Of course it cannot be doubted that this festival of the Passover was instituted as a great memorial of the deliverance from Egyptian bondage, and the birth of the nation of Israel; and there are not wanting those who maintain that this was its primary significance. But the leading feature in the festival, the Paschal Lamb, "a male, without blemish;" the killing of it; the blood sprinkled upon the door post, the sign of safety to God's people; the eating of the lamb in preparation of the journey; the subsequent honoring of this feast by the Christ with his disciples; the substitution of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper for the Passover festival at the very time and on the very occasion of celebrating the feast of the passover among the Jews;[A] together with the subsequent inspired reference to Christ as the Paschal Lamb of the Christians,[B] are circumstances too numerous and too nearly related to doubt of the significance of the Passover festival having reference to the great sacrifice to be made by the Son of God through the shedding of his blood in atonement for the deliverance of his people. Of the Passover being a symbol of the sacrifice of the Son of God, the writer upon that theme in Smith's "Bible Dictionary" says:
[Footnote A: Matt. xxvi and Luke xxii.]
[Footnote B: I Cor. v:7.]
"No other 'shadow of good things to come' contained in the law can vie with the festival of the passover in expressiveness and completeness. Hence we are so often reminded of it, more or less distinctly, in the ritual and language of the Church. Its outline, considered in reference to the great deliverance of the Israelites which it commemorated, and many of its minute details, have been appropriated as current expressions of the truths which God has revealed to us in the fullness of times in sending his Son upon earth."[A]
[Footnote A: Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible" (Hackett's edition), Vol. IV, p. 2355.]
7. The Testimony of Some "Christian Fathers:" Certain of the socalled Christian Fathers agree with this view of the Old Testament sacrifices figuring forth the sacrifice to be made by the Christ, both as to sacrifices in the early patriarchal times and under the law of Moses. Of these, first, is
(a) Eusebius of Caesarea: Born 264 A. D. (about); died 349 (about).
"Eusebius of Caesarea, in a passage too long for quotation, alleges, that animal sacrifice was first of all practiced by the ancient lovers of God (the patriarchs) and that not by accident, but through a certain divine contrivance, under which, as taught by the divine spirit, it became their duty thus to shadow forth the great and venerable victim, really acceptable to God, which was, in time then future, destined to be offered in behalf of the whole human race ("Demonst. Evang." i:8, pp. 24,25)."[A]
[Footnote A: Kitto, Vol. II, p. 661.]
(b) Athanasius: Born 296 A. D.; died 373.