MANY WRITERS UPON HOMILETICS condemn in unmeasured terms even the occasional spiritualizing of a text.[‡‡‡‡] “Select texts,” say they, “give a plain, literal sense; never travel beyond the obvious meaning of the passage; never allow yourself to accommodate or adapt; it is an artifice of men of artificial culture, a trick of mountebanks, a miserable display of bad taste and impudence.”
