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Bible Terms and Customs: Constantinople

Great Church Councils. That at Jerusalem, when the first controversy was discussed, in 48; at Antioch, 269; at Arles, 314, at which three English bishops were present; the first Nicene one, when 328 fathers attended against Arius, 325; the first at Constantinople, when Pope Damasus presided, and 150 fathers attended, 381; that at Sardis, when 376 fathers attended, 400; the first at Ephesus, when Pope Celestine presided, and 200 fathers attended, 431; the second at Constantinople, when Pope Virgilius presided, and 165 fathers attended, 552; one called Milevetan council, 568; at Constantinople, in 600; at Rome, in 649; the third at Constantinople, when Pope Agatho presided, and 289 fathers attended, 680; the second at Nice, when Pope Adrian presided, and 350 fathers attended, 787; the fourth at Constantinople, when Pope Adrian and 101 fathers attended, 869; at Vercellus, when Pope Leo IX. presided, 1053; the Lateran one, when Pope Innocent II. presided, and ICOO fathers attended, 1139; the third Lateran one, when Pope Alexander III. presided, and 300 fathers attended, 1175; the fourth Lateran, when Pope Innocent III. presided, and 1185 fathers attended, 1215 and 1217; at Lyons, 1255 and 1274; that at Vienna, when Pope Clement V. presided, and 300 fathers attended, 1311; one at Constance, when Pope Martin V. presided, 1414; the sixth Lateran one, when Pope Julian III. and Pius IV. presided against Luther, 1546. There have been several other provincial councils, and others, as that of Avignon, in France; and at Bituria, in Tuscany, 1431; at Tours in France, 1448; at Florence in Italy,

1449; at Toledo in Spain, 1437; at Aspurgh in Germany, 1548; at Cologne in

Germany, 1548; at Treves in Germany, 1548; at Cologne in Germany, 1549;

at Mentz in Almaine, 1549; and at Numantia in Spain, 1550. Early Miracles. The principal superstitions and impostors put forward by the authorities of the ancient world are comprised in the following list :- An acqaintance with the motions of the heavenly bodies, and the variations in the state of the atmosphere, enabled its possessor to predict astronomical and meteorological phenomena, with a frequency and an accuracy which could not fail to invest him with a divine character. The power of bringing down fire from the heavens, even at times when the electric influence was itself in a state of repose, could be regarded only as a gift from heaven. Dreams, and spectral appearances, in all their forms and varieties. The science of acoustics furnished the ancient sorcerers with some of their best deceptions. The imitation of thunder, in their subterranean temples, could not fail to indicate the presence of a supernatural agent. The golden virgins, whose voices resounded through the temple of Delphos. The stone from the river Pactolus, whose trumpet-notes scared the robber from the treasure which it guarded. The speaking head, which uttered its oracular responses, at Lesbos. The vocal statue of Memnon, which began at the break of day to accost the rising sun. The marvellous fountain which Pliny describes, in the island of Andros, as discharging wine for seven days, and water during the rest of the year. The spring of oil, which broke out in Rome, to welcome the return of Augustus from the Sicilian war. The glass tomb of Belus, which was full of oil, and which, when once emptied, by Xerxes, could not again be filled. The weeping statues and the perpetual lamps of the ancients; the rapid descent of those who consulted the oracle in the cave of Trophonius;-these were all deceptions, derived from science, and from a diligent observation of the phenomena of nature. Popular Quotations Falsely attributed to the Bible. "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb." From Sterne's "Sentimental Journey to Italy." Compare

Isaiah xxvii. 8. In a collection of proverbs published in 1594, we find, "Dieu mesure le vent à la brebis tondue," and Herbert has in his "Jacula Prudentum," "To a close-shorn sheep God gives wind by measure." "

In the midst of life we are in death." From the Burial Service; and this, originally, from a hymn of Luther, "Bread and wine which the Lord hath commanded to be received." From the English Catechism. "Not to be wise above what is written." Not in Scripture. "That the Spirit would go from heart to heart as oil from vessel to vessel." Not in Scripture. "The merciful man is merciful to his beast." The Scripture form is, " A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast." -Prov. xii. 10. "A nation shall be born in a day." In Isaiah it reads, "Shall a nation be born at once? "-lxvi. 8. "As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth a man the countenance of his friend." "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." -Proverbs xxvii. 17. "That he who runs may read." "That he may run that readeth."-Hab. ii. 2. "Owe no man anything but love." "Owe no man anything, but to love one another." -Rom. xiii. 8. "Prone to sin, as the sparks fly upward." "Born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward."-Job v. 7. "Exalted to heaven in point of privilege." Not in the Bible. Eve was not Adam's helpmate, but merely a help meet for him; nor was Absalom's long hair, of which he was so proud, the instrument of his destruction; his head, and not the hair upon it, having been caught in the boughs of the tree (2 Samuel xviii. 9). "Money is the root of evil." Paul said, 1 Timothy vi. 10, "The love of money is the root of all evil." "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Gen. iii. 19). Commonly quoted "brow." "Cleanliness akin to godliness" (first used by Mr. Whitfield). Not in the Bible. Our Lord's hearing the doctors in the Temple, and asking them questions, is frequently called his disputing with the doctors.