Texas Christian Advocate (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 14, 1908 Page: 1 of 16
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BLAYLOCK PUB. CO., PUBLISHERS.
G. C. RANKIN, D. D., EDITOR.
No, 39
covenant had been "cut.
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revelations from Abel to Christ. In all these proffered "his own blood" to make those who
on the hand, as phy-
revelations the giving of blood represents
the giving of life, the receiving of blood the
receiving of life, the intercommingling of
blood represents the intercommingling of
natures. And the divine-human interunion
through blood is the basis of a divine-human
intercommunion in the sharing of the flesh
of the sacrificial offering as sacred food.
It is all the same, whether we look at
Abel, reaching out toward God with substi-
tute blood, in order to vicariously give him-
self in covenant oneness with the Lord, or
Noah in his covenant-seeking by the shed-
ding of blood, and was recognized approv-
ingly by the Lord—who smelled the “sweet
savor of the proffered offering—giving com-
mandment concerning the never-failing sa-
credness of blood, because “it is the life,
and makes atonement;” or the blood-cove-
nant of “strong friendship” between Abra-
ham and God, through the blood-letting
“below the belt,” bringing all his posterity
through circumcision under this covenant of
friendship; or whether we look at the Pass-
over substitute lamb, when the Lord would
give evidence of his fidelity to his covenant
of blood-friendship with Abraham, and a
new start was to be made in the history of
redemption; or, again, at the blood-covenant
by substitute at Sinai, when Moses sprinkled
or on the forehead, or (
lactery, or bracelet, or
the blood on the altar, on the people who
promised obedience and on the written book
of the covenant; or at all the subsequent
elaborate rites of tabernacle and temple—
in all these instances the essential idea is
the same, and at every new start which
was made in the history of redemption, when
God would shadow forth that “which was
not yet made manifest” in perfect disclosure,
he repeated the ancient blood-covenant in
all its essential features! But in it all the
Israelites were explicitly taught that the
spiritual value was not in the formal value
of rites, which foreshadowed the surrender
of the whole life in hearty covenant with God.
but that the “foreskins of their hearts” were
to be “circumcised,” “to love the Lord with
all the heart and soul that they might live.”
And that the days would come when God
would make a “new covenant” with his peo-
ple, and transfer the written covenant from
frontlets, amulets and phylacteries—carried
on their foreheads, arms and breasts—to
“their inward parts,” and write his laws
“on their hearts”—when he would be their
God,” and “remember their sins no more”
—when there would be a real union of man
with his God!
In process of time the hour drew nigh
that the true covenant of blood between God
and man should be consummated finally and
fully. The period chosen by Jesus, the true
lamb of God, was the Passover feast. Here
he broke bread and said: “Take, eat; this
is my body. Drink ye all of this; for this
is the new covenant in my blood, which is
shed for many unto the remission of sins.”
“And they all drank it.” Here was the cove-
nant of blood, and the communion feast to-
ward which all rite and symbol and all heart-
yearning and inspired prophecy had pointed
in all ages. He who could speak for God
ring—wherever the
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life. In fact, “the blood is the life, and
makes atonement” in all Oriental thought
and speech.
This blood-covenant was made between sev-
eral Bible characters, as is recorded in the
Old Testament Scriptures. The word for
“covenant” in Hebrew—bereeth—combines
the two ideas of “cutting” and “eating,” and
was made to fit, etymologically, the primi-
tive rite of making the covenant. More-
over, in all the covenants made between indi-
viduals in Bible story, the word translated
by the Occidental mind of our translators,
“made” a “covenant,” is karath—“to cut,”
or, literally, “cut a covenant.”
A reference to the covenants made between
Abraham and Abimelech; between Laban
and Jacob; between Jonathan and David,
will disclose the fact that they, in each in-
stance, in the Hebrew characterization of
it, “cut a covenant,” erected stone memorials,
or planted a tree, exchanged presents and
had a feast—met all the conditions of this
universal and ancient rite. Since death came
to man by sin, and union and communion
were broken between him and his God, he
has longed for oneness of life with his God.
God has revealed to him how this oneness
is to be brought about, and hence how he
may partake of the divine life and nature
symbolically, through the blood-covenant of
the old, and, really and actually, through the
blood of the new covenant. The whole doc-
trine of the atonement through blood, or im-
parted life, which the blood ever signifies
in the Scriptures, is the inspired unfolding
of the idea underlying the blood-covenant of
primitive times, which, itself, was either a
revelation from God given to man soon after
his fall, or was implanted as a germ of
common religious thought in the mind of
man, to which God adapted his successive
believed in him, and whom he loved, of
the same life and nature with himself, and
so of the same nature and life with God;
to bring them into blood-friendship with
God and to supply them with soul-nourish-
ment by the living Bread, which has in it
the power of an endless life. It was on the
same occasion that he called his disciples
“friends” in the covenant of blood-friendship.
They were to have a common life through
union with him and one another. They
were to abide in him by loving, faithful obe-
dience to his commandments. They were to
abide in him and h is words to abide
in their hearts, and then in this union and
intercommunion they could ask and receive
what they would of all that he had to give!
“I in them, and thou in me, that they may
be perfected into one,” was his high priestly
prayer to the Father.
The promise was made good on Calvary.
