Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

33° THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMsmelt an odour of sweet smell, and said, 1 will nolonger curse the earth on account of men." Moreover,beside Noah stood his sons, likewise of full manhood,and likewise witnesses of what the old worldhad been and how it had perished. Thus humansociety was based at its second rise upon belief in theunity of God and upon a perpetual covenant madewith Him in the rite of sacriiice, which was a confessionof that belief. Thus it was at the same timebased upon the conjunction of belief in Him and worshipof Him with the first springs of human actionas a corporate body. At that moment, big with thedestiny of a world, the race was in the family, andthe word of the father became the constituent law ofhis descendants. A whole mass of belief as to thefuture of man was contained in this rite of sacrifice,which was a prophecy and promise of redemption andrestoration, made perpetually visible to the eyes andminds of men by recurring acts of daily life.A part of sacrifice was the public institution ofprayer, so that with the offering of it the daily wantsof man were presented before God, the daily praiseand thanksgiving of man to God as the Author ofhis being was made, and the daily confession of man'sand request for pardon associated with the bloodof the victim. Thus the essential parts of man'sinner life with God were connected with the outwardreligious rite, and the whole conduct of maninseparably bound up with his belief and worship.The sacrifice carries with it the priest, and the riteof sacrifice everywhere established among the childf Noah brought with it likewise altars and tempfestivals and processions. Let us consider these thii fo > fthe moment as they existed without corrupt