Part 4 (2/2)

Wothe Indians of North America, women at this time are forbidden to touch men's utensils, which would be so defiled by their touch that their subsequent use would be attended withtheir garainst ver the Eskimo, of Alaska, no one will eat or drink from the same cup or dishes used by a woman at her confinement until it has been purified by certain incantations

In the Church of England Service, what is now called the ”Thanksgiving of Wo of Women,” was formerly known as _The Order of the Purification of Women_, and was read at the church door before the ”unclean” creatures were per This should be known by all wo the sacred office of nifies at once a holy person, a harlot and a sodo been co that the rules of ceres, priests, homicides, women in child-births, and so on, are in some respects alike, says: ”To us these different classes of persons appear to differ totally in character and condition; soht pronounce unclean and polluted But the savages make no such moral distinction between them; the conceptions of holiness and pollution are not yet differentiated in his mind To him the coerous and in danger, and the danger in which they stand and to which they expose others is e should call spiritual or supernatural--that is, iinary”

Feould suspect it, but it is likely that the custo tabooed in the holy places

A the Maoris ”A slave or other person would not enter a _wahi tapu_, or sacred place, without having first stripped off his clothes; for the clothes, having become sacred the instant they entered the precincts of the _wahi tapu_, would ever after be useless to hi to the Rabbins, the handling of the scriptures defiles the hands--that is, entails a washi+ng of purification This because the notions of holiness and uncleanness are alike reat defile Just as with the Hindus to this day, the excrereat h, vol i, p 171

Shortland's Southern Districts of New Zealand, p 293

Dr Kalisch says, ”Next to sacrifices purifications were the most important of Hebrew rituals” The purpose was to remove the stain of contact either with the holy or unclean taboos A holy, or taboo water--or, as it is called in the Authorised Version, ”water of separation”--was prepared First, an unbleh priest outside the ca water, which was supposed to have aimpurities when the tabooed person was sprinkled with it on the third and again on the seventh day It was called a ”purification for sin” (Nuood as the blood of the Lamb, if not equal to Pear's soap

Leviticus, pt ii, p 187

In the ninth edition of the _Encylopedia Britannica_, Mr J G Frazer says: ”Ast the Jews the vow of the Nazarite (Num vi 1--21) presents the closest rese of the word Nazarite is 'one separated or consecrated,' and this is precisely theof taboo It is the head of the Nazarite that is especially consecrated, and so it was in the taboo The Nazarite ht not partake of certain meats and drinks, nor shave his head, nor touch a dead body--all rules of taboo” Mr Frazer points out other particulars in thethe vow Secondly that some of the rules of Sabbath observance are identical with the rules of strict taboo; such are the prohibitions to do any work, to kindle a fire in the house, to cook food and to go out of doors

We still have some remnant of the Sabbath taboo, andchecked for doing what is tabooed on the Lord's Day Other taboos abound We must not, for instance, question the sacred books, the sacred character of Jesus, or the existence of the divine being These subjects are tabooed For reverence is a virtue s

BLOOD RITES

”Without shedding of blood is no remission,”

--Heb ix 22

There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn froed beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains

Judaision of blood and thunder The Lord God of Israel delighted in blood His worshi+ppers praised him as a God of battles and a man of war All his favorites were men of blood The Lord God was likewise very fond of roast meat, and the smell thereof was a sweet savor unto his nostrils He had respect to Abel and his bloody offering, but not to Cain and his vegetables He ordered that in his holy temple a bullock and a la for dinner, and a la To flavor the repast he had twelve flour cakes, olive oil, salt and spice; and to wash it down he had the fourth part of a hin of wine (over a quart) with a lamb twice a day, the third part of a hin with a ram, and half a hin with a bullock (Exodus xxix 40, Nuht was blood, and froht by the priest in a bason and offered to hiuine streahtered animals

The interior of his temple was like shambles, and a drain had to be made to the brook Oedron to carry off the refuse Incense had to be used to take away the s blood

Smith's Bible Dictionary, article ”Blood”

[Illustration: The Altar of Jehovah]

The most characteristic customs of the Jews, circuuinary character of their deity Because Moses did not ht to kill hi to the Jen account, coypt, and sparing those of the Jews upon recognising the blood sprinkled upon the lintels and sideposts of the doors; more probably it was a survival of human sacrifice God's worshi+ppers were interdicted fro, the sacred fluid; yet we read of Saul's army that ”the people flew upon the spoil, and took sheep and oxen and calves, and slew theround, and the people did eat them with the blood” (1 Sa steaks to this day

Christianity is a reat theme of the Epistle to the Hebrews is that the blood and sacrifice of Christ is so much better than that of anireat inspiration of eion Revivalists revel in ”the blood, the precious blood”:

Just as I am, without one plea, But that thy blood was shed for me, And that thou bidd'st me come to thee, Oh! Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Chorus--Jesus paid it all, All to him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow

Jesus Christ says, ”He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him,” and the most holy sacrament of the Christian Church consists in this cannabalistic communion