Heb. xiii, 10, " We have an altar," etc., Macknight explains thus : " Here, by a usual metonymy, the al-' tar is put for the sacrifice, as is plain from the apostle's adding 'of which they have no right to cat.'1 This is the sacrifice which Christ offered for the sins of the world ; and the eating of it does not mean corporeal eat- ing, but the partaking of the pardon which Christ, by that sacrifice, had procured for sinners" (comp. Olshau* sen, Comment, in loc). See Lord's Supper.
One wooden table was wont to be placed iu the
ALTAR
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ALTAR
midst of every meeting-place of the primitive Chris- tians, upon which each of them laid what he bestowed for the use of the poor, as we are informed by Thcod- oret (v. 18; see Heb. xii, 10) ; and because alms are noted with the name of sacrifice, that table upon which they were laid was called by the ancient Christians an altar. Compare Sacrifice.
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Druidical Circle ia the Isle of Jersey
I. Pagan. — There is a strong probability that some of those ancient monuments of unhewn stone, usually called Druidical remains, which are found in all parts of the world, were derived from the altars of primitive times. See Stone. These are various in their forms, and their peculiar uses have been very much disputed. (See Penny Cyclopcedia, s. v. Avebury, Carnac, Stonc- henge.) Dr. Kitto has elaborately examined the sub- ject {Pict. Hist, of Palest, append, to bk. iii, ch. iii and iv), and comes to the conclusion that the cromlechs are representatives of ancient altars, while the kist- vaens, or stones disposed in a chest-like form, are anal- ogous to the arks of Jewish and Egyptian worship [sec Ark], and are remnants of the so-called arkite traditions. See Flood. Cromlechs are somewhat in the form of a table, one large stone being sup- I
level for the fire and the sacrifice. Such are the cairns of altar-like form, many of which still remain ; but as they are sometimes found in places where stones of large size might have been obtained, it seems that in later times such altars had a special appropriation ; and Toland shows {Hist, of Brit. Druids, p. 101) that the sacred fires were burned on them, and sacrifice* offered to Bel, Baal, or the Sun. In man}' in- stances, as at Stonehen^e, a circle of stones is ranged around a central one in an amphitheatrical manner, an arrangement which has been found to take place likewise even in Persia, as at Darab (Ousc- Ibv's Travels, ii, 124). Caesar refers to such con- secrated circles for na- tional deliberation among the Gauls {Bell. Gall, vi), and Homer alludes to Grecian councils held within circles of stones (//. xviii, 585; comp. Od. viii, 5). The following, figured from Ouseley {Travels in Persia, ii, 80- 83), was called by the na- tives " Stone of the Fire Temple," and is surrounded by a low wall. It is ten or eleven feet high, and about three square. Two sides contain an inscription, in Pehlvi, wichin a sunken
Druidical Cromlech.
ported in a horizontal or slightly inclined position upon three or more, but usually three stones, set up- right. That the}' were used as altars is almost in- stinctively suggested to every one that views them; - and this conclusion is strengthened when, as is often the case, we observe a small circular hole through which probably the rope was run by which the victims, when slaughtered, were bound to the altar, as they were to the angular projections or " horns" of the Jewish altar (Psa. exxili, 27). It was natural that when a suf- ficiency of lar^c stones could not lie found, heaps of smaller ones should be employed, and that, when practicable, a large flat stone would be placed on the top, to give a proper
Druidical Cairn.
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circle There is a small cavity on the top, as if to contain fire. The pyramids (q. v.) of Egypt may like- wise have been originalh' sites of worship.
Passing by the early and rude forms of altars still extant of the Mexican worship, since too little is known of the history and application of these to illus- trate our subject in any definite manner, we notice those of Egypt as being first both in point of aptness
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Ancient Kgyptian Altar of bloody Offerings.
ALTAR
179
ALTAR
and antiquity. The first of the accompanying speci- mens is of a purely Egyptian character, and is taken from the representations of sacrifice upon the monu- ments.
Among the ancient Egyptian pictures that have been dis- covered at Hercula- neum are two of a very curious descrip- tion, representing sa- cred ceremonies of the Egyptians, prob- ably in honor of Isis. In one the scene is in the area before a tem- ple (as usual) ; the congregation is nu- merous, the music va- Egyptian Altar of Burnt-offering. riouS) flnd thfl pdests
engaged are at least nine persons. The temple is raised, and an ascent of eleven steps leads up to it.