2322

SETTLED ESTATE-SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS.

Empress of Morocco," was played at Whitehall by the lords and ladies of the court, and in this way a great run was secured for it when it came before the general public. In the insolence of success the author printed along with it a preface, in which Dryden was severely assailed. Solely in virtue of the quarrel thus engendered is S. now remembered. In his great satire," Absalom and Achitophel," Dryden scourged him with his scorn, and thus perpetuated his memory. D. 1723. Set'tled Es'tate, in English Law, means an estate held by some tenant for life, under conditions more or less strict, defined by the deed.

Set'tlement, in English Law, is used in two senses. In one case it means the mode of securing property on married parties, so as to regulate the succession in the event of the death of either, or it may regulate the succession of parties not mar-history, coming through the hands of these enemies, has been ried. In poor-law matters it means that kind of right which a pauper has to support by the parish by reason of his being born there, or of his renting a tenement, or acquiring estate, In Scotland S., besides the above meanings, also means the general will or disposition by which one regulates the disposition of his property after death.

etc.

Setubal, (frequently and erroneously called St. Ube's,) an important sea-port city of Portugal, in the prov. of Estremadura. It stands on the N. side of the Bay of Setubal, which forms a magnificent harbor, though the entrance to it is obstructed by sand-banks. The harbor is furnished with a light-house and with broad and handsome quays, and is protected by five forts; but the valley in which the town itself stands is completely commanded by the heights in the vicinity. The town owes its importance chiefly to its trade in the muscadel and white wines, in sea-salt, oranges, lemons, and cork bark. S. is the old Roman Cetobriga. In 1755 it was visited by an earthquake, from which it suffered severely. Pop. 17,000.

his followers. Sabbath-keeping, as obedience to God's law, and baptism, as the symbol of a new life after repentance, are fundamental facts in the early history of Christianity. In these facts S. B. find the warrant for their denominational ex. istence. On these points they claim to be identical with the New Testament Church. History.-There has been no pë. riod since the time of Christ when there were not Sabbathkeeping Christians in the Church. There is no positive evidence of any form of observance of Sunday by Christians previous to the middle of the 2d c. Sabbath-keeping continued even in the Western Church as late as the 5th c., and in the Eastern until the 15th, or later. Since Sabbath-keepers denied the authority of the Church, they were persecuted as most obnoxious heretics by the papal power. Their earlier wholly destroyed or much distorted. When the Western Church drifted into the papacy these dissenters were first known as Nazarenes, Cerinthians, and Hypsistarii, and were stigmatized as "Judaizers." Later they were known as Vaudois, Catharii, Toulousians, Petrobrusians, Passagii, and Waldenses. These were not wholly uniform in doctrine and practice, but they were Sabbath-keeping Baptists who accepted the Bible alone as authority. They form the irregular but never wholly broken chain between the New Testament Church and the modern S. B. [Consult: Allix, History Ancient Piedmont Church; Perrin, History Vaudois; Benedict, History Baptists; Blair, History Waldenses; Purchase, Pil grimages, (London, 1625;) Bishop White, Sabbath, (London, 1635;) J. N. Andrews, History Sabbath; A. H. Lewis, Sabbath and Sunday.] Sabbath-keepers in the Eastern Church were not disturbed by the papal power, and were far more numerous. When the Romish Church attempted to proselyte the Abyssinian in the 17th c. they found them observing the Sabbath and ready to take up arms in its defense. They “had hallowed it from time immemorial." The Armenian Church was founded as early as 302 A.D.; from that time until English missionaries entered Armenia early in the present century Sabbath-keeping continued without interruption. The Nestorian or Chaldean Christians have also continued their original practice of Sabbath-keeping to the present century; and there is every reason for believing that the Sabbath is still kept in these three branches of the Church, except where modern missionary work may have modified or set it aside. These facts are of great moment as showing what the earliest practice was, and what it has continued to be, where the Papal Church has not had power to repress it. [Consult: Gobat, Journal of Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia; Geddes, History Ethiopia; Stanley, History Eastern Church; Lewis, Sabbath and Sunday; Yeates, East India Church History; Mossie, Continental India; Buchannan, Christian Researches in Asia, (examine the earlier editions of Buchannan, since late reprints have suppressed a prominent reference to the Sabbath-keeping habits of the Armenians; it may be found in the Boston edition of 1811, p. 208;) Coleman, Ancient Christianity Exemplified, etc.] When the darkness of the Middle Ages began to recede before the light of the Reformation scattered Sabbath-keepers were found whose history linked with those who had died for their faith and their fealty to the law of God during that midnight of history. Sabbath-keepers increased as the spirit of reform spread among the people. At first they were more prominent in Bohemia, Transylvania, and Holland. Dr. Hessey calls the Bohemian Sabbath-keepers the denominational ancestors of the present S. B. During the Reformation in England Sabbath-keepers were among the representative men of the times. Their writings and sufferings form an interesting factor of the history of those yrs. John Trask, William Hillyard, Christopher Sands, Rev. Mr. Wright, and one Hebden were among those who were prom inent between 1600 and 1630 A.D. Trask was pilloried, whipped, and imprisoned under sentence by the infamous “Star Chamber.” His wife was condemned because she refused to teach school upon the Sabbath. “She lay in prison 15 or 16 yrs. for her opinions about the Saturday Sabbath." She was a great sufferer, dying at last in prison, and was buried in the "open fields." About 1630 Theophilus Brabourne wrote several books in favor of the Sabbath, and with such effect that the king ordered Bishop Francis White to answer him; the answer was published in 1635. Among the writers Seventh-day Adventists. See ADVENTISTS. who succeeded Brabourne were James Ockford, Edward Seventh-day Bap'tists. Origin.-The S. B. assumed Fisher, Edward Stennett, Francis Bampfield, Thomas Bamptheir present denominational forms as "Sabbatarian Baptists" | field, Joseph Stennett, and Samuel Stennett, D.D., (the latter in England during the English Reformation. Their distinct- a writer of hymns which are yet familiar, and who d. in 1795.) ive doctrines were first preached by John the Baptist. Christ, The influence of the S. B. was a prominent factor in forcing as a Jew," but as CHRIST, set the same example for all the Puritan party to adopt the "change of day" theory which

