Thus there were successively fear-offerings, thank-offerings, and joy-offerings. Moreover, vows were a most important form of religious service. A person about to engage in some difficult or dangerous enterprise, pledged himself, in case of success or deliverance, to a self-imposed sacrifice, that is, he offered a vow. This feeling, honourable in itself, became, however, too often a fearful evil by a narrow-minded application. A vow was deemed irrevocable, even if it was fatal and criminal in its effects, even if it demanded the life of a beloved and innocent child. But in the lapse of ages, as religious education advanced, it was felt that man ought not only to demand benefits, or express his gratitude when he had received them, but that, before he approached the altar with his gifts and supplications, he ought to expiate the guilty deeds which weighed upon his conscience. Thus his sacrifices became sin-offerings and purifications. And then profound minds became aware that the innate frailty of man will ever make him liable to transgression, and that sin-offerings were required not merely for special offences, but for human life in general with its temptations and moral trials. Thus humility-sacrifices were introduced, the last and highest stage of offering, the one nearest allied to the sacrifice of the heart and spirit-to prayer. But to prayer as a principal mode of worship, the ancient Hebrews were not permitted to advance. Supplications are indeed to be found in the Scriptures; but the prayers of Hannah, of David, of Solomon, and others, though beautiful and breathing piety and fervour, were only regarded as additions to sacrificial offerings; and though they were often the spontaneous outpourings of gratitude, despair, and entreaty, they were not an invariable or indispensable part of worship. The sacrifices were the material expression of prayer, and the different kinds of offering explained sufficiently what prayer they denoted. We shall now consider the sacrifices of the Hebrews as ordained in the Pentateuch. For this purpose, we shall have recourse to a work from which we have obtained assistance before.1 The sacrifices consisted either of animal or of vegetable offerings. As a rule, the burnt-, the expiatory, and the purification-offerings were animal sacrifices, while the thank-offerings could be either animal or vegetable. The sacrifices of animals were generally accompanied by a cereal offering, and by a libation of wine or a drinkoffering. The following table comprises the chief offerings of the Hebrews: I. Burnt-offering-exclusively an animal sacrifice. 1. Praise-offering. 2. Thank-offering. 3. Paschal-offering. 4. Offering of first-born animals. 5. Offering of firstfruits. a. Offering of the first new ears of corn. b. Offering of the first new bread. c. Offering of the firstfruits of other vegetable productions. III. Expiatory Offering. 1. Sin-offering-mainly animal. 3. Offering of jealousy-vegetable. IV. Purification-offering-mainly animal. 1. After childbirth. 1 Kalisch, Commentary on Leviticus, Part I. 2. After recovery from leprosy. 3. After recovery from illness. V. Drink-offering. VI. Shew-bread. VII. Incense-offering. 6 The victims were naturally limited to clean animals.' Therefore of quadrupeds, the cloven-footed ruminants were permitted: But among these again the Law singled out the species which formed the ordinary food of the Israelites, were most valuable to agriculturists, and therefore really involved a sacrifice, an act of devoted selfdenial; especially as the same animals, being bred, reared, and domesticated by the worshipper, bore a close connection with his pursuits and his ordinary life, and were creatures which he "had toiled for and made grow." Hence the quadrupeds ordained for sacrifices were not beasts like the hart, the roebuck, or the fallow deer, though these were considered clean and lawful for food, but mainly cattle, whether from the herd or from the flock; of the former class the bullock and ox, the cow and calf; of the latter class the sheep and the goat.' (Ibid. Levit. pp. 78, 79.) Of fowls, turtle-doves alone and young pigeons were to be offered, because they were abundantly reared and kept in Palestine, and formed the principal animal food of the poor, though they were also found wild in mountains and ravines throughout the country. Fishes were not at all accepted as sacrifices, evidently because they multiply freely in the water, without the care and control of man. The significance of all these restrictions is manifest: the Law demanded for sacrifices not merely the tamest animals, and such which were most readily at hand, but those which, at the same time, reminded the worshippers of their daily labour, of their dependence on Him who had allowed it to prosper, and of their deep obligations to His unceasing beneficence. Although the stag and the deer, when kept and bred, were unquestionably the property of individuals, they could, as a species, not be claimed by legal owners, and might well be regarded, even if not presented on the altar, as belonging to God, the Lord of nature: "I will take no bullock, says God, out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds; for every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon thousands of hills." Not all productions of the land, nor all the articles of food, were demanded, but those only which man had made his own by honest exertion and watchful The oblations were indeed to represent the property and sustenance, but also the active life and energy of the people. They were a partial restitution of the blessings which God had mercifully vouchsafed to the offerer; they impressed the seal of religion upon his gain; they hallowed his life for the maintenance of which that gain was destined.' (Ibid. p. 81.) care. Similar principles decided the selection of the vegetable productions which were to be taken for the bloodless offerings, viz. flour-or in some cases roasted grains rubbed out of the early ears of corn-wine, and oil, which three productions are often mentioned as the principal means of sustenance, and the staple of Canaan's wealth. Salt was to be added on nearly all occasions. Not the free and common gifts or the spontaneous vegetation of nature, however esteemed and precious, were to be dedicated to the Deity-not figs, pomegranates, dates, or almonds, though forming characteristic products of Palestine, but those objects only which the offerer had made his individual property by exertion and anxious attention, and which he had obtained by the sweat of his brow: gratitude, humility, self-abnegation, and the reality of a hard-working life were to be mirrored in every offering.' (Ibid. p. 85.) Bloodless oblation.-Vegetable offerings were presented at least as early as animal sacrifices, especially by poorer persons. But in the course of time, the notion evidently gained ground that sacrifices, like ordinary repasts, ought to consist not only of meat, but also of vegetables or cereals and of wine. Hence it was ordained that all usual burnt- and thank-offerings should be accompanied by vegetable and drink-offerings. However, a cereal oblation was frequently presented alone as an independent sacrifice, for instance, by the nation every Sabbath, when the twelve cakes of shew-bread were placed on the golden Table in the Holy; on the second day of Passover, when the first sheaf of ripe barley was offered; and on Pentecost, when the first loaves baked of the new wheat were laid on the altar; it was presented by the very poor as a sinoffering for certain offences instead of an animal sacrifice; and in nearly all these cases the oblation was to consist of not less than one-tenth of an ephah, or an omer of flour, which quantity was supposed to be required for the daily food of one person. Drink-offering.--The Law, regulating an old practice or custom, prescribed that every animal holocaust or thank-offering, whether public or private, if consisting of a quadruped, should be accompanied not only by a cereal gift, but also by a libation of wine, which perhaps formed part of independent cereal oblations also. The mode of libation is not described in the Law, but it appears that at least a part of the wine was out of golden vessels poured into the flames, and thus came upon the brazen altar, like the meat and the fat, the flour and the cakes, the oil and the incense, as "food to the Lord" or "an offering made by fire, a sweet odour to the Lord," while the rest was probably, like the blood, poured out at the sides of the brazen altar. In this manner all the wine |