THE INTERMEDIATE STATE BETWIXT DEATH AND THE JUDGMENT. BY REV. CHAUNCEY W. FITCH, D.D., AUTHOR OF " JAIMES, THE LORD's BROTHER." H. B. DURAND, 11 BIBLE HOUSE. 1868. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. "THE beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." —LKE xvi. 22, 23. THEsE words present to us the state of two men immediately after their death. "It is appointed unto men once to die: but after this the judgment." Our thoughts are often directed to that "everlasting punishment" or ">eternal life" which awaits us after the Judge shall have passed sentence in the " great day." f Few persons, however, have very clear ideas respecting what shall be their state during the long ages which intervene betwixt death and the judgment. I now call your attention to what the Scriptures teach respecting that intermediate state into which we enter at death, and in which we are to continue till "the trumpet shall sound, I Heb. ix. 27. f Matt. xxv. 46. 4 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. and the dead shall be raised."* This question must be decided exclusively by Scripture, because it extends beyond the limits of human experience into "That undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveller returns." I will show, first, that there is a space of time between death and the judgment; and then, what is the state of man during that time. St. Paul says, " God hath appointed a day in which HIe will judge the world." t There is to be a day of judgment. When is it to be? Christ says, " When thou makest a feast, call the poor; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."' The judgment, then, is to be at the time of the resurrection. When is the resurrection to be? -Martha said of her brother, (and Christ had been her teacher,) "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." When is to be the last day? WVhen the angel, " standing upon the sea and upon the earth, shall swear by Him that liveth for ever and ever, that there shall be time no * 1 Cor. xv. 52. f Acts xvii. 31. I Luke xiv. 13, 14. ~ John xi. 24. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 5 longer;"* then will be the last day. But that time has not come yet.' Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, and He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."lt That coming of the Son of Man we have not seen yet. "But the day of the Lord will come, as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."T That must be the last day, and "the end of the world." If the resurrection of the dead is to be at the last day, they err from the truth who say the resurrection is past already, or that every man's resurrection takes place when he dies; for St. Paul says,, " Christ was the first that should rise from the dead."~ There was no resurrection, therefore, before Christ arose. "He was the first-born from the dead;" jH "the first-fruits of them that slept."** Those generations of men who died before the coming of Christ were * Rev. x. 6. t Matt. xxiv. 31.: 2 Peter iii. 10. ~ Acts xxvi. 23. Col. i. 18. ** 1 Cor. xv. 20. 1* 6 THE INTERMEDIATE ST ATE. still waiting for their resurrection when He arose. Since the full recompense of the righteous is not to be given them till the resurrection of the just, it is not given them immediately when they die. The righteous dead are waiting till the resurrection. Betwixt death and the judgment, therefore, there intervenes a space of time. II. What do the Scriptures teach respecting the state of man during this intervening time? If those holy men of old, who would not accept of deliverance from death that they might obtain a better resurrection, are waiting to receive their recompense at the resurrection of the just, what are they receiving now, and where are they now, whilst waiting for the resurrection in the last day? What takes place with man at death? Death is the separation of soul and body. "The dust then returns to the earth as it was," and there will remain till "all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and come forth; they that have done good, to the resurrection of life; they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation." I proceed now to show that the destination * Eccl. xii. 7. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 7 of the soul is different from that of the body. It retains its consciousness, either in comfort or torment, after death. Christ said, "Fear not those who kill the body; but are not able to kill the soul."* The soul, then, does not share the fate of the body. It still lives when the body dies. "Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul." "I am in a strait betwixt two," said the Apostle, "having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better; nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." t To say, that it is far better for a good man to depart from his flesh than to remain in it is to say, that his soul will be happier when it is separated from the body, than whilst in connection with it. To be happy, it must be conscious. Again, the same Apostle says, " Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. We are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."~ IHow can a man be absent from his body? As a prisoner can escape when his prison doors are thrown open, and he flies to where loved ones await him. That happy * Matt. x. 28. t Philipp. i. 23.: 2 Cor. v. 6. 