Page:What Is The True Christian Religion?.pdf/18

 name of the Lord as Jehovah revealed to him. He was still too external despite his high quality of implicit obedience. Abraham's decendants still kept up the worship of God by animal sacrifices. it was a heathenish custom expressing the idea of reconciliation with God by shedding blood. It too often resulted in the shedding of human blood as expiation for offenses to Deity, under the superstitious belief that Deity could be pacified, appeased only by the vicarious yielding up of precious life. As we read of those ancient peoples trying to appease Deity in this way we have a deep pity for their grossly superstitious idea of what God requires of His children. Surely we have gone far beyond any such superstitious idea of God. Or have we?

Through Moses God gave the children of Israel many laws regarding health and sanitation and social relationships, but, in order to keep them from worshipping heathen idols, like those of Egypt and neighboring lands, and reverting to gross idolatry. He permitted them to have a worship through animal sacrifice; but, mark this, He utterly changed the spirit of it, making the animals to represent the offering up of their good affections, for animal life represents the emotional life of man, and making the meal offerings from the vegetable kingdom to represent their good thoughts; for the vegetable kingdom, represents the intellectual life of man. In this way worship through sacrifices was made possible, possible to a savage people unable to appreciate true ethical ideals. Their plural wives and easy divorce and spirit of revenge show how external they really were. They had the spirit of a savage race, but were held to some degree in check by Divine law.

To them God had to reveal Himself in the best way possible, but their spirit was not greatly changed ever after they came into the land of Israel. They did each man that which was right in his own eyes and worshipped the gods of the land. However, we perceive that as the centuries passed by the mark of a faithful Israelite was the performance of worship through animal sacrifice. Yet Christian worship has gone little further. While animal sacrifices were abolished for Christians following the founding of the Christian Church. the spirit of it was continued. The writers of the New Testament