forsakers of Jehovah." And Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel, in his treatise on the Resurrection of the Dead, speaks to the same effect (B. ii. chap. 1), "From the mind and opinion of all the ancients, we conclude that there will not be a general resurrection of the dead and one common to all men;" and in proof of this he cites these very words of Daniel, Many of them that sleep in the dust," &c., where he says, "many cannot mean "all." Even so "advanced" a critic as Dr. Samuel Davidson says, "These words refer to the Jews alone." The same belief is enunciated in the Second Book of Maccabees: "It is good, being put to death by men, to look for hope from God to be raised up again by Him: as for thee, thou shalt have no resurrection to life" (xii. 44). And with this also agrees the testimony of Josephus: "They (the Pharisees) say that all souls are incorruptible; but that the soul of the good man only passes into another body, while that of the wicked is subject to eternal punishment.

19

2. Again, is it not quite clear that the "time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation," spoken of in the preceding first verse of the chapter, must be identified with the "great tribulation " spoken of in Matthew xxiv. 21-30, which will be endured during the reign and blasphemy of the last personal Antichrist, "the man of sin; even him "whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming?" (2 Thess. ii. 8). Hence the resurrection here spoken of by Daniel synchronises with the period of the second Advent, and therefore can only be a prophecy of that "first resurrection," all the partakers in which are pronounced "blessed and holy (Rev. xx. 6).

So far then as the negative side goes, the argument seems complete; the Old Testament nowhere teaches the bodily resurrection of the unsaved. But this is not all; there is also a positive side to the question, and to this we must next turn.

PROP. II.-The Old Testament Scriptures Do contain passages which distinctly teach that the unsaved will never be raised from the dead. A number of proof-texts might here be quoted, such as Job xiv. 7-12; Prov. xxi. 16; Isa. xxvi. 10-14; xliii. 16, 17; Jer. li. 39, 40, 57; but I will content myself with drawing attention to one which even if it stood alone is, to my mind, absolutely conclusive on that point. I refer to Psalm xlix., which from verse 5, with the concurrence of eminent Hebraists, I read thus:

"5. Why should I fear in the days of evil,

When the iniquity of those that would trip me up compasseth me about?

6. They that trust in their wealth,

And in the greatness of their riches boast themselves,

47. None (of them) can by any means redeem another, Nor give to God a ransom for him,-

8. For too costly is the redemption of their life,

So that must be given up for ever,

9. That he should live for ever

And not see the grave!

*Jewish Wars." Book ii. chap. 8.

"10. For he must see that wise men must die;

Likewise the fool and the brutish person must perish,

And leave their wealth to others.

"11. Their graves are their houses for ever,*

Their dwelling-places to all generations:

(Though) men call upon their names (i.e., praise them) upon the earth.

"12. But man (being) in honour, abideth not,

He is like the beasts (that) are destroyed.

13. This their way is their folly,

And (yet) after them men approve their sayings!

"14. Like sheep they are gathered into sheol (i.e., their souls); Death is their shepherd:

And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning (i.e., of the resurrection).

And their beauty shall sheol consume away,

That it have no more a dwelling-place.

"15. But God will redeem my soul from the power of sheol :

For He shall receive me.

"16. Be not thou afraid when a man groweth rich,
When the glory of his house is increased:
"17. For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away,
His glory cannot descend after him:

"18. For though he blessed his soul in his life,

And men praise Thee when thou doest good to thyself"19. He shall come to the generation of his fathers, Who nevermore see the light (i.e., of life).

"20. Man in honour, and not having understanding, Is like the beasts that perish."

