SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION.
By J. B. Frisbie
My mind was called to this of late while listening to a sermon. The subject was on spiritual discernment, founded on 1^st Cor. ii. The speaker commenced by saying that it was a mystery how a spear of grass grew, and we could not tell how nature colored the flowers, therefore the Bible was a mystery, except in christian duty, and that was so plain that a wayfaring man though a fool need not err therein. He talked largely about spiritual interpretation, and spiritual discernment and mystery, until the close of the discourse. It was called out by hearing that we understood the Bible literally. But the thought occurs, What does Paul intend by spiritual discernment that the natural man cannot see? Is it not to discern that which the natural eyes cannot see, the saints' inheritance? But Paul, filled with the Spirit, could see this, as a prophet sees. And what is spiritual interpretation? The rule we learn by their own application is simply this; when God's word says anything that crosses their creed exactly, that the Word means exactly the opposite or reverse of what it says. It says one thing and means another. This is to wrest or twist the Scriptures right around, which those who are better learned in the creed than the Scriptures, are necessitated to do, 2 Pet. iii, 16. A single example at this time must suffice. When the Bible says the soul shall die, they say it cannot, because it is immortal. Death does not mean death, but life and eternal misery, pain, &c. J. B. FRISBIE.