SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS.

"By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually; that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name."-HEBREWS xiii. 15.

A SACRIFICE is an offering made to God upon his altar by the hand of a lawful minister. Sacrifice differs from oblation in this respect, viz., in a sacrifice there must be a real change or destruction of the thing offered, whereas an oblation is only a simple offering or gift. The sacrifices and oblations of the Jews demand particular notice. Such a ritual as they were enjoined to observe, the multiplicity of victims they were appointed statedly to offer, together with the splendour of that external worship in which they were daily engaged—all tended to replenish and adorn their language with numerous allusions and striking metaphors, derived from the pomp of their religion. Hence it is that the writings of the Jews, more than of any other people, abound with phrases and terms borrowed from the temple worship and service. The psalms and prophetical writings may in particular be adduced in illustration of this remark. "Purge me with hyssop," says David, "and I shall be clean;" "thou shalt be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness" (Psalm li. 7, 9). "Let my prayer come before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" (Ps. cxli. 2). "Therefore will I offer the sacrifice of joy (Ps. cxvi. 17). "The sin of Judah," says Jeremiah, "is graven upon the horns of your

altars." To this notion of sacrifice our Saviour alluded in John xvi. 2, where he tells his disciples that such would be the enmity with which they should be pursued, that he who should kill them would be deemed to have slain a sacrifice highly acceptable to the Almighty: "He that killeth you shall think he doeth God service." In reference also to this notion of sacrifice, the apostle, by a very beautiful and expressive figure, represents Christ as loving us, and giving himself for us "an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savour." Michaelis classes the offerings prescribed to the Israelites under three general heads-namely, bloody offerings, or sacrifices strictly so called; unbloody offerings, or those taken only from the vegetable kingdom; and drink offerings, or libations, which were a kind of accompaniment to the two preceding.

Bloody offerings were sacrifices properly and strictly so called; by which we may understand the inflicting of death on a living creature, generally by the effusion of its blood in a way of religious worship, and the presenting of this act to God as a supplication for the pardon of sin, and as a supposed means of compensation for the insult and injury offered by sin to his majesty and government. Sacrifices have in all ages, and by almost every nation, been regarded as necessary to appease the divine anger, and to render the Deity propitious; but whether this universal notion derived its origin from divine revelation, or was suggested by conscious guilt and a dread of the divine displeasure, is a question that cannot be easily decided. The scripture account of sacrifices leads us to conclude that they were instituted by divine appointment, immediately after the entrance of sin by the fall of Adam and Eve, to be a type or significant emblem of the great atonement or all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ. Accordingly we find Abel, Noah, Abraham, Job, and others, offering sacrifices in the faith of the Messiah that was to be revealed; and the divine acceptance of their sacrifices is particularly recorded. This hypothesis, and this only, satisfactorily accounts for the early prevalence of religious sacrifices, not only among the worshippers of the true God, but also among pagan idolaters. In the selection of the victims, the utmost care was taken to choose such only as were free from every blemish. Unless it were From Scripture Elucidations.

pure and immaculate, it was to be rejected as a sacrifice unacceptable to Jehovah. In a beautiful allusion to this circumstance, St. Paul beseeches Christians, by the mercies of God, to "present their bodies a reasonable service." Hence also Jesus Christ is styled living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is their "lamb without blemish and without spot." Further, it was a custom among nations contiguous to Judea, and particularly among the Egyptians, to set a seal upon a victim that was deemed proper for sacrifice. With this custom the Jews could not be unac

