New Testament, make plain the important truth that the great work which
our Saviour prosecuted on earth He continued also in Hades. His
incarnation and full union with us, in our earthly, mortal life,
involved Him in a similar revelation to the dead, according to their
altered conditions and environment. What He did for our earthly life He
did for them there in full harmony with the changed circumstances of
their post-mundane form of existence."

Again: "By His descent into Hades," says Martensen, "Christ revealed
Himself as the Redeemer of all souls."

Once more: "The descent into the realm of the dead gave expression to
the truth, that the distinctions Here and There--the limits of
space--are of no significance regarding Christ, and do not concern His
kingdom. No powers of nature, no limits of space or of time, can hinder
Christ from finding His way to souls. His kingdom has extended even into
the region of the dead, and still includes that region; and the
distinctions of living and dead, of earlier and later generations of
men, of times of ignorance and times of knowledge, possess but a
transient significance."

In confirmation of these views, I would add one consideration of rather
an abstract character. When our Saviour died on the cross, why did He
not revive at once? Instead of that we know that He waited until the
third day. I have no doubt that one reason was, that He intended that
all believers in Him might have a conclusive proof that He had really
died and revived. But one other reason may have been this, that He
intended to visit the spirits in prison, and in order to be en rapport
with them, He needed to go in the spirit. They were in the spirit; and
for Him to go to them in a human body would have been to interpose an