,transcriber's ,note3 ,the ,greek words in this e-book have been transliterated according with surrounding underscores4 ,there are a couple of instances of author-transliterated ,greek words4 ,those words are bracketed and not italicized4 ,underscores are also used to indicate italicization of words1 but in this e-book such words are always ,english words4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,the ,,hereafter by ,j4 ,,paterson-,,smyth1 ,b4,d41 ,,ll4,d41 ,,litt4 ,d41 ,d4,c4,l1 ,rector of ,st4 ,georges1 ,montreal1 ,late ,professor of ,pastoral ,theology1 ,university of ,dublin ,author of ,how ,we ,got ,our ,bible1 ,the ,old ,documents and the ,new ,bible1 etc41 etc41 etc4 ,new ,york ---- ,chicago ---- ,toronto ,fleming ,h4 ,revell ,company ,london ,and ,edinburgh ,copyright1 #aiaj1 by ,fleming ,h4 ,revell ,company ,new ,york3 #aeh ,fifth ,avenue ,chicago3 #ag ,north ,wabash ,ave4 ,london3 #ba ,paternoster ,square ,edinburgh3 #ge ,princes ,street ,to ,my ,wife ,contents ,,part ,i ,,the ,,near ,,hereafter ,i4 ,i ,,ii4 ,,the ,,three ,,stages ,,of ,,existence ,,iii4 ,,what ,,the ,,bible ,,says ,,about ,,the ,,near ,,hereafter ,,iv4 ,,what ,,the ,,bible ,,and ,,the ,,church ,,say ,,about ,,the ,,near ,,hereafter ,v4 ,,the ,,crisis ,,of ,,death ,,vi4 ,i ,,myself ,,after ,,death ,,vii4 ,,recognition ,,viii4 ,,the ,,communion ,,of ,,saints ,,ix4 ,,growth ,,and ,,purification ,x4 ,,probation ,,in ,,this ,,life ,,xi4 ,,ministry ,,in ,,the ,,unseen ,,life ,,xii4 ,,conclusion ,,part ,,ii ,,the ,,far ,,hereafter ,i4 ,,the ,,judgment ,,ii4 ,,hell ,,iii4 ,,heaven ,publishers' ,note ,this tenth ,american 7and sixteenth ,british7 edition has been carefully revised and where necessary rewritten by the author4 ,we call special attention to an interesting note on page #ajh4 ,this year a ,norwegian edition has been published1 translated by ,judge ,hambro of the ,supreme ,court of ,norway assisted by the ,bishops of ,christiania and ,trondheim4 ,also request has been received for permission to translate the book for readers in ,holland4 ,but more interesting is a letter from a ,brahmin gentleman in ,india asking permission to produce at his own cost an edition for his people and dedicated on the front page1 ,,to ,,my ,,son1 ,,serem ,,ali1 ,,who ,,is ,,now ,,in ,,the ,,near ,,hereafter4 ,foreword ,the ,lord is risen1 but the people do not know it4 ,there is no death1 but the people do not believe it4 ,human life is the most exciting romantic adventure in the ,universe1 going on stage after stage till we are older than ,methuselah and then on again through the infinite eternities--and yet men pass into the ,unseen as stupidly as the caterpillar on the cabbage-leaf1 without curiosity or joy or wonder or excitement at the boundless career ahead4 ,instead of the thrill of coming adventure we have the dull grey monotony of aged lives drawing near the close1 and the horror of this war is doubled and the torture of wife or mother as the beloved one crosses the barrier4 ,what is the matter with us1 ,christian people8 ,do we not know8 ,or have we lost our beliefs8 or has imagination grown dulled by too frequent repetition of ,god's good news8 99 99 99 99 99 ,it was so different in early days when the world was younger1 when ,christ's revelation was fresh4 ,look at ,st4 ,john1 four-score years and ten1 like an eager boy looking into the ,great ,adventure3 ,beloved1 now are we the sons of ,god1 and ,,it ,,doth ,,not ,,yet ,,appear ,,what ,,we ,,shall ,,be4#a ,what we shall be6 ,what we shall be6 ,is not that the chief delight of being young8 ,guessing and hoping and wondering what we shall be4 ,the dreariest thing in life is dulness--monotony4 ,the brightest thing in life is outlook--vision4 ,and ,god has given us that4 ,like ,st4 ,john we too can stand on the rim of the world and look out over the wall4 99 99 99 99 99 ,life is full of latent possibilities--of outlook1 of romance1 of exciting futures4 ,god has made it so1 if we would only see it4 ,god's world of nature has its continuous progress1 its ever new and fascinating stages4 ,god's caterpillars in their next stage are going to be soaring butterflies--,god's acorns are to become mighty oaks--,god's dry little seeds in the granary to-day will in autumn be alive in the waving harvests4 ,god's world of nature is full of romantic possibilities4 ,and ,god's world of men is infinitely more so1 and one of life's delights is to know it and look forward to it guessing what we shall be4 ,outlook4 ,vision4 ,that is what gives zest to life4 ,that is what we need to make life bright and beautiful4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i see a group of small boys sitting at their play1 and their eyes are bright looking into the future4 ,they are going to be soldiers1 and sailors1 and circus riders1 and travelers1 and all sorts of things4 ,because they are boys with the enthusiasms of boyhood1 they may be anything4 ,all the possibilities of boyhood belong to them4 ,it doth not yet appear what they shall be1 but it is delightful to look forward and speculate about it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i see them again a dozen years later4 ,they are starting in life1 just left college1 young soldiers and lawyers and curates and business men--still with their visions and dreams of the future4 ,it doth not yet appear what they shall be1 but because they are young men1 all that belongs to young manhood lies before them1 as they look forward in their day-dreams4 ,what countries they shall live in and what girl they shall marry1 and what positions and what work1 and what excitements1 and what pleasure lie before them4 ,ah1 it is delightful to be young1 realizing the possibilities in front--dreaming of what we shall be4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i see a crowd of older people1 men and women dull1 uninterested4 ,we are no longer young1 they say1 we are middle-aged or elderly4 ,and we have ceased looking forward4 ,we have lost the vision4 ,we have not become as great as we expected1 or as good as we expected4 ,we are fairly comfortable4 ,we have not much to complain of4 ,but life is a bit dull4 ,the path is a bit monotonous now4 ,we have traversed most of it4 ,we can see to the end4 ,there are no more romantic possibilities to make life exciting1 no more visions of 'what we shall be4' 99 99 99 99 99 ,don't believe it6 ,not a word of it4 ,the visions are there all right4 ,look out over the wall4 ,this life of yours is only one of the stages in your career1 and not the first stage1 either4 ,the first came to you1 silent1 unconscious1 where the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child4 ,there you grew and developed for the next move forward4 ,one day came the crisis of birth and you passed into the second stage1 the training stage for life and for ,god4 ,then through a new crisis you pass on again to new adventures4 ,for ,god has revealed that what you call death1 the end of this career1 is but birth into a new and more wondrous career which again passes you forward into still nobler adventures1 and that again1 perhaps--who knows8 ,who shall fix the limit8 99 99 99 99 99 ,nay1 you are not elderly4 ,you are not middle-aged4 ,these are but comparative terms4 ,a house-fly is elderly in twenty-four hours4 ,an oak-tree is young after a hundred years4 ,and you1 children of eternity with ages and millenniums before you--you are not even one year old babies in the light of your great future4 ,now do you see why the old apostle of ,ephesus did not feel aged or elderly--why he looked out like an eager boy into the adventure before him8 ,beloved1 now are we the sons of ,god but we don't know yet what we shall be4 ,aye1 we don't know yet4 ,no more than did the small boys laughing in their play and going to be soldiers and sailors and wonderful people4 ,we don't know yet4 ,but it is all before us4 ,and it is all going to be good because it is in the ,father's presence4 ,so ,i bid you do what ,i sometimes do myself1 look out into the void and guess like the children what you shall be when you are older than ,methuselah4 ,shake off the dulness and monotony from your life4 ,don't talk as if old or middle-aged any more4 ,be children again in the presence of the ,father1 and with happy child hearts keep guessing what you shall be4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i see a woman with the deep pain in her eyes1 one of the many mothers whom ,i have met in these terrible four years4444 ,they were afraid to tell her when the ,war ,office telegram came4444 ,he had crept out in the night to bring in a wounded chum1 and the ,german sniper got him4 ,at first she could not believe it4 ,it must be some mistake1--some one of similar name4 ,but the days passed on4 ,and the light died in her eyes and she became suddenly old4 ,her prayers ceased4 ,god had disappointed her4 ,there was nothing left to pray for now4 ,nothing to be ambitious for any more4 ,her boy was dead--buried in a shallow grave in ,france with a little wooden cross at his head4 ,and he was only twenty-two6 99 99 99 99 99 ,the awful waste of it6 ,all her loving thought over his childhood--all her care1 her anxiety1 her efforts1 her prayers that ,god would make him a good and noble man4 ,all her hope and pride in the high promise of his boyhood4 ,he was dead4 ,all that he might have been and done in the world was lost4 ,her life was forever desolate4 ,and ,god had let it happen6 ,kindly friends came to comfort and sympathise4 ,but it was of little use4 ,they had not lost their boy4 ,they could not understand4 ,they bade her be proud that he had died in a noble cause--that he had died to save another4 ,they told her that time would bring a blessed easing to her pain4 ,they told her she must bow to ,god's mysterious will4 ,ah6 what is the use of it8 ,how can any outsider intermeddle in the pain of a mother whose boy has just been killed8 ,not all the talking since ,adam ,can make death to be other than death4 99 99 99 99 99 ,god help us all if there were no better comfort for a tortured world in this hour of its bitterest need--to make death to be other than death4 99 99 99 99 99 ,she was a brave woman4 ,she faced the issue clearly4 ,she talked with wise friends4 ,she came back to her prayers4 ,she recalled and relearned the teaching of her ,bible and her church which had lain hazily in memory till her need arose4 ,and gradually ,god's blessed comfort came to her as to one whom his mother comforteth4 ,slowly peace came to her heart1 and in spite of her pain life became worth living again4444 ,he was a good boy4 ,he loved his ,god4 ,he loved his mother4 ,he had his faults1 but she could trust ,christ with them4 ,she had had high ambitions for him4 ,her ambitions came back4 ,she learned to think of him in the wondrous new adventure1 living a full conscious life1 thinking and remembering1 growing and becoming fitted for the eternal ,heaven that is still in front4 ,she believed that the high promise of his boyhood might be fulfilled after all1 and that she might one day see it4 ,life is still very desolate without him2 but she believes that he lives and knows1 that he is growing and going on--that he remembers her and loves her as never before1 that he is waiting for her1 perhaps watching over her as in his days on earth1 even though he cannot write home4 ,and trustfully1 gratefully she remembers him in her prayers4 ,she thinks that the ,heavenly ,father is not likely to forget what a mother says to ,him about her son4 99 99 99 99 99 ,this book is a poor1 imperfect attempt to put together some of the teachings of our holy religion1 to help a troubled world1 in this day of its necessity1 to look out over the wall4 #a ,john iii4 #b4 ,,part ,i ,the ,near ,hereafter ,,chapter ,i ,i ,the title of this chapter is a very short one4 ,it consists of but a single word1 and that the shortest word in the whole ,english language4 ,and though it is the shortest word1 yet it is the most wonderful and mysterious word4 ,though it is a word that every one of us has on his lips every moment of the day1 yet no one who reads this book--no one in the whole world--has ever been able to understand what it means4 ,just the letter ,i4--,all day long1 from morning till night1 we are using it3--,i did this4 ,i mean to do that4 ,i ought4 ,i shall4 ,i will4 ,i think4 ,i wish4 ,i love4 ,i hate4 ,i remember4 ,i forget4 ,and so on and on--ever ringing the changes on this little word in all its cases ,i and my and mine and me4 ,i want to set you thinking4 ,who or what is this ,i1 this me8 ,perhaps you will say1 ,oh1 there is nothing mysterious about it--,i know very well what ,i mean by it4 ',i' means myself4 ,but what do ,i mean by ,myself8 ,of course there is a rough work-day meaning in which it means my whole being as ,i stand--clothes1 body1 brains1 thoughts1 feelings1 general appearance1 everything4 ,but every thinking man knows that this is not the real ,i1 that when he says ,i can1 ,i do1 ,i will1 ,i ought1 ,i remember1 the ,i means to him something much deeper and more mysterious than that4 ,ask yourself1 each one1 what do you mean by ,i8 #a ,,is ,,it ,,my ,,body8 ,nay1 surely not4 ,i know that my body is only my outward garment woven by me out of certain chemical substances4 ,in a scientific museum ,i can stand before a glass case and see neatly labelled the exact portions of lime and silica and iron and water and other elements which compose my body4 ,i know that this body is continually changing its substance like the rainbow in the sky1 like the eddy round a stone in the river4 ,the body ,i have to-day is no more the body of last year than the fire on my hearth to-night is the fire that was there this morning4 ,i have had a dozen different bodies since ,i was born1 but ,i am the same still4 ,every thinking man knows that the ,i1 the real self1 stands behind the body looking out through the windows of the eyes1 receiving messages through the portals of the ears4 ,it rules the body1 it possesses the body4 ,it says1 ,i have a body4 ,this body is a thing belonging to me4 ,as you watch the changing expression in the face of your friend1 as you see his eyes flashing in anger1 or softening in affectionate sympathy1 do you not feel that all you see is but the outward casing1 that the real self of your friend is a something dwelling within8 ,i hope ,i am not puzzling you4 ,what ,i want to do is to introduce you to your own self1 to make you really acquainted with that mysterious being in his first stage of existence here and then to follow him out into the great adventure of the ,hereafter4 #b ,let us go on4 ,what is this ,i1 this self8 ,,is ,,it ,,my ,,brain8 ,physiologists tell us wonderful things of that brain2 how its size and shape1 and the amount of gray matter modify my character2 how it excites itself when ,i am thinking2 how it has different departments for different functions2 how it rules and directs everything ,i do4 ,and men impressed by these wonders have sometimes asserted that there is nothing more to be found4 ,it is the brain which originates all1 thought is only certain activities of the brain--memory is only impressions on the substance of the brain--when the brain decays there is no self remaining4 ,what ,i call ,i is merely a function of my brain4 ,but immediately the question arises1 ,which brain8 ,the particles of my brain are always changing4 ,i have had a dozen different brains in my lifetime1 with not a particle remaining the same4 ,which of these brains is it that ,i am only a function of8 ,and how does it happen that ,i remember what ,i thought and did and said with the old vanished brains of twenty and thirty years ago8 ,memory insists that ,i am still the same ,i in spite of all those changes of brain4 ,if memory be but a series of impressions registered on the brain these could no more survive the dissolution of the brain than impressions on wax could survive the melting of the wax4 ,surely my memory1 my irresistible conviction of personal identity with my past makes it abundantly clear that ,i am a mysterious unchanging spiritual being behind this ever changing brain4 ,and that is what the best modern science asserts--that the brain is but my instrument4 ,if we compare it to a violin then ,i am the unseen violin player behind it4 ,the musician cannot produce violin music without a violin1 but also the violin cannot produce a musical note1 much less take part in a complex symphony without the musician behind it4 ,if the strings of the violin be injured1 or if they be smeared with grease1 the result is discords and crazy sounds4 ,if the brain be physically injured or disordered the result is what we call mental derangement4 ,to say1 then1 that the brain is the seat of thought is not at all to say that it is the source of thought4 ,everything involved in my conscious personality is related to the brain1 but it is not originated by the brain4 ,the mysterious spiritual ,i is behind the brain1 using the brain--nay further--actually educating and fitting the brain for its work4 ,the brain of a little child with its plastic gray matter is smooth and unformed4 ,it is the ,i behind that is steadily creasing and moulding and training it for its purpose4 ,i don't know of anything more impressive than the study of the human brain in its activities1 and how ,i am continually changing and modifying and educating my brain4 ,you feel sometimes as if you could almost lay hands on that mysterious spiritual being that is behind it1 like a spider in his web--feeling and interpreting every quiver of it1 sending messages out into the world by means of it4 ,but he always eludes you4 ,you have no instrument that can touch him4 ,you only know that he is there1 enshrouded in mystery1 a supernatural being not only using the brain but educating it for use4 ,the brain itself has no knowledge or thought1 and no power of itself to originate knowledge or thought4 ,the brain of a baboon differs very little from the brain of a man4 ,the difference is in the being who is behind it4 ,i read lately the statement of a great scientist3 ,as far as ,i can see1 if the soul of a man could get behind the brain of an ape he could probably use it almost as well as his own4 ,i have never known a really thoughtful student of science satisfied with the foolish notion that the brain is what thinks and remembers and wills4 ,he looks upon a human brain1 on the dissecting table1 a mere mass of cells and nerve centres suffused with blood1 and he thinks of the glorious poems and the mighty intellectual efforts and the noble thoughts of ,god and ,righteousness1 and perforce he laughs at the thought that that poor bleeding thing originated them4 ,something within him indignantly replies3 ,nay1 ',i' am not the brain4 ,i possess it4 ,i use it4 ,it is mine1 but it is not me6 #c ,we have not yet gone deep enough to discover this ,i4 ,it is hardly necessary to ask the next question which some foolish people are speculating about to-day4 ,am ,i merely the ,,train ,,of ,,thoughts ,,and ,,feelings ,,and ,,emotions8 ,am ,i but like an ,eolian harp1 played on by the wind of sensations from without8 ,surely not4 ,this mysterious ,i is constantly and persistently claiming to be a real conscious person behind all these--greater than all these--possessing all these4 ,listen to the voice down deep in your consciousness--,,cogito1 ,,ergo ,,sum4 ,i think--therefore ,i exist4 ,i am not the thoughts and feelings and emotions--,i am greater than them all4 ,i am the possessor of them all4 ,they are mine4 ,they are not ,me4 ,they are only passing phases of my being4 ,they are always changing4 ,everything around is changing4 ,i remain the same being always4 ,nothing else in the universe remains the same being--except ,god4 ,god and ,i4 ,god and these selves that are in every one of us4 ,i cannot escape that conviction that ,i am the permanent being behind all the changes4 ,no human vision can see me4 ,no surgeon's knife can detect me4 ,but ,i am there1 behind everything4 ,the particles of my body1 of brain and nerves and heart are constantly being changed--every few years they are completely renewed4 ,i have had a dozen new bodies1 a dozen new sets of brains and heart since ,i was born--,i am always wearing them out4 ,i change them when they are worn out and throw them aside like old clothes4 ,my thoughts and feelings are ever changing1 like the ripples on the sea4 ,but ,i am absolutely certain that ,i am still there--that ,i am the same--just as ,god is the same4 ,the same ,i that played as a little child--the same ,i that lived and desired and thought and felt and worked and sinned years and years ago4 ,not a particle remains of the brain1 or nerves1 or tongue1 or eyes1 or hands1 or feet1 with which ,i did a good or evil deed twenty years since--but it is impossible for me to doubt that it was ,i who did it1 that ,i to-day deserve the praise or blame which is due to it4 ,every man on earth1 when he thinks about it1 has this conviction of himself as an ,i--as a person separate from all other persons1 as a self separate from all other selves1 as remaining always the same being1 whatever changes may take place around him4 ,that is what constitutes man--a self conscious of itself4 ,as far as we can discover1 the lower animals have no such idea4 ,children1 at first1 have not4 ,did you ever notice how a little child never says ,i till he is about three years old8 ,he always speaks in the third person4 ,it is always ,baby does this1 ,baby likes that1 until the ,divine revelation of his personality gradually grows and he recognizes himself as a person4 ,then1 without any teaching on your part1 the child1 of his own accord1 will begin to say ,i4 #d ,oh1 who or what is this awful1 mysterious ,i that dwells somewhere in the centre of my being1 and rules and possesses and is responsible for everything8 ,what is this self1 in each of you1 that is hidden behind your faces as behind a mask--that is looking out through your eyes1 and receiving1 through your ears1 the thoughts that others are trying to express for you8 ,can the surgeon's knife find any trace of it8 ,is it possible to destroy it8 ,is it possible to get away from it8 ,it has survived the putting away of every part of the body a dozen times over4 ,will it survive the final putting away of the whole body at death8 ,will it survive everything8 ,shall ,i be ,i1 the same identical person through all the ages of eternity8 #e ,look in again upon this ,i within you and answer this question4 ,why does it assert so positively that it is impossible to doubt it2 ,i ought to do certain things1 ,i ought not to do certain other things8 ,all over the earth this day--from the ,st4 ,lawrence to the ,ganges1 from the ,north ,pole to the ,south--there is no man outside of a lunatic asylum without that conviction4 ,no race1 not even the lowest1 has been found without it4 ,where did that conviction come from8 ,from the ,bible1 do you say8 ,from the teachings of ,christ8 ,nay1 surely not4 ,long before the ,bible1 long before the incarnation of ,christ1 the old pagan had the thought clear and distinct1 though not by any means so clear and distinct as ,christianity has made it4 ,did you ever think of the mystery of this authoritative utterance of the self within you3 ,i ought8 ,in the very lowest savages it asserts this4 ,st4 ,paul calls this sense of ought--the law of ,god written in our hearts 7,rom4 ii4 #ae74 ,st4 ,john calls it the light of ,christ in us1 the light which lighteth every man coming into the world 7,st4 ,john i4 #i74 ,longfellow sings of it in ,hiawatha3 ,that in even savage bosoms ,there are longings1 yearnings1 strivings ,for the good they comprehend not2 ,that the feeble hands and helpless1 ,groping blindly in the darkness1 ,touch ,god's right hand in the darkness4 ,even in the heart of the thief or the murderer it insists3 ,i ought to do this1 ,i ought not to do that1 and when he disobeys this mysterious law within him he is compelled to drag himself up for judgment and fierce remorse for wrong that no one else knows of1 that no one else can punish him for4 ,what do you think of that mysterious fact about this ,conscious ,personality within you8 ,does it not look as if it belongs to ,god1 that every soul is stamped with ,god's image and superscription1 as every coin of ,king ,george is stamped in the mint with the image and superscription of the ,king8 #f ,and this suggests a further question4 ,why is there in us this sense of imperfection1 of incompleteness--of ideals always away in the front that we can never even approximately reach on earth8 ,look at this conscience which we have just been thinking about4 ,it is always holding high above us an ideal of perfect goodness and insisting that we must strive after it4 ,but we can never get even near it on earth4 ,the very best man at the close of life sees his ideal still high above him and feels how much better he might be and ought to be and then he dies feeling the incompleteness of this life4 ,does not this unfinished life thus broken off1 with its aim still far in the future1 demand something further8 ,the great ,german philosopher ,kant founded on this fact his famous argument for ,immortality4 ,or look at our efforts after knowledge4 ,it takes nearly all this life to fit the student for his search after truth1 and when he is just ready and the great ocean of truth lies before him1 ,death comes4 ,oh1 how incomplete and unfinished his life seems6 ,just the scaffolding put up for his work1 just the tools got into good order4 ,then he dies4 ,for half a century1 said ,victor ,hugo1 ,i have been writing my thoughts in prose and verse1 history1 philosophy1 drama1 romance1 tradition1 satire1 ode1 song4 ,but ,i feel that ,i have not said a thousandth part of what is in me4 ,when ,i go down to the grave ,i shall have finished my day's work4 ,and this thought of incompleteness compels in him the hope1 another day will begin next morning4 ,was ,victor ,hugo right8 ,was the old pagan philosopher right8 ,you may catch my body1 said ,socrates1 but no man