We now come back more specifically to the _purpose_ of this blood atonement. We have no account in all the Old Testament where it was ever offered with direct reference to a future life,--for the purpose of escaping hell. We have already seen that there is absolutely nothing in the story of Eden and the fall of man, upon which to predicate any thought of immortality after physical death, either a heaven or hell. We now come to note that there is nowhere any _direct_ reference to a life after death, in any book of the Old Testament, written _before_ the exile. The account of Saul having the witch of Endor call up Samuel after his death; and David's faith that he could go to his dead child, indeed indicate some belief at this time in an after-life; but nowhere is there the remotest reference to a hell, a separate place of torment for the wicked. In the case of Samuel being recalled to converse with Saul, he says, that altho Jehovah had departed from Saul, and notwithstanding Saul's great wickedness, "Tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me,"--the saintly Samuel, all in the same place. There are a few direct references to a future life, _in a few places only_, in some of the books written _during_ or _after_ the exile. But nowhere in the Old Testament do we find a single reference to the offering of the sacrifice of atonement with any reference whatever to a future life. To ancient Israel, Jehovah was a God of the present,--not the future. He did things _then_,--in the present tense. He was the God of the _living_,--not of the dead. And Jesus affirmed the same thing. He was exclusively a God for this world and this life. The atoning sacrifice was offered to appease his wrath against them for their past sins, not the sin of the individual only, but the sins of the whole nation. The benefits they expected to receive from this remission of sins thru the blood of the atonement were _here_ and _now_,--not in some future life.