, or may be a popular expression denoting, with
general indefiniteness, a very long duration. Since in all Greek
literature, sacred and profane, [non-ASCII characters] is applied
to things that end, ten times as often as it is to things immortal,
no fair critic can assert positively that when it is connected
with future punishment it has the stringent meaning of
metaphysical endlessness. On the other hand, no one has any
critical

3 See Christian Examiner for March, 1854, pp. 280-297.

right to say positively that in such cases it has not that
meaning. The Master has not explained his words on this point, but
has left them veiled. We can settle the question itself concerning
the limitedness or the unlimitedness of future punishment only on
other grounds than those of textual criticism, even on grounds of
enlightened reason postulating the cardinal principles of
Christianity and of ethics. Will not the unimpeded Spirit of
Christ lead all free minds and loving hearts to one conclusion?
But that conclusion is to be held modestly as a trusted inference,
not dogmatically as a received revelation.

Another point in the Savior's teachings which it is of the utmost
importance to understand is the sense in which he used the Jewish
phrases "Resurrection of the Dead" and "Resurrection at the Last
Day." The Pharisees looked for a restoration of the righteous from
their graves to a bodily life. This event they supposed would take
place at the appearance of the Messiah; and the time of his coming
they called "the last day." So the Apostle John says, "Already are
there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time."
Now, Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, clothed in his functions,
though he interpreted those functions as carrying an interior and
moral, not an outward and physical, force. "This is the will of
Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth
on him should have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at
the last day." Again, when Martha told Jesus that "she knew her
brother Lazarus would rise again in the resurrection at the last
day," he replied, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." This
utterance is surely metaphorical; for belief in Jesus does not
prevent physical dissolution. The thoughts contained in the
various passages belonging to this subject, when draw