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centuries. In the interpretation of Scripture, many errors 
would be avoided, and much difficulty removed, if com- 
mentators were more careful in examining Scripture's own 
use of its own phrases. We have another example from the 
New Testament. Mediaeval Europe was so restricted to the 
use of the Yulgate, that its phrases tinged the theology of the 
Western Church to a greater degree than is commonly sup- 
posed. Protestant and Pomish writers have almost unani- 
mously accepted the meaning of “ the gates of hell " to be the 
power of the devil and his agents. It is utterly impossible to 
assign such a meaning to the phrase, on any true exegesis : 
“ Hell," was never the abode of Satan. It is limited in 
Scripture to departed spirits. The gates of Hades must there- 
fore mean the entrance into that place. Accordingly, Heze- 
kiah speaks of the then probably fatal results of his sickness, 
as, “ I shall go to the gates of Hades" (or Shedl). How 
strangely his fellow-countrymen would have felt could they 
have heard a mediaeval theologian asserting that Hezekiah 
meant that his boil would send him to the devil ! 
It is time, however, to draw to a conclusion. I trust I have 
pointed out the true method of the interpretation of the lan- 
guage of Scripture in general, and inclusively of its scientific 
language. I trust also I have shown that the Bible can bear 
the strictest scrutiny, provided its scrutinizers be them- 
selves qualified for the task. It is indeed Cod's infallible 
word. Its statements and teaching connect themselves with 
every department of human knowledge, and every possible 
subject of human thought. In morals, in legislation, in philo- 
sophy, in science, in general literature, and human history, it 
is like the sun in the solar system, casting bright beams of 
light upon them all. It tells man whence he has come, whose 
he is, how he is to live in this life, and what is the hope of 
blessedness in the life to come. God in Christ and Christ in 
God are gloriously manifested in its holy pages ; and man in 
Christ and Christ in man are seen in all the truth of resurrec- 
tion humanity, filled with all the fulness of God. May we all 
more reverentially study its whole teaching, and under the 
guidance of the ever Blessed Spirit be kept in its holy paths 
onwards and upwards to the heavenly blessedness. 
On the motion of the Chairman, a vote of thanks was passed to the author 
of the paper. 
Rev. Dr. Thornton.- — I feel rather at a disadvantage in having to criticise 
a paper with the main object of which I so much agree. It is not necessary 
for me to subject the statements it contains to a minute criticism, and to 
point out where I differ from them ; but there is considerable doubt in my 
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