'But thou must eat them before the Lord thy God in the place which the
Lord thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy
manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy
gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou
puttest thine hands unto.'--DEUT. xii. 18.
There were three bloody sacrifices, the sin-offering, the
burnt-offering, and the peace-offering. In all three expiation was the
first idea, but in the second of them the act of burning symbolised a
further thought, namely, that of offering to God, while in the third,
the peace-offering, there was added to both of these the still further
thought of the offerer's participation with God, as symbolised by the
eating of the sacrifice. So we have great verities of the most
spiritual religion adumbrated in this external rite. The rind is hard
and forbidding, the kernel is juicy and sweet.