In the time of the Californian gold fever a man went to the diggings,
and left his wife to follow him some time afterwards. While on her
voyage with her little boy, the vessel caught fire; and as there was a
powder-magazine on board, the captain knew when the flames reached it
the ship would be blown up. The fire could not be got under, so they
took to the life-boats; but there was not room for all. As the last
boat pushed off, the mother and boy stood on the deck. One of the
sailors said there was room for another. What did the mother do? She
decided to perish herself in order to save her boy. She dropped him
into the boat, and with a mother's last look, said: "If you should
live to see your father, tell him that I died in your place." Do you
think when that boy grew up he could fail to love that mother who died
to save him? My friends, this is a faint type of what Christ has done
for you and me. He died for our sins. He left heaven for that purpose.
Will you go away saying, I see no beauty in Him. May God break every
heart here! You will need Him when you come to cross the swelling of
Jordan. You will need Him when you go up to the bar of God. God forbid
that when death comes it should find you without Christ, and without
God, and without hope!
Not only is the vitally important subject of the "Blood of Christ"
referred to frequently in the Old Testament, but likewise in many
places in the New Testament.
Let us turn to the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and
verses 22-26, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have
crucified and slain." What is this but the bloodshedding and death of
Christ? Read also Acts iv. 10; v. 28; vii. 52; viii. 32; x. 39; xvii.
3; xviii. 21; Hebrews ix. 22; 1 Peter i. 19; and many other passages
will be found if the word _Blood_ is referred to in a Concordance.