SOSIPATER. See SOPATER. SOSTHENES. The chief of the synagogue at Corinth. He was seized and beaten by the people, on account of the tumult raised by the Jews against Paul, of which he appears to have been one of the leaders. It is conjectured that he afterwards became a convert to Christianity, as a Sosthenes is afterwards mentioned by Paul, and coupled with himself. 1 Cor. i. 1. SOUL. The immaterial principle or substance in man which perceives, reasons, wills, &c. We know nothing of its essence: it can only be defined by its properties or attributes. The universe seems divided into matter and mind. The terms "heart, soul, mind," Matt. xxii. 37, are not intended to convey distinct ideas, but to give force to the precept by the accumulation of words of nearly similar import. Soul and spirit seem to correspond to the animus and mens of the Latins, and the vɛõua and vx of the Greeks. The mind or soul is one indivisible substance; but it is common to distinguish between what is intellectual and what is sentient. It is common to hear a person say his understanding was convinced, but his heart was not affected. Bacon says, in his "Novum Organum," that the intellect, in numberless ways, and often without our perceiving it, is under the influence of the feelings. SPAIN. Rom. xv. 24, 28. This name formerly included the whole peninsula, embracing Portugal. In the time of Paul it was a Roman province. The apostle Paul expresses, in his Epistle to the Romans, a design of preaching the Gospel in Spain; and, on the supposition that he was released from that imprisonment of which we have an account in the Acts, it is conjectured, with some degree of probability, that he went to Spain. The name is supposed to be derived from the Hebrew SHAPHAN, a rabbit or coney. The Phoenician sailors, seeing the coasts infested with rabbits, called it SHAPHANIEH, rabbit-land: hence HISPANIA, Spain. See CONEY. SPAN. The distance across the hand, from the extremity of the thumb to the extremity of the middle finger, when they are stretched as far as possible apart. Lam. ii. 20. SPARROW. Gen. vii. 14; Matt. x. 29. The Hebrew word, TZIPPOR, includes almost all the smaller birds which feed on insects or fruits. The word seems to be an imitation of the note of small birds, just as chirrup is in English. The psalmist likens himself to "a sparrow alone on the house-top," Psal. cii.7; which does not at all apply to the common sparrow, but is supposed to allude to a species of thrush, remarkable through the East for sitting solitary on the habitations of men. It is of a blue colour, with black wings and tail, and has a melancholy note. From Psal. lxxxiv. 3 we are not to understand that the swallow and sparrow built their nest in the tabernacle. The latter clause belongs to the former part of the verse, and should be read thus: "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young." As these birds found their nests a retreat, a home, so the psalmist found God's house a sanctuary, a resting-place. SPEAR. See ARMS. SPICES. Gen. xliii. 11. A term in Hebrew, including not only various fragrant gums, as myrrh, and roots and barks, as cinnamon, cassia, &c., but also the odours of flowers, and various perfumes. Sol. Song, iv. 14, 15. The various spices are explained under the respective words. SPIDER. There is reference made to the web of this insect in Scripture. Job viii, 14. It is a fit representation of the hope of a "hypocrite;" or, more correctly, of a profane and profligate person,-for so the word rendered "hypocrite" means. The object of his trust or confidence is as uncertain as a spider's web; literally, spider's house. "He shall lean upon his house," (to keep it steady when shaken,) "he shall hold it fast," (when it is about to be destroyed,) "but it shall not endure." In Isai. lix. 5, 6, it is said, the wicked "weave | the spider's web;" thin threads, which never can become garments. The artifices of the wicked can never succeed. SPIKENARD. John xii. 3-5. A famed perfume of the East. It is a plant of the grass kind, found principally in India. Horace speaks of Assyrian nard." The ointment produced from it was of the most precious kind; a single pound costing, in our Saviour's day, three hundred pence, (denarii,) equivalent to £10. 12s. 6d. From one of Horace's "Odes," addressed to Virgil, it appears that a small onyx box of spikenard was deemed as valuable as a cadus (nine gallons) of wine. It was carried in a box closely sealed; and opening this box was called breaking it, because the seal was broken. SPIRIT, breath. It is a word of various significations,-wind, breath, the soul, an apparition. It is applied to the third Person in the Trinity. The procession, personality, and divinity of the Holy Spirit are clearly revealed in the Bible. To these particulars reference is made under HOLY GHOST. SPONGE. A marine substance, composed of fibres, singularly interwoven, and surrounded by thin membranes, which arrange themselves in a cellular form. It imbibes a large quantity of moisture, which it gives out again on pressure. Drink could be easily conveyed in this way where a cup could not be used. Matt. xxvii. 48. SPRINKLING, BLOOD OF. This was typical of the atoning blood of Christ. See Lev. xvi. 15, 16; Heb. xii. 24. The high-priest carried blood on the day of atonement into the holiest, and sprinkled it on the mercy-seat, "because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel." The blood of sprinkling applied to the conscience of a believer, gives him the privilege of access into the presence of a holy God. See ATONEMENT, DAY OF. STACTE. One of the ingredients of the holy oil. It is a Greek word, and means the purest myrrh. Exod. Xxx. 34. STANDARD. See BANNER and ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION. The Israelites seem to have had standards as rallying-signals for marching, forming in battle-array, and encamping; also divisional standards; and those of families. It is difficult to ascertain the form, materials, colour, &c., of these standards. There is endless and fanciful conjecture among the rabbins on the subject. Numb. ii. 2. STAR IN THE EAST. Matt. ii. 2. The conjectures respecting this phenomenon are various. Some suppose the Shechinah; the Holy Spirit; an angel; a spirit; a new star in the heavens; a comet. A singular and fanciful suggestion has been made by Kepler, the astronomer. The details cannot be given here. He assumes that these magi were astronomers; that they had connected the birth of a great prince with the appearance of a remarkable star, Numb. xxiv. 17; that their calculations had led them to fix the time during the latter part of the reign of Herod, and in the land of Judæa; accordingly, at that time, Jupiter and Saturn were in conjunction under such circumstances as to appear one resplendent body, and that thus this body directed their way to Jerusalem, to Bethlehem, to the inn. Jupiter and Saturn are found by Kepler to have been in conjunction in the year from the building of Rome 747; which places the time of Christ's birth six years before the common era. We venture to designate this fanciful; and are at a loss to learn how the planets, unless they had moved out of their orbits, could have been a guide to particular houses, and especially how two bodies, so much larger than our earth, could have served such a purpose. The star was evidently a meteor, bearing the appearance of a star, and manifestly supernatural. Some revelation of its import must have been made to these magi before they set out. How otherwise could it have guided them to the very house? and how, without a prior intimation, could they have known its significancy, as pointing out the birth of the King of the Jews? STEPHANAS. 1 Cor. i. 16. The first convert in Achaia, a disciple at | not the remains of this holy man; Corinth, whose household Paul baptized. 1 Cor. xvi. 15. but took care to bury him, and accompanied his funeral with great mourning. Acts viii. 2. STOCKS. An instrument by which the feet and arms of persons are secured. The upper half of the instrument being removed, each leg is placed, just above the ankle, in the groove of the lower part; and then the upper half is fastened down, so that it is impossible to extricate the limb. The jailer of Philippi, to whose custody Paul and Silas were trusted, not only put them into the inner prison, but made their feet fast in the stocks. Acts xvi. 24. en STEPHEN. One of the seven deacons, and the first martyr of the Christian church. His name, which is Greek, seems to intimate that he was a Hellenist. As he was full of the Holy Ghost, and of zeal, Acts vi. 5, 6, &c., he performed many wonderful miracles; and those of the synagogue of the Libertines, of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and others, disputing with him, could not withstand the wisdom and the power with which he spoke. Then, having suborned false witnesses to testify that they had heard him STOICS. A sect of ancient philoblaspheme against Moses, and against sophers, originating with Zeno,__a God, they drew him before the San-native of the island of Cyprus. He hedrim. Stephen appeared in the was, for some time, a disciple of midst of this assembly, with a coun- Crates, a Cynic, whose general printenance like that of an angel; and ciples he imbibed. He subsequently