The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-04-22
TALkAGE'S Sermon.

set forth by DR.. Talmage in this dis
course, and remarkable instances Of
self sacrifice are brought out for illus
tration. The text is Hebrews tx, %,
Without shedding of blood is no re-
mission"
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 I had given put Cowper's famous
hymn about the fountain filled with
blood" DO you really believe there is
a literal application of the blood of
Christ to the soul?" My negative reply
her is my negative reply now. The
Bible statement agrees with all physi-
clans 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 in%capacity
or unwillingness to look through the
figure of speech toward the thing sig
nified. 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 Jeru-
salem in a few hours coagulated, 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, w see every day illustra-
ted. The act Of substitution is no
novelty, although l 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 l could take you
out into this city and before shutdown
point you to 500 cases of substitution
and voluntary suffering Of one in be-
half of another.
THE INVISIBLE LINE.
At 2 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 prematurly old. They are hasten
ing rapidly toward their decease.
They have gone through crisis in bust
ness that shattered their nervous sys-
tenn and pulled on the brain. They
have a shortness of breath and a pain
in the back of the head and at night
an insomnia 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
av~aricious? In many cases no Be-
cause their own personal expenses are
lavish? No; a few hundred dollars
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 that
store, from that bank, from that shop,
from that s%caffOlding, to a quiet scene
a few blocks, a few miles away, and
there is the secret of that business en-
durance. He is simply the champion
of a homestead, for which he wins
bread and wardrobe and education and
prosperity, and in such battle 10000
men fall. Of ten business men whom
l bury, nine die 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 fingers over the city,
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 moth
er has set up with that sufferer. She
has to the last point obeyed the physi-
clans prescription, not giving a drop
too much or too little or a moment too
soon or too late. She is very anxious,
for she has buried three children with
the same disease, 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
through the ordeal. After it is all over
the mother is taken down. Brain or
nervous fever sets in, n one day she
leaves the convalescent child with a
mothers blessing and goes up to join
the three departed ones in the. kingdom
of heaven. Life for life! Substitu-
ton! The fact is that there are an
rrh