The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-04-22
The Radical Theory of Christianity
Broadly Set Forth.
Rev. DIR. TaImage Says There was Nothing
Abnormal in Christ's SeIf-Sacrifice
Incident of the Principle
of Substitution.

with Blood" do you really believ,
there is a literal application of thu
blood of Christ to the sOul?" My mega
tive reply then is my negative now
The Bible statement agrees with al
physicians, and all Psychologists, anC
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 tC
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 a 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 a soul saved for the last Is
ventures.
| 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, a solitary
| episode in the worlds history, when |
could take you out into this city and
before shutdown 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
twill be no difficult thing for you to
find men who, by their looks, show you
That they are Overworked. They are
prematurely 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 a quiet scene
a few blocks, a few miles away. and
there is the secret of that business
endurance. lie is simply the champion
of a 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 L 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.
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 and
there you will find 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 dark as
though uninhabited. y 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 a window easement 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
prescription, not giving a
drop too much or too little, or mo-
ment too soon or too late. She is
very anxious, for she has buried
three children with the same dis
ease, and she prays and weeps,
each prayer and sob ending with a
kiss of the pale cheek. BY dint of
kindness she gets the little one
the ordeal. After it is all over
the mother is taken down. Brain or
nervous fever sets in, and one day she
leaves the cOnvalescent child with
mothers blessing and goes up to join
the three departed ones in the kingdom
of Heaven. Life for life. Substitution!
The fact is that there are an uncounted
of mothers who, after they
have navigated large family of chill
. =.
and got them fairly started up the
slope of boyhood and girl
hood, have only strength enough left
to die. They fade away. Some call it
some call it nervous
some call it intermittent !
or malarial indisposition; but l call it
martyrdom of the domestic circle. |
Life for life Blood for blood. Sub |
stitution!
Or perhaps a mother fingers long |
enough to see son get on the wrong /
road, and his former kindness becomes |
rough reply when she expresses ankle /
ty about him. But she goes right on
looking carefully after his apparel, re-
his every birthday with |
some memento, and, when he is brought /
home worn out with dissipation, nurses
him till he gets well, and starts him
again. and hopes, and expects, until |
her prays. and counsels, and suffers,
until her strength gives out and she
fails. She is going, and attendants.
bending over her pillow, ask her if she
has any message TO leave, and she
makes a great effort to say something,
but out of three or four minutes of in
distinct utterances they can catch but