The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia

by William James Miller

THE LION is the symbol of our Lord who is called in Revelation 5:5, the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah."

THE DOVE is used as the emblem of the Holy Ghost.

The emblems of the four Evangelists are as follows: ST. MATTHEW, a winged Man; ST. MARK, a winged Lion; ST. LUKE, a winged Ox, and ST. JOHN, an Eagle.

Emmanuel.—A Hebrew word used as a name of our Lord, and means, "God with us." The Rev. Morgan Dix, D.D., in his book "The Gospel and Philosophy," speaking of the word Emmanuel, says, "'God with us' is the sum of the Christian Religion. That is a proper description of the Religion from the beginning to the end. Emmanuel: the meaning of the word was not exhausted in those blessed years, three and thirty in all, during which Christ was seen in Judea and known as the Prophet of Nazareth. It is as accurate, as necessary to-day; it shall be true {97} till all be fulfilled, till the earth and the heavens shall pass away and the new earth shall appear. . . . This Presence of the Personal God, a presence not made by our faith, but disclosed to our faith that we may believe and adore, is secured to the faithful in their generations by ordinances, instruments and institutions adapted to that end. . . . That system is known as the Holy Catholic Church."

Epact, The.—The Epact is the moon's age at the beginning of any given year. The term is derived from the Greek word, Epacte, meaning carried on. The Epact is used in the calculations for finding on what day Easter will fall. (See TABLES IN THE PRAYER BOOK.)

Epiphany, The.—A Feast of the Church observed on January 6th to commemorate the Manifestation of Christ by the leading of a star. Occurring twelve days after Christmas, it is frequently called "Twelfth Day." The word Epiphany is derived from the Greek and means Manifestation or showing forth. It was originally used both for Christmas Day when Christ was manifested in the Flesh and for this day when He was manifested by a Star to the Gentiles. Later on, about the Fourth Century and in the Western Church the Epiphany seems to have acquired a more independent position and to be observed with special reference to the manifestation to the Magi of the East. It thus became the occasion of the giving of praise and thanksgiving to God for thus proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentile world as well as to the Jews, His chosen people. An examination of the services for the Feast of the Epiphany shows that the {98} commemoration is really threefold: (1) Our Lord's Manifestation by a star to the Magi; (2) The Manifestation of the glorious Trinity at His Baptism, and (3) The Manifestation of the glory and Divinity of Christ by His miraculous turning water into wine at the marriage in Cana of Galilee; all of which are said to have happened on the same day, though not in the same year. "The Epiphany is a Festival which has always been observed with great ceremony throughout the whole Church; its threefold meaning and its close association with the Nativity as the end of the Christmas Tide, making it a kind of accumulative Festival."

Epiphany, Sundays after.—The Epiphany is continued in the Sundays following, the number of which is variable being dependent on the time Easter is kept. There may be one "Sunday after Epiphany" or there may be six. The Scriptural teachings of these Sundays are all illustrative of the fact that the Eternal Word was manifested in the Flesh.

Episcopacy.—The name given to that form of Church government in which Bishops are the Chief Pastors with Priests and Deacons under them. The word is derived from the Greek Episcopos, meaning overseer; Bishop being the Anglicized form of the Greek word. Much controversy has been held in regard to Church government, as if the form was a matter of uncertainty, or not clearly revealed. The question can only be decided by first regarding Christianity as an institution, as the Kingdom of God, and then inquiring whether this Institution, founded by our Lord, has been characterized always by the same {99} thing. In regard to Church government we find that the Church as an institution was always governed by Bishops, and that for 1500 years after Christ no Christian people recognized any other Ministry but that of Bishops, Priests and Deacons. Since the Reformation the controversy has come up and various theories, especially Presbyterian and Congregationalist, have been advanced. But even now the question of Church government may be considered as a matter of fact rather than of theory. If we take the whole Christian world of to-day, we find that the number of Christians is in round numbers five hundred millions. Of this number only one hundred million are non-Episcopal, so that we may conclude from the universal acceptance of Episcopacy before the Reformation and from the large preponderance of adherents to this form of Church government at this present time,—from these facts we may safely conclude that Episcopacy is in accordance with the mind of the Master. This, at least, is the conclusion of the best scholarship of the day, both Episcopal and non-Episcopal. For example, a non-Episcopal divine has set forth his conclusions in the following statement: "The Apostles embodied the Episcopal element into the constitution of the Church, and from their days to the time of the Reformation, or for fifteen hundred years, there was no other form of Church government anywhere to be found. Wheresoever there were Christians there were also Bishops; and often where Christians differed in other points of doctrine or custom, and made schisms and divisions in the Church, yet did they all remain unanimous in this, in retaining Bishops." So {100} also, the historian Gibbon gives his conclusion as follows: "'No Church without a Bishop' has been a fact well as a maxim since the time of Tertullian and Irenaeus; after we have passed over the difficulties of the first century, we find the Episcopal government established, till it was interrupted by the republican genius of the Swiss and German reformers." (See MINISTRY, THE.)

Episcopate.—The office of a Bishop. The term is variously used. It means not only the office or dignity of a Bishop, but it may also mean the period of time during which any particular Bishop exercises his office in presiding over a Diocese. Again, Episcopate is the collective name for the whole body of Bishops of the Christian Church, lists of which have been carefully preserved from the beginning. The Episcopate of the American Church includes all the Bishops from Bishop Seabury, our first Bishop, down to the Bishop who was last consecrated.

Epistle, The.—The portion of Holy Scripture read before the Gospel in the Communion Office, generally taken from one of the N. T. Epistles, though sometimes from the Acts of the Apostles or from one of the books of the Prophets of the Old Testament. It is well to note that the Collect, Epistle and Gospel embody the special teaching of the day for which they are appointed.