(Continued from page 330, Vol. of 1916.)

I will call attention now to Hebrews n, as to which a few words are necessary, that we may have before us the apostle's view-point. In the previous chapter (vers. 23-39) he had exhorted the Hebrew Christians, as professors of the Christian revelation, to firmly hold to the hope it had set before them, and solemnly warned them against apostatizing from the truth thus revealed. They had expressed confidence in it; and he tells them not to cast it away, but to patiently endure, assuring them of the certainty of the fulfilment of the promise. He then urges that the principle on which the just lives is faith.

Now in chapter 11 he produces a long list of men of faith in whom this principle was so manifestly exemplified that they are witnesses, who, as with one voice, urge those who have taken up the pursuit of faith's hope to hold it with unyielding steadfastness (chap. 12:i). Before presenting this list of faith-energized men, he sets before us, in verse i, the essential qualities or characteristic features of faith. They are two :First, the realization, or firm apprehension, of things set before us as the objects of hope; and, second, the persuasion or firm conviction of the reality of things not seen, though divinely witnessed to. Having declared what the essential features of faith are, he then explains that it was by such faith the elders became subjects of God's testimony as to them (ver. 2). In verse 3 he further explains that through faith believers perceive, or understand, that the material, the visible universe, was brought into being by God's word of power; that the cause of visible things is not in what is sensually observed.

The apostle then proceeds to give his list of men in whom this faith was practically exemplified. His comments about them are all based on the records furnished by the Old Testament. We cannot here dwell in detail on the apostle's succinct description of the lives of these men as found in the records that have come down to us, out it is evident he saw in these records a teaching, not of the natural human life, but of a supernatural life-a life not under God's displeasure, not in alienation from God, but in intimate connection with Him. A life, too, not temporal, but eternal.

These worthy men lived in the sense of God's presence. They were powerfully convinced of things they did not see, and clung with steadfast confidence to hopes divinely testified to. They were conscious of divine approbation. They perceived the nature and character of the kingdom of God. They embraced its eternal realities, and saw them afar off, rejoiced in them, suffered on their account, and died in the hope of a perfection of humanity for which as disembodied spirits they are still waiting :for they and we are to receive immortal bodies together. The eternal, abiding things of God, so far as they were able to spell them out through the revelation God gave them, were in power and freshness in their hearts. They did not look at the perishing but at the eternal things. They knew death did not end all, but believed in the resurrection of the dead and a final state of permanent human existence – a state of eternal blessedness for the righteous, and of eternal judgment for the wicked.

All this we shall clearly see when we come to study the Old Testament records of these men of faith. But just now it is sufficient to point out that Hebrews n implies and indicates that we shall find the faith of these things there – that these records speak of life beyond death, eternal and incorruptible, a fixed human state and condition in God's eternal favor; God and redeemed men dwelling together in a peace never to be broken. The Old Testament Scriptures teach this blessedness of the redeemed on the one hand, while on the other, as clearly show a fixed human state and con-for the unredeemed of eternal separation from God and the life of God, whether in its principle or its blessed activities.

I am aware there are some who will object that heavenly and eternal things are not subjects of Old Testament communications; and there is a measure of truth in this. But it is not strictly correct to say so. A truer statement is that in the Old Testament God generally speaks in connection with, or with reference to, earthly things. Yet these earthly things, with which the Old Testament oracles are largely concerned, were shadows and types of heavenly and eternal things; so that God was in reality speaking of heavenly and eternal things. The manner of His speaking was such that faith was needed to see what was behind the veil that was over them. The light of eternal things-of things in heaven-was dimmed by the veil cast over them, awaiting the taking away of the veil in Christ (2 Cor. 3 :14) to shine out in full brightness.

Another objection is based on i Peter i:10-12. It is said, the prophets, speaking as they did by the power of the Spirit of Christ, uttered things they did not understand, inquired into them, and tried to search them out. Now, if it is meant by this that they had no understanding at all of the things concerning which they spoke, that is not what Peter says. What Peter is urging is that they spoke beforehand of the sufferings that Christ was to endure, and of His subsequent glories. Plainly, therefore, they understood that Christ was to come, would suffer, and then be glorified. The death, resurrection and exaltation of the Messiah is clearly taught in the Old Testament writings. That they fully understood all this no one will claim, but that they did more or less apprehend these things cannot be denied. What then did they search out? Peter tells us. He says they also searched for the time which the Spirit signified as to the fulfilment of the things they had spoken of. And what was the result of their search ? What answer did they get to their inquiry ? That the things they proclaimed were not for the time then present-were not to be fulfilled in their days. They were therefore ministering for others of a future day.

Now notice what Peter further urges. He has referred to the Spirit of Christ in them, not as come down from heaven, but operating in them, enabling them to see what was afar off and to embrace hopes He had set before them. They thus could speak of having promises. The Holy Spirit had not come down from heaven, they could not therefore speak of having the earnest of the things promised. But the Holy Spirit having come down from heaven to us, there is a sense in which the things promised are in present possession. In having the Spirit we have begun to possess; not in the full way in which we shall possess, of course, when we and they will possess them together. But we have what they did not have-the earnest of possession.

1 Peter i:10-12 then cannot be used as militating against what I have been showing, that there is a very true sense in which the New Testament revelations are in the Old Testament – not in New Testament fulness, of course, but still really there in germ, in principle. The beginning of Genesis foreshadows the end of Revelation. The book of Revelation declares the final and eternal blessing that the earliest worthies looked for. Throughout the New Testament there are plainest indications that the light of eternal things, which now shine so brilliantly for us, was the light in which, even if dimly seen, those men of faith lived and walked.

If I seem to have taken unnecessary pains to show this, my answer is that I think it important that all should see that the New Testament evidence is overwhelming and beyond question. Its voice on the matter we are considering is undeniable. It confirms us in the .hope that we shall find definite teaching in the Old Testament on the subject of man's eternal future; that there are pronouncements there on the final stage of human existence ; that it has something to say to men about their ultimate destiny; and that, with more or less precision, it speaks on what that destiny will be.

At all events, one result of our inquiry as to the New Testament's voice on an Old Testament doctrine of man's immortality should be to quicken in us the desire to investigate the Old Testament itself. To this investigation we shall turn with increased interest, with confidence, and great expectation. We are encouraged to believe that it will not be a vain and fruitless effort to gather up the testimony of the Old Testament as to the end to which man, whether of that time or of this, is on his way.

It may be well perhaps to close this chapter with a statement of the questions which we shall need to keep before our minds as we search the Old Testament writings:

Do they teach that man was created to live forever?

Is it their doctrine that by sin man has forfeited eternal existence ?

Is existing as a disembodied spirit man's eternal destiny ?

Is the resurrection of the body taught in the Old Testament ?

Does it teach that all the dead will be raised, or only those who have died in the faith ?

Does it show to any extent the difference in the ultimate condition of the just and the unjust ?

Does it permit the application of the terms "life and incorruptibility" to both the just and the unjust after resurrection ?

Does it indicate that divine life, in principle or any measure of activity, was in the souls of those whose faith was set on eternal things ?

It will be evident to every one that in seeking the Old Testament answers to these questions we shall need to take into consideration the subject of death:What is it? Is it the cessation of being? Is it the dissolution of the present form of being ? Is it necessarily a temporal thing ? Does the Old Testament give any hints as to the difference between the first and second death ? Does it suggest or imply that the second death is a permanent and eternal condition of conscious beings ?

May we be kept in the sense of our dependence upon what God has revealed." May He guide us to the truth, and may we have hearts ready to hear God's voice on these momentous questions, involving the eternal destiny of men. C. Crain

(To be continued.)