Seva'jee, a great Indian warrior and ruler, b. 1627, d. 1680. By rapid conquest he became master of the whole of the S. part of India and founded the empire of the Mahrattas. Seven, frequently used as a mystical and symbolical number in the Bible, as well as among the principal nations of antiquity. The reason for the preference of this number for sacred use has been found in its consisting of three-the number of the sides of a triangle-and four-the sides of a square, these being the simplest rectilineal figures-or in other equally vague circumstances. The real reason, however, seems to be the observation of the S. planets and the phases of the moon -changing every seventh day. As instances of the use of this number in the O. T. we find the creation completed in S. days, wherefore the seventh day was kept sacred; every seventh yr. was sabbatical, and the S. times seventh yr. ushered in the Jobel-yr. The three Regalim, or pilgrim festivals, (Passah, Festival of Weeks, and Tabernacles,) lasted S. days; and between the first and second of these feasts were counted S. weeks. The first day of the seventh month was a "Holy Convocation." The Levitical purification lasted S. days, and the same space of time was allotted to the celebration of weddings and the mourning for the dead. In the N. T. we have the churches, candlesticks, stars, trumpets, spirits, all to the number of S.; and the S. horns and S. eyes of the Lamb. Seven Sleep'ers, the heroes of a legend, which is first related by Gregory of Tours in the close of the 6th c., (De Gloria Martyrum,) but the date of which is assigned to the 3d c., and to the persecution of the Christians under Decius. During the flight of the Christians from the persecution seven Christians of Ephesus took refuge in a cave near the city, where they were discovered by their pursuers, who walled up the entrance in order to starve them to death. A miracle was interposed in their behalf; they fell into a preternatural sleep, in which they lay for nearly 200 yrs. On awakening they imagined that their sleep had been of but a single night; and on one of the party (supposing the persecution still in progress) going into the city to purchase provisions privately he was amazed to find erected in triumph on the churches and other buildings a cross, which, as it seemed, but a few hours before he had seen the object of contempt and blasphemy. They all died at the same moment, as if by one common mysterious destiny.

Seventh, in Mus., an interval of six degrees of the diatonic scale.

not

46

SEVENTH-DAY GERMAN BAPTISTS-SEVERN.

66

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Seventh-day German Bap'tists. An offshoot from the Dunkers, in Germany, about 1728. Conrad Beissel, the founder, published a tract against the observance of the first day, and retired to a cave on the banks of the river Cocalico, unknown to the people he had left. In 1732 the solitary life was changed to a conventual one, and the next yr. a monastic society was founded, bearing the name Ephrata. The habit of the Capuchins was adopted by both brethren and sis ters. There were neither vows nor written covenant, but the property was common stock. Celibacy was recommended, but not required. Branches were established in York and Bedford Counties, Pa., 1763. Their principal settlement is Snow Hill, Franklin Co., Pa.

