The Morning and Evening Sacrifice
By Mrs. C. C. L.
ALTHOUGH we are living under the new dispensation, most of the old forms and ceremonies having passed away, there are some services that should remain with us as long as time continues. In Ex. 30: 1-6 we find the directions given to the servants of God for the construction of the altar of incense. The seventh and eighth verses tell us that Aaron, the high priest, was to burn sweet incense thereon every morning when he dressed the lamps, and again in the evening when he lighted the lamps. It was to be a perpetual incense before the Lord. It was the plan of God that this service should be remembered and observed by his people in all time. The altar of incense was to be anointed with some of the holy anointing oil, which was prepared by special direction from fragrant herbs. In Ezra 9: 5 the prophet refers to the evening sacrifice as if it was a regular service. It was at the time of the evening oblation that the angel Gabriel touched Daniel and talked to him, and told him he was come to give him skill and understanding. Precious companionship! What if Daniel had been off on business, looking after the affairs of the kingdom? for you remember Daniel was a very busy man. What if he had not been in the place and in the attitude of prayer at the appointed time? Think you the heavenly messenger would have intruded his presence upon an unready mind? O, no; everything of heavenly origin is done in order and at the appointed time. “In the offering of incense the priest was brought more directly into the presence of God than in any other act of the daily ministration.” It seems this service was designed to teach a very sweet and sacred relationship between God and his people. One of the offices of the Levites was to stand every morning and evening and offer praise and thanksgiving to God for his goodness and mercy. In “Patriarchs and Prophets” we find these words: “As the priests morning and evening entered the holy place at the time of incense, the daily sacrifice was ready to be offered upon the altar in the court without. This was a time of intense interest to the worshipers who assembled at the tabernacle. Before entering into the presence of God through the ministration of the priest, they were to engage in earnest searching of heart and confession of sin. They united in silent prayer, with their faces toward the holy place. Thus their petitions ascended with the cloud of incense, while faith laid hold upon the merits of the promised Saviour prefigured by the atoning sacrifice. The hours appointed for the morning and the evening sacrifice were regarded as sacred, and they came to be observed as the set time for worship throughout the Jewish nation. And when in later times the Jews were scattered as captives in distant lands, they still at the appointed hour turned their faces toward Jerusalem, and offered up their petitions to the God of Israel. In this custom, Christians have an example for morning and evening prayer.” Are we as a people as particular about family worship as we were ten or fifteen years ago? Do you find in your home and in your church the same careful observance of that daily ministration as was found in the homes of the pioneers of this cause? Are we not drifting into lukewarm ways in reference to this important means of grace? This is what the spirit of prophecy says to us: “You ceased the morning and evening devotions, because it was not always convenient. Your house became a prayerless house; your business was made primary, and the Lord and his truth were made secondary.” How can we bear to go forth prayerless to the work of the day in the enchanted country, knowing that Satan is going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour? How can we send our inexperienced children and young people forth unprotected amid the temptations and snares of an experienced enemy? O, let us hold them up in the arms of our faith before the face of our God, and ask him to build a hedge about them! Let us dedicate them in secret to the Master, and our Father who seeth in secret will reward us openly. “The father is in one sense the priest of the household, laying upon the altar of God the morning and evening sacrifice. . . . Morning and evening, the father, as priest of the household, should confess to God the sins committed by himself and his children through the day. Those sins which have come to his knowledge, and also those which are secret, of which God’s eye alone has taken cognizance, should be confessed. This rule of action, zealously carried out by the father when he is present, or by the mother when he is absent, will result in blessings to the family.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. II, page 701. We have the promise that children thus dedicated to God will be protected in the hour of temptation.