ruth that there must have
been religion in the earliest manifestations of religion, and that
bribing a god is not, in our sense of the word, religious. In that
case, we shall also hold that the offerings which have always been
part of the earliest religious ritual were intended as the outward and
visible sign or symbol of the community's desire to do that which was
pleasing to their god; and that it is only in the course of time, and
as the consequence of misinterpretation, that the offerings come to
be regarded as gifts made for the purpose of bribing the gods or of
purchasing what they have to bestow. Thus, just as, in the evolution
of religion, fetishism was differentiated from polytheism, and was
cast aside--where it was cast aside--as incompatible with the demands
of the religious sentiment, so too the making of gifts to the gods,
for the purpose of purchasing their favour, came to be differentiated
from the service which God requires.

The endeavour to explain the history and purpose of sacrifice by means
of the Gift-theory alone has the further disadvantage that it requires
us to close our eyes to other features of the sacrificial rite, for,
if we turn to them, we shall find it impossible to regard the
Gift-theory as affording a complete and exhaustive account of all that
there was in the rite from the beginning. Indeed, so important are
these other features, that, as we have seen, some students would
maintain that the only rite which can be properly termed sacrificial
is one which presents these features. From this point of view, the
term sacrifice can only be used of something that is consumed or
destroyed in the service; while the term offering is restricted to
things which are not destroyed. But, from this point of view, we must
hold that sacrifices, to be sacrifices in the specific must not merely
be destroyed or consumed, for then anything that could be destroyed
by fire would be capable of becoming a burnt-offering; and the burning
would simply prove that the offering was acceptable--a proof which may
in some cases have been required to make assurance doubly sure, but
which was really superfluous, inasmuch as no one who desires his
offering to be accepted will make an offering which he thinks to be
unacceptable. Sacrifices, to be sacrifices in the specific sense thus
put upon the word, we must hold to be things which by their very
nature are marked out to be consumed: they must be articles of food.
But ev