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quainted; and it is possible that similar precautions were in use among themselves, especially as they were so strictly enjoined to have their sacrifices" without spot or blemish." To such a usage Jesus Christ is supposed to have alluded when, speaking of the sacrifice of himself, he says, "Him hath God the Father sealed" (John vi. 27, 51). Infinite justice found Jesus Christ to be without spot or blemish; and therefore sealed, pointed out, and accepted him as a proper sacrifice and atonement for the sin of the whole world. The following account of the manner in which the Egyptians provided white bulls for their sacritices, will materially explain the custom above alluded to. They sacrifice white bulls to Apis, and for that reason make the following trial. If they find one black hair upon him, they consider him as unclean. In order that they may know this with certainty, the priest appointed for this purpose views every part of the animal both standing and lying on the ground; after this he draws out his tongue to see if he be clean, by certain signs; and in the last place he inspects the hairs of his tail, that he may be sure they are as by nature they should be. If, after this search, the animal is found unblemished, he signifies it by tying a label to his horns; then, having applied wax, he seals it with his ring, and they lead him away, for it is death to sacrifice one of these animals unless he has been marked with such a seal. The victim thus

chosen, being found immaculate, was led up to the altar by the person offering the sacrifice, who laid his hand upon its head, on which he leaned with all his strength, and while the sacrifice was offering, said some particular prayers; and if several persons united in offering the same victim, they put their hands upon it in succession. By this imposition of hands the person presenting the victim acknowledged the sacrifice to be his own; that he loaded it with his iniquities; that he offered it as an atonement for his sins; that he was worthy of death because he had sinned, having forfeited his life by violating the law of God; and that he entreated God to accept the life of the innocent animal in the place of his own. In this respect the victims of the Old Testament were types of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Further, in certain cases it was required that the victim should be one on which never came yoke, because any animal which had been used for a common purpose, was deemed improper to be offered in sacrifice to God. The animal thus conducted to the altar, was next immolated by cutting the throat and windpipe entirely through at one stroke, the blood being caught in a vessel and sprinkled round about and upon the altar. By this sprinkling the atonement was made, for the blood was the life of the beast, and it was always supposed that life went to redeem life. The blood remaining after these aspersions was poured out at the foot of the altar, either all at once or at different times, according to the nature of the sacrifice offered. Around the altar there was a kind of trench into which the blood fell, whence it was conveyed by subterraneous channels into the brook Cedron. This altar, being very high, is considered by L'Amy as a type of the cross to which our Saviour was fixed, and which he washed with his precious blood. The victim being thus immolated, the skin was stripped from the neck, its breast was opened, its

bowels were taken out, and the backbone was cleft. It was divided into quarters, so that, both externally and internally, it was fully exposed to view. To this custom of laying open the victim, St. Paul has a very beautiful and emphatic allusion in one of the most animated descriptions ever written of the mighty effects produced by the preached gospel: "The word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; for all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account."

Previously to laying the sacrifice on the altar, it was salted for the fire, the law prohibiting any thing to be offered there which was not salted; and, according to the nature of the sacrifice, either the whole or part of the victim was consumed upon the altar, where the priests kept a fire perpetually burning. Before the building of the temple, sacrifices were offered at the door of the tabernacle; but after its erection it was not lawful to offer them elsewhere. This prohibition took from the Jews the liberty of sacrificing in any other place. The victims might indeed be slain in any part of the priest's court, but not without its precincts, and there they were also obliged to sacrifice the paschal lamb. All the victims were to be offered by daylight, and the blood was always to be sprinkled on the same day that they were slain, as it became polluted so soon as the sun was set. If, however, the sprinkling had been made in the day-time, the members and entrails of the victim might be consumed during the night. The sacrifices of the altar were in general called by the Hebrews korbanim; that is, offerings or oblations to God, from the Hebrew word karab, to approach or bring nigh. This term consequently denotes something brought nigh in order to be dedicated or offered to God, to whom the person offering thus had access in the way appointed by the law; and, therefore, at the close of the enumeration of all offerings by fire, it is added, "This is the law, which the Lord commanded Moses in Mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer or bring nigh their korbanim," that is, offerings or sacrifices of all sorts. The morning sacrifice, according to the Jews, made atonement for the sins committed in the night, and the evening sacrifice expiated those committed during the day.

