Doubtless some such conception as this was
held by the mass of the Hebrew people under the sacrificial system of the
Levitical Law, and perhaps this was one reason why they were so prone to
fall into idolatry--for in this view their fundamental notion was
practically identical in its nature with that of the heathen around them.
Of course this was not the fundamental idea embodied in the Levitical
system itself. The root of that system was the symbolizing of a supreme
ideal of reconciliation hereafter to be manifested in action. Now a symbol
is not the thing symbolized. The purpose of a symbol is twofold, to put us
upon enquiry as to the reality which it indicates, and to bring that
reality to our minds by suggestion when we look at the symbol; but if it
does not do this, and we rest only in the symbol, nothing will come of it,
and we are left just where we were. That the symbolic nature of the
Levitical sacrifice was clearly perceived by the deeper thinkers among the
Hebrews is attested by many passages in the Bible--"Sacrifice and burnt
offering thou wouldest not" (Psalms xl: 6, and li: 16) and other similar
utterances; and the distinction between these symbols and that which they
symbolized is brought out in the Epistle to the Hebrews by the argument
that if those sacrifices had afforded a sufficient standpoint for the
effectual realization of cleansing then the worshiper would not need to
have repeated them because he would have no more consciousness of sin
(Hebrews x: 2).
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