actly expressed the meaning: "Thus, amidst the general ruin which is coming upon these wicked times, the Christian shall have his share. But his afflictions will be light, in comparison of that great overthrow which shall destroy the Jewish nation."1

These passages are enough to discover to us the meaning and usage of the words translated "damn " and "damnation" in the New Testament. And nothing can be plainer to the honest and unprejudiced mind, than that the original Greek words never had associated with them the same horrible ideas, which are so universally attached to the English words. It is not possible to believe that if the disciples, or the people of that age, had commonly employed the words krino, krima, krisis, in the sense in which the majority of Christians now employ the words damn and damnation, that they would so often and so freely have applied them to Jesus.

Considering the present popular use of the words, it would be painful and offensive to talk of Christ's being damned, or of his being delivered to the damnation of death. Yet the evangelists say these things without any hesitation or explanation; showing thereby that they did not connect with the words the errors and revolting dogmas of modern Christians. There is nothing in any of the passages where the Greek words occur, however translated, to lead us to imagine that they ever thought of any suffering or punishment beyond this life. They employed them in reference to human tribunals and punish

1 PAIGE'S Selections, where it will be seen that the same view is taken by other eminent orthodox commentators, as WHITBY, MACKNIGHT, LIGHTFOOT, the Catholic CALMET, &c.

ments; to describe the consequences of unbelief, of blindness of mind and hardness of heart; to designate those judgments of God upon individual and national wickedness, which they saw themselves in this world, and which were visible to all who had eyes to see.

And it cannot but commend itself to every careful thinker, that where such tremendous interests are at stake, the Holy Spirit would certainly be direct and positive in the statement of the matter. Surely, if it were intended that the terrible fact of a future life of endless woe and torment should be revealed as a warning to the race, as the foreordained lot of the wicked, then God would have chosen for its revelation terms more precise and exclusive in their signification than any of those we have examined. Nay, is not a subject of such vast moment to all mankind, worthy of a language of its own? If it be true that any are to be "damned" in the sense of infinite, unending misery, and true that all are in danger of it, would not the Spirit consecrate to the special revelation of this awful fact, words and phrases never to be used for any other purpose? Where it is of such immense importance that all possibility of mistake should be excluded, would not God take out, and set apart, from all other human language, the specific terms to be used in announcing and enforcing this dreadful truth? and say to all the world,

"These are the words and phrases in which this doctrine is to be taught-they are sacred to this purpose. Whenever, therefore, they appear on the pages of Inspiration, let it be known, at once, of all men, that they mean this, and never anything but this, viz:

A LIFE ACCURSED OF GOD; A FUTURE LIFE OF TORMENT WITHOUT MEASURE AND WITHOUT END!"

A matter of such fearful interest to the entire race of man, demanded something of this sort. We have a right, when the whole infinite sweep of our future being is concerned, to expect that a just God, not to say a merciful Father, would be thus explicit and positive in the terms chosen for the revelation of endless punishment. And had he done this, which it was so easy to do, then all argument and debate, all criticism and doubt, would have been shut out from the beginning. And since he has not done what it was so easy to do, and what justice demanded, there is but one lawful inference, but one conclusion permitted us, and that is, that he never intended to reveal such a doctrine, simply because it is not true.

SECTION II.

RESURRECTION OF DAMNATION—AWAKING TO SHAME AND EVER◄ LASTING CONTEMPT.

There is one passage which may be thought to conflict with the doctrine of the preceding section, inasmuch as it speaks of a damnation in connection with the resurrection; coming, in fact, after the resurrection. Not the resurrection, we might reply, but a resurrection. This passage, with its correlative in Daniel, will now receive attention.

1 ATHANASE COQUEREL, the distinguished Protestant preacher of Paris, says: "Who will believe that the eternity of punishment, a doctrine of such terrible and grave importance, can depend, in any sense, upon trifles of criticism, upon variations of translation? It is a first legitimate prejudice against such a dogma, the necessity of giving it such support; and I cannot but think that, if it was taught in the Gospel, it would be done with a clearness so terrible that we should all tremble at it, but not dispute it."

"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." John v. 28, 29.

That the Saviour is speaking here of a moral or spiritual, and not of a literal resurrection, is plain enough from the entire context; and if so, the damnation is in this world, and not in the immortal world to which a literal resurrection introduces us. "Marvel not at this." What? The declaration he had just made,-"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." Here was a resurrection which had actually commenced; and the only difference between this and that mentioned in verses 28, 29, was that the first was partial, and the other universal. Both were moral, a resurrection from ignorance, unbelief and spiritual darkness, to knowledge, faith and spiritual light and life, consequent upon the preaching of Christ. The terms set over against each other as equivalents, show this" the dead" in the one, being those that "are in the graves" in the other; and coming forth to "the resurrection of life" in one, answering to "shall live" in the other.

And the parallel is seen still farther in the statement preceding these, in verse 24-"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." Here "life," or or "everlasting life," is

something already possessed by the believer; and it is set against "condemnation," which is the equivalent of the "damnation " in verse 29, showing that both texts refer to the same kind of a resurrection, one actually begun, the other about to begin. The expression, "is passed from death to life," shows that the "death" and the "life," and the resurrection or the passing from one to the other, are all figurative, and not literal, something which takes place while the persons are yet in the body; the resurrection being the result of faith in Christ.

And the same idea is re-stated in even stronger language in chapter xi. 25, 26: "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die." Now that Christ is here speaking of moral or spiritual life and death, is proved by the fact that those who believe on him do die naturally; and also by the fact that the literally dead do not rise or live because they believe in Christ-otherwise, only believers would have a resurrection. But the dead spoken of here are raised to life by faith or belief in Christ; while those living and believing in him never die the death here spoken of. It is plain, therefore, that the terms are used. figuratively—"death" representing a state of unbelief and spiritual blindness; and "life," or the coming forth to life, the opposite of this.

The expression "in the graves" is no stronger than the phrase "the dead." But if it were, its counterpart is found where it cannot possibly refer to the literally dead, in such passages as the following: "And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones