were never weary of insisting that, even in those days, moral and
spiritual reformation should come first, and that unless it did,
ritual worship, though it were nominally offered to Jehovah, was as
abhorrent to Him as if it had been avowedly offered to Baal. Not a
little so-called Christian worship today, judged by the same test, is
as truly heathen superstition as if it had been paid to Mumbo-Jumbo.

But when all deductions have been made, the scene depicted in the
passage is not only an affecting, but an instructive one. Strangely
unlike our notions of worship, and to us almost repulsive, must have
been the slaying of three hundred and seventy animals and the offering
of them as burnt offerings. Try to picture the rivers of blood, the
contortions of the dumb brutes, the priests bedaubed with gore, the
smell of the burnt flesh, the blare of the trumpets, the shouts of the
worshippers, the clashing cymbals, and realise what a world parts it
from 'They went up into the upper chamber where they were abiding ...
these all with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer, with the
women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren'!
Sacrifice has been the essential feature in all religions before
Christ. It has dropped out of worship wherever Christ has been
accepted. Why? Because it spoke of a deep, permanent, universal need,
and because Christ was recognised as having met the need. People who
deny the need, and people who deny that Jesus on the Cross has
satisfied it, may be invited to explain these two facts, written large
on the history of humanity.

That brings us to the most important aspect of Hezekiah's great
sacrifice. It sets forth the stages by which men can approach to God.
It is symbolic of spiritual facts, and prophetic of Christ's work and
of our way of coming to God through Him. The first requisite for