God of these three men"? Remember, that by supposition they have no actual existence, and may never have it.

Reader-I think He could not say so.

Writer-Well, suppose He has resolved to give existence to the three men who stand in vision before Him, could He affirm He is their God?

Reader-It seems to me not. It would, however, be perfectly consistent and proper for Him to declare, I may become their God, or, I shall yet be a God to them, regulating His statement by His unerring foresight.

Writer-Exactly. The language we might expect Him to employ, for it would be the language of truth, is just what you have suggested, -I shall be a God to them.

Reader-Well, so far everything is lucid and intelligible.

Writer-But take one step further: suppose that He has resolved to bring the three men appearing before Him in vision into existence, and also foresees that He will become their God, in the same way as He was a God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, might He not, by reason of His unerring prescience, adopt the words, "I am their God," since what His omniscience beholds in the future is as good as if it had already come to pass?

Reader-To the best of my discernment He might, since it is the Divine prerogative to call things "that are not as though they were," in virtue of the fact that they must at length necessarily come out of nonbeing into existence, or out of vision-being into real being.

Writer-Now, was God ever the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Reader Yes; when they lived on earth in His fear and service. Writer-Does He not say He is their God still?

Reader-He did say so "at the bush," "I am the God of Abraham," &c.

Writer-Then, if He who sees the end from the beginning affirms He is still their God, does he contemplate them as dead men-men bereft of consciousness for ever, as the Sadducees assumed they wereor as the heirs of a life to come; in fact, as good as living, or already resurrected?

Reader-As heirs of life; men once more to be-men as good to Him, when He spake from the centre of the burning bush, as if they were at the moment realities in His presence.

Writer-And if He contemplates them as heirs of life-as good as if they were alive-when He used the memorable words, what does that necessarily involve ?

Reader That they will all yet actually return to life; in other words, that THEY ARE SURE OF A RESURRECTION.

DEFENCE AND ILLUSTRATION OF THE PROPOSED EXPOSITION.

12. The pith and essence of the argument for a resurrection, it has been previously observed, is enclosed in the words, "I am the God of Abraham," &c., and that the additional matter in verse 37 merely explains the reasoning, or shows that the proof of the doctrine is contained in the language recorded by Moses. We are to suppose some

such question as the following asked at Jesus by one listening to His repetition of the words spoken at Horeb: How does that establish your doctrine? The answer is given in two forms, substantially embodying the same idea, (1st) negatively, "For He is not the God of the dead; (2nd) positively, "but" (repeat He is the God) "of the living; "that is, it would be meaningless language, an empty title, for the Holy One to declare Himself the God of the Patriarchs if they are eternally done with existence, since the relationship that once subsisted between them must, in that event, be regarded as absolutely dissolved. Their names are cancelled from the list of human existences. He is their God no more. So far, however, from the relationship being terminated, He declares Himself still their God; and since that is His own positive testimony, the inference to be drawn is, "then" (rather than "for ") "they all live unto Him," intimating that He contemplates them as alive. To His view, in other words, they are as good as living men, because they will certainly again be made alive.

13. We prefer to substitute then in the room of "for," because the Greek particle gar seems to exercise an inferential force in the passage. As our version runs, the statement, "for all live unto Him," was clearly understood by the English translators to contain a reason in support of something that went before. What precedes it is, "He is not a God of the dead, but of the living;" and it strikes us as the most natural supposition that they held the words, " for all live unto Him," to convey the reason why He designates Himself the God of the Patriarchs-" for they all live unto Him," or for His glory, in the unseen state-according to the common explanation of these words. Now there is nothing very extraordinary in that. He was their God here below, and we cannot imagine that He would cast them off when they entered, as orthodoxy assures us they did, on the heavenly scenes, and were nearer Himself, and away from fleshly and worldly temptations, and beside the springs of perennial happiness. Well, suppose we pass that by,-comes up the old insuperable difficulty, with which we shall not again tax the reader's patience beyond a few lines. The difficulty is, the utter absence of any logical and valid connection between God being their God while they continue to serve Him behind the veil, and a resurrection for them at some future period or other. It is a demonstration that demonstrates nothing. It depends exclusively on pure assumption for any show of vitality it contains. "Made perfect in holiness," they have lived, so we are encouraged to believe, in exalted, illuminating, and blissful circumstances for thousands of years already, apart from any physical organism, and why not for ten thousand more? why not for millions? why not for ever? What we want, and what the blessed Redeemer provided, is a reason, not why God is the God of the three worthies, but WHY THEY ARE TO BE RESURRECTED. The reason is close at hand, and would soon be found out did not heathen fables and philosophising, baptized as Christian truth, hide it from observation.

