Oost, Jacob van, the Yoinoeu, son and pupil of the preceding, was born at Bruges in 1637. At twenty years of age his father sent him to Italy to com- plete his education, and, after having resided there sev- eral years, he returned to Flanders an able and accom-
plished designer. He painted some pictures for the churclies at Bruges, and then settled permanently at LiUe, wliere he acquired a distinguished reinitation, and where are the greater part of his works. His hist()rical pictures, like those of his father, are admirably com- posed, partaking more of the Roman than the Flemish school. Among his best works are the Martyrdom of St. Barbara, in the church of St. Stephen; and the Transjigu ration, in the church of St. Saviour, at LiUe. He was less eminent than his father as a historical painter, but excelled him in portraits, which some have not hesitated to rank with those of Vandyck. Jacob van Oost, Jun., died in 1713. See Spooner, Biog. Hist, of the Fine A rts, vol. ii, s. v. ; and Descamps, referred to in the preceding article.
Opalia, a festival celebrated by the ancient Ro- mans in honor of Ops, the wife of Saturn, on Dec. 19, being the third of the Saturnalia. The vows made on this occasion were offered in a sitting posture, the devo- tee touching the ground, because Ops represented the earth. — Gardner, Faiths of the Woild, vol. ii, s. v.
Open-air Preaching. See Preaching.
Opera Supererogationis. See Supereroga- tion. \\'OKKS OF.
Operatic Sacra, i. e. sacred miriistration, is a term which was used in the ancient churches of the West to designate the Lord's Supper. It is supposed to have been derived from the expression ministering the gospel of God (Rom. xv, 16), and is used in the same general and figurative sense.
Operation of tlie Holy Ghost. See Holy Giio.sr; Si'ii:iT.
Operation of the Mind is that action of the mental faculty wliich gives us consciousness of posses- sion. We know that we have a stomach, but are not made conscious of its possession until it is impaired, and so with every other physical part. Quite differ- ently do we become aware of the possession of mental or, better, spiritual faculties. It is in their healthy condition that we are most thoroughly conscious of such property. See IMind. " By the operations of the mind," says Dr. Reid (Iniell. Powers, essay i, ch. i), " we under- stand every mode of thinking of which we are con- scious." In all language the various modes of thinking have always been designated by this term, or one of like import. It is used to establish clearly the distinc- tion of mind from matter. The former is from its very nature a living and active being. Everything we know of it implies life and active energy; and "the reason why all its modes of thinking are called its operations is that in all, or in most of them, it is not merely pas- sive, as a body is, but is really and properly active" (Reid). To body we simplj' ascribe certain properties, but not operations, properly so called: it is extended, divisible, movable, inert; it continues in any state in which it is put ; every change of its state is the effect of some force impressed upon it, and is exactly propor- tional to the force impressed, and in the precise direc- tion of that force. These are the general properties of matter, and these are not operations: on the contrary, they all imply its being a dead, inactive tiling, which moves only as it is moved, and acts only by being acted upon. See Krauth's Fleming, Vocab. ofPhilos. s. v.
Opfergeld, Fuiedrich, a German theologian, was born in Brtslau in 1668. After having been jjastor at Fcstenberg and Nauen, he became in 1721 provost of the convent of Notre Dame at Magdeburg. He died in 1740. We have of his works, Sondei-bare Feste (Brug. 169(5, 12mo) : — Bibliotheca sacra (JIagdeburg, 1728, 8vo) : — Xachricht von den jiidischen Lehrern und von ihren zur Kxegese gehorigen Schnften (llaMo, 1738, 8vo). See Moser, Lexikon der jetztlebenden Theologen, and its continuation by Neubauer. — Hoefer, Xouv. Biog. Gene- rale, xx.Kviii, 702.
O'phel (Heb. always with the article, ha-0'phel,
OPHER
383
OPHIR
^Si-'fl, the knoll, as in Mic. iv, 8 ; Sept. 'Q0«X, Neb. iii, 2G ; '0(p\((, ver. 27 ; v. r. '07rfX,'0:rX<( ; Viilg. Ophd), the name ot' two places in Palestine.
1. A fortified place or quarter of Jerusalem near the walls (2 Chron. xxvii, 3 ; xxxiii, 44), on the east side, inhabited by the Nethinim after the rebuilding of the city (Neh. "iii, 26; xi, 21). Ophel, or as he calls it, Op/il(i(u 'OcpXa), is often mentioned by Josephus as ad- joining the valley of the Kidron and the Temple mount (H't/r, ii, 17, 9; v, 6, 1). He explains himself more precisely in v, 4, 2, where he makes the first wall of the city to extend from the tower of the Essenes over Siloam" and the pools of Solomon to (Jphel, ^vhere the latter joins the eastern porch of the Temple, i. e. at its southern extremity. Hence there can be no doubt that the hill Ophel was the steep southern projection from the mountain on which the Temple stood, and that in the ancient city it was covered with houses (.Josephus, Win; V, C>, 3). Dr. Robinson (Bibl. Ees. i, 394) describes it as a ridge extending south from Moriah to Siloam, between the deep valley of Jehoshaphat on the east, and the steep but shallower Tyropoeon valley on the west. The top of this ridge is flat, descending rapidly towards the south, sometimes by offsets of rocks ; and the ground is now tilled and planted with olive and other fruit trees. This ridge is considerably below the level of Mount Moriah ; its length is 1550 feet, and its breadth in the middle part, from brow to brow, 290 feet. The excavations of the English engineers have shown that it was originally separated from Moriah by a considerable gully, but the ancient wall has been dis- covered joining it with the Temple near the south-east angle. See Jerusalb.m.