the last day, if he has the living faith of a son of God, he will be raised by that Christ within him, who is his life.

This, it seems to us, is the only adequate explanation of this passage, and shows conclusively that resurrection must mean, in this place, a rising up to a higher existence, and not a more return to this life.

It appears, from 1 Cor. ch. 15, that there were some in the Christian church who said there was no resurrection of the dead (àvúoraois vɛxov,) or that it was past already. (2 Tim. 2:18.) These Christians did not deny the doctrine of immortality, or a future life. It is difficult to imagine the motive which could induce any one, in those days, to join the Christian church, if he denied a future life. Probably, therefore, they assumed that the only real resurrection takes place in the soul when we rise with Christ. They said, "If we are to rise into a higher life after this, how shall we rise, and with what bodies?" (1 Cor. 15:35.) They professed to believe in a simple immortality of the soul, but not an ascent of the personal being, soul and body together, to the presence of God. They did not question a future life, but a higher life to which soul and body should go up together.

To these doubting Christians, who could not gather strength to believe in such a great progress as this, Paul says that if man does not rise, if it is contrary to his nature to rise, then Jesus, being a man, has not risen, but gone down to Hades with other souls. Then he is not above us, with God, sending down strength and inspiration from our work. This faith of ours, which has been our great support, is an illusion. We have all been deceived- deceived in preaching forgiveness of sins through Christ from God; deceived in preaching a higher life above us, into which Christ has gone, and where he is waiting to receive us. But we have not been deceivedChrist has risen, and risen as the first fruits of humanity. He leads the way up, and in proportion as we share his life, we also have in ourselves the principle of ascent, and shall

go up too. He goes first; then all who are like him follow and finally, in due order, all mankind. Death and Hades have been conquered by this new influx of life in Christ. Instead of remaining pale ghosts, naked souls, we shall rise into a fuller, richer, larger life, of soul and body.

There is one passage, however, where there seems a diffi culty in considering avάotaois, or resurrection, as implying an ascent of condition. It is in John 5: 28, 29. Our common translation reads thus: "The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice (that is, the voice of the Son of man), 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." At first sight it certainly seems that the "resurrection of damnation" (áváσtαov nolσews) could hardly be considered a higher state. All depends, however, on the meaning of the word, here translated "damnation." The word, in the Greek, is the genitive of xolos. Now, by turning to the Concordance, we find that this word xolos occurs some fortyeight times in the New Testament. In these places, It is translated 3 times by "damnation."

It is evident, therefore, that our translators considered judg ment to be the primary and usual meaning of the word. Why, then, did they not translate it here, "rising to judgment," or "resurrection of judgment"? It must have been because they believed either that (1.) "judgment" would make no sense here; (2.) that "damnation" would make better sense; or, (3.) that "damnation" was more in accordance with the analogy of faith. But we can decide these points for ourselves. "Judgment" is the better word here, for it accords with the doctrine of the New Testament, that in proportion as man goes wrong, he dulls his moral sense, and

needs a revelation of truth to show him what he is. A true man, who has lived according to the truth here, has judged himself, and will not need to be judged hereafter. (1 Cor. 11:31.) He rises into the resurrection of life. But those who follow falsehood here, need to see the truth; and they rise into the resurrection of judgment. The truth judges and condemns them. But this is really an ascent to them also. It is going up higher, to see the truth, even when it condemns them. This passage, then, is no exception to the principle that wherever "resurrection" (ἀνάστασις) occurs in the New Testament, it implies going up into a higher

state.

(17:18),

All the other places where the word occurs either evidently have this meaning, or can bear it as easily as the other. Thus (Luke 14:14), "Thou shalt be recompensed in the higher state of the just." (20:27), the Sadducees "deny a higher state." (Acts 1:21), "he is to be a witness with us of the ascended state of Jesus." (Acts 4:2), "preached, through Jesus, the higher state of the dead." "preached to them Jesus and the higher state." (26:23), that Christ "should be the first to rise into the higher state." (Lazarus and others had returned to life again before Jesus, so that in this sense he was not the first fruits.) (Rom. 6:5), "planted in the likeness of his resurrection." This can only mean as Christ passed through the grave into a higher state, so we pass through baptism into a higher state.

