Lights. L The use of artificial light in baptism was practiced in the Church at an early day, although it was opposed in this instance as in its use for communion service, etc. But where it was used it was the practice, in addition to the ceremony of putting on white gar- ments at baptism, to place lighted tapers in the hands of the baptized. Gregory Nazianzen says : " The station where, immediately after baptism, thou shalt be placed before the altar, is an emblem of the glory of the life to come; the psalmody witli which thou shalt be received is a foretaste of those hymns and songs of a better life ; and the lamps which thou shalt light are a figure of those lamps of faith wherewith bright and virgin souls shall go forth to meet the Bridegroom." Others say that the lamp was designed to be a symbol of their own illumination, and to remind the candidates of the words of Christ, " Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." In some baptisms the attendi\nts were clothed in white, and carried tapers. At the baptism of the younger Theodosius, the leaders of the people were all clothed in white, and all the senators and men of quality carried lamps.
Lighted candles were, according to St. Jerome (Epist, cord. Vigilant, cap. 3.; comp. also Cave, Prim. Cltrist. lib. i, c. 7, p. 203), sometimes used in the Eastern chiurches when the Gospel was read, and were designed to show the joy of those who received the glad tidings, and also to be a symbol of the light of truth. The lighting of candles on the communion table is observed only in the Romish Church. See Farrar, Eccks. Dictionary, s. v. ; Bingham, Antiquities of the Christ. Church, bk. xii. ch, i\^, sect. 4; A\t, Christlich. Cultits (1851), p. 95; Ilerzog, Real-Encyklop. viii, 517 sq. ; Aschbach, A!'t/-c/ie/i-Lea-jX'on, iii, 769 (Kerzen). See Candi.es.
II. Lights were emjjloyed by the Apostolic Church, but for no other purpose tlian to obviate the inconven- ience of assembling for worship in the dark. Their use as a matter of religion, or, rather, of superstition, is of far less ancient date, although it has been defended as a primitive custom, and might, of course, be traced even to Jewish anticjuity, if such a precedent were esteemed of any value. In all probability, artificial light was used during the daj^time, and for a sj'mbolical purpose, about the 4th century, if we accept the statement of St.Pauli- nus, bishop of Sola (A.D. 353-431), who, speaking of the great numbers of wax-lights which burned about the altars, making the night more splendid than the day, adds that the light of the day itself was made more glo- rious by the same means :
"Nocte dieque niicnnt. Sic nox splendore did Fulget: et ipsa dies ccelesti ilkistris houore Plus micat innunieris lucem geminata lucernis."
(Pauliu. Nat. iii, .S'. Felicis.) (Compare also Isidore, Origin, vii, 12.) But this custom \vas severely condemned by many. Comp. Lamps.
HI. The practice of lighting candles on the altar, which prevailed, and stiU prevails, in the Romish Church, was abolished in England at the Reformation.
Those candles which (according to one of the Injunc- tions of Edward VI, set forth in 1547) have been suf- fered to remain upon the Lord's table are sometimes designated as "lights on the communion table.'' But it is to be noticed that no lights are ever used in the English churches, onl}- candles, which are never light- ed, the lighting of any such candles at an evening serv- ice being merely for a necessary purpose. See Eden, Theol. Diet. s. v. See Altar.
Light.s, Feast of. See Epiphany.
Lign-aloe (only in the plur. D''?nx, ahalim', Numb, xxiv, 6, Sept. (Tici/i'oi, Yulg. tabernacula ; Prov. vii, 17. Sept. o7ko)', Vidg. aloe, A. V. " aloes ;" or fem. J^iPi^X, ahaloth', Psa. xlv, 8, Sept. araK-n), Vulg. gutia, A. V. " aloes ;" Cant, iv, 14, aXioB, aloe, " aloes"), a kind of perfume which interpreters have by common consent regarded as derived from some Oriental tree, and com- pared w^ith the agallochiim (dydXXoxov') or aloe-trood {t,v\a\m]), described by Dioscorides (i, 21) in the fol- lowing terms : " It is a wood brought from India and Arabia, resembling thyine-wood, compact, fragrant, as- tringent to the taste, with great bittemess ; having a
skin-like bark It is burned for frankincense."
Pliny likewise speaks of it as being derived from the same region (Nat. Hist, xxvli, 5). Later writer.?, as Orobasius, ^tius, and P. yEgineta, mention it, but give no further description. Arabic authors, however, as Phases, Serapion, and others, were well acquainted with the substance, of which they describe several varieties; and the Latin translator c)f Avicenna (Iii, 132) gives "agallochum," "xylaloe," and "lignum aloes" as equiv- alent to the aghlajun, aghalukhi, and I'ld of the text. Royle (Illustr. ofliimal. Hot. p. 171) has traced the same substance in the aggur, a famous aromatic wood obtain- ed in the bazaars of Northern India under three names: 1, aod-i-hindi ; 2, a variety procured from Surat, but not differing essentially from 3, aod-i-kimari, said to come from China, doubtless the alcanierium of Avicen- na. Garcias ab Hosto (Clusius, Exot. I/ist.), v.ntmix on this subject near Surat, says that " it is called in Ma- lacca garo, but the choicest sort calambac." Paul a