Salvation is Dark and Bloody Ground

“Cowards live for the sake of living, but for heroes, life is a weapon, a thing to be spent, a gift to be given to the weak and the lost and the weary, even to the foolish and the cowardly . . .
“[T]hey do not pour out their blood because the one they save deserves such a sacrifice . . . Love burns hotter than justice, and its roar is thunder. Beside love, even wrath whispers . . . Our goal was never to live, our goal is to love. It is the goal of all truly noble men and women. Give all that can be given. Give even your life itself . . .
“There is only one Rupert Greeves, Cyrus Smith, and many undeserving fools who need him. He walks the boneyard path, following in the steps of the one Mortal from whom even the Reaper fled in fear. That path runs beneath headstones, down through the lightless cold of lonely loss, through the dark valleys where death was borne down to the black soul river and the final battle line. Only love can set a man’s feet on such a path. Only love can see him through, into rest and the hot light of the sun.”
– Brother Niffy, Empire of Bones by N.D. Wilson