maintained a singular reserve. In fact I have never heard the matter
even once casually referred to in any Protestant pulpit. It may be that
even a casual reference to it might be taken as favoring the Roman
Catholic doctrine of Purgatory. Such is the craven fear that men have of
being supposed to be tainted with Romanism. In other cases it may be
that the whole subject is thought to be involved in so much mystery that
it is better to leave it alone. But I believe that if we had a larger
and more sympathetic view of the entire domain of truth, this topic
would be seen to be radiant with eternal hope.

In this spirit it is referred to by Dr. Calvin S. Gerhardt in his book
on "Death and the Resurrection." That book came out some years ago, and
there were some letters passed between the author and myself in
reference to the contents. He holds the view that the body of Christ was
not raised, but His spirit only; and he tries to sustain that view by a
variety of arguments, some of which seem to me very unworthy. My own
view is, that the body was actually raised, but that now being a
spiritual body it had the power of transformation, so that at pleasure
it could become visible or invisible to fleshly eyes.

However, in the same connection Dr. Gerhardt refers to Christ's descent
into Hades; and he treats that matter with a candor and eloquence, along
with good sense, that in my opinion, leaves nothing to be desired. I
will here transcribe some passages of his on that topic, and so dismiss
further discussion of it. He says:

"The popular doctrine which teaches that the opportunity of salvation
_always_ ends with the present life, finds no support in sacred
Scripture and is completely overthrown by Christ's descent into Hades.
This important stage of His mission is often overlooked, or ignored; and