2323 gave birth to the "Puritan Sunday." Afraid to remain upon sacredness which it attained during the Puritan reformation the no-Sabbath platform of the Church party, and of the Con- has been necessarily lost, and it is rapidly returning to its tinental Reformers, and not radical enough to accept the Sab-native holiday character, even in the U. S. S. B. believe that bath doctrines of the S. B., the Puritans sought this middle the Church will be forced to choose, soon, between a return ground of compromise. This theory was first published by to the Bible Sabbath, and being overwhelmed by No-Sabbath. Nicholas Bound, of Norfolk, Eng., 1595-1602 A.D. A num- ism. Not Legalists. To avoid misapprehension it ought to ber of Seventh-day Baptist churches were organized in En- be stated that the S. B. are in no sense legalists or Judagland between 1600 and 1700 A.D. Three were in the city izers." They simply accept the Sabbath as "made for man,' of London. The one at Mill-yard, 15 Leman Street, is still as antedating Judaism and the formulating of the law at Sinai, flourishing, holding regular Sabbath services. This congrega- as covering all dispensations, and continuing through all time. tion was first gathered by Rev. John James, date unknown They deem it no more "Jewish" than the law against mur. from loss of records. On Oct. 19, 1661, Mr. James was ar- der or profanity. They are not illiberal toward others. rested in his pulpit, tried, and condemned on the false charge They grant the right of "private judgment," and foster free of "treason," a proceeding not uncommon in those days in discussion, holding that each man is judged according to the order to get rid of men whose religious and reformatory views light he has. They have never been a proselyting people." could not be answered otherwise. He was "hung, drawn, and They proclaim the Sabbath as an essential part of a complete quartered." "After he was dead his heart was taken out and Gospel, and the only remedy for the flood of No-Sabbathism burned, his quarters were affixed to the gates of the city, and under which Sunday is being buried. They look for marked his head was set up in Whitechapel, on a pole opposite the changes in the Church through the agitating influences now alley in which his meeting-house stood." [Consult: Cox, Sab- at work. Statistics. The organization in the yr. 1895 enbath Literature; Hessey, Sunday; Ross, View of all Relig. rolled the total of 102 ministers, 100 churches, and 9,244 ions; Paggitt, Heresiography; Heylyn, History Sabbath; communicants. Fuller, Church History; Calamy, Non-conformist's Memorial; Lewis, Sabbath and Sunday; G. B. Utter, Seventh-day Baptist Manual.] Churches in America.-These were the result of emigration from England. Stephen Mumford, of London, came to Newport, R. I., in 1664. He united with the Baptist Church, though a Sabbath-keeper. Others embraced the Sabbath, and the first Seventh-day Baptist church in Am. was organized at Newport 1671. A second branch was founded by Rev. Abel Noble, near Philadelphia, about 1700. A third was founded in northern N. J. by converts from the Piscataway Baptist Church in 1705. From these three points the denomination has spread slowly W. and S., as shown by statistics. In 1818 the General Conference adopted "Seventh-day Baptist," instead of "Sabbatarian," as the denominational title. [Consult: Utter, Seventh-day Baptist Manual; Clark, History Seventh-day Baptists in America; Lewis, Sabbath and Sunday; James Bailey, History Seventhday Baptist General Conference.] Church Polity.-This is a pure congregationalism. Each church is an independent democracy. Associations and General Conference have only "advisory powers." Ordained officers are pastors, deacons, evangelists. Doctrines.-The S. B. are strictly evangelical in the best sense of that term. They are necessarily radical reformers; special advocates of freedom, equality, temperance, universal education, Bible schools, etc. They engaged in home missions at an early day, and established foreign missions about 1850. They commenced publishing about 1819. The work of missions and publishing is being constantly enlarged. Most of their publications have been in the interest of Sabbath reform. Reasons for Observing the Sabbath.These they hold to be as follows: (a) The ten commandments enunciate eternal and universal truths. They spring from man's relations to God and to his fellows. They must continue while these relations do. The Sabbath and the Sabbath law are inseparable, since no day but the Seventh can represent God the creator, his example, and consequent commandment. The Bible gives no warrant for saying that the law means any "seventh part" of time. (b) Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it by a complete obedience. He and his disciples kept the Sabbath, purged from Judaistic falsities. The New Testament Church did the same. Thus purified, it is the true Christian Sabbath. They reject NoSabbathism for the above reasons, and also because the few passages from the epistles which are adduced to prove the abrogation of the Sabbath are wrongly interpreted to mean Seven Years' War, The, (1756-63,) was the third, last, the weekly Sabbath which existed before Judaism, and was and most terrible of the contests between Frederick the Great shadow of Christ." () They reject Sunday because of Prussia and Maria Theresa (with the other powers of Eu the N. T. never alludes to a "change of the Sabbath." It rope on one side or the other) for the possession of Silesia. In never speaks of Sunday as a sacred day, or as commemorative 1763 Maria Theresa, sorely against her will, was finally comof any event, or as connected in any way with the Sabbath pelled to conclude the peace of Hubersburg, which acknowl question. It does state that Christ rose “in the end of the Sab-edged Frederick as lord of Silesia. This long and desperate bath," i. e., before sunset, (Matt. xxviii, 1,) and not on the first day of the week, according to tradition. The phrase "first day of the week" occurs in the Bible but eight times; six of these refer to the same day, the one on which the resurrection was announced to the disciples. There is but one reference in the Book of Acts, and one in all the epistles; so that there are but three distinct references to the first day of the week in the whole Scriptures. On the other hand, the Sabbath in its appropriate character is mentioned 50 times at least in the N. T. alone. (d) They also reject the Sunday because it came into the Church as a semi-pagan holiday, and the temporary

