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THE REV. H. J. R. MARSTON, M.A., ON 



the synagogue at Capernaum preserved in the sixth chapter of 

 St. John. The second was the institution of the Eucharist. 

 The third was the effusion of blood and water from His sacred 

 side after His death upon the Cross. 



Thus the doctrme of the blood of Jesus took its rise in the 

 teaching and the facts of Our Lord's life itself ; and possessed 

 from the , outset a spiritual, a sacramental, and an historical 

 importance. 



The Lord Himself connected His blood with the saving and 

 the nourishing of souls. It was none other than He who 

 associated the Lord's Supper in one of its two elements with 

 the efficacy of His own blood. His favourite disciple mentioned 

 the shedding of His blood as one of the proofs of His Lord's 

 perfect humanity. 



To-day the detractors of this glorious article are a negUgible 

 fraction, and if the Church is strong to-day in her conilict with 

 sin and misery, a preponderant measure of that strength is due 

 to the degree of faithfulness with which the doctrine of the 

 precious blood of Christ has been maintained. 



Offence has sometimes been taken, and I think justly taken, 

 at the language of popular preachers when speaking on this 

 topic. I have no wish to excuse their aberrations, nor to 

 minimise the mischief which sensuous extravasjances have done. 



Such preachers are bound to imitate the language of the 

 ISTew Testament, in its decorum, its simplicity, its grave restraint. 

 Sermons, hymns, and tracts ought never to transgress against 

 these inspired qualities. A theme so immeasurably sacred, and 

 so perilously sweet, should be treated only as tlie sacred writers 

 treat it. 



To talk about " the blood " is contrary to the manner and the 

 spirit of the 'New Testament. The term occurs once only in 

 the New Testament* ; and strictly considered, not even once. 



The invariable use of the sacred writers is to define the blood 

 by some explanatory word. " The blood of Christ," " the blood 

 of Jesus," " His blood," " the blood of sprinkling," " the blood of 

 the everlasting covenant," " Thy blood," " His blood." 



While we may never relax the stress with which we maintain 

 with the whole New Testament that between the blood of Jesus 

 and the forgiveness of sms there is an association that cannot 

 be dissolved, we must always assert that association, as the New 

 Testament asserts it, with a divine sobriety and beautiful good 

 taste. 



* See St. John, 1st Epistle, Chap. V. 



