It was while engaged in the preparation of a book—still
unfinished—on the Sway of Friendship in the World’s Forces, that I
came upon facts concerning the primitive rite of covenanting by the
inter-transfusion of blood, which induced me to turn aside from my
other studies, in order to pursue investigations in this
direction.
Having an engagement to deliver a series of lectures before
the Summer School of Hebrew, under Professor W. R. Harper, of
Chicago, at the buildings of the Episcopal Divinity School, in
Philadelphia, I decided to make this rite and its linkings the
theme of that series; and I delivered three lectures, accordingly,
June 16-18, 1885.
The interest manifested in the subject by those who heard the
Lectures, as well as the importance of the theme itself, has seemed
sufficient to warrant its presentation to a larger public. In this
publishing, the form of the original Lectures has, for convenience
sake, been adhered to; although some considerable additions to the
text, in the way of illustrative facts, have been made, since the
delivery of the Lectures; while other similar material is given in
an Appendix.
From the very freshness of the subject itself, there was
added difficulty in gathering the material for its illustration and
exposition. So far as I could learn, no one had gone over the
ground before me, in this particular line of research; hence the
various items essential to a fair statement of the case must be
searched for through many diverse volumes of travel and of history
and of archæological compilation, with only here and there an
incidental disclosure in return. Yet, each new discovery opened the
way for other discoveries beyond; and even after the Lectures, in
their present form, were already in type, I gained many fresh
facts, which I wish had been earlier available to me. Indeed, I may
say that no portion of the volume is of more importance than the
Appendix; where are added facts and reasonings bearing directly on
well-nigh every main point of the original Lectures.
There is cause for just surprise that the chief facts of this
entire subject have been so generally overlooked, in all the
theological discussions, and in all the physio-sociological
researches, of the earlier and the later times. Yet this only
furnishes another illustration of the inevitably cramping influence
of a pre-conceived fixed theory,—to which all the ascertained facts
must be conformed,—in any attempt at thorough and impartial
scientific investigation. It would seem to be because of such
cramping, that no one of the modern students of myth and folk-lore,
of primitive ideas and customs, and of man’s origin and history,
has brought into their true prominence, if indeed he has even
noticed them in passing, the universally dominating primitive
convictions: that the blood is the life; that the heart, as the
blood-fountain, is the very soul of every personality; that
blood-transfer is soul-transfer; that blood-sharing, human, or
divine-human, secures an inter-union of natures; and that a union
of the human nature with the divine is the highest ultimate
attainment reached out after by the most primitive, as well as by
the most enlightened, mind of humanity.
Certainly, the collation of facts comprised in this volume
grew out of no pre-conceived theory on the part of its author.
Whatever theory shows itself in their present arrangement, is
simply that which the facts themselves have seemed to enforce and
establish, in their consecutive disclosure.
I should have been glad to take much more time for the study
of this theme, and for the re-arranging of its material, before its
presentation to the public; but, with the pressure of other work
upon me, the choice was between hurrying it out in its present
shape, and postponing it indefinitely. All things considered, I
chose the former alternative.
In the prosecution of my investigations, I acknowledge kindly
aid from Professor Dr. Georg Ebers, Principal Sir William Muir, Dr.
Yung Wing, Dean E. T. Bartlett, Professors Doctors John P. Peters
and J. G. Lansing, the Rev. Dr. M. H. Bixby, Drs. D. G. Brinton and
Charles W. Dulles, the Rev. Messrs. R. M. Luther and Chester
Holcombe, and Mr. E. A. Barber; in addition to constant and
valuable assistance from Mr. John T. Napier, to whom I am
particularly indebted for the philological comparisons in the
Oriental field, including the Egyptian, the Arabic, and the
Hebrew.
At the best, my work in this volume is only tentative and
suggestive. Its chief value is likely to be in its stimulating of
others to fuller and more satisfactory research in the field here
brought to notice. Sufficient, however, is certainly shown, to
indicate that the realm of true Biblical theology is as yet by no
means thoroughly explored.