(comp. Delitzsch, Commentar über den Psalter, on Psa. ix, x). De Wette, however, allows, condescendingly, that the Lamentations, in spite of their degenerate taste, "have some merit in their way." Other critics have been more enthusiastic in their admiration of this book. Dr. Blayney remarks, "We cannot too much admire the flow of that full and graceful pathetic eloquence in which the author pours out the effusions of a patriotic heart, and piously weeps over the ruins of his venerable country" (Jeremiah, p. 376). "Never," says an unquestionable judge of these matters, "was there a more rich and elegant variety of beautiful images and adjuncts arranged together within so small a compass, nor more happily chosen and applied" (Lowth, De Sacra Poesi Hebr. Prælect. xxii). The poet seizes with wonderful tact those circumstances which point out the objects of his pity as the subjects of sympathy, and founds his expostulations on the miseries which are thus exhibited. His book of Lamentations is an astonishing exhibition of his power to accumulate images of sorrow. The whole series of elegies has but one object-the expression of sorrow for the forlorn condition of his country; and yet he presents this to us in so many lights, alludes to it by so many figures, that not only are his mournful strains not felt to be tedious reiterations, but the reader is captivated by the plaintive melancholy which per vades the whole. 3. The power of entering into the spirit and meaning of poems such as these depends on two distinct conditions. We must seek to see, as with our own eyes, the desolation, misery, confusion, which came before those of the prophet. We must endeavor also to feel as he felt when he looked on them. The last is the more difficult of the two. Jeremiah was not merely a patriotpoet, weeping over the ruin of his country. He was a prophet who had seen all this coming, and had foretold it as inevitable. He had urged submission to the Chaldæans as the only mode of diminishing the terrors of that "day of the Lord." And now the Chaldæans had come, irritated by the perfidy and rebellion of the king and princes of Judah; and the actual horrors that he saw, surpassed, though he had predicted them, all that he had been able to imagine. All feeling of exultation in which, as a mere prophet of evil, he might have indulged at the fulfilment of his forebodings, was swallowed up in deep, overwhelming sorrow. Yet sorrow, not less than other emotions, works on men according to their characters, and a man with Jeremiah's gifts of utterance could not sit down in the mere silence and stupor of a hopeless grief. He was compelled to give expression to that which was devouring his heart and the heart of his people. The act itself was a relief to him. It led him on (as has been seen above) to a calmer and serener state. It revived the faith and hope which had been nearly crushed out. it has been comparatively in the background in times when the study of Scripture had passed into casuistry and speculation, it has come forward, once and again, in times of danger and suffering, as a messenger of peace, comforting men, not after the fashion of the friends of Job, with formal moralizings, but by enabling them to express themselves, leading them to feel that they might give utterance to the deepest and saddest feelings by which they were overwhelmed. It is striking, as we cast our eye over the list of writers who have treated specially this book, to notice how many must have passed through scenes of trial not unlike in kind to that of which the Lamentations speak. The book remains to do its work for any future generation that may be exposed to analogous calamities. das, VIII. Commentaries.-The following are the special exegetical helps on the whole book of Lamentations exclusively, to a few of the most important of which we prefix an asterisk: Origen, Scholia (Greek, in Opp. iii, 320); Ephrem Syrus, Explanatio (Syr., in Opp. v, 165); Jerome, In Lam. (in Opp. [Suppos.] xiv, 227); Theodoret, Interpretatio (Greek, in Opp. ii, 1); Paschalius Ratbertus, In Threnos (in Opp. p. 1307); Hugo à St. Victor, Annotationes (in Opp. i, 103); Aquinas, Commentaria (in Opp. ii); Bonaventura, Explicatio (in Opp. i, 428); Albertus Magnus, Commentarii (in Opp. viii); Œcolampadius, Enarrationes [including Jer.] (Argent. 1533, 4to); Clenard, Meditationes (Paris, 1536, 8vo); Bugenhagen, Adnotationes (Vitemb. 