THE PRECIOUS BLOOD (a)

"But (ye are redeemed) with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." -- I Peter 1:19.

     Many traditions, precious to the heart of the Jews, clustered around the temple at Jerusalem. Here the sacred fires were always burning; here, for many generations, their ancestors had worshiped, and upon its altars the sacrifices were continually offered. Every year they congregated from far and near to commemorate the exodus from Egypt and to eat the paschal lamb.

     There is no doubt that from his earliest recollection Peter had journeyed with his parents and acquaintances to the holy city and had listened with wrapt attention to the old, but ever new, story of the deliverance from Egypt, and of the paschal lamb whose blood, sprinkled on the posts and lintels of the doors, had protected his ancestors from the destroying angel.

     And now he sees another Lamb, a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; he sees this Lamb in the garden of Gethsemane in such agony of soul that His sweat is mingled with blood; he sees Him in the judgment hall, His back lacerated by the Roman scourge, and His brow pierced with the crown of thorns; again he sees Him on the cross bleeding from the cruel nail wounds in His feet and hands and the spear thrust in His side, until the last drop of His blood is spilled upon the earth, an atonement for the sins of the whole world.

     No wonder the apostle calls this blood precious. No draught from any fabled fountain of youth could ever bestow such buoyancy and life; no nectar of the gods could impart such abundant immortality; no ambrosial ointment could give such fragrance and incorruption. But why should we compare the " precious blood of Christ "with such childish fancies? Why? Because nature, all creation and the flight of human fancy all combined can never produce a figure that will not sink into utter childishness by the side of so great a wonder,

     "O sacred Head, now wounded,

     With grief and shame weighed down,

     Now scornfully surrounded

     With thorns, Thine only crown:,

   O sacred Head, what glory,

     What bliss, till now was Thine!

     Yet, tho' despised and gory,

     I joy to call Thee mine."

     The Lamb of God was the embodiment of nobility, of purity, of innocence and of perfection. No created being could ever approach unto His infinite glory. He is the Lily of the Valley, He is the Rose of Sharon. In Him can be found no blemish; as a sacrifice He is perfect. In Him can be found no spot; as a substitute He is all that infinite justice demands.

     O sin-mad world; O world-enamored church; my own slow, short-sighted heart! why art thou so little taken up with the most beautiful Flower that ever the Paradise of God produced? No wonder, when his ecstatic soul caught a fresh vision of Christ, that Rutherford exclaimed: "Christ is a well of life; but who knoweth how deep it is to the bottom? This soul of ours hath love, and cannot but love some fair one: and, oh, what a fair one, what an only one, what an excellent, lovely, ravishing one, is Jesus! Put the beauty of ten thousand worlds of paradises like the garden of Eden, in one; put all trees, all flowers, all smells, all colors, all tastes, all joys, all sweetness, all loveliness in one: oh what a fair and excellent thing that would be? and yet it would be less to that fair and dearest, well-beloved Christ, than one drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths. Oh, but Christ is heaven's wonder, and earth's wonder!

     "The precious blood of Christ." The blood is the life. Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Death annihilates the powers that produce life. When God breathed into man the breath of life and man became a living soul, He breathed into him divine life and virtue. Divine efficacy and grace are the life of the soul, without these the soul dies. The blood of Jesus Christ is the manifestation, to sin-blinded, materialistic man, of the fact of the presence of grace to approach the sinner and of efficacy to cleanse, and when this blood flows through the soul, divine life and virtue again spring up, and the dead man again becomes a living soul.

     The blood of Jesus Christ is a necessity to the liberation of captives. Civilized nations have a custom of exchanging prisoners of war on the principle of reciprocity, giving equal for equal. Sinners are blood-guilty. While they have never literally driven a nail into the hands of Jesus Christ, yet they have sold out to sin and hell, and by acts of rebellion have forfeited the freedom which belongs to the children of God, sold themselves to sin for naught. From this captivity they must be bought by a gift as great or greater than they. The same blood which they have forfeited by their mad plunge into captivity is a necessity in order that the bolts of their prison house may be thrown back and they may walk forth in the glorious light and liberty of the children of God. Whom the Son, the Blood-Giver, makes free, is free indeed.

     The blood of Jesus Christ is a necessity in order that men may be resurrected from the death of sin. By a lack of faith in their Creator (and He was the Word) men went away from God and died the death of sin; by the same route, reversed, they must return to God, that is by faith. If unbelief brought sinful death, if the departure of an offended Trinity left men dead in trespasses and in sins, on the contrary, the turning again of His face, the coming, again of God to the believing soul, is life. And the only thing that can turn the face of an offended Deity toward an offending man is the reconciling blood of Christ. And the same blood that washes away the sin-spots and kisses away the death and condemnation of the soul, makes it possible that the graves of the saints shall fly open and that the redeemed shall come forth to the resurrection of life. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming."

     The blood of Jesus Christ is a necessity to save men from the curse of the law. The law pronounces the death penalty on all who sin, and, since all have sinned, all are under the curse of the law. A remedy must be found or there is no escape from the consequences of sin. Practically all nations have had a more or less distinct view of the necessity of a vicarious atonement, and, as a consequence, they offer their sacrifices of beasts and human beings. Even Caiaphas admitted that it was fitting that one man should die for the sins of the people.

     Marcus Curtius was a legendary Roman hero who lived about the middle of the third century before Christ. The auspices declared that an earthquake chasm in the Forum could be filled only by casting into it that on which the greatness of Rome depended. While everyone was doubting as to the meaning of the declaration, Marcus Curtius presented himself and declared that Rome contained nothing more indispensable to her greatness than a valiant citizen fully accoutered for battle, and offered himself for a victim. Having arrayed himself in complete armor, he mounted his war horse, and galloped into the abyss, which immediately closed and assumed its wonted aspect.

     Jesus Christ gave Himself a ransom for man and by being Himself made a curse He saved those who were under the just curse of the law.

     The blood of Jesus Christ is a necessity to save us from the power and dominion of the devil. There is a good deal of truth in the old saying that if one can find out what the devil wants the path of duty lies in the opposite direction. It makes no difference to the devil how many things we do. We can have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, we can give all our goods to feed the poor and our bodies to he burned, and yet the devil is pleased if we lack the one thing necessary, the love of God, not divinely given love alone, divine love itself. When it concerns humanity there is no greater, no richer manifestation of divine love than the blood of the Only-Begotten. If we can get hold of this medium of communication between a needy soul and a need-supplying God we are forthwith out of the clutches of our arch-enemy and into the hands of a loving God.

     The blood of Jesus Christ is a necessity in order to escape the wrath of God. Not that His wrath must he appeased by the death of His Well Beloved, but the death of Christ is the highest exhibition of the love of God yearning for some consistent plan of salvation. Some plan by which God can escape the moral necessity of punishing the sinner. Divine love and ingenuity found this plan in the sacrifice of the One, to us, most glorious, THE central figure in the adorable Godhead, Jesus Christ.

     "Oh, for such love let rocks and hills

     Their lasting silence break,

     And all-harmonious human tongues

     The Saviour's praises speak."