I -it I eel nil ej I Ih> -1 al e nl I lie .ji ;n|. 'I'ie' r \|e e-sioH ■Al.lal.aill'^l.uM.lii.ee/., I- el II. . ilev lealle lallie tO
US, though suitable and si,i;nilicaiiL lo the men of
DEAD, THE
DEAF AND DU:MB
our Lord's day. Similarly with the other pictorial elements ; they are only of the same order as the imagery with whicli other faiths have invested ideas concerning the hereafter. The matter of abiding importance here is the teaching that at death a judgment already ta,kes effect, the portion of the soul in the after life being determined with direct reference to the life lived in the present world, with rosuks that may l>e in startling con- trast to the i.'-tiii;.t:i~ "f a man and his condition formed by lii^ i-lluw-iin u hmf. This mnfeption seems to find fxpn'~-i'in in a symbol fuuml on early Christian tombs in Phrygia, viz. an open book or set of tabdlcE, which Ramsay explains as ' indicat- ing death and the judgment of God after death : the tablets are open to indicate that the process of judgment has begun' (see art. in Expositor, March 1905, p. 223).
Such a representation of the condition of the dead in Hades is not, however, to be understood as excluding a remoter crisis in the soul's history, such as is suggested by the prominent NT concep- tion of ' the judgment ' and ' the day of judgment.' As Weiss says, the retribution thus set forth as befalling a soul in Hades ' does not exclude an ultimate decision as to its final fate' (T/ieol. of NT, i. p. 156 note, Eng. tr.). 'Abraham's bosom' or ' Paradise," moreover, does not denote a final and 'perfect consummation and bliss,' in the eseha- tological views of the Jews in the time of Christ. The resurrection lies beyond. Jesus in His en- counter w^th the Sadducees uses the language of His time, and speaks of the resurrection as a transition and crisis awaiting the dead (ilk 12-^, Mt 22*'). The wording of the Lukan account (20^) is particularly noticeable — oi 5e Koraf luff^i/T-es ToO aiCjvo^ iKeivov tvx^'lv k. ttjs dfatrrcttrews rijs eK veKpuv. There is an ' age to come ' (rather than 'world,' see Dalman, Wortc Jesu, Eng. tr. p. 153), which is to be attained by those that shall have been deemed worthy of it, an age evidently to be thought of as ushered in by the resurrection from among the dead. That age ( = 'the kingdom' elsewhere), embodying the highest hopes of the Jews for the hereafter, answers to all the highest conceptions as to human destiny found amongst people of other faiths. And evidently it is not immediately attained at death, according to the language of Jesus. If, then, an accumulation of weighty considerations seems to some to support the doctrine of an intermediate state for those who have passed from this life — a doctrine already familiar to the Jews in our Lord's time (see Sal- mond, Chr. Doct. of Immortan/;/, p. 345 f.)— the teacliin;,' of tin- (;.p~i.ol- (■iIIt^ nn d.-linite opposi- tion. A >t:iti', /. -. II"' ~iiiipl\- .if MiLCue gloom or attennatr.l ln-in.. liut "i \\'.\'\ riin-riou.sness ; for the bU's-od dead 'a n.ii.Utii.ii in t.'llowship with God, containing in it.self the germ of an everlasting heavenly life towards which it tends' (Wendt, Lehrc Jesu, Eng. tr. i. p. 223), with progress and j;rowth from more to more ; and in the case of others, a state aflbrding room for the hope that there a solution is to be found for a multitude of otherwise inscrutable life problems in regard to man's salva- tion. Such comfortable words as Jn H--^!?-* do not conflict with this conception as regards the state of the blessed dead, and tliey are to be thought of as being 'with Christ' in a manner which is ' very far better ' (Ph l-^) than what may be linown in the present life.
Salmond (op. cit. ch. 5), .-ir^iin^ on the whole against the doctrine olan intermediate state, relies mainly on the (act that no positive doctrine of this kind is found in Christ's words, and observes that towards this subject 'His attitude is one of significant reserve'; but this ar<;uinentum e siletitio of itself tells just as much one way as the other. Those who mainuin that death brin^ irrevocable doom to all and admits imme- diately to full and final destiny, are hard pressed by manifold
ilitfieulties. What expedients they are driven to in order to mitigate these are ithistrated, f.tj., in Randies' After Death. The author ea*rtrly ur:>'es liow much is possible in the way of repentance and pard'>ii Lnen in articuto mortis. 'After all intercourse between the dyin'_r and their friends has ceased, a saving work of God proceeds' ; ' repentance and faith, pardon and sanctification, may proceed with speed and power such as were never evinced in previous years' (p. 250 f.). Greatly to the credit of his heart, in anxiously maintaining his position he also advances considerations which lead, he thinks, to the con- clusion that ' the proportion of the finally lost to the saved will be about as the proportion of the criminal part of England's population to all the rest ' (p. 244 f.) ! The consideration of the solemn subject of final destiny lies beyond the scope of this