the ruby gem of the ring of divine love. By Charles Spurgeon. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. The greatest treasure of all of God's unsearchable riches was His only begotten Son. God took Jesus from His bosom, where He had forever dwelt serenely, and sent Him to earth. that he might live and die to save rebellious sinners. The death of Jesus manifests the solemnity of God's dealings with sin and is fitted to bow the soul in lowliest humility before him. If the evil of sin is seen in the tremendous price required to atone for it, then sin must be evil beyond thought, for nothing less than the bloody death of the Son of God could remedy it. In the presence of the sin-atoning sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary, sin must be an evil so great that it is not possible to exaggerate its horrors. O sinful men, your transgressions are horrendous indeed, since they can only be expiated by such a sacrifice. O reprehensible creatures, you required a dying God to save you.

The sin-atoning death of Jesus displayed the supreme love of God to heinous men. He gave up the darling of His heart to save wicked sinners. God has manifested His love in the death of His beloved Son in a way which must have astonished every inhabitant of heaven, and it ought to ravish every man of this lower globe. Truly, the blood of Jesus is the ruby gem of the ring of divine love.

Brethren, we have but a faint idea of how much the Lord our God loves us. God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There was nothing lovable in us. We were enemies to God, polluted and polluting. There was everything in us that was obnoxious to the holy mind of God. And yet, because of the riches of His grace and the supremacy of His mercy, He loved us to the uttermost. Lament that you should be guilty of such a horrible thing, that even God's own spotless Son must suffer, bleed, and die, before our sin, with all its scarlet dye, could be washed out. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot,