judgments on his people. Gen. vi., 1 Sam. xv., Ps. cvi. As men alter their course, or cease from what they are doing, or undo what they have done, because they have changed their minds or plans, or made mistakes, or repent of their course; so when there seems to be a change in the course of Providence, or God reverses the order of his action, it is ascribed to a like change of feeling or purpose on his part, and he is represented as repenting of his former course. This was the shortest and most direct way, and perhaps the only way at that period of linguistic culture, of describing the phenomena as they appeared to human observation. They were obliged to use these words and expressions with a secondary or metaphorical meaning.

Sometimes these passages which attribute to God the dispositions and passions, and even infirmities, of man, take on a highly dramatic form. There is a striking and, rightly understood, really beautiful example of this in Gen. xviii., where the Lord is represented as not knowing the exact condition of affairs in the guilty cities of the plain, and so resolving to 66 go down" and see for himself, before he sent his destroying judgments on them. "And the Lord

said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know it." Because a faithful and impartial judge always carefully looks into and examines the case of the accused before passing sentence, so God is represented, in this bold dramatic style, as doing the same thing in the case of Sodom :

by which simply is expressed the perfect equity and justice of all God's dealings with the wicked and criminal.

After reading such passages as the preceding, we are ready, without much reflection, to say that the Bible is, above all other books, metaphorical, abounding in unintelligible tropes and figures of speech; and some are even inclined to ask, If it was written for our instruction, why it was not written as plainly as we talk, in homely every-day phrase? We say directly what we mean- why do not the Scriptures, if they are intended as a revelation? What is the use of figures, when the fact in plain words would have been so much better?

So think a multitude of Bible readers, and yet a little reflection would show them that the people of the Bible days, if they should come among us now, would bring the same charge against our daily speech. Really, at bottom, we are no more matter of fact in our address than they, with an allowance for the difference of national character, civilization, language and culture.

How common are such expressions as these: "The thought struck me"; "I have a certain person in my eye"; "He cast rapid glances over the crowd"; "Their hearts leaped up"; "The mouth of a river"; "The head of a bay"; "The foot of a mountain"; "The wings of time "; " A sea of faces"; "An ocean of flame," &c. Now, there is not a metaphor in the whole breadth of the Scriptures, Old and New, more unnatural, or, literally considered, more absurd and senseless than these. And a people unaccustomed to this kind of figures could make nothing out of them;

and they might ask of us, "Why do you not say what you mean? Why not say directly you think this or that, instead of representing thought as a man standing up and striking you? Why do you say you have a person in your eye, when you only remember or see him? And equally extravagant is it to talk of a sea made of faces, or an ocean of flame." (Rev. xv.: "Sea of glass mingled with fire.")

But however absurd these metaphors to a Jew, they are simple and intelligible enough to us, because we are accustomed to them. And so with those of the Bible; when once they become familiar and common, they will lose their seeming awkwardness and extravagance. The Eastern nations think them as plain, and simple in form, as we think ours are. It is familiarity with these peculiar forms of speech, and with the style of thinking and speaking, that adapts them to the ear, and transforms the figure into the fact so that the thing represented suggests itself simultaneously with the metaphor.

Our hymns are striking examples of this, and show how easily we fall into the use of figures representing God as a man, or as having a human form, and acting accordingly. And Bible phraseology which we actually condemn in reading, as derogating from the spirituality and majesty of God, we take into our hymns, and sing without a word of objection. For example:

"He darts along the burning sky;

Loud thunders round him roar;
Through worlds above his terrors fly,
While worlds below adore."

"He binds the whirlwind to his car,

And sweeps the howling skies."’

"He frowns, and darkness veils the moon,
The fainting sun grows dim at noon-
The pillars of heaven's starry roof
Tremble and start at his reproof."

"On cherubim and seraphim

Full royally he rode,

And on the wings of mighty winds
Came flying all abroad."

These are as bold figures, and in their literal interpretation as contrary to fact, as any in the Scriptures; and yet, taking them out from the Scriptures, we sing them without any question of their propriety. They have become, as it were, domesticated with us, and we lose sight of the metaphor in the idea it represents, in the thought of which it is only the vehicle, or symbol.

SECTION III.

METAPHORS DERIVED FROM LOCAL CUSTOMS AND OPINIONS.

In order to understand the meaning of certain classes of figures, we must have a knowledge of the civilization, social state, occupations, arts and sciences out of which they come; or at least a knowledge of the special application and usage of them. For example: Since the days of the prophets, of Paul and Luke, the world has greatly advanced in every department of knowledge and material improvements, and certain words and phrases and metaphors have arisen out of these, wholly unknown to the ancients. We have a variety of tropes and figures of speech drawn from steamboats, railroads, telegraphs, the printing press, gunpowder, chemistry, astronomy, the

microscope, &c., which would be wholly unintelligi ble to the Jew of the Old Testament; because he could have no knowledge of the great facts and enti ties in which they have their origin. In order to understand our speech in this respect, he must first become acquainted with railroads, printing, modern chemistry, &c., and know how these terms or metaphors are employed and applied.

So with us, in regard to ancient customs, arts and occupations: we must acquire some information on these points, if we expect to understand the allusions to them in the Scriptures. As an example; without this particular knowledge such passages as these are unintelligible: "The elders have ceased from the gate"; "his children are crushed in the gate;" "he openeth not his mouth in the gate;""they turn aside the poor in the gate;" "they hate him that rebuketh in the gate; ""hate evil and establish judgment in the gate;" "her husband is known in the gates; "" and all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, we are witnesses."

But these passages are plain enough when we come to know that in primitive times the elders, or aged men, distinguished for their wisdom and integrity, used to assemble at the gates of the town, where they sat together on benches, to hear and adjust any complaints or disputes among the people, and to administer justice in all cases of controversy. The object in assembling at the gates was to be within reach of all, it being the most public place in the city; and all passing in or out, could bring their cause before them at once, and have it heard and settled on the spot, without the tedious and expensive legal delays of our time.

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