viii Christ on the Letter and the Spirit. 135 



no geometrician, and does not know them as they 

 ought to be known. So in religious knowledge. It 

 is well to believe that forgiveness is a duty because 

 Christ has declared it, and to practise the duty 

 because He has commanded it ; but it is better to 

 believe and to practise the duty because it is seen to 

 be right. This is not to disparage the letter ; on the 

 contrary, the worth and the glory of the letter consist 

 in its being a teacher and guide whereby to ascend 

 to the spirit. 



We have now to see how the superiority of the 

 spirit to the letter, which Saint Paul asserts in 

 theory, has been practically applied by Christ. Some 

 of the Sadducees, who denied the Resurrection, 

 put to Him the case of a woman who had been the 

 wife of seven men successively, and asked whose 

 wife would she be in the Resurrection. He replied 

 as follows : 



" Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the 

 power of God." 1 "The sons of this world marry, 

 and are given in marriage : but they that are ac- 

 counted worthy to attain to that world, and the 

 Resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are 

 given in marriage : for neither can they die any 

 more : for they are equal unto the angels ; and are 

 sons of God, being sons of the Resurrection. But 

 that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the 

 place concerning the Bush, when he called the Lord 

 1 Matt. xxii. 29. 



