messenger

[A corrupt. of Mid. Eng. me ager (q. v.), the n being excrescent, as in scavenger for scavager, pa enger for pa ager, ., Fr. me ager; Ital. me agiere; Sp. mensagero; Port. men sageiro.] I. Ordinary Language: party of persons. "He took and sent me es unto them; but Benjamin's me was five times so much as any of theirs."- Genesis xliii. 34. beast at once. 2. As much provender or fodder as is given to a "'Tis only a page that carols unseen, Crumbling your hounds their me es." Browning: Pippa Pa es, ii. 3. A number of persons who sit down to table together, or the food provided for them; spec if., a company or number of officers or men, belonging to the same regiment or ship, who take their meals together. *4. A set or party of four: from the company at great feasts being arranged or divided into sets of IMG:content-1140.png:[blocks in formation] *1. Law : A person appointed to perform certain miristerial duties in bankruptcy or insolvency, such as to take charge of the estate of the bankrupt or insolvent, and to transact certain other duties in reference to the proceedings in bankruptcy or in insolvency. [RECEIVER.] 2. Naut .: A rope pa ing from the capstan to the cable to which it is fastened by nippers. The winding of the me enger on the capstan hauls in the cable, and the nippers are succe ively taken off that part of the cable that is approaching the capstan, and put upon that part which has just come inboard, through the hawse-hole. a cur, a me an (q. v.). *měs'-sět, s. [Etym. doubtful.] A mongrel dog, "Where are your me of sons [ i . e., the following four, Edward, George, Richard, and Edmund] to back you now?"- Shakesp .: Henry VI . , Pt . III . , i. 4. (2) Of things. "There lacks a fourth thing to make up the me ." - Me iah for its hero; spec., an epic poem on the Latimer: Sermon v. IMG:content-1141.png:[blocks in formation] Me iah was Měs-si-ah, †Měs-si-ăs, s. [Heb. mashiachh= anointed, a verbal noun and participle, from mash achh to smear with colors, to anoint; Gr. Me ias .] 1. Jewish Hist . & Faith : The Anointed One; a certain Personage or Being regarding whom Daniel prophesied. He was called "the Prince," apparently identified with the "most Holy" [One], was to appear at the end of "seven weeks and three score and two weeks" from the i ue of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, was in sixty-two weeks to be "cut off, but not for Himself," after which Jerusalem was to be destroyed by foreign invaders (Dan. ix. 25, 26). In Psalm ii. 2, the Lord and His anointed might be rendered the Lord and His Me iah. Three cla es of men were officially anointed under the Jewish dispensation: (1) Priests, and especially high priests (Exod. xxviii. 41; Levit. iv. 3, 5, 16; Num. xxxv. 25: (2) Kings (1 Sam. ix. 16, xvi. 3; 2 Sam. xii. 7; 1 Kings i. 34, xix. 16): (3) Prophets; Elijah, before his translation, was directed to anoint Elisha, his succe or (1 Kings xix. 16; cf. also Isaiah lxi. 1-3). Presumably then the Me iah spoken of by Daniel would discharge priestly, kingly, or prophetic functions, or two out of the three, or all of the three. The name "the Prince" would suggest that kingly functions would be specially prominent. During the later and more calamitous period of the old Hebrew monarchy, there were increasingly ardent desires for the coming of the Me iah, who was regarded chiefly as a deliverer from foreign oppre ors. In Jewish belief that advent is still to be expected. 2. Christian Hist . & Faith : The Anointed One is in Greek Christos , from chrio to anoint. So thor oughly are the words identified, that the Hebrew mashiachh, which occurs thirty-nine times in the Old Testament, is in every case rendered in the Septuagint christos. When Jesus of Nazareth consented to accept the appellation "the Christ," or simply "Christ," as His official designation, He claimed to be the Me iah of Daniel's prophecy (Matt. i. 16, xvi. 20, xxvi. 63; Mark viii. 29, xiv. 61; Luke iii. 15, ix. 20, xxii. 67; John i. 41, vi. 69, .). All Christen dom has acknowledged the claim. [CHRIST.] 3. Fig .: The highly gifted leader of a nation, capable, if properly appreciated and followed, of leading it to the greatest prosperity. Thus, à pro pos of the a a ination of Julius Cæsar, Napoleon III. said of nations in general, "They crucify their Me iah."