essary was his punishment.

The re-interpretation of the sacrificial rite by the prophets of
Israel was that until there was hearkening and obedience there could
be nothing but an outward performance of the rite. The revelation made
by Christ was that every man may take part in the supreme act of
worship, if he has first become reconciled to his brother, if he has
first repented his own offences, from love for God and his fellow-man.
The old covenant made the favour of God conditional on the receipt of
sacrificial offerings. The new covenant removes that limit, and all
others, from God's love to his children: it is infinite love. It is
not conditional or limited; conditional on man's loving God, or
limited to those who love Him. Otherwise the new covenant would be of
the same nature as the old. But love asks for love; the greater love
for the greater love; infinite love for the greatest man is capable
of. And it is hard for a man to resist love; impossible indeed in the
end: all men come under and into the new covenant, in which there is
infinite love on the one side, and love that may grow infinitely on
the other. If it is to grow, however, it is in a new life that it must
grow: a life of sacrifice, a life in which he who comes under the new
covenant is himself the offering and the 'lively sacrifice.'

The worshipper's idea of God necessarily determines the spirit in
which he worships. The idea of God as a God of love is different from
the idea of Him as a God of justice, who justly requires hearkening
and obedience. The idea of God as a God who demands obedience and is
not to be put off with vain oblations is different from that of a God
to whom, by the terms of a covenant, offerings are to be made in
return for benefits received. But each and all of these ideas imply
the existence, in the individual consciousness, and in the common
consciousness, of the desire to draw near to God, and of the need of
drawing nigh. Wherever that need and that desire are felt, there
religion is; and the need and the desire are part of the common
consciousness of mankind. From the beginning they have always
expressed or symbolised themselves in outward acts or rites. The
experience of the human race is testimony that rites are
indispensable, in the same way and for the same reason that language
is indispensable to thought. Thought would not develop were there no
speech, whereby thought could be sharpened on thought. Nor has
religion ev