xxiii,  34-43;  Numb,  xxix,  12-39;

Deut.  xvi,  13-15)-


(  3.    The  Day  of  Atonement  (Levit.  xvi;  xxiii,  26-32).
[89]


I.    The     Sabbath

and      Holi

days  connec
ted   there

with  :

II.
MOSAIC

HOLIDAYS:

2.    The     Three

Great  foyous  '
Festivals  :

CHAPTER    IX.
THE    MOSAIC    LAW.
SECTION   II.     SACRIFICIAL  AND  FESTIVAL  RITES.
§  i.      The  Mosaic  Sacrifices.
i.  Sacrifice,  an  Expression  of  Religious  Worship.
The  rite  of  sacrifice,  as  a  public  expression  of  religious  wor
ship,  goes  back  to  the  most  remote  antiquity,  and  will  ever
remain  not  only  the  most  fitting  acknowledgment  of  God's
supreme  Majesty,  infinite  holiness,  justice  and  liberality,  but
also  the  means  best  calculated  to  impress  upon,  and  develop
in,  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men,  the  feelings  which  they
should  bear  towards  their  almighty  Maker  and  Preserver.
In  the  time  of  the  exodus,  numerous  sacrifices  were  offered
to  their  gods  by  the  Egyptians,  as  well  as  by  the  other  nations
of  the  ancient  world,  and  it  behooved  Moses,  who  was  so
anxious  to  preserve  in  its  purity  the  religious  belief  in  Israel,
to  determine,  in  detail,  which  sacrificial  rites  the  Hebrews
should  retain  from  the  Egyptian  ceremonial,  and  which  they
should  discard.  This,  therefore,  he  did  with  a  completeness
and  precision  all  the  more  necessary,  because  he  knew  he
was  legislating  in  a  most  important  matter  and  for  all  future
ages.  The  numerous  sacrifices  which  he  prescribed  to  the
Jewish  people  can  be  divided  into  two  great  classes  :  (i)  the
bloody  sacrifices,  in  which  the  Israelites  testified,  by  the
slaying  of  animals,  the  supreme  power  of  God  over  the  life
and  death  of  His  creatures  ;  (2)  the  unbloody  sacrifices,  by
which  they  acknowledged  Jehovah  as  the  bestower  of  the
land  and  of  its  produce.
