t imagine it
is something merely 'in the mind'. I have heard it talked about in the
same way as a doctor talked to a poor lad who had his thumb crushed in
a machine.

'Don't shout, my poor boy', he said. 'Don't you know I feel it as truly
as you do?'

'Perhaps so,' replied the boy; 'but you feels it in your mind, and I
feels it in my thumb!'

Sacrifice is often talked about by some people who feel it perhaps as
much as the doctor felt the crushed thumb, being largely a matter of
sympathy, without the actual hurting.

This matter of sacrifice indicates a certain principle, a certain state
of mind, which _expresses itself in two ways_. It is either a giving up
of things which are against God's will, or the contribution of
something which is valuable, to be surrendered or used in His service.
Shall I not say that sacrifice represents the heart saying, on the one
hand, 'I will come out, and be separate, and touch not the unclean
thing'? and, on the other hand, 'What shall I render unto the Lord for
all His benefits toward me?' Not only singing, 'Where He leads I will
follow', 'Lord, I make a full surrender', but actually spending and
being spent for Him.

I need not dwell at any great length upon the word 'altar'. I referred
to the table in our Altar Services as the place of gifts. It is also
the place of dedication, and the place of sacrifice. Thank God, it has
been so to many, as well as the mercy-seat, where God has sealed the
acceptance of the offering presented to Him.

How often have we been reminded of that altar of sacrifice in the shape
of the accursed cross, where the Saviour made atonement for our sins!
And it is in reality at that altar we bow when we sincerely sing--

_Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!_

Not only 'demands' the sacrifice, but 'shall have my soul, my life, my
all'.

_But what does the binding of the sacrifice to the altar mean?_ The
phrase is very significant.

The horns were the corner posts, and sometimes the worshipper
presenting a living creature would tether it with a cord to the altar's
horn, so that the gift could be used either for sacrifice or service.
In both cases the figure of speech seems to imply the possibility of
the consecration being reversed by the withdrawal of the offering, or
broken by its loss, the sacrifice slipping off or away from the alt