2. Secondly, in the place of the early sacrifices, which were of no use to any one, or which were only of use as the great banquets of a civic feast, was revealed Charitable the truth that the offerings acceptable to God efforts. were those which contributed to the good of mankind. Thus the Prophet Hosea tells us that "God will have mercy instead of sacrifice." The Proverbs and the Book of Tobit tell us that sins are purged away, not by the blood of senseless animals, but by kindness to the poor. Beneficent, useful, generous schemes for the good of mankind are the substitutes for those useless offerings of the ancient world. And because such beneficent acts can rarely be rendered except at some cost and pain and loss to ourselves, the word "sacrifice" has gradually been appropriated in modern language to such cost and pain and loss. "Such an one did such an act," we say, "but it was a great sacrifice for him." 3. And this leads to the third or chief truth which has sprung up in place of the ancient doctrine of sacrifices. It is that the sacrifice which God values Self-sacrimore than anything else is the willing obedi- fice ence of the heart to the eternal law of truth and goodness the willing obedience, even though it cost life and limb, and blood and suffering and death. The Psalmist, after saying that "Sacrifice and offering for sin were not required," declared that in the place thereof, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O my God." The Prophets declared that to obey was better than sacrifice, and to "hearken" to God's laws was better than the fattest portions of rams or of oxen; that "to do justly and walk humbly was more than rivers of oil or ten thousands of burnt-offerings." The sacrifice, the surrender of self, the fragrance of a holy and upright life, was the innermost access to the Divine nature, of which every outward sacrifice, however costly, was but a poor and imperfect shadow. This is the true food fit for the Holy Spirit of God, because it is the only sustaining food of the best spirit of man. These three things then, the lifting up of the heart in words of devotion to God, the performance of kindly and useful deeds to men, and the dedication of self, are the three things by which the Supreme Goodness and Truth, according to true Religion, is pleased, propitiated, satisfied. III. In the great exemplar and essence of Christianity, these three things are seen in perfection. In Jesus Christ there was the complete lifting up of the soul to God in prayer, of which He was Himself the most perfect example, and of which He has given us the most perfect pattern. The Lord's Prayer is the sweet-smelling incense of all churches and of all nations. exemplified in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, who went about doing good, who lived and died for the sake of man, there was the most complete beneficence, compassion, and love. In Jesus Christ, who lived not for Himself, but for others; who shed His blood that man might come to God whose meat, whose food, whose daily bread it was "to do His Father's will," and whose whole life and death was summed up in the words, "Not My will, but Thine be done," was the most complete instance of that selfdenial and self-dedication, which from Him has come to be called "self-sacrifice;" and thus in Him all those anticipations and aspirations of the Psalmists and Prophets were amply and largely fulfilled. Thus by this true sacrifice of Himself, He abolished forever those false sacrifices. IV. But here arises the question, How far can any sacrifice be continued in the Christian Church now? This has been in part answered by showing what were the universal spiritual truths which the Prophets put in The sacri Christian the place of the ancient sacrifices—and how these spiritual truths were fulfilled in the Founder of our religion. But it may make the whole subject more clear if we show how these same truths are carried fices in the on almost in the same words by the Apostles. The word "sacrifice" is not applied in any sense in the Gospels, unless, in the seventeenth chapter of St. John, the word "Consecrate " may be so read. But there are several cases in the other books in which it is employed in this sense. All Christians are "kings and priests." 1 All Christians can at all times offer those real spiritual sacrifices of which those old heathen and Jewish sacrifices were only the shadows and figures, and which could only be offered at stated occasions, by a particular order of men. When the word is used, it is used solely in those three senses of which we have been speaking. 2 "Let us offer,” says the Epistle to the Hebrews, "the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is the fruit of lips giving thanks to His name." This, the continual duty of thankfulness, is the first sacrifice of the Christian Church. "To do good and to distribute forget not (says the same Epistle), "for it is with such sacrifices 3 that God is well pleased;" and again, St. Paul in the Epistle to the Philippians says of the contribution which his friends at Philippi had sent to him to assist him in sickness and distress, that it was "the odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God." This, the duty of Christian usefulness and beneficence, is the second sacrifice of the Christian Church. "I beseech you to present your bodies reasonable, holy and living sacrifices unto God."4 This perpetual self-dedication of ourselves to the Supreme Good is the third and chief sacrifice of the Christian Church always and everywhere, 1 Rev. i. 6. 2 Heb. xiii. 15. 8 Heb. xiii. 16. and it is also the sense in which, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, Christ is said to have "given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor." In these three senses the Christian Religion, whilst destroying utterly and forever all outward sacrifices, whether animal sacrifice or vegetable sacrifice or human sacrifice, is yet, in a moral and spiritual sense, sacrificial from beginning to end. Every position, every aspect of every true Christian, east or west, or north or south, in church or out of church, is a sacrificial position. Every Christian is, in the only sense in which the word is used in the New Testament, "a priest of good things to come," to offer up "spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Every domestic hearth, every holy and peaceful death-bed, every battle-field of duty, every arena of public or private life, is the altar from which the thoughts and energies of human souls and spirits ought to be forever ascending to the Father of all goodness. We are not to say that the use of the word "sacrifice" in this moral and spiritual sense is a metaphor or figure of speech, and that the use of the word in its gross and carnal sense is the substance. So far as there can be any sacrifice in the Christian Religion, it is the moral and spiritual sense which is the enduring substance; the material and carnal sacrifice was but the passing shadow. V. But there may still arise an intermediate question, and that is In what sense, over and above this complete and ideal sacrifice of our great Example, - over and above this essential sacrifice of our own daily lives, in what sense is there any sacrifice in our outward worship, especially in the Holy Communion? It is clear from what has been said, that in order to claim any share in the true Christian sacrifice, whether 1 Eph. v. 2; compare Heb. ix. 14, x. 5-12. that rendered once for all by Jesus Christ, or that offered by all good Christians in every hour of their lives, any sacrifice in our outward worship must belong to one or other of these three essential characteristics which we have mentioned, 1. Prayer and praise; 2. Beneficence; 3. Self-devotion and self-dedication. The sacrifice giving.. 1. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is certainly, as its name of "Eucharist" implies, as it is called in the English Communion Service, "a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving." It is this which makes of thanksus say in a part of the service, which belongs to its most ancient fragments, "It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times and in all places, but chiefly now, give thanks to Thee." And in the ancient services of the Church, of which only a very slight trace remains in our own, or in any Church now, this thanksgiving was yet further expressed by the Christian people bringing to the table the loaves of bread and the cups of wine, as samples of the fruits of the earth, for which every day and hour of their lives they wish to express their gratitude. In the English Church this is indicated only by the few words where in the Prayer for the Church Militant we say, "We (i. e. not the clergyman, but the people) offer unto Thee our oblations." In the Roman Church, this and this only was what was originally meant by the sacrifice, the host, or offering; not a dead corpse, but the daily bread and wine of our earthly sustenance, offered not by the priest, but by the whole Christian congregation, as an expression of their thankfulness for the gracious kindness of God our Father in His beautiful and bountiful creation. It is true that in a later part of the service, the bread and wine are made to represent, as in the Last Supper, the Body and Blood, that is, the inmost spirit of the dying Redeemer. But at the time of the service when |