_1. The Idea of an Atonement of Ancient Origin:_ From the earliest times the fact of an Atonement for man is foreshadowed. "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat," said Eve, to the Lord. "And the Lord God said unto the serpent * * * I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."[A] [Footnote A: Gen. iii:13, 15.] In this passage Christians with justice have always seen the proclamation of the good tidings of the final victory over sin. "It is in Christ that the seed of the woman crushes the serpent."[A] [Footnote A: Dummelow's Commentary on Gen. iii.] _2. Atonement Foreshadowed in Ancient Sacrifices:_ The Atonement is also foreshadowed in the sacrifices of burnt offerings of Adam, his son Abel and the early Bible patriarchs. So meagre is the Bible account of the origin of sacrifices that some have doubted if they bore any relation to the sacrifice to be offered by the Christ, or were at all of divine origin.[A] Our scripture, however, the Book, of Moses, sets the matter at rest for Latter-day Saints; for there it is written: [Footnote A: "In tracing the history of sacrifice, from its first beginning to its perfect development in the Mosaic ritual, we are at once met by the long-disputed question, as to the origin of sacrifice; whether it arose from a natural instinct of man, sanctioned and guided by God, or whether it was the subject of some distinct primeval revelation. * * * The great difficulty in the theory which refers it to a distinct command of God, is the total silence of Holy Scriptures--a silence the more remarkable, when contrasted with the distinct reference made in Gen. ii to the origin of the Sabbath. Sacrifice, when first mentioned, in the case of Cain and Abel, is referred to as a thing of course; it is said to have been 'brought' by men; there is no hint of any command given by God. This consideration, the strength of which no ingenuity has been able to impair, although it does not actually disprove the formal revelation of sacrifice; yet at least forbids the assertion of it, as of a positive and important doctrine." (Smith's "Bible Dictionary"--Hackett ed.--Art. "Sacrifice," Vol. IV, p. 2770).