sense government of the moral world, I have but promulgated and re-asserted the will of God, as it is impressed and made known in the intellectual and moral constitution of man; and that, therefore, I have at least thus far done well, and hence, I am persuaded, stand justified in the sight of God. Finally, let come what will, I am content to know that, in the pertinent language of St. Peter, Acts, v. 29, "We ought to obey God rather than men." Thus it is this only will I add, that, in the words of Roscommon, "I speak my private but impartial sense 26* BOOK IV. THE SHEOL OR HADES OF THE BIBLE, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE JEWS AND CHRISTIANS CONCERNING DEPARTED SPIRITS. INTRODUCTION. IT will, I think, be readily admitted by every person of reflection and intelligence, that it must be profoundly interesting both to the Christian and to the philosopher to learn what are the precise views which the Jewish and the Christian Scriptures promulgate in reference to the abode and the condition of departed spirits. The former, containing the earlier creed or elementary psychical developments on this at once interesting and important subject, may be properly regarded as the ample and secure basis on which the New-Testament dogmas of Hades or Sheol rest. For the human mind-as the student of mental philosophy is aware, does not multiply its ideas or enlarge the sphere of its knowledge, abruptly or insequentially, but deductively and gradually. According to this view, founded upon the laws which govern human thought, the Gospel representation of Hades is not an entirely new idea or heterogeneous phenomenon in the mental growth of the Jews, but only the adult stage of a pre-existing infancy of belief, slowly originated and eventually matured by the same people, claiming-under different names and auspices, to possess Divine, supernatural revelations, and hence, demanding that the rest of mankind should believe what they teach, or at least sanction what they cannot gainsay. Besides, an accurate acquaintance with the multiform creed of the Jews and Christians, as it is set forth in the Scriptures of both classes of believers, with respect to the existence of departed spirits in Sheol, or a life beyond its shadowy and indefinite confines, must be of very great and permanent use in order properly to understand and justly to estimate the spirit which animates the religion and distinguishes the character of the followers of Moses or the believers in Christ. For here too the infallible Messianic maxim, that "by its fruit the tree is known," holds good, and challenges our respect. A somewhat carefully conducted investigation of this subject-it may be pertinently remarked, will likewise enable us to determine the relative excellence and efficiency of the different systems of religion to which allusion has been here made, according as they are more incipient or mature in the opinions which each entertains on the weighty question at issue. On comparing them with some accuracy, it will be found that the Gospel, teaching a more fully pronounced consciousness in Hades, and postulating, besides, a resurrection of the dead, occupies a higher stand-point in the religious culture and mental training than the more elementary Jewish ideas, found disseminated through the numerous and diversified pages of the Old Testament, in which-with the exception of some of the apocryphal books, no mention is made of a resurrection or even of a thoroughly felt and clearly expressed consciousness in the grim and ghastly abode of the dead. What will be our future destiny? Where and how will we exist when we shall depart from this evanescent life? must be themes of frequent, earnest, and devout inquiry with every serious and reflecting mind. To die without a thought of a future in human existence, is to die like the beast. The man that aspires to realms beyond the narrow bounds and groveling pursuits of flesh and sense, will, now and then, solemnly ask, "Shall the dead live? What will be our condition, our prospects, our doom in the dread, mysterious Spirit Land?" Ah, these and similar questions are natural and of paramount interest to all, who must sooner or later, and in all events, speedily, go hence, and enter as the poet writes: "That undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveler returns!" WILKES-BARRE, PA., 1876. THE SHEOL OR HADES OF THE BIBLE. SECTION I. THE SHEOL OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. CHAPTER I. The Sheol of the Canonical Books of the Old Testament. PREFATORY Remarks on Sheol and Hades-the Synonymous Abodes of the Dead among the Hebrews and the Heathens. Sheol in Hebrew, signifies substantially the same that Hades does in Greek, and denotes the lower or infernal regions; the dismal and repulsive abode of departed spirits, Isaiah, xiv. 15. Gesenius, the distinguished German philologist, defines Sheol, according to Job, xxvi. 6; Isaiah, xiv. 9, as "the lower world; the region of the ghosts; the Orcus or Hades of the Hebrews," etc. A writer on this subject, in Chambers's Encyclopædia, thus graphically sums up the Hebrew ideas of Sheol, as they are found disseminated through the books of the Old Testament." Sheol-in the Septuagint, Hades, Thanatos, in the Vulgate, Inferi, is," says he, "a Hebrew term, which occurs 65 times in the Old Testament," and is rendered by the Authorized Version: grave, hell, or pit. Its derivation is doubtful: while some connect it with a |