The unbloody sacrifices consisted of meal, bread, cakes, ears of corn, and parched grain, with oil and frankincense, prepared according to the divine command. Drink offerings were an accompaniment to both bloody and unbloody sacrifices; they were never used separately, and consisted of wine, which appears to have been partly poured upon the brow of the victim in order to consecrate it, and partly allotted to the priests, who drank it with their portions of both these kinds of offerings. Besides the various kinds of sacrifices above described, there were some oblations made by the Jews, consisting of incense, bread, and other things. The shew-bread (Heb. bread of the face), which consisted of twelve loaves, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. They were placed hot, every sabbathday, by the priests upon the golden table in the sanctuary before the Lord, when they removed the stale loaves which had been exposed for the whole of the preceding week. The priests alone were to eat the bread thus removed. David, however, through necessity, broke through this restriction; God preferring mercy to sacrifice, or, in the collision of duties, allow ing a positive to give way to a natural law.

Incense, consisting of several fragrant spices, prepared according to the instructions given to Moses in Exod. xxx. 34-36. It was offered twice every day, morning and evening, by the officiating priest upon an altar of gold, where no bloody sacrifice was to come,

I during which solemn rite the people prayed without in silence. But on the great day of expiation, the high priest himself took fire from the great altar in a golden censer; and, on descending thence, he received incense from one of the priests, which he offered on | the golden altar. During such offering the people prayed silently without; and to this most solemn silence St. John alludes in Rev. viii. 1, where he says that "there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." To this oblation of incense the psalmist refers (cxli. 2) in his devotions, and explains his meaning by his application of it-" Let my prayer be set forth in thy sight as the incense." As the smoke and odour of this offering was wafted into the holy place, close by the veil by which stood the altar of incense, so do the prayers of the faithful ascend upwards, and find admission to the highest heaven. When the Jews made a vow, they made use of one of these two forms-"I charge myself with a burntoffering," or, "I charge myself with the price of this animal for a burnt-offering."

Besides these, they had other shorter forms; for instance, when they devoted all they had, they merely said, "All I have shall be corban," that is, "I make an oblation of it to God." Among other false doctrines taught by the Pharisees, who were the depositaries of the sacred treasury, was this, that so soon as a person had pronounced to his father or mother this form of consecration or offering, "Be it corban, (that is, devoted) whatever of mine shall profit thee" (Mark vii. 11), he thereby consecrated all he had to God, and must not thenceforth do any thing for his indigent parents if they solicited support from him. All the firstfruits, both of fruit and animals, were consecrated to God. These first-fruits were offered from the feast of pentecost until that of dedication, because after that time the fruits were neither so beautiful nor so good as before. Further, the Jews were prohibited from gathering in the harvest until they had offered to God the omer, that is, the new sheaf, which was presented the day after the great day of unleavened bread; neither were they allowed to bake any bread made of new corn, until they had offered the new loaves upon the altar on the day of pentecost; without which all the corn was regarded as unclean and unholy. To this St. Paul alludes in Rom. xi. 16, where he says, "If the first-fruit be holy, the lump also is holy." The presentation of the first fruits was a solemn and festive ceremony. At the beginning of harvest, the sanhedrim deputed a number of priests to go into the fields and reap a handful of the first ripe corn; and these, attended by great crowds of people, went out of one of the gates of Jerusalem into the neighbouring cornfields. The first-fruits thus reaped were carried with great pomp and universal rejoicing through the streets of Jerusalem to the temple. The Jewish writers say that an ox preceded them with gilt horns, and an olive crown upon his head, and that a pipe played before them until they approached the city; on entering it they crowned the first-fruits, that is, exposed them to sight with as much pomp as they could, and the chief officers of the temple went out to meet them. They were then devoutly offered to God, in grateful acknowledgment of his providential goodness in giving them the fruits of the earth. These first-fruits, or handful of the first ripe grain, gave notice to all who beheld them, that the general harvest would soon be gathered in. How striking and beautiful is St. Paul's allusion to this religious ceremony, in that most consolatory and closely reasoned chapter, the fifteenth of his first epistle to the Corinthians, in which, from the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he argues and establishes the certainty of the general resurrection, and represents Christ as the first-fruits of a glorious and universal harvest of all the sleeping dead. "Now is Christ risen, and become the first fruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. xv. 20). The use which the apostle makes

