897 
for the sacred writers themselves furnish the words — some- 
times words of their own invention — and the duty of the 
interpreter is not so much to put the facts of revelation into 
appropriate language, as to discover the meaning of the words 
of Scripture, and thus penetrate into the revealed mysteries. 
This demands scholarship, no doubt ; but what is far more 
essential, is a certain logical power of seeing through the 
significance of words in relation to their context. Sometimes 
a popular misapprehension of a term will greatly mislead ; 
and it should be borne in mind that words are always shifting 
in meaning, and have to be brought back again to their true 
bearings by the public teacher, or they will go hopelessly 
adrift. For instance, how many hearing the verse “ Now 
abideth faith, hope, charity, these three ; but the greatest of 
these is charity,” have a confused idea that this pre-eminent 
virtue is little else than either almsgiving, or a disposition 
to condone the faults and errors of others ! 
If care had been generally taken to arrive at the true under- 
standing of what is symbolized by the terms of Scripture, how 
many differences among Christian speakers and writers would 
be saved ! Thus, faith is considered by some as totally 
independent of, if not opposed to reason, while others view it 
as the highest development of reason ; again, some speak of 
faith as the same mental act, though exercised on different 
objects ; while others draw distinctions between historic, 
saving, practical, miraculous, and other kinds of faith ; and 
there is a popular use of the word which actually confounds it 
with superstition. 
Would that theologians were content to employ scriptural 
terms, and that in their scriptural significations ! We should 
then be saved from many an unseemly controversy. 
* * * * * 
In any investigation, beside the definiteness of the words 
employed, the ideas themselves must be definite. As instances 
of the contrary, may I not take almost at random, (i A visi- 
tation of Providence “ Nature abhors a vacuum ” (at least 
up to 33 feet) ; and “ Miracles are impossible.” 
To think clearly in one department of knowledge is good 
training for thinking clearly in another. 
Leaving many tempting points of analogy, I pass on to 
consider the most important of all — the formation of our 
larger generalizations, — what Bacon calls “ the raising of 
doctrines.” For natural science is not a mere collection of 
facts, or even a classified arrangement of them ; and theology 
