The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-04-07
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE
NOTED DIVINE.
,ubject: "Vicarious Sacrifice"

TEXT: without shedding OF blood is ne
remission. Hebrews ix., %.
| John G.. Whittier, the last of the great
school OF American poets that made the
last quarter OF century brilliant, asked Inc
| in the White Mountains one morning after
prayers, in which had given out Cowper's
famous hymn about the fountain filled
with blood" "''Do you really believe there Is
a literal application of the blood OF Christ to
| negative reply now. The Bible statement
agrees with all physicians and all physicl-
ogists and all scientists in saying that the
| blood is the Me, and in the Christian
religion il means simply that Christ's
| life WAS given for life. Hence all this talk
of men who say the Bible story OF blood is
J disgusting, and that they don't want what
| they call slaughter house religion" only
! shows their incapacity or unwillingness TO
loos through the figure OF speech toward the
THU. signifed. The blood that on the dark
e.: Friday the world ever saw oozel or
| trn lied or poured from the brow. and the
| ST.: , and the hands, and the feet OF the
| ili:.. trious sufferer. back OF Jerusalem, in a
1r.' hours coagulated and dried up and for
ever disappeared, and II man had depended
| Oh the application of the literal blood Of
| Christ there would not have been soul
saved for the last eighteen centuries.
|
my text we only have to exercise as much
common sense in religion as we do in every
| thing else. Pang for pang, hunger for
| hunger fatigue for fatigue, tear for tear,
| blood tor blood, life for life, we see every
| day illustrated. The act OF substitution Is
no novelty, although I hear men talk as
| though the idea Of Chrlst's suffering sub
| stituted for our suffering were something
| abnormal, something dstressingiy odd.
tpil
episode in the worlds history-when I could
| take you out into this city and before SUM-
down point you to five hundred cases OF sub.
| stitution and voluntary suffering o. one in
| behalf Of another.
At 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon &c
! 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 over"
worked. They are prematurely old. They
are fastening rapidly toward their decease.
| They have gone through crises In business
| that shattered their nervous system anC.
pulled on the brain. They have a shortnes:i
of breath and pain In the back Of the head
and at night an insomnia that alarms them.
Why are they drudging at business early and
| late? For fun2 No. 1t would be difficult
| to extract any amusement out OF that eX-
haustion. Because they are avaricious? In
many cases no. Because their own personal
| expenses are lavish? No. few hundred
dollars would meet all their wants. The
simple fact is the man is enduring all that
fatigue and evaporation 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 scat
folding, to quiet scene few blocks away,
few miles away. And there Ia the secret
| of that business endurance. he is simply
the champion Of homestead for which he
wins bread and wardrobe and education and
| prosperity, aud in such batlle 10,000 men
fall. Often business men whom bury nine
die Of overwork for others. Some sudden
disease finds them with no power OF resist
ance, and they are gone. Life for life. Blood
| for blood. Substitution!
At o'clock tomorrow morning, the hour
when slumher Is most uninterrupted and
most profound, walk amid the dwelling
houses Of the city. Here and there you will
fnd 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 is glass or pitcher
containing food for sick child. The food
is set In the fresh air. This is the sixth
night that mother has sat up with that SUI.
ferer. She has to the last point obeyed the
physicians prescription, not giving drop
too much or too little or moment too soon
or too late. She is very anxious, for she has
buried three children with the same disease.
and she prays AMI weeps, each prayer and
sob ending with kiss of the pale cheek.
By dint OF kindness she gets the little one
through the ordeal. After 1t is all over tine
mother Is taken down. Brain or nervous
fever sets in. and one day she leaves the con-
valescent child with 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 uncounted number
OF mothers who, after they have navigated
large family OF children through all the dis
eases 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 1t nervous prostration. Some call
it intermittent or malarial indispostion. But
call 1t martyrdom OF the domestic circle.
Life for life. Blood for blood. Substitu-
tioni
Or perhaps the mother fingers long enough
to see 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 af-
ter his apparel, remembering his every birth
day with some memento, and, when he Is
brought home worn out with dissipation,
nurses him till he gets we'll and starts him
again and hopes and expects and prays and
counses and suffers until her strength gives
out and she fails. She Is going, and atten-
dants, bending over her pillow, ask her II
she has any message 10 leave, and she makes
great effort TO say something. but out OF
three or four minutes OF indistinct utterauce
they can catch but three words, "My poor
boy." The simple fact Is she died for him.
Life for life. Substitution!
About thirty-six yeats ago there went forth
from our northern and southern homes hun
dreds Of thousands OF men to do battle for
their country. All the poetry of war soon
vanished and left them nothing but the ter
rible prose. They waded knee deep in mud.
They slept in suow-banks. They marched
till their cut feet tracked the earth. They
were swindled out OF their honest rations
and llvei on meat not fit for dog. They
had 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 1t not.
They were homesick and received no mes
sage from their loved ones. They died In
barns, in bushes, in bitches, the buzzards OF
the summer heat the only attendants on
their obsequies. No one but the infinite God,
who knows everything, knows the ten-thou-
snndth part Of the length and breadth and
depth and height of the anguish OF the
northern and southern buttlenelds. Why
did these fathers leave their children and so
to the 'front.' and why did these young men.
pos'poninc the marriage day. start out into
the probabilities OF never coming back? For
the country they died. Life Tor life. Blood
for blood. Substitution.
Bnt We need not 20 50 far. What is that
monument in Greenwood? 1t is to the doc
tors who fell in the southern epiGemicS.
Why go? We're there not enough sick to be
attended in thrse northern latitudes? Oh.