SACRIFICE. _ A sacrifice is an offering of any consecrated thing to a deity, whether an animal, anything oi the mineral or vegetable world, a manufactured article, or in the form of a libation or an oblation. All nations seem to have had a sta.ge in theit history in which to make offerings in sacrifice formed a part of their mode of worshipping th< deity whom they reverenced. The earliest extani record of sacrifices are those recorded in Genesi: iv. 3, 4, in the cases of Cain and Abel, where Cain, a cultivator, brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord, and Abel, win was a nomade, a keeper of sheep, brought of th( firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof, and is mentioned that the Lord had respect unto Abe and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offerir4 he had not respect ; so even in those early days ir the history of the human race, the blood sacrifice the oblation, and immolation of animals wal deemed by the offerer more worthy of the deity'i acceptance than the fruits and flowers of tin earth. The contest marks the jealous rivalry anc strife between the powerful, over-bearing dweller: in cities who bear arms and till the ground, anc the nomade shepherds. The first victim ww Abel, but the struggle runs through the whoh history of Asia, and continues aniongst the race and sects of India at the present day. The viev seems to have been that the most precious thirq should be offered, with the object of propitiatiN a wrathful being, and there followed on this till offering up of human beings, of the children o the sacrificer, the children of kings, thougl crinnuals, captives taken in war, slaves, and evet women were also sacrificed.
The duty of offering to the Lor0 of the first o every product has had almost a universal hold 01 man. Exodus xxii. 29 commands the offer of the first fruits ; the same is enjoined in Deuteronomy xxvi. 2 ; Leviticus ii. 12, and numerous other places. Genesis iv. 4 tells us that Abel brought the first of his flock, and Exodus xiii. 12 and other places enjoin this, and to the present day in the villages around Chingleput the first-born daughters in the Hindu weaver families are devoted as deva-dasa to the gods of their temples. A conscientious Hindu, before he eats, offers his food to his guardian deity, using some such words as these, This food, 0 God, I present to thee.' A Hindu shopkeeper, also, gives his god credit in his daily accounts for a sum which may amount to the twentieth of a halfpenny.
Dr. Milman considers that in the Hebrew religion the rite of sacrifice was regulated with three distinct objects. Every morning and every evening the smoke from the great brazen altar of burnt-offerings ascended in the name of the whole people. On the seventh day, two animals instead of one were slain, and the offering of the poorest was acceptable. The sacrifices were partly voluntary acts of reverence in order to secure the favour of God to the devout worship per ; partly expressive of gratitude for the divine blessings. Of this nature were the first fruits,
and whether reaping the harvest or gathering in the vintage, the Israelite made an oblation of thanksgiving to the gracious Being who had be stowed His bounty. Lastly, the Hebrew sacrifices were piacular or expiatory ; every sin either of the nation or the individual had its appointed atonement. The tenth day of the seventh month was set apart for the solemn rite of national ex piation. First a bullock was to be slain and the blood sprinkled, not only in the customary places, but within the Holy of Holies itself. Then two goats were chosen, and lots cast upon them ; the one assigned to the Lord was sacrificed ; on the other, by the imprecation of the high priest, the sins of the whole people were heaped, and it was then taken beyond the camp and sent into the desert to Azazel, the spirit of evil to whom Hebrew belief assigned the waste and howling wilderness as his earthly dwelling. But in the fanatic zeal of the Jews, great excesses occurred. In the time of Solomon an instance (2 Chronicles vii. 5) is recorded of the sacrifice of 22,000 oxen. It was left to Isaiah (i. 10-14) openly to denounce the sacrifice of animals as an atonement for sin : ' Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom ; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah : to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? saith the Lord : am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts ; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before rue, who bath required this at your hand, to tread my courts ? Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is an abomination unto me ; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with ; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth : they are a trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear them.' As might be supposed from the sacrificial rites amongst the Jews, allusions to such are to be found in the New Testament (Mark vii. 11): But ye say, If a man shall say unto his father or mother, It is Corban (that is to say, a gift), by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me ; he shall be free.' This word is equivalent to Sadqa or Tasadnq or Fida, and is often used by Muham madan men or women addressing a euperior, in which case it means merely, I am your Kurban. The word is Arabic, derived from the Ilebrew, has allusion to an approaching to God, and means a sacrifice, a victnn, an offering, an oblation, for which also we have the Greek liceprotza. The other words, in the Arabic, Sadqa, Fidn, and Tasaduq, mark the continuance of the sacrificial rite. Sadqa, Anna., properly Sadaqa, from the lIebrew, means ahns, propitiatory offerings, and sacrifice. Tho words are continued into Hindu stani, in Sadqe-jana or Sadqe-hona, to become a sacrifice for the welfare of another, and Sadqe karna, to sacrifice for the welfare of another.