ran away to escape being kissed. You can
see it had no awful meaning necessarily connected with it. Therefore
it did not seem repulsive to translate the Greek word "Hades," the
Unseen, by the English "Hell." But it has become very misleading in
later days, and our own conservative instincts which prevent our
altering the word in the creed has helped to perpetuate the error.

The revised version has put all this right, _e. g._, "His soul was not
left in Hades (not hell), nor did His flesh see corruption" (Acts ii.
31). "I have the keys of death and of Hades" (Rev. i. 18). At the end
of the world "death and Hades gave up the dead" (Rev. xx. 13). In
Hades (not hell) "the rich man lifts up his eyes, being in torment"
(St. Luke xvi. 23).

Section 5

The Bible, then, teaches to every careful student that there is the
Intermediate Life beyond the grave, a vivid conscious life. That all
men go there when they depart this life. No man has ever yet gone to
Heaven. No man it would seem has ever yet gone to Hell. No man has
ever yet been finally judged. No man has ever yet been finally damned.
Thank God for that at any rate. The Bible teaches that all who have
ever left this earth are waiting yet--from King Alfred to King Edward;
from St. Paul to Bishop Westcott; from the poor struggler of the
ancient days in the morning of history to the other poor struggler who
died last night.

We are now to study this next stage of our history, beginning at what
we call death which is really birth into the next stage of life, just
as the death of the caterpillar is the birth of the butterfly. In this
next stage are living to-day our dear children and brothers and sisters
and wives and husbands within the veil. In a very few years we shall
all have gone through--each of us just the same "I."

The Bible does not reveal very much about it as was to be expected.
The Bible is intended to guide our conduct and prepare us for a final
Heaven. Therefore it busies itself with the responsibilities of this
present life and the glories of the final prospect--touching very
lightly the intermediate stages, just as we press on a boy the
importance of his school days and the high prospects for his manhood,
touching very little the stages between.[1] But there is much more to
be learned from Scripture about this Intermediate Life than most people
think.

[1] There is a further reason as regards St. Paul's epistles, which
form one-th