who wishes France to be a unity ; in England, he is a denier 
of the Divinity of Christ. The Latin sacramentum has gone 
through three distinct meanings, preserving one fundamental 
idea. Sacredness runs through the three. With Cicero, sa- 
cramentum would include, if not express, the military oath. In 
the Vulgate it is the representative of the Hebrew Kbs (pele), 
a wonder, and of the Greek iivarnpiov, a mystery. It is applied 
to Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and to the woman who was sitting 
upon the beast. Since the scholastic writings, the word has 
included spiritual grace. 
From the Rabbinical writers the Greek aliov has acquired 
the meaning of the material world, as we see in Heb. i. and xi. 
On these principles we may lay down the general rule that 
the language of the Bible is to be interpreted on the principles 
of human language. 
In order to preserve the infallibility of Divine revelation in 
the use of so fallible an instrumentality as human language, 
God has given the revelation of His mind and will in various 
ways. History and biography exhibit, if I may use the ex- 
pression, principles incarnated. Ritual and Symbol are other 
forms of declaring the same truths. Ordinary didactic language 
combines with them to make doctrinal teaching infallibly 
clear. Another provision has been the gift of Divine revela- 
tion in two languages, by which many ambiguities are removed. 
It would be a work of surpassing interest to pursue this part 
of the subject at great length, but it does not directly come 
within our present purpose. I pass on, therefore, to the 
necessary principles of scientific language. 
As I have already said, human language can never be clearer 
than "human thought. Where ideas are unavoidably obscure, 
language must be proportionably so. A striking example 
is in the word person . Who can tell what is the bond of con- 
nection between body, soul, and spirit, which we describe as 
personality ? We are conscious of being a unity, yet how great 
a complexity. Person, in Greek {urocrrcnTie, expresses a mode 
of being, without defining the mode. As God and man are 
united in Christ in one consciousness, we speak of Jesus Christ 
being one Person in two natures. In the Godhead, on the 
other hand, there is a threefold consciousness in one Being*, — - 
Father, Son, and Spirit, that we designate three Persons in 
one God. Further than that it is, at present at least, impos- 
sible for us to go. How convenient and how adapted to the 
need of indistinct conceptions is an indefinite word which 
describes a mode of existence without exactly declaring the 
mode. 
In scientific matters we act on the same principle ; indeed 