the high-priest asking him what he attended the schools of the other had to answer, in his defence he eminent teachers in Athens; and rapidly traced the history of the Jews, having become acquainted with all showing that they had always op- that was known or taught in Greece, posed themselves to God and his he resolved to become a teacher, and prophets; faithfully upbraided them found a sect for himself. He opened with the hardness of their hearts, his academy in the Pacile Stoa, or with their putting the prophets to variegated porch, so called from the death, and, lastly, with slaying Christ famous paintings with which it was himself. At these words they were adorned. From the stoa, or porch, filled with rage, and gnashed their his followers took the name Stoics. teeth against him. But Stephen, A numerous band of pupils soon lifting up his eyes to heaven, calmly crowded around this new teacher; exclaimed, "I see the heavens opened, and his powers of reasoning, his high and the Son of Man standing at the system of morals, his strict integrity right hand of God." Then the Jews of character, and his generous affacried out, and stopped their ears, as bility, gained him the affection of his though they had heard blasphemy; pupils, and the esteem of the Athenand, falling on him, they drew him ians. None of the ancient sects out of the city, and stoned him. The boasted more of their moral system, witnesses laid down their clothes at or made higher pretensions to exalted the feet of a young man called Saul, and disinterested virtue, than the afterwards St. Paul, who then appears Stoics. It must be admitted that to have commenced his career of per- some of the better kind of moral secution. "And they stoned Stephen, maxims, known to the pagan world, calling upon God, and saying, Lord are contained in the practical works Jesus, receive my spirit. And he of the most celebrated philosophers of kneeled down, and cried with a loud this sect. The principle on which voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their the entire system rests, and which, charge. And when he had said this, more or less, pervades all its parts, he fell asleep" an example of the is, that "the great end of existence, majesty and meekness of true Chris- and the only rule of virtue, is to live tian heroism; and as the first, so also according to nature." This principle the pattern of all subsequent mar- was differently expounded. By some tyrs. His Christian brethren forsook it was said to be living in conformity conformity to nature is a definition of vice, and not of virtue. The nature is evil, and conformity to it must be sin. In all the Greek and Roman cities the Stoics had disciples, and they were ready to oppose themselves to any who seemed to be setters forth of strange gods. Paul was assailed by them as a babbler. Acts xvii. 18. STONE. Stone was commonly em with that irreversible law of fate by which all beings, divine and human, are controlled and governed. Since man was by this system considered as a part of the Deity, and an image of the world, it became him to live as a part of the whole, and accommodate all his pursuits to the general arrangements of nature. Chrysippus explained it, "living according to the course of natural events;" Clean-ployed among the Hebrews in the thes, "following the nature common construction of houses. See Amos v. to all men;" Diogenes, of Babylon, 11; 1 Kings v. 17. Stones were "conforming to the reason and law used as knives, and were also emof life;" Panatius, "yielding to the ployed in Egypt in preparing bodies impressions of nature;" and Posido- for embalming. Exod. iv. 25; Josh. nius, more distinctly, "that men v. 2. Heaps of stones were raised as should contemplate truth, follow na- a witness of any memorable event, ture, and imitate God, by making the and to preserve the remembrance of eternal reason and immutable laws of important matters. Gen. xxxi. 46; the universe the rule of their actions." Josh. iv. 5-7; vii. 26; 2 Sam. This principle being established, all xviii. 