“Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of the altar with the blood of the sin-offering of atonements.” “The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonementfor your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11). The Old Testament word “atone” means “to cover”; and the blood is that which “covers” sin, so that it becomes hidden and undiscernible by God Himself;—as if the only thing through which the eye of God could not penetrate was the altar-blood. To him whose sin is thus “covered” by the blood, God is propitious. The blood propitiates; and the blood, received by the sinner (in the belief of God’s testimony to it), propitiates God toward the sinner himself personally. Only the blood can cover. Not mountains, nor seas, nor the thick forests of earth; only blood,—the blood of the one Sacrifice. In this is atonement; and, as the result of atonement, personal reconciliationwith God. Looking at the paschal blood, God says, “Pass over, slay not”; looking at the sacrificial blood, God says, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 4:12).