2. (Sept. HvnXoy/njinNumb.xXjlS; xxvii,14; Deut. xxxii, 51 ; XoiSopia in Numb, xx, 24 ; Vulg. contradic- tio ; but in Psa. xcv, 8, liitpaaixvi-, tentatio, Auth.Vers. "provocation;" and in Ezek.xlvii,19,M api/iw^; xlviii, 28, BapiiJM^ — in which last two passages, as well as in Psa. cvi. 32, the Auth.Vers. has "strife."^ Another foun- tain produced in the same manner, and under similar circumstances, in the desert of Zin (Wady Arabah), near Kadesh ; to which the name was given with a similar reference to the previous misconduct of the Israelites (Numb. XX, 13, 24 ; Deut. xxxiii, 8). In the last text, which is the only one where the two places are men- tioned together, the former is called Massah only, to prevent the confusion of the two Meribahs, " Whom thou didst prove at ^lassah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah." Indeed, this latter Mcribah is almost always indicated by the addition of " waters," as if further to distinguish it from the other (Numb. XX, 13, 24; Deut. xxxiii, 8; Psa. Ixxxi.S; cvi, 32; Ezck. xlvii, 19; xlviii, 28), a title that is but once applied to the other Meribah (Psa. Ixxxi, 8) ; and the locality we are now considering is still more distinctly called "waters of Meribah in Kadesh" (Numb, xxvii, 14), and even INIeribah of Kadesh (A.V. '• iSIcribah-Ka- desh," Deut. xxxii, 51). Only once is this place called simply Meribah (Psa. xcv, 8). It is strange that, with all this carefulness of distinction in Scripture, the two places should rarely have been properly discriminated. Indeed many commentators have regarded the one as a mere du|)licate of the other, owing to a mixture of earlier and later legend. The above monkisli tradition has contributed to confound the two localities. But, be- sides the differences already noted, there was this very important one, that in smiting the rock at the second jilace Closes himself exhibited impatience with the mul- titude (Numb. XX, 10-12); whereas he showed no signs of passion on the former occasion. See Moses. The dis- tance of place from the former Meribah, the distance of time, and the difference of the people in a new genera- tion, arc circumstances which, when the positive condi- tions of the two wells were so equal, explain why Closes might give the same name to two places. See Kai)i;sh.
Merib'-Baal (Ucb. Aferib'-Ba'al,hv^ 2"'"ip,co«- iende?- wltli liddl, 1 Chron. viii,34; Sept. Mfpil3aci\ v. r. Mtfpiii(ut\,Yu\ii;.M<rihfifd; also in the contracted form Meri'-]ia'(d,hV'Z '^'np,! Chron. ix, 40; Sept. M£jo(/3onX v. r. ;\If\'0(/^f(fiX,Vulg. .Verihfinl), the son of Jonathan, elsewhere called MKriiiiiOsiiETii (2 Sam. iv, 4, etc.), ap- parently from an unwillingness to pronounce the idola- trous name of Baal. See IsiiBOSiiiiTii.
Merici, Angela, foundress of the Order of Ursu- lincs, was born at Desenzano, on the lake of Guarda, in 1511. Her family name was I)e Breccia. She was brought up l)y lier uncle, and at an early age entered the (Jrder of St, Francis. She made a pilgrimage to the Holy -Land, and after her return established at Brescia, in 1537, a new order of nuns, of wliicli she was appoint- ed superior. Angela Merici diiil JIarch 21, 1540. Her order was so successful tliat at the end of a century after its organization it counted in Prance alone over three hundred and lifty convents. See Helyot, Hist, dis ordri'S moiKinliqiie.i, iv, 150; D'Emilliannc, //t.ft.dcs or- dres momistiqvcs, p. 247-24'J ; !M(jrcri, Did. hist. s. v. — Hoefer, Xuuv, Biog. Gsnerak, ii, 038. See Uksuli>es.
Meridian is the technical term for the siesta or noon-day sleep in a convent, allowed to be taken during one hour after hall-time. — Walcott, Sacr. A rcJueol. s. v.
Merino, .Toiin Anton Diaz, a Boman Catholic prelate, was born in 1771. In his twelfth year he had made such extraordinan,- progress in his studies that he was ready to enter the University of Alcala. Later he lectured as professor of theology at several universities in Spain and Cuba, then joined the Domin- icans, and was shortly after promoted general of this order. On account of his great wisdom and sagacity, he was often consulted by the bishops in cases of an in- tricate character. In 1832 he was ordained, and in his position led a most exemplary and simple life, and greatly devoted himself to the sufferings of the poor. His firm and vivid faith was a bulwark against the evils of his time, and, for refusing to support irreligious edicts of his government, he was finally expelled from his see and had to leave Spain. He spent his last years in France in exile, and died at Marseilles in 1844. He published Coleccion Ecchsia.'stica and liilliotccu de Id Relir/ion, the first work containing all the acts of the S]ianish bishops in defence of the system of the Church jHirsucd (luring tlie constitutional epoch, and the lat- ter coiniirising the translation of the works of Lameu- nais, Maistre. etc.
Merit signifies desert, or that which is earned ; orig- inally the word was applied to soldiers and other mili- tary persons, who, by their labors in the field, and by the various hardships they underwent during the course of a campaign, as also by other senices they might occasionally render to the commonwealth, were said, merere stipendid, to merit, or earn their pay ; which they might properly be said to do, because they yield- ed in real service an equivalent to the state for the sti- pend they received, wliich was therefore due to them in justice. Here, then, we come at the true meaning of the word merit ; from which it is very clearly to be seen that, in a theological sense, there can be r.o such thing as merit in our best obedience. One man may merit of another, but all mankind together cannci merit from the hand of God. This evidently ajjpears, if we consider the imperfections of all our services, and the express declaration of the divine Word (Ephes. ii, 8, 9; Eom. xi, 5, 6 ; Tit. iii, 5 ; Kom. x, 1, 4). The scholastic distinction between merit of congruily and merit of con- diipiiti/ is thus stated by Hobbes {Of Mdii, pt. i, ch. iv) : " (iod Almighty having promised Paradise to those that can walk through this world according to the limits and precepts prescril)ed by him, they say he that shall so walk shall merit I'aradise ex coxgnio. But because no man can demand a right to it by his own righteousness, or any other power in himself, but by the free grace of (iod only, they say no man can merit Paradise ex con- diffno." See IMekituji. See South's Sermons, The Doc- trine of Merit stated, vol. iii, ser. 1 ; Toplady's Works, iii, 471; Hervey's Eleven Letters to Wesley; Kobinson's Cldude, ii, 2 18 ; Buck, Theol Diet. s. v. See also Wokks.