The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-03-26

Nothing sublimer was ever seen in an
American court room than William III.
Seward. without reward, standing be-
tween the fury of the populace and the
loathsome imbeeile. Substitution!
What an exalting principle this
which leads one to suffer for anotherl
Nothing so kindles enthusiasm or
awakens eloquence, or chimes poetic
canto, or moves nations The princi-
pie is the dominant one in our religion
Christ the Martyr, Christ the celes-
tial Hero Christ the Defender, Christ
the Substitute. No new principle, for
it was as old as human nature; but now
on a grander, wider, higher, deeper
and more understanding scale! The
shepherd boy as a champion for Israel
with a sling toppled the giant of
Philistine braggadocio in the dust;
but here is another 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 ex-
plosion at He'll Gate. Abraham had at
Gods command agreed to sacrifice his
son Isaac. and the same God just in
time had provided ram of the thicket
as 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 whom this substitute
IN
spired or uninspired, evangelistic, pro-
phetic, apostolic, and human. falls
short, for Christ was the Great Unlike.
Adam type of Christ. because he came
direct from God; Noah a type of
Christ. because he delivered his own
family from the deluge; Melehisedec a
type of Christ, because he had no pre-
decesSor; Joseph type of Christ. be-
cause he was cast out by his brethren;
Moses a type of Christ, because he was
a deliverer from bondage; Samson
a type of Christ, because of his strength
to slay the lions and carry off the iron
gates of impossibility; Solomon type
of Christ. in the affiuence of his dOmin
ion: Jonah type of Christ, because of
the stormy sea in which he threw him
self for the rescue of others; but put
together Adam and Noah and Mechise-
dec and Joseph and Moses and Joshua
and Samson and Solomon and Jonah,
and they would not make a fragment
of a Christ. quarter of a Christ, the
half of Christ, or the millionth part
of a Christ
He forsook throne and sat down on
His own footstool. He came from the
top of glory to the bottom of humilia-
ton. and changed a circumference
seraphic for a circumference diabOEe-
Once waited on by angels, now Kissed
at by brigands. From afar and high
up He came down: past meteOrs swifter
than they; by starry thrones, Himself
more lustrous; past larger worlds to
smaller worlds; down stairs of firma-
ments, and from cloud to cloud,
and through tree-tops, and into
the camel's stall, to thrust His
shoulder under our burdens and
take the lances of pain through His.
vitals, and wrapped Himself in all the
agonies which we deserve for our mis-
| doings, and stood on the splitting
decks of laundering vessel. amid the
SuEI VI tlAC SD anu feiooCtA
| midnights on the mountains amid wild
beasts of prey. and stood at the point
where all earthly and internal HOSTILE
ties charged on Him at once with their
keen sabers-our substitute.
When did attorney ever endure so
much for pauper client, or physician
for the patient in the lazarettO, or
mother for the child in membranous
Group, as Christ for us. as Christ for
you, as Christ for me? Shall any man
or woman or child in this audience
who has ever suffered for another find
it hard to understand this Christly suf-
fering for us? 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 one arm, and all his sorrows
under His other arm, and said: Il will
atone for these under My right arm,
and will heal all those under My left
arm. Strike Me with all thy glittering
shafts, o Eternal Justicel Roll over
Me with all thy surges, We oceans of
sorrowr' And the thunderbolts struck
Him from above, and the seas of trouble
rolled up from beneath, hurricane after
hurricane, and cyclone after cyclone,
and then and there in presence of
Heaven and earth and hell, yea, all
worlds witnessing, the price, the Bit
ter price, the transcendent price, the
awful price, the glorious price, the in
finite price, the eternal price, was paid
that sets us free.
That is what Paul meant, that is
what l mean, that is what ell those
who have ever had their heart changed
meant by blood" | glory in this re-
ligion of blood. ] am thrilled as / see
the suggestive color in sacramental
cup, whether it be of FURNISHED silver
set on cloth Immediately white, or
rough-hewn from wood set on table in
log-hut meeting house of the wilder
ness. Now | am thrilled to see the
affairs of the ancient sacrifice crimson
with the blood of the slain lamb, and
I & 70.