DOVE, the dove, in Christian Art, is the symbol of the holy Ghost ; as it is represented in its natural form, the body of a snowy whiteness, the beak and claws red, which is the color natural to those parts in white doves. The nimbus, which always surround? its head, should be of a gold color, and divided by a cross, which is either red or black. A radiance of light invests and proceeds from the person of the dove, and is emblematical of the divinity. It is also sometimes rep resented, in stained glass, with seven rays, terminating in stars, significant of the seven gifts of the lloly Ghost. The dove has been constantly adopted in Christian iconography as the symbol of the Iloly Ghost from the sixth century until the present day. In the tenth and eleventh centuries the human form was also adopted for the same object. In too fourteenth and fifteenth centuries we meet with both together, as the personification of the Holy Ghost in the human form, with the dove as his symbol. The dove
is an embletn of love, simplicity, inno cence, purity, mildness, conipunetion ; haling an olive-branch, it is an emblem of peace. Doves were used in churches to serve three purposes :-1. Suspended over altars to serve as a pyx. 2. As a type or figure of the Doly Spirit over al tars, baptisteries, and fonts. 3. As symbol ical ornaments. The dove is also an em blem of the human soul, and as such is seen issuing from the lips of dying mar tyrs and devout persons. A dove with six wings lets been employed as a type of the church of Christ : it has certain pe culiarities. The front of the body is of silver, the back of gold. Two of the wings are attached to the head. two to the shoulders, and two to the feet.