d or the same subject discussed. Verbal parallelisms
often shed much light on the meaning of particular words or phrases,
because what is obscure in one passage is made plain in another by some
explanatory addition.

An example is the use of the expression _my glory_ (English version, _my
honor_), in Gen. 49:6: "O my soul, come not thou into their secret"
(their secret conclave); "unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou
united." A comparison of the parallel passages, Psa. 7:5; 16:9; 30:12;
57:8; 108:1, leads to the conclusion that in such a connection the
expression is substantially equivalent to _my soul_, the soul being made
in the image of God, and thus the seat of man's glory. By a like process
of comparison, we arrive at the true signification of the phrase, "_the
righteousness of God_," or more fully, "_the righteousness which is of
God by faith_" when used with reference to the way of salvation through
Christ; at the meaning of the Greek terms translated "_propitiation_,"
etc. In the same way, as already remarked (No. 1, above), the
interpreter ascertains the different significations in which words are
employed, and determines which of these is appropriate to any given
passage.

_Real_ parallelisms are subdivided, again, into _doctrinal_ and
_historic_; doctrinal, where the same truth is inculcated; historic,
where the same event or series of events is recorded. The supreme
importance of doctrinal parallelisms will appear most fully when we come
to look at revelation on the divine side, as constituting a grand system
of truth harmonious in all its parts. At present we regard them simply
as among the means of ascertaining the sense of a given passage.
Presuming that every author means to be self-consistent, it is our
custom to place side by side his different statements which relate to
the same subject, that they may mutually explain each other. The same
reasonable method should be pursued with the writings of Isaiah and
Jeremiah in the Old Testament, and of Paul and John in the New. What is
obscure is to be interpreted by what is clear; what is briefly hinted,
by what is more fully expressed. Different writers, moreover, belonging
to the same age, animated by the same spirit, and confessedly governed
by the same general rules of faith and practice, mutually explain each
other. Thus the prophets Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Micah, who
belong to the same century, and in a less degree Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and
t