The Indianapolis journal., 1903-11-16
DIR. .STANSFIELD'S SERMON
"sELF-SACRIFICE OR SUBSTITU-
TION; wHICH." HIS SUBJECT.
An Interesting Discourse by the Pas
tor OF the Mcridian-Street
Methodist Church.

"Self-sacrifce or Substitution-Which?
was the subject of the Rev. Joshua Stans-
fields sermon yesterday morning at the
Meridian-street M. E. Church. DR.. Stans-
field said in part:
The words upon which we shall base our
thought this morning are two statements
OF scripture, one by Jesus and the other by
Paul; the former is of high Importance,
though the latter is usually most made of
by the church. The words of Jesus are
statement of great principle, and those by
Paul an application or enforcement of that
principle. Jesus gave the truth and lived
IT; then Paul and the church taught it. The
statements are these: Every one shall be
salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be
salted with SALT Mark TX, 49, and We
preach Christ crucifed.' Z Cor. %. The
Torld $ great advent was the coming of the
Son OF God to this world, and the explana-
ton OF His coming was the sad and univer-
sal fact of human sin. Jesus came to make
possible the salvation of men from sin. For
this cause was the Son of God manifested,
that He might destroy the works of the
devil OF that divine coming the moving
cause was Gods love, but the occasion was
human sin.
Whatever be the views of a few ad-
vanced moderns on this subject, the Bible
Is strong in its teaching and utterances as
TO the awfulness and universally of sin.
Sin is so terrible that when 1T is punished
II br1ngeth forth death, and 1t is so univer-
sal that all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God If We say we have no
SIN we deceive ourselves and the truth is
not in us The so-called new thought OF
our age is strenuously seeking to make
men realize the 'unreality of evil and sin.
sin IS regarded as a negative rather than
as a positive thing; 1t is the absence of God
rather than any positive bad; an erroneous
mental conception rather than a positive
moral force; a something out of which a
person must think himself by q persistent
and incessant denial of its reality-'an ever
lasting no. But, brothers, by whatever
name the thought of a few self-complacent
moderns may be dignified, call it the new
thought 'Eddyism,' Theosophy or what
else you may, in so far as ii denies the real
ity OF evil and sin, it is thereby not alone
non-Christian, but II is essentially and to
the core anti-Christian. There is nothing
which more characterizes the Christian re-
hgion than its deep sense of sin.
CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE.
''The sensitized Christian conscience is
not alone the glory of our civilization; 1t is
also its secret and cause. In no other re-
ligion do you find such sense Of personal
guilt Indeed. other great world re-
ligions. as Brahmanism, Confucianism, Ma
hommedanism. can you have such personal
sense of sin, because of their fatalistic ele-
ments. But in the Christian religion they
who fain would serve God best are con-
sclous most OF wrong Within The sanity
ann Rutherford of Scotland SEQ pleading for mercy
Wesley, Fletcher. Frances Ridley, Hover
gal and such leading the church in peneten-
tial hymns and prayers, these are our dis
tlnctly Christian phenomena. 1t was not
Augustine the libertine, but Augustine the
saved who wrote and spoke of the sadness
of sin; not Saul the righteous, but Paul the
convicted who cried, % wretched man that
l am, who shall deliver me from the bond
age of this death? 1t is safe to say that i'm
this Christian congregation this morning,
as you have been led out in song and pray
er and the reading of the Word there has
been a deeper sense of personal sin and
failure than amongst thousand respect
able worldlings of city who have not
been in Gods house to-day. There is in our
age cold, callous, worldly morality which,
compared with Christian experience. is as
opposite as the poles. The mission of Jesus
and to save from its power, one a prerequi-
site of the other.
The greatest work which God ever ac-
complishes in life is to redeem it from the
power of sin. Twas great to speak
world from nought; twas greater to re-
Deem There have too often been meager
and greatness of that work. Men have too
often induged the thought that by some re-
ligious act the wrong of life might be right
ed easily, fully and forever. BY some
grand substitutional suffering all might be
eXpiated and removed; that, forsooth, ii
was matter of divine reckoning rather
than of personal soul regeneration and puri-
fication. Not so the teaching of Jesus. IF
thy right hand offend thee, cut il off. .
If thy right eye cause thee sin, pluck it
ont Drastic. severe. painful processes
these but necessary wfthaI, and suggestive
ly correct AS our text affirms, everyone
shall be salted with fire 1t is very sug-
throughout teaches these painful processes
of the putting away of sin. The purpose
of sacrifice in the entire Bible is not
to appease the wrath of God but to ex-
press the attitude and the heart of the
worshiper. 1t is at this point that the Bible
SYSTEM is fundamentally and wholly differ
ent from all pagan beliefs. In pagan sys-
the sacrifice is to appease an offended de-
ity. and the initiative in the act Is of man
and man also makes his own provision
to appear before his god. But it is not thus
in Bible teaching. From the first, and
highly suggestive sacrifice of Abraham
on to the self-offering of the Lamb of God
who taketh away the sin of the world in
every case the provision is of God and
the intention is with God rather than man.
Whatever differing views we may have as
to the strange story of the proposed offer
ing of the only son, Isaac, one thing is
clear-the sacrifice that was finally offered
the one that Heaven Provided ram
caught in thicket and from thencefor-
ward, all through the Mosaic and Levitt
cal economy down to the coming of Jesus
the sacrifice was provided suggested by
God. Further. and most important, the
purpose OF the offering was not to move
God, but 20 instruct and influence His
children. The worth of the sacrifice was
not In the thing offered but in the peni-
who thus drew near TO God. Whenever
these We're aosent from the offering 1t be-
came "a skin oblation.' and was offensive
unto God. The sacrifices of God are a
broken spirit, broken and contrite heart
God, thou wilt not despise.'
THE ONE SACRIFICE.
Perhaps the one sacrifice in the old dis
pensation which must fully set forth the
destruction of sin in the life was that of
the burnt offering. According to divine
direction, that which was brought was a
persons best and his own sacrifice, and
representing himself he stood and saw it
slowly and painfully consumed. 1t was a
painful process and must have been highly
suggestive to the teachable and sincere
Every life, says Jesus, must be salted with
fire. Sin Is not removed by an easy pro-
cess os some marvellous religious act. Jesus
Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of him
self. Think you for a moment that the
wilderness temptation and the Gethsemane
struggle were not awful experiences. as we'll
as the tragic hours on the cross? Yea
verify. He put away sin by the sacrifice
OF himself-He saved others: himself He