mate? Objection will at once be made that this is not the technical meaning of the word judgment, but the question here is whether the apocalyptical or ethical shall dominate our conception of judgment. If "life" is the great reality, judgment is inseparable from all its stages whether here or hereafter. The word for the Christian has no terror in it. It is on the contrary fraught with inspiration. It calls us to larger achievement; to the capabilities which come from more intimate and constant fellowship with God; to the larger, nobler expression of "æonian life." A shadow falls across it only when we are conscious of deliberately refusing to give the "divine life" within us its right influence.

We are all familiar with the fact that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is a Greek, not a Christian teaching. "It is the declaration of the scripture that Jesus brought life and incorruption to light." He told us that we who follow him shall live forever, but he revealed more than the immortality of the soul. By his own resurrection he made clear the immortality of man. The empty grave was a pledge of more than of the on-living of the soul. The Easter message is of the triumph over death of a completed personality. Eonian life' is neither here nor beyond a disembodied life. For a brief time after the resurrection the disciples saw Jesus. They knew Him and yet they knew that He was not the same as in the days of familiar intercourse on the ways of Galilee and Judea. Paul has interpreted it all for us as far as interpretation is possible, and as did he, so do we look forward to the "being clothed upon "' which is to be part of our universality. The brave, earnest apostle was so ready for the glorious issue that his desire leaped the brief interval which he thought would separate him from his Lord's coming, when the mortal part of him would be swallowed up of life. Have you never asked yourself in your thoughts about the resurrection whether Paul is still waiting for the completeness of the resurrection life? Is there a vast realm of disembodied spirits to

which those whom we have known and loved have gone? If the apocalyptic language of the New Testament as apocalyptic language is to decide, what else can we say? Yet how silent these pages are about an intermediate state! Unless one dark passage is made about the whole support of it, the doctrine is an exigency of theology. When Jesus stood that day by the tomb of Lazarus, he said, you remember, "I am the resurrection and the life," i. e. "I am the resurrection because I am the life" and he said this to Martha upon her statement of the common conception of the Jews, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." That she might see what he meant by his emphasis upon the I am, he called in to the tomb, Lazarus, come forth and Martha's brother stood before her. Two interpretations take up that phrase "the last day" of Martha's reply and seek to set forth its meaning. According to one it is a great, final, catastrophic time full of spectacular changes, ushering in the changeless conditions of eternity; according to the other it is the day in which goes forward the silent, unseen, spiritual coming of Him who has life; in which life meeting and conquering death comes to the full fruition of resurrection completeness; in which judgment is only and always upon the matter of man's relation to God; upon the absence or presence of æonian life." Insistence upon the one has given to the press volume after volume upon the times and seasons of an unfolding future in which " great tribulation," the

rapture" of saints, millenial glories, post-millenial conflicts, and final judgments from a heavenly throne all form a part. Acceptance of the other makes most of the apocalyptic of the New Testament the description of a process by which on each side of the grave, the destinies of men are being determined. Men will probably always differ about the fidelity of either one of these interpretations to the statements of Scripture according as the apocalyptic or the ethical content of New Testament teaching makes the stronger appeal. But again if the great gift of Christ to men is æo

nian life" and if that "æonian life " depends for its existence and furtherance upon spritual communion with God, then certainly to look for the Lord's coming tomorrow is to look for another method of saving the world from that given us by Jesus Himself; whereas the vision of the widening sphere of this divine force in the lives of men, the ennobling of all earthly relations by its sanctifying power is but in line with what has already been accomplished and looks to that fulfilment which shall gird our earth ultimately with a civilization whose impulses and aims shall spring from this highest life possible to men. It is not strange that Jesus stood griefstricken before the unbelief of his age. It is not strange that the great all-inclusive sin of which the spirit shall seek to convict the world is unbelief. It is that which refuses the gift of life and with that refusal goes all else. Ye will not come to me that ye may have life," said the master to the men who made it their daily business to study the Scriptures. Theology, ceremonial observances, expertness in the knowledge of tradition counted for naught. Whether you look at it through the forms of apocalyptic or prefer to see it in the form of a silent mighty evolution, the compass of "Life-æonian" is coextensive with the whole range of the spiritual teaching of the New Testament. Its source lies in communion with God and its end is an abiding in His presence. It gives vitality to every ethical precept that fell from the Master's lips. Indeed by it alone can they be taken up and made the abiding principles of conduct. It gives substance to hope. Not long since I stood upon a mountain height from which could be seen on one side a wide stretch of the Atlantic and on the other the distant summits of the White mountains. The clear, invigorating air, the radiant light and the beauty of sea and land drew from the lips of a friend standing near by the exclamation, What a joy it is to live." Not on a mountain top, but in that upper room on the night before the end, Jesus said virtually to his disciples, "What a joy it is to live!" Just before he had been speaking of the Father's

love. It is the joy of that higher life to which then he is referring. His outlook was not upon some earthly scene, some inspiring height. It was the vision of the nobility and purity of all personal relations, over which death could cast no shadow-the joy of essential immortality. Unless we know something about this, the heart of the New Testament is not open to us, the voice of the prophet is impossible to us. I am come that ye might have life and have it abundantly. JAMES S. RIGGS.

MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

On October 30, the Board of Directors held its autumn meeting. Out of a membership of twenty-six the following nineteen were present: President George B. Stewart, Messrs. Edgar C. Leonard, Charles E. Walbridge, J. Frederick Fitschen, Jr., John Bailey Kelly, Abbott Y. Wilcox, Charles I. Avery, Fred H. Fay, Arthur E. Brigden, Charles K. Scoon, Vernon N. Yergin, Frederick H. Watkins, Charles P. Mosher, William R. Taylor, Charles N. Frost, E. W. Edwards, George Fairlee, Dana W. Bigelow and George Underwood. The other seven were unable to be present, assigning reasons of sickness or pressing business engagements. The several standing committees of the Board, Curriculum, Finance, Grounds and Buildings, and Library presented full and interesting reports.

The report of the Finance Committee showed a most gratifying condition of the investments and prompt payment of interest and dividends.

The Committee on Grounds and Buildings reported extensive improvements and repairs. The Welch Memorial building has been thoroughly overhauled, the walls have been painted and the interior and exterior woodwork scraped and oiled. This building now presents a most attractive appearance. The exterior woodwork of Morgan Hall has been painted and a roadway has been made connecting the campus with the Silliman Club House, thus furnishing a short and highly desirable passage between Morgan Hall and the Club House.

The curriculum reported that, pursuant to the authority given to it, it had secured Dr. William Adams Brown, Professor of Theology in Union Theological Seminary, to teach theology during the first term of this year. It gave a most gratifying account of the favor which Dr. Brown was winning from our students and the highly satisfactory character of his work.

The committee reported that it hoped before long to