these principles intelligent explanation and application for all the truth of retribution about which it is so strenuous, without its cruel and repulsive dogmas of a God of eternal vengeance and an eternal hell. And if it goes one step further, and accepts a doctrine of re-incarnation as the probable mode of resurrection for the unjust, it will find still firmer ground on which to hold to all its essential truth concerning the decisive nature of the present life as man's time of trial. For this view bases itself upon the fact that God's way of teaching men to cease from sin is through suffering and judgment in the flesh, that there are but two forms of manhood known to Scripture, the earthy and the heavenly, and that therefore those not fitted for the heavenly must rise again for further trial and judgment under the bondage of the earthy. Therefore this sphere of earthly life becomes the only arena on which souls can be saved and win the rewards of the heavenly. The gospel must be preached to them here, and not in an unknown hades. Whatever future probation there may be for any human soul must reach them here in this earthly state. The heathen must be saved by a gospel carried to them here.

All this grows out of the true doctrine of resurrection, which asserts that while it brings hope for all, it yet sorts and judges all, reaching every man only in his own time and order, and giving to every seed his own body according to the unerring law of deeds done, and opening the gates of eternal life to none, except as they are quickened in Christ out of death in trespasses and sins, and die with Him out of the old order of sinful manhood and are raised to newness of life in Him.

But still, secondly, the universalistic hope is maintained that all shall be made alive in Him, under this unchanging limitation-" every man in his own order." In every case it is seen that God's image in man is preserved from destruction and is made finally to reflect His glory. It is seen that whatever is good and worth keeping in every man is saved to be wrought into that final personality which shall perfectly embody God's image. It is seen that, though the path be long, all His prodigal children shall at last " come to themselves" and find their way back to the Father's house.

And, finally, it is seen how that conditionalism is both true and not true. It is true in its emphasis of the necessary death of man, the sinner, and that in this character and form of being in which man sins and dies he must go down to corruption and be no more seen, and that immortal life is not possible to any man except as he is made a new creature in Christ. But it is not true in its denial that the root and ground of every man's being is in God, and that therefore, although the man we know and who only knows himself as an earthly sinning mortal must die and be lost to view, there is an essential man who lives on, and to whom resurrection supplies opportunity for reaching the goal of being by building himself into a human temple in which God shall dwell forever.

THE GREAT soul is he that forgets he has a soul, in his efforts for the salvation of others.—Henry Wood, in "God's Image in Man."

THE TIME AND NATURE OF RESURRECTION.

A short time ago there came to us on the same day two published articles on this subject. The one was made up mainly of extracts from Christian authors and poets, with texts from the New Testament, such as II Corinthians v, 1-8; Philippians i, 23, showing that the faith and aspirations of holy men in all ages have been directed toward a speedy entrance after death upon the joys and activities of the future life. The other presented a strong array of Scripture proofs that the dead, including saints, remain unconscious until their resurrection. St. Paul's anticipations in the texts referred to are explained in subjection to this view.

We give the stress of the argument at this point as found in the March number of The Spirit of the Word:

"Christ and the great apostle give no hint of any hope beyond the grave, or any brightness there except in the resurrection. Is not the hope of the great mass of Christians of entering into glory immediately at death-a hope that is incorporated into their songs, into the preaching, into the talks at funerals, and into all their teaching-is not this hope in opposition to the great hope of the resurrection that Christ and the apostles preached, and therefore vain and delusive? Does it not really reverse the teachings of the Scriptures, obscuring that which is represented to be all-important, viz.: the resurrection-and exalting into the highest position that which is represented to be man's greatest enemy, viz., death? Surely, the doctrine must be false that thus runs counter to the whole sweep and tendency of Bible teaching, and puts death in the place of life."

It is needless to say that the view here presented is repugnant to the feelings of the great mass of Christians, and to their understanding of Scripture.

And yet the main argument by which it is sustainedviz. that Scripture connects all its hope of a future life with the hope of resurrection-is invincible.

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But has it never occurred to these brethren that while their view that resurrection is indispensable is correct, they may be wrong in their estimate of the time and nature of it? Are they not themselves conscious of a feeling that rejects the dictates of their logic when it bids them regard apostles and martyrs, and the choicest saints of all ages, as still in the bonds of death, unconsciously waiting to be summoned back to active life and service in the kingdom of their Lord? No wonder that a theory which binds in hades even such saints as Paul and John, and seals up in its silence all our loved ones who have gone before us, is almost universally rejected by the Christian consciousness. We submit, therefore, to these friends, some of whom are among our constant readers, that in order to relieve their difficulty and reconcile their thought on this subject to that of the mass of their fellow-Christians, they need only enlarge their conception of resurrection. They are right when they affirm, "No future life or blessedness for the saint except through resurrection from the dead," but they are wrong in assuming that such resurrection is wholly an event of the future. The New Testament constantly affirms that the believer is passed from death unto life, that he is risen with Christ. And while it is affirmed that saints "sleep" in Christ until they are raised, it is plainly implied that perfected saints, like Paul, attain unto

the resurrection of the dead without delay. There is nothing requiring us to believe that all sleep together until simultaneously awakened by "the last trump," or that the coming or parousia of Christ which awakens them is simultaneous for all. On the other hand, there is much to show that the parousia and the resurrection reach the dead as they are prepared for the change.

That Paul did not expect any delay in the coming of the Lord to raise him from the dead is obvious from what he says in I Thess. iv, 15, 17; v, 9, 10; I Cor. xv, 51; II Cor. v, 1–9; II Tim. iv, 8. Surely, in the face of these passages, any theory of the parousia and resurrection which requires us to believe that he is still slumbering among the dead needs to be revised.

The truth, then, about this matter is that, while we cannot dissociate the hope of life beyond death from the hope of resurrection, we need to enlarge our view of resurrection to such dimensions as will take in all the facts. Believers are now made alive in Christ Jesus. They may, through slothfulness and failure to judge themselves, be unprepared at death to rise into the heavenly life. Such must remain for a time in the bondage of sleep. Sleep consigns to inactivity, but it also renovates and restores. But as we have seen "We shall not all sleep." And of those who fall asleep some find a more speedy release than others. It was the universal faith of the primitive Church that the martyrs passed without delay into the glory of the heavenly life. So St. John saw them, as living and reigning with Christ. Into the fullness of His life saints in all ages enter, as by faith and patience they have fitted themselves for it and won this crown. The Head of the