As might be expected, the Jews in their fits of idolatry offered incense to their idols (Hos. xi. 2 ; Jer. xlviii. 35.
The incense burnt in the Temple is called a perpetual incense' (Exod. xxx. 8), in the same sense that the morning and evening sacrifice is called a perpetual burnt-offering (Exod. xxxix. 38, 42), because it was never intermitted twice a day. And one reason why it was thus continually burnt was because of the vast number of beasts that were slain and cut to piece,s, and washed, and burnt every day in the sanctuary, which would have made it smell like shambles (as Maimonides speaks), if this sweet odour had not perfumed it and the garments of the priests who there ministered. Whence, saith he, that speech of the Rabbins : This sweet odour might be snzelt as far as Yericho ; wherehy the reverence due to God's house was pre served, which would have been contemptible if there had been an ill smell constantly in it, as he truly observes, Afore Nevoch. p. c. 45' (Pat. on Exod. xxx. 8). There need be little difficulty in admittin,g this. The incense was, most likely, disinfectant and corrective, purifying and sweeten ing the atmosphere of the sacred house. But this view does not interfere in the least with the higher and nobler object contemplated by the appoint ment of the incense offering. There can be little doubt that it was intended, more hzemano, in the honour of Jehovah, the Great King, whose palace the tabernacle, as also the temple, was. ln this way it served its purpose directly and at once ; but as God is truly worshipped in a spiritual manner only (` God is a spirit'), the incense in the symbol ism of the Hebrews was intended to represent some spiritual truth. What was that ? .7mephus thinks that the spices gathered from sea and all lands inhabited and uninhabited were designed to teach that all things are of God and for God' (yewish War, Traill's Trans., B. v., sec. 5), Philo indulges in his accustomed vagaries of the imagina tion. Bahr in his Symbolik regards the incense as the symbol of the name of God, each ingredient representing some divine perfection. Fairbairn, in his admirable TYpology, following Hengstenberg, takes what appears the most natural and Scriptural view. In the language of the latter, the smoking,
sweet-smelling incense, is in Scripture the standing symbol of the prayer of believers, which is precious before God (comp. Apoc. v. ; viii. 3, 4 ; Luke i. to). The Psahnist comes forth here [Ps. cxli. 2] as an expositor of the Mosaic law, in which the offering of incense every morning and evening (Exod. xxx. 77, 95) symbolised prayer, and re minded the faithful of their obligation to present it, and the blessing which arises from it. Ile who prayed brought to the Lord the substance of the incense-offering' (Com. on Ps. exli.) Nor is it a conclusive objection to this view, that, if the incense is a symbol of prayer, the evening sacrifice must have the same symbolic meaning ; for the evening sacrifice is rather the meat-offering, rimn, which, according to Hengstenberg, is in the law the symbolical representation of good works.' Hence the Psalmist prays, that his prayer might be set forth as incense before the Lord, and the lifting up of his hands as the evening meat-offering ; prayer and good works being inseparably connected in the true worship of God. It might, indeed, appear at first view, that the incense was not symbolical of the prayers of the saints, but rather of that which renders those prayers acceptable before God—the merits of the Lord Jesus. But in Rev. v. S the representatives of the Church have golden vials full of odours (lit. incenses, Ougzabzcirwz,), which are said to be the prayers of the saints,' where the logical connection of the relative is with odours,' not with ` vials,' which in no proper sense could be called the ',prayers of the saints.' And in Rev. viii., although the incense is given' to the angel to be offered with the prayers of the saints, all that we are compelled by the symbolism to understand is the acctability of the prayers of the saints of God, long unanswered, but now at length about to be accomplished. It is, however, perfectly true that the prayers of the saints are a sweet incense unto God, chiefly because they came up before Him through Jesus Christ.'—I. J.