12f. As man has always made
his gods in his own image he imagined the gods, like himself, loved to
eat. Therefore, in addition to appeasing the wrath of the god by the
sight of the blood of the victim, his favor was supposed to be further
obtained by feeding him. As the good host always sets the best he has
before his guest, so the best part of the sacrificed victim was placed
on the altar for the god. Altho invisible, it was firmly believed that
the god consumed the burning flesh or fat, as it was reduced to smoke
and ascended to heaven. The parties making the offering,--sometimes
only an individual, or a family, but often the whole tribe,--ate the
balance. They were therefore, "eating with the god," and consequently
on good terms with him, just as eating together today is an indication
of friendship, or the taking of salt together among certain savage
tribes is a token of peace and friendship, or the smoking from the
common pipe among the early American Indians. Later in Israel, the
whole offering was burnt. Jehovah was entitled to it all. Men had
outgrown the idea of "eating with Jehovah."

We now come back more specifically to the _purpose_ of this blood
atonement. We have no account in all the Old Testament where it was
ever offered with direct reference to a future life,--for the purpose
of escaping hell. We have already seen that there is absolutely
nothing in the story of Eden and the fall of man, upon which to
predicate any thought of immortality after physical death, either a
heaven or hell. We now come to note that there is nowhere any _direct_
reference to a life after death, in any book of the Old Testament,
written _before_ the exile. The account of Saul having the witch of
Endor call up Samuel after his death; and David's faith that he could
go to his dead child, indeed indicate some belief at this time in an
after-life; but nowhere is there the remotest reference to a hell, a
separate place of torment for the wicked. In the case of Samuel being
recalled to converse with Saul, he says, that altho Jehovah had
departed from Saul, and notwithstanding Saul's great wickedness,
"Tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me,"--the saintly Samuel, all
in the same place. There are a few direct references to a future life,
_in a few places only_, in some of the books written _during_ or
_after_ the exile. But nowhere in the Old Testament do we find a
single reference to the offering of the sacrifice