The practice of attributing to the Scriptures a spiritual or hidden meaning, which has wrought such mischief in the theological world, dates, it seems, far back of the early Christian fathers, with whom it is generally supposed to have originated. Dr. W. Graham, of Bonn, claims that it sprang up with Jewish interpreters, while the Jewish nation was under the dominion of the Greeks. He thus speaks of them during that portion of their history:— “Bear in mind, also, three things which will help to throw some light on the condition of the Jews during these centuries of suffering and sorrow. 1. That only a small portion of the nation returned from Babylon; and those who did return and constitute the kingdom anew, never attained to independence. They knew, and felt, and confessed, their bondage, even after their restoration; Neh. ix, 36, 37. 2. They had no gift of prophecy any more; the Urim and Thummim were no more; the Shechinah had returned to the heavenly throne, and thus all direct intercourse with God, in the way of revelation, ceased. 3. They were no longer governed by the family of David. Zerubbabel, indeed, was a prince of the line of David, and Nehemiah is supposed by some to have been so; but after his death there was no individual governor appointed, but a kind of aristocracy, or general council, was entrusted with the affairs of the nation. This was the Sanhedrim over which the high priest presided; and thus gradually the whole power, civil and ecclesiastical, settled in the hands of the pontiffs. Bearing these things in mind, let us figure to our minds the condition of the nation in its relations to the Greek kingdoms of Egypt and Antioch. “During this period, in the absence of the heavenly guidance, sprang up the doctrines of the Cabala, which abandoned the letter of the law, and sought out hidden meanings, in points and letters and words, so that fancy and ingenuity could bring any signification out of any passage. These were the founders of the spiritualizing, or rationalistic, or mythical system of interpretation. Origen brought it into the church, and it has exercised, and is still exercising, a deadly influence on the interpretation of the word of God.” It is thus a singular and noteworthy fact that that system of interpretation which is called “spiritual,” whatever is meant by the term in such an application, originated at a time when the Spirit of God had left his professed people, and the heavenly guidance was wanting. How far, then, must such a method of interpretation lead us from the mind of the Spirit. Well does Dr. Graham call that influence “deadly” which it has exercised on the interpretation of the word of God.