Embalming the Dead in ike Christian Church. It was the custom of the early Church to bestow the honor of embalming upon the bodies of martyrs at least. According to an intimation of Tertullian (Apol. cap. 42), the usage appears to have been even generally adopted by Christians in burying their dead. One of the chief ingredients used was myrrh ; in imitation of the Jewish custom, which was followed by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who " brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight, and took the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with tlie spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury" (John xix, .39). There was supposed to be some mystic meaning in the presents made by the wise men to our Saviour at his birth when they offer- ed to him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh : gold as to a king, frankincense as to a God, and myrrh as to a man that must die and be buried. In addition to the Jewish custom and the mode of our Saviour's bur- ial, another reason which rendered the use of myrrh important was that the ancient Christians were often compelled to bury their dead in the places in which the}' assembled for divine worshij), and the embalming would tend to preserve them from corruption, and ren- der the burial-places less oflfensive.— Bingham, Orig. Eccles. bk. xxiii, ch. ii, § 5.
Ember Weeks. The weeks in which the ember days fall. These are certain days set apart in the Roman and Anglican churches for imploring God's blessing upon the ordinations which are appointed to be held in the church on the Sundays next following these weeks. The eniljer days are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent ; after Whit-Sunday ; "after the 14th of September ; and after the 13th of December. These days were settled by the Council of Placentia, A.D. 1095. The name is derived by some from a German word signifying " ab- stinence ;" bv others it is supposed to signifv " ashes ;" the most probable derivation, however, is from a Sax- on word (ymhren or embreii) signifying " a circuit or course," because these fast-days return at certain pe- riods (Eden, s. v.). Tlie ember weeks in the Ivoman Church are called the quatuor tempora, the fast so call- ed being observed at the l>eginnings of the four sea- sons. In the Frencli Church it is called the flist of quatre-temps. It is observed at the same dates, near- ly, as in the English Church. It was first distinctly fixed in the Church year by Gregory VII. — Thomas- sin, Traile des Jeunes, pt. i, chap, xxi ; Bingham, Orig.
EMBLEM
176
EMBROIDER
Eccl. Ilk. XXI, ch. ii; Eden, Churchman' s Dicfionart/, s. V. ; Palmer, On(/. Liturg. i, 305 ; Procter, On Common Prayer, p. 2G1.
Emblem, "a device or figure employed to repre- sent some moral notion. There are various opinions as to the lawfidness and expediency of emblems in re- ligious matters, some considering it to be both allow- able and useful thus to represent spiritual ideas to the bodily eye ; others, again, holding it to be both pre- sumptuous and dangerous, if not superstitious, to use any emblems of sacred things not warranted and en- joined by Scripture. This, at least, is certain, that it is quite as likelj' to lead to idolatry' (answering to that of the Hindoos, Egyptians, etc.) as pictures or images giving a simple resemblance. The golden calf was meant for an emblem, but it was the occasion of gross idolatry" (Eden).
Emblems are to be distinguished from symbols. Symbols arc generally intended to represent revealed doctrines; emblems are "arbitrary representations of an idea of human invention" (Walcott). Thus a sword is the emljlem of St. Paul. A lion, as indicating solitude, was chosen as the emblem of Jerome as a re- cluse. See Idolatry ; Image.
Embroider (DJ?'!, rakam\ to variegate, Exod. XXXV, 35; xxxviii, 23 ; elsewhere ''needle-work," etc.; V3w, shahats' , to interweave, Exod. xxviii,39 ; " set," Exod. xxxviii, 20). See Broidered. If these pas- sages are correct!}' rendered, the Israelites must have known the art of embroidery. In several passages, also, an equivalent expression is used — needle-woi-k — and used so as to imply that not plain sewing, but or- namental work, was evidently meant (Exod. xxvi, 36; Judg. V, 30 ; I'salm xlv, 14, etc.). The Hebrew wom- en Avere undoubtedly indebted to their residence in Egypt for that perfectness of finish in embroidery which was displayed in the service of the tabernacle, and in the preparation of the sacerdotal robes directed to be worn by the high-priest (Exod. xxviii, 29). The colored figures in the cloth of the Hebrews arc thought liy most authors to have been parth' the product of the weaver in colors, whose art appears the superior, and partly that of the embroiderer in colors. The notices
Ancient Egyptian Trinccss in i iiiliroidered dress. (From the Monuments.)
of Egyptian hi.story, confirmed by the monumental re- mains, give reason for believing that at a compara- tively early period they had made wonderful attain-
ments in this line. For example, a corslet is men- tioned by Herodotus as having been presented by Amasis, king of Egj'pt, to the Lacedaemonians, which was of linen, each thread composed of 3G0 finer threads, and ornamented with numerous figures of animals, worked in gold and cotton (Herod, iii, 47). This was many centuries indeed after the Exodus ; but its testi- mony reaches back to a much earlier time, as such a beautiful and elaborate piece of workmanship could not have been produced without ages of study and ap- plication to the art. Wilkinson says, " Many of the Egyptian stuffs presented various patterns worked in colors by the loom, independent of those produced by the dyeing or printing process, and so richly composed that they vied with cloths embroidered by the needle. The art of emliroidery," he adds, "was commonly prac- tised in Egypt" (iii, 128) — referring in proof, however, simply to passages in Scripture, and taking them in the sense put upon them in the authorized version, sanctioned by Gesenius and the rabbins. The Egyp- tian sails, says the same author, were some of them embroidered with fanciful devices, representing the phoenix, flowers, and other emblems. This, however, was confined to the pleasure-boats of the nobles and king. That this was done even in the early ages is evident from the paintings at Thebes, which show sails ornamented with various colors, of the time of Kameses III. The devices are various; the most common is the phoenix (Ezek. xxvii, 7). The Egyptian ladies of rank wore splendid dresses of needle-work (Psalm xlv, 13, 14). (See Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, abridgm. ii, 81 ; Gesenius, Heb, Thesaitr., s. v., ut suji.)