The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-26

thou be the Christ save thyself and
u.s." Even the disciples may have be-
lieved that he was going to come
down from the cross. The excuse is
sometimes made for Judas that he
did not expect the Saviour to be put
to death in betraying him; that he
hoped to obtain the thirty pieces of
silver and find him asserting his
right to live, and when he found that
such was not the case it caused such
revulsion of feeling that he became
heart broken, or went and hanged
himself as one account is.
Be this as it may, there is no deny
ing that the general opinion was of
temporal reign for their Messiah, and
the thief must have shared this op-
inion. And this makes his request to
be the following:-"When Jesus
should come down from off the cross,
saving himself, and coming into his
kingdom, he should remember him
also to save him from his direful
fate" see no evidence that he was
penitent, any more than the other
thief was penitent when he said, eff
thou be the Christ save thyself and
u.s." do not know where this idea
comes from. Why was it not most
selfish idea9 To be sure he does re-
buke the other saying, "Dost thou
not fear God, seeing that thou art in
the same condemnation? and we in
deed justly, for we ereceive the due re-
ward of our deeds; but this man has
done nothing amiss." But how did
this make it any more than selfish
request to be saved from his just de-
serts, and to be brought into Christ's
kingdom along with Jesus, the Just
and the Holy one?
And now as it regards Paradise.
The ancient Jews believed that there
was difference in situation between
the good and bad in Sheol. Webster
says of Paradise, ga foreign land; the
best the most beautiful land" Wor-
cester, "the blissful abode of souls
after death, or in Hades, the unseen
death-state of the dead, the under
world. Why was not this the place
where poor Lazarus in the parable was
spoken of as being, in "Abraham's bo-
son." while the rich man was para
bolically represented to be "lifting
up his eyes in torment?" Where were
these personages according to the par
able,-the rich man and Lazarus and
Abraham? Were they not in the death
statei DIR. Adam Clarke says that he
finds in one of the old manuscripts:
"And the rich man died ana was
buried in hell" hades, the grave.
And this must be the place where
they were, for it is said in the para
BILE, "Nay father Abraham, but if one
went unto them from the dead they
would repent" In the opinion of the
Greeks these two places were contig-
uous to each, ,other. And the Jews
at later time after their Babylonish
captivity came to adopt very nearly
these same views.
Here is what Webster and Worces-
ter both say of Tartarus; that: at is
as far below the earth as the earth is
below heaven" and the conclusion [
come to is that Paradise, as here re-
ferred to, is in this state of the dead;
and the Saviour means to say to the
thief's request, "No; l cannot remem-
Der you, to interpose between you
and death. The law must take its
course. | shall neither save you, nor
myself. We will both be in the state
of death to-day. Jesus himself was
not in any paradisaical state such as
that generally endorsed for the thief.
How else are we to understand the
passage "Touch me not for | have
not yet assembled" want no further
proof of this view than that they were
all expecting temporal kingdom for
Christ on this earth.
If as some think Jesus '.went" at
his death and preached to spirits"
imprisoned in Hades, and said to
Mary after his resurrection, "Touch
me not, for / have not yet ascended,"
where must the thief have been to
have been with Jesus? We can hardly
claim that he was in any such para
disaical state as that which is general
ly endorsed for the thief.
LODI, Wis.