By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.' What are these offerings? Christ's death stands alone, incapable of repetition, meeting no repetition, the eternal, sole, sufficient obligation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.' But there be other kinds of sacrifice. There are sacrifices of thanksgiving as well as for propitiation. And we, on the footing of that great sacrifice to which we can add nothing, and on which alone we must rest, may bring the offerings of our thankful hearts. These offerings are of a two-fold sort, says the writer. There are words of praise. There are works of beneficence. The service of man is sacrifice to God. That is a deep saying and reaches far. Such praise and such beneficence are only possible on the footing of Christ's sacrifice, for only on that footing is our praise acceptable; and only when moved by that infinite mercy and love shall we yield ourselves, thank-offerings to God.
And thus, brethren, the whole extent of the Christian life, in its inmost springs, and in its outward manifestations, is covered by these two thoughts--the feast on the sacrifice once offered, and the sacrifices which we in our turn offer on the altar. If we thus, moved by the mercy of God, yield ourselves as living sacrifices, which is our reasonable service,' then not only will life be one long thank-offering, but as the Apostle puts it in another place, death itself may become, too, a thankful surrender to Him. For He says, I am ready to be offered.' And so the thankful heart, resting on the sacrificial life and death of Jesus Christ, makes all life a thanksgiving, death God's endless mercy seals, and makes the sacrifice complete.' There is one Christ that can thus hallow and make acceptable our living and our dying, and that is the Christ that has died for us, and lives that in Him we may be priests to God. There is only one Christianity that will do for us what we will need, and that is the Christianity whose centre is an altar, on which the Son of God, our Passover, is slain for us.
