Omaha daily bee., 1915-10-04

Spirit offered Himself without spot TO
God. purge your conscience from dead
works to serve Godg'
This Is a lesson instead OF a text. My
sermon tonight is topical. not textical.
The subject OF Il is "Tho Atoning Blood
Of Jesus christ" the thing about which
all else centers. believe that more log
teal, Illogical. idiotic. religious and ire
ligious arguments have been fought over
this than all others, Now and then when
a man gets new idea OF II, he goes and
starts n new denomination. lie has a
perfect right TO DO this under the thir-
teenth amendment but he doesn't stop
here. lie makes war ON all OF the other
denominations that do not interpret as he
does. our denominations have multiplied
by this menthod until IL would give one
brain fever TO try to count them all. hut l
can name on the fingers Of my hands all
Of the denominations that believe in the
atoning power of the blood OF Jesus
Christ as the only means OF salvation.
so at one sweep OF the sword OF the
spirit, I have decapitated 20 per cent Of
the others and swept them on the junk
heap where they belong.
God never intended to give you a pic
Auit OF iue WNIiu III one panoramic NieWs
, From the time of Adam and Eve down 10
/ the time Jesus Christ hung on the cross
/ He was unfolding Hts views. when l
/ see Moses leading the people out of
bondage where they for years had barred
| their backs to the taskmasters lash,
when 1 see the lowing herds and the high
priest standing before the altar severing
the jugular vein OF the rams and the bull
locks until Christ cried out from the
cross, 1T Is finished" God was prepar-
ing the picture for the consummation OF
It In the atonlng blood OF Jesus Christ.
A sinner has no standing with God.
God became reconciled with the world
only through Jesus Christ. II the sinner
comes through Jesus Christ, he can shake
hands with God under the cross. God
| and the sinner must meet through Christ
| or not at ALL
l have sometimes thought that Adam
and Bve didn't understand as fully as
we do when the Lord said; Eat and
you surely shall die. They had never
seen anyone die They might have
thought It simply meant a separation
from God. But no sooner had they
eaten and seen their nakedness than
they sought to cover themselves, and
I II II the same today. When man sees
himself in his Gins. uncovered. he tries
60 cover himself in philosophy. phil
! anthropy or culture. But God looked
! through the fig leaves and the foliage
and God walked out into the field and
slew the beasts and took their skins
and wrapped them around Adam and
Eve and from that day 10 tonight when
man has been sinner and has COW
cred himself 1t has been by and through
faith int he shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Abel Offered Choice of FIOcls.
Every Jew covered his sins and re-
celved pardon through the blood of the
rams and bullocks and the doves. The
reason God accepted Abels sacrifice and
| rejected Gains was because Abel offered
the choice OF his flocks filled with the
blood OF life while Cain gave only crops
from tho field. And from then on through
blood Is the only way He will deal with
sinners. An old infidel said to me once
''But I don't believe in atonement by
blood. II doesn't come up to my ideas
Of what Is right" said. ITO perdition
with you and your ideas Of what IL right
Do you think God II coming down here
and consult you with your great intel
lect and wonderful brain, and find out
what you think Is right before He
does it7"'
He said, "But can't believe that the
innocent must suffer with the guilty;
Il isn't justice" Great God, mani We're
not looking for justice; It's mercy we're
crying for. II we'd had justice. we
would have all been IN hell long ago.
As for your opinion, what does It
amount to in the sight or God? Your
| opinion doesn't count anything with the
laws of Nebraska. They're supreme
Men go to the penitentiary sometimes
because OF their opinion
have read a great deai-not every
thing, mind you, for q man would go
"bughouse' IL he tried to read every
thing-but have read a gvod deal that
has been written against the atonement
| from the infidel standpoint-Voltaire,
Huxley. Spencer, Didereau. Volney.
Bradlaugh, Paine. on down to Bob In
gersoll-and have never found an argu-
ment that would stand the test OF cOm-
mon sense and common reasoning. And
II any one tells me he has tossed on the
scrapheap the plan OF atonement by
blood. I say. What have you to offer
that is better?" And until they can show
me something that Is better I'll nail my
hopes TO the Cross. lOu say you uOnh
believe IN the innocent suffering for the
guilty. Then l say % you, you haven't
seen life as / have seen II up and down
the country. The innocent suffer with
the guilty. by the guilty and for the
guilty. Look at that old mother waiting
with trembling heart for the son has
brought into the world And see him
come reeling and staggering to bed. while
his mother prays and weeps and soaks
the pillow with her tears over her god
less boy Who suffers most7
Waits for Man she Loves.
Look at that young wife. waiting for
the man whose name she bears. and
whose face Is woven In the fiber OF her
heart. The man she loves. and waits
for him In fright. and when ne comes.
reeling from the stencil OF the breaking
Of his marriage vows. from the arms Of
nfamy. who suffers most?
Who suffers most. that woman man
touring her nails over a washboard TO
keep the little brood together. or that
drunken bum In Bridewel getting his
fust deserts from his acts? You have
only to be the wife Of man like that
- know whether or not the innocent
suffer with the guilty.
SO when you don't like the plan Of re-