G sented in several different lights. By a large body of persons, and through a long period of years, while the belief in witchcraft and necromancy was universal, the apparition of Samuel was deemed to have been the soul of that prophet drawn from its abode, and rendered visible to Saul through the power of the sorceress; but as there seems no reason to believe that at any period whatever, man has been able, by dint of his own abilities, to acquire a power beyond nature over the beings around him, it is not worth while, especially as the narrative by no means implies the exercise of any such power in the woman of Endor, to shew the futility of such an opinion. Another set of interpreters consider the whole as a juggle and trick, but this is so totally irreconcileable with the language of the text, which is full of reproach and evil prediction to the king, that it cannot be received by any who are desirous of taking the Scriptures in a plain and obvious sense-the only safe way, especially in the narrative parts, of reading them. The real fact, however, appears to have been, that although the woman herself was an impostor, yet that unexpectedly and terrifi cally to her, the person of Samuel, through the divine power, actually did appear, and in his prophetic character announce to Saul the coming events of his defeat and death. For Saul having requested her to bring up Samuel-viz. 12. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake bake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. : 13. And the king said unto her, Be not afraid for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods* ascending out of the earth. 14. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up: and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself. 15. And Samuel said to Sanl, Why hast thon disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. 16. Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thy enemy? 17. And the Lord hath done to him, as he spake by me: for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David. 18. Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. : 19. Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the Lord shall also deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. From these verses it has been inferred by those who believe that there was an apparition of Samuel seen both by the woman and Saul, that the soul exists in a state of consciousness after death, and that the soul of Samuel was arrayed in a visible form for this occasion. But this inference is so far from being a necessary one, that a * It should have been in the singular number; vide note in Hewlett's Bible, in loc. strong argument in favour of the opinions here maintained may be drawn from it. It is evident from the tenor of the conversation between Saul and the woman, that the jugglers of both sexes pretended to a power of calling up the dead, and that Saul believed in their having such a power. When, therefore, the woman, who expected nothing more than the usual result of her tricks, saw the figure of Samuel really arise from the earth, she was terrified at so unlookedfor an event, and "cried with a loud voice." Saul, however, who was prepared by his previous belief in her power to behold the person whom he had requested to be brought up, does not appear to have been alarmed, until after the heavy denunciations against himself and his sons had been pronounced. That the person whom Saul saw was Samuel himself is expressly asserted throughout the narrative, and it was quite as easy for God to revive him altogether, as to reunite his body and soul. The striking reproach, too, of Samuel, "Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up," is perfectly in harmony with that universal representation of death being a state of complete rest, undisturbed by consciousness, which pervades the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The expression, also, "and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me," so far from warranting the notion of a soul existing after the death of the body, bears the directly contrary way, since it cannot be supposed that the soul of so wicked a person as Saul would be with, or in the same condition as, that of Samuel; whereas, if with life ceased consciousness, then might Saul and his sons, when slain, be truly said to be with (i. e. in the same state as) Samuel. The next passages to be noticed are the restoration to life of the son of the widow of Sarepta, by Elijah, 1 Kings, xvii. 17 to 24. The like restoration of the son of the Shunamite, by Elisha, 2 Kings, iv. 20 to 37, and the revival of the man on touching the bones of Elisha, 2 Kings, xiii. 21. 1 Kings, xvii. 21. And Elijah stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee let this child's soul come into him again. 22. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. The word here rendered soul being the same as has been so often referred to as signifying the vital principle, &c. this text proves nothing in favour of the separate existence of the soul. 2 Kings, iv. 32. And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. 35. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro, and went up, and stretched himself upon him ; and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. (The Septuagint, in ver. 35-"And he stretched himself on the child even until seven times, and the child opened his eyes.") 2 Kings, xiii. 21. And it came to pass, that as they were burying a man, that they spied a band of men, and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha, and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood upon his feet. These two passages, like the former one, only prove, that the dead were restored to life by the Divine power. The texts which record the final disappearance of Elijah, as well as those concerning Enoch, (which latter, as relating to the same subject, have been omitted until now) are next to be considered. If it could be incontrovertibly shewn from Scripture that both or either of these holy personages were removed from the earth to an immediate state of happiness, without the intervention of death, it would, undoubtedly, afford a powerful argument in favour of an intermediate state of conscious existence, so far as these two are concerned, but even then would not much affect the main question. Let us, however, examine the texts. Gen. v. 23. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. The Septuagint renders the latter part of the 24th verse, και έχ ευρίσκετο ὅτι μελεθηκεν αὐτὸν ὁ θεός, "and he was not found, because God had translated him," or removed him to another place. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews quotes the Septuagint, but adds other circumstances. |