of this image is extensive. "In the first place, the growing of grain from the earth where it was buried, is an exact image of the resurrection of the body; for as the one is sown, so is the other, and neither is quickened except it first die and be buried. Then the whole harvest, from its relation to the first-fruits, explains and ensures the order of our resurrection. For, is the sheaf of the first-fruits reaped? then is the whole harvest ready. Is Christ risen from the dead? then shall all rise in like manner. Is he accepted of God as a holy offering? then shall every sheaf that has grown up with him be taken from the earth, and sanctified in its proper order-Christ the firstfruits, and afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming."

JESUS CHRIST, THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE:

A Sermon,

(For Easter Sunday),

BY THE REV. E. PHILLIPS,

Incumbent of East Tytherley, Hants.

JOHN xi. 25.

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life."

THIS is a dying world; for when our first parents sinned by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, the sentence of death was thus passed upon them--" Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Gen. iii. 19); "It is therefore appointed unto men once to die" (Heb. ix. 27). Nor can it be otherwise but according to the sovereign pleasure of God, who alone is able to save and to destroy, as having the power of life and death. In this chapter is recorded the death of Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary-a brother peculiarly beloved by his sisters, and a man peculiarly esteemed by our Lord, who thus affectionately intimated the event to his disciples, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." But though it was the sleep of death, and he was therefore beyond all hope of being restored to life by any created power in earth or heaven, yet such was the power of Jesus, that he could restore even a putrefying body to life. He therefore said, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep." He kindly went to the house of mourning, and found the relatives and friends immersed in sorrow. But how their sorrow would have been relieved, nay, even removed, had they believed on Jesus as both willing and able to save from the power of death and the grave; but, by the unbelief of the Jews, and by the deep sorrow and defective faith of the sisters, our Lord himself was greatly distressed, nay, he even "groaned in spirit and was troubled" while the sisters and friends laboured under a weight of affliction, and especially under the difficulty which

was raised by their own unbelief against their hope of seeing Lazarus again. It was Martha that first met our Lord in the way of his coming to visit them under their heavy affliction; and when she saw him, in the fulness of her sad heart, but in the weakness of her faith, she said to him, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Yet her faith was dim and defective, or she would not have said so; for if he had thought proper to prevent his death, was it necessary for him to be present? Surely not; for, as the incarnate God, the presence of his human nature was not necessary to exercise the power of his divine nature: every place, and all places at once, are the same for Omnipresence to show his omnipotence. And, as a further instance of her defective faith, she added, "But I know that even now, whatever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee." But did she think him a good man only, or as one of the prophets-though the most eminent of them-who had very extraordinary power with God in prayer? He was more -he was the prophet promised to the world, and possessed of divine powers. He was God in our nature; he therefore said to her in promise, intending to fulfil it by his own divine power, "Thy brother shall rise again.” But Martha, still mistaking her Lord, saith to him, in her faith of the general resurrection, "I know he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." But why not believe, as Jesus, it seems, intended it, that even then he could and would restore her brother to life? Wherefore, to correct and to strengthen her weak and erring faith, and plainly to express himself as having power at all times and everywhere to raise the dead, he said unto her, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die. Believest thou this?" She saith unto him, "Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world."

