28. Another question of inference is that of the sleep of deaths 
I should, upon the views here enunciated, infer from the New 
Testament that it is as true of Pneuma in our case as in the 
case of the great Grod, that it “ slumbereth not nor sleepeth,” 
for there is nothing to require sleep in Hades, the outer senses 
are cut away, there is no perception of material objects, no 
origin of ideas from outward material things, no bodily pulsa- 
tion, nothing that causeth man to faint or grow weary. Those 
Scriptures which speak of death as a sleep must therefore 
refer to the absence of perception through loss of body and 
soul, not to the absence of self-consciousness. Spirit may see 
and hold converse with spirit, in the spiritual world, and for 
aught we can tell in this world also, though perhaps at such 
times only as those spirits, yet in the flesh, withdraw them- 
selves, so to speak, from the material world and become 
absorbed in spiritual contemplation. Samuel was at first 
invisible to Saul, but the spirit of the witch saw him, and he 
saw the witch. 
29. Another point of inference is one in regard to space and 
time. The view taken in this paper would lead to the infer- 
ence that the idea of space and time does not enter into the 
consciousness of spirits in Hades. The clockwork of the ma- 
terial world is there not only never seen, but even the gauge 
which the moral or psychical affections supply, is wanting. 
There is therefore nothing so far as we can conceive to mea- 
sure space or time with. Hence the dead, though conscious 
and active in the spirit-world, may find it true in their expe- 
rience that a “ thousand years are as one day,” and that to 
them the coming of the Lord, ever represented in the New 
Testament as near, will literally appear to have been so when 
it shall happen, there being to each but the conscious lapse of 
the time spent here between the announcement and the event 
itself. Between death and the consummation I should infer 
that there is no conception of time. How far this may remove 
the difficulty which some have felt in regard to some words of 
S. Paul, about the Second Advent, will depend, perhaps, very 
much upon their ability to accept this inference as a valid one. 
To my own mind there is no difficulty in receiving S. PauPs 
words in their most literal acceptation. 
30. These thoughts may serve as an illustration as to what 
I meant when I said that there are many inferences to be 
drawn from the pneumatology and psychology of the New 
Testament that go far to settle many deep and interesting 
questions which do not take their rise in Scripture interpre- 
tation so much as in the subjective views of persons them- 
selves who discuss them. I will close with repeating a 
