The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-04-29
YICARIOUS SACRIFICE.
DR.. Talmage Illustrates the Chris
tian Plan Of Salvation.
The Vicarious Sacrifice of Christ for the
Remission of Sins One of the Corner
Stones and Cardinal Doc
trines of Christianity.

| The following discourse by Rev. L.
Dewitt Talmage is illustrative of vi
carious sacrifice as one of the cardinal
doctrines of the Christian religion. 1t
is based on the text:
| Without shedding of blood is no remission
| Hebrews tx, p.
John &. Whittier, the last of the great
school of American poets that made the
last quarter of a century brilliant,
asked me in the White mountains, one
morning after prayers, in which l had
given out Cowpers famous hymn about
"Toc Fountain Filled with Blood
''Do you really believe 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 all physicians,
and all Psychologists, and all scientists,
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 inca
pacitv or unwillingness to look through
the figure of speech toward the thing
signiiied. The blood that, on the dark
est 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 sufferer, back of
Jerusalem, in a few hours coagulated
and dried up, and forever disappeared;
and if man had depended on the appli-
cation of the literal blood of Christ,
there would not have been a soul saved
for the last eighteen centuries.
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, al
though l hear men talk as though the
idea Of Christ's suffering substituted
for our suffering were something alb
: normal, something distressingly odd
, something wildly eccentric, a solitary
episode in the worlds history; when
could take you out into this city, and
r before sundown point you to 500 cases
of substitution and voluntary suffering
t of one in behalf of another.
7 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
;. prematurely old. The are fastening
rapidly toward their disease. They
S 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, and at night an in
somnia that alarms them. Why are
= they drudging at business early and
late? For fun? No; it would be difficult
t to extract any amusement out of that
;, exhaustion. Because they are avari-
e cious? In many cases no. Because
: their own personal expenses are Law
a ish? No; a few hundred dollars would
meet all their wants. The simple fact
: is, the man is enduring all that fatigue
e and evaporation, and wear and tear,
4 to keep his home prosperous. There is
u an invisible line reaching from that
t store, from that bank, from that shop,
t from that scaffolding, to quiet scene
: a few blocks away, a few miles away,
7 and there is the secret of that business
n endurance. He is simply the champion
G Of homestead, for which he wins
= bread, and wardrobe, and education
and prosperity and in such battle 10,
- 900 men fall. OF ten business men
7 - L. e.,
- others. Some sudden disease find:
them with no power of resistance, and
~ they are gone. Life for life. BLOOD
y for blood. Substitution!
o At one o'clock tomorrow morning
. the hour when slumber is most unin
s terrupted and most profound, wall
" amid the dwelling houses of the city
le Here and there you will find din
/ light because it is the household Gus
e tom to keep subdued light burning
but most of the houses from base t.
a top are as dark as though uninhabited
u A merciful God has sent forth tn
s. archangel of sleep, and he puts hi
le wings over the city. But yonder is
IS clear light burning, and outside on tn
q. window easement is glass or pitche
re containing food for sick child; tn
food is set in the fresh air. This is tn
| sixth night that mother has sat u
1t with that sufferer. She has to the las
I'd point obeyed the physicians prescrir
| ton, not giving drop too much Q
~ | too little, or a moment too soon or to
IS. late. She is very anxious, for she ha
buried three children with the sam
disease, and she prays and weeps, eac
u prayer and sob ending with a kiss {
Il the pale cheek. BY dint of kindnes
she gets the little one through the O
deal After it is all over, the mothe
Of is taken down. Brain or nervous feve
r. sets in, and one day she leaves the col
valescent child with mothers bles
ing and goes up to join the three in tt
~ Kingdom OF Heaven. Life for lif
Subst. tuition. The fact is that thel
n: are an uncounted number of mothe
re who, after they have navigated larf
% family OF children through all the di