7 AUGUST 1869, Page 14

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " BPI:CONNOR."]

SIR,—" E. D.'s " commentary on 1 Cor. xiii. 12 breaks down when brought to bear on 2 Cor. iii. 18, where St. Paul has evidently the same idea in his mind, though in the latter passage it is more elaborately worked out. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass [xwroqr7K6/.6Evot] the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory." Here the xcirwrrpop (of course, precisely the same as IcroIrrpoy) cannot be a speculare in the sense of transparent talc serving as a " vail," for the removal of the vail, rendered by the proper word (amexszcatwhily) is the very point in question. Yet the idea of a face " darkly " seen is plainly in the Apostle's mind, else why "beholding as in a glass," instead of simply "beholding "? And further, unless a mirror is intended, the significance of the latter part of the verse vanishes. St. Paul is using, what he is fond of, an inverted metaphor. (His comparison of the Gentiles to a wild branch grafted on a good stock is another example of the same kind of metaphor.) The human spectator sees not his own, but the divine image in the mirror ; and instead of the reflection being his likeness, he is himself transformed into the likeness of the face he gazes on.—I am, Sir, &c.,