from the dead. Our Lord descended into Hades to suffer in man's stead and to take away the sting of death. The fact, too, of our Redeemer's rejoicing (Ps. xvi.) at the prospect of His soul not being left in Hades clearly proves that He must have been suffering there. Had He been in the enjoyment of happiness while in that region, why should He have expressed such gladness?

Considering that human nature was represented in Adam and also by Christ, and that the former was a figure of the latter, I am of opinion that the duration of our Lord's sojourn in the prison of Hades should be determined by the length of time that Adam was in the garden of Eden. I merely give this as an opinion and nothing more, and therefore the reader may accept or reject it as he pleases. The settlement of this point is not essential to salvation; but, nevertheless, we ought, if possible, to discover the reason of His remaining in Hades so long and no longer. By this view our Blessed Saviour would be banished from the presence of God, which will be the portion of all the condemned (Ps. ix. 17), the same length of time that Adam was permitted to be in His presence; and this is the fact which constitutes the main point of Substitution, properly so called, in the redemptive history of Christ. This was real " Substitution," and consequently no believer in going to Hades can experience the sting of death, for Christ has experienced that sting in his stead. This suffering atoned for human nature, destroyed the power of death, and effected man's redemption both in body and soul. Since God created nothing after the sixth day, Adam must have named all the animals on the day that he was created, because it was after he had given proper designations to the inferior animals that he discovered the want of a suitable companion for himself. Eve, therefore, was made after the naming of the animals. Now, assuming it to be true that the Jewish Sabbath, or Saturday, is, and ever has been, since the time of the creation of the world, the seventh day of the week, the formation of Adam and Eve and the naming of the animals must have taken place on the Friday or the day immediately preceding the Sabbath.

I take it, then, that our first parents remained in Paradise a portion of Friday, the whole of Friday night, and all Saturday till late in the evening or very early on the Sunday morning, when their expulsion would be effected. According to this view, our Lord did not only suffer in Hades the exact length of time that Adam was in the garden of Eden, but also on the very same days of the week. In Genesis (iii. 8) we read thus: "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." By the "cool of the day" is meant the evening, which most probably refers to the evening of the Sabbath. Some time would necessarily elapse between the fall and the expulsion, because sentence of condemnation had to be pronounced upon the offenders, and God's gracious purpose of redeeming the world (Gen. iii. 15) had to be explained to Adam, otherwise he might have been driven to despair.

Bearing in mind, too, the activity of Satan, it is not very likely that he would allow the ancestors of the human race to be long in Paradise before he commenced his attack, which is another strong argument in favor of the shortness of Adam's stay in the garden of Eden.

Then, since the atonement for sin was made by our Lord's disembodied soul in the other world, and not by His death on Calvary, the judicious reader will at once see the absurdity and futility of any such doctrine as that of transubstantiation.

CHAPTER XXIV.

The nonconformists' view with respect to the locality of the soul prior to the general judgment considered-If their opinion be correct, the judgment-day shown to be a solemn mockery-The devils not yet finally judged-Numerous passages of Scripture brought to bear on the subject-The five opinions as to the locality and condition of the soul between death and the general judgment summed up-Conclusion.

WE have now to bring before the reader the Fifth Opinion respecting death and its consequences, which answers the views of the great body of nonconformists, the greater portion of whom believe and teach that as soon as the soul leaves the body, it goes at once into heaven or hell, and that this difference of course is made in accordance with their conduct in the present world. I may say that this opinion is perhaps the most general of any; and yet a critical examination will abundantly prove that it is not, strictly speaking, sanctioned by Scripture, but tends to involve the grand scheme of redemption in the utmost confusion.

For, be it observed, that if souls at death go immediately into heaven or hell, their final abode, how comes it to pass that God hath appointed a day (Acts xvii. 31) in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised him from the dead? Are we not told in Scripture that the Son of man, at the last day, will sit as a mighty King upon the throne of His glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He Himself shall separate them. one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and that He will say to the sheep, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for

you from the foundation of the world? And to the goats, or those on the left hand, He will say, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels?" See St. Matthew's Gospel, xxv. 31–46. Now, if the souls of men go directly after death into heaven or to hell, their eternal habitation, how can our Lord say to the righteous, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom;" or to the wicked, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire"? Supposing heaven or hell to be the receptacle of the departed on leaving this world, by the time the day of judgment arrives nearly all the human race would be either in the one place or in the other; and consequently the only few to be tried at the bar of God must be such as shall be found alive on the earth at the second advent of Christ. And, moreover, we are taught by the Divine records that Christ shall come at the end of the world to judge both the quick and the dead; but if the opinion of dissenters be true, He can come to judge only the quick, for the final doom of the dead will have been fixed; and, in some cases, even centuries before the incarnation of the Judge Himself. And for the future we must say, in repeating the Nicene Creed, that Christ shall come to judge the quick, and not "the quick and the dead," because the fate of the latter will have been already settled.

We must be careful to note the peculiar significance of the words "all nations," for they do not mean a part of mankind out of all nations, such as might be considered as representative samples, but they denote all the immortal beings that have ever existed in every nation under the whole heavens. Is it, I would ask, conceivable, then, at the glorious and fearful day of accounts that all those in heaven will be brought out of their resting-place in order to stand in the presence of their God to be judged? And shall all the lost spirits in hell be released from their gloomy dungeons to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, to have their doom pronounced upon them? Assuming it to be true that souls go to heaven or hell at death, one of these two conclusions must be admitted: either all those who have gone to heaven or hell must be

brought back from those places in order to be judged, or the judgment-day, spoken of in the Bible, is mere empty pomp and show, being utterly void of signification. And to speak of it in the solemn way we find it spoken of in Scripture, is nothing less than the most hyperbolical language and absolutely unworthy of the inspired writers.

The reasonableness and propriety of our remarks will be palpable to the reader on being reminded that even the devils themselves have not yet had their final day of retribution. And if they have not been subjected to such a terrible ordeal, they cannot possibly be in that lake of fire and brimstone which is to burn for ever and ever.

Let us prove from Scripture that the devils are not in hell, and that they will not be there till after the last great day. In the Epistle of St. Jude (verse 6) we read that the "Angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darknesss unto the judgment of the great day." It is almost needless for me to say, that if these angels are reserved in darkness till the judgment-day, they cannot be in hell before that time, because hell is the receptacle for all the damned after the final day of judgment. Again, in the Book of Job (i. 6, 7) we have the following remarkable passage: "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it."

On the day when the sons of God presented themselves before the face of Jehovah, the devil (if Satan is to be considered as the devil in this place) had the impudence to appear among them, and undoubtedly on such an occasion he was dressed in his best attire, having transformed himself, as the apostle says he can, into an angel of light. He does not presume to open his mouth until addressed by the Creator, and on being asked from what quarter he came, the devil returned one of the most extraordinary answers that could be imagined, and yet an answer which stamped him with that peculiarity of char