1546, 4to); Quinquaboreus, Adnotationes (Paris, 1556, 4to); Palladius, Enarratio (Vitemb. 1560, 8vo); Pintus, Commentarius [including Isa. and Jer.] (Lugd. 1561, etc., fol.); Strigel, Commentarius (Lips. et Brem. 1564, 8vo); Selnecker, Auslegung (Lpz. 1565, 4to); Calvin, Prælectiones [includ. Jer.] (Frankft. 1581, 8vo; in French, Spires, 1584, 8vo; in English, London, 1587, 12mo, etc.); Taillepied, Commentarii (Paris, 1582, 8vo); Panigarola, Adnotationes (Verona, 1583; Rome, 1586, 8vo); Agellus, Catena (Rom. 1589, 4to); J. Ibn-Shoeib, ip (Ven. 1589, 4to); Sam. de Vi(Thessalon. 1596, 8vo); Figuero, Commentaria (Lugd. 1596, 8vo); Makshan, (Cracow, s. a. [about 1600], 4to); Alscheich, (Venice, 1601, 4to); Navarrette, Commentaria (Cordub. 1602, 4to): Bachmeister, Explicatio (Rost. 1603, 8vo); Broughton, Commentarius [includ. Jer.] (Genev. 1606, 4to; also in Works, p. 314); A Jesu Maria, Interpretatio (Neap. 1608, Col. Agrip. 1611, 8vo); Delrio, Commentarius (Lugdun. 1608, 4to); Polan, Commentarius [including Jer.] (Basil. 1608, 8vo); A Costa de Andrada, Commentarii (Lugd. 1609, 8vo); De Castro, Commentarii [including Jer, and Bar.] (Par. 1609, fol.); Topsell, Commentarius (London, 1613, 4to); Sanctius, Commentarius [includ. Jer.] (Lugd. 1618, fol.); Hull, Exposition (Lond. 1618, 4to); Ghisler, Commentarius [includ. Jer.] (Lugd. 1623, fol.); *Tarno4. There are, perhaps, few portions of the O. T. which vius, Commentarius (Rostock, 1627, 1642; Hamb. 1707, appear to have done the work they were meant to do 4to); Peter Martyr, Commentarius (Tigur. 1629, 4to); more effectually than this. It has presented but scanty Udall, Commentarie (Lond. 1637, 4to); De Lemos, Commaterials for the systems and controversies of theology. mentarius (Madrit. 1649, fol.); Tayler, Commentarii [RabIt has supplied thousands with the fullest utterance for binical] (London, 1651, 4to); Fowler, Commentarius [intheir sorrows in the critical periods of national or indi- clud. Jer.] (Vitemb. 1672, 1699, 4to); Hulsemann, Comvidual suffering. We may well believe that it soothed mentarius [includ. Jer.] (Rudolph. 1696, 4to); Benjamin the weary years of the Babylonian exile (comp. Zech. i, Allessandro, i (Venice, 1713, 4to); C. B. Mi6 with Lam. ii, 17). When the Jews returned to their chaelis, Note (in Adnot. phil. exeg. Halle, 1720, 3 vols. own land, and the desolation of Jerusalem was remembered as belonging only to the past, this was the book of 4to); Riedel, Uebersetz. (Wien, 1761, 8vo); Lessing, Obremembrance. On the ninth day of the month of Abservationes (Lipsia, 1770, 8vo); Börmel, Anmerkungen (July), the Lamentations of Jeremiah were read, year by Repert. pt. xii, Lips. 1783); Horrer, Bearbeitung (Halle. (Weimar, 1781, 8vo); Schleusner, Cura (in Eichhorn's year, with fasting and weeping, to commemorate the misery out of which the people had been delivered. It has come to be connected with the thoughts of a later devastation, and its words enter, sometimes at least, into the prayers of the pilgrim Jews who meet at the "place of wailing" to mourn over the departed glory of their city. It enters largely into the nobly-constructed order of the Latin Church for the services of Passion-week (Breviar. Rom. Feria Quinta. "In Coena Domini"). If 1784, 8vo); Blayney, Notes [including Jer.] (Oxf. 1784, 8vo, etc.); Löwe and Wolfssohn, Anmerkungen (Berlin, 1790, 8vo); Hämon, Commentaire (Par. 1790, 8vo); *Pareau, Illustratio (L. Bat. 1790, 8vo); Libowitzer 2 (Korez, 1791, 8vo); Schnurrer, Observationes (Tub. 1793, 4to); J. H. Michaelis, Observationes [includ. Jer.] (Götting. 1793, 8vo); Gaab, Beiträge [includ. Cant, and Eccles.] (Tübing. 1795, 8vo); Volborth, Uebersetz. (Celle, 1795, 8vo); Otto, Dissertatio (Tüb. 1795, 4to); Wetzler, TARY. Lamfridus. See LANTFREDUS. active part in all the religious controversies of the times, and was one of the most prominent members of the political assembly of La Rochelle in 1690, whither he had been sent by the Consistory of Paris. He subsequently went with La Chapellière to Holland, to ask aid of the states-general for the Protestants of France. We next find him at the Assembly of Milhau in 1625, and in 1627 at Paris, where he was arrested as an agent of the duke of Rohan. He was condemned to death, but his life was spared on account of the threatening attitude which the inhabitants of La Rochelle