means of things external that things internal are brought down to human apprehension; the former is as a cloud in which the authority of the latter resides, and so "upon all the glory there is a defence."[1] The cloud which overshadowed Peter, James, and John at the transfiguration of the Lord, and the cloud by which He was finally received out of the sight of the disciples,[2] represented those literal statements of the Word by which the Divine glory is obscured. Surely it cannot be difficult to see that all natural images, when employed to express Divine ideas, must, of necessity, be as a cloud shutting out some of that pure light which shines above them. Still, like the clouds of the atmosphere, some of those images are more transparent than others. Hence it is that some Divine truths appear in the letter of the Word with greater clearness than others. In many places the truth is so concealed that scarcely anything appears; in other placcs, the mystery is not so great, and there some spiritual teaching is discerned. It therefore seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that the letter of the Word is as a cloud veiling the Divine light which it receives; and that in different parts it varies in its brightness, in order that it may be serviceable to all conditions of mankind. And this being so, it is manifest that the phrase, "the clouds of heaven," is designed to represent the various obscurations of Divine truth, as it is presented in the literal sense of the Word. Every one knows that there are numerous things related in the Word which require interpretation to bring out their significance; and thus that the true light is as it were hidden, as though by a cloud, in the expression. This cloud has been too frequently mistaken for a perfect light, and hence it is that such a varicty of conflicting opinions
