The New Student's Reference Work/Incense

In′cense, a perfume much used by the ancients in their religious worship. It was produced by burning sweet-smelling substances, like gums, balsams etc. The material, generally a mixture of several kinds of gum, is placed in a dish called the censer, in which it falls slowly on to a hot plate beneath, when it immediately burns and spreads its odor through the air. Among the Jews the burning of incense was employed only as an act of worship, and was in itself thought to be a sacred offering. The same was also true of the religion of Egypt. Persian sculpture pictures the burning of incense in honor of kings. In the Catholic Church, both Greek and Roman, incense is used in public worship, especially in its most sacred services.