can catch me1 myself1 to bury me4 ,victor ,hugo did not believe in the ,christian ,bible4 ,socrates had no revelation from ,god1 except the revelation of this self within him4 ,you have the revelation of ,christ as well4 ,what do you think of the question8 ,when the dust shall return to the earth as it was1 shall the spirit return to ,god who gave it8 ,when brain and heart and nerves are destroyed1 when the sun is old and the stars grow cold1 and all that you ever saw is swept away into nothingness1 will this mysterious1 lonely self remain1 to say ,i and my and mine and me1 through all the ages of ,eternity8 #g ,now1 ,i put a closer question still4 ,is not this mysterious ,i behind the brain the being that ,god is especially concerned with8 ,what ,he sometimes calls your soul4#a ,the ceiling of the ,sistine chapel at ,rome has a fine painting by ,michael ,angelo from the text1 ,man became a living soul4 ,it represents the ,supreme ,spirit floating in the ether and touching with ,his finger the body of ,adam4 ,as ,he touches it an electric spark flashes into the body and ,adam becomes a living soul4 ,is not this the centre of the awful mystery that ,i call ,i1 myself--the same of which our ,lord asks ,his tremendous question3 ,what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own self8 ,is not this self the real man1 the man in the centre of his life1 in the deepest recesses of his being1 the man as he lives beneath the eye of ,god and enters into relations with ,god--the man for whom the ,bible announces that exciting adventure in the long ages of the ,hereafter8 ,is not this ,i looking out from behind your eyes this moment--the real man1 of whom the body that you see is only the outward covering1 of whom the brain is only the outward telegraphic instrument8 ,should not we adapt our thoughts to that tremendous fact8 ,instead of thinking ,i have a soul1 should we not rather think ,i am a soul8 ,instead of thinking1 that beautiful girl has an ugly soul1 that insignificant looking man has a noble soul1 should we not rather think1 that ugly soul has a beautiful girl body1 that splendid soul is in a mean looking body8 ,would not some such manner of thinking help to bring home the reality1 that ,i am the invisible immortal being which clothes itself in a material body during this first stage of its life4 ,should not we be more likely to become acquainted with our own soul1 to become impressed with its existence1 to think about its character8 ,should we not thus learn more easily that wealth and clothes and outward appearance are not so important1 that the character1 the relation to ,god is the one supreme thing8 ,think out for yourself the answer to that and to all these questions4 ,i am not going to answer any of them4 ,my purpose here is not to answer questions but to set you asking them--not to do your thinking for you1 but to set you thinking for yourselves4 ,is it the spoiling and ruining of that self within you which ,christ balances against the whole world8 #h ,now1 have ,i helped1 even in a little way1 to introduce you to yourself--that self that is going out into the great adventure of the ,hereafter8 ,if ,i have1 ,i have done a very good thing for you4 ,with so many the soul is but a vague abstraction1 belonging to the pulpit and the sick-bed and the life of the hereafter4 ,but amid the busy daily life1 the real work and pleasure1 the real streets and houses1 it is hard to think of it except as something shadowy and unreal4 ,my effort here is to take it out of the region of the vague and unreal and bring it into the region of every-day1 practical life4 ,try to respond to my thoughts4 ,try to get acquainted with your own self--your own soul4 ,try to watch its wondrous life4 ,try to become impressed with its existence--to think about its character4 ,think whether1 when the ,bible says anything about your soul1 it means this mysterious being that you call ,i4 ,think whether this ,i is an emanation from ,god's nature1 and therefore is intended to be in harmony with ,him4 ,think whether it must live for ever and ever1 and therefore if its character be not of enormous importance--if its character-making be not the one supremely important thing in your life4 ,then realize that whether you exalt or degrade it1 it is with you for ever4 ,you ,,can ,,never1 ,,never1 ,,never ,,get ,,away ,,from ,,yourself4 ,you will be the very same self after death as before4 ,i read some time since of the sinking of a ship and how the captain dived through the cabin door1 and keeping the light above in view1 swam up through the hatchway and escaped out of the wreck4 ,there is a deceitful expectation in human nature that when we go down in the sea of death and eternity we shall in some way escape out of ourselves1 swim away from our own personalities1 and thus leave the ship at the bottom of the sea4 ,if the ,i meant only the body1 that would be true4 ,but this ,i is where character exists1 where love and desire and will exist4 ,this ,i is the captain himself4 ,the captain cannot swim away from the captain4 ,myself cannot swim away from myself4 ,i must be ,i to all eternity4 ,i cannot shake off my character1 be it good or bad4 ,realize next what you mean to the ,god who created you and lovingly planned for you your magnificent destiny4 ,let the soul within you feel its dignity1 its priceless importance in the eyes of its ,maker4 ,measure the value of it by what ,god has done for it4 ,why was this world slowly built through thousands of ages8 ,just as a platform for this ,i to develop character4 ,why was the ,incarnation and ,death of the ,everlasting ,son of ,god8 ,why is the gift and energy of the ,holy ,spirit8 ,why is the perpetual intercession of ,christ in ,heaven8 ,why is the grace and power of the ,sacraments in life8 ,why are the boundless prospects opened beyond the grave8 ,all for the sake of this mysterious permanent supernatural being that we call ,i4 ,measure ,i say by what ,god has done for it1 the tremendous value ,he sets on your immortal soul4 #a ,in a simple1 popular statement such as this it would but be confusing to go into nice metaphysical distinctions of soul and spirit4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,three ,,stages ,,of ,,existence #a ,now1 grip with both hands the fact that this life1 as you know it1 is but one single stage in ,god's plan for you--the ,kindergarten stage1 the caterpillar stage of your existence4 ,that in five thousand years that spiritual being looking out from behind the mask of your face to-day will be living still1 and feeling still1 and thinking still4 ,that what you call death1 the end of this career1 is but birth into a new and more exciting career1 stretching away into the far future1 age after age1 aeon after aeon1 whose prospect should stir the very blood within us4 ,there is nothing which so touches some of us as a thing with makings in it1 a thing with untold potentialities in it1 a thing which may come in the future to ,god only knows what4 ,talk of the caterpillar which is to develop into the butterfly or the acorn which shall one day be a mighty oak4 ,why1 these miracles are but child's play compared with the miracles potentially wrapped up in this poor little self4 ,no wildest fairy tale can suggest the wonder of its possibilities as it passes out into the new adventure of the life beyond4 #b ,thirteen hundred years ago there was an eager discussion in the court of ,king ,edward of ,northumbria4 ,the old wattled hall was blazing with torches and a crowd of eager listeners hung intent on the teaching of the ,christian missionaries who had just arrived4 ,at last a grim bearded old earl rose in his place4 ,can this new religion1 he asked1 tell us of what happens after death8 ,the life of man is like a swallow flying through this lighted hall4 ,it enters in at one door from the darkness outside1 and flitting through the light and warmth passes through the farther door into the dark unknown beyond4 ,can this new religion solve for us the mystery8 ,what comes to men in the dark1 dim unknown8 ,perhaps he was thinking of his dead wife or his brave boy killed in battle4 ,the old earl's question is the question of humanity in all ages gazing out into the darkness after its dead4 ,the full answer can only be had by dying4 ,but a partial answer can be had now4 ,the ,bible reveals to us that there are three stages of human existence3 #ast4 ,the earthly stage1 where ,i1 the mysterious ,i1 live with a body woven around me4 ,the ,bible hints that this stage is of untold importance4 ,in fact1 all the future stages depend largely on how it is lived4 ,that is what makes this first stage so awfully important4 ,it is the formative time whose influence spreads out into eternity4 ,in this stage ,acts make habits4 ,habits make character4 ,character makes ,destiny4 #bnd4 ,the intermediate life ,,before ,,the ,,judgment1 ,,the ,,near ,,hereafter ,,when ,i ,,lay ,,aside ,,the ,,body ,,at ,,death4 ,,this ,,is ,,the ,,stage ,,before ,,the ,,resurrection ,,which ,,in ,,our ,,lord',s ,,time ,,the ,,jews ,,called ,,hades1 ,,and ,,in ,,which ,,they ,,called ,,the ,,special ,,state ,,of ,,the ,,blest ,,paradise1 ,,abram',s ,,bosom1 ,,under ,,the ,,throne1 ,,etc4 #crd4 ,and away after this final stage the ,far ,hereafter in the end of the age1 as our ,lord says1 where come the ,general ,resurrection1 the ,judgment of ,men1 the final stages of ,heaven and ,hell4 ,that stage has not yet arrived in the history of humanity4 ,in ,part ,i of this book we are only concerned with the ,intermediate ,life1 the life of the near ,hereafter which comes after ,death and before the ,judgment4 ,we are to study what can be known about it4 ,with educated people it should not be necessary to combat the foolish popular notion that at death men pass into their final destiny--,heaven or ,hell--and then perhaps thousands of years afterwards come back to be judged as to that final destiny6 ,to state such a belief should be enough to refute it4 ,those who hold it do err not knowing the ,scriptures4 ,for the ,scriptures have no such teaching4 ,the ,jews in our ,lord's time believed in a waiting life of departed souls before the ,judgment4 ,owing to vagueness and contradictions in the ,rabbinical teaching it is impossible to state their notions about it with definiteness4 ,but in the main it may be said that when they speak of that life as a whole without distinguishing between the states of the good and the evil they call this whole by the general name of ,,hades1 i4 e41 the ,unseen 7the ,hebrew word was ,sheol71 but they also distinguished in it the abode or state of the ,blest as ,,paradise1 or the ,garden of ,eden1 or ,,abraham',s ,,bosom1 or ,,under ,,the ,,throne1 e4 g41 ,abraham whom ,god planted in the ,garden of ,paradise1 our master ,moses departed into the ,garden of ,eden4 ,the holy ,judah rests this day in ,abraham's ,bosom4 ,their teaching is of course not authoritative for us4 ,doubtless many of their notions on the subject needed much correction4 ,but our ,lord gives ,his sanction in the main to their belief and uses their very phrases in speaking of the new life1 e4 g41 ,dives in ,,hades 7not ,hell1 see ,r4 ,v471 lift up his eyes being in torment--,lazarus was carried by the angels into ,,abraham',s ,,bosom4 ,to-day thou shalt be with ,me in ,,paradise is ,his promise to the dying thief4 ,and it is clear that ,he did not mean the final ,heaven for ,he says1 ,no man hath ascended into ,heaven only the ,son of ,man who is in ,heaven4 ,even ,he ,himself did not go to ,heaven when ,he died1 for this is ,his statement after the ,resurrection1 ,i have not yet ascended unto ,my ,father4 ,where1 then1 did ,his ,spirit go8 ,the whole ,church throughout the world repeats every ,sunday1 in the creed1 ,he was dead and buried1 and descended into ,,hades--the life of the waiting souls4 ,st4 ,peter tells us in his first ,epistle that in those three days ,christ's living ,spirit went and preached to the spirits in safe keeping who had been disobedient in the old world4 ,for which cause he says1 was the ,gospel preached to them that are dead4 ,the same thought was evidently in his mind in his first sermon 7,acts ii4 #ca74 ,david1 he says1 prophesied of the resurrection of ,christ that ,his soul was not left in ,hades4 #d ,and this is the point of view of all the ,new ,testament ,scriptures4 ,heaven and ,hell are always spoken of as states after the ,judgment and the ,judgment is to be in the end of the world or the end of this age4 ,the great crisis of expectation set before men is not death1 but the ,day when the ,lord shall appear1 e4 g41 ,that ye may be saved in the ,day of the ,lord1 ,the ,day of the ,lord is as a thief in the night1 ,looking for and hasting to the coming of the ,day of ,god1 ,keep the commandment till the appearing of our ,lord1 ,to be found with praise at the appearing of ,jesus1 etc41 etc4 ,warning1 reproof1 exhortation1 encouragement are all directed to that great day at the end of the ,waiting ,life--the ,judgment at the second coming of the ,son of ,man4 ,naturally this belief passed into the thought of the early church4 ,the souls of the godly abide in some better place and the souls of the unrighteous in a worse place expecting the time of judgment4444 ,these who hold that when men die their souls are at once taken to heaven are not to be accounted ,christians or even ,jews 7,justin ,martyr1 ,a4 ,d4 #aej1 ,dialogue with ,trypho74 ,the souls of ,christ's disciples go to the invisible place determined for them by ,god and there dwell awaiting the ,resurrection 7,irenaeus1 ,against ,heretics1 ,a4 ,d4 #ahj74 ,all souls are sequestered in ,hades till the ,day of the ,lord 7,tertullian1 ,de ,anima1 ,a4 ,d4 #bjj74 ,let no man think that souls are judged immediately after death2 all are detained in one common place of safe keeping till the time when the ,supreme ,judge makes ,his scrutiny 7,lactantius1 ,div4 ,institutes74 ,during the interval between death and resurrection men's souls are kept in hidden receptacles according as they severally deserve rest or punishment 7,augustine74 ,does it not all give a fuller meaning for us to the words of our ,lord1 ,in ,my ,father's house are many mansions 7or abiding places74 ,this whole teaching about the ,intermediate ,life has been obscured in our day by the fact that most people read the ,authorized ,version of the ,bible where the word ,hades has been unfortunately translated ,hell1 just the same as the darker word ,gehenna4 ,at the time of the translation of the ,authorized ,version the old ,english word hell--the hole--the unseen1 had not yet stiffened into the awful meaning that it has attained in our day4 ,it was not then a word set apart to designate the abode of the lost4 ,it simply meant the unseen place1 the covered place4 ,in the south of ,england still a thatcher who covers in a house is called a hellier4 ,even in games it was used4 ,in the old ,english games of forfeits1 on the village green1 the hell is the hidden place where the girls ran away to escape being kissed4 ,you can see it had no awful meaning necessarily connected with it4 ,therefore it did not seem repulsive to translate the ,greek word ,hades1 the ,unseen1 by the ,english ,hell4 ,but it has become very misleading in later days1 and our own conservative instincts which prevent our altering the word in the creed has helped to perpetuate the error4 ,the revised version has put all this right1 e4 g41 ,his soul was not left in ,hades 7not hell71 nor did ,his flesh see corruption 7,acts ii4 #ca74 ,i have the keys of death and of ,hades 7,rev4 i4 #ah74 ,at the end of the world death and ,hades gave up the dead 7,rev4 xx4 #ac74 ,in ,hades 7not hell7 the rich man lifts up his eyes1 being in torment 7,st4 ,luke xvi4 #bc74 #e ,the ,bible1 then1 teaches to every careful student that there is the ,intermediate ,life beyond the grave1 a vivid conscious life4 ,that all men go there when they depart this life4 ,no man has ever yet gone to ,heaven4 ,no man it would seem has ever yet gone to ,hell4 ,no man has ever yet been finally judged4 ,no man has ever yet been finally damned4 ,thank ,god for that at any rate4 ,the ,bible teaches that all who have ever left this earth are waiting yet--from ,king ,alfred to ,king ,edward2 from ,st4 ,paul to ,bishop ,westcott2 from the poor struggler of the ancient days in the morning of history to the other poor struggler who died last night4 ,we are now to study this next stage of our history1 beginning at what we call death which is really birth into the next stage of life1 just as the death of the caterpillar is the birth of the butterfly4 ,in this next stage are living to-day our dear children and brothers and sisters and wives and husbands within the veil4 ,in a very few years we shall all have gone through--each of us just the same ,i4 ,the ,bible does not reveal very much about it as was to be expected4 ,the ,bible is intended to guide our conduct and prepare us for a final ,heaven4 ,therefore it busies itself with the responsibilities of this present life and the glories of the final prospect--touching very lightly the intermediate stages1 just as we press on a boy the importance of his school days and the high prospects for his manhood1 touching very little the stages between4#a ,but there is much more to be learned from ,scripture about this ,intermediate ,life than most people think4 #a ,there is a further reason as regards ,st4 ,paul's epistles1 which form one-third of the whole ,new ,testament4 ,the reason is that ,st4 ,paul and his people were not greatly interested in the ,intermediate ,life4 ,they looked for the ,lord's coming in glory during their own lifetime4 ,even if some died before1 the intermediate waiting time would be so short that it excited no absorbing interest4 ,they did not dwell on it4 ,it could not concern them as it concerns us4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,what ,,the ,,bible ,,says ,,about ,,the ,,near ,,hereafter ,we are now to enquire about that life into which our departed ones have gone from us4 ,i has gone on his mysterious journey into the strange1 new land4 ,we are standing in the darkened death chamber1 where the dead body lies1 with close shut eyes1 like an empty house whence the tenant has gone out1 closing the windows after him1 and the sobbing friends are feeling the inevitable pressure of the questions1 ,where is he8 ,what is he doing8 ,what is he seeing8 ,can we know anything at all about his condition now8 ,many of them say1 ,no1 we cannot know anything2 all is vague1 shadowy1 unreal4 ,it is vain to torment our hearts by thinking4 ,so they lock away his photographs and letters1 and they gradually1 reluctantly let him drop out of their conversation and their prayers1 and1 as far as possible1 out of their thoughts1 trusting sadly in the healing influence of time and forgetfulness to quiet the aching questions in their hearts4 ,ah6 it is a poor comfort6 ,some of them even think that there is something presumptuous in intruding into mysteries which they say ,god has not revealed4 ,do not the secret things belong unto the ,lord our ,god8 ,what a pity they do not complete that text1 ,but the things that are revealed belong to us2 and then go on to find out whether1 after all1 ,god has not revealed a great deal more than they think about that mysterious journey on which the beloved one has gone4 ,a reverent curiosity concerning the life of our departed is surely not displeasing to ,god4 ,i would not have you to be ignorant1 brethren1 says ,st4 ,paul1 concerning them that are asleep4 ,i wish ,i could comfort those sorrowing questioners1 as ,i have comforted myself1 by thus searching for what ,god has revealed4 ,i do not want to offer mere sentimental guesses4 ,i want to find for them the things that ,god has revealed1 and if ,i draw some conclusions which ,i cannot definitely prove from ,scripture1 they are only such as seem to me reasonable and probable from a fair consideration of the evidence1 and ,i shall draw a clear distinction between the authoritative teaching of ,scripture1 which you are bound to accept1 and any conclusions which ,i draw from ,scripture1 which you are free to reject4 ,let me first put your questionings into clear1 definite shape1 as you look upon the face of your dead4 ,is it a life of sleep and unconsciousness into which he has gone1 or is he as fully alive and conscious as he was an hour ago8 ,is there further probation in that life8 ,is there growth and progress8 ,does he still remember8 ,does he still love8 ,does he still know or care anything about the old home and about us who are left behind8 ,can he help us8 ,can we help him8 ,are we to think of him as one gone absolutely into the unknown1 or may we think of him as we do of our other absent one who went to ,india last year1 only with the difference that one writes home and the other does not8 ,,ii ,as in all our troubles1 we had best go first to our ,lord4 ,as ,he is the only one who really knows all the questions of our hearts1 so ,he is the only one who really knows the secrets of the invisible world4 ,he is the only one on earth who has ever gone away into that strange land and then came back to tell us anything about it4 ,in all things ,he is our great forerunner4 ,he1 the ,son of ,man1 has gone before us poor sons of man in all the experiences of life1--childhood1 youth1 manhood1 temptation1 struggle1 sorrow1 disappointment1 victory1 joy4 ,and ,he has gone before us1 too1 into the ,unseen ,land1 as if to lead us and say to us ,be not afraid4 ,he does not speak much about it4 ,as ,i have already shown you1 this was to be expected4 ,in the first place1 in our present imperfect1 limited condition1 with senses fitted only for this poor earthly life1 it would probably be impossible to teach us anything definitely about the higher life of the spirit world4 ,how can you teach a blind1 deaf man about this world of beautiful sights and sounds in which you are living8 ,how could ,god teach us definite details about a life which no experience of ours can help us to imagine8 ,and1 besides that1 ,scripture is intended to guide our conduct in this world1 not to gratify our speculations about another world4 ,at any rate1 there is a marked reticence and reserve all through the ,bible in speaking of the ,hereafter1 which reticence and reserve we shall do well to imitate4 #a ,first1 watch our ,lord draw the curtain a little in ,his story of the ,rich ,man and ,lazarus4 ,the story ,i say1 not the parable4 ,it is no parable4 ,a parable is the statement of an analogy between visible things and invisible4 ,this is a direct statement about the invisible things themselves4 ,jesus is telling what happens after death4 ,indeed1 many in the early ,church thought1 and many to-day think1 that this is a direct historical account by ,christ of the life of a certain selfish rich man in ,jerusalem whom ,he knew and of a certain beggar that lay at his gate4 ,they died and were buried1 and those who followed them to the grave could see no further4 ,but the ,lord is watching them still as they pass into the land which ,he knew so well4 ,whether this was the story of a certain man1 or only a general statement about all such men1 does not matter4 ,christ was telling of what happens just after death1 when the ,i1 the self1 has laid aside the body and gone out into the ,unseen4 ,i do not mean that this story is intended as a revelation of that life4 ,if it were it would doubtless have been more complete4 ,it is simply a passing reference to it in warning against the danger of a selfish life4 ,but it lifts the curtain a little bit4 #b ,be quite clear about this--that our ,lord is not speaking of the ,,far ,hereafter--of the final stage of human life at the end of the world1 in which after the ,final ,judgment come ,heaven and ,hell4 ,he is speaking of the near ,hereafter1 the life immediately after death4 ,we have seen that there are three stages in our history3 #ast4 ,this ,earth life1 where the ,i1 the self1 has a body woven around it4 #bnd4 ,the ,intermediate ,life before the ,judgment1 into which ,i go at death without my body into my second stage of being4 #crd4 ,the final stage at the end of the age in which come the ,final ,judgment and ,heaven and ,hell1 which stage is still in the future for all humanity4 ,clearly our ,lord is speaking of the ,intermediate ,life1 of the unseen life existing to-day1 running on side by side with the earthly life4 ,for you see the men ,he speaks of are not long dead4 ,dives' brothers are still living here4 ,dives is quite conscious that the ordinary life of men is still going on on earth side by side with that other life4 ,clearly ,jesus is telling of the present stage in the life of the departed--that life in which all our dear departed ones are living at this moment4 #c ,next ,i notice that that life in its inmost experiences seems very like this life1 and follows from it quite naturally4 ,he depicts it as a clear1 conscious life4 ,they are not dead nor asleep nor unconscious4 ,they are very much alive4 ,he represents them as thinking and speaking and feeling4 ,lazarus is feeling comforted4 ,dives is feeling tormented1 and thinking keenly of his own misery and of his brothers' danger on earth at that moment4 ,so actively alive are they all to him that he wants one of them to go back to earth to tell his brothers about it4 ,be quite clear about this4 ,challenge every statement as ,i go on4 ,is this a mere speculation of mine or have we ,christ's authority for saying that in the new environment men are living a life as clear and vivid and conscious as on this earth--that death makes no break8 #d ,next ,i learn that each feels himself the same continuous ,i that he was on earth4 ,lazarus feels himself the same ,lazarus1 ,dives feels himself the same ,dives1 the brother of those five boys4 ,i shall still keep on saying ,i4 ,i am not somebody else over there4 ,that is what ,jesus said from the other side of the grave--,handle ,me and see--it is ,i1 ,myself4 #e ,next ,i read on ,his