Offering

(offur-ing:) [ L. offero, I offer.] (Eccl.) In a Scripture sense, it denotes a gift presented by men at the altar, in order to expre their entire dependence on and submi ion to the Deity. Offerings constituted a principal part of the Israel it ish worship. With regard to their meaning and object, these offerings were either thank-offerings and peace-offerings, which con sis ted of some animal, and were usually accompanied with offerings of vegetable food; or trespa -and sin offerings, in which only animals were used. In the last-mentioned cases, the priests were accustomed to sprinkle the parties who made the offerings with the blood of the victims, as a sign of reconciliation with Jehovah; and where the offering was an expre ion of the penitence and expiation of the whole people, it was usual to burn the victim; but if it concerned only private persons, the priests were allowed to eat the flesh. -In a modern sense, church dues, payable by custom; as the Easter offerings, or the offerings at mar ri ages, . [s. 660]