BOTTOMLESS PIT
S62
BOURGES
something precious," is illustrated by the custom of tying u]i in bags or small bottles, and secure -with a seal, articles of value, such as precious stones, neck- laces, and other ornaments. — Kitto; Smith. See Tear.
Bottomless Pit. See Abyss.
Boucher, Jonathan, one of the early Episcopal ministers in America, was born at Blencogo, England, 1738. At sixteen he came to America, and was nomi- nated to the rectorship of Hanover parish, Va., in 1761. He served in succession the parishes of St. Mary's, St. Ainu's, and Queen Ann's in Maryland; and from this Last he was ejected in 1775 for refusing to omit from the service the prayers for the king. Returning to England, he became vicar of Epsom 1784. In 1799 he removed to Carlisle, where he died in 1804. He published A View of the Causes and Consequences of the A in, rican Revolution (Lond. 1797, 8vo), and some pam- phlets. His later years were spent on a Glossary of Provincial and Archaeological Words, which remained in MS., and was purchased in 1831 by the English publishers of Webster's Dictionary. — Sprague, Annals, v, 211 ; Allen, Biog. Diet. s. v.
Boudinot, Elias, LL.D., a distinguished Christian philanthropist, was born in Philadelphia in 1740. He early gained a great reputation as a lawyer, and was appointed, in 1777, commissary general of the prison- ers. In the same year he was elected to Congress, and became its chairman in 1782, in which capacity he signed the preliminaries of peace with Great Britain. In 1789 he was again called to Congress, where he served for six years in the House of Representatives. In 1796 Washington appointed him superintendent of the mint, an office which he held until 1805. In 1812 he became a member of the American Board of Com- missioners for Foreign Missions, and in 1816 the first president of the American Bible Society (q. v.). These two, as well as many other religious societies, received from him rich donations. He died Oct. 24, 1821, at Burlington. He wrote : A ge of Revelation, or the Age of Reason an Age of Infidelity (1790) : — Second Advent of the Mi ssiah 1 1815) -.—Star in the West (1810). In the last work he tried to show that the North American Indians are the lost tribes of Israel. He also publish- ed (anonymously in the Evangelical Intelligencer for 1806) a memoir of the remarkable William Tennent
(q. v.).
Bough is the rendering in the Auth. Vers, of sev- eral words that require no special elucidation, but in Isa. xvii, 0, 9, it stands as the representative of "I"1 ^N, amir' (Sept. iir apKov [iiTtiopov in ver. 6, and ol 'Afioppaloi in ver. 9; Vulg. summitqte rami; Auth. Vers. " uppermost bough"), a word that occurs no- where else, and is usually derived from an Arabic root signifying a general or emir, and hence, in the present text, the higher or upper branches of a tree. Gesenius {Comment, in loc.) admits that this interpretation is unsatisfactory; and Lee, who regards it as very fanci- ful, endeavors {Lex. s. v.) to establish that it denotes the caul or sheath in which the fruit of the date-palm is enveloped. According to this view, he translates tin- verse thus : " Tim or three berries in the head (or upper part) of the raid (or pod, properly sheath), four or Jive m Us fissures" This is at least ingenious; and if it \«- admitted as a sound interpretation of a passage confessedly difficult, this text is to lie regarded as af- fording i!m- only scriptural alluBion to the fact that the fruit of the date-palm is, during its growth, contained in a Bheath, which rends as the fruit ripens, and at first partially, and afterward more fully exposes its precious
of the Date-palm.
contents. See Pai.m. Nevertheless, Furst {Lex. s. v.) and Henderson {Comment, in loc.) adhere to the other interpretation.
Boulogne, Etienne Antoine, a prominent pulpit orator, and bishop of the Roman Church in France, was born in 1747 at Avignon. He early displayed a re- markable oratorical talent. In 1808 he was appointed bishop of Troves. At the Episcopal Synod of Paris in 1811 he was elected one of the four secretaries, spoke with great decision against the appointment of the bishops by the government without a papal confirma- tion, and was deputed with two other bishops to pre- sent the address of the council to the emperor. He was therefor imprisoned, and could not return to his episcopal see until the restoration of the Bourbons. In 1821 the pope conferred on him the title of archbishop. He died in 1825. His complete works (Paris, 8 vols. 1827 sq.) comprise four volumes of sermons, one volume of pastoral letters and instructions, and three volumes of miscellaneous essays, with a biographical notice of the author by Picot. — Nouv. Birgr. Univ.
Boundary. See Border ; Landmark.
Bourdaloue, Louis, "the prince of French preach- ers," was born at Bourges, Aug. 20, 1632, and, having at sixteen entered the Society of the Jesuits, soon so distinguished himself in the provinces that his supe- riors in 16C9 called him to Paris. His first sermons in that city had a prodigious success, and he was ordered to preach before the court at ten different seasons be- tween 1670 and 1693, a thing altogether without prec- edent. "He possessed ever}' advantage, physical and mental, that is required for an orator. A solid founda- tion of reasoning was joined with a lively imagina- tion, and a facility in giving interest and originality to common truths was combined with a singular power of making all he said to bear the impress of a strong and earnest faith in the spiritual life. His was not the beauty of style or art ; but there is about his writ- ing a body and a substance, together with a unity and steadiness of aim, that made the simplest language assume the power and the greatness of the highest ora- tory." At the revocation of the edict of Nantes he was commissioned to preach to the Protestants. Toward the close of his life he abandoned the pulpit, and con- fined his ministrations to houses of charity, hospitals, and prisons. lie died May 13, 1704. His Works, collected by Bretonneau, a Jesuit, appeared in two edi- tions, one in 14 vols. 8vo (Paris, 1707), the other in 15 vols. 12mo (Liege, 1784). The best modern edition is that of Paris (1822-20, 17 vols. 8vo). A series of his sermons was translated into English and published in London in 1776 (4 vols. 12mo). A -biography of Bour- daloue has been published by Pringy (Paris, 1705). On his character as a preacher, see Christian Remem- brancer, July, 1854; Eclectic Review, xxix, 277 ; Fish, Masterpieces of Pulpit Eloquence, ii, 45.