"By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness in respect of his gifts: and through it he being dead yet speaketh" (Hebrews 11:4). Since the earliest years of this earth's history, the blood of martyr's has been the seed that spreads the truth of God's character and influences the living to trust in Him.  Abel was a steadfast adherent to the will of God. More than anything else, he wished to exalt his Maker as the Supreme One, as the Master of all that is. By sacrificing one of his choice lambs for a burnt offering to the Lord, this younger son of Adam was looking ahead to both the Father's immense pain in separating from His Son in a gift to the world; and Jesus' immeasurable sacrifice.  Though an imperfect reflection, it was indeed "a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." It was heart service. Abel believed in his heart that a...

"The plan of salvation was laid in a sacrifice so broad and deep and high that it is immeasurable. Christ did not send His angels to this fallen world, while He remained in heaven; but He Himself went without the camp, bearing the reproach. He became a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; Himself took our infirmities, and bore our weaknesses. And the absence of self-denial in His professed followers, God regards as a denial of the Christian name. Those who profess to be one with Christ, and indulge their selfish desires for rich and expensive clothing, furniture, and food, are Christians only in name. To be a Christian is to be Christlike. "And yet how true are the words of the apostle: 'For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.' Many Christians do not have works corresponding to the name they bear. They act as if they had never heard of the plan of redemption wrought out at infinite cost. The majority aim to make a name for themselves in...