drinketh my blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last
day." John 6:54. There is no more ground for understanding the last of
these passages literally than the preceding, that is, there is no ground
whatever. The dogma of the Romish church, which teaches that the
consecrated bread and wine are literally converted into the body and
blood of Jesus, violates alike sound reason and every sound principle of
interpretation. "As the words, 'This is my body,' and 'This is my
blood,' were spoken BEFORE Christ's body was broken upon the cross, and
BEFORE his blood was shed, he could not pronounce them with the
intention that they should be taken and interpreted literally by his
disciples. He could not take his body in his hands, nor offer them his
blood in the cup; for it had not yet been shed." Horne, vol. 2, p. 319.

(2.) In ascertaining figurative language, the interpreter will naturally
take into account _the scope_, _the context_, and the _general analogy
of scriptural teaching_. If the literal sense, though possible in the
nature of things, is inept or contrary to the general tenor of
Scripture, it must be rejected.

The prophet Isaiah tells us that, under the future reign of the Messiah,
the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard lie down with the kid,
the lion eat straw like the ox, and the child play with impunity on the
hole of the asp. Isa. 11:6-8. It is possible to conceive of this state
of things as effected by a change in the physical nature of all noxious
animals. But the writer immediately adds: "They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (ver. 9). Since then
the change is effected by the universal diffusion of "the knowledge of
the Lord," it must be a _moral_ change--a transformation of the
character of wicked men figuratively described as wolves, leopards,
bears, lions, and vipers. The general analogy of prophetic language,
which, as will be hereafter shown, abounds in figurative forms of
representation, strengthens this conclusion.

By the prophet Haggai, again, God says: "Yet once, it is a little while,
and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry
land." Chap. 2:6. The key to the meaning of these words is given in the
following verse: "And I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all
nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the
Lord