THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, EDITED BY THE
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DEAN OF GLOUCESTER;
AND DY TTTE
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A
WITH
INTRODUCTIONS BY THE
VERY REV. F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., DEAN OF CANTERBURY. RIGHT REV. H. COTTERILL, D.D., F.R.S.E. VERY REV. PRINCIPAL J. TULLOCH, D.D. REV. CANON G. RAWLINSON, M.A. REV. A. PLUMMER, M.A., D.D.
NEW EDITION.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1907 PRINTIID BV Wll.LIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AKD BECCI.IIS. THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, BDITBD BY TllB
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DEAN 01' OLOUCJ:l!'l'BB;
AN?> DY TB'.B
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
LEVITICUS. Jf ntrobuctfons. BEV. B. COLLINS, M.A. REV. PROF. A. CAVE, B.A.
~xpos(tion anb l,1;1omilttfcs REV. F. MEYRICK, M.A., RECTOR 01' BJ..ICB:LJNG1 PREBENDARY OF LINCOLN, AND EXAHJNING CRAPLAIN TO THII LORD BISHOP OJ' LINCOLN.
l£!om(l{es b11 1:7arious ~utfJom. REV. PROF. R. A. REDFORD, LL.B., M.A. REV. R. M. EDGAR, M,A. BEV. W. CLARKSON, B.A. REV. J. A. MACDONALD. REV. B. B. ALDRIDGE, B.A., LL.B.
NEW EDITION.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1907 AN ESSAY ON SACRIFICE. BY TBll
BEV. RICHARD COLLINS, M.A..
WHAT Is the origin, true character, and proper place of sacrifice as a part of religion? Half a century ago, when many of 118 were schoolboys, there was certain definite teaching on this subject. Probably nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thonsand educated Englishmen, who had seriously turned their thoughts to the matter, were per- fectly satisfied with the view, and regarded it as almost axiomatic, that sacrifice was a divinely appointed religious rite, intended to t.ypify and educate the world for one Great Sacrifice, which Great Sacrifice having been accomplished., there was no need for, or even place for, any future sacrifice, truly so called, in the Christian Church. I do not put the matter thUB under the idea that the consensus of antiquity is necessarily any warrant for the truth of a doctrine, but only because the view of sacrifice that I have alluded to has eeemed to multitudes so ecriptural, so simple, so fully to account for the peculiarities and mysteries of the subject, that in recansiderillg it we should be led to use the utmost diligence in finally satisfying our minds as to its true place and character. For we must reconsider it, if not for our own satisfaction, at least for the satisfaction of those we may have to teach, This duty is forced upon us by the fact that the waves of modem opinion have rudely shaken our ancient, and what perhaps we considered our orthodox, notions about sacrifices; and, indeed, it has been not merely a shaking, but a complex shaking-one wave rolling the notion in one direction and another in an opposite one, so that we feel that we must first secure the notion before we can assign it its true place in history n-nd in reference to the Christian religion. Men, probably equals in intellectual force and learning, have lately propounded views as to the nature and office of sacrifice so diametrically contradictory the one to the other that both cannot be true : the truth must either reside in the one, to the total exclusion of the other, or it must be found between the two, or beyond either. According to one view, sacrifice is a mistake of man's still undeveloped reason in the days of his ignorant wonder. The inexorable laws of nature pressed upon man's infant intelligence, so that he worshipped them in fear, and exalted them into gods. The inevitable begat the idea of an inflexible, exacting justice which must be satisfied. or appeased, Hence arose the idea of propitiation before the presence of this rigorous justice, at length personified, by the immolation of the best a II]jin had-the fruit of bis body, or some other costly human sacrifice; a sacrifice which was, as human reason became more highly developed, commuted by the offering of animal instead of human life. A. further development, as human reason grew, was a mere self-sacrifice, not of blood, but of service, as in the case of the Buddhist. And the last stage of develop- ment, according to this teaching, is the elimination from mankind of every sacrificial altar and every dogma having a sacrificial aspect. According to the other view, not only were animal sacrifices of Divine institution., LBVlTiotJB. b I AN ESSAY ON SACRIFICE.
prospective to the Great S&crifioe, but tho duty of offering a eacri6ce le 1tl\l the central duty of the Christian Church. The Catholic Chui th is truly Christ's boJ.y only so long as it contains a sacrificing priesthood, and a sacrifice as truly such as were the eaori6ces of Aaron. The offering of the Holy Eucharist is not a commemorative sacrifice ln the 11ense of ite bci!1g a commemoration or a sacrifice, but in the sense of its being a true ()lJlation of tht\t which shall plead for the quick, and even, as some hold, for the dead. In 8hort, 11COOrding to this school of thought, the highest development of human reason. in respect to this matter is the exact converse of that previously stated. It is that the life of the Church absolutely depends upon its enshrinement of a true eacrifioial altar and upon a continually sacrificing priesthood. Where lies the truth? A.s an exponent of the former view, we may take a recent article In the Nineteenth Century, on Shylock's bond, 'The Pound of Flesh,' by Mr. Moncure D. Conway. According to the argument pursued in that article, it is maintained that the idea of sacrifice &TOiie from "non-human nature;" that it was the outgrowth of "nature. worship," the remorselessness of hard "nature.I" law calling for recompense; a.nd that forgiveness is the highest development of "human nature "-that mercy is the basis of "purely human religion." A.s an exponent of the other extreme, we may take the writings of Mr. Orby Shipley, who states that Christ becomes "incarnate in the hands of the priest" at the consecra- tion of the elements in the Holy Eucharist, and that there and then a sacrifice is offered for the sins of mankind. I propose to consider the subject of sacri.6.~ I. In its origin ; II. In its limits.