The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-05-19
BLOOD is THE PRICE.
The Radical Theory of Christianity
Broadly Set Forth.

Rev. DIR. Talmage Says There was Notssing
Abnormal in Christ's Self-Sacrifice
Incident of the Principle
of Substitution.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in the fol-
lowing discourse sets forth the radical
theory of Christianity, substitution, or
vicarious sacrifice, basing it upon the
text:
Without shedding OF blood is no remission
Hebrews tx, q.
John g. Whittier, the last of the
great school of American poets that
made the last quarter of this century
brilliant, asked me in the White noun
tains, 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 literal application of the
blood of Christ to the soul?" My mega
tive reply then is my negative now.
The Bible statement agrees with all
physicians, and oil Psychologists, and
all scientists, in saying that the blood
is the life, and in the Christian re-
ligion 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
''slaughter-house religion" only shows
their incapacity or unwillingness to
look through the figure of speech to-
ward the thing signified. 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 Illustrious
Sufferer, back of Jerusalem, in few
hours coagulated and dried up, and
forever disappeared; and if man had
depended on the application of the lit
eral blood of Christ, there would not
have been q soul saved for the last 1S
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 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, solitary
episode in the worlds history, when
could take you out into this city and
before sundown point you to 500 cases
of substitution and voluntary suffering
of one in behalf of another.
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
that they are overworked. They are
pre,naturely old. They are fastening
rapidly toward their decease. They
have gone through crisises in business
that shattered their nervous system
and pulled on the brain. They have
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 diff
cult to extract any amusement
out of that exhaustion. Because
they are avaricious? 1t 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 is enduring all that fatigue and
evaporation, and wear and tear, to
keep his home prosperous. There is
an invisible line reaching from the
store, from that bank, from that shop,
from that scaffolding, to quiet scene
q few blocks, a few miles away, and
there is the secret of that business
endurance. He is simply the champion
of homestead, for which he wins
bread, and wardrobe, and education,
and prosperity, and in such battle ten
thousand men fall. OF ten business
men whom bury, nine die of over
work for others. Some sudden disease
finds them with no power of resistance
and they are gone. Life for life,
Blood for blood. Substitution!
At one o'clock tomorrow morning
the hour when slumber is most unin
terrupted and profound, walk amid the
dwelling-houses of the city. Here ant
there you will find a dim light, becaus,
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 Coz
has sent forth the archangel of sleep
and he puts his wings over the city
But yonder is a clear light burning
and outside on a window easement Z
glass or pitcher containing food for /;
sick child; the food is set in the fresl
air. This is the sixth night tina
mother has sat up with that sufferer
She has to the last point coeyed tn
physicians prescription, not giving ;
drop too much or too little, or mo
ment too soon or too late. She i
very anxious, for she has burie
three children with the same dis
ease, and she prays and weeps
each prayer and sob ending with
kiss of the pale cheek. BY dint Q
kindness she gets the little on
through the ordeal. After it is all owe
the mother is taken down. Brain O
nervous fever sets in, and one day sh
leaves the convalescent child with