240 



JESUITES DE ROBE JEUX FLORAUX. 



JESUITES DE ROBE ; secular persons of high 

 rank as, for instance, Louis XIV. of France who 

 ore bound to the order by vows of obedience, but 

 l:;i\r not taken the spiritual vows. 



JESUS, called also Christ (x^irraf, the Anointed), 

 the Son of God, the Saviour of men, whose birth, lite, 

 and death, were predicted by prophets, and attended 

 with miraculous manifestations of divine power, was 

 born of the virgin Mary, of the tribe of Jiulah, who 

 was betrothed to Joseph, an obscure artisan. The 

 place of his birth was Bethlehem : the time is uncer- 

 tain, but is commonly considered to have been in the 

 twelfth year of the consulate of Augustus, four or 

 five years before the beginning of the vulgar era. 

 Our information concerning him is derived almost 

 entirely from detached sketches of his life, written 

 by four of his followers. The angel Gabriel had 

 announced to Mary, that the power of the Highest 

 should overshadow her, and that she should bear a 

 son who should rule over the house of Jacob for 

 ever ; and on the night of his birth, an angel ap- 

 peared to some shepherds, and announced the com- 

 ing of a Saviour. On the eighth day, he was circum- 

 cised according to the law of Moses, and, on the 

 fortieth, was presented in the temple, where the 

 aged Simeon pronounced him to be the light of 

 nations and the glory of Israel. The coming of the 

 divine infant was also hailed by the adoration of the 

 Magi, who were miraculously directed to the house 

 where the young child was. Herod, alarmed by these 

 indications, determined to destroy all the male chil- 

 dren of Bethlehem and its vicinity, of the age of less 

 than two years, for the purpose of effecting the death 

 of Jesus. But Joseph, being miraculously warned of 

 the danger, fled to Egypt with the virgin and her 

 child, and, on his return after the death of Herod, 

 went to reside at Nazareth, in Galilee, whence Jesus 

 is called a Nazarene. We have no further accounts 

 of the earlier years of Jesus, except the remarkable 

 scene in the temple, when he was twelve years old, 

 and the general observation of Luke, that he re- 

 mained in Nazareth with his parents, and served 

 them. At the age of about thirty (Luke iii. 23), he 

 was baptized by John in the river Jordan ; the Spirit 

 of God descending upon him like a dove, and a 

 voice from heaven proclaiming, " This is my be- 

 loved son." Previously, however, to entering upon 

 his office of divine teacher, lie retired to a solitary 

 place, where he passed forty days in fasting, medita- 

 tion, and prayer. His mission is generally considered 

 to have occupied three years, spent in acts of mercy, 

 in inculcating a purer system of morals, more exalted 

 notions of God, and more elevating views of man and 

 his destiny, than had yet been presented to the 

 world. If, when we consider his miracles, he ap- 

 pears like a God, we must also acknowledge some- 

 thing superhuman and divine in his purity of life, his 

 warm love for others, and his self-devotion to their 

 welfare ; his meek yet firm and unshrinking endur- 

 ance of insult, contempt, calumny, and suffering. 

 While he denounces sin, and prophesies the coming 

 desolation of the corrupt city, he forgives the sinner, 



in wc nowege s so rapy spreang. 

 in connected with the old order of things, not with the new, 

 nd has twice returned with nervilism into Spain, and 

 once into France. The Encyclopedic Moderne, in its ar- 

 ticle on the Jesuits, calls them the pretorian guards, the 

 tlrelitze, the janizaries of the pope ; and it can hardly be 

 supposed that the guards will flourish when the sovereign 

 it; daily declining in splendour and power. 



and weeps over the fate of the obdurate Jerusalem. 

 Nothing can surpass the perfect beauty of his life, 

 but the godlike sublimity of his death. It is unne- 

 cessary here to trace the particulars of his short but 

 eventful mission. He had chosen twelve apostles to 

 be the companions of his ministry, the witnesses of 

 his miracles, and the depositories of his doctrine, and 

 he was betrayed into the power of his enemies by 

 one of these, with the mockery of a friendly salut.i- 

 tion. Betrayed by one, denied by another, and 

 abandoned by all, fie was carried before the Jewish 

 priests, found guilty, and by them delivered over to 

 the Roman magistrates, who alone had the power of 

 life and death. Condemned to death as a disturber 

 of the public peace, he was nailed to the cross on 

 mount Calvary; and it was in the agonies of this 

 bitter death, that he prayed for the forgiveness of his 

 executioners, and with a touching act of filial love, 

 commended his mother to his favourite disciple. 

 The evangelists relate that, from the hour of noon, 

 the sun was darkened, and, three hours alter, Jesus, 

 having cried out, " It is finished," gave up the 

 ghost. The vail of the temple, they add, was torn 

 asunder, the earth shook, rocks were rent, and the 

 tombs opened. The centurion who was present, 

 directing the execution, exclaimed. " Truly this was 

 the son of God." The body of Jesus was taken 

 down by Joseph of Arimathea, and placed in a tomb, 

 about which the Jewish priests, remembering his 

 prophecy that he should rise on the third day, set a 

 guard, sealing up the door. Notwithstanding these 

 precautions, his prophecy was fulfilled, by his resur- 

 rection on the first day of the week (Sunday) ; and lie 

 appeared repeatedly to his disciples, to encourage, 

 console, and instruct them. On the fortieth day 

 after his resurrection, while with them on the mount 

 of Olives, he " was taken up," and disappeared out 

 of their sight. 



JESUS SIRACH. SeeSiracA. 



JET. The colour of jet is a pure and deep black, 

 sometimes with a tinge of brown. It occurs in 

 opaque, compact masses, so solid and hard that they 

 are susceptible of being turned on a lathe and highly 

 polished. Its fracture is conchoidal or undulated, 

 shining, or even splendent, and it has a resinous 

 lustre; its specific gravity from 1.25 to 1.30. By 

 friction, it acquires a weak electricity, even when 

 not insulated. It sometimes presents the form of 

 branches of trees, and exhibits traces of a ligneous 

 texture. It burns with flame often a little greenish, 

 but it does not melt, like solid bitumen. It exhales, 

 while burning, a strong and sometimes aromatic 

 odour, sensibly different from that of coal or bitu- 

 men. It most frequently occurs in detached masses 

 of a moderate size, in beds of sandstone, marl, lime- 

 stone, and secondary trap. It is also connected 

 with formations of coal, particularly that which is 

 associated with secondary trap rocks. It is also 

 found with other varieties of lignite. G ood specimens 

 of jet are found in Galicia and other places in Spain ; 

 near Wittemberg, in Saxony ; in the department of 

 Aude, in France, where it sometimes contains amber. 

 In England, it occurs near Whitby. In the Faroe 

 islands, and in the isle of Sky, it occurs in trap 

 rocks. In Massachusetts, America, it is found at 

 South Hadley, in the coal formation. Jet is some- 

 times employed for fuel, but is more frequently cut 

 and polished, for ornamental purposes, buttons, 

 bracelets, snuff-boxes, &c. Some mineralogists con- 

 sider it intermediate between coal and bituminous 

 wood. 



JEUX FLORAUX (floral games); a festival 

 annually celebrated in Toulouse. As early as the 

 times of the Troubadours, Toulouse had a literary 

 institution, called the college du gai savoir, or dc la 



