T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S derful building I saw in my trip of twenty-five thousand miles. The thing which stands out in my memory the most vividly of all is not the wonder ful mosaics, the most wonderful in the world, in a way, not the mighty struc ture in itself, not the statue of Peter with his toe partly kissed away, but a sight I saw when passing by one o f the altars. There was a priest holding in his hand a silver cup lined with gold. He was turning it around and looking .intently on the inside. I passed by again and he was doing the same thing. I asked somebody what was the cause of it and he said, “Why, that is a drop of wine, and it would be awful to let that drop of wine, which is the blood of Jesus, be lost.” No, there is no virtue in the literal blood. You remember that somebody sent a vessel supposed to contain the literal blood of Jesus to Joseph of Normandy. Many people worshipped it, but after a time a chem ist examined it and found it was not blood of any kind but rather honey and saffron. But suppose it had been the blood of Jesus. Suppose we had here every drop of blood that Jesus shed on Calvary. There would not be enough virtue in it to save one soul. It is not the literal blood, but blood represents the life. He died that we might live. He “ became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” A friend in India standing in a build ing saw a soldier pass by the window and his coat appeared white. He was puzzled about it until he found that he had been looking through a piece of red glass and the red coat appeared white'. So God does not look at us direct. No one in the world can afford to have God look at him direct. He must look at us through the pane made red by the blood ' of Jesus. “With our Saviour’s garments on, we shall be spotless as the spotless One.”
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In the fourth place we have the Ap plication of it, which is Faith. Rom. 5:1. “ Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Faith is our only hope here, for “ all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” We are told that the Greeks when they practiced -archery would sometimes shoot the arrow and it fell short of the target and they would say that was a “ sin.” One of the important mean ings of the word “ sin” is “ Missing the mark.” “ Falling short.” “ All have sin ned and come short of the glory of God.” “ There is none righteous—No, not one.” But thank God, there is One righteous, both God and man. He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. By faith in Him we stand the test. "Separate from sinners,” and yet, thank God, one with sinners to bring them salvation and justification. In the fifth place, we have the ac knowledgment of it. Romans 4:25— “ Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justifica tion.” We do not worship a dead Christ. We have a lively hope in our hearts “ by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” “ To an inheritance incor ruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.” Thank God, Jesus did not stop at the tomb. The Father, acknowledging Him in advance of His decease, says, “ This is my beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased,” and after His decease we have the wonderful acknowledgment of His resurrection. HEAR Peter as he says, “Him, being delivered by the deter minate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death; because it was not pos sible that He should be holden of it. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing
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