authority that there is no break in memory4 ,of course there could not be if ,i am still ,i4 ,but our ,lord confirms this4 ,lazarus remembers ,dives4 ,dives remembers ,lazarus so well that he wants him to go back to convert his brothers4 ,aye1 he remembers the brothers in the old ,jerusalem home1 the five boys that grew up beside him4 ,he remembers sorrowfully that they have grown to be selfish men like himself1 perhaps through his fault4 ,he is thinking about them and troubling about them4 ,and ,abraham assumes this memory as a matter of course4 ,my son1 remember that thou in thy lifetime1 etc4 ,does not all this confirm our statement in ,chapter ,i1 that memory is something more than impressions on the gray matter of the brain2 that memory is in the man himself who is behind the brain and1 therefore1 must go on with him4 #f ,i read on1 ,now he is comforted and thou art tormented4 ,that again is just what ,i should expect4 ,it is all quite natural4 ,if ,i am still the same ,i in full vivid conscious life1 in full memory of the past--if ,i have passed out of the mists of earth into the full light of the ,eternal1 where everything is seen at its full value1 where money counts for nothing and love counts for everything1 it is of course natural that the good man should feel comforted and the bad man should feel tormented4 ,only more so4 ,only more so4 ,that is the difference4 ,the poor humble follower of ,christ1 even on earth1 is in the main happy--at his best moments4 ,but he is not always very happy4 ,he has the inner comfort of the peace of ,god4 ,but there is much worry and distraction1 about his business and his sickness and his troubles of many kinds to spoil his peace4 ,all these earthly troubles are gone now4 ,he sees ,christ4 ,he knows of the boundless joy before him by and by4 ,he is comforted4 ,and ,i read that ,dives is tormented4 ,here again all is natural and as we should expect4 ,the godless man is in some degree tormented in this life--at his best moments1 when he stops to think1 when he lies awake in the lonely night and conscience speaks to him4 ,but there are many distractions to ease his pain--the pleasures and amusements of life1 the company of friends1 the pursuit of business1 the excitements of ambition4 ,so he can manage a good deal to forget ,god1 to acquire a distaste for ,god1 and yet to dull the still small voice that hurts him4 ,but these distractions are gone now4 ,he has gone out into the new life1 naked1 alone4 ,all the money and business excitement are gone4 ,all the things of sense and appetite are gone4 ,that poor soul of his1 dwarfed and degraded1 stands in the dread loneliness before ,god1 full of the sense of loss and misery--of shame for the past--of dread of what is to come--of wretched discord between himself and all that is good4 ,in ,hades1 says ,christ1 not in ,hell 7the ,revised ,version puts that right71 in that life just after death1 he lifted up his eyes1 being in torment4 ,the ,judgment has not come yet4 ,he is not in ,hell4 ,hell has not yet come4 ,those things are in the final stage of being4 ,but already1 just after death1 ,christ says1 he is in torment of soul4 #g ,i do not think we should pass over the expression carried by the angels into ,abraham's bosom4 ,notice that our ,lord makes it simple and intelligible for the ,jews by using their own phrase1 ,abraham's ,bosom1 their name for the state of the faithful departed immediately after death4 ,and ,he says1 ,lazarus was carried by the angels4 ,if anybody else but ,jesus had said it1 we might pass this over as a piece of poetic imagery4 ,but it was ,jesus who said it4 ,he says so much about the angels4 ,he says that there are guardian angels of the children4 ,he says that the angels rejoice over one sinner that repenteth4 ,he would not say this about ,lazarus carried by the angels unless it meant something real4 ,if so ,i think we have here our ,lord's authority for the ministry of angels at death1 an indication that the poor soul does not go out solitary into a great lone land--that there are loving watchers around the death-bed sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation4 ,i do not know how much weight we should attach to the suggestion that ,dives seems the better for the discipline of the new life4 ,his selfishness on earth bulks largely in the story4 ,now in all his trouble he is thinking of his five brothers lest they also come to this place of torment4 #i ,the next words suggest a very serious and awful question4 ,is the destiny and the condition of every soul fixed forever at death8 ,what is the meaning of the phrase3 ,between us and you there is a great gulf fixed8 ,that is too large a question to deal with here4 ,i postpone it to a later chapter4 ,i have already reminded you of the tremendous importance of this life in its bearing on our final destiny4 ,,iii ,we get another hint of the ,unseen ,life in the story of the ,transfiguration1 when ,moses and ,elijah1 two of the greatest souls of the old world days in the wondrous ,waiting ,life1 come out from that life to meet the ,lord and to speak with ,him of ,his decease1 which ,he should accomplish at ,jerusalem 7,luke ix4 #ca74 ,does it not suggest at once the deep interest which they and their comrades1 the great souls within the ,veil1 were taking in the mighty scheme of ,redemption that was being worked out on earth8 ,does it not suggest that in the spirit land they are watching our doings here8 ,does it not help us to anticipate the joy in that wondrous life when1 straight from the ,cross1 ,christ the triumphant victor descended into ,hades 7,apostles' ,creed7 to proclaim the glad news to the dead 7#a ,peter iv4 #ah72 to unfurl ,his banner and set up ,his ,cross in the great world of the departed8 ,,iv ,our next hint comes when the ,lord is dying on the ,cross4 ,the penitent thief is hanging beside ,him4 ,death is drawing near4 ,the poor sinner is about to take the leap off into the dark4 ,he does not know what is before him3 ,darkness--unconsciousness--nothingness- -what8 ,he does not know4 ,the only one on earth who does know is on a cross beside him4 ,,lord1 ,,remember ,,me ,,when ,,thou ,,comest ,,in ,,thy ,,kingdom4 ,and ,jesus said3 ,,to-,,day ,,thou ,,shalt ,,be ,,with ,,me ,,in ,,paradise4 ,not in ,heaven1 but in ,paradise--the ,jews' word for the resting place of good men after death4 ,now1 when one man says to another at such a tune1 ,to-day you shall be with me1 surely it suggests1 ,you and ,i will be living a full1 conscious life1 and you will remember our acquaintance here upon the earth2 we shall know each other as the two who hung together this morning on calvary4 ,does it not1 at least suggest1 recognition in the ,unseen ,land8 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,what ,,the ,,bible ,,and ,,the ,,church ,,say ,,about ,,the ,,near ,,hereafter ,only three hours later the ,lord passed through into that ,unseen ,land4 ,father1 into ,thy hands ,i commend ,my spirit1 and having said this ,he gave up the ghost1 and departed on the mysterious journey4 ,if we could know anything about what ,he saw and did on that mysterious journey surely it would give some hints about our dear ones departed4 #a ,that journey of the ,lord into the world of the dead has been made a great article of the ,christian faith4 ,we all repeat it regularly in the ,apostles' ,creed1 ,he descended into ,hell4 ,i need not translate that clause4 ,every well taught ,sunday-school child knows its meaning4 ,he descended into ,hades1 into the world of the departed in the great waiting life before the ,judgment4 ,but there is a great deal more than this to be said about it4 ,now1 let us consider this statement4 ,clearly it deals with the three days between our ,lord's death and resurrection4 ,where did ,his spirit go8 ,to heaven1 of course1 somebody says4 ,no1 says the ,lord ,himself after the resurrection1 ,i have not yet ascended to ,my ,father4 ,where1 then1 did ,his spirit go8 ,nobody can tell1 you say4 ,yes1 one person could tell1 and only one--the ,lord ,himself4 ,he only could have told of ,his solitary temptation in the wilderness1 and ,he evidently told it4 ,he only could have told of the solitary scene in ,gethsemane1 it would seem that ,he told it4 ,he only could have told of ,his visit to the world of the dead1 and ,i think that ,he told it4 ,you remember that after the resurrection ,he was with them forty days teaching the things concerning the ,kingdom4 ,i think ,he must have told them then of those three days4 ,why8 ,because the knowledge of it was so wide-spread in the early ,church1 and there was no one else to tell it4 ,some people seem to think that there are only some obscure verses of ,st4 ,peter and a few references of ,st4 ,paul in favour of such teaching4 ,not at all4 ,it was the belief of the whole ,church4 ,st4 ,peter and ,st4 ,paul were only two in a crowd of teachers of early days who proclaimed triumphantly the visit of the ,lord into the world of the dead4 ,st4 ,peter seems to be thinking of it in his first sermon when he quotes3 ,his soul was not left in ,hades 7,acts ii4 #ca74 ,therefore ,st4 ,peter knew that it was into that intermediate life--not into that final ,heaven--that our ,lord went at death4 ,this statement by itself would not prove much1 but when ,i find the same ,st4 ,peter long afterwards telling so circumstantially in his first epistle 7iii4 #ah7 that when his ,master was put to death in the flesh ,he was made more alive in the spirit1 in which spirit ,he went and preached to the spirits in prison who had been disobedient at the flood4 ,for which cause 7chap4 iv4 #f7 was the gospel--the glad news--preached to them that are dead1 ,i think it is a fair inference that ,st4 ,peter had some definite information4 ,and then ,i find ,st4 ,paul1 in ,eph4 iv4 #i1 when he is writing of the gifts bestowed on the ,church by her ascended ,lord4 ,the word ascended causes him to pause abruptly4 ,men must not think that ,his work in the unseen was limited to that work for us in ,heaven after ,his ascension4 ,now that ,he ascended1 what is it but that ,he descended first into the lower parts of the earth 7i4 e41 the world of the departed7 that ,he might fill all things4 ,hades and ,heaven had alike felt the glory of ,his presence4 ,and then immediately after the ,apostles' days ,i find the knowledge wide-spread in the ,church4 ,i read the writings of the ancient bishops and teachers of the ,church1 beginning at the death of ,st4 ,john1 the very men to whom we refer for information as to the ,baptism and ,holy ,communion and the authenticity of the four ,gospels1 and there ,i find prominently in their preaching the gospel of our ,lord's visit to the world of the departed4 #b ,the earliest is known as ,justin ,martyr4 ,he was born about the time of ,st4 ,john's death1 and he feels so strongly about the ,descent into ,hades that he actually charges the ,jews with mutilating a prophecy of ,jeremiah foretelling it4 ,irenaeus1 the great ,bishop of ,lyons in ,france1 a little while later tells how the ,lord descended #ei into the world of the dead1 preaching to the departed1 and all who had hopes in ,him1 and submitted to ,his dispensations1 received remission of sins4 ,then away in ,egypt comes ,st4 ,clement of ,alexandria1 born about fifty years after ,st4 ,john's death4 ,i have been greatly interested in some little touches in his chapter on the descent into the world of the dead4 ,he asserts as the direct teaching of ,scripture that our ,lord preached the ,gospel to the dead1 but he thinks that the souls of the ,apostles must have taken up the same task when they died1 and that it was not merely to ,jews and saints1 but to heathen as well--as was only fair1 he says1 since they had no chance of knowing4 ,don't you like that honest appeal of his as was only fair8 ,st4 ,clement's great disciple1 ,origen1 comes next4 ,his evidence comes in curiously4 ,a famous infidel named ,celsus1 knowing of this wide-spread creed of the ,church about the preaching in ,hades1 laughs at the ,christians4 ,i suppose your ,master when ,he failed to persuade the living had to try and persuade the dead8 ,origen meets the question #fj straight out3 ,whether it please ,celsus or no1 we of the ,church assert that the soul of our ,lord1 stript of its body1 held converse with other souls that ,he might convert those capable of instruction4 ,then away in ,western ,africa1 the ,church's belief is represented by another great teacher1 ,tertullian4 ,in ,jerusalem1 ,cyril the ,bishop1 teaches the people in his catechetical lectures this faith of the ,church with a ring of gladness and triumph4 ,he sees ,christ not only amid the souls who had once been disobedient1 but also in blessed intercourse with the strugglers after right who had never seen ,his face on earth4 ,he pictures how the holy prophets ran to our ,lord1 how ,moses1 and ,abraham1 and ,isaac1 and ,jacob1 and ,david1 and ,samuel1 and ,john the ,baptist1 ran to ,him with the cry1 ,oh1 ,death1 where is thy sting8 ,oh1 ,grave1 where is thy victory1 for the ,conqueror has redeemed us4 ,i cannot go on to tell of ,st4 ,athanasius and the rest4 ,i have said enough to show you that in the early ages of the ,church--the pure loving ages--nearest to the ,lord and to the ,apostles1 the ,church rejoiced in the glad belief that ,christ went and visited the spirits in the ,unseen who had never seen ,his face on earth4#a #c ,this was one of the gladdest notes in the whole ,gospel harmony of the early ,church for five hundred years1 in the purest and most loving days1 the days nearest our ,lord and ,his ,apostles4 ,it was a note of triumph4 ,it told of the tender1 thoughtful love of ,christ for the faithful souls who had never seen ,hun4 ,it told of the universality of ,his ,atonement4 ,it told of victory1 far beyond this life4 ,it told that ,christ1 who came to seek and save men's souls on earth1 had continued that work in the world of the dead while ,his body lay in the grave4 ,that ,he passed into the unseen world as a saviour and conqueror4 ,that ,his banner was unfurled there and ,his cross set up there in the world of the departed4 ,that the souls of all the ancient world who had never known ,him1 and ,,who ,,were ,,capable ,,of ,,turning ,,to ,,him 7i4 e41 who in their earthly probation1 in spite of all their ignorance and sin1 had not irrevocably turned away from ,god and good71 might turn to ,him and live4 ,that the spirits of the old-world saints and prophets had welcomed ,him with rejoicing4 ,that even men of much lower place had yet found mercy4 ,that even such men as those who had perished in the flood in ,god's great judgment1 ,,but ,,had ,,not ,,hardened ,,themselves ,,against ,,his ,,righteousness ,,and ,,love1 were not shut out from hope4 ,in the many mansions was a place even for such as they4 ,to the teachers of the early ,church1 ,i repeat1 it was one of the most triumphant notes in their gospel--the wideness of ,christ's ,atonement4 #d ,that is what we mean1 then1 by the descent into ,hades4 ,does it not give a vivid reality to that world that we think of so vaguely8 ,think of it4 ,was there ever before or since such a scene1 such a preaching1 such a preacher1 such a congregation8 ,could the wildest flights of imagination go further8 ,yet it is all sober fact4 ,try to picture it for yourselves for a moment4 ,the ,lord hanging on the cross1 with ,his heart full of pain for that humanity that ,he was redeeming2 and yet surely full of triumph1 too1 and glad anticipation4 ,he was going to show ,himself to the poor souls who in the dark old world days had loved ,god and ,right4 ,he had finished the work that was given ,him to do4 ,he was leaving ,his ,church with that blessed gospel of salvation to preach through the centuries to all souls on earth4 ,but what of the souls who had gone out of earth from the beginning of the world without knowing ,him8 ,the ,church replies1 through her ,bible and through her ,creed and through her early teachers1 that the ,lord was not forgetting them4 ,he was about to go forth in a few moments1 quickened in ,his spirit1 to bring ,his glad gospel to the waiting souls4 ,that was the first great missionary work of the ,church4 ,may we not reverently see ,his own anticipation of it in ,his departing words as ,he started on ,his mission1 ,father1 into ,thy hands do ,i commend ,my spirit 7in the journey on which it is going74 ,may we not read it in that au revoir1 not good-bye1 to the thief beside ,him1 ,to-day you shall be with ,me in ,paradise8 ,may we not dwell on the wonder and joy and gratitude and love which must have shaken that world within the veil1 as the loving conqueror came in amongst them8 ,and may we not reverently follow ,him still in thought when ,he returned to earth and1 as we conjecture1 somewhere in the ,forty ,days after the ,resurrection1 told ,his disciples of ,his marvellous experience8 ,i am not laying down this as a statement of ,scripture1 but ,i think it is a fair conjecture1 for how else could they have learned it8 ,and if we are right2 think how the knowledge of it would swell the glad confidence of ,st4 ,paul4 ,for ,i am persuaded that neither ,,death1 nor ,,life1 nor angels1 nor principalities1 nor powers1 nor height1 nor depth1 nor any other creature1 is able to separate us from the love of ,god which is in ,christ ,jesus our ,lord4 ,i think we must see that this teaching of the ,apostles and apostolic men of the whole early ,church is true4 ,people sometimes ask1 ,why1 then1 is it new in our day8 ,the answer is easy4 ,at the ,reformation time there were terrible abuses connected with the ,church's doctrine of the ,intermediate life4 ,the practice of purchased ,masses1 and ,pardons1 and ,indulgences1 and all the absurdities connected with the ,roman purgatory1 so exemplified in ,tetzel's cry1 ,when money clinks at the bottom of my box a soul is released from purgatory4 ,with such provocation one does not wonder--though one may greatly regret--that the indignant reformers1 in sweeping away the falsehood1 sometimes swept away also the underlying truth4 ,the teaching about the ,intermediate ,life1 and the old practice of the ,church in remembering her faithful departed in prayer1 were all put in the background as leading to dangerous abuse2 and so the people1 getting no real teaching about it1 got the sad habit of trying to forget about the state of their dear ones departed4 ,in their ignorance1 they could only guess blindly what the ,creed here means4 ,so for centuries this has been the lost article of the ,creed4 ,but this teaching of the ,creed is none the less true1 because it has been neglected in later days4 ,and if it be true1 it is well worth our attention1 for it confirms what we have already learned from the previous teaching of the ,lord1 that the life of the departed is a clear1 vivid1 conscious life1 since ,christ could teach them and they could learn4 ,and it suggests that the departed souls of the old world who had no chance of knowing ,him have not by death lost all capacity for repenting and receiving ,christ4 ,those men that ,st4 ,peter thinks of had perished in ,god's great judgment1 but it would seem in their terrible fate they had not hardened themselves irrevocably against ,god4 ,those who do that on earth seem to close the door for ever4 ,that is the sin against the ,holy ,ghost--the only sin which our ,lord says hath never forgiveness either in this world or in the world to come4 ,these evidently had still their capacity for repentance4 ,and this gives one stirrings of hope in the perplexities of ,god's awful judgments4 ,don't be afraid to think this4 ,there is not one word in ,scripture to forbid our thinking it4 ,it merely means that in the terrible fate which they had brought on themselves they had not utterly hardened their hearts--and ,christ had not forgotten them in their misery4 #f ,estimate fairly the value of this evidence for our ,lord's visit to the ,unseen ,life4 ,do not overestimate it4 ,it is not all ,scripture4 ,but all that is not ,scripture is the wide-spread belief of the primitive ,church which was afterwards crystallized into an article of the ,creed4 ,surely it is enough to deepen our sense of the reality of that ,unseen ,life4 ,it strongly confirms what we have learned already--that that life is a vivid1 conscious life into which ,i go my self1 with my full memory of the past4 ,and do not misread it4 ,it is not offering any hope to wicked men who1 with full knowledge of ,christ1 wilfully reject ,him4 ,it tells of men who had never known ,him1 and has hope only of those who were capable of receiving ,him4 ,there is nothing here to make light of the responsibility of this life4 ,but this message comes to us to comfort the hearts and strengthen the faith of thinking men and women who are puzzled and perplexed and estranged from ,christ by the terrible perplexities of life and of ,god's judgments as they understand or misunderstand them4 ,you have often thought of the difficulty of reconciling the righteous justice of ,god with ,his ,fatherly love4 ,you have often thought1 in wondering doubt1 ,why did ,christ come so late in the world's history8 ,what of all the old-world souls who could not have known ,him here on earth8 ,for you know that there is no salvation save by ,jesus ,christ4 ,you have read in the ,old ,testament of whole nations1 men1 women and little children1 swept away in one dread destruction4 ,what of them8 ,you have wondered about the vast heathen world passing in thousands every day into the ,unseen1 with no knowledge of ,him4 ,you have sometimes read the ,registrar-,general's return of deaths in your city1 and thought of all the little dead children1 brought up in evil homes2 of sullen prisoners hardened in the jails2 of grown men and women in the city's slums who1 through the hardening influence of circumstances1 had little real chance of ever being touched by that tenderness of ,god's love which leads men to love ,him in return4 ,you know they have not died in ,christ4 ,what of them8 ,if you had to stand at some death-beds at which some of us have to stand you would feel as we do the insistent pressure of that question for all in the ancient or modern world--the vast countless world of the dead--who had no real chance of knowing ,christ or being touched by ,his love here on earth4 ,oh1 the generations old ,over whom no church bell tolled ,christless lifting up blind eyes ,to the silence of the skies4 ,for the innumerable dead ,is my soul disquieted6 ,trust them with ,god1 says this teaching of the ,creed4 ,christ will do right by them4 ,christ does not forget them4 ,trust ,him1 though thy sight be dim1 ,doubt for them is doubt of ,him4 99 99 99 99 99 ,still ,thy love1 ,o ,christ1 arisen ,yearns to reach those souls in prison1 ,through all depths of sin and loss ,sinks the plummet of ,thy ,cross4 ,never yet abyss was found ,deeper than that ,cross could sound4 ,in these two chapters we have touched on the chief statements in the ,new ,testament and in the beliefs of the primitive ,church as to the near ,hereafter4 ,there are others of less importance to be referred to as we go on4 ,it seemed well to lay down some basis to proceed on4 #a ,see ,plumptre1 ,the ,spirits in ,prison4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,crisis ,,of ,,death ,in an earlier chapter ,i placed you in imagination in the darkened death chamber1 looking on the face of your dead and feeling the keen pressure of the inevitable questions3 ,what has happened to him8 ,where is he8 ,what is he seeing8 ,what is he knowing in that mysterious world into which he has gone8 ,that death chamber is the best place on earth for solemn thought about the ,hereafter4 ,but when you are thinking only of your own dead and your heart is all quivering in pain and longing you are not in the best condition for cool1 clear searching after truth4 ,imagination and sentiment are apt to run away with reason4 ,the tender tortured woman is apt to believe too easily what the heart longs to believe4 ,the stricken man in his deep numb pain is in danger of yielding to hopeless doubt about it all4 ,so ,i lifted you away into a clearer atmosphere and sent you searching for definite revelations of ,god about other people's dead thousands of years ago1 where your heart and affections were not involved1 and where cool1 clear reason had a chance to be heard4 ,we tried to study impartially what ,scripture reveals about the ,world of the ,departed and how the primitive ,church interpreted that revelation4 ,this gives us a solid basis to proceed on4 #a ,with that preparation we come back into the darkened room again looking into the face of our dead1 trying in perplexity of heart to follow him on the great journey4 ,to avoid confusion we assume here that he died a penitent man in ,christ's faith and fear4 ,let me try to enter into your thoughts4 ,let me begin at the beginning--,death4 ,naturally we all shrink from death--the seeming shock of sundering soul and body--the launching out against our will into the regions of the ,unexplored--the land of far distances as ,isaiah calls it4 ,we are afraid of that unknown death1 for our dear ones--like children afraid of a bogey on the dark stairs4 ,we can't help being afraid of it4 ,but ought we to be so ,,much afraid of it8 ,has not our ,lord taught us that there is no bogey on that dark stairs1 that he who has just now closed his eyes in death is opening them already into a larger life8 ,there is no death1 what seems so is transition4 ,now think of this unknown death4 ,has not ,christ revealed to you that this terrible thing that you so fear for him who is gone really only means that at the close of this poor limited kindergarten stage of his history ,death has come--,god's beneficent angel to lead him into the next stage of being4 ,why should you be afraid8 ,birth gave him much1 ,death will give much more4 ,,for ,,death ,,means ,,birth ,,into ,a ,,fuller ,,life4 ,what a fright he gives us1 this good angel of ,god6 ,we do not trust his ,master much4 ,do you say that