114 THE REV. PROFESSOR A. S. GEDEN, M.A., D.D., 



natural intelligence for book-learning, to turn a symbol of fellowship 

 into a means of grace. 



But is it " mystics " alone, whatever that word may mean, who 



more or less consciously live, move, and have their being '* in 

 the realm of figure and metaphor " ? 



Nor am I inclined to think that metaphor illustrates and illu- 

 minates a truth too profound for literal or precise exhibition in 

 human language." But I think both metaphor and idiom give an 

 attractiveness to the letter of Scripture, as also of every-day speech, 

 and thus make it far pleasanter to read than it otherwise would be, 

 especially by the unregenerate ; and far less prolix. 



Grammarians, whose proper place is the servants' hall, have been 

 put into the drawing-room. 



The case of Lazarus (John xi.) and that of Jairus' daughter are 

 very instructive. In the latter case, our Lord would not admit of 

 the word " death " ; in the former, it had to be dragged out of Him, 

 because, as the reader explains, He was about to restore him to life. 



I speak with all humility and subject to correction if wrong, but 

 it seems to me that our Lord was not only using the figure of prolepsis 

 or anticipation, but also emphasizing the importance of that 

 figure so common amongst the Hebrews and other ancient 

 nations. 



Had our learned theologians understood this figure better, they 

 would not have made death mean a form of life, or a type of it, 

 nor would they have made people dead who had never lived ; for 

 death is the ending of life, not its mere absence. In this connection, 

 I consider (see p. 109) that ol i^ck-pot means doomed to die, not 

 spiritually dead. I think also, in the case of the man who wished 

 to bury his father, that he meant " Let me stay (like Abram) with 

 my father till he dies." Had his father been actually dead, he 

 would have been in the house, arranging the funeral. Our Lord's 

 words might well mean. Let those doomed to die bury their dead 

 : — or doomed to die. As in the late war, there was much to do and 

 little time to do it in. 



There is another important figure in both Old and Xew Testaments, 

 whose name I do not know, viz., the word describing the effect is 

 attached to the word describing the cause ; e.g., " eternal redemp- 

 tion " = redemption with eternal results, eternal destruction " — 



