QUES. 25. – In 1 Peter 4 :6, who are the dead ? and how are they judged according to men in the flesh ? and how do they live according to God in the Spirit ?

Also, concerning your answer to question 20 in the May number, What is the promise in Acts 2 :39 ? Dear Brother, I think it strange that if God wants me to baptize my child, I cannot see it in His holy Word. Why is it so hard to get, if it is there ?

ANS. – The "dead" are those who have passed out of this life. While they lived on. earth the gospel was preached to them with one or the other of two results :That they might receive it and " live according to God in the Spirit," that is, "cease from sin;" or, refusing it, "be judged according to men in the flesh," that is, be judged after death as men in Judaism had been judged during their lifetime.

Jews, to whom Peter was writing, were familiar with the judgment of "the quick" – that is, the government of God upon men here during their life in the flesh. Their history was a frequent exhibition of this. But Christianity reveals definitely the judgment of " the dead" as well; that though men have passed out of this life, they are not dead toward God, but subject to His judgment after death as truly as when they lived in the flesh.

The burden of the passage then is, that men passing out of this life are in nowise removed from under the government of God, who will judge them according to their actions and the privileges which they have enjoyed during their life here.

Now concerning your other questions :The promise spoken of in Acts 2 :39 is salvation; see verse 38 ; Luke 24 :47 ; Acts 16 :31. As to your being unable to find household baptism in the word of God, you know there are many Christians who are not sure that they possess eternal" life, in the very face of Scripture which says the believer has it ; nor can they see that our Lord's coming again may occur at any moment ; and there are other things, simple and plain to yon and many more, over which, nevertheless, a multitude stumbles. Why is it ?

Let us only be patient and lowly, that the truth in all its parts may find entrance into our hearts, and we will learn as we go.