hat event, we
know as matter of experience of life at present, that death, of itself,
is but a passage into another state of existence. We have, {132}
therefore, no right to affirm that after the effects of judgment and
punishment are accomplished, the second death is not a transition into
that state of things in the new heavens and new earth which is
described in Rev. xxi. Rather, may we not conclude that eternal life
and eternal punishment terminate alike with the end of time, and that
in the consummation of all things both are merged in indissoluble life,
that God may be all in all? This conclusion appears to meet the
difficulty stated at the beginning of this letter.

"I take this opportunity for expressing my approval of the arrangement
of the New Lectionary, by which chapters of the Book of Revelation are
now read more frequently than formerly before the people, this portion
of Scripture being indispensable for communicating to them the doctrine
of Jesus Christ in all its integrity.

"Cambridge, January 12,1878."

The difficulty experienced in the present day of rightly apprehending
the doctrine taught by our Lord in Matt. xxv. 46, and in like passages,
arises, according to the arguments contained in the Essay and in the
foregoing letters, from the little attention that is paid in the
Christian doctrine now generally accepted to what the Scriptures reveal
respecting "the age to come" (_aion ho mellon_) as distinguished from
"the present age" (_aion outos, aion ho paron_). The designation "age"
applied in common to both, indicates that each has a beginning and an
ending. The future age begins at the termination of the present age,
the separation between them being the epoch of a resurrection of the
dead--not, however, of all the dead, but "a resurrection of the just,"
that is, of those who have been prepared and sealed by faith, and
suffering, and good works, in the present life, for immediate entrance
into a new state of life. It is said of these that "they cannot {133}
die any more, and are the children of God, being the children of the
resurrection" (Luke xx. 36). These are they who "have part in the
first resurrection," of whom it is further said that "they _lived_ and
reigned with Christ a thousand years," whereas of "the rest of the
dead" it is said that "they _lived_ not till the thousand years were
finished" (see Rev. xx. 4, 6). It is plain, therefore, that there will
be a time of _separation_