Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/112

 purpose. Hence we read of their eyes being holden that they should not know Him: and again of their eyes being opened and they knew Him: and He vanished out of their sight. Several cases of His having so appeared to them are recorded. Where was the scene of those appearances? Surely it was not hell! for although the creed adverted to says, "He descended into hell," it limits the period of His duration there to the third day. Neither was it heaven, for of this none of the surroundings which attended those appearances give us any indication. Moreover, it was seven weeks after the time of His resurrection that He ascended into heaven; that event is related in the "Acts:" where then was the scene of His sojourn? It was not specifically either heaven or hell: how plain, then, is it that it was that sheol of the Old Testament; that hades of the New; that intermediate region of which those terms are significant; and which He entered to complete the judgment for which He originally came.

Another argument, powerfully tending to the same conclusion, is presented by two remarkable passages in the Lord's discourse with His disciples. Before His passion, He said unto them, "These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you:" and after His resurrection, He said unto them, "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day." The passion, to which He refers in this passage, was that about which He had frequently spoken to the dis-