Editorial September 20, 1941 Issue

Sacrifice

George Shaw Cook

When Abraham was ready to obey what he conceived to be the will of God, namely, to sacrifice his only son upon the altar, a way was provided for him to avoid this necessity. A ram was substituted for his son, as a sacrifice, and the human life of Isaac was thus preserved.

It is often found, as in the case of Abraham, that true willingness to give up those things which are held humanly dear is all that is required, and that the actual sacrifice of those things does not become necessary. Thus it is proved that what is most needed is the sacrifice of a personal sense of possession and the substitution in consciousness of spiritual ideas for material beliefs. The Psalmist sang: "For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

In the situation which appears to exist in the world today, it may seem that many sacrifices of a material nature are required in order to further the cause of humanity and justice, but the mere sacrifice of things is not by any means all that is needed. That which is of greatest importance is to give up false human concepts of ease, comfort, and security, and to replace them with a more spiritual and, therefore, a more permanent sense thereof.

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