Stool, in an ecclesiastical sense, is a seat for aco- Ivtes. servers, and attendant clerks in the services of the Church.
STOOIi OK Rkpfntance, an elevated seat in a Scot- tish Church, on which persons were formerly compelled to sit as a punishment for having committed certain of the deadly sins.
Stoole, an old form of Stooi. (q. v.).
Stools. The word thus rendered in the A. V. at Kxod. i, 10 (a"'335<. obndipm) is the dual of "SN, oben, usually thought to be equivalent to "IX, eben, a stone, and in this form only occurs there and in Jer. xviii, 3. Ill the latter passage it undeniably means a pottei-'s irhcel [see I'ottkr] ; but what it denotes in the former, or how to reconcile with the use of the word in the lat- ter text any interpretation which can be assigned to it ill the former, is a (piestion which (.see Hosen m tiller, arf /"(•.) has mightily exercised the ingenuity and patience of critics and philologers. The meaning appears to have been doubtful even of old, and the ancient ver- sions are much at variance. The Sept. evades the diih- iidty by the general expression orav uiai vpoQ Tip TiKTUv, "when they are about to be delivered," and is loilowed by tlie Vulg., " Et partus tempus advcnerit;" but our version is more detinite. and has "and see them u|Kih the n/iioln." This goes upon the notion that tlie Word denotes a particular kind of open stool or chair
■ oiiHtructeil for the pur|)ose of delivering [)regnant wom- ■■11. The usages of the East do not, however, ac(|iiaint us with any such utensil, the employment of which, in- dt-ed. is not in accordance with the simple manners of ancient times. Others, therefore, suppose the word to dniote stone or other balbiiig-troiighs, in which it was iitiinl to lave new-born infants. This conjecture is so l.'ir probable that the midwife, if inclined to obey the royal mandate, coiihl then ilestroy the child without
■ heck or observation. Accordingly, this interpretation M preferrcil by (Jescnius (77(f«(/«r. s. v. "jSX), (pioting 111 illustrntion Thi-venot (//in. ii, 98). who .states "that I In- kings of Persia are ho afraid of being deprived of thai |(ower which they abuse, ami are so apprehensive of being dcihroncl, that they cause the male children of their female relations to be destroyed in the stone 'athing-trouglis in which newly born eliihlren are laved." The question, however, is not as to the exist- ence of the custom, but its appliealion to the case in view. Prof. Ia-c treats the preceding opinions with lit-
tle ceremony, and decides nearly in accordance with the .Sept. and other ancient versions, none of which, as he remarks, say anything about wdsk -pots, stools, or the like. He then gives reasons for understanding the command of Pharaoh thus: " ( )l)serve, look carefully on the two occdsioiis (i. e. in which either a male or female child is born). If it be a son, then," etc. — Kitto. Still others (as Knobel, Miihlau, etc.) prefer the explanation of Ibn-(iaanach, Jos. Kimchi, and Parchon, that the word signifies the vte7->is (from n:3) or the female 7j«- demla (from the resemblance of the parts to the genera- tive power of the potter's wheel), i. e. " when ye observe the obnityiiii of the Hebrew women," at the moment of parturition. I5ut this interpretation seems even more strained than the preceding ones. As the sex could only be discovered by inspecting the child itself, the word probably refers to this directly, either in the sense of (esticuli, or from the radical import of "iSN, which is to separate, i. e. distinguish (see Meier, in the Stud. u. Krit. 1842, p. 1050). See the Magaz.fur hibl. Lit.i, 28; Slud. u. Krit. 1834, i, 81, 626; Kraft, Ue Pietate Obstetricum (Jen. 1744). See Midwife.
Stope, or Stoppe. See Stoup.
Stopford, William K., a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Dublin, Ireland, July 9, 1809. At the age of ten years he gave evidence of con- version. He came to the United States about 1827, and in 1833 was received on trial into the New York East Conference. He occupied very many important ap- pointments, and labored in them faithfully and with success. He died June 25, 1852. See Minutes of An- nual Conferences, 1853, p. 211,
Storax occurs only in Ecclus. xxiv, 15, as a ren- dering of cTciKTr], stacte: "I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aspalathus, and I yielded a pleasant odor like the best myrrh, as galbanum, and onyx, and sweet storiix, and as the fume of frankincense in the tab- ernacle." In Gen. xxxvii, 25, Aquila renders PNIS, " spicery," by arvpa^, as also in xliii, 11, where he is followed by the Vulg. Sweet storax is mentioned by various Greek writers, from the time of Hippocrates to that of Dioscorides. Several kinds of it were known, varying chiefly in the form in w hich it was obtained or the degree of adulteration to which it had been subject- ed. Most of the kinds are still known in commerce. It is obtained by incisions made in the bark of the tree called sti/rax officinale by botanists. This tree is a na- tive of Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine, and is about twenty feet high, with leaves like those of the (piince, and flowers somewhat resembling those of the orange. Storax was and is still much esteemed, both as an incense and for its medical properties. It consists chiefly of resin, a volatile oil, and some benzoic acid. It has a grateful balsamic odor, which no doubt made it valued in ancient times. — Kitto. See iSriCE.