8 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. meeting will take place the moment the spirit is set at liberty. The comforting Saviour says, " To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." * As soon as the happy soul is released from the body, that very day it is present with the Lord. Our text presents to us distinctly these two truths: that the soul lives after death, and that it is in comfort or torment immeTdiately. " The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." The allusion here is to the ancient custom of reclining on couches at their feasts, as the beloved John leaned on Jesus' breast at the last supper. The blessedness of the future is elsewhere represented by "' coming from the east and the west, and sitting down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." Thus, the soul of the beggar, who died of want at the gate of a rich man, Abraham receives to the " communion of saints, to the blessed company of the spirits of just men made perfect." The rich man recognized him from the faroff place where he was in torments. This answers the question, " Shall we recognize each other in the spirit world?" We shall. But our Lord assures us that this recognition will X Luke xxiii. 43. t Matt. viii. 11. TIlE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 9 not be as many suppose; for the relations that we sustain to each other in this world will not be continued beyond this life. The woman who had been the wife of seven husbands here will be the wife of neither there.* They do not meet in the spirit world as husbands and wives, as parents and children. Those relationships and loves, which are only of the body, and for the purposes of this world, we may, without regret, leave with the body in the dust; but souls that are kindred to ours we shall surely meet again, where kindred spirits meet. The parting from loved ones, who are dear to God and us, is but for a little while; we should not think of them as lost or dead. "They have but reached the spirit shore: Not lost, but hidden from the sight; Not dead, but only gone before." There will be recognitions hereafter; but then the fact that Lazarus was borne by the angels into Abraham's bosom, whom doubtless he had never seen till then, would seem to teach that the happy meetings hereafter will be of those who are kindred in spirit, not kindred after the flesh. Moses and Elias, who met on the mount of transfiguration, had lived * Luke xx. 34, 35. 10 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. seven hundred and fifty years apart in this life.* Though they had never seen each other in the flesh, their souls were kindred, and they met, as kindred spirits shall. The rich man, though he did not meet with Lazarus, recognized him afar off; but not as they were related in this life. He was no longer rich, Lazarus was no longer- a beggar. Abraham reminds the rich man of this change; that whilst living he had chosen for his portion the pleasures of sin for a season: " Son, remember thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, likewise Lazarus evil things; now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." t Observe, now, the hopeless condition of the rich man. He offered two prayers to Abraham, (the only instance on record of praying to a departed saint, and it gives no encouragement to pray to the dead for ourselves or for others.) Neither of those prayers was that he might be delivered from that place. He knew too well where he was to ask for deliverance, or to hope for it; nor did he pray that his friends might be urged to have masses said for the repose of his soul. He had never heard of Purgatory, and of being prayed out of it; for the good * Luke ix. 30; Deut. xxxiv. 5; 2 Kings ii. 11. f Luke xvi. 25. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 11 reason that Purgatory was not invented till long after the Bible was written. HIe prayed, rather in despair than hope; first, that- Lazarus might be sent to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue, as he was tormented in that flame. Abraham answered, "Betwixt us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence." This would teach that souls in torment cannot come out, nor can others go to their relief. It is, therefore, not a Purgatory. All hope for himself being gone, he next prays for his brothers. (Possibly he felt the gnawings of remorse for helping to prepare them to share with him that dread abode. And perhaps companions in sin here may aggravate each other's torments hereafter.) Then he said, "I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send Lazarus to my father's house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment." Oh! what prayers may remorse wring out of the guilty soul, when too late to offer prayer. Though this last petition of despair was not granted, blessed be God, Abraham did not say 12 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. it was because there was an impassable gulf betwixt the spirits of the just and the children of God in this world. There is no such barrier; for on the mount of transfiguration "there talked with Jesus two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem."* These were two men come back from the spirit world, Men, once, like us, with suffering tried, But now with glory crowned. Blessed spirits departed can revisit the blessed on earth. When spirits made perfect meet spirits on earth'Tis good to be there. The souls of the departed do exist-shall we not say, in angel form?