d its ever unfolding powers, any new form
of unbelief, disbelief, or misbelief, and must front itself to them as
they moved up.

[26] This earnestness of nature pervaded all his exercises. A man
of great capacity and culture, with a head like Benjamin
Franklin's, an avowed unbeliever in Christianity, came every
Sunday afternoon, for many years, to hear him. I remember
his look well, as if interested, but not impressed. He was
often asked by his friends why he went when he didn't
believe one word of what he heard. "Neither I do, but I like
to hear and to see a man earnest once a week, about
anything." It is related of David Hume, that having heard my
great-grandfather preach, he said, "That's the man for me,
he means what he says, he speaks as if Jesus Christ was at
his elbow."

[27] The following note from the pen to which we owe "St. Paul's
Thorn in the Flesh" is admirable, both for its reference to
my father, and its own beauty and truth.

"One instance of his imperfect discernment of associations
of thought that were not of a purely logical character was
afforded, we used to think, by the decided and almost
contemptuous manner in which he always rejected the theory
of what is called the double interpretation of prophecy.
This, of course, is not the place to discuss whether he was
absolutely right or wrong in his opinion. The subject,
however, is one of somewhat curious interest, and it has
also a strictly literary as well as a theological aspect,
and what we have to say about it shall relate exclusively to
the former. When Dr. Brown then said, as he was accustomed
in his strong way to do, that 'if prophecy was capable of
two senses, it was impossible it could have any sense at
all,' it is plain, we think, that he forgot the specific
character of prophetic literature, viz., its being in the
highest degree poetic. Now every one knows that poetry of a
very elevated cast almost invariably possesses great
breadth, variety, we may say multiplicity of meaning. Its
very excellence consists in its being capable of two, three,
or many meanings and applications. Take, for example, these
familiar lines in the 'Midsummer Night's Dream:'--

'