smites him to the ground wounded to death, and his flowing blood
sprinkles the boy whom he has saved.

A breathless spectator says: "The child's faith saved him."
Another says: "How quick the lad was! His courageous leap saved
him." Another says: "Bless the child! He was in awful danger, and
he just barely saved himself." Another says: "That man's word
just reached the boy's ear in the nick of time, and saved him."
Another says: "God bless that man! He saved that child." And yet
another says: "That boy was saved by blood; by the sacrifice of
that heroic man!"

Now, what saved the child? Without the man's presence and promise
there would have been no faith; and without faith there would
have been no saving action, and the boy would have perished. The
man's word saved him by inspiring faith. Faith saved him by
leading to proper action. He saved himself by leaping. The man
saved him by sacrificing his own life in order to catch him when
he leaped out.

Not the child himself alone, nor his faith, nor his brave leap,
nor his rescuer's word, nor his blood, nor the man himself saved
the boy, but they all together saved him; and the boy was not
saved till he was in the arms of the man.

And so it is faith and works, and the word and the blood and the
Holy Ghost that sanctify.

The blood, the sacrifice of Christ, underlies all, and is the
meritorious cause of every blessing we receive, but the Holy