Justice discriminates, and in its sentence equity and mercy are blended, but there are conditions which even Omnipotence respects, and these prohibit the removal of the difference between a life rightly used and a life abused. "WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, THAT SHALL HE ALSO REAP," says the Apostle. Therefore the thought of Death will always have the effect of solemnizing us, and of stirring us up to a more responsible manner of living. We ought to aim at so thinking of Death as to gain these results. I do not think such reflections will make us less happy, but they will restrain us from that frivolous and self-regarding behaviour, which is not consistent with the belief that life is responsible and moves ever to Judgment. We shall remember, even in the pressure of business and in the dangerous hour of prosperity, the SAVIOUR'S Words, "A MAN'S LIFE CONSISTETH NOT IN THE ABUNDANCE OF THE

THINGS WHICH HE POSSESSETH." We shall study the Death of JESUS, and seek to order our lives so that when we come to die, it may not be impossible, or unnatural, for us also to say, "FATHER, INTO THY HANDS I COMMEND MY SPIRIT."

XIV

REDEMPTION THROUGH SUFFERING1

APART FROM SHEDDING OF BLOOD THERE IS NO REMISSION.Hebrews ix. 22.

I. THE sacred writer has tried, through a process of highly technical reasoning, to disclose to his readers the deep fitness which belongs to the Passion and Death of the World's REDEEMER, and he leads them from the familiar facts of their religious use and wont to the solemn conclusion of the Atonement, made once for all on Calvary for human transgression. That legal system, he tells them, was at every point solemnly suggestive. There they had ever seen closely linked together "PURIFICATION and SACRIFICE," the REMISSION OF SINS" and the "SHEDDING OF BLOOD." Yet the sacrifices themselves were sufficiently futile, for the blood shed in them was but that of unconscious

1 Preached in Westminster Abbey on the second Sunday in Lent, February 28, 1915.

beasts, and "IT IS IMPOSSIBLE THAT THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND GOATS SHOULD TAKE AWAY SINS." Therefore, the true significance of the legal system could not be found in itself, but only in reference to Something greater than itself to which it pointed, which in some sense it indicated, and for which it made a preparation. The sacrificial system expressed a vital principle of morals, and disclosed the working of a spiritual law. Both are summed up in the sentence which I have chosen as a text: APART FROM SHEDDING OF BLOOD THERE IS NO REMISSION." The supreme application of that principle, and the crowning illustration of that spiritual law, were on Calvary when the sinless “SON OF MAN" accepted willingly, and with full knowledge, the bitter Chalice of the Passion, and by His voluntary Death "OPENED THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN TO ALL BELIEVERS."

2. It is characteristic of the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews to emphasize the representative character of the Life and Death of the LORD JESUS. He insists on keeping firm hold on the larger significance of the Gospel as a revelation of human potencies and duties. He will not suffer his profound reverence for the Divine CHRIST to carry him into any belittling of His genuine humaneness,

nor permit Christians to lose their grasp of the sublime and inspiring truth, that they are to find the key to their own experiences, and the pledge of their own victory, in the Life and Triumph of their MASTER. That Divine MASTER was, as they, too, must be, "MADE PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS"; He, not less than they, "HAD BEEN IN ALL POINTS TEMPTED"; He fulfilled for them a true High Priesthood by being frankly a "SHARER IN FLESH AND BLOOD"; in the fulfilment of His Mediatorial Work He could bring to it knowledge and sympathy born of a common humanity, for He

They,

was a HIGH PRIEST THAT COULD BE TOUCHED WITH THE FEELING OF OUR INFIRMITIES." as they faced the grim contingency of Death, could know that He also had "PARTAKEN OF THE SAME." They, as they girded themselves to run the race of Faith, were to do so "LOOKING UNTO JESUS THE AUTHOR AND PERFECTER OF FAITH." In all this insistence on the complete and representative humanity of JESUS, the sacred Author outpasses the strait limits of his argument from the Jewish Law, and builds his teaching on the broad foundations of human experience and human need. Not merely of the Law of Jewish Ordinances, but of the great Covenant of Human Life do the words hold

true, that APART FROM SHEDDING OF BLOOD THERE IS NO REMISSION." On the arena of history, in the fortunes of nations, we may discern the evidences of this stern truth. Our religious dogma gives us the key to the movements and tragedies of peoples, as well as uncovers the secrets of personal life. Of nations as of men this is the governing law, that ALL THINGS ARE CLEANSED WITH BLOOD, AND APART FROM SHEDDING OF BLOOD IS NO REMISSION."

3. See the argument illustrated impressively in the History of Freedom. Has it been easily gained? Has it been easily guarded? The Martyrs of Patriotism have been as numerous and heroic as the Martyrs of Faith, nay, the two classes of Sufferers pass into a single category, for of both it may be said that they "FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT," and " THROUGH MANY TRIBULATIONS ENTERED THE KINGDOM.' As we review the history of civilized Mankind we can see that there are some nations which play in the grand drama a rôle analogous to that of Martyrs in the record of the Church. They purchase the franchises of Humanity at the price of their own suffering. They may say with the Roman centurion, "WITH A GREAT SUM OBTAINED I THIS CITIZENSHIP"; for their liberties have been