-and do sometimes act as ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation. But their mission to earth is a heavenly mission, of God's sending; not a fickle visit, subject to the capricious call of the ungodly. It is not by thumping on tables, mutterings under the floor, peeping in obscure corners, or beating on drums in darkened rooms, for the idle enter*Luke ix. 30. TIHE INTERMEDIATE STATE.'13 tainment of silly sinners, that Moses and Elias revisit our world.? Among the heathen divers methods were re — sorted to of learning hidden things which ares known only to Omniscience. Impostors would take advantage of this superstition and pretend to hold communication with the invisibleworld, and sometimes hold intercourse with the spirits of the dead. They were called by a variety of names,, according to the methods they adopted. As they were all wicked impostors, deceiving the people, they were one and all condemned by that God unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and fiom whom no secrets are hid. Deut. xviii. 9, speaking to Moses: " When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these th ngs are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before, * Isaiah viii. 19, 20. 2 14 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. thee." A necromancer is one who professes to hold intercourse with the spirits of the dead. King Saul, we read in 1 Sam. xxviii. 3, " had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land." Yet such is the power of superstition that this very Saul, " when he inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, There is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor. And Saul disguised himself, and went."' (1 Sam. xxviii. 6-8.) What that woman really was is explained by the Septuagint Greek translation, made two hundred and eighty-five years before Christ. There she is called'yyaaTrpltpvog, ecjnggastrinmu-.thos, literally a ventriloquist, one who can talk with the lips closed, making the sound within them, but making it appear to come from down in the ground, or elsewhere. I have seen a man open a trap-door, and, stooping down, pretend to hold a dialogue with a person down in the bottom of the well. If he had been wicked enough, like the witch of En-dor,:-to pretend that he was talking with the spirit THE INTERM3EDIATE STATE. 15 of some one that was dead, it would have been easy for many in the audience to believe it. Doubtless this ventriloquist at En-d or meant to play off that trick on Saul; but it turned out very differently from what she expected. God took the thing in hand, as He says, Ez. xiv. 7: "Every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to inquire of him concerning me; I the Lord will answer him by myself." If-now, When Saul called for Samuel to come, God fulfilled that threat, and answered himself by sending Samuel, we can understand why his unexpected appearance frightened the woman, and she screamed, as well she might. Verse 12: "Saul said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice." The fright of this woman at the sudden appearing of Samuel was as natural as that of Balaame at the unexpected appearing of the angel whom God sent to withstand him in the way. It was not at the call of Balaarm that the angel came. It was not at the bidding of that wicked woman that Samuel appeared to I6 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. Saul. Samuel took no notice of the woman; but in the name of God addressed himself directly to Saul. This case of the ventriloquist witch of En-dor does not encourage the hope that wicked people, who cast off the fear of God, can call back the spirits of thb departed, or extort information from the dead which God is unwilling to give. Christ says, (Rev. iii. 7,) "He hath the key, and openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth." God says expressly by the prophet Isaiah, (viii. 19,) " When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits "-the ventriloquists-" and unto wizards that peep and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? forthe living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." If the neglecters of the Bible would seek for hidden truth by consulting the dead and any answer were returned, God would give it Himself,- and that answer which He has given once for all: " They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. If they hear not Moses and the prophets, the Scriptures and the ministry they have, neither would they be persuad* See Barnes' Notes on Isaiah viii. 19. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 17 ed, though one rose from the dead." If Lazarus had gone from the bosom of Abraham to preach to the living, he would doubtless have been unheeded, as was Lazarus the brother of Martha and Mary, whom Christ raised from the dead. The Jews, instead of being persuaded by him, sought to put Lazarus to death. It is both wicked and useless to consult the dead. God has forbidden it. Besides, those in comfort know that their counsel would not be heeded and will not come; those in torment are shut in by an impassable gulf and cannot come out if they would. Consulting the spirits of the dead is a weak and wicked delusion. The present state of the rich man and Lazarus, the one in comfort, the other in torment, teaches that the soul, separate from the body, lives on, and where it is now there it will remain till the resurrection. This is clearly true of the wicked. If the soul slept in a state of unconsciousness from death till the resurrection, there would be a long peace to the wicked; and Judas Iscariot would now be sleeping in long repose. But it is not so. The happy good can say, "For me to die is gain;"* and the suicide profits nothing by plunging out of the miseries of this life into Phil. i. 21. 