Let us here observe, that our Lord as plainly and expressly tells us, as he told Martha, that he is the resurrection and the life; and we remark that he is so, not only that he has power with God in prayer to obtain life for whom he will, but that he has life in himself as the author of it, possessing the same divine perfections with God the Father; wherefore, it is written of him (John i. 1.), "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;" and (verse 4), “In him was life." He is therefore called (Rev. iii. 14), "The beginning of the creation of God." Wherefore, in personal connection with the Father and the Holy Spirit, it is written of him (Gen. i. 1), “In

He came to Jesus by night, as he was then, it seems, afraid, and perhaps ashamed, to come to him by day; but whether he came by night or by day, it was well that he came, for it was to the saving of his soul. When he came to Jesus, he thus respectfully said to him, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." When he had thus respectfully introduced himself, our Lord immediately came to the point that most essentially concerned his visitor, and personally said to him, and in a manner peculiarly earnest and solemn, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." At this solemn, this personal declaration, Nicodemus, it seems, was surprised and puzzled, and answered even in this remarkable manner, "How can these things be? How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" And thus he plainly proved his gross ignorance of our Lord's meaning, and is here recorded as an instance-positive and infallible- that a man may be eminent in learning, and even in the knowledge of the scriptures and in religious observances-yea, eminent in morals and in amiable disposition, as Nicodemus was; and yet be grossly ignorant of spiritual truth in a spiritual manner, as he was of the new birth here intended by our Lord. When this master of Israel, as Nicodemus was, expressed his surprise, his gross ignorance, his strange mistake, Jesus continued, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." No; man, as a sinner, cannot enter into the kingdom of God, since nothing unclean, nothing rebellious, can enter there; and if he were admitted, he could not enjoy the holy society, the pure delights of it-for nothing carnal, nothing sensual is there; but all is spiritual and heavenly. If, then, the sinner enter the kingdom of God, he must have another nature in the character of it—a nature suited to the holiness of that place and state. The Holy Spirit, therefore, must take him in hand, and mould him as a vessel unto honour, fit for the house and service of Jesus, the "Lord of all;" or form him as an infant in the womb, which, in due course, shall be born into the spiritual world, and grow up into spiritual life as the child of God, the servant and soldier of Jesus Christ. Thus the sinner must undergo a spiritual and divine change by the power of the Holy Ghost on his soul, quickening, enlightening, and renewing him, that he may know and feel himselfa sinner, and that he may know and enjoy Christ as his Saviour;

and hence may live that life on earth which is the beginning of eternal life in heaven. Referring to himself as the author of this spiritual life, our Lord thus tells us plainly in chap. x. 10, "I am come that they might have life, and they might have it more abundantly." Here we remark the gracious design of the coming of the Son of God into our world. He came that sinners might have life-that condemned sinners, dead in law, may have their sentence remitted by faith in the death of Christ, and live; and that sinners, dead in sin, may be quickened in their souls to a life of holiness and true happiness in the service, and under the smiles of God-that life which Adam lost by his disobedience, but which "the second Adam, the Lord from heaven," restores by his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, answerable to all the requirements of the divine law and justice, but especially by his glorious resurrection from the dead; and we add, that he came that sinners who believe in him may not only have life, but that they may have it more abundantly than ever Adam in innocence enjoyed it, or than ever it had been communicated to sinners by any before Christ. What a gracious, manifold design of his coming into the world in favour of sinners-of mankind who are so awfully sunk in sin, in wretchedness, and in ruin!

But what do we hear from the same lifeinspiring Lord? O listen to his complaint (John v. 40)-"Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life!" What an affecting and awful intimation! as if sinners would rather do without Christ. Sinners do without Christ! Tremendous undoing! For what is it, but doing without light? They must therefore remain in the thick darkness of ignorance and error. What is it, but doing without the life of God in their souls? They must therefore remain dead in sin, "without God, and without hope in the world." Will sinners do without Christ, and therefore without the only Saviour? They must therefore be lost for ever; for "there is salvation in no other; there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts iv. 12). Will they do without Christ, the only way to God and heaven? They must therefore remain the enemies of God, and in the way to hell. Will sinners do without Christ, the truth? They must therefore remain the dupes of error, the children of the father of lies. Will they do without Christ, and reject him in unbelief? Greater, therefore, will be their sin-greater the wrath of God which they will provoke against themselves, and greater will be their damnation! O sinners, listen to the Saviour's complaint-"Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life!"