The pierced hands and feet and brow of the
Divine Friend yielded their life-giving
streams; he poured out his soul, rendered
up his life, and “became sin for us, that
we might be made the righteousness of God
in him.” And he bestowed the gift of his
Spirit and eternal life to all who enter with
faith into and abide in this covenant. He
erected a perpetual memorial to abide “till
There always followed an exchange of
gifts, a feast of friendship, and the erection
on the spot of some memorial, such as a
pile of stones or the planting of a tree. Some-
times a substitute was chosen by each of the
contracting parties and the covenant was
made vicariously. This rule was followed
by both Livingstone and Stanley many times
in their “blood-brotherhood covenants” and
“strong friendship covenants” made with Af-
rican tribal chiefs in their African explora-
tions; and this rite held them in closer tie
than that of birth or sect, as is always the
case. For he who enters into this compact
with another counts himself the partaker
of the other’s life, and he is ever ready to
lay down his life for his friend or with him.
He is now bone of his bone, blood of his
blood and flesh of his flesh and life of his
A WORD OF ADMONITION.
These are times that demand prudence and
discretion upon the part of all men, especial-
ly the ministers of the gospel of Christ.
Their position is such that they stand for
righteousness, and they are supposed to have
a message for all men. While they are citi-
zens and entitled to their views on ques-
tions of public import, yet they represent
Jesus Christ, and their alignments must not
be such as to bar them from any class of
men who stand in need of the benefits of the
gospel. Even in the exercise of their rights
as citizens they must not become extreme
partisans and indulge a spirit of intolerance.
Neither must they become so violent in their
likes and dislikes as to alienate men who
may differ from them on questions of judg-
ment. The gospel of Christ is a gospel of
love, and if our zeal drives us beyond the
limits of this gospel we curtail our influence
and deprive ourselves of the opportunity and
the privilege of helping some one who may
need our sympathy and kindness. As minis-
ters we can not afford to hate anything but
sin and its consequences. Men must never
be the objects of our bitterness and denun-
ciation. If we can not differ from men with-
out cultivating a spirit of enmity, then we
had better sink our differences and confine
our efforts exclusively to the one thing of
preaching the gospel. The minister who so
far forgets, himself as to plunge into heated
partisan political discussions, thereby mak-
ing himself as disagreeable and offensive as
the street politician, does not add anything
to his peace of mind, and he certainly does
not dignify his calling in the esteem of men.
As a matter of fact, personal and partisan
political discussion has but little in it of
special value to the preacher. Under most
all circumstances he ought to eschew such
diversion, especially when he meets men on
the street or in their places of business.
There is but little spiritual or mental profit
in it. It only serves to irritate the mind
and to disrupt close friendships. Most cer-
tainly, such a discussion has no place in the
pulpit. No one is edified by it, but often
when it occurs unkind criticism follows. In
all matters pertaining to the minister’s rela-
tion to his own people and to the people
generally in his charge, he needs to be as
wise as the serpent and as harmless as the
dove. His one business is to save men and
build them up in righteousness.
THE BLOOD-COVENANT.
More and more must we realize the fact
that the Bible is an Oriental book, and is
to be understood through a study of Oriental
modes of thought and speech and customs.
It is also a record of God’s revelation to the
whole human race; its pages are to receive
illumination from all disclosures of the
primitive characteristics and customs of that
race everywhere. One of the primitive cus-
toms that can be traced to the dawn of his-
tory, among all peoples and races, which is
deserving of attention as throwing much
light on Bible teaching, is the rite of “blood-
covenanting.” There are historic traces of
it from time immemorial, in every quarter
of the globe—among the Semitic, Bamitic
and Japhitic races. True, there are slight
variations of its performance, but its gen-
eral features and meaning are the same every-
where. It is called the “covenant of strong
friendship,” or “the blood-covenant,” and
it is the strongest bond of union known to
man when consummated between two or
more persons. In primitive times, and also
in modern times among some peoples, when
two men desired to enter into such a mutual
covenant, they publicly announced their pur-
pose and wrote their declarations in duplicate
—one for each friend, and signed by each.
Then one of the friends took a sharp lancet
and made an incision in the other’s arm, or
breast, or forehead, or hand. The other did
likewise to his friend. Both either drank
or tasted of the mingled blood, sometimes
diluted with water or wine; or rubbed their
wounds together, or clasped bleeding nanos,
so that there might be a transfusion of blood.
And as the blood always stood for the life,
a oneness of life between the two was
effected; their lives through this rite be-
came one.
But before this "at-one-ment" took place,
the blood was sprinkled, or smeared, on the
written declaration or compact, which after-
ward was sewed into a square piece of leather
and bound on the wound, or worn over it,
as an amulet on the arm, around the neck,
Entered at the Postoffice at Dallas, Texas, as • Class Mall Matter Under Act of Congress March 3, 1879.— orfice of Publication: 143 South Ervay Street
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' OFFICIAL ORGAN OF ALL TSAAs AND NEW MEXICO CONFERENCES OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH.
--A .--------------------------------
S$ Dallas, Texas, Thursday, May 14, 1908/
he come.” Entering into this divine-human
covenant of blood-friendship, the believer is
so identified with the life of Christ, by faith,
he can say in all confidence: “I have been
crucified with Christ, yet I live; and yet
no longer I but Christ liveth in me, and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live
in the faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me.” “It pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness
dwell, and through him to reconcile (atone)
all things unto himself, having made peace
(complete union) through the blood of the
cross.” And in “the circumcision not made
with hands,” in “the circumcision of Christ,”
we are Christ’s friends, “Abraham’s seed,
and heirs according to the promise.”
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Rankin, George C. Texas Christian Advocate (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 14, 1908, newspaper, May 14, 1908; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1586277/m1/1/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas State Library and Archives Commission.