xi, 25 and 26; Hebr. ii, 14 and 15; 1 Cor. xv, 50-57; 2 Tim. i, 10; Rom.
vi, 23 ("The gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord").

"God commanded the blessing, even Life for evermore" (Ps. cxxxiii, 3).

Now I hope the reader will take the trouble to look up the texts to
which I have referred, and not be lazy. I am sure he would do so if he
were promised a ten pound note or a fifty dollar bill for his pains, and
if these promises are not all bosh, there is something worth a good deal
more to be got by studying them. Just run through the list: health,
wealth, peace of mind, safety, creative power, and eternal life. You
would be willing to pay a good premium to an Insurance Office that could
guarantee you all these. Well, there is a Company that does this without
paying any premium, and its name is "God and Co., Unlimited"; the only
condition, is that you yourself have to take the part of "Co." and it is
not a sleeping partnership, but a wide-awake one!

So I hope you will take the trouble to look up the texts; but at the
same time you must remember that the reading of single texts is not
sufficient. If you take any isolated phrase you choose, without
reference to the rest of the Book, there is no nonsense you cannot make
out of the Bible. You would not be allowed to do that sort of thing in a
Court of Law. When a document is produced in evidence, the meaning of
the words used in it are very carefully construed, not only in
reference to the particular clause in which they occur, but also with
reference to the intention of the document as a whole, and to the
circumstances under which they were written. The same word may mean very
different things in different connections; for instance I remember two
reported cases in one of which the word "Spanish" meant a certain sort
of leather, and in the other a kind of material used in brewing; and in