iii. The Teaching of the NT. — In the Sermon on the Mount (as recorded in Mt), our Lord, after setting forth His New Law as a true fulfilment of the Ancient Law (5""*), proceeds to treat of certain chief religious observances from a similar point of view (6'"'*) ; and, in full accordance with the Jewish thought of the time, that one which He takes first is A. It may seem strange that He does not more directly correct the erroneous notions of merit and justification which had already become associated, in more or less definite form, with such works ; and that He speaks of a divine reward for them without adding any warning against misunderstanding. He contents Himself -vi-ith requiring purity of motive, indifl'erence to and even avoidance of human pi-aise, and self-forgetfulness. But, in truth, if we learn to test the quality of the motive for. and the manner of performing, each deed, with reference only bo the judgment which God will pronounce upon it, that temper of mind, that faith and humility and sense of personal failure and sin, which alone are consistent \vith the principles of the gospel, wUl be secured. Another very signifi- cant saying of our Lord on A. is given Lk 11". He there enjoins it as the true means of purifying material objects for our use ; it is a counterpart to the ceremonial washings of the Pharisees. Lk 12™ is the only other passage in the Gospels where the word e'Xf ijM0ffi>>''7 is used. But liberality in giving is frequently inculcated or commended (Mt 5*^ 19-', Mk 10=', Lk 6*'-»« 14" 16» 18=') In the Acts the Jewish use of the term is illustrated ; it does not occur there in any Christian precept. But that feature of the life of the Christian community at Jems, in the first days, as there pictured, which has been called communism, is more properly an example of abounding charity.
In Christendom during many centuries the duty of A. (primarily, no doubt, from a desire of obeying the commands of Christ) received great, and sometimes exaggerated, attention. The danger now is rather that, through fear of the ill-ellects of indiscriminate A., the disjKJsition to give and the habit of doing so should be discouraged. A practice, however, enjoined as this one is, must permanently hold 8
ALMUQ
ALOES, LIGN-ALOES
69
high place in the Christian rule of life. It is the function of modem economic and social knoHledj,'e only to make ita exercise more wise and bene- ficial. V. U. Stanton.
ALHDG.— See Alguh.
ALOES, LIGN-ALOES (o'Six 'ahdlim, n\VnN 'ah/il(jth). — The word Aloes is used four times in the UT and once in the NT. In Nu 24" tlie Ueb. word is c';™, the LXX aKripal, and the AV Lign-Aloes=Limum Aloes. In Ps 45" the Heb. is inS.iK, the LXX rraicHi, and the AV Aloes. In Pr 7" the Heb. is c^r.x, the LXX riy Si or/fo», and the AV Aloes. In Ca 4" the Heb. is ni'^ns;, the LXX dXiifl, and the AV Aloes (KV agrees with AV in all).
It is clear that in the pa.ssages in Nu and Pr the LXX has followed a dill'erent reading from the MT, and has arbitrarily translated tho same word stacte in the Ps and alvth {tUoe) in Ca. In face of the [)ra<-tical identity of tlie words 'ahdlim and 'ahAlOln, it is fair to reject the various capri- cious renderings of the LXX, and assume that the word has the same meaning in all llie four OT passages. In the last three of these pa.ssages, and in the NT (Jn 19""), the reference is plainly to the aromatic.
Celsius {Hierobot. i. 135) argues that this sub- stance is the Aquilaria Agullocha, the Lignum Aloes or Aloes Wood of commerce. This wood was well known to the ancients, and is described under its Arab, name 'Hd in considerable detail by Avicenna (ii. 2^1), in brief as follows : 'Wood and woody roots are brought from China and India and Arabia ; and some of it is dotted and blackish ; and it is aromatic, styptic, and slightly bitter ; and it is covered with a leathery bark. The best variety is from Mandalay, and comes from the ■nterior of India. The next best is that which is called Indian, which comes from the mountains ; and it has this advantage over the Mandalay variety, that it does not oreed maggots. Some persons do not distinguish between the Mandalay and the better kinds of Indian. Among the good kinds of 'id are the Samandury, which comes from China on the borders of India, and the koinary from India, and the l^akilly, and the kadmury, and of inferior species the Ilillay and the Mabitay, and the Lawftfy and the liabtil/y. To sum up, the best '»W is that which sinks in water, and that which tloats is bad. It is said that the trunks and roots of the 'ud are buried until the woody fibre decays, leaving only the aromatic substance.' Avicenna follows this description with a detailed account of the medicinal and other properties of the aloes wood. He alludes to the wood also under the heading Aghftlflji, which is undoubtedly the (l7dX\oxoi' of the Greeks, and the Agallochum of the Romans. The substance is now known to the Arabs by the names 'ud-es-snlib, 'Hd-en-nadd, 'ud-el-baKhiir, and el-'iid-el-koni/iri.