Ans. 25.-The difficulty as to Rev. 20:4-6 is an old one, but arises merely from a want of understanding as to the language of Scripture, to which, nevertheless, our own very nearly conforms. We speak of "souls" when we mean " persons," and so does Scripture, only more largely. "My soul" is used there as an emphatic "I." Thus Balaam, "Let me (my soul) die the death of the righteous." And Abraham, " My soul shall live." Again, in Isa. 46:2, "Themselves are gone into captivity," margin, "their soul;" in Ps. 78:50, "He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;" and again, in i Chron. 5:21, margin, "They took away . . . of souls of men a hundred thousand." Thus there is no real difficulty in " I saw the souls of them that were beheaded, and they lived."

But there would be a very real difficulty with our common use of soul. "Risen with Christ" is indeed a truth for us already, but it is not ever represented as a resurrection of the soul. It is we who are dead in trespasses and sins, and who are risen with Christ. You may say it applies to the soul. Granted, if you analyze it, but Scripture never uses an incongruous thought, as this would be. It was not Christ's soul that rose (in this sense of soul), and it is with Him we are risen. To say "risen in soul " would not give the proper thought.

Moreover, we have in ver. 4, 5 (first part), a vision, and in 5 (last part) and 6, the interpretation of the vision. Now the interpretation needs no interpretation; and it shows how literally the vision itself is to be understood. This, like the name of a picture underneath it, assures us that it is a true resurrection that the vision represents. Nor is it of martyrs only. There are those, first of all, who are sitting on thrones; then a special company of martyrs is raised, and added to these. All of them together constitute " the first resurrection," in which every one is "blessed and holy" who "has part." It is a resurrection of saints alone (comp. Luke 20:36).