assumed, in retaliative, towards the person of one of their prisoners, a relation of P. Joseph (the confessor and secret agent of Richelieu). He was finally released, and even received a pension from Richelieu on the condition of using every exertion to reunite the different Protestant churches. He now became the pliant tool of Richelieu, and was excommunicated by the Church of Charenton in 1644 for not having partaken of the Lord's Supper in twelve years. He finally joined the Roman Catholic Church, April 2, 1645. The remainder of his life was employed in writing against Protestantism. He died in 1665, despised alike by Protestants and Romanists. His principal works are, Discours des vrayes raisons pour lesquelles ceux de la religion en France peuvent et doivent resister par armes à la persécution ouverte (1622, 8vo); very scarce, as it was condemned to be burned by the public executioner:-Lettre à M. Rambours pour la réunion des évangéliques aux catholiques (Paris, 1628, 12mo) :—De lem ducem Richelium constituenda (Par. 1634,8vo; transl. universi orbis Christiani pace et concordia per cardinainto French, 1635, 4to):-Le Moyen de la paix Chrétienne (Par. 1637, 8vo):-La Necessité de la Puissance du Pape en l'Eglise (Paris, 1640, 8vo):-Le Catholique réformé (Paris, 1642, 8vo):-Le Pacifique véritable (Paris, 1644, 8vo)-condemned by the Sorbonne; etc. See Benoit, Histoire de l'Édit de Nantes, ii; De Marolles, Mémoires; Grotius, Epistolæ; Bayle, Dictionnaire Historique; Tallemant, Historiettes; Haag, La France Protestante; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Générale, xxix, 222. (J. N. P.) Lami, GIOVANNI, an Italian writer of note, was born at Santa Croce, Tuscany, in 1697. He studied law at the University of Pisa, and for a time practiced his profession at Florence. But his fondness for literature, and especially classical and ecclesiastical erudition, interfered with his professional pursuits, and he became an author. He first wrote in defence of the Nicene Creed concerning the Trinity, and against Leclerc and other Socinian writers. He contended that the Nicene dogma concerning the Trinity was the same as that held by the early promulgators of Christianity in the apostolic times. His work is entitled De recta patrum Nicenorum fide (Venice, 1730). In 1732 he was made librarian of the Lammas-day is the name of a festival observed Riccardi Library, and professor of ecclesiastical history by Roman Catholics on the 1st of August, in memory of in the Florence Lyceum, and while in this position he the imprisonment of St. Peter, and otherwise called St. published De Eruditione Apostolorum (1738), a sort of Peter's chains. The word is of doubtful meaning: some continuation of his former work. In 1740 Lami began refer it to a Saxon term signifying contribution. Brande, to publish a literary journal, entitled Novelle Letterarie, in his "Antiquities," says, "Some suppose it is called which he carried on till 1760, at first with the assistance Lammas-day, quasi Lamb-masse, because on that day the of Targioni, Gori, and other learned Tuscans of his time, tenants that held lands of the cathedral church at York with whom he afterwards quarrelled, and he then conwere bound by their tenure to bring a live lamb into tinued the work alone. During his position as librarian the church at high mass on that day." More probably, he made a selection of inedited works, or fragments of however, is its derivation from "loaf-mass," it having works, from the manuscripts of the Riccardi Library, been the custom of the Saxons to offer on this day (Auwhich he published in a series entitled Delicia Erudito-gust 1) an oblation of loaves made of new wheat. Like rum (Florence, 1736-69, 18 vols. 8vo). He also edited many other Church festivals, it seems to have been obthe works of the learned John Meursius, in 12 vols, folio. served already in pagan times, and, like the 1st of May, He wrote short biographies of many illustrious Italians was a festive day with the Druids. Vallancey, in his of his age, under the title of Memorabilia Italorum eruCollectanea De Rebus Hibernicis, says the Druids celeditione præstantium quibus præsens sæculum gloriatur brated the 1st of August as the day of the oblation of (Florence, 1742-48, 2 vols. 8vo), and published in Greek grain. See Farrar, Eccles. Dict. s. v.; Taylor, Ancient the letters of Gabriel Severus, archbishop