17. Christians are called "living the other parts of the system taught stones" in allusion to their connection by Zeno and his followers rose out of with Christ, upon whom they are it. Appetites are innate principles built as the only foundation. I Pet. according to nature. Passions are ii. 4. A "heart of stone" is a cold, uneither morally good or evil, as they feeling, insensible heart. The "white are kept in conformity with nature, stone," Rev. ii. 17, may refer to the or are in opposition to it. Wisdom practice of giving a white stone to a and virtue are those dictates of the person who was acquitted in a trial. understanding, and those actions re- In the Olympian games a white stone sulting from them, which are in was given to the successful comaccordance with nature; and evil, in petitor, with his name, and the value all its modifications, is that which is of the prize won, written upon it. contrary to nature. Happiness is the end to be attained by living according to nature. One of the most pernicious parts of the system was that which asserted the equality of all virtues and of all vices. As there is no medium between a straight line and a curve, so it was maintained that all virtuous actions, being in conformity with the law of nature, must be alike good; and that all vicious actions, being a deviation from nature, must be alike evil. This tenet of the Stoics laid them open to the satires of the poets. See Horace, Sat. iii. Bishop Butler has taken Zeno's definition of virtue as the basis of his moral system; only he has given it a Christian application. The living according to nature would be a just definition of moral rectitude, if we take that nature as it came from the hands of the Creator, a copy of his own moral excellence. But as human nature is now debased, STONING. A punishment inflicted on the most notorious culprits, and is often meant where no other mode of punishment is described. The criminal was led out of the city, and was bound. The witnesses against him were to commence the work of death, Deut. xvii. 5-7; and divested themselves of their clothing, to do it more effectually. At the murder of Stephen, the witnesses entrusted their garments to Saul, who was one of the ringleaders of the mob, and a most violent persecutor. Acts vii. 58. It was the death of blasphemers, Sabbath-breakers, incestuous persons, and stubborn and rebellious children. STORK. The Hebrew name, CHASIDAH, denotes affection, mercy: the same may be said of the Greek, σropyn. It is a bird of passage, similar to the crane, only larger. The colour of the crane is ash and black; that of the stork is white and In the autumn storks migrate to a warm climate, as is indicated Jer. viii. 7; and in spring return to their usual haunts. It is not uncommon to see the old birds that are tired on their return supported on the backs of the younger ones; and they are even laid in the nests, cherished, and fed by the young ones they reared the preceding spring. Their instinct is unerring. STRANGER. This word has a variety of significations in Scripture. One who is not a Jew, Exod. xx. 10; Isai. xiv. 1; one that is in a foreign land, Gen. xxiii. 4; one not of Aaron's family, Numb. iii. 10; one unknown and disregarded, Psal. Ixix. 8. The law contained many provi sions for the protection and comfort of such strangers. In the earlier periods of the Jewish state, persons who were natives of another country, but who had come, either from choice or necessity, to take up their residence among the Hebrews, appear to have been placed in favourable circumstances. At a later period they were compelled to labour in the erection of religious edifices; but this was an exaction probably limited to those who had been taken in war. See Lev. xix. 33, 34; xxiv. 16, 22; Numb. ix. 14; xv. 14; Deut. x. 18; xxiii. 7; xxiv. 17; xxvii. 19. Hospitality to strangers is frequently inculcated in Scripture, both by example and precept. Judges xix. 15-20; Job xxxi. 32; Heb. xiii. 2. SUCCOTH, booths. The first encampment of the Israelites on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea. Exod. xii. 37. Also a town in the tribe of Gad, on the east of Jordan. Judges viii. 5. The place derived its name from Jacob having remained here some time on his return from Padanaram, and built "booths" for his cattle. Gen. xxxiii. 17. SUMMER. See SEASONS. SUN. The centre of the solar system, and the source of light and heat. Its distance from the earth is ninety-five millions of miles, and its diameter eight hundred and eightythree thousand. It is employed in Scripture as an emblem of God, Psal. lxxxiv. 11; of beauty, Sol. Song, vi. 10; of the righteous and their progress, Judges v. 31; Prov. iv. 18. Idolatry seems to have commenced with the worship of the sun. Baal, Chemosh, and Moloch are all names of the sun. In eastern countries a stroke of the sun was not uncommon, -a circumstance which heightens the force and beauty of those metaphors in which Christ is called " a shadow from the heat," and "as a great rock in a weary land." SUPPER, LORD'S. See LORD'S SUPPER, EUCHARIST, SACRAMENT. SURETY. Ordinarily, one who gives security to another. It is customary with theological writers to confound it with the term "substitute," when applied to Christ. The word "surety” |