And here are our own ancestors.  Soon our children now lying in the cradles of our state will without any forethought of theirs fall heir to this rich land with all its treasures material—­houses and vineyards, factories and cities; with all its treasures mental—­library and gallery, school and church, institutions and customs.  But with what vicarious suffering were these treasures purchased!  For us our fathers subdued the continents and the kingdoms, wrought freedom, stopped the mouths of wolves, escaped the sword of savages, turned to flight armies of enemies, subdued the forests, drained the swamps, planted vineyards, civilized savages, reared schoolhouses, builded churches, founded colleges.  For four generations they dwelt in cabins, wore sheepskins and goatskins, wandered about exploring rivers and forests and mines, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, because of their love of liberty, and for the slave’s sake were slain with the sword—­of whom this generation is not worthy.  “And these all died not having received the promise,” God having reserved that for us to whom it has been given to fall heir to the splendid achievements of our Christian ancestors.

And what shall we more say, save only to mention those whose early death as well as life was vicarious?  What an enigma seems the career of those cut off while yet they stand upon life’s threshold!  How proud they made our hearts, standing forth all clothed with beauty, health and splendid promise!  What a waste of power, what a robbery of love, seemed their early death!  But slowly it has dawned upon us that the footsteps that have vanished walk with us more frequently than do our nearest friends.  And the sound of the voice that is still instructs us in our dreams as no living voice ever can.  The invisible children and friends are the real children.  Their memory is a golden cord binding us to God’s throne, and drawing us upward into the kingdom of light.  Absent, they enrich us as those present cannot.  And so the child who smiled upon us and then went away, the son and the daughter whose talents blossomed here to bear fruit above, the sweet mother’s face, the father’s gentle spirit—­their going it was that set open the door of heaven and made on earth a new world.  These all lived vicariously for us, and vicariously they died!

No deeply reflective nature, therefore, will be surprised that the vicarious principle is manifest in the Savior of the soul.  Rejecting all commercial theories, all judicial exchanges, all imputations of characters, let us recognize the universality of this principle.  God is not at warfare with himself.  If he uses the vicarious principle in the realm of matter he will use it in the realm of mind and heart.  It is given unto parents to bear not only the weakness of the child, but also his ignorance, his sins—­perhaps, at last, his very crimes.  But nature counts it unsafe to permit any wrong to go unpunished.