drawing illustrations from the Everyday
Life of 0nr Own T~imes-The Great Ex-
ample from Calvary's Mount
special to the Indianapolis journal.

cpeciai TO the Indianapolis journal
Brooklyn. Oct. 25.-Prof. Henry Eyre Browne
opened the services in the Brooklyn Tabernacle
this morning with the organ solo, First Sonata,
in ID minor, by Ritter. DR.. Talmage expounded
the chapter iE Leviticus about ancient sacrifices.
The hymn sung was:
Salvation, o the joyful sound,
lis pleasure to our ears;
A sovereign balm for every wound,
A cordial for our fears"
The subject of the sermon was Blood and
the text was from Hebrews il. %: without
shedding of blood is no remission" The preacher
said:
John G.. Whittier, the last of the great school
of American poets that made the last quarter of
> a century brilliant, asked me in the White Mount
aims, one morning after prayers, in which l had
given out Cowpers famous hymn about 'the
fountain filled with blood:' ''Do you really be-
lieve there is a literal application of the blood of
Christ to the soul!" My negative reply then is
my negative reply now. The Bible statement
agrees with ali physicians, and all Psychologists,
and all scientists in saying that the blood is the
life, and in the Christian religion it means sim
ply that Christ's life was given for our life.
Hence all this talk of men who say the Bible
story of blood is disgusting, and that they don't
want what they call a 'slaughter-house religion"
only shows their incapacity or unwillingness to
look through the figure of speech toward
the thing ~signifed. The blood that, on the
darkest Friday the world ever saw, oozed, or
trickled, or poured from the brow, and the side,
and the hands, and the feet Of the illustrious suf-
ferer, back OF Jerusalem, in a few hours coagu-
lated, and dried up, aud forever Disappeared;
and if man had depended on the application of
the literal blood of Christ, there would not have
been a soul saved for the last eighteen centu-
ries.
In order to understand this red word of my
text, we only have to exercise as much common
sense in religion as we do in everything else.
Pang for pang. hunger for hunger, fatigue for
fatigue. tear for tear, blood for blood, life for
life, we see every day illustrated. The act of
substitution is no novelty. although | hear men
talk as though the idea of Christ's suffering sub
+ stituted for our suffering were something alb
normal, something distressinely odd, something
wildly eccentric, a solitary episode in the
worlds history; when / could take you out into
this city, and before shutdown point you to five
hundred cases of substitution and voluntary
suffering of one in behalf of ayother.
ILLUSTRATING THE SUBJECT.
= At 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. go among
The places of business or toll. 1t will be no diff
fcult thing for you to find men VINO, by their
looks. show you that they are overworked. They
are prematurely old. They arc fastening rapid
" toward their decease. They have gone
through crises in business that shattered their
nervous systems and pulled on the brain. They
have a shortness of breath, and a pain in the
back &C the head, and at night an insomnia that
alarms them. Why are they d~rudging at bust
ness early and late? For fun? No.; it would
. be difficult to extract any amusement out of
that exhaustion. Because they are avariciousl
In many cases no. Because their own personal
expenses are lavish? No; a few hundred dollars
would meet all their wants. The simple fact is.
the man is enduring all that fatigue. and exas-
peration, and wear and tear, to keep his home
prosperous. There is an invisible line reaching
from that store, from that bank, from that shop,
from that scaffolding, to a quiet scene a few
blocks, a few miles away, and there is the secret
of that business endurance. He is simply the
champion of a homestead, for which he wins
bread, and wardrobe, and education, and pros
perity; and in such battle ten thousand men
fall. OF ten business men whom l bury, nine
JIG VI W bOiuC SuuQcu us
ease finds them with no power of resistance, and
: they are gone. Life for life. Blood for blood.
Substitution.
At l o'clock tomorrow morning, the hour
when slumber is most uninterrupted and most
profound. walk amid the dwelling houses of the
city. Here and there you will find a dim light,
because it is the household custom to keep a
subdued light burning; but most of the houses,
from base to top, are as dark as though unin-
habited. A merciful God has sent forth the
archangel of sleep, and he puts his wings over
the city. But yonder is a clear light burning,
and outside, on the Embarrassment, a glass or
pitcher containing food for a sick child, the food
set in the fresh air. This is the sixth night that
mother has sat up with that sufferer. She has,
to the last point, obeyed the physicians pre-
s~cription, not giving a drop too much or to o
little, or a moment too soon or too late. She is
very anxious, for she has buried three child rem
with the same disease, and she prays
and weeps' each prayer and sob ending
dint of kindness she gets the little one through
She ordeal. After it is all over, the mother is
taken down. Brain or nervous fever sets in,
and one day she leaves the convalescent child
1 with a mothers blessings, and goes up to join
: the three in the kingdom of heaven. Life for
life, Substitution. The fact is that there are
; All uncounted number of mothers who, after
they have navigated a large family Of children
through all the diseases of infancy, and got them
fairly started up the Towering slope of boyhood
and girlhood, have only strength enough left to
die. They fade away. Some cali it consump-
ton; some call it nervous prostration; some call
it Intermittent or malarial disposition; but l call
it martyrdom of the domestic circle. Life for
hfe. Blood for blood. Substitution.
Or perhaps she fingers long enough to see a
son GET on the wrong road, and his former kind
ness becomes rough reply when she expresses
anxiety about him. But she goes right on. look
ing carefully after his apparel, remembering his
every birthday with some memento. and when
: he is brought home worn out with dissipation.
nurses him till he gets well, and starts him again.
and hopes, and expects, and prays, and counsels,
and suffers until her strength gives out and she