and punishments beyond death were taught in a book which was confessedly written before the immortal state of being and the condition of man in eternity were fully brought to light through the Gospel of Christ?

In conclusion, we shall briefly notice an objection that may be urged against the argument of the chapter. It may be said "that if man was destined to a resurrection from the dead into immortality before the immortal state of being was fully revealed in the Gospel, some of our race might be made happy and others miserable after death, according to their conduct while in the flesh-and that the Gospel might, therefore, have made revelations of future punishment, as well as of future happiness." In view of this objection we remark, that it would be difficult to show the justice of God in dooming his creatures to a punishment of which he never warned them. And we should be slow of heart to ascribe to him the procedure of condemning men to penal sufferings beyond death, at a time when his word "observed the most profound silence in regard to the state of the deceased!" That God should have designed man for the enjoyment of the immortal and heavenly inheritance, is consistent alike with justice and goodness-for that inheritance is not the recompense of works, but the free gift of divine grace.. Man has no power over it-and God revealed the resurrection and spiritual state of glory, just when it was proper in the plan of his government that such knowledge should be communicated to man.

Besides, it should be well understood and never forgotten, that the Gospel is expressly called a new

and better covenant than the legal, because established upon better promises-and not because it reveals dreadful and horrible evils that were altogether unknown to the old dispensation. It declares that God "is the Savior of all men." And its clear testimony in regard to the future and immortal life is "FOR AS IN ADAM ALL DIE, IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE."

EVEN SO

CHAPTER IX.

GOSPEL PROMISES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

In this chapter, which will be the last relating particularly to the Old Testament, we shall endeavor to prove that the ancient Scriptures promised the final holiness and happiness of the whole human race. The reader of the preceding chapter may be somewhat astonished that we should now attempt to defend such a position. We have maintained that the state of man in the future and immortal life was not fully revealed until the introduction of the gospel dispensation. And we now propose to show that the olden Scriptures did promise the ultimate blessedness of all mankind in the heavenly nature of Jesus Christ, beyond mortality and death. At first view their seems here to be a manifest contradiction-and no doubt it will appear to some minds entirely impossible to maintain and harmonize these two apparently conflicting positions.

The fact that the final condition of man in the future and immortal state of existence was not fully revealed to the world under the Old Testament dispensation, is now very generally admitted, and we think may be considered incontrovertible. And this fact need not be denied or concealed in order to establish the position which we have assumed. For although the Old Testament promised a future

and happy life for the human family in the second man, who is the quickening spirit, its meaning was never clearly understood in all its fulness and extent, until the great "Sun of Righteousness" arose in the brightness of his glory, and shed upon its pages a new and heavenly light. On the subject of man's immortality, or his condition in the immortal state, the Old Testament may be represented by the figure of the moon in the heavens, which is dark of itself, but which glows with a clear and bright lustre "when shining with reflected light." And as seen in the bright effulgence of the gospel revelation, that ancient book is found to abound with great and precious promises of salvationpromises which not only extend beyond death, but which also embrace the final glory and bliss of the vast family of Adam!

The New Testament plainly declares that our Savior, Jesus Christ, hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. 2d Tim. i. 10. It is therefore plain that this great revelation of truth was not fully made known until the "more excellent ministry" of our Redeemer was instituted in the earth. And yet we find that in addressing the Sadducees in reference to the resurrection of the dead and the life immortal, Jesus assured them. that the books of Moses, in which they trusted to the exclusion of all other Scripture, contained certain evidences of man's future and immortal existence. After declaring that in the spiritual world marriage shall be unknown, and that the children of the resurrection shall there be "as the angels of God in heaven," he thus testified: "But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read

that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Mat. xxii. 31, 32. And St. Luke, after recording this same dialogue adds to the declaration," God is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him."

Now when God thus spake to Moses out of the bush, the patriarchs of whom he declared himself still to be the God, had passed off the stage of mortal existence, and their bones were mouldering in the dust. And as Jehovah was still their God, it is manifest that they were still in existence, since "God is not the God of the dead but of the living: for all live unto him." But this certain proof of life for the soul beyond the dissolution of the material body, was not clearly understood and fully discerned by man, until God's chosen Messenger of the new and better covenant of promise, shed the light of immortality around the grave of the sleeper, and laid open to the vision of faith the glorious and heavenly inheritance of our race! And with the aid of this better revelation, a careful investigation will remove every doubt that the Old Testament did promise a happy life beyond death, and immortal blessings in Christ beyond all corruption and every evil. Such promises, however, were not fully understood, until explained in the clear light of the Gospel. The spirit of divine promise saw far more than the ancient Seers were themselves permitted to behold. But some of their predictions, though uttered before the immortal life was brought to light through the Gospel, must have their ultimate fulfilment (as we shall attempt to