The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-03-26
A GREAT SACRIFICE.
REV. DIR. TALMAGE ILLUSTRATES
THE ATONEMENT.
He Explains the Theory of Vicarious Sacri-
fce-The Blood of C~hrist-Cases of Sub
stitution-Lifs For Life-Frequence of
Suffering For Others.

Il III JdB III IL ~ "a
mage, in this sermon, draws graphic illus
trations of one of the sublimest theories
of religion-namely, vicarious sacrifices.
His text was Hebrews tx, %, Without
shedding Of blood is no remission"
4 John G.. Whittier, the last Of the great
school of American poets that made the
n last quarter Of a century brilliant, asked
Il me in the White mountains, one morning
n after prayers, in which / had given out
so Cowper's famous hymn about the "foun-
IA tain filled with blood do you really
u believe there is a literal application Of the
q blood Of Christ to the soul?' My maya
y tive reply then is my negative now. The
III Bible statement agrees with all physi-
q clans, and all psychologists and all SCENT
lists, in saying that the blood is the life,
and in the Christian religion it means
simply 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 signihed. 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 iIlustrious sufferer, back of Jerusalem,
in a few hours coagulated and dried up
and 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 CEN
turtles.
VOLUNTARY SUFFERING.
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 substi-
tuition is no novelty, although 1 hear men
talk as though the idea of Chlist's suffer
a mo substituted FIR ON CItfarinl %
4 something abnormal, something distress
II ingly odd, something wildly eccentric, a
4 solitary episode in the worlds history,
when ] could take you out into this city,
and before shutdown point you to 800 cases
of substitution and voluntary suffering of
one in behalf Of another.
At 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon so
among the places of business or toll. IL
J will be no difficult thing for you to find
they are OvcrWOrked. They are prema-
turely old. They are fastening rapidly
toward their deCeaSe. They have gone
through crises in business that shattered
their nervous system and pulled on the
brain. They have a shortness of breath
and a pain in the back of the head. ana
at night an insomnia that alarms them.
why are they drudging at business early
and late? For fun? No; it would be DIFF
ficult to extract any amusement out of
that exhaustion. Because they are aVari-
cious? 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
1 is enduring all that fatigue and eXpera-
I ton and wear and tear to keep his home
4 prosperous. There is an invisible line
reaching from that store, from that bank,
from that shop, from that scaffolding, to
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 prosperity, and in such battle 10000
men fall. OF ten business men whom 1
III bury. nine die of overwork for others.
u Some sudden disease finds them with no
power of resistance, and they are gone.
4 Life for life, blood for blood. Substitu-
ton!
At 1 o'clock tomorrow morning. the hour
when slumber is most uninterrupted and
houses of the city. Here and there you
I will find q 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 though uninhabited. A
merciful God has sent forth the arch
angel of sleep, and he puts his wings over
the city. But yonder is a clear light burn
ing. and outside on the window easement
is a glass or pitcher containing food for a
sick child. The food is 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-
scription, not giving a drop too much or
too little, or a moment too soon or too
late. She is very anxious, for she has
prayer and sob ending with a kiss of the
pale cheek. BY dint of kindness she gets
Tie ul(lt olt lbIOuSH liz oibtdl. Alltl
it is all over the mother is taken down.
Brain or nervous fever sets in, and one
day she leaves the convalscent child with
a mothers blessing and goes up to join
the three in the kingdom of heaven. Life
for life. Substitution! The fact is that
there are an amounted number of moth
ers who. after they nave 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 call
it consumption, some call it nervous pros
~tration, some call it intermittent or ma
larial indisposition but call 1T marty
dom Of the domestic circle. Life for life.
Blood for blood. Substitution!
n A SACRIFICING MOTHER.
Or perhaps the mother fingers long
enough to see a son get on the wrong
road. and his former kindness becomes
rough reply when she expresses anxiety
about him. But she goes right on, looking
carefully after 2 apparel, remembering
his every birth ~ with some memento,
and. when he - 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 suff-
ers until her strength gives out and she
fails. She is going. and attendants. bend
ing over her pillow, ask her if she has
any message to leave. and she makes
three or four minutes of indiStinct utter
ance they can catch but three words, My
for him. Life for life. Substitution!
About thirty-six years ago there went
forth from our northern and southern
homes hundreds of thousands of men to
do battle for their country. All the
poetry of war soon vanished and LIFT them
nothing but the terrible prose. They
] waded knee deep in mud; they slept in
snOwbanks; they marched till their cut
feet tracked the earth; they We're
swindled out of their honest rations and
lived on meat not fit for a dog; they had
i jaws all fractured. and eyes extinguished
and limbs shot away. Thousands of them
- cried for water as they lay dying on the
field the night after the battle and got
it not. They were homesick and received
III no message from their loved ones. They
80 died in barns, in bushes, in bitches, the
- buzzardS of the summer heat the only at
@ tendants on their obsequies. No one but
!@# the infinite God, who knows everything
M knows the ten-thousandth part of the
S# length and breadth and dept and height
ss% of the anguish of the northern and south