BLOOD, THE
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
—Rev. 12:11
478 Atonement Verses In Bible
In the New Testament there are 290 references to the love of God, 290 times when God had declared His love for man. But in the same chapters and the same verses there are more than 1,300 references to the atonement, 1300 assurances that salvation can be had through the blood of Christ.
—G. Franklin Allee
479 Nothing But The Blood
At a great parliament of religions, held in Chicago many years ago, practically every known religion was represented.
During one session, Dr. Joseph Cook, of Boston, suddenly rose and said: “Gentlemen, I beg to introduce to you a woman with a great sorrow. Bloodstains are on her hands, and nothing she has tried will remove them. The blood is that of murder. She has been driven to desperation in her distress. Is there anything in your religion that will remove her sin and give her peace?” A hush fell upon the gathering. Not one of the company replied.
Raising his eyes heavenwards, Dr. Cook then cried out, “John, can you tell this woman how to get rid of her awful sin?” The great preacher waited, as if listening for a reply. Suddenly he cried, “Listen. John speaks: ’The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sins’ (I John 1:7).”
Not a soul broke the silence: the representatives of Eastern religions and Western cults sat dumb. In the face of human need, the Gospel of Jesus Christ alone could meet the need. The sin of the race demanded the blood of Calvary.
—Frederick A. Tatford
480 Devil And Martin Luther
There is a legend of Martin Luther, that, during a serious illness, the Evil One entered his sickroom and, looking at him with a triumphant smile, unrolled a big scroll which he carried in his arms.
As the fiend threw one end of it on the floor, it unwound by itself. Luther’s eyes read the long, fearful record of his own sins, one by one. That stout heart quailed before the ghastly roll.
Suddenly it flashed into Luther’s mind that there was one thing not written there. He cried aloud: “One thing you have forgotten. The rest is all true, but one thing you have forgotten: ’The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. ’ “ And as he said this, the Accuser of the Brethren and his heavy roll disappeared.
481 How Can Blood Cleanse Sin?
A preacher was speaking from the text, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Suddenly he was interrupted by an atheist who asked, “How can blood cleanse sin?”
For a moment the preacher was silent; then he countered, “How can water quench thirst?”
“I do not know,” replied the infidel, “but I know that it does.”
“Neither do I know how the blood of Jesus cleanses sin,” answered the preacher, “but I know that it does.”
—Sunday School Times
482 Argentina’s River
Argentina’s waters have some chemical properties which prevents the cleaning of wool. Huge quantities of dirty wool must be shipped abroad to be returned as yarns. Import and export taxes must be paid both ways.
Chemists say that there is only one river in Argentina whose waters could be used to wash wool clean enough for manufacturing into cloth. But this stream in the north is too far from transportation to be commercially useful.
—Adapted from Aquilla Webb
483 House Of A Thousand Terrors
In the market place of Rotterdam, Holland, stood for many years an old cornerhouse known as “The House of a Thousand Terrors.” The story:
During the 16th century, the Dutch people rose in revolt against the cruel King Philip II of Spain. Philip sent a great army under the Duke of Alva to suppress the rebellion. Rotterdam held out for a time but finally capitulated.
From house to house the victors went, searching out citizens and then killing them in their houses. A group of men, women, and children were hiding in a cornerhouse when they heard soldiers approaching. A thousand terrors griped their hearts. Then a young man had an idea. He took a goat in the house, killed it, and with a broom swept the blood under the doorway out to the street.
The soldiers reached the house and began to batter down the door. Noticing the blood coming out from under the door, one soldier said: “Come away, the work is already done here. Look at the blood beneath the door.” And the people inside the house escaped.
484 Origin Of Yellow Fever Vaccine
In West Africa, in 1927, a blood specimen was taken from a native named Asibi, who was sick with yellow fever. A rhesus monkey which had just been received from India, was inocculated with the specimen. Asibi recovered, but the monkey died of the disease.
All the vaccine manufactured since 1927, by the Rockefeller Foundation, the government and other agencies as well, derives from the original strain of virus obtained from this humble native. Carried down to the present day from one laboratory to another, through repeated cultures, and by enormous multiplication, it has offered immunity to yellow fever to millions of people in many countries.
