CHAPTER XII Modern Views and Ancient Language "By grace have ye been saved through faith."-Eph. 2:8. "Ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."-2 Cor. 3: 6. P CHAPTER XII MODERN VIEWS AND ANCIENT LANGUAGE LAUSIBLE objection to the theory of atonement outlined in these studies may be made on the ground that it does not closely accord with the expiatory language of the Scriptures. Since this criticism weighs heavily in the minds of many, a few things should be said concerning the institution of sacrifice. Sacrifice is a very ancient and widely practiced custom. Nearly all the important ancient cults comprised this element of worship, and the prevalence of bloody sacrifice is significant. An institution of this kind, primitive and all but universal, must have grown out of a fundamental instinct of the human soul. The psychologic fact back of the rite was, we believe, the sense of sin and the consequent feeling of the displeasure of Deity, together with the desire. for the favor and friendship of Deity. The author is aware of the arguments against this view of the sense of sin as the source of sacrifice, but to him they are not entirely convincing. Other notions than the sense of sin doubtless enter into the origin of sacrifice; but we believe this is the most powerful cause of the phenomenon. In recent theories of the origin of sacrifice we believe the conscience has not had its just dues. The giving up of property in the form of the product of field or fold and its offering as a religious meal was intended as an exhibition to Deity of the worshiper's desire for communion. This act of unselfishness in voluntarily giving up the best of the flock or the first-fruits of the field gave the worshiper a sense of the divine favor. God was thought of as angry and needing propitiation, and moral unworthiness was thought of as needing expiation; or else God was conceived as in good humor, and the sacrifice was for the purpose of keeping Him so. Propitiation of Deity and expiation of sin were, by a sound spiritual instinct, supposed to be procured by an act |