the difference of
words. Therefore, if the Holy Ghost "_saith_," we are to find in the
_words_ of Scripture the exact substance of what he saith. Hence
verbal inspiration seems absolutely essential for conveying to us the
exact thought of God. And while many affect to ridicule the idea as
mechanical and paltry, the conduct and method of scholars of every
shade of belief show how generally it is accepted. For, why the minute
study of the _words_ of Scripture carried on by all expositors, their
search after the precise shade of verbal significance, their attention
to the {172} minutest details of language, and to all the delicate
coloring of mood and tense and accent? The high scholars who speak
lightly of the theory of literal inspiration of the Scriptures by their
method of study and exegesis are they who put the strongest affirmation
on the doctrine which they deny. Then we cannot forget what we imply
when we say that language is the expression of thought. Words
determine the size and shape of ideas. As exactly as the coin answers
to the die in which it is struck, does the thought answer to the word
by which it is uttered. Vary the language by the slightest
modification, and you by so much vary the thought.

As ultra spiritualism interprets Paul's words "_a spiritual body_," to
mean a ghost, when the accent is as strongly on the _soma_ as on the
_pneumatichon_, his real thought evidently being that of a _body
spiritualized_; so some, remembering that "the letter killeth," would
etherealize Scripture by telling us that the divine idea is the chief
thing, and the language quite secondary. But wisely and well has
Martin Luther reminded us that "Christ did not say of his Spirit, but
of his _words_, they are spirit and life."

To deny that it is the Holy Ghost who speaks in Scripture, is an
intelligible position; but admitting that _he speaks_, we can only
understand his thoughts by listening to his words. True, he may beget
within us emotions too deep for expression, as when {173} "The Spirit
himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered" (Rom. 8: 26). But the idea which is really intelligible is
the idea that is embodied in speech. For finite minds, at least, words
are the measure of comprehensible thoughts. Evidently Jesus claims for
his teaching not only inspiration, but verbal inspiration, when he says
that his _words_ are "spirit and life." And to this agrees the saying
of