Through the creative imagination of science, the blood of one man in West Africa has been made to serve the whole human race.
—James Hastings
See also: Jesus Christ.
TRIAL OF CHRIST
485 Historic Not Juridicial Trial
An Orthodox Jew in Jerusalem called for elimination of all charges against Jesus Christ because of an improper trial, but the Israeli Supreme Court turned down the request. Attorney Yitzhak David, 36, said he registered the appeal in order to reduce anti-Semitism in the world. The court took the viewpoint that the trial of Christ was “historic, not juridicial,” and that David had “not proved he suffered personal damage” through what he termed a “miscarriage of justice” against Jesus.
486 I Did It
Dr. Alexander Whyte tells the story of a man who dreamed that he saw Jesus tied to a whipping-post, and a soldier was scourging Him. He saw the whip in the soldier’s hand, with its thick lashes studded here and there with bits of lead, which were intended to cut into the flesh.
And as the soldier brought the whip down on the bare shoulders of Jesus, the dreamer shuddered when he saw the marks and bloodstains it left behind. And when the soldier raised his hand to strike again the dreamer rushed forward intending to stop him. As he did so the soldier turned around and the dreamer recognized himself.
—E. E. Lark
487 I Struck The Cruelest Blow
They crushed the thorns into His brow
And struck harsh blows that day.
I only walked away.
They drove the nails into His hands
And raised the cross on high.
O lord, that men could be so vile—
I only passed Thee by.
But blinded eyes and heart of stone
Will spurn a love like Thine.
O Lord, I struck the cruelest blows;
The sharpest thorns were mine.
—Victoria Beaudin Johnson
THE CROSS
488 Finding The Cross And The Christ
In 1959, Thomas Hoving of New York’s Metropolitan Museum purchased an ivory cross from a Yugoslavian art collector, who had stored it in a Swiss bank vault. Hoving noticed that it lacked its central figure—the body of Christ.
For 30 years, a figure of Christ carved out of ivory lay in Norway’s Oslo Museum of Applied Art. In 1969, Florens Deuchler discovered that the seven-and-a-half inches tall figure of Christ in the Oslo Museum fits perfectly into the five holes drilled for it on the Met’s cross. Thus, the artist’s original design of Christ on the cross has once again been realized.
—Newsweek
489 “First Night Outside Paradise”
There is in Paris a famous picture by Zwiller called “The First Night Outside Paradise.” Our first parents have been driven out of the Garden of Eden and are preparing to spend the first night in the desert beyond. In the distance can be discerned the figure of the angel with the flaming sword, but the eyes of the exiles are not fixed on him. They are gazing far above his head, and there, outlined in light—faint, but unmistakable—the artist has painted a cross. In wondering awe their gaze is fastened on it.
—Leslie Weatherhead
490 Of Southern Cross And Passion Flower
Centuries ago, a sailor in the Southern Hemisphere saw a constellation which reminded him of the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he called it the Southern Cross. Another man, a botanist, saw a plant with thorns and red petals like drops of blood. He called it the Passion Flower.
491 London’s “The Cross”
The geographical heart of London is Charing Cross. All distances are measured from it. This spot is referred to simply as “the cross.” A lost child was one day picked up by a London “bobby”. The child was unable to tell where he lived. Finally, in response to the repeated questions of the bobby, and amid sobs and tears, the little fellow said, “If you will take me to the cross I think I can find my way from there.”
—Jessie Brown Pounds
492 Cross Versus Serpent In Alabama
The flag of the State of Alabama once showed a cotton plant in flower and a rattlesnake coiled at its roots, about to spring into action. Underneath were these words in Latin: NOLI ME TANGERE (“Don’t Touch Me.”) Years later, this design was finally changed to the cross of St. Andrew. The cross has supplanted the serpent in Alabama.
493 National Flag Of Denmark
The national flag of Denmark—a white cross on a red ground—is the oldest national flag in history, unchanged since the 13th century. Legend says that in 1219, King Waldemar, leading his troops into battle, saw a cross in the sky and took it to mean victory was assured. When the battle was won, the flag was adopted.
