SACRIFICE.
For thou desirest not sacrifice: else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart. O God, thou wilt not despise—Psalm li. 16, 17.
I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.—Psalm cxvi. 17.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice, and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me.—Hebrews, x. 4, 5.
See where man’s voluntary sacrifice
Bows His meek head, the God eternal dies!
Fixed to the Cross His bleeding arms are bound,
While copious Mercy streams from every wound.
Bishop Louth.
Thou, Lord, hast said, “the blood of goats,
The flesh of rams I will not prize;—
A contrite heart, a lowly thought,
Are mine accepted sacrifice.”
Sir W. Scott.
When all the breast is pure, each warm desire
Sublimed by holy Love’s ethereal fire,
On winged words our breathing thoughts may rise,
And soar to Heaven, a grateful sacrifice.
James Scott.
Well may the cavern depths of earth
Be shaken and her mountains nod;
Well may the sheeted dead come forth
To gaze upon a suffering God!
Well may the temple-shrine grow dim,
And shadows veil the Cherubim,
When He, the chosen One of Heaven,
A sacrifice for guilt is given!
J. G. Whittier.
When bees sing chorus in the light,
Of infant day in joy begun,
And sparkling dewdrops clear and bright
Mirror the full uprising sun,
Then let us, Lord of light, arise,
To pay our early sacrifice.
W. Martin.