lous favor of God, who desired thus to honor his ser- vants in the eyes of men. Xumerous instances are re- corded in the .-1 eta iSancturum, and their relation ac- counts for the frequency with which representations of saints are exhibited in an aerial position in mediieval paintings, etc. This belief falls in with one of the al- leged plienomena of modern spiritualism. — Chambers's Eiicyelop. s. v.
Risler, .Jeremiah, a distinguished bishop and writer of the Moravian Church, was born at Muhlhausen, in Upper Alsace, Nov. 9, 1720. He was a graduate of the University of Basel, and entered the ministry of the Reformed Church, laboring at Lubeck and St. Peters- burg, from 1714 to 1700. In the latter year he joined the Moravian Church, and took charge of a parish at Neuwied, on the Rhine, where he remained for twenty- five years. In 1782 he was consecrated to the episco- pacy, and in 1786 was elected to the executive board of the Unitas Fratrum, known as the Unity's Elders' Conference, of which body he continued a member until his death. His ministerial career embraced a period of sixty-six years, fifty of which he devoted to tlie Mora- vian Church. He was a zealous servant of Christ, an eloquent preacher, and a faithful overseer of the fiock. He died at Berthelsdorf, Saxony, Aug. 23, 1811. The following are his principal works: A Freneh Transla- tion of Zinzendorfs Diseourses, and a new edition of the French Hymnal of the Church (1785): — La Sainte Doctrine (1769), translated into German and English : — Historischer Auszuff at/s den Bitchern des A. T. (1794): ^Leben von A. G. Spanyenberg (1794): — Spanyenberfs Reden an die Kinder, two collections (1792 and 1797) : — Zinzendoif^s Gedanken iiber oerschiedene evanyelische Wahrheiten (1800) •.^Betrachtungen der Weisheit Gotles im deni Kreuzestod Jesu: — and three volumes of Er- zdMunyen aus der Briidei-geschichte. (E. de S.)
Risley, Ashabel Linn, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Bullitt County, Ky., Feb. 14, 1804. He united with the Church Sept. 5, 1825, although he did not find peace until the Uth of the same month. He was licensed to preach July 27, 1827, and entered the itinerant ministry Sept. 16, 1827, He labored in tlie Kentucky, Rock River, and Southern Illinois Conference until 1806, when he took a superan- nuated relation, and removed to Lebanon, where he re- mained until the time of his death, Aug. 24, 1874. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1874, p, 126,
Ris'sah (Heb, Rissah', nS'l, a ruin ; Sept. 'Veaad V. r. 'Ptaffdv and Atcrcra), the twentieth station of the Hebrews in the desert (Numb, xxxiii, 21, 22). It lies, as there given, between Libnah and Kehelathah, and has been considered identical with Rasa in the Peutiny. Itiner., thirty-two Roman miles from Ailah (Elah), and 203 miles south of Jerusalem, distinct, however, from the 'Pr^ffffa of Josephus {Ant. xiv, 15, 2), See Exode.
Ristubgrad, in Norse mythology, was a pentagon known as Druid's-foot or pentagram. It was a sacred symbol among the ancient Celts and Germans,
Risus, in Roman mythology, i, e. laughter, is said to have been venerated as a deity hy several tribes of Italy,
Rite (Lat. ritus') is, in general, an external sign or action employed in religious services, and designed either to express or to incite a corresponding internal religious feeling. Such are, for instance, the uplifting or outstretching of the hands in prayer, the imposition of hands, etc. The name rite is sometimes used to signify the aggregate of all the ceremonies used in a particular religious office, as a " rite of baptism" or of the eucha- rist. In a still wider sense, it is used of the whole bodv of distinctive ceremonial, including the liturgy employ- ed by a particular community of Christians. In this way we speak of the " Roman rite," the " Greek rite," or the '• Slavonic xitG.''— Chambers's Encyclop. s. v. See Ceremony.
RITES OF BAPTISM
36
RITUAL
Rites OF Baptism. See Baptism, Ceremonies of.
Rites, Congregation of, the name of a committee of cardinals in tlie Komaii Catholic Church, fouiuled by pope Sixtus V. It was originally composed of six car- dinals, with a number of secretaries and consulters. The reigning pope decides the number of members. In 1875 it comprised seventeen cardinals, twenty-tive consulters, and eleven officials, including secretary, promoters of the faith, assessors, and masters of ceremonies. The matters of which it has cognizance are the liturgy, the rites of the administration of the sacraments, the ru- brics of the missal and breviary, the ceremonial of the Church in all public functions, and the proceedings in the beatification and canonization of saints. The con- gregation meets once a month at the residence of the prefect, who is always the senior cardinal of the board. See Appletons' Xew Amer. Cyclop, s. v.
Rith'mah (Heb. Riihmah', n^nn, heath; Sept. 'Pa^rt/ta), the seventeenth station of the Hebrews in the wilderness (Xumb. xxxiii, 18, 19). About half a daj''s journey south from Wady Kiseima (see Azmon) is found a valley called Wady Rithimath, or Wady Abu- Retemat. Rotheni literally is a broom - bush ; hence Rithmuh, the region of the brush or heath, and near this wady the broom -bushes are abundant. So Schwarz (Palest, p. 212), who identities Rithmah with Kerdesh- Barnea. It probably lay immediately west of that place. See ExoDE.