St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-11-07
TALMAGEs SERMON.
The Doctrine Of Substitution Forci-
bly, Presented,
Showing tho Place Held by vicarious Sac
rlfics in the Education Of the World
The Herolsm Of Sacrificing Self
for Others Good.

as applied to vicarious sacrifice. His text
was:
without shedding OF blood is no remission.
Hebrews, w., g.
The preacher said: John G. Whittier,
the last OF the great school OF American
poets that made the last quarter of cen"
turv brilliant, asked me in the White
Mountai IS one morning after prayers, in
which had given out Cowper's famous
HYMN about the "The fountain filled with
blood:" ''Do you really believe there is
literal application Of the blood of Christ to
the soul?n My negative reply then is my
negative reply now. The Bible statement
agrees, with all physicians and all physl'
ologists and all scientists in saying that
the blood is the life, and in the Christian
religion it means simply that Chris . life
was given for our life. Fence all this talk
of men who say the Bible story ofblood is
disgusting, and that they don't want what
thew call a 'slaughter-ho religion"
only shows their incapaciY or unwilling"
ness to look through the figure of speech
toward the thing signified. The blood that
on the darkest F, iday the world ever saw
oozad, or triclIled, or poured from the brow
and the side and hands and thz feet OF the
iIlustrious sufferer, back of Jerusalem, in
a few hours coagulated and dried up and
forever disappeared; and if man had de-
pended 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
INV text. we only have to exercise as much
common sense in religion as we do in
every hing else. Pang for pang, hunger
for hunger, fatigue for fat que, tear for
tear, blood for blood, Ii 9 for life, we see
every day illustrated. The ac5 of substi-
tuition is no novelty, although hear men
talk as though the idea of Christ's suffer.
ing substituted for our suffering were
something abnormal, something distress.
ingly odd, something wildly eccentric,
solitary episode in the worlds history;
when could take you into this city and
before shutdown point to you five hundred
cases OF substitution and voluntary suffer
ing of one in behalf OF another.
At two O'Clock tomorrow afternoon go
among the places of business or toll. 1t
will be no difficult thing for you to find
men who, By their looks, show you that
they are overworked. They are prema.
turely old. They are Fastening rapidly
toward their decease. They have gene
through crises in business that shattered
their nervous system and pulled on the
brain. They have a shortness of breath
and rain III the back of the head, and at
night an insomnia that alarms them. Why
are they drudging at business early and
la!e? For fun! No; it would be- difficult to
extract any amusement out Of that ex-
hamstion Because they ara avaricious3
In many cases no. Because their own
personal expenses are lavish5 No:
few hundred dollars would meet all their
VANS. The fact is, the man is enduring
all that fat que and exhaustion and
wear and tear to keep his home prosper
GUS There is an invisible line reaching
from that store, from that bank, from
that shop, from that scaffolding, to a
quiet scene few blocks, few miles
away, and there is the secret of that busi-
ness endurance. He is simply the cham
pion of homestead for which he wins
bread and wardrobe and education and
prosperity, and in such bate 10000 men
fall OF ten business men whom bury
nine die of overwork for others. Some
sudden disease finds them with no power
Of resistance, and they are gone. Life for
lie; blood for blood. Substitution.
At one O'Clock tomorrow morning, the
hour when slumber is most uninserr upted
and most profound, walk amid the dwell
ing houses of the city. Here and there
you will find dim light, because it is
the household custom to keep subdued
light burning, but most of the houses,
from base to top. are as dark as though
uninhabited. A merciful God has sent
forth the archangel of sleep, and he puts
his wings over the city. But yonder is
clear light burning, and outside on the
window easement 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 the sufferer. She
has to the last point obeyed the physi-
clans prescriptions, not giving drop too
much or to little, or moment too soon or
too late. She is very anxious, for she has
buried three children with the same dis.
ease, and she prays and weeps, each
prayer and sob ending with q kiss Of the
pale cneSKs by UAut u klnuuSSS Sue SotS
the little one through the ordeal. After
1t IS all over the mother is taken down.
Brain or nervous fever sets in, and one
day she leaves the convaIescent child with
q mott er's blessing and goes up to join
the three in the kingdom Of Heaven. Life
for life.
About twenty four years ago there went
forth from our homes hundreds OF thou
sands OF man to do battle for their coun-
trv, And the poetry Of war soon van
ishsd and left them nothing bus the ter
rible prose. They waded knee-deep in
mud. They slept in snow banks. They
marched till their cut feet tracked the
earth, They were swindled out Of their