HADES (ante), a Greek word signifying literally unseen, was employed by the classic writers to denote the region of the dead which, as they believed, was in part the wretched prison of the wicked, and in part the elvsian abode of the blessed. lu the Greek translation of the Old Testament it is used as the equivalent of the Hebrew Rhea which denotes the region of departed spirits, sometimes without referring to any separation between the righteous and the wicked; and at other times marking the sepa ration clearly. While the Greeks and the Jews were so far agreed concerning the of the dead, there was one great difference between them. The former had no hope of deliverance from hades as they had no faith in a resurrection. But among the Jews the expectation of a resurrection was the chief comfort in connection with death. The ancient believers, it is said, looked for a heavenly country and for the city which God had prepared. The Psalmist said, in his expression of confidence in t..4od, "lieu shalt guide me by thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory." The prophecies of Isaiah, Hosea, and Daniel, contain promises of a resurrection. These and similar dec-: larations gave the Jews a hope concerning the future state, that heathen nations did not possess. In the New Testament the Savior's use of the term is of paramount impor tance. On one'occasion, in declaring the consequences that would follow Capernaum's neglect of its privileges, lie contrasted hades with heaven. At another time, with ref erence to the welfare of his church, he promised that the gates of hales should not prevail against it. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus lie represents the former as tormented after death, in hades, and the latter as happy in the society of the blest, a great gulf being fixed between the two. After his ascension to heaven, appearing in vision to the apostle John, he affirmed that lie himself had the keys of hades and of death; and revealed to him the casting of them both into the lake of fire. To the ques tion, Was Christ in hades during the interval between his death and resurrection? some reply, 1. That the apostle Peter taught that lie was, in applying to him Psalm xvi,
" Thou wilt not leave my soul in hacks. neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption." This implies (they say) that, for a time, his soul was in hades but returned from it before his body was in any degree changed. The answer to this is that the apostle quoted the Greek translation which conveys the general meaning but will not bear any emphasizing of the preposition "in." The Hebrew original, "Thou wilt not for sake or abandon my sold to Sheol," clearly expresses the idea that his soul would not even enter it. 2. The same apostle is appealed to again as confirming the construction put on his quotation by teaching in his first epistle Unit Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison, that is in hades. To this the answer is that though the spirits referred to were in prison when the apostle wrote, Christ's preaching to them had been before his incarnation during the divine forbearance in the days of Noah. 3. The apostles' creed (it is said), declares that Christ, after his death, descended into 'lades. To this the answer is that the creed, with all its excellences, is not known to be the work of apostles; and that, while all the rest of it can be traced back at least to the 3d century, the clause, "he descended into hades," was not in it even at the beginning of the 5th, (nor has the Nicene creed, adopted 325 a. n., any such clause). Therefore, as it was added at so late a period when erroneous views of various sorts had heroine common, the clause has no claim to be believed merely because it is in the creed. Our knowledge concerning the place in Which the: Opgn soul of Christ rested the' period referred to, is limited by his promise to the penitent thief, " This day shalt thou be with me in paradise;" and by his‘subsequent invocation to the Father, Into thy hone& I commend my spirit." Besides the use of the word hacks by the Savior and with reference to him, it occurs in the New Testament only in Paul's apostrophe, grave, where is thy Sting? 0 Lades, where thy victory?"