Now what statement of the doctrine that for the unsaved man there is no resurrection, could be more full, distinct, and emphatic than this? The argument of the whole psalm is evidently the solution of that anomaly of the Divine government which has perplexed thoughtful minds in all ages; viz., the prosperity often enjoyed by the ungodly as contrasted with the adversity of the righteous. It is, in fact, the parable of Dives and Lazarus in an earlier form, and viewed from a lower standpoint. And how does the psalmist deal with it? By showing that the righteous man has a hope beyond the grave in which the wicked man, as such, has no share,- the hope that is of resurrection. Ungodly men, however great may be their wealth, and however highly they may be esteemed in this world, must die; nor can either they themselves or their fellows buy back the life once lost. There is a kind of solemn

irony," says Dean Perowne," in the idea of the richest of men offering all his riches to God to escape death." No; "too costly is the redemption of their life," that life which "must be given up for ever." In the Lord's own words: "What doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what should a man give in exchange for his life ?" (Mark viii. 36, R. V.). Well, and when death has overtaken the

*This important reading is that of the Septuagint, Peshito Syriac, Targum, &c.; and is adopted by Ewald, Olshausen, Gsiger, Grätz, and other critics.

wicked man, what fate awaits him?

"Their graves are their houses for ever; their dwelling-places to all generations." So Solomon says, "The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the Rephaim "* (Prov. xxi. 16). "Like sheep they are gathered into sheol; death is their shepherd, and their beauty shall sheol consume away, that it have no more a dwelling-place." "He shall come to the generation of his fathers, who never more see the light of life." Now what does all this mean? What can it mean? Clearly it must mean one of two things. (1) Assuming that the soul of man is a distinct entity which survives the death of the body and descends into the underworld, sheol or hades, it may mean that the soul of the wicked man may continue to exist in that dreary prison-house till, after the judgment of the great white throne, it is, without previous bodily resurrection, adjudged to destruction in "the second death." As it is written: "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into Gehenna' (Luke xii. 4, 5). Or else (2), assuming that man is essentially a material organism, of which the soul is only the phenomenon, and which perishes with the body, then, sheol being understood as the grave, it may mean that the wicked man once consigned to the tomb shall never arise from it; or, in other words, that for the man who is not saved in this age there is no future life at all. But on either theory the main teaching of the psalm is equally explicit, and it is unmistakably this, that for the wicked, as such, there is no such thing as a bodily resurrection.

Before I leave this important Scripture, however, I wish to point out its perfectly general character. Had I selected Isaiah xxvi. 14: “ They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish," had I selected this passage, I say, as a special proof-text, it might have been objected that only a special class of the dead were there spoken of,-those, that is to say, who are the victims of the terrible judgment described in Rev. xiv. 9-11. But, apart from the fact that the passage, when correctly translated," the dead live not again, the Rephaim arise not,"-does not admit of this restriction; it would still teach emphatically that for some of the dead, at least, there was no resurrection.

"But the righteous hath hope in his death." And how brightly does this hope break forth here in the psalmist's soul, even amid the deep shadows of the earlier dispensation and before Christ had "abolished death and brought life and immortality to light." "But God will redeem my soul from the power of sheol, for He shall receive me.""In the very midst of the gloomy picture which he draws of the end of the ungodly," writes Dean Perowne, "there breaks forth one morning-ray of light, the bright anticipation of the final triumph of the good over the

* Disembodied human spirits, the inhabitants of sheol, are in the Old Testament called the Rephaim, shades, weak frail beings, like the Homeric idwλor auavpóv. The same name was used by the Phoenicians, and appears on the sarcophagus of the Sidonian King Eshmunazar, now in the Louvre, in a prayer in which he prays that those who disturb his tomb may "find no bed among the Rephaim." The word occurs in Isaiah and Ezekiel.

