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

1874.] CHRIST PREACHING TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON.
the Zenrtroes of India, have to-day many such waiting spirits. Shall
we go and point them to an ark that is still open for them?
If we may be permitted to give the foregoing interpretation to
these obscure passages of Scripture, we certainly follow the plain
legitimate construction of the language, and we avoid the necessity of "handCling deceitfully" the word of God. We give no
countenance to the Romish doctrine of Purgatory, for the spirits
in prison are not supposed to undergo any such purifying fires.
We teach nothing contrary to any well established "analogy of
faith." We hold out no hope ordinarily for the salvation of the
heathen without the Gospel. We account also for the singular
fact which none of the other theories satisfactorily explains, that
the antedliluvians alone are represented as having the Gospel
preached to them after death.
There are undoubtedly difficulties and obscurities still remaining; but what is there that is not obscure in the revelations which
God has given concerning the physical condition of the dead,
both good and bad. Htades is hades still-the world of the un seen-and we shall understand its mysteries only when we enter
there ourselves.
NOTE.-Since the foregoing article was prepared, the attention of the writer
has been called to two recent and learned discussions of the subject; the first
being a series of articles on the T,iduum, in the British and Foreign Evan gelical Review, for 1872-3, and the second a paper by Prof. Bartlett, of
Chicago, in the New E]zglander for October, 1872.
These writers hold in common that the preaching took place in the days
of Noah, and that it was "not Noah, or Christ speaking by Noah, but Christ
himself, the Logos in his pre-incarnate ministry,who was the preacher," and
that the preaching was mainly Providential, "by the ark, and all the divine
dealings, and warnings, and testimonies in Providence, by which the divine
will was made known to the men of that critical epoch."
In opposition to this view little need be said in addition to the foregoing
course of argument. We only remark 1st. That there is no evidence whatever that any of those visible manifest ations of the Logos, or Angel Jehovah, took place in the days of Noah, which
always attended his communications with men in those early ages.
2d. It was the human siirit of Christ that was quickened, and in which
he went and preached to those who were then "dead." The Logos could
not be quickened.
3d. In referring to such passages as Gen. vi. 3, and 1 Pet. i. 10-11, as
if it was the Logos that should " not always strive with man," or as being
"the spirit of Christ that was in the prophets," Prof. B. manifestly con founds the Holy Ghost with the divine nature of Christ.
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