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Seven Wise Mas'ters, the title of a mediæval collec tion of novels, important both from its contents and its wide. spread popularity. The work is undoubtedly of Oriental origin, yet neither the period when it was composed nor how far it spread through the East can be ascertained with sufficient accuracy. According to Masudi it existed in Arabic as a trans lation from Indian sources before the 10th c., but none of the extant Arabic versions go back so far. Nearest to the origi. nal form appears to stand the Eight Nights of Nakhschebi, a Persian adaptation of the Indian Tutiname. It passed into the literature of western Europe in the 11th or 12th c., through the medium of two redactions, a Hebrew and a Greek, the latter by Andreopulos, under the title of Syntipas.

The

Seven Wise Men, the collective designation of a number of Greek sages, who lived about 620-548 B.C., and devoted themselves to the cultivation of practical wisdom. Their moral and social experience was embodied in brief aphorisms, sometimes expressed in verse, sometimes in prose. names of the seven, as usually given, are Solon, Thales, Pittacus, Bias, Chilon, Cleobulus, and Periander of Corinth; but there is not absolute unanimity among the ancients either as regards the names, the number, the history, or the sayings of these famous sages.

Seven Won'ders of the World were, in ancient times, reckoned to be the Pyramids of Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis at Babylon, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Statue of Jupiter at Olympia by Phidias, the Mausoleum, the Colossus at Rhodes, and the Pharos of Alexandria. This cycle of seven wonders originated among the Greeks after the time of Alexander the Great, and they were described in a special work by Philo of Byzantium.

conflict made no change in the territorial distribution of Europe, but it increased tenfold the moral power of Prussia, and gave its army a prestige which it retained till the battle of Jena. It cost Europe 1,000,000 lives, and prostrated the strength of almost all the powers who had engaged in it.

Sev'ern, one of the most important and beautiful of the rivers of England, rises from a chalybeate spring in Mont gomeryshire, North Wales. It is navigable for barges to Welshpool, in Montgomeryshire, 180 m. from its mouth. The entire 1. of the S. is 210 m., and it drains an area of more than 6,000 sq. m. The chief affluents of the river are the

general guide that all matters which give off a disagreeable moved from the outside, and into which a small quantity of smell are dangerous if allowed to remain near our dwellings; house ashes should be placed either daily or as often as the nature thus gives us warning of the presence of something closet is used. This will quite fix the ammonia. The iron that may do us harm. Many people have thought that if by pail must be removed at least once a week, and emptied into using certain deodorizing materials they could either fix this the garden. No danger can possibly arise from this if strictly effluvium permanently or for a time they had surmounted the followed and all the S. matter is placed to its best purpose. difficulty; but this is scarcely half a cure, and a palliative It would be useless to discuss a dry-earth system like what like this is much less advisable than a radical measure of has been mentioned anywhere but for out-houses attached to

removing the filth by suspension in water, and rendering it cottages; the general feelings of the inhabitants would not not only innocuous, but beneficial, by incorporating it with the tolerate it. We must therefore accept the water-closet as the great deodorizer-living vegetation. It is very objectionable system universally adopted. In planning the position of waterto have either cess-pool or privy-pit, if they can be avoided, closets for a house the first thing to be thought of is that as they are constantly neglected, and overflow into some they shall be, if possible, on the N. or cool side of the house, stream, or poison the wells and the air. The privy should be and upon exterior walls. If they are placed in the interior placed, wherever that can be managed, on the N. or E. side, of the house it is troublesome to get at the drains when reand to the rear of the house, so as not to be between the quired, and the closets themselves cannot be sufficiently venpeople and the sun and softest winds. Perhaps the earth- tilated. If the closet is inside the house, then some hermeticcloset system is the best for houses that have no sewer ally sealed trap is the only form that should be used; but if connections. The whole S. matter is received in a square the closet is outside, then a less expensive one with a siphon galvanized iron pail underneath a seat, which pail can be re-earthenware trap may be adopted. It is desirable that the