short verse, put them to silence. And how? "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." In this case you are very willing to take the whole context, and ascertain in that way, that the language is figurative. And shall we be debarred the privilege to judge for ourselves, after investigating the context? Or shall your assertion settle the question, whether particular scriptures have a literal or a figurative signification? Not only is the passage you have quoted, garbled, but the connexion shows that it is spoken figuratively. For a reason previously given, I shall now quote the text which you have cited, with its most intimate and illustrative context.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."

Whoever will be at the trouble to examine, may now see, that the portion which you have cited, is intimately connected with the preceding verses, and that the first clause of the 28th, alludes to something which had been already stated. "Marvel not at this; for"-is the first of the 28th verse. Marvel not at what?-Christ had just informed them, that eternal

life was the consequence of believing in him; and, by his common mode of asseveration, "Verily, verily, declared, that "the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." That this life from the dead, as Paul expresses it, is but coming to the climax in this discourse, is too evident to doubt for a moment. If, as is said in verse 24, he that believeth on Christ hath everlasting, or eternal life, and is passed from death to life, it is obvious that he who is a believer, was dead, and it was therefore established, incontrovertibly, that the dead did hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that heard did live, and that thus to live, was eternal life. The idea of death, IN sin, is so often expressed in scripture, that few quotations are necessary. Paul says, "to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." "You hath he quickened [given life]

who were dead in trespasses and sins," and much else to the same purpose. Is it then supposable, that the subject has changed in its immediate connexion, without the least intimation? First, those who believe, are said to pass from death to life. Next, the hour was coming, nay, had already come, in which the dead, [morally dead] did hear the voice of Christ, and they that heard or received his word, lived. In the 28th and 29th verses the climax ascends to its zenith. The human family is represented, not only as dead, but buried, and the hearers are forbidden to marvel, or wonder at what he had already said, for the figure of speech was increased by the idea of raising, not merely from death, but from the grave. If the dead mentioned above, be understood figuratively, the nature of the death noticed cannot be changed by the use of the word grave; it is no more than the figure of speech "twice dead," which can only signify, sunk to the lowest state of moral or spir

itual death.

The vision of Ezekiel, ch. 37, is full to

the purpose in this place.

"Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophecy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves.

To show that the term resurrection, twice used in. this passage, is not its only nor its primitive import, I shall transcribe a passage from Dr. Campbell, as quoted by Mr. Balfour, on this passage.-Not a shadow of doubt can fix on the knowledge of this great scholar; he rests on authority which must be the umpire in disputes on the dead languages. "The word anastasis, or rather the phrase, anastasis ton nekron, is indeed the common term by which the resurrection, properly so called, is denominated in the New Testament. Yet this is neither the only, nor the PRIMITIVE import of the word anastasis. It denotes simply, being raised from inactivity to action, or from obscurity to eminence, or a return to such a state, after an interruption. The verb anistemi has the like latitude of signification, and both words are used in this extent by the writers of the New Testament, as well as by the Seventy. Agreeably, therefore, to the original import, arising from a seat is properly termed anastasis, so is awaking out of sleep, or promotion from an inferior condition. The word occurs in this last sense, Luke 2: 34." This, then, ought to be suffi cient authority in the present instance, more especially, when the connexion of the passage renders it nearly impossible that a literal signification could be

intended. The reader is requested not to pass by this subject slightly. Its close examination may give him much light on a very important subject. He will not fail to recollect, that Dr. Campbell, who gives this information relative to the term resurrection, was a most able writer, and an orthodox professor and divine. The testimony does not rest on the authority of men who are even suspected of doubting the general principles of modern divinity. It is not therefore, a matter of speculative opinion—a mere subterfuge by which to escape from an otherwise self-evident conclusion. This is one of those instances in which is evidenced the strong prejudices of early education. We commonly, and almost universally attach the idea of a state yet future to the term resurrection, but with how much propriety, let the reader judge. In the light of this criticism, every part is harmonized. The morally DEAD rise to moral LIFE. Thus one portion compares completely with the other, and the whole is seen to refer to transactions in the present state of being. Every other view of the subject is mere confusion in the sense. A few words on

the term judgment will follow.

In the 27th verse, we learn, that God gave to Christ "authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." If judgment were rendered damnation in this passage, and the term signify as you understand it, then the mission of Christ is not "to save the world," but to damn the world, and the passage which declares the reverse must be false. In John 9: 39, we read-" For judgment I am come into this world," but did the wildest imagination ever conceive that we were to understand this in the sense in which you understand damnation? But why not? is it not the same word (krima) so often rendered judgment, and damnation? Krisis is the word used in John 7: 22, 24, 27, 29, 30, but the shade of difference, which

exists between them in the Greek, is not expressed in English. But having in a previous No. noticed this word, I shall now add but a few lines. In John 3: 19, it is krisis, and rendered condemnation, which is thus described-" And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil."The way of the transgressor, being hard, those who do wrong, eat of the fruit of their doings, and the reward of their hands is given them. That the same word is rendered judgment, condemnation, and damnation, no scholar will dispute, and that the sound conveys very different idea to a common reader, is equally plain. Why these words are thus rendered, may not be difficult to determine, when we see that in the face of the most obvious facts, not only the meaning of the Greek is misrepresented, but the letter and spirit of the translation are both violated, for a purpose which you may not wish to hear men

tioned.

But why should the term damnation refer to a future state of being, while eternal life, which is its opposite, is referred to this state of existence? This question requires a reply. To say that this is an assumption, is idle. If the recipient of everlasting life is passed from death to life, as is evident by verse 24, and abundance of other testimonies, the present tense is too evidently the state in which the life mentioned is enjoyed, to admit a doubt. That eternal life is the knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ, the sent of God, is the testimony of Christ, John 17. When this is disproved, I shail admit that the subject rests in doubt. Having shown that the LIFE originates from a belief in the gospel dispensation, it will be perceived that this idea agrees with the catastrophe in Matt. 25. Believers entered into rest, while unbelievers suffered the damnation of Gehenna. But the 10th chapter of