2* 18. TIHE INTERMEDIATE STATE. the greater torments of the other world. He had "better bear the ills he has than fly to others he knows not of." It is interesting to observe that the heathen Greeks and Romans, whilst holding to the truth that the soul continues to exist, yet believed that for all men its future is so undesirable that Homer sings-that " King Achilles, in the realms below, Thus breathed his griefs in tones of woe: Talk not of' ruling,' in this dismal gloom. Rather I choose laboriously to bear A world of woes, and breathe the upper air, A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread, Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead."* The Romans to the present day, and all who adhere to the Church of Rome, retain much of this superstitious dread of the immediate future after death. Hence, when a member of the Church of Rome dies, whether layman, priest, bishop, cardinal, or pope, masses are said for the repose of his soul, implying that it is in a state of unrest and misery. The departed are represented as crying out, in the words of Job, " Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, 0 ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me."f This would seem to imply that * Odyssey xi. 487. f Job xix. 21. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 19 they consider death to: them always a change for the worse. But it is not so to those who die in the Lord; for they are blessed, and they rest.* The Christian need not fear that his first exclamation, after he is absent from. the body and present with the Lord, willbe, " Have pity upon me, 0 ye my friends.'' Lazarus did not call for pity from Abraham's bosom. He was not in purgatory. He was in comfort. The rich man, though in torments, was not in purgatory, but in a place from'which there was no deliverance. All the masses of all'the saints, living and dead, could not bridge over that impassable gulf, and set one prisoner free or send one drop of comfort there. There is no purgatory, neither for the righteous nor for the wicked. The word is not found in Scripture;, no place like it is spoken of or alluded to in Scripture. That world which receives the disembodied soul is not a purgatory, but a rest and comfort which a Christian may pray to enjoy; it is not a purgatory, because from its torments the wicked may not hope to escape. Where is the soul betwixt death and the resurrection? Rev. xiv. 13. 20 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. " The spirit land! Where is that land, Of which our fathers tell, On whose mysterious, viewless strand Earth's parted millions dwell?" I will now show that the righteous do not, at death, go at once to that place which is to be their final home after the judgment. The existence of man is marked by three different stages. First: The soul is united to a mortal body. This is the state of all the living. Secondly: The soul, at death, is separate from the body. This is the present state of all the dead. Thirdly: The soul, at the resurrection, will be reunited to the risen body, as Christ's was wheniHe arose. But the body will then be changed from a natural to a spiritual-from a corruptible to an incorruptible body.* Whilst in these different stages of existence, the soul will be in three defferent places. The place where the disembodied spirits are is not properly heaven. St. Peter says, (Acts ii. 34,) "David is not ascended into the heavens." David, the man after God's own heart, hath not yet ascended into heaven. We should, then, conclude that none others had. This, Christ says, is true. John iii. 13: "No man hath ascended up to * 1 Cor. xv. 44, 53. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 21 heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man." The dead, then, are not yet in heaven. Our Lord said, again, to Mary, (John xx. 17,) " Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father" —that is, to heaven. God is in heaven. Christ had said to the penitent thief: "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."* He had been in paradise during those three days, but said He had not been in heaven. Paradise, then, is not fheaven. If David hath not ascended to heaven-if no man but Christ hath ascended to heaven-if Christ had been in paradise, but had not been in heaven, (when Mary met Him at the sepulchre,) then paradise is not heaven. The penitent thief went to paradise, but not to heaven. The place to which the souls of the righteous go at death is not heaven. I have spoken of the three stages of man's existence. The Son of Man has been in all three of these stages, and in all the places which we, His followers, shall occupy. He was in the body, as we now are. He was in the disembodied state, as all the dead now are, His spirit being in paradise whilst His body was in the * Luke xxiii. 43. 22 THE INTERMEDIATlE STATE. sepulchre. On the third day the spirit returned, reanimated the body, and, with that body, He ascended to heaven. As Christ alone has risen from the dead, He alone, of all the dead, has ascended to heaven. (Enoch and Elijah did not die.) Believers, who follow Christ in the likeness of His death, shall also in the likeness of His resurrection; when they go to heaven, it will be with their risen bodies, like, Christ.