We pass rapidly now to the time of the Christ. Altho the canonical books of the Old Testament give us no clue to any definite, fixed beliefs among the Jews concerning a future life, heaven, hell or the resurrection of the dead, yet, according to the New Testament literature, these views were all quite clearly defined, and generally believed among all the Jews, except the party of the Sadducees, relatively a very small party. Whence came these beliefs? If they had come by some divine revelation they would certainly have been recorded in some of their sacred books. But they were not. The only rational answer is that they learned all these things from their Eastern masters during the captivity, where all these beliefs are now known to have been current centuries before the captivity, and brought them back on their return; and with some modifications incorporated them into their own system. Yet there is no indication in the New Testament, nor any contemporary literature now extant, that the atoning sacrifice that was continually offered in the temple, even down to the destruction of Jerusalem, was ever offered with any view, or reference to a future life; much less as a means of escaping hell. We turn now to the Christ. It has already been said that he nowhere makes the least reference to a vicarious atonement to be made by himself for the sins of world. True, he warns his disciples that he must needs go up to Jerusalem, there to suffer and be put to death; but nowhere does he say that this death is to _redeem back_ mankind from the devil; nor appease the wrath of God against mankind by the sight of his blood; nor to vindicate the majesty of a broken law, for the benefit of mankind. It is all but universally acknowledged that his disciples had no such conception of his mission, but followed him up to Jerusalem expecting to see him made King, sit on the "throne of David" and restore Israel to her pristine glory, according to the universal interpretation of the Messianic prophecies. After his tragic death, and alleged resurrection and ascension,--in which his disciples certainly implicitly believed, no matter what the actual facts may be,--we still hear not a word about his death being a vicarious atonement for sin. When Peter preached that great sermon on the day of Pentecost he says not one word about a vicarious atonement in the death of Christ, but lays the whole emphasis on his resurrection and ascension. Let the reader turn here to that sermon in the second chapter of Acts and read it; and he will find that the whole burden of Peter's sermon is to the effect, that since the Jews had put Jesus to death, he had broken the bonds of death and hades, they being powerless to hold him, and had ascended to the right hand of God, whereby he had conquered both death and hades, and for which "God hath made him both Lord and Christ." Note, that because of this resurrection and