494 Cross In Pittsburgh Airport
Pittsburgh’s airport is one of the biggest and best-equipped in the nation. Two seconds in flying time from the airport and in direct line with one of its busiest runways is the steeple of Union Church.
“Ever since the terminal opened,” said the pastor, William R. Ruschaput, “planes have buzzed the belfry like bees after honey. It got so bad that low-flying jets turned our Sunday evening services into sudden prayer meetings.” Reluctant to have their steeple carried away by some careless and unwary pilot, the church topped it with an eight-foot neon-lighted cross.
The church is on the highest point near the airport and the lighted cross can be seen at night by planes all the way from the Ohio border. One of the pilots made this interesting comment regarding the lighted cross: “Most of us are using it as a guide to the field.”
—Earl C. Willer
495 Little Boy’s Idea In Tennessee
When approaching the railway town of Harriman in eastern Tennessee, passengers are attracted by a huge, illuminated Cross on top of one of the surrounding mountains. The cross is lighted at night, the city furnishing the current free. The originator:
Five-year-old Dan Denny, while visiting in a neighbor’s home, received a little cross to play with. He hung it on his window. When his mother inquired about the display, little Dan said: “Because someone might see it and think about Jesus and try to be good.”
His mother was so impressed with the idea that she spoke of it to her friends and suggested that a large cross erected at some suitable place might do a great deal of good. The churches in that area took up the matter, and the cross was set on the mountaintop.
496 The Cross Stays In Eugene
Some years ago, in a public park in Eugene, Oregon, a sand and gravel company erected a giant cross. They did not have permission to do so. However, through the years the cross became a symbol to the people of Eugene. Especially at Christmas, when the cross was lighted brilliantly and sent its rays of faith and hope shining through the city, did the people appreciate it.
But with the current feelings of anti-religion becoming more prominent, a movement to have the cross removed gathered momentum. A lawsuit was filed by a Unitarian minister and the court ruled that the cross had to be removed because it violated the principle of the separation of church and state. An appeal was made to the State Supreme Court.
The higher court ruled that the cross could stay because it was simply a symbol, universally accepted, and now has no religious significance, and thus does not violate the principle of the separation of church and State.
—Ministers’ Research Service
497 Cross Symbol On U. S. Stamp Rejected
A 1962 news report tells how the US postal authorities rejected a special Christmas stamp that year on grounds that it suggested a cross. The design submitted showed a candle burning in a window framed by a wreath. The window panes was thought to resemble a cross. The final design chosen for 1962 shows a simple holy wreath and two tapers.
Said a Religious News Service report: “Rejection of the design emphasized the fact that no religious symbol, or apparent religious symbol, will be permitted on the Christmas stamps which the department expects to issue each year to encourage use of first- class mail for Christmas greetings.”
Happily, and for the first time since 1862, a US postage stamp was issued in 1966 which depicted the Christian cross. This stamp issued on July 30th commemorated the birth of the Polish nation and the introduction of Christianity to the Polish people. The stamp featured a shield bearing the Polish crowned eagle, ancient symbol of the Polish kingdom. Above it was the cross, with the inscription: “Poland’s Millennium 966–1966.”
The 1892 stamp on which a cross was significant, was a two-cent commemorative that showed Columbus planting the cross in the New World. It was issued October 12, 1892, on the four- hundredth anniversary of the event.
Crosses have appeared in the backgroud of other US stamps, on church steeples and the like, but not as part of the central design.
THE CRUCIFIXION
498 No Crucifixion For Romans
Cicero, the Roman author and orator, said, “Let the very name of the cross be far away from Roman citizens, not from their bodies only, but from their thoughts, their eyes and their ears.”
499 Angels Cannot Appreciate It
There is a picture in Milan which represents a little cherub trying to feel one of the points of the Crown of Thorns with his finger. A look of wonder is on his cherub face; he has been told that it means agony, but he cannot feel it. It is all to him incomprehensible. There is deep spiritual suggestion here. The cherub cannot understand because he belongs to a different world; he was never born into that condition in which sin and suffering and sacrifice become terms of awful import.