But, to be done with the weary confusion and obscurity which soulimmortality creates here and all over Holy Writ, let the words, "All live unto Him," be taken as a luminous and welcome deduction, and the whole matter is simplified at once. He is their God, because He represents them to Himself as living beings, not as those who have parted with

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existence for evermore. This is the aspect in which they appear,-they are alive in the foresight and immutable purpose of Heaven. The vision of God-" who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Rom. iv. 17)-the vision is, as it were, a prophecy to the Infinite Consciousness, based on His intention to revoke them from Sheol, the grave, the land of the enemy, and to bestow upon them in sovereign mercy an undying and angel-like existence. In other words, they will sooner or later be resurrected by Omnipotence. Had no resurrection been intended for them the Divine Voice might have said at the bush, "I was the God of Abraham," &c., because He would have viewed them as perpetually dissociated and exiled from life and Himself; but He testifies, "I am the God of Abraham," &c., contemplating them as sons yet to dwell in undecaying youth in His presence. Their names, then, are on the illumined scroll of " kings and priests," suspended from the throne on high. Their very dust is precious in His sight. Now they calmly repose in the "sunless land," not everlastingly wiped out of being; and He whose eyes never weary watches over them, as a mother by her sleeping child. For ages they have been concealed from all ken but His own, as if no quickening energy would at any time stir them into life, and love, and song; but, thanks to Him who planned their destiny "after the counsel of His own will," long long before the morning stars joined in their earliest hymn, that repose will be disturbed when the far-streaming glory of Emmanuel returning strikes on the eyelids of the tomb.

14. That the Greek word (gar) rendered "for" in the testimony under review often has the force of then or therefore, is susceptible of easy proof, proof quite intelligible to the mere English scholar. Take the following examples from the New Testament: "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified. But (me gar) let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters (1 Pet. iv. 14, 15).

The word gar at the commencement of verse 15 introduces, not a reason for what had been advanced, but an advice, or an inference of moral obligation, founded upon the relationships and privileges just described; and the sense is this, if what is stated in verse 14 be true, "then, or therefore, let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief," &c. "Let every one "-(ekastos gar)" of us please his neighbour for his good to edification" (Rom. xv. 2).

This verse looks back to the one immediately before it, which was, "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves." Nor is this a reason in support of what precedes it, but a moral deduction from it: "Then (or wherefore, or since, that is our duty let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification."

So also gar must be understood in 1 Cor. xiv. 8,-" For if" (rather, wherefore if-gar) "the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" an inference from the general statement in the antecedent verse,-" And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how

"Then

shall it be known what is piped or harped? The conclusion is, (or therefore) if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle ?"

In like manner, 1 Cor. i. 26, " For (gar, then, or therefore, inferential) ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called "-call you?

Likewise in Jas. ii. 26, gar does not lead into view a consideration in support of what has been said, but carries an inferential power, the deduction being founded on the argumentation in the previous verses: "For (gar, then) as the body without the spirit (margin, breath) is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

In the above, we are bold to think there is ample justification for the alteration proposed, "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living;" "then," or since that is so," they all live unto Him."

