We have one other point that requires attention in connexion with St Paul’s speech, and that is the future state. He laid before the Stoics, who heard him, the great fact of the existence of men, as individuals, after death; and not merely their existence, but their having to appear at the judgment seat of Christ, after being raised from the dead. The whole of this was foreign to the Stoic system. They had nothing, in their wisest speculations, approaching to these grand ideas, which the Apostle unfolded to them as divine mysteries. The early Stoics held that they would, after death, return to union with the universe. Their plan for getting rid of evil and regenerating all things, was one of periodical conflagrations. The Christian _anastasis_ was something which unaided human intellects could not reach. Moreover, the future judgment of men, if it could have been received by the Stoics, would have modified their system in many respects. They would have had different views of the deity, if they had felt that, after all, they were to stand at his bar, to give an account of their words and works. They would have had a different view of life and of death, if they had known that when they ceased to live on earth, they would begin a new existence, in which they would be happy, or miserable, according as they submitted to, or rejected the will of GOD here. For the want of this great truth, their system was shortsighted and, in some respects, evil. If death were the end of man, as a separate person, why should it not be also held to be under the control of each? In fact the great lesson to learn was to become master in the last act, as well as in others. The system was not a training for immortality. This life was the scene of battle and of victory, to the Stoic. To the Christian, this life is the battle-field. He is contented to wait till another state of existence, for victory and peace. He can understand the meaning of the words of St Paul, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable[26].” With the hope of the future before him, however, he is content to suffer. He can bear suffering with fortitude, and can even triumph over it. For him, “this light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while he looks not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.” The restoration of the body and soul to a state of perfection opens before the mind a treasure in future, for which present poverty is lightly borne. But to this glorious hope the Stoic was a stranger. He lived for this world. His sufferings, his trials, must all be borne unflinchingly, because only here would he bear them; only here would he, an offshoot of the deity, dwell as such. Therefore it was beneath him to say he suffered. He lived for himself, to raise himself above others. He must despise what lowered his existence. He must trample on pain.