you do not know what is before your friend--that it is a leap off into the dark8 ,have we not learned from ,scripture already that it is much less of dark than come of us thought8 ,and may it not be much less of a leap off than we think--only a closing of the eyes here and an opening of them there8 ,may not the birth into that life be as simple as the birth into this8 ,may not our fright be like that of ,don ,quixote when blind-folded he hung by his wrist from the stable window and they told him that a tremendous abyss yawned beneath him4 ,he is in terror of the awful fall4 ,maritornes cuts the thong with gladsome laughter and the gallant gentleman falls--just four inches6 ,may we not believe that ,god reserves just as blithesome a surprise for us when our time comes to discover the simplicity1 the agreeableness1 the absence of any serious change in what we call dying4 ,i am not ignoring the pain and sickness of the usual death-bed4 ,but these are not dying8 ,the act of dying comes after these4 ,these are but the birth pangs before the new life begins1 the rough1 hard bit of road that leads to the wicket gate out of the city4 ,pliny1 from much clinical observations1 declares his opinion that death itself is pleasure rather than pain4 ,dr4 ,solander was delighted at the sensation of dying in the snow4 ,the late ,archbishop of ,canterbury remarked as he died3 ,it is really nothing much after all4 ,dying itself may be pleasure rather than pain4 ,we have all noticed that expression of composed calm which comes on the faces of the newly dead4 ,some say it is only due to muscular relaxation4 ,perhaps so4 ,but perhaps not4 ,one likes to think that it may be something more4 ,who knows that it may not be a last message of content and acquiescence from those departing souls who at the moment of departure know perhaps a little more than ourselves--a message of good cheer and pleasant promise by no means to be disregarded4#a ,at any rate does not ,scripture suggest to us in the story of ,lazarus--of ,moses and ,elias at the ,transfiguration--of the dying thief--of the spirits in the ,unseen ,life whom ,christ visited at ,his death--that ,death comes not as an executioner to cut off our departed one from life and love1 but rather as ,god's good angel bringing him more than life has ever brought1 and leading him by a path as full of miracles of soft arrangement as was his birth to heights of ever advancing existence4 ,god reveals to us too that the closing of the eyes in the darkness of ,death is but the opening them to the light of a larger life1 to the vision of the new mysterious real world which the glare of this world obscured4 ,it is just what happens every day when the glare of the sunlight1 revealing to us every little flower and leaf and insect1 shuts out from us the great universe of ,god which stands forth in the midnight sky4 ,do you know ,blanco ,white's famous sonnet8 ,he is imagining what ,adam must have felt as the first night fell on the earth4 ,all the beautiful world that he had known for but a day was vanishing from him into darkness4 ,was the end of all things come already8 ,but lo1 a stupendous unexpected miracle6 ,lo1 as the darkness deepened a new and more wonderful world was revealed in the sky1 a world which the sunlight had kept absolutely concealed3 ,hesperus1 with the host of heaven came ,and lo6 ,creation widened on man's view ,who could have thought such marvels lay concealed ,behind thy beams1 ,o ,sun8 ,or who could find ,whilst flower and leaf and insect stood revealed ,that to such countless orbs thou madest us blind8 ,why do we then shun ,death with anxious strife ,if ,light can thus deceive1 wherefore not ,life8 ,yes1 life shuts out greater things than light does4 ,god teaches us that ,death is birth1 that what the earth life conceals ,death will reveal2 that as the babe's eyes opened from the darkness of the womb to sunlight on this earth1 so will the eyes that close in the darkness of death open on a light that never was on sea or land4 #b ,and may not this act of dying be much less lonely than we think8 ,god sent each of us into this first stage of existence with mother and home and loved friends about us4 ,no one comes into this world to loneliness4 ,should not that stir some hope at least that the ,father may take similar care for us in our entry on the second stage at death8 ,i hate sentimentalizing about it4 ,but this is not sentimentalizing4 ,i have already called attention to our ,lord's only account of a good man's entrance into the ,unseen4 ,he was carried by the angels1 ,he said1 and ,i have shown you some reason to think that ,he meant literally what ,he said--that the angels who are presented in ,scripture as so interested in our life here are equally interested in our transition to a larger life--that loving watchers are around a soul as it passes into the ,unseen4 ,i sometimes wonder1 too1 how much significance should be attached to the fairly frequent phenomenon of dying people seeming in some rapt vision to see or feel as if meeting them the presence of loved ones gone before4 ,sometimes these phenomena are very striking4 ,i once thought of asking a religious journal to open its columns to testimony from thoughtful1 cool-headed clergy and laity of such experiences at death-beds4 ,it might enable us to judge critically if it could be explained away as mere sentimental fancy or if the evidence were strong enough to suggest an underlying reality4 ,it would need to be very keenly criticized4 ,all allowance should be made1 especially in the case of women1 for the deceitfulness of pious fancies4 ,but there are some cases which1 if their number were large enough1 would point much deeper1 where there could be no case of sentimental fancies4 ,for instance a young student in one of our city hospitals told me a curious experience lately4 ,a little child under two years old had been rescued out of a fire and was dying badly burned4 ,i took the little chap on a pillow in my arms1 he said1 to let him die more easily4 ,suddenly he stiffened himself and reached out his little hands and his face beamed with the sort of gladness that a child has in reaching to something very pleasant and in a very short time he died4 ,my informant was by no manner of means a sentimental youth1 and he was much struck with the incident4 ,i don't know if there is much evidence of this kind4 ,if so it would count for a good deal in forming our judgment4 ,our ,lord speaks of those whom we have made friends on earth receiving us when we die into the everlasting habitations 7,luke xvi4 #i74 ,is it too good to believe that ,he might have meant some pleasant welcoming on the other side--that perhaps that little child in the hospital that night was really reaching out his little hands to some one invisible to the young student8 ,let us have no weak sentimentalizing1 but on the other hand--is anything too good to believe as to what ,god might do for poor frightened souls at such a dread crisis of being8 #a ,i have here freely adapted some thoughts and phrases from ,edwin ,arnold's ,death and ,afterwards4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,i1 ,,myself ,,after ,,death #a ,but we must not delay at ,death4 ,death is a very small thing in comparison with what comes after it--that wonderful1 wonderful1 wonderful world into which ,death ushers us4 ,turn away from the face of your dead4 ,turn away from the house of clay which held him an hour ago4 ,the house is empty1 the tenant is gone4 ,he is away already1 gasping in the unutterable wonder of the new experience4 ,o change6 stupendous change6 ,there lies the soulless clod4 ,the light eternal breaks1 ,the new immortal wakes1 ,wakes with his ,god6 ,oh6 the wonder of it to him at first6 ,years ago ,i met with a story in a sermon by ,canon ,liddon4 ,an old ,indian officer was telling of his battles--of the ,indian ,mutiny1 of the most striking events in his professional career2 and as he vividly described the skirmishes1 and battles1 and sieges1 and hair-breadth escapes1 his audience hung breathless in sympathy and excitement4 ,at last he paused2 and to their expressions of wonderment he quietly replied1 ,i expect to see something much more wonderful than that4 ,as he was over seventy1 and retired from the service1 his listeners looked up into his face with surprise4 ,there was a pause2 and then he said1 in a solemn undertone1 ,i mean in the first five minutes after death4 ,that story caught on to me instantly4 ,that has been for years my closest feeling4 ,i feel it at every death-bed as the soul passes through4 ,i believe it will be my strongest feeling when my own death-hour comes--eager1 intense1 glad curiosity about the new1 strange world opening before me4 ,not long ago in the early morning ,i stood by a poor old man as he was going through into the ,unseen4 ,he was1 as it were1 fumbling with the veil of that silent land--wishing to get through2 and we were talking together of the unutterable wonder and mystery that was only an hour or two ahead4 ,i always talk to dying people of the wonders of that world just ahead of them4 ,i left him and returned to see him in a couple of hours2 but ,i was too late1 he had just got through--got through into that wonder and mystery that ,i had been stupidly guessing about1 and the poor old worn body was flung dishevelled on the bed1 as one might fling an old coat1 to be ready for the journey4 ,he was gone4 ,just got through--and ,i felt1 with almost a gasp1 that he had solved the riddle of life2 that ,i would give anything1 risk anything1 for one little glimpse through2 but ,i could not get it4 ,i could only guess the stupendous thing that had come to him4 ,for all the stupendous changes that have ever happened here are surely but trifles when compared with that first few minutes in the marvellous life beyond1 when our friends pass from us within the veil1 and our hearts follow them with eager questioning--,what are they doing8 ,what are they seeing8 ,what are they knowing now8 #b ,more and more of late years ,i keep asking those questions at death-beds4 ,i seem to myself constantly as if trying to hold back the curtain and look through4 ,but the look through is all blurred and indistinct4 ,it must always be so while we are here1 with our limited faculties1 shut up in this little earth body4 ,i know certain facts about the ,i1 the self in the ,unseen ,life1 but ,i have no knowledge and no experience that would help me to picture his surroundings4 ,i cannot form any image1 any1 even the vaguest1 conception of what that life appears like4 ,that is why my outlook is so blurred and indistinct4 ,and this brings me to point out ,,what ,,sort ,,of ,,knowledge ,,we ,,can ,,have ,,and ,,what ,,sort ,,of ,,knowledge ,,we ,,cannot ,,have about that life4 ,it may help you not to expect the impossible4 ,you desire to know two things about the ,unseen ,world4 #ast4 ,you desire to know the real life of the ,i himself--consciousness1 thought1 memory1 love1 happiness1 penitence and such like4 #bnd4 ,you desire to know his outward surrounding1 so that you can picture to yourself his life in that world4 ,that is what gives the interesting touch to your knowledge of your friend's life in a foreign land on earth4 ,now the first of these is the really important knowledge1 and such knowledge you can have and you can understand because it is of the same kind as the knowledge you already have of him on earth4 ,the second would be an interesting knowledge1 but this knowledge you cannot have1 because you have no faculties for it and no similar experience to help you to realize it4 ,it is a law of all human knowledge that you cannot know and cannot depict to yourself anything of which you have had no corresponding experience before4 ,i1 myself which goes into the ,unseen is the really important matter1 not my surroundings4 ,and the essential knowledge1 ,i say1 about that self1 about his inner real life in the ,unseen you can have and you can understand because the inner life there is of the very same kind as the inner life here4 ,if ,i am told of full consciousness there1 of memory there1 of love or hatred there1 of happiness or pain there1 of joy or sorrow there1 ,i can easily understand it4 ,i have had experience of the like here4 ,there is no difficulty4 ,but the knowledge of the outward environment there--what we shall be like1 how that world will appear1 how we shall live and move and have our being in a spiritual existence--all that deeply interesting knowledge which imagination could use to picture that life and bring it before us--,,that we cannot have4 ,it is not possible with our limited faculties and limited experience4 ,we could not be taught it4 ,we have no faculties to take it in and no experience to aid us in realizing it4 ,a blind man cannot picture colours to himself1 a deaf man cannot imagine music4 ,it is not that we are unwilling to teach him1 but that his limited faculties prevent him from taking in the idea4 ,realize your position then with regard to the spiritual world4 ,imagine a population of blind1 deaf men inhabiting this earth4 ,one of them suddenly gets his sight and hearing1 and lo6 in a moment an unutterable glory1 a whole world of beautiful colours and forms and music has flowed into his life4 ,but he cannot convey any notion of it to his former companions4 ,he cannot convey to them the slightest idea of the lovely sunset or the music of the birds4 ,we1 shut up in these human bodies1 are the blind1 deaf men in ,god's glorious universe4 ,some of our comrades have moved into the new life beyond1 where the eyes of the blind are opened and the ears of the deaf are unstopped4 ,but we have no power of even imagining what their wondrous experience is like4 ,i suppose that is the reason why we have no description of ,paradise or ,heaven except in earthly imagery of golden streets and gates of pearl4 ,i suppose that is why ,st4 ,paul could not utter what he saw when in some tranced condition he was caught up into ,paradise and that life was shown to him--whether in the body or out of the body1 he could not tell 7#b ,cor4 xii4 #d74 ,i suppose that was why ,lazarus could tell nothing of these marvellous four days in which his disembodied spirit mingled with the spirits of the departed4 ',where wert thou1 brother1 those four days8' ,there lives no record of reply1 ,which1 telling what it is to die1 ,had surely added praise to praise4 ,i suppose it was all unintelligible to mortal ken when the spirit had come back to the body it had left4 ,if1 in a crowd of blind deaf men1 one got his sight and hearing for a few minutes1 and then relapsed1 what could he tell to his comrades or even fully realize to himself8 ,thus you see the knowledge that you can have and the knowledge you cannot have of that spirit life4 ,be content4 ,god has given you a great deal of knowledge of that real life of the self in the hereafter4 ,if ,he has so made you that the other knowledge that would help you to picture the surroundings is impossible to you it is best that you should know it4 ,be content4 ,don't cry for the moon4 ,follow your departed in thought into that life and realize what you have learned from ,scripture about him4 ,,ii ,what have you learned8 ,first that ,,it ,,is ,a ,,vivid ,,conscious life into which he has gone4 ,there are several passages in ,scripture which speak of ,death as sleep and which taken alone might suggest a long unconsciousness1 a sort of ,rip ,van ,winkle life1 sleeping for thousands of years and waking up in a moment at the ,judgment ,day1 feeling as if there had been no interval between4 ,but a little thought will show it is a mere figure of speech taken from the sleeping appearance of the body4 ,the sleep of ,death is a very natural expression to use as one looks on the calm1 peaceful face after life's fitful fever and the long pain and sickness of the death-bed4 ,but no one can study the ,bible references to the life beyond without seeing that it cannot be a life of sleep or unconsciousness4 ,shall we sleep between ,death and the ,judgment8 asks ,tertullian4 ,why souls do not sleep even when men are alive4 ,it is the province of bodies to sleep4 ,this sleep theory has always been condemned whenever the ,church has pronounced on it4 ,even the ,reformers declare it at variance with ,holy ,scripture in spite of the strong feeling in its favour in their day4#a ,the reader who has followed thus far will need no proof as to the teaching of ,scripture that the ,waiting ,life before the ,judgment into which our dear ones have gone is no unconscious sleep but a real vivid conscious life4 ,so vivid that our ,lord's spirit is said to have been quickened1 made more alive1 as ,he passed in4 ,so vivid that the men of the old world could listen to ,his preaching4 ,so vivid that ,moses and ,elias--those eager1 impetuous leaders--in that wondrous life could not be held by its bonds1 but broke through to stand on the mountain with ,christ a thousand years after their death4 ,so vivid that ,lazarus 7whom our ,lord describes as in ,abraham's bosom7 is depicted as living a full1 clear1 intelligent life2 and ,dives as thinking anxiously about his five brothers on earth4 ,that was surely no unconscious life which ,st4 ,paul saw when he was caught up into ,paradise and heard unspeakable things1 nor was it a blank unconsciousness that he looked for in his desire to depart and be with ,christ which is far better 7,phil4 i4 #bc74 ,do you want further proof8 ,look at our ,lord and the thief on the cross4 ,the two men had been hanging together dying on the cross1 just about to get through the veil to the world beyond4 ,the poor thief did not know what was beyond that veil--darkness1 insensibility1 stupor1 oblivion4 ,the only one on earth who did know hung there beside him4 ,and when the poor dying one turned with the words1 ,lord1 remember me when ,thou comest in ,thy kingdom1 ,he promptly replied1 ,to-day thou shalt be with ,me4 ,if any one knew1 surely ,he knew4 ,if it meant anything1 it meant1 ,there shall be no oblivion1 no unconscious sleeping4 ,to-night1 when our dead bodies lie here upon the cross1 you and ,i shall live and know each other as the two men who hung dying together on ,calvary4 ,ah6 the wonder to him as he went in beyond the veil1 as though the ,lord would lead him1 lest he should be afraid4 ,beyond all question ,god has revealed to you plainly enough that your beloved has gone into a full1 vivid1 conscious life4 ,he is more alive to-day than he ever was on earth4 ,what follows8 ,this4 ,if ,i am fully conscious what am ,i conscious of8 ,surely1 first of all ,i must be conscious of myself1 conscious of the continuity of my personal identity1 conscious of the continuity of my personal character4 ,i must feel that ,i am the same ,i1 ,i am still myself4 ,death which removes only the outer covering leaves the ,ego just where it was4 ,no better4 ,no worse4 ,the ,bible lays no emphasis at all on death as making any change in character4 ,our ,lord assumes the characters as remaining the same4 ,the mere act of dying does not alter character4 ,i am the same ,i4 ,i have entered into a new environment more favourable for the exercise of my faculties1 more adaptable to the acquisition of knowledge1 more helpful1 ,i trust1 to growth in good4 ,but ,i am the same ,i4 ,as ,i leave off here ,i begin there4 ,i take into that world just myself as ,i have made it4 ,if ,i have made the best of myself what more should ,i desire to take8 ,consciousness1 ,memory1 ,thought1 ,love1 ,character4 ,if ,i have not made the best of myself1 if ,i have acquired a distaste for ,god1 for holiness1 still ,i take in myself just as ,i stand4 ,think how tremendously solemn that makes the life here4 ,it is the place of character making for the life there4 ,i can never1 never1 never get away from myself4 ,i shall always be myself4 ,you remember what our ,lord said from the other side of the grave4 ,handle ,me and see it is ,i ,,myself4 ,it is ,i myself1 the very same self4 ,it is they themselves1 the very same selves whom ,i loved and who loved me so dearly4 ,in that solemn hour after death1 believe it1 your boy1 your wife1 your husband1 who is experiencing the startling revelations of the new life is feeling that life as an unbroken continuance of the life begun on earth4 ,only the environment is changed4 ,he feels himself the same boy or man that he was an hour ago1 with the same character1 aspirations1 desires1 the same love and courage and hope4 ,but oh1 what a different view of all things6 ,how clearly he recognizes ,god's love and holiness4 ,how clearly he sees himself--his whole past life4 ,if ever he cared for ,christ and ,his will1 how longingly1 wonderingly1 he is reaching out to ,him4 ,if ever he loved you tenderly on earth1 how deeply and tenderly he is loving you to-day4 ,in all the whirl of awe and wonder and curiosity and hope1 love must stand supreme4 ,for love never faileth4 ,and now1 says ,st4 ,paul1 abideth ,faith1 ,hope and ,love 7these three that abide for ever71 but the greatest of these is love4 #c ,what else have you learned8 ,that ,,he ,,remembers ,,clearly the old life and the old home and the old comrades and the old scenes on earth4 ,there is no conjecturing about that4 ,that goes without saying if ,i am the same ,i in that world4 ,personal identity of course postulates memory which binds into one the old life and the new4 ,and the ,bible takes that for granted4 ,we saw that ,lazarus remembered ,dives and ,dives remembered ,lazarus and remembered his old home and the five young brothers who grew up with him4 ,he remembers that they have grown to be selfish men like himself and is troubled for them4 ,and ,abraham assumes it as a matter of course4 ,my son1 remember that thou in thy lifetime1 etc4 ,our ,lord comes back from ,death remembering all the past as if ,death made no chasm at all in ,his memory4 ,go and meet ,me in ,galilee1 ,he says2 ,lo ,i have told you 7before ,i died74 ,and the redeemed in the future life are represented as remembering and praising ,god who had redeemed them from their sins on earth4 ,so you may be quite sure that your dear one is remembering you and storing up in his memory all your love in the past4 ,did your wife ever tell you on earth how happy you had made her8 ,did the old father and mother now in the ,unseen ever thank ,god for the comfort you had been to them during their declining years8 ,be sure that in that land of love these will be amongst the most precious pictures in their storehouse of memory4 #d ,and he has taken with him all the treasures of mind and soul which by ,god's grace he has won for himself on earth4 ,a man can take nothing of the external things--of gold or lands4 ,nothing of what he ,,has but all of what he is--all that he has gained ,,in ,,himself4 ,the treasures of memory1 of disciplined powers1 of enlarged capacities1 of a pure and loving heart4 ,all the enrichment of the mind by study1 all the love of man1 all the love of ,god1 all the ennobling of character which has come through the struggle after right and duty4 ,these are the true treasures which go on with us into that land where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt4 #e ,and he is ,,with ,,christ4 ,the ,bible teaches that the faithful who have died in ,christ are happy and blest in ,paradise even though the ,final ,heaven and the ,beatific ,vision is still but a thing to be longed for far off in the future4 ,lazarus is comforted after his hard life on earth4 ,the souls of the righteous are in the hands of ,god1 there shall no torment touch them4 ,blessed are the dead which die in the ,lord 444 they rest from their labours4 ,but best of all it assures us that they are ,,with ,,christ4 ,lord ,jesus receive my spirit the dying ,stephen prayed as he passed into the ,unseen4 ,they are absent from the body at home with the ,lord4 ,they depart to be with ,christ which is far better4 ,with ,christ4 ,one has to write carefully here4 ,the full vision of the ,divine ,glory and ,goodness and ,love is reserved for the final stage of existence in ,heaven where nothing that defileth shall enter in1 whereas this ,intermediate ,life is one with many imperfections and faults1 quite unready for that vision of glory4 ,but for all that ,st4 ,paul believed that the presence of ,christ was vouchsafed in that waiting land1 in some such way we may suppose as on earth long ago4 ,only an imperfect revelation of the ,son of ,god4 ,and yet--and yet--oh1 how one longs for it6 ,think of being near ,him1 even in some such relation as were the disciples long ago4 ,i think when ,i read that sweet story of old1 ,when ,jesus was here amongst men1 ,how ,he called little children as lambs to ,his fold1 ,how ,i long to have been with ,him then4 ,yes1 ,st4 ,paul seems to say you shall be with ,him1 you shall have that longing gratified in some measure even before you go to ,heaven4 ,so that ,paradise1 poor and imperfect as it is compared with the ,heaven beyond1 is surely a state to be greatly desired4 ,some pages back ,i wrote with a certain shrinking ,no man has ever yet gone to ,heaven4 ,it is quite true1 and yet ,i could feel some poor mourner shrinking back from it as he thought of that beloved one gone4 ,nay1 shrink not4 ,paradise means the ,park of ,god1 the ,garden of ,god1 the place of rest and peace and refreshing shade4 ,the ,park is not the ,palace but it is the precincts of the ,palace4 ,paradise is not ,heaven1 but it is the ,courtyard of ,heaven4 ,and 7the dearest1 tenderest assurance of all7 they are with ,christ4 ,is not that sufficient answer to many questions8 ,at any rate the ,bible definitely teaches that4 #a ,our #ci ,articles were originally #db1 and the #djth says1 ,they which say that the souls of those who depart hence do sleep being without all sense1 feeling or perceiving till the ,day of ,judgment 444 do utterly dissent from the right belief declared to us in ,holy ,scripture4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,recognition #a ,,shall ,,we ,,know ,,one ,,another ,,in ,,that ,,life8 ,why not8 ,as ,george ,macdonald somewhere pertinently asks1 ,shall we be greater fools in ,paradise than we are here8 ,this is a perfectly apt retort1 and not at all flippant as it may seem at first4 ,it is based on the belief suggested by common sense and confirmed by ,scripture that our life there will be the natural continuous development of our life here and not some utterly unconnected existence4 ,if consciousness1 personal identity1 character1 love1 memory1 fellowship1 intercourse go on in that life why should there be a question raised about recognition8 ,true1 there are morbid times with most of us when we are inclined to doubt all desirable things1 and there are some gloomy ,christians who are always suspicious of anything especially bright and hopeful in the ,gospel of ,christ4 ,but to the normal ,christian man who knows what is revealed and who believes in the love of ,god1 there should never be any serious doubt about recognition in that life4 #b ,before saying anything about ,scripture evidence let me point out that there are some things that are always assumed by legitimate inference even without any definite proofs4 ,if ,i knew that the inhabitants of ,mars were alive1 and in full consciousness1 and with souls like mine1 and capable of intercourse with each other--whether they have bodies or not1 ,i should assume that they knew one another4 ,i should not wait for that fact to be definitely stated by a visitor to ,mars who should return to earth4 ,i should assume it without his stating it4 ,nay1 ,i should require very strong evidence to make me believe the contrary4 ,now1 the ,bible says that our dear ones in ,paradise are alive1--that their life is a full conscious life1 with full consciousness of personal identity1 that they remember the things of the old earth life1 that they love one another1 that they can have intercourse together as in the story of ,dives and ,lazarus4 ,so far as we can judge1 the inner life of the ,i ,,there seems a very natural continuation of his life ,,here4 ,if then1 ,i am the same ,i1 the same person1 still alive1 still conscious1 still thinking1 still remembering1 still loving1 still longing for my dear ones1 still capable of intercourse with others1 why may ,i not without definite proof assume the fact of recognition8 ,surely it should require strong evidence to make me believe the contrary4 ,it is one thing to avoid reckless assertions without any foundation--it is quite another thing to have so little trust in ,god that we are afraid to make a fair inference such as we would unhesitatingly make in like conditions here--just because it seems to us too good to be true4 ,nothing is too good to be true where ,god is concerned4 ,i do believe that one reason why we have not definite answers to such questions as this is because such answers ought not to be necessary for people who trusted fully in the tenderness of the love of ,god4 #c ,why1 even if the ,bible were to give you no hint of it1 do you not see that the deepest1 noblest instincts that ,god has implanted in us cry out for recognition of our departed2 and where ,god is concerned it is not too much to say that the deepest1 noblest instincts are1 in a sense1 prophecies4 ,this passionate affection1 the noblest thing that ,god has implanted in us1 makes it impossible to believe that we should be but solitary isolated spirits amongst a crowd of others whom we did not know1 that we should live in the society of happy souls hereafter and never know that the spirit next us was that of a mother or husband or friend or child4 ,we know that the ,paradise and earth lives come from the same ,god who is the same always4 ,into this life ,he never sends us alone4 ,there is the mother love waiting and the family affection around us1 and as we grow older love and friendship and association with others is one of the great needs and pleasures of life and one of the chief means of training the higher side of us4 ,unless ,his method changes we may surely hope that ,he will do something similar hereafter1 for love is the plant that must overtop all others in the whole ,kingdom of ,god4 ,again1 love and friendship must be ,,love ,,and ,,friendship for ,,some ,,one4 ,if we don't know any one1 then we cannot love1 and human love must die without an object4 ,but the ,bible makes it a main essential of the religious life that ,he that loveth ,god love his brother also4 ,if we shall not know one another1 why then this undying memory of departed ones1 this aching void that is never filled on earth8 ,alas for us6 ,for we are worse off than the lower animals4 ,the calf is taken from the cow1 the kittens are taken from their mother and in a few days they are forgotten4 ,but the poor human mother never forgets4 ,when her head is bowed with age1 when she has forgotten nearly all else on earth you can bring the tears into her eyes by speaking of the child that died in her arms forty years ago4 ,will ,god disappoint that tender love1 that one supreme thing which is the most like ,god within the soul8 #d ,there can be no real reason1 ,i repeat1 for doubting the fact of recognition unless the ,bible should distinctly state the contrary4 ,and so far from doing this the ,bible1 in its very few references to the ,hereafter life1 always assumes the fact and never in any way contradicts it4 ,notice first the curiously persistent formula in which ,old ,testament chroniclers speak of death4 ,he died in a good old age and ,,was ,,gathered ,,unto ,,his ,,people and they buried him4 ,gathered unto his people can hardly mean burial with his people1 for the burial is mentioned after it4 ,it comes between the dying and the burial4 ,and ,i note that even at ,moses' burial on the lone mountain top this phrase is solemnly used4 ,the ,lord said unto him get thee up into the mount and die in the mount ,,and ,,be ,,gathered ,,to ,,thy ,,people4 ,miriam was buried in the distant desert1 ,aaron's body lay on the slopes of ,mount ,hor1 and the wise little mother who made the ark of bulrushes long ago had found a grave1 ,i suppose1 in the brick-fields of ,egypt4 ,did it mean that he came back to them all in the life unseen when he was gathered to his people8 ,david seemed to think that he would know his dead child4 ,i shall go to him but he shall not return to me4 ,our ,lord assumes that ,dives and ,lazarus knew each other4 ,and in another passage ,he uses a very homely illustration of a friendly gathering when ,he speaks of those who shall sit down with ,abraham and ,isaac and ,jacob in the ,kingdom4 ,and again in ,his advice about the right use of riches4 ,make to yourselves friends by the means of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye die they may receive you into the everlasting habitations 7,luke xvi4 #i74 ,surely1 that at least suggests recognition and a pleasant welcoming on the other side4 ,i remember well1 how in the pain of a great bereavement1 ,his words to the penitent thief came into my life like a message from the ,beyond4 ,to-day thou shalt be with ,me in ,paradise4 ,i put myself in the place of that poor friendless man taking his lonely leap off into the dark and felt what a joy and comfort it must have been4 ,to-day we shall be together again at the other side4 ,not1 ,i will remember thee1 but1 ,thou shalt be with ,me4 ,not1 by and by when ,i come in ,my ,kingdom1 but ,to-day4 ,if anybody knew1 surely ,jesus knew4 ,if ,his words meant anything surely they meant we shall be conscious of each other1 we shall know each other as the two friendless ones who hung on the cross together4 ,then ,i see ,st4 ,paul 7though he is referring to the later stage of existence7 comforting bereaved mourners with the thought of meeting those whom ,christ shall bring with ,him4 ,where would be the comfort of it if they should not know them8 ,he expects to meet his converts and present them to ,christ4 ,how could he say this if he thought ,he would not know them8 ,i wonder if anybody really doubts it after all4 ,just think of it6 ,with ,christ in ,paradise and not knowing or loving any comrade soul6 ,is that possible in the land of love8 ,with our dear ones in ,paradise and never a thrill of recognition as we touch in spiritual intercourse the mother1 or wife1 or husband1 or child for whose presence we are longing6 ,cannot you imagine our wondering joy when our questionings are set at rest8 ,cannot you imagine the ,lord in ,his tender reproach1 ,oh1 thou of little faith1 wherefore didst thou doubt8 #e ,sometimes one vaguely wonders1 ,how can there be spiritual recognition8 ,how shall we recognize each other without this accustomed bodily shape8 ,and in the effort to realize the fact of recognition men have made many guesses4 ,but really we know nothing about the ,how4 ,we know that the self in that life can think and remember and love4 ,we know that we can still communicate thoughts to each other4 ,can we not leave with ,god the how of recognition8 ,in several places ,scripture seems to suggest that the souls of the departed are clothed in some kind of visible spirit shape4 ,they are spoken of as not only recognized but in some way seen as in the case of ,samuel and of ,dives and ,lazarus and of ,moses and ,elias at the ,transfiguration and of our ,lord ,himself in the spiritual body after the ,resurrection4 ,they seem to be visible when they please and as they please4 ,but when a mother asks1 how then should she know her child who died twenty years ago1 one feels that recognition must be something spiritual and not depending on visible shape4 ,even here on earth much of our recognition is spiritual4 ,soul recognizes soul4 ,we recognize in some degree good and evil character of souls even through the coarse covering of the body4 ,we instinctively1 as we say1 trust or distrust people on first appearance4 ,or again1 a slight young stripling goes away to ,india and returns in twenty years a big1 bearded1 broad-shouldered man1 with practically no outward resemblance to the boy that went away4 ,but even though he strive to conceal his identity he cannot hide it long from his mother4 ,she looks into his eyes and her soul leaps out to him4 ,call it instinct1 insight1 intuition1 sympathy1 what you please1 it is the spiritual vision1 soul recognizing soul4 ,if that spiritual vision apart from bodily shape plays so great a part in recognition here1 may it not be all-sufficient there8 ,in that life where there is consciousness1 character1 memory1 love1 longing for our dear ones1 and power of communication1 is it conceivable that we should have intercourse with our loved and longed for1 without any thrill of recognition8 ,surely not4 ,instinctively we shall know4 ,it was not mother that ,i knew thy face1 ,it was my heart that cried out ,mother6#a #ajh #f ,p4,s4--,i let these words stand as they appear in the earlier editions of this book4 ,for they are true4 ,but to my mind now there is a far more probable answer4 ,it is this3 ,that it is not you who will have to do the recognizing2 at any rate that you will not be first with it4 ,if it be true1 as we have reason to believe 7see next chapter71 that your dear one there is watching your life on earth1 of course he would know you at once4 ,while1 year by year1 you have been changing from youth to old age he has been near you all the time4 ,he knows you as familiarly as if he had been on earth beside you4 ,probably he has been waiting and watching as you came through4 ,and whatever change has passed on him in his new life1 surely he too will be easier to recognize when he has claimed you first4 ,whether this suggestion appeals or no1 at any rate we need have no doubt that we shall know one another there4 ,nay1 shall we not know each other there far more thoroughly than we do here8 ,now1 says ,st4 ,paul1 we see in a mirror1 darkly1 but then face to face4 ,now ,i know in part1 then shall ,i know even as also ,i have been known4 ,st4 ,paul's thought is of our fuller knowledge of things hereafter4 ,does it not include also our fuller knowledge of one another8 ,i met this passage lately in a letter of ,phillips ,brooks3 ,i wonder what sort of knowledge we shall have of our friends in the ,hereafter and what we shall do to keep up our intimacy with one another4 ,there will be one good thing about it4 ,i suppose we shall see through one another to begin with and start off on quite a new basis of mutual understanding4 ,i should think it would be awful at first1 but afterwards it must be nice to feel that your friends knew the worst of you and you need not be continually in fear that they will find out what you really are4 ,i think a simple natural thought such as that seems to bring the idea of spiritual recognition more within our ken4 ,but we must remember that our conjectures about the ,,mode of recognition have very little basis4 ,the ,,fact of recognition we may practically assume4 ,the how we must leave with ,god4 ,soul of my soul ,i shall meet thee again4 ,with ,god be the rest4 #a ,momerie4 ,immortality4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,the ,,communion ,,of ,,saints ,we have already seen that the evidence of ,scriptures leads us to the assurance that our dear ones departed are living a vivid1 conscious life2 that there is continuance of personal identity4 ,i am still ,i1 and that there is memory still1 clear and distinct1 of the old friends and the old scenes on earth4 #a ,we pass on to consider the relations between ourselves and them4 ,do they know now of our life on earth8 ,can there be between us comradeship in any sense8 ,can there be love and care and sympathy and prayer between us on these two sides of the grave1 as there is between friends on earth on the two sides of the ,atlantic8 ,the ,church says yes1 and calls it in her creed1 the ,communion of ,saints4 ,the ,communion of ,saints--a very grand name1 but it means only a very simple thing--just loving sympathy between us and these elder brothers and sisters beyond the grave4 ,the term saint in the ,new ,testament only means any poor humble servant of ,christ set apart to ,him1 baptized into ,his name4 ,communion means ,fellowship1 ,comradeship4 ,therefore the ,communion of ,saints simply means fellowship between ,christians1 and in church language has come chiefly to mean fellowship between ,christians at this side and at the other side of death4 ,knowledge and comradeship and sympathy and love and prayer between the church ,,militant on earth and the church ,,expectant in ,paradise1 as they both look forward to the final joy of the church ,,triumphant in ,heaven1 and meantime coperate one with the other to bring the whole world within the ,kingdom of ,christ4 ,you see that it is a prominent doctrine of the ,church's creed1 and rightly understood1 it is a very beautiful and touching doctrine--not only because of the union of fellowship with our departed--but especially because the bond of that union and fellowship is our dear ,lord ,himself1 whom we and they alike love and thank and praise and pray to and worship1 and from whom we and they alike derive the ,divine sustenance of our souls4 ,you know what a bond of union it is between two men even to find that they both deeply honour and admire and love the same friend and benefactor4 ,they become one in him4 ,the ,bible means that1 but a great deal more1 when it says we are one in ,christ ,jesus4 ,here on earth1 there in ,paradise1 is ,his presence4 ,here on earth1 there in ,paradise1 is the love and prayer and praise going forth to ,him1 and the strength and power of ,god coming back from ,him4 ,you know ,his own simile1 ,i am the ,vine1 ye are the branches4 ,from the central ,vine the life rises and flows to every farthest branch and twig and leaf1 connecting them all in the one life4 ,he the ,sacred ,vine is on earth with us and in ,paradise with them4 ,some of the branches are in the shadow here1 some of them are in the sunlight there1 but we are all united through the ,lord ,himself4 ,he is the ,vine1 we are the branches4 ,because ,he is with us here1 prayer and praise and all the functions of the ,church are here4 ,because ,he is with them in ,paradise prayer and praise and all the functions of the ,church go on in ,paradise4 ,every ,sunday as we in our poor way love ,him and worship ,him and pray to ,him and praise ,him1 our dear ones beyond are doing the very same4 ,notice how in the ,communion ,service we remind ourselves of the fact4 ,therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of ,heaven we laud and magnify ,thy holy name1 etc4 ,it is not we alone who feed on ,his divine life1 it is not the altar on earth alone that communicates the all-prevailing virtues of the atoning ,blood1 for the same ,victim is the central object of adoration beyond1 as saints and angels and all redeemed creation are with us taking up together the chorus of that everlasting hymn4 ,if we on this side were living closer to our ,lord and closer to our departed1 how close might that comradeship become6 ,we should tell our ,lord so much about each other4 ,we should think of each other and remember each other and sympathize with each other and pray for each other4 ,why1 we could do everything for each other that we can do on earth when separated by the ,atlantic--except just write home4 7,ah1 how one wishes that they could write home67 ,we are very close if we would but realize it4 ,death hides but it does not divide ,thou art but on ,christ's other side1 ,thou art with ,christ and ,christ with me ,in ,him ,i still am close to thee4 ,,ii ,yes1 you say1 that is a beautiful thought4 ,but is that all8 ,my poor heart is craving for more communion than that4 ,do they know or care about my love and sorrow to-day8 ,and are they helping me8 ,are they praying for me to that dear ,lord whom we both love--in whose presence we both stand to-day8 ,and can ,i do anything for them on my side in this ,communion of ,saints8 #a ,do they pray for us or help us in any way8 ,does any one need to ask that question8 ,since they are with ,christ of course they pray4 ,the world to come is the very atmosphere of prayer4 ,st4 ,john in his vision tells of the offering of the golden vials full of odours which are the prayers of the saints 7,rev4 v4 #h74 ,and again three chapters later the angel stood to offer the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar4 ,can you imagine your mother who never went to bed here without earnest prayer for her boy going into that life with full consciousness and full memory of the dear old home on earth1 and never a prayer for her boy rising to the altar of ,god8 ,why1 even the selfish ,dives1 after death1 could not help praying for his brothers4 ,aye1 she is praying for you4 ,i think amongst the most precious prayers before the golden altar are the mother's prayers for her boy who is left behind on earth4 #b ,but1 you say1 she does not know anything about my life or my needs on earth4 ,even if she did not know she would surely pray for you4 ,but ,i am not so sure that she does not know4 ,there are several hints in ,scripture to suggest that she does know--hints so strong that if you are doing anything now that she would like ,i should advise you to keep on doing it and if you are doing anything now that you would not wish her to know1 ,i should advise you to stop doing it4 ,our ,lord represents ,abraham as knowing all about ,moses and the prophets who came one thousand years after his time 7,st4 ,luke xvi4 #bi74 ,our ,lord distinctly tells the ,jews that ,abraham in that life knew all about ,his mission on earth4 ,your ,father ,abraham rejoiced to see ,my day and he saw it and was glad 7,st4 ,john viii4 #ef74 ,at the ,transfiguration1 too1 ,moses and ,elias came out from that waiting life to speak with ,christ of ,his decease which ,he should accomplish at ,jerusalem4 ,does it not suggest at once that they and their great comrades within the veil were watching eagerly and knowing all about the life of ,christ and the great crisis of man's redemption towards which they had been working on earth long years ago4 ,can any one believe that the whole ,waiting ,church within the veil1 living1 and conscious1 and thinking1 and remembering were absolutely ignorant and unconcerned about the greatest event that ever came in the history of their race8 ,the writer in the ,epistle to the ,hebrews apparently believed that our departed ones were watching our course1 for after a long list of the great departed heroes of faith in olden time he writes to encourage us in the race on earth4 ,seeing that we are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and run with patience the race that is set before us 7,heb4 xii4 #a74 ,the picture suggested is that of the runners in the amphitheatre on earth and the galleries of ,creation crowded with sympathetic watchers like the old boys of a great ,english school coming back at the annual school games to cheer on the lads and remember how they had run themselves long ago in the very same fields4#a ,,iii ,and the hope which ,scripture thus suggests and never contradicts commends itself to reason and to the deepest instincts in our hearts4 ,i think of a mother leaving her children and going into a full conscious life1 where1 mark you1 she can still think and remember and love4 ,i see that her love for them was probably the most powerful influence in ennobling her life here4 ,and she has gone into a life where that ennobling is ,god's chief aim for her4 ,since she can remember them1 ,i feel quite sure that if she had the choice she would want to watch over them always4 ,but1 somebody says1 she might not be quite happy if she knew all that they had to go through4 ,seeing that at any rate she remembers them1 do you think she would be more happy if she knew that they might have to go through troubles of which she could not learn anything8 ,put yourself in the place of any mother on earth that you know and ask if it would make her any happier to stop all letters about her children whom she felt might be in danger or trouble4 ,are you quite sure that in that spirit life a peaceful contentment like that of the cow who forgets her calf is the highest thing to be desired8 ,the higher any soul grows on earth the less can it escape unselfish sorrow for the sake of others4 ,must it not be so in that land also8 ,surely the ,highest ,himself must have more sorrow than any one else for the sins and troubles of men4 ,have you ever thought of that eternal pain of ,god8 ,if there be joy in ,his presence over one sinner that repenteth must there not be pain in ,his presence over one that repenteth not8 ,there are surely higher things in ,god's plans for ,his saints than mere selfish happiness and content4 ,there is the blessedness that comes of sympathy with ,him over human sorrow and pain4 ,we but degrade the thought of the blessedness of the redeemed when we desire that they should escape that4 ,and since in that life she is with ,christ and able doubtless to win for her children more than she could ever win on earth1 and since she knows that ,christ is more solicitous for them than she is herself and that she can trust ,him utterly to do for them more than she can ask or think1 does it not seem far more probable that she should still know and care and love and pray and share in the care and sympathy of ,christ for them8 ,yes1 ,i think probably she does know about them4 ,i know certainly she prays about them4 ,i myself hope and believe that some of the best helps in my life have been won for me by those on the other side who love me and who are so near to their ,lord4 #b ,and it is a strong confirmation of that belief when ,i find it the belief of the great bishops and teachers of the early ,church in its purest and most loving days1 the days nearest to those of ,christ and ,his apostles4 ,st4 ,cyprian the martyr bishop of ,carthage who was born in the century after ,st4 ,john's death 7,a4 ,d4 #bjj7 made an agreement with his friend ,cornelius that whichever of them died first should in the ,unseen ,land remember in prayer him who was left behind4 ,let us mutually be mindful of each other4444 ,on both sides let us always pray for each other1 let us relieve our afflictions and distresses by a reciprocity of love and whichever of us goes hence before the other by the speed of the ,divine favour1 let our affection continue before the ,lord1 let not prayer for our brothers and sisters cease before the mercy of the ,father 7,ep4 lvii4 ad ,cornel474 ,and in the days of the plague at ,carthage1 ,a4 ,d4 #beb1 he comforts his fellow citizens reminding them of the large number of dear ones1 parents1 brothers1 children1 a goodly and numerous crowd longing for us and while their own immortality is assured still longing for our salvation4 ,origen1 who was a contemporary of ,cyprian1 says1 ,all the souls who have departed this life still retaining their love for those who are in the world concern themselves for their salvation and aid them by their prayers and mediation with ,god4 ,for it is written in the ,book of the ,maccabees1 ',this is ,jeremiah the prophet who always prays for the people' 7in ,cant4 ,hom4 iii474 ,and in another work he says1 ,it is my opinion that all those fathers who have fallen asleep before us fight on our side and aid us by their prayers 7in ,jesu ,nave ,hom4 xvi4 ch4 #ai74 ,and again ,they 7in that unseen life7 understand who are worthy of ,divine approval and are not only well disposed to these themselves1 but coperate with them in their endeavours to please ,god1 they seek ,his favour on their behalf and with their prayers and intercessions they join their own4 ,and again1 ,these 7in the ,unseen ,life7 pray for us and bring help to our perishable race1 and if ,i may so speak1 take up arms alongside of it 7,contra ,celsum viii4 #fd74 ,st4 ,gregory ,nazianzen is preaching the funeral sermon of ,st4 ,basil4 ,he still prays for the people1 he says1 for he did not so leave us as to have left us altogether4 ,and in his funeral sermon over his own father1 ,i am satisfied that he accomplishes there now by his prayers more than he ever did by his teaching