"But I am in a strait

21, 23, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better." It seems clear from these and other passages, that the believer goes at death immediately into the presence of Christ in heaven.

We are nowhere told that absolute perfection is a requisite for entrance into heaven. It is the soul who by living faith in Christ is united to him, that is prepared to enter into heaven. Christ tells us that the soul who has believed on him "hath everlasting life, and is passed from death into life." He tell us very clearly that all who are his abide in him, and he in them, as the branch abides in the vine, etc. They are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who abides with them forever. He is the body, and we are the members; he is the head, and we are the body; he is the bridegroom, and we are the bride, etc. Paul expresses this oneness with Christ as so real and vital that he was crucified with Christ, and yet he lived, because Christ lived in him (Gal. ii. 20).

Must we suppose that a soul who has thus passed from death into eternal life, and who is thus united to Christ in living and vital union, must at death be shut out of that place where Christ dwells, until the time of the general judgment at the end of the world, in order that he may be perfected? It seems to me that this is contrary to the general tenor of all which God has revealed to us on this subject, and contrary to reason itself.

Can there be any place better adapted to help imperfect souls who are united to Christ, than the heaven where Christ and myriads of perfected beings are, who can lead and help and teach them? Can there be any more joyous service in heaven, or one more pleasing or more full of praise to God, than to lead and teach such souls who are thus united to Christ? Being in this vital union to Christ, they will not oppose him nor the truth. They will not resist the loving leading of those around them; hence there will be no jars, nor disappointments, nor want of harmony. There would be nothing connected with this which would be a source of danger to more perfected souls. There would seem to be nothing in it to detract from the joy or the glory of heaven. Such a service as this would seem greatly to add to the joy and zest of the heavenly life.

This view enables us to suppose that Christ's words and Paul's words, quoted above, mean just what the words express; that Christ comes at death to receive each soul to himself who is spiritually united to him, that he meant just what he said to the dying thief, "To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise;" and that Paul was right when he said, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." We can also understand why Paul had "a desire to depart and be with Christ, for it is far better."

We can also understand something of the condition of that great company of little ones, half the race probably, who pass from earth before they have known sin, and who are yet imperfect. They, too, need not be kept out of heaven, and away from Christ and the teaching and influence of the most perfect beings. They can come in, and be taught and trained under the most favorable

conditions, so favorable, we may believe, that the work of the Holy Spirit, using the truth and these heavenly ministries and minstrelsies, will keep every one of them from going into sin; keep them forever loving and loyal citizens of the heavenly kingdom. The fond mother who is suddenly called from the midst of a family of little ones on earth will at once find absorbing and loving service in the greater family in heaven; she may be more needed there than here.

May not this same principle also explain how that, "in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him" (Acts x. 35)? Yes acceptable to him, and received at death by him into his home in heaven, although some of them may not yet have heard the name of Christ. May we not believe that there are many souls groping for light and salvation in the dark places of this world, who, though they find not here the full light and joy of realized salvation, yet possess an inchoate righteousness, which will admit them at death to the presence of the king of righteousness, that Saviour whom, not having seen or known on earth, they have sought with all their hearts? There certainly seem to be a few, at least, such souls among the millions of those who know not God.

If any such soul in the darkest valley of this earth, conscious of his sin, repenting of it, led by that Spirit whom God gives to all men, seeks with all his heart to escape from sin and find light and life and salvation, and dies in that attitude of mind, so that the first impulse when his eyes are opened to the vision of heaven is to fall in loving adoration at the feet of the glorified Christ with the rapturous thought, Oh, this is he whom I long have sought! must such a soul be shut out of heaven? Is not heaven the place for such a soul? And can there be any more joyous service, or any more pleasing to him who gave his life for all men, than to teach and help such souls on to perfection?

Just here the question may be asked, "Do you not, then, make it possible for some souls to repent and be saved after death?" In reference to this dark and difficult problem, I can only briefly say here, that such a possibility does not follow from the theory above outlined. So far as God's revelation gives us any light, it is vital soul union to Christ which admits to Christ's presence in heaven. For any one who is in such an attitude toward truth as that outlined above, so that, as soon as Christ appears on his vision, there is a joyful response, filling the soul with conscious union to Christ, that soul, it seems to me, was a saved soul in God's sight and one to whom Christ had united himself, one who had within himself the promise and potency of salvation and justification before death, even though he had never heard of Christ.

On the other hand, a soul who dies in such an attitude of indifference or opposition to the truth, that when God and Christ and heaven burst upon his vision at death, he turns his back upon all, and will not enter heaven, where is there any intimation in God's revelation that such a soul will ever be reached and saved after that? What hope does the light of reason give us? May not this deliberate turning against the light and truth which he cannot doubt or deny,

set and fix his soul forever? Is there any hope that after some years or centuries of such continued rejection, he will afterward yield? If there are one or two surface ripples in God's word which, considered alone, might give us some hope, it seems to me that the great ocean currents of Scripture are all against such a hope.

With one other thought, I close. May it not be true that God is accumulating moral sanctions to restrain from evil in his universe, as fast as he wisely can, influences which are to last as long as he will last? Among these influences would be the glorified Christ and his infinite work, showing forth the love of God and the awfulness of sin; also, "the great multitude which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," whom Christ "has redeemed;" also the spectacle of the Satanic spirits, and those souls who "will not come" to Christ that he may give them life.

