ecedes or
follows, it is only casual or superficial. In some books, again, like
that of Ecclesiastes, the transitions are rapid, and often difficult to
explain. Here we should be careful not to force upon the author a
logical connection of which he never thought. Systematic arrangement is
good in its place; but the Holy Spirit did not think it needful to
secure it in the case of all who spake as he moved them.

Some religious teachers are fond of employing scriptural texts simply as
_mottoes_, with little or no regard to their true connection. Thus they
too often adapt them to their use by imparting to them a factitious
sense foreign to their proper scope and meaning. The seeming gain in all
such cases is more than counterbalanced by the loss and danger that
attend the practice. It encourages the habit of interpreting Scripture
in an arbitrary and fanciful way, and thus furnishes the teachers of
error with their most effective weapon. The practice cannot be defended
on any plea of necessity. The plain words of Scripture, legitimately
interpreted according to their proper scope and context, contain a
fulness and comprehensiveness of meaning sufficient for the wants of all
men in all circumstances. That piety alone is robust and healthful which
is fed, not by the fancies and speculations of the preacher who
practically puts his own genius above the word of God, but by the pure
doctrines and precepts of the Bible, unfolded in their true connection
and meaning.

It is important to remark, however, that when the _general principle_
contained in a given passage of Scripture has been once fairly
explained, it admits of innumerable applications which are in the
highest sense legitimate and proper. The principle, for example, that
"whatsoever is not of faith is sin," which the apostle Paul announces in
connection with the question of using or abstaining from particular
kinds of food, may be applied to the settlement of cases of conscience
arising in widely different relations and spheres of action. The
preacher's power lies very much in the ability of unfolding to the
understanding and applying to the conscience the general principles
involved in the passage of Scripture which he undertakes to expound.

5. We may next consider the help to be derived from _parallel passages_.
The ordinary division of parallelisms is into _verbal_ and _real_:
verbal, where the same word or phrase occurs; real, where the same
thought is expresse