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ling " which pleads for mercy, and so is contrasted with the blood of Abel, which cries for vengeance. And in the last book of the New Testament the beloved disciple gives at the very outset thanks and praise to Him who has " washed us from our sins in his own blood " ; and the blessed in heaven sing that He has " redeemed them to God by his blood " ; and the saints " have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb " ; and they have overcome their foe, not in their own might, but by " the blood of the Lamb " ; and He whose Name is called " the Word of God," and who rides on a white horse, and on whose head are many crowns, is " clothed in a vesture dipped in blood."
^ In all the languages of the world, blood is the proof and warrant of affection and of sacrifice. To shed blood voluntarily for another is to give the best that man can give ; it is to give a sensible proof of, almost a bodily form to, love. This one human instinct is common to all ages, to all civilizations, to all religions. The blood of the soldier who dies for duty, the blood of the martyr who dies for truth, the blood of the man who dies that another may live — blood like this is the embodiment of the highest moral powers in human life, and those powers were all represented in the blood which flowed from the wounds of Christ on Calvary. And yet in saying this we have not altogether accounted for the Apostolic sayings about the blood of Christ. It involves something more than any of these moral triumphs ; it is more than all of them taken together.^
^ In those primal laws which were given to Noah after the Flood, man was authorized to eat the flesh, but not the blood of the animals around him. Why was this ? Because the blood is the life or soul of the animal. "Flesh, with the blood thereof, which is the life thereof, shall ye not eat." The Laws of Moses go further : the man, whether Israelite or stranger, who eats any manner of blood is to be destroyed ; and the reason is repeated : " The soul of the flesh," i.e. of the nature living in the flesh, " is in the blood." This is why the blood of the sacrificial animals is shed by way of atonement for sin; the blood atones — this is the strict import of the original language — by means of the soul that is in it. Once more, in the Fifth Book of Moses, permission is given to the Israelites to kill and eat the sacrificial animals just as freely as the roebuck or the hart, which were not used for sacrifice. But, again, there follows the caution : " Only be sure
1 H. P. Liddon.
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that thou eat not the blood " ; and the reason for the caution : " the blood is the soul : and thou mayest not eat the soul with the flesh. Thou shalt not eat of it ; thou shalt pour it upon the earth like water." ^
(2) Now as the blood of the slain animal means the life of the animal, so the blood of Christ crucified means the life of Christ — His life who is eternal truth and eternal charity. And thus, when a Christian man feels its redemptive touch within him, he has a motive — varying in strength, but always powerful — for being genuine. He means his deeds, his words, his prayers. He knows that life is a solemn thing, and has tremendous issues ; he measures these issues by the value of the redeeming blood. If Christ has shed His blood, surely life is well worth living ; it is worth saving. A new energy is thrown into everything ; a new interest lights up all the surrounding circumstances ; the incidents of life, its opportunities, its trials, its successes; the character and disposition of friends, the public occurrences of the time, and the details of the home — all are looked at with eyes which see nothing that is indifferent ; and when all is meant for God's glory, though there may and must be much weakness and inconsistency, the conscience is practically purged from dead works to serve the living God.
•[j The blood of Christ. It was shed on Calvary eighteen hundred years ago: but it flows on throughout all time. It belongs now, not to the physical but to the spiritual world. It washes souls, not bodies ; it is sprinkled not on altars but on consciences. But, although invisible, it is not for all that the less real and energetic ; it is the secret power of all that purifies or that invigorates souls in Christendom. Do we beheve in "one Baptism for the remission of sins " ? It is because Christ's blood tinges the waters of the font to the eyes of faith. Do we believe that God " hath given power and commandment to His ministers to declare and pronounce to His people, being penitent, the Absolution and Eemission of their sins " ? It is because the blood of Christ, applied to the conscience by the Holy Spirit, makes this declaration an effective reality. Do we find in the Bible more than an ancient literature — in Christian instruction more than a mental exercise — in the life of thought about the unseen and the future more than food for speculation ? This is because we know that the deepest of all questions is that which touches