beings (so Bruns, in Paulus's Memorab. vi, 1 sq.) re- ceived any encouragement from a sacrifice which Abra- ham was forbidden to accomplish (see Waterland, Works, iv, 203). Some w^riters have found for this transaction a kind of ]mrallel — it amounts to no more — in the clas- sical legends of Iphigenia and I'hrixus (so RosenmiiUer, Morgeid. i, 95), etc. (see J. G. ^Micli.-iclis, I). Ahr. ,-f h. a Gnecls in Hi/rilum et Orioinin cnnr, rsis. I'l-rfi. a. (). 1721; Zeibich, /saaej ortus in fnhnhi Orhniix nMhiia, Ger. 177G). The story of Iiihii;cHia. which inspired the devout Athenian dramatist with suliliiiie notions of the import of sacritice and sufforiiii^ {.Kscli. Ar/am. 147, et se(i.), supplied the Roman intidel only with a keen taunt against religion (Lucret. i, 102), just as the great trial which perfected the faith of Abraham and mould- ed the character of Isaac draws from the Romanized Jew of the first century a rhetorical exhibition of his 'own unacquaintance with the meaning of sacrifice (see Joseph. Ant. i, 13, 3). The general aim of certain writ- ers has been, as they consider it, to relieve the Bible from the odium which the narrated circumstances are in their opinion fitted to occasion. That the passage is free from every possible objection it may be too much to assert : it is, however, equally clear that many of the objections taken to it arise from viewing the facts from a wrong position, or under the discoloring medium of a foregone and adverse conclusion. The only proper way is to consider it as it is represented in the sacred page. The command, then, was expressly designated to try Abraham's faith. Destined as the patriarch was to be the father of the faithful, was he worthy of his high and dignified position? If his own obedience was weak, he could not train others in faith, trust, and love : hence a trial was necessary. That he was not without holy dis- positions was already known, and indeed recognised in the divine favors of which he had been the object; but was he prepared to do and to suffer all God's will ? Re- ligious perfection and his position alike demanded a per- fect heart : hence the kind of trial. If he were willing to surrender even his only child, and act himself both as offerer and priest in the sacritice of the required vic- tim, if he coidd so far conquer his natural affections, so subdue the father in his heart, then there could be no doubt that his will was wholly reconciled to God's, and that he was worthy of every trust, confidence, and honor (comp. James ii, 21). The trial was made, the fact was ascertained, but the victim was not slain. What is there in this to which either religion or morality can take exception? This view is both confirmed and justified by the words of God (Gen. xxii, 16 sq.), " Because thou hast not withheld thy only son, in blessing I wiU bless thee, and in multiplying I will midtiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." We remark, also, that not a part, out the whole of the transaction must be taken un- der consideration, and especially the final result. If we dwell exclusively on the commencement of it, there ap- pears to be some sanction given to human sacrifices ; but the end, and the concluding and ever-enduring fact, has the directly opposite bearing. Viewed as a whole, the transaction is, in truth, an express prohibition of human sacritices. Nothing but a clear command from God could have suggested such a service. '• A craving to please, or propitiate, or communicate with the powers above" by surrendering "an object near and dear" to one, which canon StanW erroneously says is the "source of all sacrifice," and to which he attributes Abraham's conduct in the present case {History of the Jev-ish Church, i, 47), could never have led to such an act. The idea is vvhoUy improbable and irrational. Kurtz main- tains that the basis for this trial of Abraham was laid in the state of mind produced in him by beholding the Canaanitish human sacrifices around him. His words are : " These Canaanitish sacrifices of children, and the readiness with which the heathen around him offered them, must have excited in Abraham a contest of thoughts .... and induced him to examine himself
whether he also were capable of sufficient renunciation and self-denial to do, if his God demanded it, what the heathen around him were doing. But if this question was 1-aised in the heart of Abraham, if must also have been brought to a (hjiiiili- .•« ///< im nt thmunh some outward fact. Such was tiic Imsi.-^ Wn- \\w demand of God so far as Abraham was concerned, and such the educational motive for his trial. The oliedience of Abraham's faith- must, in energy and entireness, not lag behind that which the religion of nature demanded and obtained from its professors. Abraham must be ready to do for his God what the nations around him were capable of doing for their false gods. In every respect Abraham, as the hero of faith, is to out-distance all others in self- denial" {Hist, of the 0. Coven, i, 2G9). Objectively, the transaction was intended to recoynise the element of truth in human sacrifices, while condemning the sacri- fices themselves (p. 209, 270). See Sacuikice.