of Philadel- Christianity, Gen. Suppl. p. 92, Eadie, Eccles. Dict. s. v. phia, in Asia Minor, and of other prelates of the Greek Lammermann. See LAMORMAIN. Church: Gabrielis Severi et aliorum Græcorum recentiorum Epistola (Flor. 1754, 8vo). A History of the Eastern Church, from the Council of Florence to 1439, he left unfinished. Lami died in 1770. He was a great hater of the Jesuits, and wrote many satires against them. Memoirs of his life were published by Fabroni (Vite Italorum, vol. xvi) and Fontanini (Flor. 1789, 4to). See Engl. Cyclop. s. v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Générale, xxix, 216 sq.; Sax, Onomasticon, vi, 490. (J. H. W.) Lamiletière, THEOPHILE BRACHET DE, a noted French theologian, was born about the year 1596. He studied at the University of Heidelberg, and afterwards practiced law at Paris. He soon, however, tired of the bar, and devoted himself to theology. Having become elder of the Protestant Church at Charenton, he took an Lammists, a sect of Remonstrant Baptists. See MENNONITES. Lamont, DAVID, D.D., a Scotch Presbyterian divine, flourished as minister of Kirkpatrick, Durham, He died in 1837. This is all we know of his personal history. His Sermons were published at London from 1760-87, in 2 vols. 8vo (new edit. 1810, 3 vols. 8vo). Lamormain, Guillaume Germeau de, a noted Belgian Roman Catholic theologian of the Order of the Jesuits, was born in the duchy of Luxemburg about 1570; entered the Jesuitical order in 1590, and then became professor of theology and philosophy at the University of Gratz. In 1624 he was appointed confessor of the emperor of Austria, Ferdinand II, and over this thoroughly monkish ruler Lamormain is said to have exercised perfect sway. He and John Wein- bly. Having resisted the extreme measures of the domgärtner, another Jesuit confessor, Vehse (see below) tells inant party, he was guillotined Jan. 10, 1794. He pubus, "constantly kept near him, and never let him (Fer- lished Pensées sur la philosophie et l'incrédulité (1786, dinand) out of their sight;" and it is due to this Jes- 8vo):-Pensées sur la philosophie de la foi (1789, 8vo): uitic influence, no doubt, that Ferdinand became such-Les Délices de la Religion (1789, 12mo):-Considéraa fanatical adherent of the Church of Rome, and a most tions sur l'esprit et les devoirs de la vie religieuse (1795, cruel persecutor of Protestantism. See AUSTRIA. Of 12mo); etc.-Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Générale, s. v. Lamormain himself, it is said that he was so devoted to the Romish cause that he made upwards of 100,000 converts to the Church of Rome. He died Feb. 22, 1648. He wrote a life of Ferdinand II, which abounds in flattering terms to the emperor, who had been a pliant tool in the hands of the crafty Jesuit. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Générale, xxix, 245; Paquot, Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire littéraire des Pays-Bas, v, 98-100; Vehse, Memoirs of the Court, Aristocracy, and Diplomacy of Austria (transl. by F. Demmler, Lond. 1856, 2 vols. sm. 8vo), i, 287 sq., 319. (J. H. W.) Lamormain, Henri de, a Belgian Jesuit, brother of the preceding, and, like him, a native of Luxemburg, entered the Order of the Jesuits in 1596, but exerted little influence on account of feeble health. He died Nov. 26, 1647. He translated and wrote several works; among them are, Tractatus amoris divini constans, libri xii (from the French of Francisco de Sales, Vienna, 1643, 4to; 2d edit., with life of the author [Sales], Col. 1657, 8vo):-De Virtute Pænitentiæ, etc. (Vienna, 1644, 4to). -Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Générale, xxix, 245. Lamothe, PIERRE LAMBERT DE, a French Roman Catholic missionary, was born at Bucherie, in the diocese of Lisieux, Jan. 18, 1624. After being for some time connected with the chancellery of the Parliament at Rouen, he entered the Church. His talents caused him to be distinguished among a number of priests who had formed in 1652 the plan of Christianizing China and neighboring countries. In 1660 he was consecrated bishop of Berythe. He embarked at Marseilles for China November 27, 1660, and, passing through Malta, Antioch, Aleppo, Bassora, Chalzeran, Shiraz, Ispahan, Lara, Surate, Masulipatam, Tenasserim, Yalinga, Pram, and Pikfri, arrived at Jutlica, the capital of Siam, April 22, 1662. Here he found