Modem Oriental ^^ Chamber on the Wall.**
waUMifl^ Sept virkpt^v) which the Shunamite pre- pared for the prophet Elisha (2 Kings iv, 10). Such an *' upper chamber" (^Treptfiov) is still the guest- chamber where entertainments are made, which was the custom with the Greeks as well as the Jews (Matt, ix, 14 ; Mark xiv, 14). Among the former it occupied the upper story ; among the Hebrews it seems to have been on, or connected with, the flat roof of their dwellings (comp. Acts XX, 8). These upper chambers were also sometimes used for the performance of idolatrous rites (2 Kings xxiii, 12), and in them the bodies of the dead were laid out (Acts ix, 37). The early Christians, too, held their meetings for worship in such places. Be- sides these, there were inner chambers, or a " cham- ber within a chamber ' (1 Kings xxii, 25), such as that into which the messenger of Elisha retired to anoint Jehu (2 Kings ix, 2). See House.
The term chamber is used •metaphorically in many places of the Scriptures, as Psa, civ, 8, 13 ; Prov. vii, 27. To apply ourselves to earnest prayer and suppli- cation, and to depend on the promises and providence of God for special protection, is to enter into onr cham- bers, that We may be safe, as the Hebrews were in their houses, from the destroying angel (Isa. xxvi, 20). See Bed-chamber.
The " chambers of the south" (Job ix, 9) are the constellations, or clusters of stars, belonging to the southern part of the firmament. See Astronomy.
The term "Chambers of Imagery" (IT^Sb^ '^^'in, fiffure-^partmenit \ Sept. roircuv Kpuirrof) is used by the prophet Ezekiel (viii, 12) to denote the vision which he had of the abominations practiced by the Je¥rs in the distant Jerusalem. As the practices there denounced were evidently borrowed firom their Chal-
dean oppressors, they derive striking elucidation from the gorgeous halls of the Assyrian palaces lately brought to light by Layard, with their long lines of sculptured aninuds, and kings worshipping before them (Nineveh, ii, 209). See Imagery.
"Chaml>ering" (cocrac) signifies in Rom. xiv, 13, that lewd association with courtesans and similar char- acters that was a peculiar feature of the heathenism of that age. See Harlot.
Chamberlain (D'^'iO, sarig% 2 Kings xxiii, 18 ; Esth. i, 10, 12, 14 ; ii, 8, 14, 15, 21 ; iv 4, 6 ; vi, 2, 14 ; Sept. re^larly tvvovxo^t twice o-Tra^uiv, all signifying castrated; in other places it is translated ** cunuchj" or " oflScer"). The term appears to have been applied to oflicers confidentially employed about the person of the sovereign ; thus Potiphar, who was also captain of the guard, in the Egyptian court, is styled thus (Gen. XXX vii, 86 ; xxxix, 1). It probably also occurs in the title Rabaarw (q. v.). The title "chamberlain" (oi- Kov6fiOQ)j in Rom. xvi, 23, probably denotes the stew- ard or treasurer of the city, called by the Romans the qiurstor. The Vulg. renders it by arcarius, which was the title of a class of inferior magistrates, who had the charge of the public chest {area publica\ and were un- der the authority of the senate. They kept the ac- I counts of the public revenues. (See Reinesius, iSyn- ', tagm. Truer, p. 431 ; La Cerda, Advers, Saer, cap. 56 ; I Eisner, Ob», Sacr. ii, p. 68 ; and a note by Reinesius to the Marmora Oxomeima, p. 515, ed. 1732.) Blastns is said in Acts xii, 20, to have been '* the king's (Herod's) chamberlain" (o iiri rov koitwvoq tov Pa<nXiukg\ by which is probably meant his personal attendant or valet de chambre. It was a post of honor, which involved great intimacy and influence with the king. The mar- gin of our version pives ** that was over the king's bedchamber," the oflSce thus corresponding to that of the pnr/ectus cubiculo (Suetonius, Dom. 16). See Eu- nuch.
Chamberlain, Jeremiah, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was bom in York Co., Pa., Jan. 5, 1794, grad- uated at Dickinson College in 1814, and studied tlieol- ogy at Princeton. He was licensed in 1817, when be became a missionary to the West and Soutli, visiting Natchez, New Orleans, and Mobile. In 1818 he sup- plied the Bedford church. Pa., and in 1822-28 removed to Danville, Ky., to the Presidency of Centre College. In 1824 he became President in a State institution at Jackson, La., but resigned in 1828, and opened an academy. In 1830 he was made President of Oakland College, Claiborne Co., Miss., the establbhmcnt of which was the result of his own enterprise. He was subbed to the heart (Sept. 5th, 1850) by a student, who afterward committed suicide. He publi^^hed A Sermon on Ihe Sanctity and Perpetuity of the Sabbatk, 1881. Some of his Addresses and Letters were pub. lished in the current newspapers. — Sprague, Atmals, iv, 590.
Chamberlain, Schnyler, a minister of the Methodist Epu^copal Church, was bom in Woodstock, Conn., Sept. 4th, 1800. In 1818 he joined the first Methodist class formed in Craftsbury, Vt. He was received into the New England Conference in 1828, and during his itinerant career filled a number of im- portant appointments, including the presiding elder- ship. He died at Craftsbury, May 5, 1862. He pos- sessed superior abilities as a preacher ; his style was easy, impressive, and attractive, and there was great cleamess and definiteness in his sermons. He was elected three tiroes a delegate to the General Confer- ence. He also represented the town of Craftsbury in the State Legislature three teirmB,—Mi$uUes of Confer' ences, 1863, p. 104.