just in proportion as he approaches nearer to ,god after having shaken off the fetters of his body4 ,st4 ,cyril1 ,bishop of ,jerusalem1 in his ,catechetical lectures1 and ,st4 ,chrysostom in several of his homilies speak of the help we get through the prayers of departed holy men4 ,st4 ,ambrose in his great grief at his brother's death1 says3 ,what other consolation is left me but this that ,i hope to come to thee my brother speedily1 that thy departure will not entail a long separation between us1 and that power may be granted me by thy intercessions that thou mayest summon me who long to join thee more speedily4 ,st4 ,jerome1 who gave us the ,vulgate1 the great ,revised ,bible of the ,western ,church1 is comforting a mother who has lost a daughter4 ,she entreats the ,lord for thee and begs for me the pardon of my sins4 ,again to another friend1 ,heliodorus1 he speaks of the life after death4 ,there you will be made a fellow burgher with ,st4 ,paul4 ,there also you will seek for your parents the rights of the same citizenship4 ,there too you will pray for me who spurred you on to victory4 ,again he vigorously disputes with ,vigilantius who asserts that prayers and intercessions must cease after death4 ,if the apostles and martyrs while still in the body are able to pray for others 444 how much more may they do so now4444 ,one man1 ,moses1 obtains from ,god pardon for #fjj1jjj men in arms2 and ,stephen1 the imitator of his ,lord1 begs forgiveness for his persecutors2 shall their power be less after they have begun to be with ,christ8#b #c ,but sympathy and prayer must not be on one side only4 ,it must be mutual in the ,communion of ,saints4 ,they remembering and loving1 and thinking about us4 ,we remembering and loving1 and thinking about them4 ,they asking from their ,lord blessing for us4 ,we asking from ,him blessing for them4 ,for surely they are not above wanting ,his blessings still--not even the best of them though safe with ,him1 though forgiven their sins1 they are still imperfect1 still needing to grow in grace1 in purification1 in fitness for the final heaven by and by4 ,and we can help their growth as they can help ours4 ,some of the most deeply religious people that ,i know shrink from the thought of prayer for the departed4 ,there has been reason for it4 ,this beautiful old custom1 the custom of the ,jews1 the custom of the whole ,christian ,church till the ,reformation#c had grown at that time into great corruption4 ,and one danger of great corruption is that indignant reformers are likely to tear away more than the corruption1 hating even the garment spotted by the flesh4 ,so it was here4 ,because of the abuse men feared even the use4 ,in their hatred of the sordid traffic in masses for the dead they looked with suspicion on any prayer for the departed4 ,and at length men began to think that such prayers were even wrong4 ,ah1 it was a pity6 ,our departed ones have more quickly passed into oblivion4 ,the great ,paradise life has almost faded from our view4 ,we are the more lonely in our desolate bereavement4 ,perhaps our dear ones beyond are the more lonely1 too1 if they know about our life and our prayers on earth4 ,a friend said to me lately1 ,i was a little child when the news came of father's death far away4 ,that night in my prayers ,i prayed for father as usual4 ,but my aunt stopped me4 ',darling1' she said1 'you must not pray for father now2 it is wrong4' ,and ,i can remember still how ,i shrank back feeling as if some one had slammed the door and shut him outside4 ,i think we should be happier and better1 ,i think the ,unseen ,world would come back more clearly on our horizon if we kept our dear ones in our prayers as we used to do before they died4 ,do not keep any hidden chambers in your hearts shut out from ,christ4 ,bring your dear departed ones to ,him as you bring all else to ,him4 ,he knows what is best for them4 ,pray only for that4 ,pray ,lord help them to grow closer to ,thee4 ,help them if it may be to help others and make them happy in ,thy great ,kingdom until we meet again4 ,pray something like that4 ,oh1 how can you help doing it if you love them and believe in prayer8 ,how can ,i cease to pray for thee8 ,somewhere ,in ,god's wide universe thou art to-day4 ,can ,he not reach thee with ,his tender care8 ,can ,he not hear me when for thee ,i pray8 ,somewhere thou livest and hast need of ,him1 ,somewhere thy soul sees higher heights to climb1 ,and somewhere1 too1 there may be valleys dim ,which thou must pass to reach the heights sublime4 ,then all the more because thou canst not hear ,poor human words of blessing will ,i pray4 ,o1 true brave heart1 ,god bless thee wheresoe'er ,in ,god's wide universe thou art to-day6 #a ,it is true that the ,greek word translated witnesses is not the word meaning spectators but rather witnesses for the faith1 but as most good commentators 7including ,bishop ,westcott7 say--it is impossible to exclude the thought of spectators in an amphitheatre watching a race4 ,the ,revised ,version1 too1 seems to accept this view for it prints the word witnesses without any marginal remark4 #b ,luckock1 ,after ,death4 #c ,the evidence for this can be seen in full in any standard work on the subject1 e4 g41 ,luckock1 ,after ,death2 or ,lee1 ,christian ,doctrine of ,prayer for the ,departed4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,growth ,,and ,,purification ,what is the main purpose of the ,intermediate ,life8 ,is there something to be done there which cannot be fully done at any other time8 ,let us still try to keep to the firm ground of ,scripture1 and to avoid confusion let us confine ourselves still to the case of those who have died1 in some degree at least1 in penitence and faith4 #a ,we have already seen that ,scripture intimates that that life is not one of sleep or unconsciousness4 ,it is a clear conscious life4 ,it is therefore natural to ask what happens in it8 ,what is the use of it8 ,science and experience teach that growth is the law of all the life which we know anything about4 ,even if we had no further light of revelation we should find it difficult to believe that imperfect beings dying in the grace of ,god pass into that life and live in it for years or for ages without any growth or development4 ,scripture also teaches that ,god's aim for us is not merely that we should escape hell or just creep into heaven4 ,our goal is to grow into the likeness of ,god1 to rise to the stature of the perfect man1 even to the stature of the fullness of ,christ4 ,how many of us are ever even in sight of that goal when we die8 ,but ,scripture goes further still4 ,it points us forward to the final stage of being1 to the ,beatific ,vision of ,god in the far future and tells us with awe that that ,god is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity1 that even the heavens are not clean in ,his sight2 that into that final abode of bliss nothing that defileth shall enter in4 ,which of us1 the greatest soul of us all1 can look forward to such a prospect without bowing himself in dread like ,isaiah of old1 ,woe is me for ,i am undone1 for ,i am a man of unclean lips1 that mine eyes should see the ,king of the ,lord of ,hosts6 ,if there be no growth or purification in the ,waiting ,life what hope is there ever for any one of us of fitness for the presence of the all holy ,god8 ,think that the great majority of those who die1 even though penitent and striving after right1 have much of evil clinging to them2 that many after a whole life of ingraining their characters with evil have brought sorrowfully to ,christ at last their poor defiled souls2 that even the best is not without many faults and stains4 ,if nothing that defileth shall enter ,heaven1 if growth is a law of all life as far as we know it1 are we not practically compelled to believe that much of the growth and purification needed to fit us for ,god's presence shall take place in the great ,waiting ,life8 ,and this belief and hope for all these poor faulty souls in whom the good work of ,god has begun on earth1 ,st4 ,paul confirms4 ,being confident of this very thing1 that ,he who hath begun a good work in you will perfect it ,,until ,,the ,,day ,,of ,,jesus ,,christ--i4 e41 right through the earth life1 right through the ,intermediate ,life1 until the last great scene in the drama of our history opens at the ,judgment ,day4 #b ,how this shall take place ,god has not definitely revealed to us4 ,but ,god has given us reason and common sense to enable us to draw conclusions from what ,he has revealed4 ,since in that life ,i am the same conscious ,i1 with the same consciously continuous personality1 with the same conscience and memory1 ,i may surely expect that the ,holy ,spirit who hath begun a good work in me and will continue it until the day of ,jesus ,christ--will continue it in much the same natural way as here1 through ,conscience and ,memory and the ,sense of ,his ,presence4 ,only that these will be all more keen and effective and free from the disturbance of the bodily senses and the distractions of this life on earth4 ,,conscience here is the throne of the ,holy ,ghost1 from which ,he rules and directs my life4 ,therefore my body is the temple of the ,holy ,ghost4 ,but ,conscience here is greatly weakened by fears and hopes and ambitions and distractions of various kinds4 ,at times1 when ,i lie awake at night and think about my life1 or when ,i enter into my closet to prepare by special concentration of spirit for my ,holy ,communion1 ,i get some dim notions of what ,conscience might effect in me if it had a free hand4 ,in ,,that life of close spiritual concentration1 when the outer world is shut off and the soul enters into its own deepest recesses1 contemplating itself1 contemplating its past and its future1 contemplating the deep tender love of ,him who is there present as in ,palestine long ago1 and feeling that in spite of all my shameful ingratitude ,he is loving me and blessing me and watching tenderly over me--surely ,i may expect great things of the operation of ,conscience in me4 ,,memory in this life is a very wonderful thing4 ,it can call up in a moment1 for ,conscience to work on1 pictures of half a century ago4 ,but in the fast crowding impressions on the senses ,memory is overtaxed and has to lay away in its storehouse of subconsciousness whole tracts of the past which never rise up before my conscious thought at all4 ,psychological science has much to say in late years about this storehouse of subconscious memory and the power that1 unknown to me1 it is exerting on my life4 ,it is there all the time1 under the threshold4 ,these buried memories are alive1 ready to spring up1 but asleep--in abeyance4 #c ,now think what this means for ,conscience and for ,memory as the handmaid of ,conscience in the great contemplative life after ,death4 ,there is no good or evil thing that ,i have ever done but ,conscience has pronounced on4 ,some of these judgments ,i remember4 ,some of them ,i forget4 ,in the many distractions of life and the desire to escape painful thoughts1 there has dropped down under the threshold of my conscious thought a vast store of memories of which ,i am oblivious1 but of which one and another and another springs up at times unexpectedly with a startling reminder of the great hidden store behind4 ,i meet by chance an old friend of my boyhood1 and as he talks about the old times1 picture after picture springs up into the light1 memories which had long gone from me and which would never have sprung up from under the threshold but for the chance stimulation of his talk4 ,we have often heard of drowning people on the verge of death having the forgotten memories of half a lifetime flashed back in a moment4 ,an old friend once told me a curious experience4 ,i was crossing a railway line hurriedly on a wet day4 ,as ,i rushed over the rails the ,express came in view4 ,i slipped and fell--fortunately into a hollow where men had been working1 and swift as a flash the ,express swept over me4 ,the experience of that half minute ,i shall never forget4 ,it seemed that my whole life was blazoned before me in thirty seconds4 ,things that ,i had not remembered for forty years past flashed back in a moment as if they had happened yesterday4 ,that is what ,memory can do even in this life under strong excitation1 calling up its forgotten stores4 ,think what its power may be in that life as a handmaid to ,conscience4 ,with all its old lumber rooms of forgotten deeds thrown open--with all the forgotten feelings of my life--boyhood1 youth1 manhood--open for my contemplation4 ,my impatience and ,god's patience1 my sorrows and why ,god sent them1 my mercies1 all the kindly providences of ,god working unknown to me all my days4 ,and my sins--some sins that ,i hate to think of1 some that ,i had almost succeeded in forgetting1 all standing out clearly before me in the unsparing light of that mysterious life4 ,i sat alone with my ,conscience ,in the place where time had ceased4 ,we discoursed of my former living ,in the land where the years increased4 ,and ,i felt ,i should have to answer ,the questions it put to me1 ,and to face those questions and answers ,in that dim eternity4 ,and the ghosts of forgotten actions ,came floating before my sight1 ,and things that ,i thought were dead things ,were alive with a terrible might4 ,and the vision of all my past life ,was an awful thing to face ,alone1 alone with my ,conscience1 ,in that strange and lonely place4 ,aye1 my ,conscience must do its work some day if ,i keep it from doing it now4 ,but all this will be in the presence of my ,saviour4 ,they are with ,christ4 ,every memory will be more keen and poignant and yet more peaceful and touching in the presence of that dear loving ,lord who ,i feel knows all and yet has loved and received and forgiven me in spite of all1 and who is watching over me with deep tenderness like the refiner of silver over ,his furnace as the dross is cleared away and ,i grow steadily in fitness for the glorious life of unselfish joy and service in ,heaven4 ,but pain6 ,you do not like any thought of pain in connection with that life4 ,yes surely1 more or less1 according to one's state1 and dying gradually into perfect peace4 ,growth of holiness does not come to sinful man here or there but through pain1 the tender blessed pain of ,god's purification1 the pain of self-reproach1 the pain that thou hast sinned1 ,the shame of self and pity for thy ,lord ,that ,one so sweet should e'er have placed ,himself ,at disadvantage such1 as to be used ,so vilely by a being vile as thee4 ,but what a sweet and wholesome pain1 mingled with the sense of safety and peace and hope--mingled with deep joy and boundless adoring gratitude and love as we see the stain of the old sins steadily being effaced and look forward to the sure bliss of ,heaven in the future6 ,surely by means of such pain and gratitude and adoring love ,god makes sinful souls fit for ,heaven4 ,,chapter ,x ,,probation ,,in ,,this ,,life ,up to this we have been ignoring a large proportion of the inhabitants of the ,unseen ,land4 ,to avoid misunderstanding we have kept in view those only of whom we had hope that they died in the fear and love of ,god4 ,but there is no evading the thought that between these and the utterly reprobate1 there are multitudes of ,christian and heathen in that ,unseen ,life today who belong to neither class1 mixed characters in all varying degrees of good or evil4 ,of many of them it could be said that those who knew them best saw much that was good and lovable in them4 ,but it could not be said that they had consciously and definitely chosen for ,christ4 ,they must form the majority of those to-day in the ,unseen ,land4 ,therefore one cannot help wondering about them4 ,one day death overtook them4 ,the thought of them comes forcibly when some morning the newspapers startle us with the story of a terrible battle or railway smash or shipwreck or conflagration in which hundreds have passed out of life in a moment and the horror of the catastrophe is deepened by the thought that they have been called away suddenly unprepared4 ,what of their position in the ,intermediate ,life8 ,our ,christian charity prompts us to hope the best for them4 ,but are we justified in hoping8 ,it is impossible for thoughtful1 sympathetic men to evade that question4 ,it is cowardly to evade it4 ,at any rate a treatise on the ,intermediate ,life can hardly pass over altogether the thought of the majority of its inhabitants and it cannot be wrong for us humbly and reverently to think about them4 #b ,i have already pointed out the solemn responsibility of this earth life in which acts make habits and habits make character and character makes destiny4 ,i am about to point out the grave probability1 to say the least of it1 that in a very real sense this life may be the sole probation time for man4 ,but this does not shut out the question of the poor bereaved mother by the side of her dead son4 ,if any soul has not in penitence and faith definitely accepted ,jesus ,christ in this life is it forever impossible that he may do so in any other life8 ,i answer unhesitatingly1 ,god forbid6 ,else what of all the dead children down through the ages and all the dead idiots and all the millions of dead heathen and all the poor stragglers in ,christian lands who in their dreary1 dingy lives had never any fair chance of knowing their ,lord in a way that would lead them to love ,him1 and who have never even thought about accepting or rejecting ,him8 ,shall not the ,judge of all the earth do right8 ,shall not the loving ,father do ,his best for all8 ,our ,lord knew that if the mighty works done in ,capernaum had been done in ,tyre and ,sidon they would have repented4 ,does ,he not there suggest that ,he would take thought for those men of ,tyre and ,sidon in the ,unseen ,land8 ,does ,he not know the same of many gone unto that ,unseen from heathen lands and ,christian lands1 who would have loved ,him if they knew ,him as ,he really is and who have but begun to know ,him truly in the world of the dead--of many who in their ignorance have tried to respond to the dim light of ,conscience within and only learned within the veil really to know ,him the ,lord of the ,conscience1 the light which lighteth every man coming into the world 7,st4 ,john i4 #i74 ,here is no question of encouraging careless1 godless men with the hope of a new probation4 ,here is no question of men wilfully rejecting ,christ4 ,the merry1 thoughtless child--the imbecile--the heathen--had no thought of rejecting ,christ4 ,the poor struggler in ,christian lands1 brought up in evil surroundings1 who though he had heard of ,christ yet saw no trace of ,christ's love in his dreary life--he cannot be said to have rejected ,christ4 ,the honest sceptic who in the last generation had been taught as a prominent truth of ,christianity that ,god decrees certain men to eternal ,heaven and certain men to eternal ,hell not for any good or evil they had done but to show ,his power and glory1 and who has therefore in obedience to conscience frankly rejected ,christianity--can he be said to have rejected ,christ8 ,the possibility in this life of putting oneself outside the pale of salvation is quite awful enough without our making it worse4 ,it is not for us to judge who is outside the pale of salvation nor to limit the love of ,god by our little shibboleths4 ,it is on a man's ,,will1 not on his knowledge or ignorance that destiny depends4 ,god only can judge that4 ,all the subtle influences which go to make character are known to ,him alone4 ,he alone can weigh the responsibility of the will in any particular case4 ,and surely we know ,him well enough humbly to trust ,his love to the uttermost for every poor soul whom ,he has created4 ,,ii ,but this hope must not ignore the solemn thought that in a very real sense the probation of this life seems the determining factor in human destiny--even for the unthinking--even for the ignorant--nay even for the heathen who could never have heard of ,christ here4 ,rightly understood all that we have said does not conflict with this4 ,it may seem strange at first sight to think of the heathen as having any real probation here4 ,yet1 mark it well1 it is of this heathen man who could not consciously have accepted ,christ in this life that ,st4 ,paul implies that his attitude in the ,unseen ,life towards ,him who is the ,light of the ,world is determined by his attitude in this life towards the imperfect light of ,conscience that he has4 ,if the ,gentiles who have not the ,law do by nature the things contained in the ,law1 these having not the ,law are a law unto themselves1 which show the works of the ,law written in their hearts1 their ,conscience bearing witness 7,rom4 ii4 #ad74 ,we may assume that ,st4 ,paul means that the heathen man who in this life followed the dim light of his conscience is the man who will rejoice in the full light when it comes and that the man who has been wilfully shutting out that dim light of conscience here is thereby rendering himself less capable of accepting the fuller light when he meets it hereafter4 ,in other words this life is his probation1 he is forming on earth the moral bent of his future life4 ,we may assume the same of men in similar conditions in ,christian lands1 men brought up amid ignorance and crime1 men brought up in infidel homes1 men to whom ,christ has been so unattractively presented that they saw no beauty in ,him or even instinctively turned away from ,him impelled by their conscience4 ,they all have the light of ,god in some degree and by their attitude towards the right that they know are determining on earth their attitude towards ,god in the ,hereafter4 ,they are forming character and character tends to permanence4 ,the outer darkness it would seem comes not from absence of light but from blindness of sight4 ,the joy of ,heaven is impossible to the unholy just as the joy of beautiful scenery to the blind or the joy of exquisite music to the deaf4 ,probation in this life--simply means that in this first stage of his being a man either is or is not blinding his eyes and dulling his ears and hardening his heart so as to make himself incapable of higher things in the life to come4 ,if then it be possible even for a heathen to have in this life sufficient probation to determine his attitude towards ,god for ever1 how much more for a man in the full light of ,christianity4 ,in view of this the great law of life that ,,character ,,tends ,,to ,,permanence may it not be awfully true that a man who with full knowledge of ,christ wilfully and deliberately turns from ,him all through this life1 should thus render himself incapable of turning to ,him in any other life8 ,with full knowledge of ,christ ,i say1 not with knowledge of some repulsive misrepresentation of ,christ4 ,for think what it means to reject ,christ wilfully with full knowledge of ,him4 ,his voice still comes as we tramp on1 ,with a sorrowful fall in its pleading tone3 ,thou wilt tire in the dreary ways of sin2 ,i left ,my home to bring thee in4 ,in its golden street are no weary feet1 ,its rest is pleasant1 its songs are sweet4 ,and we shout back angrily hurrying on ,to a terrible home where rest is none3 ,we want not your city's golden street1 ,nor to hear its constant song6 ,and still ,christ keeps on loving us1 loving all along4 ,rejected still ,he pursues each one3 ,my child1 what more could thy ,god have done8 ,thy sin hid the light of heaven from ,me1 ,when alone in the darkness ,i died for thee4 ,thy sin of to-day in its shadow lay ,between ,my face and ,one turned away4 ,and we stop and turn for a moment's space ,to fling back that love in the ,saviour's face1 ,to give ,his heart yet another grief1 ,and glory in the wrong4 ,and still ,christ keeps on loving us1 loving all along4 ,is it hard to believe that a man thus knowing ,christ and wilfully rejecting ,him should thereby risk the ruin of his soul8 ,can we not recognize this awful law of life that wilful sin against light tends to darkening of the light--that every rejection of ,god and good draws blood as it were on the spiritual retina1 that a life of such rejections of the light tends to make one incapable of receiving the light for ever4 ,if this be so it is not at all fair to misrepresent it by saying that ,god cruelly stereotypes a man's soul at death and will refuse him permission to repent after death however much he may want to4 ,the voice of the ,holy ,ghost within tells us that this could never be true of the ,father4 ,we must believe that through all ,eternity1 if the worst sinner felt touched by the love of ,god and wanted to turn to ,him1 that man would be saved4 ,what we dread is that the man may not want to do so1 may have rendered himself incapable of doing so4 ,we dread not ,god's will1 but the man's own will4 ,character tends to permanence4 ,free will is a glorious but a dangerous prerogative4 ,all experience leads towards the belief that a human will may so distort itself as to grow incapable of good4 ,even a character not hardened into permanent evil may grow incapable of the highest good4 ,a soul even forgiven through the mercy of ,god may enter into life halt and maimed like a consumptive patient cured of his disease but going through life with only one lung4 ,though the ,bible does not give an absolutely definite pronouncement on this question1 yet the general trend of its teaching leads to the belief that this life is our probation time4 ,it everywhere calls for immediate repentance4 ,and ,st4 ,paul says that the ,judgment is for deeds done in the body1 and there are such hints as the door was shut and there is a sin unto death1 and it were better for a man not to have known the way of righteousness than after he has known it to turn from it4#a ,and this has been the general belief of the ,church in all ages4 ,even in all the hopeful words of the ancient ,fathers about ,christ preaching to the spirits in prison who in the dark old world days had sometime been disobedient1 