when it is spoken of as prevailing or not prevailing against any one, the most obvious use must be referred to, and the meaning must be, that when the gates do not prevail, they are not sufficient to prevent a passage either out or in. If the gates of a city be spoken of, and they prevail against any one, that must mean to keep him out; or if the gates of a prison be spoken of, then when they prevail they are successful in keeping in. But hades is represented as a prison into which Christ descended in the character of a captive (Eph. iv. 8, 9), but His Father did not leave him there (Acts ii. 31), and indeed it was not possible that he could be holden there (Acts ii. 24). The gates of hades, therefore, did not prevail against him; and when His Father loosed the pains of death, He carried captivity captive, like Samson when the gates of Gaza did not prevail against him (Judges xvi. 3); and now though death and hades are still a prison for the enemies of Christ, He holds the keys of both (Rev. i. 18).

3. Gehennah seems to indicate a place, or rather a state of torment, altogether distinct from hades. It does not refer to the state of the dead, but seems to indicate the punishment of the wicked after the second resurrection. "Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in gehennah" (Matt. x. 28). "And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death; even whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. xx. 13, 14).

4. From these passages, we cannot determine whether hades be a locality or not. It may be, or it may not be, for we have no positive evidence on either side. The apparent affirmation of locality is not sufficient: First, Because in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the description of hades is evidently metaphorical-the flame

-the drop of water-the finger of Lazarus-and the bosom of Abraham, are all figurative, and could not be descriptive of a real incident; second, because the soul is represented as going down to the heart of the earth, while the spirit is represented as going upward (Eccl. iii. 21), to God who gave it (Eccl. xii. 7); and third, because death and hades are associated in Revelation, and are both represented as being cast into the lake of fire.

It must be acknowledged, then, that we obtain very little information from these passages: all that we can possibly determine by their means is, that after death the spirit is disembodied-the righteous entering into a state of conscious happiness, the wicked into a state of conscious misery.

The change which takes place at the death of the righteous, is more distinctly indicated than the destiny of those who are lost; and the passages which refer to it, when viewed in the light of our previous investigations, conduct us to the threshold of a doctrine so sublime, that were it not corroborated by numberless allusions throughout the New Testament, we could not ourselves imagine it. To unbelievers the Scripture representations of the dignity and privileges of the saints, have always appeared presumptuous and absurd; and the saints themselves have always been slow of heart to receive the full testimony of the Bible regarding them; nor is it wonderful that it should be so-we are always inclined to measure God's intended dealings with us, by our own intended dealings with Him, so that when we catch the first glimpse of His condescending glory, the unbelieving pride of our heart starts up in the form of a spurious humility, and we

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exclaim with Peter: "Thou shalt never wash my feet." And yet it was the desperate nature of our case that rendered it impossible to be remedied except by a great salvation: nothing but a personal union with God himself, through the incarnation of His Son, would have been sufficient for the purpose-an idea this, that never would have entered into the imagination of an angel; no wonder, then, that man, brutish man, should turn his dull, earthly gaze upon the doctrine, and read it wrong! "Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee!" sang David in one of his psalms (Ps. xxxi. 19); and Isaiah, enraptured, took up the theme, and replied, "Since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him" (Isa. lxiv. 4); and Paul echoed back the sentiment, clothed in the brighter glory of the New Testament dispensation, saying (1 Cor. ii. 9, 10), "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."

We have already seen that the disembodied state of a spirit is not only an unnatural, but a desolate and unhappy state; so much so, that the spirit longs to be clothed upon with some tabernacle, either of earth or heaven. Such was the experience spoken of by the Lord in the parable: "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he,

and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first" (Matt. xii. 43-45). Such, also, was the experience of the thousands of demons that had taken up their abode in the demoniac of Gadara. They earnestly entreated our Lord (Luke viii. 31) that he would not cast them out into the deep, and suggested that even the bodies of swine would afford them a welcome covering, if they should be obliged to leave the man.

Nor is it otherwise with the saints of God, who, strictly speaking, never die (John xi. 26). Their spirits are never left naked. "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. v. 1-8). From this we infer

First, That at death the spirits of the saints are not unclothed, but clothed upon. Instead of a tabernacle of earth, they will then occupy a house from heaven.

Second, That this house from heaven is the glorious resurrection body of the Lord Jesus Christ, which re

ceives the spirits of the saints until the day of the resurrection.

Third, That the change which then takes place is so glorious, that the saints are willing rather to be absent from their own body, and to be present with the Lord.

Fourth, That this sleeping in Jesus at death can only take place with those who have been converted to him during life: "He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God."

Fifth, That at conversion a union is established between Christ and the believer, in which the Holy Spirit enters and dwells in his body. This is called an "earnest" of the future, when the believer's spirit shall dwell in Christ. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?" (1 Cor. vi. 19). "For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones" (Eph. v. 30).

We may notice that much of the force of the passage is lost in our translation. Were we to render the words ἐνδημοῦντες and ἐκδημοῦντες by the corresponding English, in-dwelling and out-dwelling, we might have a clearer view of Paul's train of thought. "Knowing that whilst we are in-dwelling in the body we are out-dwelling from the Lord: we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be out-dwelling out of the body, and to be in-dwelling with the Lord."

At the same time, we must be careful not to overstretch the analogy, as if our spirits held the same relation to the Lord's body that they do to our own, or the unclean spirits to the body of Legion. The body of Legion, which was tenanted by thousands of spirits, was a psychical body-the body of Chist is a spiritual body; and even the words of the text will not permit the idea of an exact