od after death, are constrained to
give to the passage in question the frigid meaning: I shall be satisfied
with thy likeness when I awake to-morrow, as if the psalm were intended
to be an evening song or prayer; or, whenever I awake, that is, from
natural sleep.

(2.) A sound judgment will also keep the biblical scholar from
interpretations that are _contrary to the known nature of the subject_.

A familiar example is the declaration made by Moses of God's view of
man's wickedness: "And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the
earth, and it grieved him at his heart." Gen. 6:6. The robust common
sense of any plain reader will at once adjust the interpretation of
these words to God's known omniscience and immutability; just as he will
the prayer of the psalmist: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try
me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting." Psa. 139:23, 24. The immutable God does
nothing which is not in accordance with his eternal counsels. The
omniscient God, to whom all truth is ever present, does not literally
institute a process of searching that he may know what is in man. But in
these and numberless other passages, he condescends to speak according
to human modes of thought and action.

When it is said, again, that "the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh;"
that "God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem"
(Judg. 9:23); that he sent a lying spirit to deceive Ahab through his
prophets (1 Kings 22:21-23); that he sent Isaiah with the command: "Make
the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their
eyes" (Isa. 6:10); that he made the covenant people to err from his
ways, and hardened their heart from his fear (Isa. 63:17), we
instinctively interpret these and other like passages in harmony with
the fundamental principle announced by the apostle: "Let no man say when
he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted of evil,
neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn
away of his own lust, and enticed." Jas. 1:13, 14. The Scriptures
ascribe every actual event to God in such a sense that it comes into the
plan of his universal providence; but they reject with abhorrence the
idea that he can excite wicked thoughts in men, or prompt them to wicked
deeds.

When it is said, once more, that men are _drawn_ to Christ (John 6:44),
or _driven_ to worship the heavenly b