IT is the blood which maketh an atonement for the soul. What the crimson fluid is to our bodies, the blood of Christ is to the Bible. ''The blood is the life thereof.'' Withdraw the blood and the book is dead. From Genesis to Revelation the blood circulates freely through every part. Adam's nakedness was covered by blood. Abel's offering was accepted because it was bloody; Cain's was rejected because it was bloodless. Many are going ''in the way of Cain," by rejecting the blood and glorying in a gospel which needs no sacrifice. But he who would not defile his altar with the blood of a lamb, polluted the earth with his brother's blood.

The sacrifices of the Old Testament furnish us a key to the meaning of the blood and explain the necessity of its being shed for the remission of sins. The essence of all the sacrifices for sin' were blood and fire. The blood was the emblem of death by substitution and the fire of God's wrath upon the substitute. The shedding of the blood was the infliction of the death penalty, for "the blood was the life," and when this was shed, life was gone.

This blood-shedding or life-taking was the payment of the penalty for sin: for it was threatened from the beginning: "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." "The wages of sin is death."

The sprinkling of the blood upon the people signified that they appropriated the death of their substitute. Blood is the symbol of death and when it was sprinkled on a man, he was reckoned to be dead and, therefore, to have paid the law's penalty. It is thus we make use of the blood of Christ. Faith is the sinner's applying the blood of Jesus Christ to himself and thus appropriating His death. It is then God views him as having died and paid the penalty of the law and therefore free from the curse of sin and death. The sinning Israelite was commanded to sprinkle the blood of a spotless lamb upon the door posts and lintel of his dwelling with the promise of God, 'The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you" (Ex. 12:13). God did not say when I see your alms and prayers and tears and faith and repentance and how you have ''held out'' I will pass over, but when "I see the blood."

There might have been a thief or a robber or a murderer in the house, but the blood sheltered him as truly as the most moral man. Some might have been filled with fear and trembling as to this security but the blood sheltered them as truly as it did the bravest hearts.

It was not the blood and their upright lives, nor the blood and their feelings but the blood alone which saved them.

The fly in Noah's ark was as safe as the elephant. The weakest babe in Christ is as secure as the strongest spiritual athlete.

On the great day of atonement two goats were brought to the door of the Tabernacle to make an atonement for the sins of the people (Lv. 16). One was slain and the other was let go into the wilderness bearing the sins of the people upon him. The goat slain typified Christ expiating our sins by his death and the goat turned loose in the wilderness typified Christ forgiving our sins and removing them from us "as far as the east is from the west."

Christ forgives sins but he never forgave one, the penalty of which he did not suffer on the cross. God cannot forgive a sin, the penalty of which has not been paid. ''It is the blood which maketh an atonement for the sour' (Lev. 17:11). The blood alone secures our eternal safety, hence the Israelites were forbidden to do any work on the day of atonement (Lev. 23:28,31). Thus does God forbid the slightest addition of our efforts to the finished work of his dear Son. ''To him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5).

It was the scarlet thread on Rabab's door which saved her and her house. It is the scarlet thread of Jesus' redeeming blood wrapped around the sinner which saves him.

The Old Testament types literally dripped with blood but they could not take away sin. They could only point to the way in which this was to be done. It is the ''Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.''

Jesus said, "This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26:28). While Christ hung upon the cross "one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came out blood and water" (John 19:34). This was the crowning act of that awful tragedy, but as the fiendish soldier pushed his spear into the very heart of Jesus, his blood gushed forth and covered the spear. Thank God the blood of Jesus Christ covers sin so deep that even his eye cannot see it through the crimson flood.

''Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood" (Rom. 3:24,25). It was not by Christ's incarnation but by his blood-shedding that we are saved, ''for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin'' (Heb. 9:22).

Christ is more than a deliverer and a benefactor. If he be not the substitute, he is nothing to the sinner. If he did not die as the sin-bearer, he died in vain. If I throw myself into the sea and risk my life to save a drowning man, I am a deliverer. But certainly Christ was more than this. He did not redeem us by a little loss, a little sacrifice, a little labour, a little suffering. He "redeemed us to God by his blood." It is into his death that we are baptized (Rom. 6:3).

By faith we become so identified with him that died and rose, that we are henceforth treated as if we ourselves had died and paid the full penalty of the law. Those who have thus appropriated the blood of Jesus Christ are as free from condemnation and death as if they had never committed the sin.

They have died and paid the full penalty of their guilt in their substitute, Jesus Christ, and God will not require a second payment nor a second death for the same offence.

He who teaches a bloodless redemption is an enemy of the cross of Christ, dishonors the name and work of our Lord and as far as he possibly can, destroys the souls of men.