also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." To make Paul here say to his brethren that he had not yet really and literally died and been raised from the dead into the life immortal, would be inflicting upon him as ludicrous a truism as anecdote tells of the greenest sons of Erin. He designed to caution his brethren not to understand him as claiming yet to have attained to the spiritual perfection which he had described, and to which he aspired; but he was passing on towards it.

The precise sentiment of the saying, "Being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead," is often and variously expressed by the same apostle. For another instance, see Rom. vi. 1–5. "What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection."

All this is clear and unmistakable in its meaning. The actual event of the resurrection into another state of being beyond physical death, St. Paul never speaks of as laboring to earn or striving to procure. But, to the victory of faith, and the spiritual advance

ment which should constitute in his life a transcript of that resurrection state of glory which was the object of the Christian hope, he did faithfully labor to attain.

Though we may have spent more time than was necessary on this effort of our opponent to make the resurrection an uncertain thing of barter, yet we must call the attention of our readers to one other point of view, in which its futility is strikingly visible. This attaining to the resurrection of the dead, (Phil. iii. 11,) is what the apostle was not assured of. He was striving, if by any means he might attain to it. See into what a dubious position our learned friend, and that with seeming unconsciousness, throws the great apostle, who has so boldly and lucidly declared, as a great fact in the counsel of God, and as the burden of the gospel revelation, the resurrection of all men from the dead into a state of incorruption and glory, now to represent him as doubtful whether there will be any resurrection of the dead at all-barely deeming it possible that he might, for himself, earn a future existence! No; the apostle has never committed himself to any such contradiction. In respect to the spiritual elevation for which he was laboring in the present sphere, after the likeness of the heavenly man of the immortal resurrection, he could not be assured as to what degree he should attain, because in this rudimental state he found another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, sometimes bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his mem

bers.* He could only say that he would work on, "press forward" to that high aim. But with regard to the result of God's revealed purpose of Grace, the resurrection of the dead into the life and immortality brought to light through the gospel, he was in no doubt or uncertainty. His soul filled with the burning light of this truth, he joyously exclaims,-" For we KNOW, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

Resurrection to Damnation.

We come now to Dr. A.'s only remaining Scripture proof of his position before us,-to wit, that "THE TERMS USED WITH REGARD TO THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, ARE PROOFS OF ENDLESS RETRIBUTION." He introduces it, in connection with comments, thus:

"Christ said, '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.' This he said to illustrate his commission to bestow spiritual life on those who are dead in sin. Then he proceeds at once to assert a power in confirmation of this, in the way of miracle. 'Marvel not at this'-(at my power to regenerate the soul), for the hour is coming (notice that he does not here add-and now is') when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." (John v. 25-29.)

Here, as in the other case, our friend has turned away from the full, clear, and unquestionable testi

*Rom. vii. 23.

monies of the real resurrection of the literally dead, and searched out a passage whose terms of expression and entire surroundings show it to be figurative, referring to another matter.

1. The very terms of this passage suggest to the careful and reverent reader that it must refer to a different event from that of the literal and universal resurrection from the dead. The description is entirely unlike all the unquestionable descriptions of the ultimate resurrection.

2. There is a slight error in the Doctor's quotation. He substitutes, unawares, the pronoun their for the article the. It may at first view seem that the mistake is unessential; but on careful consideration the Bible student will perceive that Jesus used the phraseology as it is in the record for good reason. All that are in the graves, is a better expression in view of the term graves being used figuratively, than their graves would have been.

3. These words were uttered, as my opponent also allows, on an occasion when the subject in hand was not the literal resurrection from the dead, but events figuratively called resurrections, and the Messianic authority of Judgment. Having just spoken of the derivation of his authority from the Father, and the power of his word to give life to them who receive it, he makes a more formal announcement of the principle, thus: "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." He continues,-" 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." And because the people might regard him as assuming too much in this last remark, he immediately adds," Marvel not at this." Marvel not at what? Dr. Adams explains, "at my power to regenerate the soul." But this is wrong. It was particularly at his claim of authority to execute judgment, that he bade them not to marvel. And he proceeded immediately to assure them that the time was near when this authority to execute judgment would, like his power to spiritually quicken the soul in that present time, be attested by fact. "For the hour is coming "— "notice," says the Doctor, "that he does not here add, and now is." No, for it was not true that the execution of judgment which he proceeded to predict, then was. It was about to be. "For the hour is coming, when all that are in the graves shall hear his voice." It was an event about to be.

The phrase erchetai hora, which is here rendered the hour is coming, occurs in six other instances in John's Gospel, in all of which it applies to events which were then approaching. See chap. iv. verses 21 and 23; and chap. xvi. verses 2, 4, 25, and 32. These passages relate to the more perfect establishment of spiritual gospel worship, the persecutions to be endured by the Christian disciples, their dispersion at the time of his crucifixion, and his afterwards showing them more plainly of the gracious counsels of God. These were all approaching events, and ac