realm is under the necessity to use noun, verb, preposition or adverb, but

how could He give to man a written revelation, unless in gracious

condescension He followed the laws of grammar and of syntax that governed the

language of the creature He had made and endowed and to whom the revelation

was to be made?  In like manner, He must use of Himself such terms as love,

anger, pity, grace, wisdom, understanding and the like, which after all are

but poor shadows of the heavenly realities -- but what else can be done?

There is a figure of speech called anthropopatheia, a name composed of

anthropos, 'man' and pathos, 'feeling', the Latin name of which is very

expressive, condescensio, 'condescension', for by the use of this figure God

has stooped to the level of man in order that man may grasp something of the

greatness that is in itself infinite.  Consequently we read of the face of

God, and then the hiding of His face to indicate anger, or the light of His

countenance to indicate grace.  God is spoken of as seeing with eyes, or

hearing with ears, of breathing with nostrils, of having an arm, hands,

fingers, feet, heart and even bowels.  Then such human feelings as grief,

vexation, repentance, anger, vengeance, wrath, comfort, jealousy, zeal and

pity are attributed to Him.  God is also said to think, to remember, to

forget, to understand, to laugh, to repent and to traverse the whole gamut of

human feeling and reflection.  Yet no one with any sense or spiritual

understanding could possibly take such statements literally, for God is

spirit; no man hath seen God at any time, He is invisible; He has no form

that man can see, nor voice that man can hear.

He sees man certainly, but not with eyes that are adapted to rays of

light.  Most blessedly He hears, but not with ears that are adapted to the

vibration of air, but how are these spiritual facts to be conveyed to man,

without continual condescension on God's part?  When at last He makes the

greatest condescension of all and is born of a woman, and becomes Man, His

deity is denied, His condescension misinterpreted, His grace misunderstood,

His claims refused.  Most, if not all of us, are acquainted with the obvious

types, figures and symbols of Holy Scripture, its parables, proverbs and

signs, but we may not all be so acquainted with the fact that our whole

language, quite apart from Scripture, is made up of figures, which are

condescensions to the limitations that thought must submit to when it clothes

itself in speech.  'When it clothes itself in speech'.  Here, unconsciously,

we have adopted this very figure, 'clothes itself', we have said of 'speech',

and one has to have but a superficial acquaintance with the language of the

Bible or of everyday conversation, to call up a number of ways in which the

figure of clothing is employed.  Most know that the word 'habit' is used both

for a practice, usage or custom, and at the same time for an article of

clothing, 'a riding habit'.  We speak of a 'cloak', a word derived from the

Latin cloca, 'a bell', and like the words 'veil' and 'mask', these articles

of apparel are used for concealing generally something bad or offensive (1

Pet. 2:16).

Take the following sentence, culled from a treatise on language:

'In the most trivial type of sentence, in the most elaborate essay, or

even in the most casual expression, one can depend upon the

introduction of a number of figures of speech'.

In this passage we find a number of words, which are in themselves figures.