"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit, by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah; while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water." (I Peter III; 18-20). Here is a declaration which like a ray from the sun of righteousness, puts to flight the fogs and mists of modern eschatology and opens up to view a vast field of understanding, wherein the justice, wisdom and mercy of God are displayed in glorious review. The spirits of those rebellious people who were destroyed by the flood, after suffering about 2,000 years in their prison house, were visited by the Son of God while His body was lying in the sepulchre. This was in fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah concerning Him; for instance: "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." (Isaiah LXI; 1). And further: "To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." (Isaiah XLII; 7). And again: "That thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth. To them that are in darkness, show yourselves." (Isaiah XLIX; 9). The common notion is that when Christ on the cross bowed his head and gave up the ghost, he went direct to {250} heaven, as it is supposed all good people do, but on the third day after this, when Christ appeared to Mary, he said unto her: "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father." (John XX; 17). The time spent by the Savior between His death and His resurrection, instead of being in heaven was among the "spirits in prison," the captives whom He went to deliver. Thus Jesus could preach without His body, and the spirits whom He visited could hear also without their bodies. But what was the nature of His preaching to those who were held in captivity? Let Peter answer this question. "For, for this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." (I Peter IV; 6.) Thus it appears that the same Gospel which was preached to men in the body was also preached to men out of the body, so that all might be judged by the same Gospel, which is to be preached to "every creature." That the message of deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that were bound was successful is evident from the scriptural statement concerning Christ: "He led captivity captive." (Eph. IV; 8).