The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1897-03-27

10 k,ndles enthusiasm. or awakens elo-
quence, or chimes poetic canto, or moves
nations The principle is the dominant
one In our rcligion-Christ the martyr,
Christ the celestial hero, Christ the de-
fender, Christ the substitute. No new
principle, for 1t was as old as human ma
ture, but now on q grander, wider, higher,
deeper and moro world resounding scale.
The shepherd boy champion for Israel
with a sling toppled the giant Of Philistine
braggadocio In the dust, but here is an
other David, who, for all the armies of
churches militant and triumphant, hurls
the Goliath of perdition into defeat, the
crash of his brazen armor like an explo-
sion at He'll Gate. Abraham had at Gods
command agreed to sacrifice his son Isaac,
and the same God just in time had pro-
vided q ram of the thicket rs a substitute,
but here is another Isaac bound to the
altar and no hand arrests the sharp edges
of liberation and death, and the universe
shivers and quakes and recoils and groans
at the horror.
All good men have for centuries been
trying to tell who this substitute was
like, and every comparison, inspired and
uninspired, evangelistic, prophetic, apos-
tolic and human, falls short, for Christ
| was the Great Unlike Adam u type of
Christ because he came directly from God,
Noah a type of Christ because he delivered
dec type OF Christ because he had no pred
| ecessor or successor, Joseph type OF
Christ because he was cast out by his
brethren, Moses a type of Christ because
he was a deliverer from bondage, Samson
| . type OF Christ because of his strength to
Glay the lions and carry off the iron gates
| Of impossibility, Solomon n type OF Christ
IN the affluenco Of his dominion, Jonah
| type Of Christ because Of the stormy sea In
which he threw himself for the rescue Of
others, but put together Adam and Noah
and Melchisedec and Joseph and Moses and
Joshua and Samson and Solomon and Jo-
| nah, and they would not make q fragment
Of q Christ, u quarter Of Christ, the half
! of Christ or the nillionth part of
| Christ.
| What Christ Did.
He forsook q throne and sat down on his
| own footstool. He came from the top Of
| glory to the bottom OF humiliation and
changed n circumference seraphic for cir
| cumfcrence diabolic. Once waited on by
angels, now Kissed at by brigands. From
afar and high up he came down; past me-
| teors swifter than they; by starry thrones,
| himself more lustrous; past larger worlds
| to smaller worlds; down stairs Of 1rlna-
| ments, and from cloud to cloud, and
| through tree tops and into the camel stall.
| to thrust his shoulder under our burdens
| and take the lances of pain through his
| vitals, and wrapped himself in all tie
agonies which we deserve for our misdo-
ings, and stood Oh the splitting decks of q
laundering vessel amid the drencbing surf
| Of the SEQ, and passed midnights on the
| mountains amid wild beasts Of prey, and
stood at the point where all earthly and In
formal hostilities charged on him at once
with their keen sabers-our substituted!
When did attorney ever endure SO much
for pauper client, or physician for the
patient In tho lazaretto, or mother for the
child In meInbrnnous Group, as Christ for
us, as Christ for you, as Christ for mee
Shall any man woman or child In this
audience who has ever suffered for another
ind 1t hard TO understand this Christly
suffering for us9 Shall those whose SYM
pathies have been wrung In behalf OF the
unfortunate have no appreciation OF that
one moment which was lifted out Of all the
ages Of eternity as most conspicuous when
Christ gathered up all the sins of those to
be redeemed under his one arm and all his
sorrows under his other arm and said: II
III Il