we have seen that they add some such significant phrase as that ,he might convert those who were capable of turning to ,him4 7,see ,chapter ,,iv1 p4 #fj47 ,and human experience of character tending to permanence makes this fact of human probation awfully probable4 ,there is nothing in ,scripture nor in its interpretation by the ,church1 nor in human experience1 to conflict with the statement that in this life ,acts make habits and ,habits make ,character and character makes ,destiny4 ,what new discoveries of ,god's power and mercy may await us in eternity we cannot know1 but from all we do know we are justified in thinking that 7in the sense which ,i have stated7 a man's life in this world determines his destiny--at any rate that a man who presumes recklessly on chances in the future is taking terrible risks4 ,the ,bible gives no encouragement to hope that one who with full knowledge of ,christ keeps on wilfully rejecting ,him all through this life will be able to turn to ,him in any other life4 ,the only comfort we dare offer to anxious mourners grieving over sinful friends departed is that ,god only is the judge of what constitutes irrevocable rejection of good1 that we cannot tell who has irrevocably done despite to the ,spirit of grace1 and that the deep love and pain of ,christ for sinful men remains for ever and ever4 ,we may tell the poor mother that her deep love and pain for her dead son is but a faint shadow of the deep love and pain of ,god--that no one will be surprised or trapped in his ignorance--that no one will be lost whom it is possible for ,god to save--that no one will be lost until the ,heavenly ,father has as it were thrown ,his arms around him and looked him full in the face with the bright eyes of ,his love1 and that of his own deliberate will he would not have ,him 7,faber74 ,we dare not minimize what the love and pain of ,god may do1 but we dare not presume in the face of ,scripture to lighten the awful responsibility which this life brings4 ,thus we reach larger thoughts of ,god's dealings with man and deeper interest in the infinite variety that must be in the many mansions of the boundless life hereafter4 ,and this sets us wondering about another thought as to ministry in that life4 #a ,i have not quoted such texts as ,where the tree falleth there it shall lie1 which no sensible student now uses in this connection1 nor even the well-known text1 ,behold now is the acceptable time1 behold now is the day of salvation1 for the acceptable time and the day of salvation mean here not the present life of each man but the present ,christian dispensation4 ,st4 ,paul is quoting ,isaiah's prophecy of ,christ of the acceptable time and the day of salvation1 and he says this time has come now in this ,christian dispensation4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,ministry ,,in ,,the ,,unseen ,,life #a ,is it allowable here to make a venture of faith and speculate on a matter of which we cannot give definite proof8 ,there is a beautiful old allegory of ,,knowledge1 the strong mailed knight1 tramping over the great table-land that he surveyed1 and testing and making his ground sure at every step1 while beside him1 just above the ground1 moved the white-winged angel ,,faith4 ,side by side they moved1 till the path broke short off on the verge of a vast precipice4 ,knowledge could go no further4 ,there was no footing for the ponderous knight2 but the white-winged angel rose majestically from the ground and moved across the chasm1 where her companion could not follow4 ,our path has broken off--knowledge can go no further4 ,may we speculate with faith on something we cannot prove8 ,i am thinking of a speculation very dear to myself1 about that progress of our dear ones in the presence of ,christ4 ,will not much of that progress in the life beyond come through unselfish ministry to others8 ,let us see what reason there is to hope it4 ,think of all the true hearts who have lived on earth the ,christ life of unselfish helpfulness4 ,can you imagine them never helping any one there1 where growth in love is ,god's highest aim for them8 ,think of our ,lord's mysterious preaching in the ,life after ,death and remember that some of the best known teachers of the early ,church believed that the apostles and others had followed ,his example4 7,see ,chapter ,,iv1 p4 #ei47 ,think that there are countless millions in the ,world of the ,departed born in heathen lands1 born in ,christian lands1 who had no chance on earth of knowing ,christ in a way to win their love for ,him4 ,think1 how shall ,his command be fulfilled by ,his ,church1 ,go preach the good news to every creature--,,every creature4 ,what a mockery it seems with the heathen dying half a million every week if no work for ,christ goes on in the ,unseen6 ,if millions of those ,hindoos who have died without the ,gospel would have accepted it1 do you think it is not being taught to any of them now8 ,if the men of ancient ,tyre and ,sidon would have repented at the teaching and work of ,christ1 if the mighty works had been done in them1 do you not think ,he has taken care since that the men of ,tyre and ,sidon should have their chance8 ,if the heathen ,socrates1 and ,plato1 and ,marcus ,aurelius1 and ,epictetus would have fallen at ,his feet as their ,master and ,friend--and you know they would--do you think they have not learned to know ,him by now8 ,if honest hearts in our own land who have died repelled from ,him through their ignorance and through stupid misrepresentations would have loved ,him if they knew ,him as ,he really is1 do you think that no one is helping them to understand ,him now8 ,can we doubt that somehow within the ,veil they will learn more fully of ,his tender love8 ,and judging from what we know of ,god's methods on earth1 is it unreasonable to think that they will learn it from their brethren8 ,true1 ,god might help them by means of the angels4 ,but in ,god's dealings with men's souls on earth not angels but men were the helpers ,he gave them4 ,even in the stupendous miracle of the conversion of ,st4 ,paul it was a man 7,ananias7 whom ,god sent to help him4 #b ,here comes an interesting question about the doctrine of ,election4 ,to the generation before us it was a horrible doctrine clashing with all sense of fairness or right4 ,men said it meant that ,god decreed certain men to eternal ,heaven and certain others to eternal ,hell by ,his own arbitrary will4 ,the stern revolt of ,conscience at length sent us back to study our ,bibles more carefully4 ,we found that in the first recorded case of election ,abraham was called for the good of others that in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed4 ,we saw reason to believe that ,abraham's case was a type of all other elect--elect for the service of others4 ,we found that the ,bible consistently and throughout affirms that when ,god calls or separates one man to ,himself it is for the good of other men2 that when ,he selects one family it is that all families should be blessed2 that when ,he chooses one nation it is for the welfare of all nations2 that when ,he elects and establishes a church it is for the spiritual benefit of the world4 ,no man1 no family1 no nation1 no church possesses any gift or privilege or superior capacity or power for its own use and welfare alone but for the general good4 ,so we learned that ,god's word is true in spite of our stupid misunderstanding of it and that this doctrine of ,election rightly understood is one of the noblest things in the whole ,bible4 ,now comes my question4 ,are ,god's elect in the ,hereafter life still elect for the service of others8 ,are those loving souls who are joyfully accepting ,christ's service here1--destined for a still more glorious service in this ministry in the ,unseen--the first-fruits of a great harvest which through them the ,lord will reap in the ,hereafter8 ,will some be just saved1 saved so as by fire1 saved by the skin of their teeth1 as we say1 missing the noble destiny of the elect1 the joy of being a blessing to their race8 #c ,you have preached your last sermon1 said one to ,frederick ,denison ,maurice as he was dying4 ,aye1 he said2 but only my last sermon in ,,this life4 ,he believed he was going through the veil to preach to men4 ,i believe it too1 though ,i cannot prove it1 nay1 even though there be difficulties in the way of believing it4 ,and many men greater than we are believing it1 impelled by the stirring of ,divine impulses within4 ,do not think of it as merely a work for preachers and teachers4 ,every brave boy here who is trying to do right1 every poor woman who is learning to love1 every one who is blessing the world by kindly unselfishness1 is helping on the ,kingdom of ,god on earth and will be helping on the ,kingdom of ,god beyond4 ,surely there will be scope for them all4 ,when you think of that great mingled crowd that is daily passing through the gates of death1 all sorts and conditions--from the strong saints of ,god to the poor children brought up in homes of sin--you need have little doubt that there is room for service4 ,if it be true1 ah6 think of it1 you who are trying to forget yourselves1 and live for others--think of the blessedness of your life in the waiting land4 ,with the weak and the ignorant needing to be helped2 with the little children needing to be mothered and loved2 with the great heathen world1 who have gone within the veil1 never yet having heard of ,christ4 #d ,if it be true1 think how it takes away the reproach of glorified selfishness1 which many attribute to the ,christians' glad hope4 ,think how it helps in the perplexities about ,god's dealings when young and useful lives are taken from the earth4 ,an angry mourner said to me recently1 ,i don't believe ,god has anything to do with it1 else why should ,he take away a noble life like that and leave all these stupid useless people in the world8 ,i told him of my hope of this ministry in the ,unseen and suggested that perhaps ,god did not want ,,only the stupid useless people4 ,and think especially how it deepens the importance of our life on earth to feel that it has a bearing on our usefulness for ever4 ,the more we increase our talents here1 the more we shall be able to help our ,saviour there4 ,he ,himself suggests this in the parables of the ,talents and the ,pounds4 ,thy pound has gained five1 ,i will set thee over five cities4 ,thy pound has gained ten1 ,i will set thee over ten cities4 ,i will give thee a larger and nobler work hereafter4 ,is not that an incentive to stir one's blood8 ,the more ,i grow in love1 in unselfishness1 in knowledge of ,god1 in righteousness of life1 the more use ,i shall be to my dear ,lord and to my brethren for ever4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,conclusion ,so we close our thoughts about the ,,near ,,hereafter1 the life immediately after death4 ,the ,,far ,hereafter--the great mystery of ,judgment and ,hell and ,heaven belongs to a later section4 ,here we have been dealing only with the life going on to-day in the ,unseen--side by side with our present life4 ,ah6 that wonderful ,paradise land--that wonderful ,church of ,god in the ,unseen--with its vast numbers1 with its enthusiastic love1 with all its grand leaders who have been trained on earth4 ,,we ,,and ,,they together form the great continuous ,church of ,god4 ,we are all ,,one ,,long ,,procession2 they at the head in the ,unseen4 ,what a life it is6 ,what a work it has6 ,said ,i not well it was a ,gospel of the ,hereafter1 a good news of ,god6 ,it will make you solemn as you feel that character passes on unchanged4 ,that is good2 but it will do more4 ,it will take away the sting and the horror of death4 ,it is not the pain of dying that makes that horror when ,i come to die4 ,after all1 men bear far more pain without flinching4 ,it is not merely the parting for the present with those ,i love4 ,we have constantly to do that when they go to other lands without breaking our hearts about it4 ,it is not even any doubt about a future ,resurrection at the ,second ,advent4 ,i may believe that1 and yet get little comfort from it4 ,that ,advent seems so far away4 ,it may be next week2 but it may be #e1jjj years hence1 and meantime what of my life8 ,sleep1 unconsciousness1 darkness8 ,what8 ,no wonder ,i should shrink from that mysterious unknown4 ,but teach me the ancient ,scriptural doctrine of the ,,paradise life as it appears in the ,bible4 ,teach me that in the hour after death ,i shall pass into the ,unseen with myself1 with my full life1 my feelings1 my character1 my individuality1 and in that solemn hour death will lose its horror4 ,is not that a ,gospel8 ,in the awful days of bereavement it will bring ,god's peace1 and it will bring elevation of character4 ,where your treasure is1 there will your heart be also4 ,he is not dead1 the child of your affection1 ,but gone into that school ,where he no longer needs your poor protection1 ,and ,christ ,himself doth rule4 ,you think of your boy as serving at one side of the veil1 and you at the other2 each in the presence of ,christ4 ,you think how he is being lovingly trained and disciplined4 ,how all his abilities are being used in self-sacrificing deeds for others4 ,not in a glorified selfishness in thanking ,god that he is safe1 though his brethren be lost4 ,ah1 no6 but in perfect self-sacrifice1 even as his ,lord4 ,you think of him as learning to fight for righteousness--to help the weak1 aye1 mayhap1 to go out--,god's brave young knight--out into the darkness after some one who has missed of ,christ on earth4 ,realize that and your whole life must perforce grow nobler4 ,and realize that you will not have to wait for the ,resurrection or the ,advent to meet him and learn all4 ,when your death comes1 he will be waiting for you4 ,he has been praying and watching over you4 ,he will tell you of all that has been happening4 ,and together in ,christ's loving presence1 side by side1 you will work and wait1 and help your brethren2 and look forward to the glory of the heaven that is still in the future4 ,is not that a ,gospel worth the preaching--a ,gospel to stir our souls and to comfort our hearts for those whom we have loved long since and lost a while8 ,thank ,god for the blessed doctrine of the ,paradise life6 ,thank ,god for all ,his poor penitent servants departed this life in ,his faith and fear6 ,,part ,,ii ,the ,far ,hereafter ,i ,,the ,,judgment ,we touch lightly on the subject of the ,,far ,hereafter which is still away in the future for all humanity4 ,one day the ,intermediate ,life will close4 ,the end of this age will come at the ,second ,advent4 ,and at this crisis our ,lord places the great drama of the ,judgment and the final decision of each man's destiny4 ,whether it will be a great spectacular event such as ,his picture suggests1 with all humanity assembled and the ,judge on the great ,white ,throne1 or whether ,his picture is figurative1 we cannot affirm4 ,we can only gather that it will be a final judgment and that it will be a judgment according to finally developed character1 when men shall be clearly seen to belong to the right hand or the left1 the sheep or the goats1 to the wheat or the tares1 to the good fish to be gathered up or the bad fish to be thrown away4 ,then come the final stages in the history of humanity1 ,hell and ,heaven4 ,,ii ,,hell ,here we touch the awful part of our study4 ,in ,christ's great drama of the ,judgment those on the left hand are passing out into the darkness1 and we see them no more4 ,in that darkness there seems no ray of hope4 ,so far as we can learn1 it means irrevocable ruin and loss4 ,in spite of ,god's love and pain for them on ,earth and in ,hades1 they seem at last to have destroyed in themselves everything of good1 and so placed themselves beyond possibility of restoration for ever4 ,the judgment has clearly the ring of finality4 ,there seems nothing more to be said4 ,and so1 with pain in our hearts responding to the pain of the ,father1 we are forced to leave them in the darkness and mystery in which ,scripture enshrouds them4 ,this is1 ,i think1 all that can justifiably be said4 ,the reticence and reserve of ,scripture forbids any definite doctrine of ,hell4 ,and this is all that would have needed to be said if men had kept to that reticence and reserve of ,scripture1 and to all further questionings contented themselves with the answer that the ,judge of all the earth will do right4 ,but they have not so contented themselves4 ,it is hard to blame them4 ,for beyond the main facts about the doom of the impenitent there are here and there through the ,bible many tantalizing hints perplexing and difficult to reconcile with each other1 but very tempting to follow out4 ,by emphasizing certain of these and ignoring or dwelling more lightly on certain others which seem to contradict them1 men have formulated definite doctrines about ,hell1 differing widely from each other but each with apparently strong ,scriptural support4 ,this is only what may happen in any department of study4 ,the strict rule of evidence in any enquiry is that all the facts must be studied and that no theory shall be accepted as entirely trustworthy while any of the evidence remains unaccounted for4 ,there are three theories which hold the ground to-day1 each of them seemingly with much evidence in its favour1 but each of them seriously unsatisfactory as conflicting with other evidence4 7#a7 ,the theory of ,everlasting ,torment--that every soul which has missed of ,christ shall be plunged into a ,hell of torment and sin for ever and ever1 growing worse and worse and lower and lower through all the ages of ,eternity4 7#b7 ,the theory of ,universalism--that in the ages of the far future through the stern loving discipline of ,god all men shall at length be saved4 7#c7 ,the theory of ,conditional ,immortality--that all souls who fail of ,eternal ,life shall be punished not by ,everlasting ,torment1 but by annihilation and the loss of ,god and ,heaven for ever4 ,at first sight it seems almost impossible that such conflicting theories could be formed out of the same ,bible4 ,but a little consideration of the evidence and of the power of prejudice and preconceptions in estimating evidence makes it easier to understand4 ,the main trend of all ,scripture teaching is that it shall be well1 gloriously well1 with the good1 and that it shall be evil1 unutterably evil1 with the wicked4 ,that there is a mysterious and awful malignity attaching to sin--that to be in sin means to be in misery and ruin in this life or any other life--and that sin persisted in tends to utter and irretrievable ruin4 ,no arguments about the love and power of ,god to save to the uttermost can cancel the fact of the free-will of man or the plain statements of ,scripture confirmed beyond question by the loving ,lord ,himself as to the awful fate of the finally impenitent4 ,but running through all this dark background of ,scripture is a curious golden thread of prophecy that evil shall not be eternal in ,god's universe4 ,one turns to it perplexed with wondering hope4 ,for however fully ,conscience recognizes the righteousness of a terrible retribution for sin1 there is in all thoughtful minds a shrinking from the thought that ,evil shall be as permanent as ,good in the universe of the ,all-holy ,god--that any evil power can exist unendingly side by side with ,him and unendingly resist ,him2 that ,hell and ,heaven1 ,satan and ,god shall co-exist for all eternity4 ,this is almost unthinkable to thoughtful men4 ,it is a ,dualism repugnant to all our ideals of ,god4 ,and this golden thread1 running through the ,old and ,new ,testaments alike1 confirms this thought1 in its dim vision of a golden age somewhere away in the far future--away it would seem beyond the dark vision of ,hell--when evil shall have vanished out of the ,universe for ever and ,god shall be all in all 7#a ,cor4 xv4 #bh7--when there shall come the times of the ,restoration of all things which ,god hath promised by the mouth of all ,his holy prophets since the world began 7,acts iii4 #ba74 ,naturally there is danger of people emphasizing strongly either one of these trends of ,scripture and gathering certain proof texts according to their own prejudices and preconceptions of what ought to be4 ,the way in which some people read their ,bibles1 says ,mr4 ,ruskin1 is like the way in which the old monks thought that hedgehogs ate grapes4 ,they rolled themselves over the grapes as they lay on the ground and whatever first stuck to their spikes they carried off and ate4 ,if the grapes are of various kinds as are the passages of ,scripture we cannot judge thus of the taste of the vintage4 ,to get the true taste of the grapes we must press them in cluster4 ,to get the true meaning of ,scripture we must study the whole trend of ,scripture4 ,before we can accept any doctrine from separate passages of ,scripture we must assure ourselves that it is in harmony1 not only with other passages but also with the ruling thoughts which run through all ,scripture1 ,god's unutterable holiness1 ,god's awful hatred of sin and stern denunciations of doom against the impenitent1 ,god's love1 ,god's unchangeableness1 ,god's reasonableness and fairness1 and the mysterious golden thread of hope which runs through all4 ,now we glance as briefly as possible at the three theories referred to4 ,i ,the theory of ,everlasting ,torment and ,everlasting ,sin4 ,this theory keeps with ,scripture in asserting the fatal and irrevocable result of unrepented sin--but it goes beyond the reserve of ,scripture in defining that result and so defining it as to impugn the character of ,god4 ,it teaches that all who are condemned in the ,judgment are doomed to a life of endless torment1 in the company of devils--forsaken of ,god4 ,millions of millions of ages shall see this punishment no whit nearer to its end4 ,it must go on for ever and ever and ever4 ,it takes perhaps a child's or a woman's heart to realize the horror of that thought4 ,i remember as a child reading a ,sunday-school book that helped me to realize the meaning of this for ever and ever in hell4 ,i was to imagine a huge forest1 and a tiny insect coming from the farthest planet and biting an atom out of one of the leaves1 and carrying it away to his home1 the journey taking one thousand years4 ,then ,i was to imagine the ages that must elapse before that whole leaf was carried off4 ,then the stupendous time before the whole tree would be gone4 ,then1 as my brain reeled at the thought1 ,i was to look forward to the carrying away of the whole forest1 and from that to the carrying away of the whole world4 ,then came the awful sentence in italics1 ,even then eternity would but have begun4 ,i suppose ,god will forgive the people who wrote that book for children if they repent1 but ,i don't feel much like forgiving them4 ,i can remember still lying awake in the night and crying as ,i thought of the lost souls in ,hell as my poor little brain reeled at the thought of the journeys of that wretched insect and of those whom ,god kept alive to suffer for ever and ever and ever4 ,then as one grew older came the further horror that these lost are kept alive not only to suffer but to sin everlastingly4 ,they are to go on increasing in sin for ever and ever and ever in the universe of the ,all-holy ,god4 ,one tests this by the ruling thoughts of ,scripture4 ,one thinks of ,god's holiness4 ,one thinks of the golden thread of hope4 ,one wonders what it means that ,christ came to destroy the works of the devil#a and to destroy the devil 7bruise the serpent's head#b7 and how one day ,god shall be all in all if straight opposite for all eternity shall be ,satan's ,kingdom of misery and sin4 ,surely ,christ has not failed6 ,and yet--and yet--what shall we say8 ,and what shall we say of ,god's fatherhood8 ,shall we say as some do that as ,judge ,he must do cruel things which as ,father ,he would shrink from8 ,god forbid6 ,the ,judge and the ,father are one4 ,men would never use such sophistry about the character of ,god if it were put into plain words4 ,ye must ken1 said a godly old ,scotchman1 that the ,almighty may often have to do in ,his offeeshial capacity what ,he would scorn to do as a private individual6 ,i quote this not with flippancy but with stern indignation4 ,that is baldly what such sophistry means4 ,clearly one who insists on this doctrine ought at least to be absolutely certain that ,scripture leaves him no escape from it4 ,now the conclusion which a thorough study of the question leads to is this2--that ,scripture nowhere definitely affirms that the sufferings of the lost shall not be everlasting1 and nowhere definitely affirms that they shall be everlasting4 ,even that if it be true is some relief4 ,we should no longer be forced to believe of ,god what ,conscience declares to be unworthy of ,him4 ,but is it true8 ,i can already see the ,bible turned over for the dark array of texts beginning with ,he that believeth not shall be damned1 ,how can ye escape the damnation of ,hell8 ,these shall go away into everlasting punishment1 etc4 ,let me explain4 ,if we examine the ,bible carefully we shall find that1 while there are a great many clear proofs of the certainty and awfulness of ,hell1 the proofs of this theory of ,everlasting ,torment are not much to be depended on4 ,practically they can all be gathered into three groups4 ,in the first the chief word is ,,damn or ,,damnation4 ,in the second the chief word is ,,hell4 ,in the third the chief word is ,,everlasting4 ,it is not too much to say that if these three sets of passages were removed from the ,bible nobody would think of believing in everlasting torment4 ,now let me make the assertion straight out--,there is no word in the original language of the ,bible that at all justifies the use of either of these words in the meaning that we have attached to it--and therefore the ,revised ,version of the ,bible has practically swept them all away4 #a ,take first the words ,damn1 ,damnation which convey to us the idea