however late, before they died, still we
learn that something more than repentance was needful to them. In this
case, it is clear that instruction was given to them. It would not have
been given if it had not been necessary. And what instruction? Christ
"proclaimed," we are told, to them. What did He proclaim? Surely the
good news of the Gospel, {74} which He had been proclaiming on earth by
the voice of the Apostles. What else did He make known than the mystery
of His Incarnation and the Atonement which He had wrought out upon the
Cross, in bearing the sins of men, and their sins, too, who had so long
been waiting in the Intermediate State, to hear it to their salvation? S.
Peter, therefore, in another place, says, "For this cause," that is,
because Christ will Himself be the Judge of the living and the dead,--"for
this cause was _the Gospel_ preached even to the dead." {75}

Here, then, we have a set of facts which throw light upon some of the
dark places of that unknown and unseen land, the Intermediate State. If
we do justice to our Bibles we must regard these as facts, whether we can
fully explain them or not. Scriptural facts they certainly are. What,
then, can we learn from them? First, we seem to learn this,--that some
provision is made in the Intermediate State for the salvation of those
souls who in this life never heard of Christ, never had a chance, as we
say, of salvation. And when we think of it, does it not seem to belong
to GOD'S eternal justice that souls should not be condemned for that
which they could not help? Every human soul must have had a chance of
knowing Christ, before it can justly be punished for the consequences of
not knowing Him. Countless millions in all ages, since the world began,
in our own land, and in other lands, have never heard the good news of
Jesus Christ in life. It is not so with us. With them it is and has
been so. Christ preached to those who in safe keeping had been waiting
long. Then is it not possible for such as those in all ages to receive
the teaching in the Intermediate Life which they never received in this?
Why should Christ preach to those and not to these?

This hope helps to solve that harassing enigma which perplexes and
oppresses so many of us,--I mean, as to the condition and future destiny
of the heathen, and the outcast, and the blind, and the ignorant. There,
in that stillness of the disembodied life, souls may be taught and
trained to