[Footnote B: Alma xxxiv:9, 13, 14.]
The late President John Taylor upon this subject said:
"These sacrifices, which were offered up from the days of Adam until the time of our Savior's advent, were typical of the great expiatory sacrifice which He was to make by the sacrifice of himself. They were so many types, shadows and forms of which he was the great prototype—the substance, the reality prefigured and foreshadowed by the other sacrifices which had been offered up from the beginning.
"When the law was given to Moses, all the forms pertaining to the sacrificial ceremonies were revealed in detail, and the instructions in relation thereto were not simply of a general nature, but they entered into minute particulars in relation to all things connected with those who officiated, the form and pattern of the sacred utensils and of the vestments of the Priesthood, the creatures to be sacrificed, the order of the proceedings, and indeed of all matters associated with the observance of these rites. Almost the whole of the book of Leviticus, and considerable of the book of Numbers, is occupied with these instructions and kindred matters. This Mosaic law, with all its duties, observances, ceremonies and sacrifices, continued in force until Christ's death."[A]
[Footnote A: "Mediation and Atonement" (1882), p. 124.]
4. The Sin Offering of the Mosaic Law: The Author of the Article on "Sacrifices," in Smith's "Bible Dictionary" (Hackett edition), Vol. IV—Rev. Alfred Barry, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in describing the "Sin Offering of the Mosaic law," says:
"The nature and meaning of the various kinds of sacrifice is partly gathered from the form of their institution and ceremonial, partly from the teaching of the prophets, and partly from the New Testament, especially the Epistle to the Hebrews. All had relation, under different aspects, to a covenant between God and man.
"The sin offering represented that covenant as broken by man, and as knit together again, by God's appointment, through the 'shedding of blood.' Its characteristic ceremony was the sprinkling of the blood before the veil of the sanctuary, the putting some of it on the horns of the altar, incense, and the pouring out of all the rest at the foot of the altar of burnt offering. The flesh was in no case touched by the offerer; either it was consumed by fire without the camp, or it was eaten by the priest alone in the holy place, and everything that touched it was holy. This latter point marked the distinction from the peace-offering, and showed that the sacrificer had been rendered unworthy of communion with God. The shedding of blood, the symbol of life, signified that the death of the offender was deserved for sin, but that the death of the victim was accepted for his death by the ordinance of God's mercy."
5. The Ceremonial of the Day of Atonement: "This [the truth of the preceding paragraph] is seen most clearly in the ceremonial of the 'Day of Atonement,' when, after the sacrifice of the one goat,[A] the high priest's hand was laid on the head of the scape-goat—which was the other part of the sin-offering—with confession of the sins of the people, that it might visibly bear them away, and so bring out explicitly, what in other sin-offerings was but implied. Accordingly we find that, in all cases, it was the custom for the offerer to lay his hand on the head of the sin-offering, to confess generally or specially his sins, and to say, 'Let this be my expiation.' Beyond all doubt, the sin-offering distinctly witnessed that sin existed in man, that the 'wages of that sin was death,' and that God had provided an Atonement by the vicarious suffering of an appointed victim. The reference of the Baptist to a 'Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world,' was one understood and hailed at once by a 'true Israelite.'"[B]
[Footnote A: Two goats were used in this ceremonial, one of which was killed and made a "sin offering" and the other a scape-goat to figuratively bear off the sins of the people.
"And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scape-goat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scape-goat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scape-goat into the wilderness" (Lev. xvi:7-10).]