He was foretold in Scripture as “the Son of God,” (Luke i. 35,) and acknowledged on earth—by men inspired (Matt. xvi. 16; John i. 34; xx. 31; Acts ix. 20);—by devils (Matt. viii. 29; Mark iii. 11; Luke iv. 41);—and by the world (Matt. xiv. 33; John i. 49; xi. 27,) as he shall be in heaven (Rev. ii. 18). Therefore he addresses God as his “Father,” (Mark xiv. 36, &c.,) and claims to himself the title from men, (John v. 18, 22–25; ix. 35 with 37,) though for this he was accused, by the Jews, of blasphemy (John x. 36; xix. 7). He is the only Son, also, by reason of his resurrection from the dead, there being none but him begotten by such generation.
SONG. As applied to sacred subjects, it is one of the classes of vocal praise mentioned in Scripture: according to the enumeration of the apostle, (Eph. v. 19,) ψαλμοῖς, καὶ ὕμνοις, καὶ ψοαῖς πνευματικαῖς. (Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, or odes.) Wolfius, in his note on Eph. v. 14, quotes an opinion of Heumannus, in his Pœcile, (ii. lib. iii. frag. 390,) that this verse of the apostle’s, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life,” is a fragment of an ancient Christian hymn or spiritual song: and remarks that there is a natural rhythm in the original:
ἔγειραι ὁ καθεύσων,
καὶ ἀνάστα ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν,
καὶ ἐπιφαύσει σοι ὁ χριστός.
However this may be, it is to be hoped that the recent discoveries of early Christian hymns in the Syriac language may throw light on this subject; and here Dr. Burgess’s late translation of the hymns of Ephrem Syrus may be consulted with advantage. The Evening Hymn of the first or second century, preserved by St. Basil, and given in Routh’s Reliquiæ Sacræ, is an interesting illustration of the ancient Christian songs.
The word song in the Old Testament is in the Hebrew Shir. Many of the Psalms are so denominated: sometimes simply Shir, at other times Mizmor Shir (Psalm-Song), or Shir Mizmor (Song-Psalm). It is not, perhaps, possible to distinguish them in style or subject from other Psalms. The word appears by comparison of different passages of Scripture to mean anything sung to instrumental music, as these instruments are called in Scripture instruments of Shir, i. e. accompanying vocal music. See 2 Chron. v. 13.
SONGS OF DEGREES. (See Degrees, and Psalms.)
SORTES. A method of divination borrowed by some superstitious Christians from the heathen, and condemned by several councils. The heathen, opening Virgil at hazard, took the first words they found as indicating future events, and this process they called Sortes Virgilianæ. The superstitious imitators of this custom used the Bible in the same way, and called their divinations Sortes sacræ.
SOUTHCOTTIANS. The deluded followers of one Johanna Southcot, a servant girl at Exeter, who, towards the close of the last century, gave herself out as the woman in the wilderness, mentioned in the Apocalypse, and declared that she held converse with spirits, good and bad, and with the Holy Ghost himself. She gave sealed papers, which were called her “seals,” to her followers, which were to protect them from all evil of this life and the next. In 1814, having fallen from indulgence and want of exercise into a habit of body which gave her the appearance of pregnancy, she announced herself the mother of the approaching Shiloh. She died, however, and her body was opened, revealing the real cause of her appearance; but her death and burial did not undeceive her followers, though no resurrection of their leader has yet taken place.