WORSHIP 71 



Moreover, every Arab tribe has each its own sacred 

 animal, which was supposed to be akin to the tribe and 

 its baal, and was never slain except sacrificially. Thus 

 with the tribes which eventually formed the Children 

 of Israel the sacred animal was the bulL Hence the 

 interesting story of the golden calf. But other tribes 

 had other sacred animals. With one tribe the sacred 

 animal would be the sheep ; with another the cameL 

 In every case the members of the tribe, their baal, and 

 the sacred animal were all supposed to be of the same 

 blood, or akin. And so, when the festival season came 

 round, at which the worship of Baal was consummated, 

 the sacred animal was slain, its blood was poured out 

 upon the sacred stone, and, sinking into the earth, was 

 supposed to have been consumed thereby. Then the 

 entrails and kidney-fat were burnt upon the sacred 

 stone, and were supposed to ascend as a sweet savour 

 to Baal. These were BaaVs portions. The rest of the 

 sacred animal was eaten by the members of the tribe, 

 who thus believed that they became partakers of the 

 divine nature, renewing their fellowship one with another 

 and with their God and Father* 



Not that I have the slightest desire to paint the worship 

 of Baal in roseate hues. These Canaanitish festivals at 

 which the worship of Baal was consummated were, as a 

 matter of fact, little better than drunken orgies ; orgies 

 of unbridled passion and unlimited vice. Indeed, it 

 was largely on account of the terrible immorality associated 

 with baal worship, that the prophets of Israel strove so 

 heroically to keep their fellow-countrymen loyal to 

 Jehovah. But whilst we fully recognise that the thought 

 in the minds of these baal worshippers was crude in the 

 extreme, and its expression indescribably gross and 

 sensual, let not this blind us to the fact that the thought 

 was, at bottom, a true one. Aye 1 it was the greatest 

 and most fundamental truth of all religion ; the truth 