evil. This is the inextinguishable hope which animates the Church of the Old Testament, as well as that of the New. Righteousness shall eventually, must in its very nature, reign upon the earth. The wicked shall find their end in sheol; (but) he who knows and loves God has the life of God, and can never perish. That life must survive even the shock of death.* Mark, then, the conclusion of the whole matter; see how the dark riddle of the Divine providence is solved, and the reproach of God's moral government rolled away. Be not thou offended, O righteous man, when thou seest the worldling grow rich and attain a high social position. For when he dies he cannot carry his riches with him. Naked he came into this world, and naked must he depart thither; nor can flattery sooth the dull cold ear of death.' 'He shall be gathered to the generation of his fathers who shall nevermore see the light of life;' for the man, however exalted may be his station, who is, in God's sight, without understanding,' is like the beasts that perish." Yes; but the beasts have no bodily resurrection from the dead, and therefore if the unsaved are so raised, the words of Scripture, as here written, cannot be true; the Divine sentence, as it was originally pronounced, is supplemented by a terrible aggravation which is not in the Statute book; and after all "the fool and the brutish person are not like the beasts that are destroyed!" So much for the teaching of the Old Testament; the consideration of that of the New must be reserved for another occasion. W. MAUDE.

THE

THE PROGRESS OF TRUTH.

HE talented and devoted pastor of Knox's Church in Toronto lately delivered a discourse on that very important portion of the Word of God-Genesis iii. 22-24. He frankly avowed that the lesson taught therein was that God determined that the sinner should not live for ever in the misery arising from sin.

This is an important concession for truth from the avowedly orthodox pulpit, because it teaches that holiness is essential to the obtaining of eternal life or immortality, and this holiness can only be found by the sinner through faith in Christ Jesus, who is "the Resurrection and the Life." Without resurrection from the grave, the Apostle Paul declares even the saints who "fell asleep in Christ are perished" (1 Cor. xv. 18); i.e., they are no more; or, as the Concordance of Cruden expresses it, they are deprived of being."

The light of life is evidently shining in the dark regions of our popular theology, and is making many ashamed of the errors palmed upon the multitude as God's truth in the ages that are past. The recent revision of the Catechism for the young "of tender years," upheld for sixty years in the Wesleyan denomination, and the recent published determination of the Presbyterian denomination-both the Kirk of Scotland and the Free Church-to shorten and amend the Confession of Faith, are cheering eigns of the times. The tenacity with which the errors of an antiquated creed are retained, notwithstanding their manifest opposition to the Word of God, and their antagonism to

"The Book of Psalms: a New Translation."

the moral convictions of intelligent believers, is very remarkable. What Mons. Vinet, the distinguished Christian philosopher, described as "a tremendous error involved in the theology of the past, of which the Christianity of the future would be ashamed," is evinced in those revisions of creeds and catechisms. Yet the Wesleyans relax the statement of the horrid fictions only towards" children of tender years," and the Presbyterians only towards "its Mission Churches and Presbyteries !" Both denominations seem to imply that the older Wesleyans and the home churches, etc., of the Presbyterians are to have the errors entailed upon them as heretofore! The traditions or opinions of leaders in religious communities have in all ages been employed as instruments of power to control the masses, and too frequently to promote ignorance, irreligion, and infidelity. The standing motto in every church should be Free Biblical Interpretation as an essential right to be exercised by every Christian believer, and especially by every religious teacher. The first article in almost every creed is, that "the Bible alone is the standard of faith and duty." To this let every Christian believer adhere, but sternly repudiate every attempt to make the opinions, even of good men, authoritative over conscience. It is a usurpation to be condemned by every intelligent believer.

Eglinton.

J. LESSLIE.

Oh! greet her with thy love, 'tis the gift from above,
Which infoldeth all things else, coming gently like a dove.

I am waiting e'er the daybreak

For the dawn of God's New Year;
And hope should hush to silence still
The rising of each fear;

With morrow comes the light, and darkness ends with night,
And shadows flee as o'er the hills the day is breaking bright.

New heavens and new earth, and the future gives them birth,
Then God once more shall bless His own and repronounce its worth.

Oh! we wait, and wait in sorrow,

When we might e'en wait in joy;
And the hour that brings us blessing
Is not free from its annoy;

But cast aside the spell, on the brighter future dwell;
Believe in One above us, for He "doeth all things well."

WALTER BAXENDALE.