* As yet, however, the souls of the departed are in the spirit world, waiting for the redemption of the body. Do you ask the name of that spirit world which is neither earth, nor heaven, nor hell? I can give it you as the Evangelists wrote it, in Greek; I cannot give it you in English, for we have no word in the English language to express it. In the Greek Testament it is'A6dd, (Hades,) which is sometimes translated grave. "O death! where is thy sting? O Hades! where is thy victory?"t translated, " O grave! where is thy victory?" It is more frequently translated hell. " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell."It There are Greek words which mean grave and hell. Hades never means either of these, but a place essentially different from * Rom. vi. 5. f 1 Cor. xv. 55. t Acts ii. 27. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 23 both. This is one reason why those who read English only have so confused ideas respecting the state of man betwixt death and the resurrection; because the word which the Evangelists used to express it has been translated'by words which have a very different meaning. The Chinese language labors under a similar and still greater defect, having no word which means God. The American missionaries have translated it by a word which means a spirit; not, however, conveying the idea of an infinite God. The English missionaries have translated it by Shangti, the name of the principal Chinese idol, which is still further from conveying the idea of Jehovah. So that the reader of the Chinese Bible is in danger of confounding the Creator of the universe with ghosts and idols, as the reader of our English Bible, from a defect in our language, is liable to confound Hades, the world of spirits, with the grave and hell, which mean something entirely unlike it. If the word Hcades had been left in our English Bible, as the word pcaradise was left, without being translated, then, if the reader did not understand the meaning of the word, he would know it meant a place which had an appropriate name of its own. 24 TIHE INTERMEDIATE STATE. (When persons say of a good man, " He is gone to his reward in heaven," it does little practical harm; for, if David hath not yet ascended to heaven, he will; it is only a question of time. His state is " far better" than it was in the body, but the judgment-day will reveal a greater glory in him still.)* There is no ambiguity respecting the spirit world in the original Scriptures. There it is Hades, which is the name for the abode of disembodied spirits, good or bad. It is as general in its meaning as the word grave.. To say that a man is gone to his grave expresses no opinion as to his character; so, to say a man is in I-ades, though it is generally translated hell, asserts nothing as to his character. - It does not imply that he is undergoing punishment; for Abraham and Lazarus were in Hades, in sight of the rich man, though in a very different condition. They were in different parts of the same world. The word Hades is used in these several passages, which will serve to explain its meaning. Christ, speaking of His resurrection, (Acts ii. 27,) says: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One * Rom. viii. 18. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 25 to see corruption." That is, the human soul of Christ (for He was the Son of man as well as the Son of God) should return from the spirit world before the-body turned to corruption. St. Peter says (Acts ii. 31): "David spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, neither did His flesh see corruption." Observe that the soul of Christ was absent from the body but a part of three days. Because the spirit reanimated the body so soon, corruption was prevented. In the Creed we express the belief that the dying Christ went to that place of departed spirits. "Hlie was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into.Hades, the third day He rose from the dead; He ascended into heaven." Though in English, for the want of a proper word, we say, He descended into hell, yet in the original it is Ilades. The Creed, like the New Testament, was'written in Greek, and one explains the other. Our Lord says, in our text, (Luke xvi. 22,)' The rich man died and was buried; and in lrades he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham afar off." If the rich man was in Hades, and there saw Abraham and Lazarus, and if Christ descended into Hades, then that word Hades must be ap3 26 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. plied to all the spirit world, and not to that part only where the wicked go. St. John, (Rev. xx. 13,) describing the resurrectionl of the body, and the return of the soul from the spirit world to be judged, says: " The sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them: and they were judged." That is, the sea will give up the bodies of the drowned, and the graves will give up the bodies of the buried, and Hades will give back the spirit, at the resurrection, that the whole man, body and soul, may receive the things done in the body. Note that death, in the New Testament, is the word to denote tzhat which retains the lifeless body, whilst Hades has possession of the soul. This explains the language of Christ, (Rev. i. 18,) " I am He which bath the keys of Hades and of death;" meaning that Christ has supreme power over the dead, to unlock the grave and bring the body to life, and to unlock the spirit world and bring the soul from Hades. This was the idea which St. Paul had in mind when he said, " 0 death! where is thy sting6? O Hades! where is thy victory?"* Christ has the keys to unlock you both; therefore, we will I- 1 Cor. xv. 55. