Hyrcanus, the High Priest, was a Sadducee; Alexander Janncus, his son, favoured the sect; Caiaphas, who condemned Jesus Christ, was a Sadducee; as well as Annanias, who put St. James to death. Still the sect was small and novel, and obtained rcspect only from the rank and riches of its professors.

But when all the passages of the law and the Prophets, respecting the immortality of the soul, are examined, it is impossible to doubt that the Jews held that doctrine. To begin with the passage in Exodus (ch. 3, v. 6) in which God said to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob-we cannot question the sense in which this was spoken, since Jesus Christ has so precisely determined its meaning. (Math. 22, v. 32.—Mark. 12, v. 26.— Luke 20, v. 37.-St. Paul to the Hebr. ch. 11, v. 11, and following.) The Sadducees, wishing to ensnare Jesus Christ, asked him, to which of seven brothers which one woman had had for husband she would belong at the day of resurrection. He answered, "Have you not read the words that God

"has given you: I am the God of Abra "ham, the God of Isaac, and the God "of Jacob?'-Now God is not the God "of the dead, but of the living." They made no reply; and the Pharisees, who believed in the resurrection, rejoiced at the manner in which Christ had shut the mouths of their adversaries. In reality, these words signify, that the souls of those holy Patriarchs still lived, though separated from their bodies, expecting a new life in the re-union of the body and soul at the resurrection.

The Jews received the book of Job as a canonical book, it being read in their synagogues with the same veneration as the other books of the Bible. They must often listen to the reading of this remarkable passage of the 9th chapter, where that holy man cries out," I know that my Redeemer "liveth, and that I shall be raised from "the grave at the last day; that I shall be "again clothed with this body, and shall "see my God in my flesh; that I shall see "him, I say, myself, and shall behold him "with mine own eyes." Can any thing be

more conclusive than those passages? The Septuagint, the translator of the Arabie version, and that of the Vulgate, add at the end of the Book of Job-" It is writ"ten, that Job lives with those whom God "will raise again." They believed therefore in the resurrection.

In the third chapter of Genesis it is said, that "God made man in his own image, and "that he breathed into him the breath "of life, which is the soul." Could the Jews hesitate to believe that this was an immortal substance? How otherwise, could it be understood that man was formed in God's image?

The frequent injunctions given to the Jews, by Moses and the Prophets, not to evoke the dead, or consult the souls of the dead, further prove that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul was established and common among them. Without quoting here the injunctions of Moses to that effect, let us hear what Isaiah says, ch, 8, v. 19 :— "And when they say to you, consult. "the magicians and the diviners, answer "them, doth not each people consult its

"God? Shall we speak to the dead of that which regards the living?? Witness also, the Witch of Endor (I. Kings, ch. 28, v. 11 and following) consulted by Saul. If Saul had not been persuaded that the soul of Samuel lived, would he have urged the Witch of Endor to evoke it? Does not the superstition of invoking the souls of the dead, so deeply rooted in the feelings of the Jews, that, notwithstanding the probibition of Moses, Isaiah was obliged to renew the injunction, prove that they had always believed in the existence of the soul after its separation from the body?

The Psalms of David abound with expressions that allude to the immortality of the soul and the resurrection. Some of these are as direct to that point as the passage above quoted from Job. In Psalm, 16, v. 19, 10, 11, it is said,-" Thou shalt not leave "my soul in hell, nor suffer thy holy one "to see corruption; thou hast shewn me

the way of life, thou shalt fill me with "joy before thy face, and I shall taste at "thy right hand, pleasures for ever more." -And in Psalm 49, v. 16, 17: All the

hope of the wicked shall perish in hell,

after the day of their triumph: but God "shall redeem and deliver my soul from "the powers of hell." St. Peter (Acts. 2, v. 27) applies this passage to the resurrection of Jesus Christ; but it is applicable, also, to a general resurrection.

Ecclesiastes is not less decisive, in the 11th ch. v. 9:"Know that God will call "thee to judgment for all these things," And ch. 12, v. 14:-" God will call men to account, in his judgment, for all the "good and evil they have done."

Daniel, ch. 12, v. 2, says explicitly, "And the multitude of those who sleep in "the dust shall awake, some to eternal "life, and others to punishment which shall be for ever before their eyes."

The vision of the Prophet Ezekiel (37 ch.) presents a striking picture of the resurrection; but as this is applied to the restoration of the Jews to the holy city, I shall not insist upon it.

I conclude with inviting the reader to peruse the 11th ch. of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, where he will see the Apostle