A similar absence of limitation will be found to characterize expressions such as o-iifeo-Sai, auT-qpia, etc., which describe the future from the point of view of deliverance from the present, its calamities and its evils. These terms, however, are not in themselves suggestive of duration, excejit so far as their results are involved ; and, as doctrinal terms, belong in the New Testament rather to the Epistles than to the Gospels. In the eschatologieal dis- courses, however, of the Synoptic Gospels, 'salva- tion ' is described as a state to be attained by those who endure eis tAos (Mt lO'-'^ 24"||Mk 13^^); the saving of the life or soul (^puxv, cf. Lk &>) is .strik- ingly said to be the result of willingness to lose it for Christ's sake (MkS^^llLk 9-'^ cf. cvp-qau avr-qv, Mt 16-*) ; and in St. John the salvation of the Kbap.ot is the purpose of the Divine mission of the Son (Jn 3"), the salvation of His hearers, the end of the words and teaching whicli He imparts (5**). Hence 'saKatinn' is contemplated as beyond an 'end' : nXos is lallier a crisis than a final close, the cntraiLii- into new conditions and a more gracious euvironment. Both thought and phrase- ology become meaningless if the subjects of the change are conceived as either annihilated or re- duced to unconsciousness.
Agraphri. Of the ' unwritten ' Sayings, few have interest or importance for the jiresent subject. The most noteworthy and authentic is that which is embodied in St. Paul's argument of 1 Th 4'="".
Whether all or any of this is intended to be a direct citation of Christ's words must remain uncertain. The teaching of the passage is, how- ever, fomided upon a X67os Kvplov. And though it has in view only 'the dead in Christ,' and their jjosition of privilege ami piii.iity as compared with those alive at the tinn- ..I ih^ l.nid's descent from heaven, it distinctly a.-.i i> m I li.'se that they will be ' for ever ' (Tdi/rori ) with the Lord. The writer therefore contemplates for them an eternal co- existence \\ itli the Lord ; and he claims that for this doctrine he has the authority of Christ Himself.
Of the Logia from Oxyrhynchus the mystical Saying, ' Excejit ye fast to the world, ye shall in no wise find the kingdom of God ; and except ye keep the Sabbath, ye shall not see the Father' (Log. 2 : Grenfell and Hunt, p. 10), may be said to imply that those « In, d<. m. fast and truly keep the Sahbatli will >-re the I'aihei, and therefore live with Him. (It tlie later l.df^ia also, which were discovered in lUUo {Oj-i/i-Zii/Hc/iiia Papyri, iv. p. Ifi'.), the Introduction, as it is named by the editors, apparently quotes Jn 8*-— the hearer of these words ' shall not taste of death.' And the first and second Sayings both make reference to the Kingdom which shall be a place of rest to him who seeks and finds. These indications are all of them .slight, and do not add anything to the teaching of the (Id^pels. Hut as far as they go they are in hanniiny vilh \\ Iiat we have found to be the con- staiil iinpliiatiiins in Scripture of the words of Christ ami lli> disciples.
The most striking and suggestive feature, there- fore, of all these references in the Gospels to the future, and of the doctrine which they may be understood to imply, is the absence of any indica- tion of a termination of the new enmlitioiis which they introduce. In some ill^!all^es, indeed, the writer's statement might be UL^anhd a> lulourless in this resiieet, and the thoii-hl ami context of his words AMiiilil iiiil he direitly imitiadicted by an assumiitieii Ihai ihese ii ii ii 1 i I ii ins were theiiiselves teiiiiiiiiary, and at Minn- indehidle period super- seded by others. Klsiuheie the tone and context strongly siipiiort, it they do not compel, the view that the state of things contemplated was contem- plated, as far as the forecast of the speaker was concerned, as permanent. In a third and most important series of passages, the same expressions and phrases are directh' applied to the Divine Being and to His Kingdom in such a manner as to show that no thought of a cessation or close could by any possibility have entered into the mind of the Speaker, or have been regarded by Him as con- ceivable.
Moreover, the change of circumstances thus in- troduced involves no interference with the conscious life, not, at least, to the extent of reducing it to unconsciousness. The subjects of the change are represented as speaking, feeling, and willing, with all their faculties under control and in action. Nor is there any suggestion that this condition is occasional or temporary ; it is, on the other hand, tacitly assumed to be usual and a matter of course.
Further, also, most prominent and characteristic examples of this manner of regarding the future were found to be associated with the terms ai'ii;- and its derivatives. This word, originally apparently denoting a definite age, marked oif by beginning and end, had come to be regularly employed to denote an ' age,' the beginning of wliicli ivas, indeed, sometimes more or less obscenely indiiaied, but to which the Speaker did not as>iun a nut her limit, and, in some instances, would clcaily haM- rejected the idea of a limit as contradictory untl impossible. The thought underlying these expressions is not that of a terminable period, but of a limitless pro-