May not the "end," of which Paul speaks in 1 Cor. xv. 24-28 be that time, when the present dispensation of redeeming and regenerating activity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit shall cease, when the world shall come to an end, when such strong motives to obedience shall have been accumulated, and such an innumerable host of witnesses to the truth of God and the love of God shall have been secured, that, when the lights of the great judgmentday are turned on, vividly flashing into every soul in the universe the results of sin and of salvation through the ages, the incorrigibly evil will find that their power to lead good souls into sin is gone forever, so that, though they may have only rebellion in their hearts, they will be forever powerless to lead others in their evil ways; and the good will gladly remain forever loyal and loving, never yielding to sin? The universe is subjugated to God; Christ can give up this part of his great work and kingdom to the Father; the universe is safe; no new rebellion will ever break forth. Aid then, who shall say that God may not safely go on creating new beings who m the host of those who are already perfected by trial and experience shall teach and train, thus filling up the great universe of God, whose limits no human eye has ever yet discovered?

Nay, more, may he not go on forever enlarging and forever peopling this universe with happy beings, sure that the accumulated influences, with the ever increasing army of glad and loving teachers, will keep them in loyal union to him and to each other forever?

Such a heaven and such an eternal service as are briefly outlined in the above lines, would seem to me to be in harmony with God's nature, with his revelation, and with the aspirations and desires of all his loyal children.

Kyoto, Japan.

J. D. DAVIS.

ARTICLE VIII.

NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

GESENIUS' HEBREW, GRAMMAR. Second American Edition. Revised and Enlarged on the basis of the Twenty-fifth German Edition of Professor E. Kautzsch, D. D., by Edward C. Mitchell, D. D., President of Leland University, New Orleans, La., and Ira M. Price, Ph. D., Leipsic, Associate Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures in the University of Chicago. With full Subject, Scripture, and Hebrew Indexes. Boston: Bradley and Woodruff, Publishers. 1893.

The American edition of Gesenius has remained unchanged from 1880 until now, except for a very few alterations affecting only a paragraph or two. Meantime the German editions have been rapidly following each other. The twenty-fifth of 1889 afforded an entirely new treatment of the Syntax, and rendered a new edition of the translation an imperative necessity, if our students are to be referred to Gesenius for higher syntactical work. If the editors of the Grammar could rid themselves of the idea that it is to be used by beginners, as it is not, they would spare us various footnotes drawing attention to something or other for their benefit. The time has passed when it could advantageously be used for consecutive study in beginning classes; though it must be confessed that the ideal Grammar for that purpose has not been written.

The revision is at hand and we are thankful for it; but would that the first part had been as thoroughly revised as the last part. The volume before us is another witness to our unfortunate method of stereotyping everything; or better, of trying to use plates that have served their day, and should be destroyed. More than half the book is entirely rewritten, and is of course from new plates. It is unfortunate that the rest of them were not thrown away and new ones prepared. Such a course might have been detrimental to the financial interests of the publishers, but their pride should have induced them to make their work uniformly excellent. The Syntax is clearly printed, spacing is uniform, type varies according to sense, pages are of uniform length. The first part presents a wretched appearance in contrast. The old plates are badly damaged. To introduce changes that are absolutely necessary, pages are chopped in half, and the reader can easily discover where the new section begins, by the greater clearness of print, and especially by a variation in the Hebrew type. Spacing and leading correspond, not to the requirements of emphasis and clearness, but to the necessity of making the Sometimes a smaller type has to be used, though the page come out even. text may be as important as what has preceded in larger type. Often an old

paragraph has to be badly cut down to allow other matter to come in, and often an added paragraph is given in merest outline. "Etc., etc." take the place of whole lines of references with important comments. A funny blunder occurs on pages 2 and 3. Page 2 of the first edition has a footnote enumerating some of the men who have contributed to the deciphering of Assyrian cuneiform writing; this note extends to the next page. In the new edition the note gives place very properly to a note stating where are to be found discussions of the importance of Assyrian for Hebrew Philology. This just fills out page 2. Unfortunately the plate of the following page is unaltered, and we have three lines of orphan references, and worse still the break occurs in the midst of a man's name, and there the decapitated trunk stands, the victim of the modern American book-maker's art. Often the same cause leads to absolute ignoring of the literature of the last decade. Page 9, last line, is repeated as the first line of page 10. Two lines are deemed enough to describe the Mesa stone, when the German devotes twenty-one lines to the purpose. In Syntax the spelling "Qerê" is adopted, and a footnote in the proper place early in the book defends it. In some places the plates have been altered accordingly, but often the old form “Qerî ” remains. Even in the index it stands, with an old reference that has been cut out of the text.

Paragraph 7 is in part original, prepared by Professor Price. It centres about a diagram which purports to show graphically the genesis of the Hebrew vowels. The figure seems too complicated and is certainly too indistinctly printed to be of much value.

The chief attraction of the book lies in Part III., treating of Syntax. If we say little upon the excellencies of the new treatment, it is because the German work has been before the public for four years and it has come to seem unnecessary to introduce it. The former edition gave 105 pages to the subject, the present, 221; the very fact of the devotion of so much space to it is wholesome. Students need to be educated up to the knowledge that there is such a thing as Syntax in Hebrew. True, grammarians seem to have forgotten it also, and perhaps commentators have suffered in the past from the same lapse of memory. Late years however have witnessed greater attention to the subject, and exegesis profits by it already.

The old chapters, viz., Syntax of the Noun, of the Pronoun, of the Verb, Connection of the Subject with the Predicate, and Use of Particles, in the order given, now give place to other more comprehensive subjects, in a more logical order of treatment. Chapter I. concerns the separate parts of speech; Chapter II., their combination into sentences and clauses. In Chapter I. the first subject, as in the morphological part of the Grammar, is the Verb, which is discussed in its various tenses and moods, and in its relation to dependent substantives. The Syntax of the Noun and of the Pronoun is treated in much the same order as before, though the amount of matter is nearly doubled.

Chapter II. is entirely reconstructed. The definitions of nominal and verbal sentences are changed. A nominal sentence is one of which the sub