some 1500 Christians of different nations and two churches, the one administered by the Dominicans, the other by the Jesuits. He was at first well received, but had subsequently to submit to many annoyances from the archbishop of Goa, who claimed the primacy of the whole East Indies, and Lamothe finally sailed for Canton in July, 1663, with two other missionaries. A severe tempest obliged them, however, to return to Siam. Here they were exposed to all sorts of ill treatment at the hands of the Portuguese, and owed their safety only to the aid of the Cochin Chinese. Lamothe sent to the pope and to Paris for more missionaries and other assistance. Alexander VII, in consequence, extended the jurisdiction of apostolic vicars over the kingdom of Siam, Japan, and other neighboring countries, which action freed Lamothe from the control of the archbishop of Goa. He was now joined by Pallu du Parc, bishop of Heliopolis, who reached Siam January 27, 1664, with other missionaries. The two apostolic vicars held a synod, and Lamothe received permission from the king to establish a Church at Siam, which he intended should become the centre of communication between the extreme Eastern missions. He also established a seminary for the education of native priests and instructors, a college, and a hospital. Lamothe died June 15, 1679.-Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Générale, xxix, 250 sq. Lamourette, ADRIEN, abbé, a noted French ecclesiastic, was born in Picardy in 1742. During the Revolution in France he became an auxiliary of Mirabeau in 1789, and wrote the address on the civil constitution of the clergy which that orator pronounced. In 1791 he was chosen, under the new Church regime enacted by the Assembly in opposition to the Roman see, bishop of Rhone-et-Loire, and deputed to the National Assem Lamp (properly, lappid', a flame, Gen. xv, 17; Exod. xx, 18, Job xli, 11; Nah.ii, 5, Dan. x, 6, Isa. lxii, 1; Ezek. i, 13; lamp-torch, Judg. vii, 16, 20, xv, 4, 5, Job xii, 5; Zech. xii, 6; in some of which passages it is rendered "lightning," "brand," "torch," etc.; Gr.daμπáç, a torch-"light" or lantern, Acts xx,8; Rev.iv, 5, "torch," John xviii, 3; Rev. viii, 10, oil-lamp, Matt. xxv, 1-8; also ""2, neyr, or "", nir, a light, in various senses, especially for domestic purposes, the Gr. Aúxvoc) is a term of frequent occurrence in a literal sense in the Scriptures, such a utensil being often really meant where the A. V. gives the rendering "candle" (q. v.). The primary sense of light (Gen. xv, 17) also gives rise to frequent metaphorical usages, indicating life, welfare, guidance, as, e. g. 2 Sam. xxi, 17; Psa. cxix, 105; Prov. vi, 23; xiii. 9. See LIGHT. The following are the cases in which the use of lamps is referred to in the Bible. In their illustration we freely avail ourselves of the articles in Kitto's and Smith's Dictionaries. 1. That part of the golden candlestick belonging to the tabernacle which bore the light, also of each of the ten candlesticks placed by Solomon in the Temple before the Holy of Holies (Exod. xxv, 37; 1 Kings vii, 49; 2 Chron. iv, 20, xiii, 11, Zech. iv, 2). The lamps were lighted every evening, and cleansed every morning (Exod. xxx, 7,8; Reland, Ant. Hebr. i, v, 9, and vii, 8). It is somewhat remarkable, that while the golden candlestick, or rather candelabrum, is so minutely described, not a word is said of the shape of the lamps (Exod. xxv, 37). This was probably because the socket in which it was to be inserted necessarily gave it a somewhat cylindrical form adapted to the purpose; for it is hardly to be presumed that the insecure cup-form usually represented in engravings would have been adopted. This shape is aptly illustrated by an instance occurring on the Egyptian monuments. Wilkinson gives (Ancient Egyptians, v,376) what he takes to be the representation of a lamp made of glass, with a hand holding separately an erect wick, as if the bearer were about to place it in the vase previous to its being lighted. The lines, he thinks, may represent the twisted nature of the cotton wick, as they do the watering of the glass vase. Ancient Egyptian Cylindrical Almost the only other fact we can gather in this connection is, that vegetable oils were burnt in them, and especially, if not exclusively, olive-oil. This, of the finest quality, was the oil used in the seven lamps