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The only text which presents any real difficulty is Heb. 11:35, translated, "women received their dead raised to life again," literally, women received from the resurrection their dead" ( àvaσrúσews), which may refer to a return to this life, as in the case of the child of the widow of Sarepta (1 Kings 17:17), and of the Shunamite (2 Kings 4:17).* But in the same verse, the other and "better"

• So De Wette, Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum N. T., ad locum.

resurrection is spoken of, for the sake of which these martyrs refused to return to this life. The case referred to is probably that of the record of the seven brothers put to death by Antiochus (2 Macc. 7:9), who refused life offered on condition of eating swine's flesh, and said, when dying, "The King of the world shall raise us up, who have died for his laws, unto everlasting life” (εις αιώνιον ἀναβίωσιν ζωῆς ἀνατήσει ἡμας), literally, "to an eternal renewal of our life."* This verse shows, therefore, that though àváστaσis may mean a return to this life, yet that the other sense of a higher life is expressly contrasted with it, even here.

Our conclusion, therefore, with regard to this term áváσtaσis, is, that its meaning, in New Testament usage, is not "rising again," but "rising up," or "ascent."

It

2. Avlorqui. This word is the root of the former. is used one hundred and twelve times in the New Testament. It is translated with again (as, "he must rise again from the dead") fifteen times. It is translated thirty-six times "rise up," or "raise up" (as, "I will raise him up at the last day"), and ninety-six times without the "again." It is rendered "he arose," "shall rise," "stood up," "raise up," 66 arise," ." and in similar ways.

3. 'Eyelow. This word is also frequently used in relation to the resurrection, and is translated "to awaken," "arouse," "animate," "revive." The natural and usual meaning is ascent to a higher state, and not merely a "rising again."

From these considerations we see that the primitive and central meaning of the terms used to express the resurrection is that of ASCENT. It is GOING UP. This is the essential Christian idea. But it soon became implicated with the Pagan idea of immortality, or continued existence of the soul, and the Jewish idea of a bodily resurrection at the last

So Schleusner, Lexicon in LXX.

day. But though there is a truth in each of these beliefs, the Christian doctrine is neither one nor the other. The gospel assumes, but does not teach, a continued existence of the soul. Since the greater includes the less, in teaching that the MAN rises at death into a higher life, it necessarily implies that he continues to live. And in teaching that he is to exist as man, with soul and body, in a higher condition of development, it teaches necessarily the bodily resurrection of the Jews. Christ, who came "not to destroy, but to fulfil," FULFILS both Pagan and Jewish ideas of the future state in this doctrine of an ASCENSION at death.

The principal points of the teaching of Jesus concerning the life which follows the dissolution of the body are these: First. As against the Sadducees, he argues that the dead are living (Matt. 22:31, and the parallel passages), from the simple fact that God calls them his. If God thinks of them as his, that is enough. His thinking of them makes them alive. No one can perish while God is thinking of him with love. Such an argument, carrying no weight to the mere understanding, is convincing in proportion as one is filled with a spiritual conception of God. Secondly. Jesus abolishes death by teaching that there is no such thing to the soul which shares his ideas concerning God and the universe. This is implied in the phrases, "He that liveth and believeth in me shall never die." (John 11:26.) "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." (John 6:47.) "I am the living bread, whereof if a man eat, he shall live forever." (John 6:51.) "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life." (John 6:54.) "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." Here, "eating Christ's flesh, and drinking his blood," is plainly equivalent to "keeping his saying," and "believing on him." As food which we eat and drink changes itself so as to become a part of our own body by assimilation, so Christ intends that his truth shall not be merely taken into the