15. In support of the meaning given to the words, "they all live unto Him," they appear unto Him alive-they are as good as alive in the Omniscient prevision- we beg leave to repeat the observation, that it is a common form or figure of speech in the Bible, as with ourselves, to make mention of things which are sure to happen as if they were now in existence, or had already come to pass. Even in the record of this incident there are, memory should teach us, examples of this peculiarity: "in the resurrection whose wife is she?" that is, whose wife shall she be? and, "Now that the dead are raised," that is, will be raised. Any number of illustrations can be assembled to the same effect, of which we must be permitted to detail a few: "Thou art but a dead man ; Gen. xx. 3, and at the moment the man was living, but he was as good as dead. "We be all dead men," Exod. xii. 33; and the men themselves said so. In their own eyes, however, they were as good as dead, for they the Egyptians-felt that they were sure to perish in one way or another if the children of Israel tarried longer in Pharaoh's land.

On the very day on which this section was composed, the author, on inquiring of a friend how a prominent citizen, in great trouble at the time, was, got this reply: He is sinking fast; Mr. is a dead

man; "the meaning of which no one surely can misapprehend.

Now, if living men in most perilous circumstances are called dead men, why may not dead men, who are sure to be revived, pass under the description of living men, and more especially by Him who is the fountain of resurrection energy?

Another illustration is provided for our guidance in Luke ix. 60, where Jesus says, "Let the dead bury their dead."

Those who were said to entomb the dead man are said to be in a similar condition-" dead also;" in other words, the condition of the living referred to bore a certain and close similitude to that of the departed. There is no difficulty in tracing where a resemblance between them did not hold ; and it remains to discover in what the resemblance indicated did consist. It has been said the living were spiritually dead, meaning thereby that to the claims and attractions of God, or of holiness, which is only another method of expressing the same idea, the relations of the deceased were as indifferent and insensible as the corpse in their presence was to a friendly entreaty, and all other objects of perception. They felt these obligations no more than if they were absolutely

incapable of acknowledging them; yet they were very far from being incapable, and were therefore charged with the heinous transgression of not loving God and submitting to His will. But even if we concede this to be a truly accurate moral description of each unconverted human being, it does not appear to reach and indicate the force and warrant of our Lord's address. We shall best approach what seems to be the exact idea if we hold in mind that "the wages of sin is death," of which the death that had fallen on the disciple's relative in the distance was, so far as its essential properties were concerned, a perfect representation. He was dead-bereft of feeling and consciousness; and there in no need to suppose that the speaker had any reference whatever to his final destiny. To his present state, that of his friends and neighbours who would perform the last offices on his behalf was likened-they were dead. By His infallible knowledge, Jesus understood their spiritual state; knew they were "children of wrath," inasmuch as they had not welcomed Himself as the heavenly-appointed, life-giving Saviour. The sentence of death was resting on them; they were "condemned already," and so were as good as dead, for sooner or later, by Divine authority, the sentence would be carried into execution. Their names, He knew, were not written in the book of life; in other words, they were in an irregenerate, unspiritualised, unsaved condition, and according to immutable Gospel regulations, physical destruction--non-being-was the only doom in reserve for them at last. We understand our Lord merely to speak of their condition and prospects as His perception of their condition determined them at the moment. He does not predict their end, only the end in store for them on the supposition that they continued as He then beheld them and measured their relations to His Father and the disclosures of infinite pity. They were then under sentence of death, the execution of which, after the great assize, would reduce them for ever to the condition of the man whose remains were awaiting interment. Whether it would be carried into effect was, of course, still a matter of choice on their part; an opportunity of finding mercy not being yet irrevocably gone in their case.

Of the same figure of speech another example occurs in Acts xviii. 9: "Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace; 10: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city." The great Apostle, in consequence of the manner in which the Jews at Corinth treated the Gospel, said to his railing kindred, "Your blood "-not, be it observed, your eternal misery, but "your blood," your death, that is, the blame of your death-" be upon your own heads; I am clean from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles" (v. 6). But it was the Lord's pleasure that His messenger should tarry in the locality, and assigned this as the reason: "I have much people in this city." As yet, however, they were degraded idolaters; at a great distance from being literally His people; but Omniscience foresaw that at length they would be converted to the faith. That was calling things. which were not "as though they were; "and He whose eye is familiar with past, present and future, may adopt this style without danger of the least mistake.

Quite similar is that expression used by our Lord in John x. 16: