Lamb {as a Christian emblem'), the symbol of Christ (Gen. iv,4; Exod.xii,3; xxix, 38; Isa.xvi, 1 : Jer. liii, 7; John i, 3G; 1 Pet. i, 19; Rev. xiii, 8), who was t\nii- fied by the paschal lamb, the blood of which was spruak-
LAMP,
206
LAMBERT
led on the door-posts and lintel of the doors like a Taii- cross, to preserve the Hebrews fruni destruction. In very old sepulchres the land) stands on a hill amid the four rivers of Paradise, or in the Baptist's hand. It sometimes carries a milk-pail and crook, to represent the Good Shepherd. In the 5th century it is encircled with a nimbus. In the 4th century its head is crowned with the cross and monogram. In the ()tli century it bears a spear, the emblem of wisdom, ending in a cross ; or appears, bleeding from five wounds, in a chalice. At last it is girdled with a golden zone of power and jus- tice (Isa. xi, 5), bears the banner-cross of the resurrec- tion, or treads upon a serpent (Kev. xviii, 14). At length, in the 8th and 9th centuries, it lies on a throne amid angels and saints, as in the apocalyptic vision. When fixed to a cross it formed the crucifix of the primitive Church, and therefore was afterwards added on the re- verse of an actual crucifix, as on tlie stational cross of Velletri. In G92 the council in TruUo ordered the im- age of the Saviour to be substituted for the lamb. Je- sus is the Shepherd to watch over his flock, as he was the Lamb, the victim from the sheep. Walafrid Strabo condemns the practice of placing near or luider the al- tar on Good Friday lamb's flesh, which received bene- diction and was eaten on Easter day. Probably to this custom the Greeks alluded when they accused the Lat- ins of offering a lamb on the altar at mass in the 9th centuri'. In ancient times the pope and cardinals ate lamb on Easter day. — Walcott, /Sacred A i-chceolofjy, s. v.
LAMB OF GOD {cqiviQ eeov, John i,29,3G; so of the Messiah, Test, xii Pair. p. 724, 725, 730), a title of the Redeemer (compare Acts viii,32; 1 Pet. i, 19, where alone the term n/ifof is elsewhere employed, and with a lilce reference). This symbolical appellation applied ti) Jesus Christ, in John i, 29, SO, does not refer merely to tlic character or disposition of the Saviour, inasnuich as he is also called '• the Lion of the tribe of Judah" (Rev. v, 5). Neither can the appellation signify the moM excellent lamb, as a sort of Hebrew superlative. The term lamb is simply used, in this case, to signify the sacrifice, i. e. the sacrijicial victim, of which the forr-.er sacrifices were typical (Numb. vi. 12; Lev. iv, 32; v, G, 18; xiv, 12-17). So the prophet understood it: "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter" (Isa. liii,7); and Paul : " For even Christ, our Passover," i. e. our Passover lamb, " is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. v, 7 ; comp. Pet. i, 18, 19). As the lamb was the symbol of sacrifice, the Re- deemer is called " the Sacrifice of God," or the divine Sacrifice (John i, 14 ; comp. 1 John xx, 28 ; Acts xx, 28 ; Rom. ix, 5, 1 Tim. iii, 16; Tit, ii, 13). As the Baptist ]X)inted to the divinity of the Redeemer's sacrifice, he ioiew that in this consisted its efficacy to remove the sin of the world. The dignity of the Sacrifice, whose Idood alone has an atoning efiicaey for the sm of the world, is acknowledged in heaven. In the symbolic scenery, John beheld "a Lamis, as it had been slain, hav- ing seven horns and seven eyes, which are the .seven sinrits of (Jod." i. e. invested with the attributes of God. onniipotence and omniscience, raised to the throne of universal empire, and receiving the homage of the uni- verse (1 Cor. XV, 25; Phil, ii, 9-11; 1 John iii, 8; Heb. X, 5-17; Rev. v, 8-14). See the monographs on this sidiject eiteil by Yolbeding, Index Pnif/rammatuni, p. 52.
Agmm Dei.
In the Romish Church the expression is blasphemous- Ij' applied in its Latin form to a consecrated wax or dough image bearing a cross, used as a charm by the superstitious. See Agnus Dei.
Lamb, John, D.D., an English divine and anti- quary, was born about 1790. He was made master of Corpus Christi College in 1822, and iii 1837 was honored with the deanery of Bristol. He died in 1850. Lamb published IJist. Account of the XXX IX Articles, 1553- 1.571 (Cambridge, 1829, 4to; 2d ed. 1835,4to); etc. See Lond.Gentl. Maej. 1848, pt. ii, p. 55; 1850, pt. i, p. CG7; Christian Remembrancer, June, 1829.
Lamb, Thomas, an English Baptist minister and strict Calvinist,tlourishcd in the second half of the 17th century. He died about 1672. He is noted as the (jp- ponent of John Goodwin, the bold defender of Armin- ianism, whose Redemption Redeemed (London, 1651, fol.) Lamb ans'wered in a work entitled A bsolute Freedom from Sin by Christ's Death for the Woiid, etc. (London, 165C, 4to).
Lambdin, WiixiAJt, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, was born in Talbot Co., Md., June 4,1784; was converted at sixteen; removed to Pittsburg in 1805; joined the Baltimore Conference in 1808; was on various circuits and stations until 1815; then local till 1822 , then in Pittsburg Conference until 1830 ; then local at Wheeling until 1842 ; then in Mem- phis Conference, Tennessee, where he labored until he was superannuated in 1848. He died in Henrj' County, Tenn.. ]May 22, 1854. Lambdin was an able and faith- ful minister of the Word, and served the Church long and successfully. — Annals of the Methodist Episcojml Chnrch South, 1855, p. 348.