of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvii, 20). Although the lamp-oils of the Hebrews were exclusively vegetable, it is probable that animal fat was used, as it is at present by the Western Asiatics, by being placed in a kind of lamp, and burnt by means of a wick inserted in it. See OIL. Cotton wicks are now used throughout Asia, but the Hebrews, like the Egyptians, probably employed the outer and coarser fibre of flax (Pliny, Hist. Nat. xix, 1), and perhaps linen yarn, if the rabbins are correct in alleging that the linen dresses of the priests were unravelled when old, to furnish wicks for the sacred lamps. As to the material, the burners were in this instance doubtless of gold, although metal is scarcely the best substance for a lamp. The golden candlestick may also suggest that lamps in ordinary use were placed on stands, and, where more than one was required, on stands with two or more branches. The modern Orientals, who are satisfied with very little light in their rooms, use stands of brass or wood, on which to raise the lamps to a sufficient height above the floor on which they sit. Such stands are shaped not unlike a tall candlestick, spreading out at the top. Sometimes the lamps are placed on brackets against the wall, made for the purpose, and often upon stools. Doubtless similar contrivances were employed by the Hebrews. The Romans are known to have employed them. See CANDLESTICK. specimens from neighboring nations that have come down to us. In the British Museum there are various forms of ancient Egyptian lamps, which were employed for lighting the interior of apartments, some of terracotta and others of bronze, with various ornaments in bas-relief. 3 5 Ancient Assyrian Lamps in the British Museum. 1, Bronze from north-west palace, Nimroud. 2, Bronze from Kouyunjik. 3, 4, Terra-cotta from Warka. 5, Terra-cotta from Kouyunjik. Bronze Lamp and Stand. From Pompeii. 2. A torch or flambeau, such as was carried by the soldiers of Gideon (Judg. vii, 16, 20; comp. xv, 4). From the fact that these were at first enclosed in pitchers, from which, at the end of the march, they were taken out and borne in the hand, we may with certainty infer that they were not ordinary lamps, open at top, from which the oil could easily be spilled. See TORCH. 3. It seems that the Hebrews, like the ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as the modern Orientals, were accustomed to burn lamps overnight in their chambers; and this practice may appear to give point to the expression of "outer darkness," which repeatedly occurs in the New Testament (Matt. viii, 12, xxii, 13); the force is greater, however, when the contrast implied in the term "outer" is viewed with reference to the effect produced by sudden expulsion into the darkness of night from a chamber highly illuminated for an entertainment. This custom of burning lamps at night, with the effect produced by their going out or being extinguished, supplies various figures to the sacred writers (2 Sam. xxi, 17, Prov. xiii, 9, xx, 20). On the other hand, the keeping up of a lamp's light is used as a symbol of enduring and unbroken succession (1 Kings xi, 36, xv, 4, Psa. cxxxii, 17). (See Wemyss's Symbol. Dict. s. v.) The usual form of these domestic utensils may probably be inferred from the prevailing shape of antique Ancient Classical Hand-lamps. Common Form of Classical hanging Lamp. 4. It appears from Matt. xxv, 1, that the Jews used lamps and torches in their marriage ceremonies, or rather when the bridegroom came to conduct home the bride by night. This is still the custom in those parts of the East where, on account of the heat of the day, the bridal procession takes place in the night-time. The connection of lamps and torches with marriage ceremonies often appears also in the classical poets (Homer, Iliad, vi, 492, Eurip. Phaniss. 