—James Burns
500 Rembrandt Crucifed Christ
In the famous painting of the crucifixion by Rembrandt, your attention is drawn first to the dying Saviour. Then, as you notice the crowd gathered around that scene at Calvary, you are impressed by the various attitudes and actions of the people involved in putting the Son of God to death. Finally your eyes drift to the edge of the picture and catch sight of a lone figure almost hidden in the shadows. He represents the artist himself, for Rembrandt realized that his sins had helped nail Jesus to the cross!
—Our Daily Bread
501 Christ In Birmingham
The best-known poem of the controversial Anglican chaplain of World War I, G. A. Studdert-Kennedy, was entitled, “Indifference.” In it, the poet contrasted the brutal treatment of our Saviour on Calvary with the indifference He found when He came to Birmingham, a British industrial city:
When Jesus came to Golgotha,
They hanged Him on a tree;
They drove great nails through hands and feet
And made a Calvary;
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns,
Red were His wounds and deep;
For those were crude and cruel days,
And human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to Birmingham.
They simply passed Him by;
They never hurt a hair of Him,
They only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender,
And they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street,
and left Him in the rain.
—Paul T. Culbertson
502 Mankind’s Greatest Debt
Winston Churchill paid a great tribute to the young men in the Royal Air Force who guarded England during the war, saying, “Never in the history of mankind have so many owed so much to so few.”
The Battle of Bastogne represents one of the bloodiest action in World War II. A monument there pays tribute to the heroism of the US 101st Airborne Division: “Seldom has so much American blood been shed in the course of a single action. Oh, Lord, help us to remember!”
But when thinking of the cross of Christ, we can say: “Never in the history of the universe has mankind owed so much to One.”
503 Man’s Works In Heaven
“What work of man will there be in heaven?” asks a minister one day. “None,” replied the parishioner. “It will be the prints of the nails of the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus Christ,” came the reply.
See also: 2751 TO 2764 Crucifixion .
MISCELLANEOUS DATA ON BLOOD
504 Ancients’ Ignorance of Blood
Prior to William Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of the blood in 1628, little had been known about the value of the blood. In fact, blood was thought to be the source of disease rather than life and its defense; so sick men were bled to get rid of the disease. George Washington’s death is said to have been hastened by “bloodletting.”
—Christian Victory
505 Blood As Fertilizer
Blood is a rare fertilizer. They tell me that the bit of ground over in Belgium called Waterloo bears each spring a crop of rare blue forget-me-nots. That bit of ground had very unusual gardening. Ploughed up by cannon and gunshot, sown deep with men’s lives, “worked” ever so thoroughly by toiling, struggling feet, moistened with the gentle rain of dying tears, and soaked with red life, it now yields its yearly harvest of beauty.
506 Champion Blood Donor
Joe Kerkofsky is America’s blood-donor champion. The American Association of Blood Banks will honor the 62-year-old retired security guard at a special presentation in Chicago.
Mr. Kerkofsky lost an arm in an accident when he was six. He was thence rejected for military service on World War II. Since then he has donated nearly 31 gallons of blood. The human body con tains 10 or 12 pints of blood. Joe has donated more than 20 times that amount.
“Giving blood makes you feel like contributing life itself,” he says. “There’s no more precious a gift than life. Money can’t buy the joy of giving blood to help someone who needs it.”
507 Rare Person As Blood Donor
The International News Service has published a count of Mrs. Rose L. McMullin, who has traveled from coast to coast, donating her blood for more than 400 transfusions in forty states. She arrived in New York to aid in a transfusion for a twenty-five-year-old mother, having hurried east from Salt Lake City on an urgent wire from doctors in New York.
The donor is a phenomenon in the medical world. She is one of the very few persons whose blood can resist staphylococcus aureus, a disease of the blood stream. She is said also to be the only person who has been able to offer blood simultaneously for two transfusions. This was done in Portland, Oregon.
—Now
508 Amount Of Blood In Body
How many quarts of blood are there in the body? The amount of blood in the body varies from about 3½ to 5½ quarts or from 5 to 7 percent of body weight. It is possible to lose about one-third of this and still survive.
See also: Jesus Christ ; Salvation—The Blood.