abstinence and self-sacrifice, and these
last belong properly not to what is technically known as "sacrifice,"
but to man's endeavor to bring himself into ethical harmony with an
ethical deity. With equal right prayer and all moral conduct might here
be included; Tiele thinks of "sacrifice" as embracing the whole
religious life. In the earliest known cults the "yearning for union with
the Infinite" takes the form of desire to enter into friendly relations
with superhuman Powers by gifts, in order to derive benefit from them;
when old forms have been outgrown the conviction arises that what is
well-pleasing to God is the presentation of the whole self, as a "living
sacrifice," in service in accordance with reason (Rom. xii, 1).

+1053+. The various theories of the origin and efficacy of sacrifice
(omitting the ambassadorial conception) are thus reducible to three
types: it is regarded as a gift, as a substitution, or as an act
securing union (physical or spiritual) with the divine. These have all
maintained themselves, in one form or another, up to the present day.
The old ritual slaughter of an animal and the presentation of vegetables
and other things have, indeed, vanished. The movement of thought against
animal sacrifice began in the Western world (among the Greeks and the
Hebrews) probably as early as the fourth century B.C.[1903] In Greece
the formulation of philosophic thought and the rise of individualism in
religion (embodied, for example, in the great Mysteries) brought larger
and more spiritual ideas into prominence. Rational law and inward
impulse took the place, in the higher circles, of ritual offerings. The
object of law, says Plato, is the encouragement of virtue of all kinds
and the securing of the highest happiness; but, he holds, there is
something higher than law: the good Athenian is above other men, for he
is the only man who is freely and genuinely good by inspiration of
nature, and is not manufactured by law.[1904] The Mysteries assumed that
every man, with suitable inward preparation, was fitted to enter into a
spiritual union with the deity. The later Jews showed equal devotion to
their law, held to be divinely given, laying the stress on the moral
side;[1905] jurists became more important than priests, and the
synagogue (representing individual worship) more influential than the
temple-ritual. In certain psalms[1906] sacrifice is flatly declared not
to be acceptable to God; this attitude had be