"This, too, is what is meant by that statement so dear to some and so shocking to others,--that we are saved by the blood of Christ. Let us try for a moment to disabuse our minds of traditional opinions and see what that phrase means looked at in the light of history. Is 'the blood of Christ' the blood which flowed from Him at the crucifixion? His was almost a bloodless death; a few drops of blood only trickled from the pierced hands and feet; for the blood and water that came from the side when the spear pierced it came after death, when the suffering was all over. Blood, the Bible itself declares, is life; we are saved by the blood of Christ when we are saved by the life of Christ, by Christ's own life imparted to us, by Christ's life transmitted; and by Christ's life transmitted, as life alone can be transmitted, through the gateway of pain and suffering. The suffering of Jesus Christ was not a single episode,--one short hour, one short three years: the suffering of Jesus Christ was the revelation of the eternal fact that God is from eternity the Life-giver, and that giving life costs God something as it costs us something." _Meaning of Revelation and the Struggle for Righteousness:_ "Knowledge of the truth, clearness of apprehension and tenacity of grasp upon it, are developed by struggle with error. Revelation is not a divine contrivance for saving men from struggle, but a divine incitement to and encouragement in struggle! Virtue is developed by struggle with temptation. Grace is not an easy bestowment of virtue on an unstruggling creature, but such aid as is necessary to inspire the courage of hope and give assurance of victory. But struggle is for others as well as for self: the struggle of love as well as of self-interest; the struggle of parents for their offspring, of reformers for the state, of martyrs for the church. And these struggles all point to and are prophetic for the service and the sacrifice of the Son of God. For this struggle of love is divine. It belongs not to the infirmity of humanity, but is an essential element in that process of evolution which is God's way of doing things.