INCENSE (from OF., Fr. encens, Lat. incen sum, incense, from inecndere, to burn, from in, in + eande•c, to glow; connected with Gk. sari poc, katharos, pure, Skt. icandra, candra, shin ing, noon, from icand, to be bright). A per fume the odor of which is evolved by burning. Its use in public worship prevailed in many an cient religions. The incense at present in use consists of some resinous base, such as gum olibanum, mingled with odoriferous gums. bal sams, etc. There is no regular formula for it, almost every maker having his own peculiar recipe. The ingredients are usually olibanum, benzoin, styrax, and powdered cascarilla bark. These materials, well mingled, are so placed in the censer (q.v.) or thurihie as to fall by sprink ling on hot charcoal. which imm•diately vola tilizes them, and their odor is diffused through the edifice. Among the Jews the burning of incense was exclusively employed as an act of worship. In the Catholic Church, both of the West and of the East. incense is used in public
worship, more particularly in connection with the eucharistic service, which is regarded as a sacrifice; but writers are not agreed as to the exact date at which such use was introduced. Saint Ambrose, in the Western Church (340 397), alludes to incense in terms which suppose the practice of burning it. to be an established one: and in later writers it is mentioned fa miliarly as a part of ordinary public worship. It is used in the solemn (or high) mass. in the eonseeratiou of churches, in solemn consecrations of objects intended for use in public worship, and in the burial of the dead. In time reformed churches time use of incense was abandoned, but in the last half-eentury it has been restored to some extent in the Anglican communion; and the `Catholic Apostolic' (or lrvingite) Church (q.v.) has used it since its foundation.