SAADI SABJJATH. 



brings, bringeth (Germ, bringet). S is so nearly 

 akin to r, that Valcrii, Furii, ara, carmen, lares, and 

 numerous other words, were originally written Va- 

 lesii, Fusii, asa, casmen, loses. The Swedish and Eng- 

 lish hare is in German Hase. S often alternates 

 with the sound sh (written in German scA) ; and 

 some German tribes, particularly the Suabians, 

 change the s regularly into sch, when it precedes 

 another consonant : thus they say bischt and hascht 

 (pronounced bisht and hasht) for bint and hast; and 

 even in High German, s, at the beginning of a 

 word, followed by another consonant, is generally- 

 pronounced sh; this, in fact, was long considered 

 by many correct; but at present, we think, the 

 weight of opinion is in favour of the simpler sound 

 of s. It is a peculiarity of s, that it may be sounded 

 before all the simple consonants a circumstance 

 which makes it so formidable a letter to lexi- 

 cographers and encyclopaedists. S signified seven, 

 according to the verse : 



S vera teptenos numerates tignifieabit. 



Among the Greeks, ir signified 200, and f denoted 

 200,000; the sigma joined to the tau, i. e.<rr, de- 

 noted 6. The samech of the Hebrew, s, denoted 

 50, and with two points above, ~, it signified 

 50,000. S is the common abbreviation for societas 

 and socius (fellow). S. S. stands for sanctissimus ; 

 S. D. for salutem dixit; S. P. D. for salutem pluri- 

 mam dixit; S. P. Q. R for the famous senatus po- 

 pulusque Romanus. S., in geography, stands for 

 south; in music, for solo (alone), as T. for tutti (all). 

 On French coins, signifies Rheims. See Abbre- 

 viations. 



SAADI. See Sadi. 



SAALE; the name of several German rivers, 

 the most important of which is that which rises in 

 the Fichtelgebirge in Bavaria, and falls into the 

 Elbe south of Barby. Several considerable places 

 are situated on it, as Jena, Naumburg, Merseburg, 

 Halle, &c. It is navigable to Halle, and it is in- 

 tended to make it so to Naumburg. 



SAAR LOUIS (in the time of the French re- 

 volution called Sarrelibre') ; the Prussian fortress 

 nearest France, on the river Sarre, belonging to the 

 government of Treves. Including the garrison, it 

 has 7000 inhabitants. Vauban fortified the town 

 for Louis XIV. In 1814, it was ceded to Prussia. 

 Lon. 6 50' E. ; lat. 49 20' N. 



SABJEANS; the ancient name of the inhabi- 

 tants of the modern Yemen, in Arabia. Their 

 capital was Saba. 



SAB^EANS. See Sabians. 



SABAISM (from the Hebrew Zaba, lord, from 

 which God is called Zebaoth, Lord of the heavenly 

 hosts, because the stars or powers of heaven are 

 failed the hosts of God) ; that religion which wor- 

 ships the heavenly bodies, especially the sun and 

 moon. The connexion of these with the constant 

 changes in nature, and with the condition of men, 

 produced the idea of their divinity; and the actual 

 or symbolical connexion of the heavenly bodies and 

 certain animals and plants, as well as the powers of 

 nature, which are active in them, invested the lat- 

 ter also with a divine character, and made them 

 objects of worship to the adherents of Sabaism. 

 The sexual relations of living creatures gave Hsi- 

 to the fundamental idea of generation, conception 

 and production, which predominates in the In- 

 dian mythology, and became united with the doc- 

 trines of Sabaism ; and thus the latter received 

 that character which we find it to have in the my- 



VI. 



thology of Western Asia. Egypt, Arabia, and 

 particularly the region bounded east by the Euphra- 

 tes and Tigris, west by the Mediterranean, and 

 north by the Black sea, were the countries where 

 Sabaism prevailed in times previous to Christianity ; 

 and even the Hebrews often showed an inclination 

 towards it. The religious history of the Chal- 

 deans, Assyrians, Syrians, and tribes of Asia Minor, 

 as given in Wagner's Contributions towards a 

 general Mythology of the ancient World, in Gor- 

 res's History of Mythuses, in Creuzer's Symboli/i, 

 and in Baur's Symbolik, shows the justice of the 

 reproaches which the prophets of the Old Testa- 

 ment heap on the sensual worship of these hea- 

 thens. 



SABBATARIANS; those Christians who keep 

 the seventh day as others do Sunday; chiefly found 

 among Baptists. They hold that the sabbath was 

 established by divine authority, and changed from 

 the seventh day to the first day of the week by 

 human authority only. 



SABBATH (a Hebrew word signifying rest) is 

 the day appointed by the Mosaic law for a total 

 cessation from labour, and for the service of God, 

 in memory of the circumstance that God, having 

 created the world in six days, rested on the seventh. 

 For the manner in which the Jews kept it, and 

 the awful consequences of neglecting it, we refer 

 the reader to the Old Testament, Lev. xxvi. 34, 

 35; Neh. xiii. 1618; Jer. xvii. 21; Ezek. xx. 

 16, 17; Numb. xv. 23 36. A law so strictly en- 

 joined, and whose observance is of so public a cha- 

 racter, was naturally kept by the Pharisees with 

 the utmost strictness, in its outward forms, so that 

 they reproached the Founder of Christianity, who 

 taught that religion had its seat in the heart, and 

 that God must be worshipped in spirit, with break- 

 ing the Sabbath when he healed the sick on that 

 day. His rebuke of their hypocrisy is contained 

 in John v. 16, and Matthew xii. 1 et seq. 



Sabbath also signifies, in the Bible, the eternal 

 rest, of God ; also holy days in general. It like- 

 wise came to signify a week. 



In the earliest times of Christianity, the law of 

 the Sabbath, like other parts of the Jewish faith, 

 could not be received into the new religion, except 

 spiritualized and refined like the sacrifices and other 

 ceremonies. Every day, the whole life of the 

 Christian had become a Sabbath, destined for the 

 service of God. St Paul explicitly treats the re- 

 verencing of certain days as invested with a holy 

 character by a divine ordinance, as Jewish and un- 

 christian, and as a return to the servitude of the law. 

 The first communities assembled every day; e. g. 

 the community of Jerusalem for common prayer, 

 meditation on the Word, communion and love- 

 feasts. Traces of these daily meetings are found 

 even later. With the spread of Christianity, how- 

 ever, and the necessity of instructing a greater 

 number, the appointment of a certain time for this 

 service became necessary. This was not a depar- 

 ture from the spirituality of the new religion, but 

 only an accommodation to the wants of mankind. 

 In the same way, peculiar persons became priests, 

 though all Christians hud an equal Scinctity of charac- 

 ter, and the departure from the spirit of Christianity 

 consisted only in assuming a peculiar spiritual charac- 

 ter for the priests. The gradual adoption ot forms and 

 ideas from the Old Testament took place in the same 

 way, in respect to the Sabbath, as in respect to the 

 priesthood. When the Montanists intended to estab- 

 lish new fasts, assigned to fixed times, they were re- 