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 27 not fear to die; for neither body nor soul can be detained in the resurrection. The sacred writers use the word Hades for the world of departed spirits in general; but, when necessary, they could be more particular. When the Saviour would speak comfort to a dying man, instead of saying, To-day shalt thou be with me in Hades-that is, where all the dead go —He said, " To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise," that region of the spirit world where the blessed go-that part of Hades where Christ Himself was going. St. Paul speaks of this paradise, and gives it another name (2 Cor. xii. 2): "I knew a man above fourteen years ago.. caught up to the third heaven... I knew such a one... how that he was caught up into paradise." This third heaven, or paradise, is not ":heaven itself;" for none but Christ hath ascended there.* Those who mistake paradise for heaven, and Hades for hell, may be perplexed to reconcile the two expressions of our Lord, " To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise," and " Thou wilt not leave my soul in lades." There is no con-,tradiction. He was in that part of Hades which is called Paradise. America is the general name of all this western continent, but United States * John iii. 13. 28 THE INTETRM IEDIATE STATE. is the happy part of America. So Hades is the name of all the spirit world, but paradise is the blessed part of that spirit world. If Paradise is the name of that division in the spirit-world to which the spirits of: just men mfiade perfect go, whilst waiting for the redemption of the body, what name is given in Scripture to that other, lowver part of Hades, where the rich man was in torments? It is several times alluded to, and named, and described, and we are told who they are that occupy it; for wicked men are not there alone, as the righteous are not alone in paradise, but are "present with the Lord." 2 Peter ii. 4: "God spared not the angels that sinned, but Taprapwaag, (Tartarosas,) sending them to Tartarus, delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." Christ says (Matt. xxv. 30): "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." So that fallen angels, as well as fallen men, are there, where no light of hope can enter, under darkness, "reserved unto the judgment of the great day and perdition of ungodly men."* St. John often calls that place of darkness the abyss, translated bottomless pit. Rev. xx. * 2 Peter iii. 7. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 29 1-3: " I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the abyss, (the bottomless pit,) and laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, till the thousand years were ended." Rev. ix. 1: " To the angel was given the key of the well of the abyss; and he opened the bottomless pit." Rev. xvii. 8: "The beast which thou sawest shall ascend out of the abyss, (the bottomless pit,) and go into perdition." Christ, who has the keys of Hades and of death, shall unlock that abyss and summon its prisoners to judgment, (Jude 6;) from that tribunal to go forth into perdition. Christ says (Matt. xxv. 46) that "from the judgment the righteous shall go away into eternal life," that is, in heaven. Of that heaven I can now only say that " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." * But is there a place to receive the wicked, when they go away into everlasting punishment, into perdition? After death and Hades have delivered up the dead that are in them, X 1 Cor. ii. 9. 3* 30 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. and they are judged to " depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,"* is there a hell to receive them, which shall never be unlocked, eternally? Alas! there is. It hath both a local habitation and a name. Our Lord has both spoken the name and described the place in words that burn. M' ark ix. 43-48: "It is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into reevva, (Geenna,) into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched." That is not Hades; it is Geenna. It means hell, and has no other meaning. There is no end to its torments. Again- Christ says (Matt. xxiii. 29, 33): "Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" That is Geenna and not Hades. Again our Lord names and describes the place of everlasting punishmerit (Matt. x. 28): "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Geenna (hell)." That is not Itades; it is Geenna, and means what we all understand by the word hell. Let no man deceive you with vain words, * Matt. xxv. 41. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 31 saying there is no hell, because HIades does not mean hell; but Geenna does. And the unstable and unlearned, who wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction, will find it so. As the righteous do not ascend to heaven till after the judgment, because their risen,glorified bodies are to ascend, so the wicked do not go away into everlasting punishment in Geenna (hell) till after the resurrection; because the body is cast with the soul into Geenna. If Geenna is to receive the body as well as the soul, it must be different from Hades, which receives the soul only, while the grave has the body. And Hades will be unlocked, and. surrender the soul, when the sea and the grave give up the body for judgment; but Geenna will never yield its prisoners; its fire is never quenched, its worm never dies, the smoke of its torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.y It is an everlasting fire, as perpetual as the, existence of the devil and his angels. This is the second death, and will be followed by no resurrection.