The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-04-21
TALMAGE'S Sc RM ON.
THE LAW OF SELF-SACRIFICE
SUNDAYS SUBJECT.
From the Following Text, Heb. 9:22:
without Shedding of Blood There Is
" No Remission" An Echo of War
Times-Pictures of Carnage.

or Carnage.
John G. Whittier, the last of the
great school of American poets that
maze the last quarter of this century
prllllant, asked me in the White noun
talns, 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 negative re-
ply 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 re-
hgion 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 signifed. The blood
that, on the darkest Friday the world
ever saw, oozed, or trickled, or poured
AioAA IllC UlOW, duu LllO SluG, duu I1le
hands, and the feet of the Illustrious
Sufferer, back of Jerusalem, in few
hours coagulated and dried no. and
forever Disappeared; and if man had
depended on the application 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 illustrat-
ed The act of substitution is no nov
city, although I hear men talk as
though the idea of Christ's suffering
substituted for our suffering were
something abnormal something dis
tressingly odd, something wildly &C.
centric, a solitary episode in the
worlds history; when I could take you
out into this city and before shutdown
point you to five hundred cases of sub
stitution and voluntary suffering of one
in behalf of another.
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
prematurely old. They are fastening
=. rapidly toward their decease. They
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 diff
fcult to extract any amusement out of
that exhaustion. Because they are
avaricious? In many cases no. Be-
cause their own personal expenses are
lavish? No; few hundred dollars
would meet all their wants. The SIM
pie 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 scaffolding to
qiuet scene few blocks, few miles
away, and there is the secret of that
business endurance. He is simply the
champion of a homestead, for which
he wins bread, and wardrobe, and edu-
cation, and prosperity, and in such bat
tie ten thousand men fall Of ten bust
ness men whom I bury, nine Gle of
overwork for others. Some sudden
disease finds them with no power of
resistance, and they are gone. Life for
life. Blood for blood. Substitution!
At l o'clock tomorrow morning. the
hour when slumber is most uninter-
rupted and profound, walk amid the
dwelling houses of the city. Here and
there you will find a 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. 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 window easement
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
physicians prescription, not giving
drop too much or too little, or a. mo-
ment too soon or too late. She is very
anxious, for she has buried three chill
dren with the same disease, and she
prays and 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 it is all
over, the mother is taken down. Brain
and nervous fever sets in, and one day
she leaves the convalescent child with
a mothers blessing, and goes IN to
join the three departed ones in the
kingdom of heaven. Life for life Sub
stitution! The fact is that there are
an uncounted number of mothers who
after they have navigated a large fam
lily of children through all the diseases
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 1t consumption; some call it nerv-
Gus prOSt ratjOn S0me call If intarr;+-