It was but a few days after our Lord's Birth that His Precious Blood first flowed for the sins of men. It was on the occasion of His circumcision the rite which is generally believed to have been the condition of the cleansing away of original sin under the Jewish covenant. O Jesus, at least Thine infancy might have passed before the work of expiation began! No; from His earliest days Christ began His work of redemption. In His yearning love He longed for suffering on behalf of those He loved, and would brook no delay.

The Precious Blood flowing in those earliest days teaches us another lesson. It shows how sin never fails to bring suffering with it. If it did so in the case of God made Man, and that throughout His life, so that He was never exempt from suffering, how much more is it reasonable that it should do so in the case of sinful man. If it did such things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? How then can I with all my sins expect to escape suffering?

Yet this first blood-shedding, this early suffering, was the occasion of the Name of Jesus being given to the Child Who endured it. He was our Saviour in, and because of, His suffering in, and because of, the shedding of His Precious Blood. Hence to suffer for Him, to be willing to shed our blood for Him, is the condition of sharing in His glorious work as Saviour of the world. Without suffering, without shedding of blood, there is no remission.