back this up. "Did not master it" (Moffatt); "Has never put it out" (Goodspeed); "Has

never overpowered it" (Weymouth); "Did not conquer it" (Rien).

CONDESCEND. This word is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "to stoop

from one's position of dignity or pride". This is its modern meaning, but not that of its

one occurrence in our A.V. namely Rom. 12: 16 "Mind not high things, but condescend

to men of low estate". Today the word nearly always has a snobbish meaning, but in

Romans there is none of this. The sense is "Do not be proud, but associate with the lowly

or humble". The last word here is used by the Saviour concerning Himself--"I am meek

and lowly in heart" (Matt. 11: 29) and He was the One Who `humbled Himself' (Phil.ii.8)

and as a noun the word appears as `humility' (Acts 20: 19) or `lowliness' (Eph. 4: 2).

These are the types of people with whom we should associate.

CONFECTION,  CONFECTIONARY.

Today these words are confined to

sweetmeats and sugar foods.  In the days of the A.V. they referred to spices and

perfumes, and this can be seen in Exod. 30: 35, where God's instruction to Moses

concerning the holy incense was "thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art

of the apothecary". Confectionary is used in I Sam. 8: 13 where Samuel warned the

Israelites that if they insisted on a king "he will take your daughters to be confectionaries,

and to be cooks and to be bakers". Here "confectionaries" means "perfumers".

CONVENIENT. This word originally had the meaning of proper, becoming, right. It

has lost these meanings and is now applied to what is suitable to one's self. In Eph. 5: 4

unclean talking is not convenient (A.V.) which today should be translated `proper' or

`right'. In Philemon 8 "to enjoin thee that which is convenient" means `to command

thee to do what is required'.  In Rom. 1: 28 "to do those things which are not

convenient" signifies "to act improperly".

CONVERSATION.  In 1611 this always referred to conduct or manner of life,

never just to talking. The "vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers"

(I Pet. 1: 18) was not their words, but their actions, in fact their whole lives.  In

IPet.iii.1,2, the Apostle exhorts Christian wives to be in subjection to their husbands, so

that, if they were not saved, they might be won by the conversation of the wives. But he

did not mean that wives could talk their husbands into receiving the truth, rather he

exhorted that their whole manner of life might be a testimony to them. Every time the

reader of the A.V. comes across the word `conversation', he should be careful to read it

as `conduct'.