"Sacrifice, when uncommanded by God, is a mere act of gratuitous superstition. Whence, on the principle of St. Paul's reprobation of what he denominates will-worship, it is neither acceptable nor pleasing to God.
"But sacrifice, during the patriarchal ages, was accepted by God, and was plainly honored with his approbation.
"Therefore sacrifice, during the patriarchal age, could not have been an act of superstition uncommanded by God.
"If, then, such was the character of primitive sacrifice; that is to say, if primitive sacrifice was uncommanded by God,—it must, in that case indubitably have been a divine, and not a human institution." (Kitto's "Cyclopedia Biblical Knowledge," Vol. II, Art. "Sacrifice.")]
"The curse upon the serpent and promise to the woman point clearly to a Redeemer, who should be born of a woman, and by his own suffering, should destroy the power of the devil; and here we have the first prophecy of the Messiah. * * * There can be no reasonable doubt that the sacrifice of living animals was now instituted as a prophetic figure of the great sacrifice which should fulfill this promise. Animals must have been slain to provide the skins that clothed Adam and Eve; and wherefore slain, except in sacrifice? This might not seem conclusive in itself; but the whole reason for sacrifice began to exist now; its use is taken for granted in the next chapter (Gen. iv); and it continues throughout the patriarchal age without the record of any other beginning. Thus early, then, man learned that, "without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin;" that his own forfeited life was redeemed, and to be restored by the sacrifice of the coming "seed of the woman;" and that he was placed by God under a new dispensation of mercy. Nay, even his punishment was a mercy; for his suffering was a discipline to train him in submission to God's will. The repentance of our first parents is nowhere expressly stated; but it is implied here and in the subsequent narrative."[A]
[Footnote A: We must not omit to notice the traces of these truths, which are found among many nations. The Greek legend of Pandora traces the entrance of evil to a woman; the Buddhist and Chinese traditions refer the beginning of sin to eating forbidden fruit and desiring forbidden knowledge; and most systems of mythology make the serpent a type of the power of evil, and a divine personage his destroyer. Delitzch well says, "The story of the Fall, like that of the Creation, has wandered over the world. Heathen nations have transplanted and mixed it up with their geography, their history, their mythology, although it has never so completely changed form, and color, and spirit, that you can not recognize it. Here, however, in the Law, it preserves the character of a universal, human, world-wide fact; and the groans of Creation, the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and the heart of every man, conspire in their testimony to the most literal truth of the narrative." The recollection of the tree of life is preserved in the sacred tree of the Assyrians and Hindoos, and in the other Eastern systems of mythology ("Old Testament History"—Wm. Smith—p. 29.)]
The fact of Adam's repentance, however, is clearly set forth in the Book of Moses, and his acceptance of the whole scheme of salvation through the atonement of Christ.[A]
[Footnote A: See Book of Moses (P. of G. P.), Ch. v:4-16 and Ch. vi:48-68.]
3. The Atonement of Christ Foreshadowed in the Mosaic Sacrifices: It is very generally conceded that the sacrifices and oblations of the Mosaic ritual have a direct relationship to the great atoning sacrifice to be made by the Christ. From the ninth and tenth chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews it is evident that "the law" was "a shadow of good things to come;" the law's sacrifices for sin and reconciliation with God but figured forth the greater and more efficient sacrifice to be made by the Son of God; nay, whatever of virtue there was in the sacrifices of the law were dependent upon the great sacrifice to follow. Of themselves, the sacrifices of the law had no virtue at all unconnected with the sacrifice to be made by the Christ;[A] they were but symbols figuring forth that sacrifice in which the virtue was, the sacrifice of the Christ himself. "For it is expedient," says the Nephite Prophet Alma—"It is expedient that an Atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the eternal God, there must be an Atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the Atonement which it is expedient should be made. Therefore, it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; and then shall there be, or it is expedient there should be, a stop to the shedding of blood; then shall the law of Moses be fulfilled; yea, it shall be all fulfilled; every jot and tittle, and none shall have passed away. And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law; every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God; yea, infinite and eternal."[B]
[Footnote A: Hebrews x:1-10.]