346; Medea, 1027; Virgil, Eclog. viii, 29), and, indeed, Hymen, the god of marriage, was figured as bearing a torch. The same connection, it may be observed, is still preserved in Western Asia, even Small Oriental hanging Lamps. wood which serves to protect the flame from the wind. Lamps of this kind are sometimes hung over doors. The shape in figure 3 is also that of a muchused indoor lamp, called kandil (Lane, Modern Egyptians, chap. v, p. 151). It is a small vessel of glass, having a small tube at the bottom, in which is stuck a wick formed of cotton twisted round a piece of straw some water is poured in first, and then the oil. Enlarged View of the Lamps very nearly of this shape Kandil and its recep- appear on the Egyptian monuments, and they seem, also, to be of glass (Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, iii, 101; v, 376). tacle for oil. If the Egyptians had lamps of glass, there is no reason why the Jews also might not have had them, especially as this material is more proper for lamps intended to be hung up, and therefore, to cast their light down from above. The Jews used lamps in other festivals besides those of marriage. The Roman satirist (Persius, Sat. v, 179) expressly describes them as making illuminations at their festivals by lamps hung up and arranged in an orderly manner; and the scriptural intimations, so far as they go, agree with this description. If this custom had not been so general in the ancient and modern East, it might have been supposed that the Jews adopted it from the Egyptians, who, according to Herodotus (ii, 62), had a "Feast of Lamps," which was celebrated at Sais, and, indeed, throughout the country at a certain season of the year. The description which the historian gives of the lamps employed on this occasion strictly applies to those in modern use already described, and the concurrence of both these sources of illustration strengthens the probable analogy of Jewish usage. He speaks of them as "small vases filled with salt and olive-oil, in which the wick floated, and burnt during the whole night." It does not, indeed, appear of what materials these vases were made, but we may reasonably suppose them to have been of glass. The later Jews had even something like this feast among themselves. A" Feast of Lamps" was held every year on the twenty-fifth of the month Kisleu. See DEDICATION. It was founded by Judas Maccabæus, in celebration of the restoration of the Temple worship (Josephus, Ant. xii, 7,7), and has ever since been observed by the lighting up of lamps or candles on that day in all the countries of their dispersion (Maimonides, Rosh. Hashanah, fol. 8). Other Orientals have at this day a similar feast, of which the "Feast of Lanterns" among the Chinese is perhaps the best known (Davis, Chinese, p. 138). See LANTERN. LAMP, a strange ceremony of the Maronite Church. A wafer of some size, having seven pieces of cotton stuck into it, is put into a flask or basin of oil; a religious service is then read, the cotton is set fire to, and the sick person for whose recovery the rite is intended is anointed with the oil, and prayer is repeated over him.-Eadie, Eccles. Dict. s. v. LAMPS (their use in the Christian Church). Among the Jews lamps were freely used in the synagogue for various purposes. In fact, all the ancient nations had them in their temples; but how soon they were made use of by Christians, and what significance they had in symbolism, remains a matter of dispute between the Romish and Protestant churches. The Protestants generally hold that there is no evidence that lamps were used in the early Church for any other purpose than to light up the dark places where they were obliged to congregate for worship, while Romanists claim that they were used as symbols. (Compare, on the Roman Catholic view, Martigny, Dict. des Antiquités Chritiennes, p. 151, s. v. Cierges; see also the art. LIGHTS.) Several of the fathers, among them Chrysostom, condemn in strong terms the custom of setting up lamps on days of festival-as the relic of some pagan rite. the days of Jerome, it is true, lights were freely used in churches, but Romish theologians forget to tell that the propriety of the custom was much questioned even then. In graves of the Catacombs "lamps were often placed." says Walcott (Sacred Archaeology, s. v.), "as a symbol of the eternal light which the departed, it is hoped, enjoy-as memorials of their shining lights before men, and their future glory" (Matt. xiii, 43). But it is evident that even this custom was early disapproved of, for the Council of Elibaris forbade the faithful, on pain of excommunication, lighting wax candles in the daytime in cemeteries or other burial-places of the martyrs (compare Eadie, Eccles. Dict. p. 367). In our day it is the custom in the Roman Catholic churches to keep a lamp (eternal light) constantly burning before or by the side of the tabernacle. (J. H. W.) In |