Christ Preaching to the Spirits in Prison [pp. 636-650]

CHRIST PREACH!EG TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON.
ent. He who loves truth and loves work is in no danger of rusting froml ilactivity, even if his teachers have done their work so
well that he is not co- ipelled to do it over again. And his finding
that his masters have done their work very coarsely, is not
likely to timulate to excellenee one who does not love truth
anct w'u'.
V. 5inally, popular exposition should be spiritual. This is immeaS-urably miore imnportant than all the rest.
ART. IV.-CHRIST PREACHING TO THE SPIRITS IN
PRISON.
By Rev. AARON WVILLIAMS, D.D., Leetsdale, Pa.
1 Peter, iii. 19: 4 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison,"
&c.; with chap. iv. 6.: " For, for this cause was the Gospel preached; also to
whom that are dead," &c.
These are undoubtedly among the most difficult passages in the
Scriptures. Augustine, Luther, and other eminent interpreters
have confessed that they did not fully understand them. The
attempts at exposition have been very various and very conflicting, and the more one examines them the more is he bewildeeIed. The only safe course, therefore, is to come back to
the simple exegesis of the original Greek. This is indeed simple and obvious enough. The difficulty with the interpreters
seems to be to reconcile the obvious meaning with the "analogy
of faith." They find these connected passages to afford some
apparent s1,pporlt to the Romish doctrine of Purgatory, which
is so confesedoy nuscriptural that something else mest be
me ant.
Thle presert doiter duos nol believe in Purgatory or anything
like it; and' n,y b'I e defmed presumptuous in this attempt to
bring his toi,r light o hEe elucidation of a passage which the
great liL'ts P, A; i obt-,scurity. He proposes only to show,
as briefly as ps- ane, anid,with little citation of authorities, how
far he hi- s b — able to feel his way toward a true interpreta
63~3
[Oct.