Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

addressing it as though it had the organs of hearing or sight, or ascribing to it the passions or actions of men; as when the prophet calls to the heavens to hear, and to the earth to attend to his word.

The Allegory, or Parable, is the use of intelligences acting in one sphere or relation, to exemplify and illustrate their own or the agency of others in another; or the use of unintelligent objects in a natural or supposititious relation, to exemplify the conduct of men. They are sometimes employed together; as in the lxxxth Psalm, a vine is used as the representative of the Israelites; and God's planting and rearing it is employed to exemplify his administration over them. There is always an intimation at the beginning or close of the Allegory or Parable, who or what it is, that it is employed to exemplify.

Figures differ essentially from symbols; figures being used only for illustration and ornament, and the agents or objects to which they are applied being always the agents or subjects of the acts or qualities which they ascribe to them; while symbols, on the other hand, instead of mere names or predicates of agents or objects, are themselves agents, objects, qualities, acts, conditions, or effects,

that are used as representatives of agents, objects, qualities, acts, conditions, or effects, generally of a different but resembling class. Thus in Daniel's vision, wild beasts are employed as prophetic representatives of cruel, bloody, and destroying men: powerful and ferocious creatures in the animal world, that preyed on inferior beasts, being put in the place of men in the political world of a corres ponding character towards mankind; and destructive acts of the one employed to represent the resembling acts of the other. In like manner, in the Apocalypse, candlesticks, or lamp stands, whose office it is to support lights, are used to represent churches which support teachers that spread the knowledge of the Gospel; and stars whose office it is to shed light on the world when wrapped in the darkness of night, are employed as representatives of teachers of the church, whose work it is to spread the light of the Gospel in the world of men, which is involved in moral darkness.

Questions which the learner should answer in respect to the nature of figures, their classes, and kinds.

What is a figure of speech? How many classes of figures are there! What are they? Give an example of one that lies in the use of a word. Give an example of one that lies in the use of a thing. For what purpose are they used; or what service do they render in the treatment of subjects? What figures belong to the

first class? What belong to the second? What is the peculiarity of a verbal figure? What is the peculiarity of the other class? In what sense are the words employed in figures in which things are the instrument of illustration? What constitutes an expression figurative? How can it be known that a sentence is tropical? How many kinds of figures are there? Name them. Define the comparison, metaphor, metonymy, and others. What is a symbol? How do symbols differ from figures? Give an example of a symbol, and the mode in which it is used.

CHAPTER II.

THE COMPARISON.

A Simile, or Comparison, is an affirmation of the likeness of one thing to another, and is expressed by as, like, so, or some other term of resemblance. Thus the personage throned on the cloud (Rev. xiv. 14) is said to have been like a son of man; that is, of a human form. In the description of Christ (Rev. i. 14) it is said, "His eyes were as a flame of fire, and his voice as the sound of many waters ;" and the visibleness and conspicuity of his coming is compared to a shaft of lightning that flashes across the firmament: "As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. xxiv. 27.) The change from condemnation to forgiveness consequent on repentance, is compared to a change from the deepest red to the purest white. "Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow;

though they be red as crimson they shall be as wool." (Isaiah i. 18.) It is predicted of Zion, when redeemed, that God "will extend peace to her like a river," ever gliding and giving fruitfulness and beauty to the scene through which it passes; and the glory of the Gentiles, like an overflowing "stream" that is full to the banks, moving forward with a resistless current, and bearing on its bosom a rich commerce. (Isaiah lxvi. 12.)

Comparisons are of two classes. Those of the first simply affirm that one thing is like another. Thus it is said of the man of God (Judges xiii. 6), "His countenance was like an angel of God." It is said of man, "He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." (Job xiv. 2.) The Psalmist said, "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree" (Ps. xxxvii. 35); and he predicts that "the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." (Ps. xcii. 12.)

The other class, which is far the most effective, not only affirms the fact of a resemblance, but indicates its nature. Thus: "The man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither.

« AnteriorContinuar »