Editorial note — LESSON IX.

[Footnote A: "In tracing the history of sacrifice, from its first beginning to its perfect development in the Mosaic ritual, we are at once met by the long-disputed question, as to the origin of sacrifice; whether it arose from a natural instinct of man, sanctioned and guided by God, or whether it was the subject of some distinct primeval revelation. * * * The great difficulty in the theory which refers it to a distinct command of God, is the total silence of Holy Scriptures—a silence the more remarkable, when contrasted with the distinct reference made in Gen. ii to the origin of the Sabbath. Sacrifice, when first mentioned, in the case of Cain and Abel, is referred to as a thing of course; it is said to have been 'brought' by men; there is no hint of any command given by God. This consideration, the strength of which no ingenuity has been able to impair, although it does not actually disprove the formal revelation of sacrifice; yet at least forbids the assertion of it, as of a positive and important doctrine." (Smith's "Bible Dictionary"—Hackett ed.—Art. "Sacrifice," Vol. IV, p. 2770).

Was sacrifice in its origin "a human invention or a divine institution; and whether any of the sacrifices before the law, or under the law, were sacrifices of expiation. Eminent and numerous are the authorities on both sides of these questions; but the balance of theological opinion preponderated greatly for the affirmative in each of them. On the lower point, however, (viz., were the sacrifices sacrifices of expiation) most of those who deny that there was an expiatory sacrifice before the law, admit its existence under the law; and on the first, those who hold that sacrifice was of divine origin, but became much corrupted, and was restored by the Mosaic law, do not in substance differ much from those who hold it to have been a human invention, formally recognized, and remodelled by the law of Moses." Kitto's "Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature," Art. "Sacrifices." The difficulty and doubt in respect of both questions presented by these authorities is overcome by the passage which follows in the text from the Book of Moses.]