* Whilst the body is in the earth and the soul is yet in the spirit-world, there is still a future of thrilling expectation to all the dead. The believer in Christ is looking hopefully for the * Rev. xx. 14. 32 -THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. redemption of his body, and his final recompense at the resurrection of the just. The disobedient and unbelieving have a certain fearful looking for of judgment. Some suppose that when these bodies are laid in the ground we have done with them for ever. Not so. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies.* Christ shall then change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.f No, brethren, "These mouldering forms may sleep below The peaceful church-yard turf, Or where the tangled sea-weeds grow, Beneath the ocean's surf. They shall not always slumber there, As things of nothing worth: A home awaits them, bright and fair, Above this fleeting earth." The resurrection in the last day will be literally a rising of the body. That this is possible was proved at the Crucifixion; for then "the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after Christ's resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.": We are not informed of the des* Rom. viii. 11. f Phil. iii. 21. t Matt. xxvii. 52. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 3.3 tination of those bodies, therefore cannot tell whither they went; but their rising served to answer this question respecting the dead: With what body do they come? They will arise, as our Lord did, with the same body that was buried. Christ said to the astonished disciples (Luke xxiv. 39): "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." "Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be no longer faithless, but believing."* As further proof that it was His own identical body, " IJe said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And -they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of a honeycomb. And He took it, and did eat before them." (Luke xxiv. 41-43.) Peter said (Acts x. 41): " We did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead." Yet, though it was the same Jesus, His body was materially changed, having properties which it did not possess when it was a mortal body. For, when He sat at meat with the two disciples at Emmaus, "and their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, He vanished out of their sight." (Luke xxiv. 31.) Again, "when the disciples were within, then camne * John xx. 27. 34 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst." (John xx. 26.) With that same body, whilst they looked and were talking with Him, He ascended to heaven.* But since flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,t that natural bodly was changed into a glorious body,t as ours also shall be, " in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised, and we shall be changed."~ When this resurrection and change shall pass upon all the dead, then will take place the awful judgment. Thus St. John describes it:11 "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hades delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works." From that judgment, Christ says, "The wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous * Acts i. 10, 11, 12. f 1 Cor. xv. 50. i: Phil. iii. 21. ~ 1 Cor. xv. 52. II Rev. xx. 12, 13. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 35 into life eternal." "They shall go no more out."* Now, of the things that I have spoken, this is the sum. At death, the body returns to the dust, as it was; the soul goes to the world of spirits, called by the general name of Hades; the good to that happy part of it called Paradise, where they are blessed; the bad are cast into outer darkness, where they are in torments. This separation of the soul and body is not to continue for ever. There is to be a resurrection of all the dead, when the natural body will be changed to a spiritual body. Then, in the gireat day, the Judge shall pass that sentence which shall be eternal. To the ungodly, on the left hand, He will say, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." To those on His right hand He will say, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."t In the language of our Burial Service: "They shall then have their perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in Christ's eternal and everlasting glory." "There, having all things done, And all their conflicts past, * Rev. iii. 12. f Matt. xxv. 36 THIE INTERMEDIATE STATE. They then behold their victory won, And stand complete at last." If these things are so, brethren, the progress of the wicked from time to eternity is always downward, going from bad to worse. In the present life they "are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dift."* That is bad. When, in Hades, they lift up their eyes in torments, that is worse. But when they shall go away into everlasting punishment, destroyed both soul and body in hell, that will be worst. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."t On the other hand, "the path of the just is as the shilling light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." The Christian's progress is always upward, from good to better, from better to best. In the present world he can say, with St. Peter, " Master, it is good for us to be here;" but then, with St. Paul, "to depart and be with Christ is far better;" but when he shall hear the Judge say,''Come, ye blessed, inherit the kingdom prepared for you," then it will be best. Good, -Better, BEST! "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!" * Is. lvii. 20. f Is. lvii. 21.