or who has exerted his
ingenuity most in devising canons of interpretation, forgets to apply
them.

All languages, whether spoken or written, are more or less metaphorical,
interspersed with what are called figures of speech. It is customary to
represent nations and tribes, whose language abounds in symbols, as but
little advanced in civilization; and to view oriental nations as more
disposed to indulge in tropes and figures than those of the west; but
perhaps this relative estimate of the modes of speech in the eastern and
western hemispheres will admit of some modification, when we consider
the gesticulations and similes by which the aborigines of America
attempt to give expression to their ideas. The word _hieroglyphics_,
signifying sacred sculpture, derived from the ancient mode of writing by
the priests of Egypt, has received conventional currency among the
learned, as descriptive of any writing which is obscure, "hard to be
understood." And all who read this book will find some of it "dark"
indeed. The divine Author intended that it should be so, (ch. xiii. 18;)
yet he calls it emphatically, a "Revelation."

We have already noticed, that the symbols in this book are taken from
the ceremonial law in part, and part are taken from the works of
creation. The heavens and the earth present to our senses a variety of
material objects; some more, some less calculated to arrest our
attention. Among these, the sun, moon and stars,--earth and sea,
mountains and rivers, occupy prominent places. To facilitate our
knowledge of these, and prompt reference to any part of them, we
generalize or throw them into groups. Thus we speak familiarly of the
"solar system," the "animal, vegetable or mineral kingdom." Now, just
transfer these systematized objects from the material and physical, to
the moral and spiritual world. Then consider what relation any one
object bears to the system, and what influence it has upon the other
objects of which it is a part, and its import may be generally,
satisfactorily and certainly ascertained. Thus the same canons or rules
which we apply in the interpretation of other writings, will be equally
available in "searching the Scriptures,"--never, never forgetting that
it is the Spirit of Christ that "guides into all truth," or his own
all-comprehensive rule of interpretation, "comparing spiritual things
with spiritual." (1 Cor. ii. 13.)

In order to the right observance of the divinely prescribed rule