MODIFICATIONS IN THE IDEA OP GOD, ETC. 65 



Then, again, there is a reference to the term Shaddai for God. 

 I do not think it has anything to do with the Hebrew root, 

 Shad, in the sense of destruction, but with another Hebrew 

 root, and has to do with the cherished idea of the Jews which is 

 consistent with God being all-sufficient rather than an Almighty 

 Being, and in all the passages in Genesis that I can find it has to 

 do with God's promise of seed — the numerous seed of Abraham 

 and his son and grandson. The impression conveyed by the usage 

 of the word is that it refers to the richness and bounty of God.* 



There is another passage that I would call attention to. It is 

 a difficult subject, bat very important. It has to do with the 

 suggested declaration in the New Testament that God is Breath. 

 Long before our Lord's time the Hebrew scriptures had abounded in 

 the use of the word Ruach, and it is impossible to conceive that the 

 passages referred to breath in the ordinary sense of the word. The 

 truth is that divine things are largely known by analogy, and there 

 are two analogies which we naturally look to — one is the wind, 

 which suggests an unseen force, and the other is breath, which 

 suggests life and deep feeling. Life, Feeling and Force are the 

 three words which analogy gives us concerning the thought of 

 God. This matter was threshed out in the Old Testament and we 

 find it much earlier than is suggested here, and although the word 

 Matter is never used in the Bible in its philosophical sense, thtv 

 word Flesh is used in the Old and New Testaments in contra- 

 distinction to Spirit. 



I well remember a sermon, as some of you no doubt do, preached 

 by the celebrated Baptist, Robert Hall, on the spirituality of God, 

 for which he took one of these Old Testament texts as his guide, 

 the one in which the Egyptian horses are referred to as Flesh 

 and not Spirit (see Isaiah xxsi, 3), and really, when I think on 

 that passage, the word Flesh answers almost to the philosophical 

 idea of Matter, though it is not used for strict philosophical 

 purposes. 



I am thankful that Mr. Lias has raised the question concerning 

 the meaning of the words " God is a Spirit," or, as some persons 

 prefer it, " God is Spirit," i.e., by nature spiritual. Bur 

 before I can discuss the Divine Spirit, I must have an idea of the 



* See my discussion on it in Old Testament Synonyms, 2nd ed., p. 32. 