of doom to a ,hell of never-ending torment and never-ending sin4 ,the original word conveyed no such idea to our ,lord or the ,apostles4 ,it conveyed no such idea to the translators of the ,authorized ,version4 ,when they translated it ,damn and ,damnation they did not at all mean what we now mean4 ,there are two ,greek words1 krin which means simply to judge1 and kata-krin which means to judge adversely1 to condemn1 and it is sometimes the first and sometimes the second of these words which is translated ,damn4 ,why is it so translated8 ,surely the translators did not think so evil of ,god as to believe that ,he could never judge a man without condemning him and that ,he could never condemn him except to everlasting torment4 ,not at all4 ,they had no thought of this4 ,the ,english word damn at that time had no such awful meaning as has grown into it in our day through the wide-spread influence of the theory which ,i am criticizing4 ,it simply meant what the ,greek word meant4 ,i find an interesting illustration of this in the ,wycliffe ,bible in the passage about the woman taken in adultery4 ,jesus saith1 ,woman1 hath no man damned thee8 ,no man1 ,lord4 ,neither do ,i damn thee4 ,that is to say the ,english word ,damn at that time only meant condemn4 ,but words are dangerous things if not carefully watched1 owing to their tendency to change their meaning as a language grows4 ,a new1 darker meaning has grown on to the ,english word since4 ,once an innocent word1 it has now become dangerous and misleading4 ,therefore1 the ,revisers have swept it away1 and the words damn and damnation have now vanished entirely and for ever out of the pages of the ,english ,bible4 ,unfortunately the public do not read the ,revised ,version4 ,with this explanation ,i ask the reader to turn back to his ,bible4 ,in our sense of the word did our ,lord say1 ,he that believeth not shall be damned8 ,most certainly not4 ,he said that he should be condemned for wilfully disbelieving1 but ,he did not say to what he should be condemned1 nor for how long4 ,i should condemn you for doing a selfish act1 but that would hardly mean sending you to endless torment4 ,did ,he say that those who had done evil should rise to the resurrection of damnation8 7#a ,john v4 #bi74 ,no4 ,he said1 to the resurrection of judgment4 7,see ,r4 ,v47 ,did ,st4 ,paul say1 ,he that doubteth 7about eating certain meats7 is damned if he eat8 7,rom4 xiv4 #bc74 ,did he say that a church widow should have damnation for marrying again8 7#a ,tim4 v4 #ab74 ,of course not2 the word only means judgment or condemnation4 ,there is no thought at all in it of this endless ,hell as the ,revised ,version has plainly shown4 ,so we see that at any rate all these texts about damnation can no longer be used in proof of everlasting torment and everlasting sin4 #b ,something similar is true about the texts whose chief word is ,hell4 ,the word hell occurs eighteen times in the ,authorized ,version4 ,once it is a translation of a ,greek word ,tartarus 7#b ,peter ii4 #d7 cast down to ,hell to be reserved unto the ,day of ,judgment4 ,that certainly was not everlasting4 ,five times it is a translation of the word ,hades whose meaning we already know1 and which certainly did not mean everlasting4 ,the other twelve times it is a translation of the word ,gehenna used by our ,lord1 and no scholar with the least regard for his reputation would dream of stating that our ,lord certainly meant it to convey the idea of endlessness4 ,it was the name of a horrible valley outside ,jerusalem where things were cast out to be burnt1 to keep the city pure4 ,the ,jewish prophets took the word as a metaphor to express the fate of wicked men4 ,from it they drew their images used by our ,lord of the worm that dieth not and the fire that is not quenched 7,mark x4 #df74 ,to be in danger of ,gehenna was to be in danger of a hereafter doom suggested by this dread place4 ,our ,lord simply took up the vague ,jewish word and did not define it4 ,what exactly had ,he in ,his mind when ,he used this word8 ,this is a question of terrible importance4 ,he certainly meant something very stern and awful4 ,he seems to indicate also something final and irrevocable4 ,but there is absolutely no reason to believe that ,he meant to convey the idea in our minds of a vast prison1 in which the souls of the lost are pierced through with agony for ever and ever4 ,you ask1 ,how can ,i know what ,he meant8 ,how could ,i know what ,shakespeare meant by a certain word8 ,i should read up all the books and letters of ,shakespeare's times in which the word occurs1 and whatever it commonly meant to the people of ,shakespeare's time ,i should accept as being what ,shakespeare meant4 ,that looks sensible1 does it not8 ,well1 a very interesting investigation has been made by various scholars4 ,they have examined all the existing ,jewish writings where the word ,gehenna was used from #cjj ,b4 ,c4 to #cjj ,a4 ,d4 ,then they have examined the ,jewish ,talmuds which run on to the fourth and fifth century4 ,a modern ,english scholar1 ,dr4 ,dewes1 says 7,plea for a ,new ,translation1 p4 #bc73 ,every passage has been carefully examined which is quoted in the works of ,lightfoot1 ,schoetgen1 ,buxtorf1 ,castell1 ,schindler1 ,glass1 ,bartoloccius1 ,ugalino and ,nork1 and the result of the whole examination is this3 there are only two passages which even a superficial reader could consider to be corroborative of the assertion that the ,jews understood ,gehenna to be a place of everlasting torment4 ,i give a few specimens from the ,talmuds4 ,gehenna is ordained of old because of sins4 ,the ungodly will be judged in ,gehenna against the day of judgment4 ,the ungodly shall be judged in ,gehenna until the righteous shall say of them1 ,we have seen enough4 ,the judgment of the ungodly is for twelve months4 ,gehenna is nothing but a day in which the impious will be burned4 ,the sinners 444 shall descend into ,gehenna2 at the end of twelve months the body shall be consumed and the soul burned up and the wind shall scatter it under the feet of the just4 ,the reader sees1 of course1 that the vague ,jewish opinions have no authority for us except to help us to get at the meaning of our ,lord when speaking to ,jews about ,gehenna4 ,we may assume that ,he used their familiar word in the sense in which they would naturally understand it4 ,they certainly would understand ,him to proclaim some terrible doom1 probably also an irrevocable doom4 ,but can any one affirm that they must have understood ,him to mean endless torment1 in the face of this evidence--and its powerful confirmation by the greatest of all modern ,jewish students of the ,talmud1 ,emanuel ,deutsch4 ,there is no everlasting damnation in the ,talmud 7,remains1 p4 #ec71 and again1 ,there is not a word in the ,talmud which supports the damnable dogma of endless torment 7,conversation with ,mr4 ,cox1 ,salvator ,mundi1 p4 #gb74 ,the ,american ,revised ,version has very wisely removed the word ,hell altogether on account of the misleading associations connected with it4 ,it substitutes the word ,gehenna1 leaving the reader to ascertain its meaning4 ,the ,english ,revisers have retained the word ,hell and put the word ,gehenna beside it in the margin4 ,i think this was a pity1 as it will be hard for the ordinary reader to dissociate the word ,hell from the theory which has unwarrantably grown on to it4 ,but at any rate ,i think we may safely say that no reader who understands the position will ever again use the texts in which our ,lord speaks of ,hell to prove the absolute certainty of the theory of ,endless ,torment and ,endless ,sin4 ,so vanishes another group of the proof texts for this theory4 #c ,now take the group of texts with the word everlasting4 ,it is surely significant that the ,revisers have completely removed this word also in every case and substituted for it the word eternal1 a less definite word and which in scholarly usage means rather the opposite of temporal--that which is above the sphere of time and space--that which belongs to the other world4 ,at any rate the fact that they have removed it in every case shows that the word everlasting did not seem to them a correct translation4 ,there is only space for a brief explanation4 ,the original word is the adjective ainos 7aionios7 7,eng4 aeonian71 coming from the noun ain 7aion7 7,eng4 aeon71 an age1 an epoch1 a long period of time4 ,this noun cannot mean eternity for it is repeatedly used by ,st4 ,paul in the plural aeons and aeons of aeons4 ,as we speak of great periods of time1 the ,ice ,age1 the ,stone ,age1 etc41 so the ,bible speaks of this age 7aeon71 the coming age 7aeon71 and the end of the age1 etc4 ,these aeons or ages are thought of in ,scripture as vast periods past1 present and future in which the ,divine purpose is working itself out1 e4 g41 ,god's purpose is the purpose of the ages 7aeons7 7,eph4 iii4 #aa74 ,christ's name is above every name not only in this age 7aeon7 but in that which is to come 7,eph4 i4 #ba74 ,that in the ages 7aeons7 to come ,he might shew1 etc4 ,from this noun1 then1 conies the adjective ainios 7aionios7--aeonian which may be defined age long or belonging to the ages1 etc4 ,any ,greek scholar will assert unhesitatingly that of itself it does not mean endless or everlasting4 ,sometimes1 as when applied to ,god1 it may be thus translated but only because the meaning is inherent in the noun to which it is applied4 ,the word ainios of itself would not positively prove the endlessness of ,god4 ,this adjective when applied to any thing or any state of being cannot of itself be used to prove its endlessness4 ,it is worth notice too that in the ,septuagint ,greek ,bible1 the version usually quoted in the ,gospels and ,epistles1 this word ainios is frequently applied to things that have ended1 e4 g41 the gift of the land of ,canaan1 the priesthood of ,aaron1 the kingdom of ,david1 the temple at ,jerusalem1 the daily offerings1 etc4 ,when the noun always means a finite period and the adjective is applied both to that which is ended and to that which is endless it would surely be poor scholarship if the ,revisers allowed the word everlasting to remain as its translation1 or if students of theology should argue from it the endlessness of anything4 ,to which we may add that there are ,greek adjectives and phrases which do definitely mean endless and which are never used in the ,bible of men's fate in the ,hereafter4 ,be it observed that all this does not prove that the punishment of the future ages may not be everlasting4 ,it only proves that ,scripture nowhere asserts unmistakably that it must be so4 ,it simply asserts that it is aeonian4 ,the thoughtful advocates of ,everlasting ,torment are of course aware of all this4 ,but they honestly feel that in spite of the indefiniteness of the adjective1 our ,lord has fixed ,his meaning beyond question in the one passage that has become so famous as the great proof text in this controversy1 ,these shall go away into aeonian punishment1 but the righteous into aeonian life 7,matt4 xxv4 #df74 ,very reasonably they say1 ,if the word asserts everlastingness in the one case it must also in the other4 ,the answer is that the word of itself cannot assert everlastingness in either case4 ,if this word were our only proof of everlasting life then everlasting life would be a doubtful matter4 ,but the everlastingness of that life like the everlastingness of ,god is evident all over the ,bible quite apart from this4 ,the words here simply tell that the one shall go into the aeonian life and the other into aeonian punishment1 i4 e41 that the one shall go into the life of the future age and the other into the punishment of the future age without exactly specifying the duration of either4 ,i quite feel that the close connection of the words suggests at least the probability that one is as lasting as the other4 ,yet even that consideration is weakened by asking if people are willing to apply it to ,st4 ,paul's statement1 ,as in ,adam all die even so in ,christ shall all be made alive 7the context suggests eternal life74 ,i would point out1 too1 that a somewhat similar verse is in the ,septuagint ,bible of our ,lord's day in ,hab4 iii4 #f1 where the 7aeonian7 everlasting mountains were scattered before ,god1 whose ways are 7aeonian7 everlasting4 ,yet it does not prove that the one is as endless as the other4 ,and in ,rom4 xvi4 #be-bf the mystery hid in the 7aeonian7 times before the world began is now manifested according to the command of the 7aeonian7 eternal ,god4 ,but the age before the world began is ended4 ,at any rate ,i must leave the matter here4 ,i have no space for fuller statement4 ,if any man feels that a world of increasing sin and awful torment growing no nearer to its end after millions and millions of ages does not disturb his conscience or the thoughts of ,god which he has learned from the whole trend of ,scripture this text will probably weigh strongly with him in spite of all that ,i have said4 ,but to him who is tortured by such a thought of ,god and yet feels that ,scripture binds him to it1 it must surely be some relief to feel that even in this great bulwark text of ,everlasting ,torment our ,lord only asserts that these shall go away into the aeonian punishment or chastisement#c whatever that may mean4 ,reluctantly1 impelled by a sense of duty1 ,i have dealt with this theory more fully than with the others4 ,should any godly people fear that ,i am lightening an awful deterrent to sin let me say what long experience has taught me of the danger of this common theory4 ,it is making sad loving hearts whom ,god has not made sad and making earnest ,christians1 who feel forced to believe it1 perplexed about the love and justice of ,god and the prophecies of the final victory of good4 ,it is forcing into the background the true and awfully solemn teaching about ,hell which ought to be prominent in all our pulpits4 ,when men cannot see any possible reconciliation between the doctrine of ,god's love and their doctrine of ,hell they are very apt to find an easy way out4 ,we cannot reconcile them1 said a young layman to me one day1 therefore we drop out one of them--,hell4 ,do not be shocked at it4 ,many besides my young layman are unconsciously doing it4 ,nowadays more than ever we1 clergy1 are teaching much about the love of ,god4 ,but nowadays more than ever we are holding our tongues about ,hell4 ,we know the horrible idea which ,hell commonly conveys4 ,therefore we keep it in the background trusting that our hearers will leave it there during the sermon on ,god's love4 ,but they do not1 and so we are very unconvincing about both doctrines4 ,again1 this common theory of ,hell is so unreasonable that it has lost its power as a deterrent4 ,no teaching from which ,conscience revolts can long hold its power over men4 ,the rough common sense1 the rough moral sense of careless men makes them reject it and treat it as a subject of jest4 ,when men can stupidly laugh together over jests about hell-fire1 when the devil is presented as a clown in the pantomime it indicates something very wrong in the teaching4 ,no doctrine has any real hold on the crowd when they can lightly jest about it4 ,and because of their unbelief in this false notion of ,hell they are ceasing to believe in any ,hell at all--ceasing to believe in that awful real ,hell which is taught in the ,bible and of which ,god is giving some men foretastes even in this life4 ,and this false notion of ,hell tends to shake men's belief in the reality of ,heaven4 ,for if the redeemed could enjoy their bliss in ,heaven1 knowing that myriads are existing for ever and ever in endless suffering and still worse in endless sin1 one feels that they have grown so selfish and opposite to ,christ that they have no business in any heaven4 ,we dare not leave out the love of ,god and we dare not leave out the doctrine of ,hell4 ,both are certainly true4 ,therefore they must be capable of reconciliation4 ,the reconciliation must not come in ignoring ,hell or believing in a kindly1 good-natured ,god who does not judge severely about moral character and who only cares that ,his child should stop crying and be happy4 ,we are having too much of this sentimentalism nowadays4 ,it is a miserable misconception of that awful holiness which is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity4 ,it would never explain the need of ,christ dying on the cross to put away sin4 ,whatever reconciliation we find here or hereafter it must have at bottom ,god's unutterable hatred of sin but also ,god's unutterable love and pain over every sinful soul which ,he has made4 ,this theory of ,endless ,torment and ,endless ,sin certainly does not appear to satisfy this test1 and it has in addition to face the stern revolt of ,reason and ,conscience4 ,,ii ,the theory of ,universalism1 i4 e41 that all men shall at length be saved4 ,this opinion is based on the more hopeful side of ,scripture that we have referred to1 but it ignores or explains away what contradicts it in the darker and sterner side4 ,if one could forget that1 it would be the most inspiring of all the guesses that have been made4 ,as presented by its best exponents1 such men as ,allen and ,jukes and ,cox1 it is wonderfully attractive and at first sight seems to satisfy many of the conditions of the problem4 ,it takes account of a just and awful retribution for every sin1 and takes account also of the mysterious hope in the ,hereafter which runs through the ,bible4 ,it believes that the power of ,god has infinite resources and that the love of ,god has unwearying persistence and that no soul can ultimately resist such resources and such love4 ,even ,hell itself it deems ,god's final effort when all other means have failed4 ,the reader who thinks there can be no possible excuse for such a theory should glance at a few of the passages quoted in its favour3 ,god who wills that all men should be saved 7#a ,tim4 ii4 #d71 and who wills that all men should come to repentance 7#b ,peter iii4 #i74 ,and this will or determination of ,god is immutable 7,heb4 vi4 #g74 ,again1 ,now is the judgment of this world1 now shall the ,prince of this world be cast out1 ,,and ,i1 if ,i be lifted up1 will draw all men unto ,myself 7,john xii4 #ca1 #cb74 ,all flesh shall see the salvation of ,god 7,luke iii4 #f74 ,his grace bringing salvation to all men 7,titus ii4 #aa74 ,we trust in the living ,god who is the ,saviour of all men1 especially of those who believe 7#a ,tim4 iv4 #aj74 ,he is the propitiation not for our sins only1 but also for the sins of the whole world 7#a ,john ii4 #b74 ,he was manifested that ,he might destroy the works of the devil 7#a ,john iii4 #h7 and destroy the devil 7bruise the serpent's head7 ,gen4 iii4 #ae4 ,he shall overcome the strong man armed 7the devil7 and take away his armour and divide his spoils 7,luke xi4 #ba1 #bb74 ,he was manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of ,himself 7,heb4 ix4 #bf74 ,god hath not cast away ,his people whom ,he foreknew 444 and so all ,israel shall be saved 7,rom4 xii4 #be-cc74 ,the times of the ,restoration of all things which ,god hath promised by the mouth of all ,his holy prophets since the world began 7,acts iii4 #ba74 ,as in ,adam all die1 even so in ,christ shall all be made alive4 ,but every man in his own order3 ,christ the first-fruits2 afterwards they that are ,christ's at ,his coming4 ,then cometh the end 444 when all things have been subjected unto ,him#d 444 then shall the ,son also be subjected unto ,him that put all things under ,him that ,god may be all in all 7#a ,cor4 xv4 #bb-bi74 ,one can see how the constant study of such passages should lead men to an enthusiastic hope and lead them to study less carefully the stream of darker teaching that seemed to conflict with these4 ,whatever may be said against the advocates of ,universalism we at least owe to them a clearer emphasizing of the mysterious hopefulness of ,scripture as to the final triumph of good4 ,but with deep reluctance one is bound to assert that the advocates of ,universal ,salvation to a great degree ignore or explain away unsatisfactorily much of the sterner side of the ,bible4 ,for amid all its hopefulness there is a steadily persistent note in ,scripture1 stern1 awful1 sorrowful1 which seems impossible to reconcile with ,universalism4 ,there are clear and repeated assertions that some men at any rate will not be saved4 ,it is ,st4 ,paul1 the author of so many of those hopeful ,scriptures quoted1 who tells us even weeping of men whose end is destruction 7,phil4 iii4 #ai71 and of those whose fate shall be eternal destruction from the presence of ,god 7#b ,thess4 i4 #i74 ,it is the loving ,christ ,himself who said of one of ,his apostles1 ,it were good for that man if he had not been born 7,st4 ,matt4 xxvi4 #bd74 ,we are warned back too by the tendency of character to grow permanent4 ,and when we are told that ,god willeth all men to be saved1 and that ,god can do everything1 we are forced to ask1 ,can ,god do contradictory things8 ,can ,god make a door to be open and shut at the same time8 ,can ,god make a thing to be and not to be at the same time8 ,can ,god make a man's will free to choose good or evil and yet secure that he shall certainly choose good at the last8 ,one longs to believe that ,universalism should be true1 but to believe it we must ignore much of the evidence of ,scripture4 ,,iii ,the theory of ,conditional ,immortality1 i4 e41 that all souls who fail of ,eternal ,life shall be punished not by ,endless ,torment1 but by ,annihilation and the loss of ,god and ,heaven for ever and ever4 ,this is another conjecture framed to escape the difficulties of the former two4 ,it would be consistent both with retribution for evil and also with the final victory of good4 ,that in the mysterious nature of things when the malignity of sin becomes incurable1 a soul rotted through with sin might ultimately die out of existence2 this opinion is at least allowable as a conjecture to escape from the theory of ,endless ,torment and ,sin4 ,it would in a real sense be an everlasting punishment1 being an everlasting loss of ,heaven and ,god4 ,but it too is founded only on part of the evidence1 on such texts as ,the gift of ,god is eternal life1 ,he that hath the ,son hath life1 implying that immortality is a conditional thing granted only to those who are saved1 and such texts as eternal destruction from the presence of ,god1 and the idea of utter annihilation in such passages as burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire4 ,there is much in favor of it but there is much in ,scripture which makes it difficult to accept it4 ,and it contradicts straight out the wide-spread ,christian belief in the essential immortality of the soul 7though that belief also needs to be examined74 ,at any rate it cannot claim authority as a theory of future punishment4 ,,iv ,these are the only conjectures offered us to solve the difficulties connected with ,final ,retribution4 ,we find them all unsatisfactory4 ,we have reached no definite doctrine of ,hell4 ,with the evidence at our disposal it seems impossible to do so4 ,the failure of all attempts at reconciling the seeming contradictions of ,scripture must suggest to us that the solution of this problem is beyond the range of our present powers4 ,at any rate it is beyond the range of our present knowledge4 ,surely it is wise and reverent to think that this points to some dealing of ,god beyond our human ken which will one day reconcile all the difficulties4#e ,our little guesses do not exhaust ,god's possibilities4 ,some day we shall find the answer in that land where we shall know even as we are known4 ,and when we find it we know it will be consistent with our highest thoughts of ,god4 ,i like to think that it is those who have grown closest to ,christ in sympathy for sorrow and pain and who unlike us1 know all the facts of the case1 who are represented as joining in that glad shout hereafter1 ,hallelujah6 salvation and glory and power belong to our ,god1 ,,for ,,true ,,and ,,righteous ,,are ,,his ,,judgments4 ,leave the manifestation of this to ,god4 ,a wise old man once said1 ,god has a good deal of time to do things between this and the other side of eternity4 ,this then is the conclusion of the whole matter4 ,a return to the reserve and reticence of ,scripture4 ,but with this result of our study1 that we feel no longer forced to believe of ,god that which ,conscience declares to be unworthy of ,him4 ,we are set free to believe that the ,judge of all the earth will do right--that ,hell as well as ,heaven is within the confines of ,his dominion--that evil shall not last for ever2 that in spite of all its conflicting evidence the trend of ,scripture moves towards the golden age1 the final victory of good4 ,thus we leave it4 ,in our final vision of humanity in ,christ's great drama of the ,judgment1 those on the left are passing into the outer darkness and as they pass the curtain falls behind them and we see them no more4 ,we know not what is passing in that outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth4 ,we have no grounds to believe that any soul there is being born again through sorrow and shame1 that any spoiled and deformed life is being remoulded in that awful crucible of ,god4 ,but as we watch the awful shadows of that outer darkness1 there comes beyond it on the far horizon the quivering of a coming dawn4 ,for that age of ,god's ,gehenna is to have its end1 and far away the day will dawn for which the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together2 when evil shall have vanished out of the universe for ever2 when death and ,hell1 the evil and the ,evil ,one shall be cast into the lake of fire2 when at the name of ,jesus every knee shall bow of things in ,heaven and earth1 and under the earth 7in the world of the dead74 ,and every tongue shall confess that ,jesus ,christ is ,lord to the glory of ,god the ,father4 ,then cometh the end1 says ,st4 ,paul1 when ,christ shall deliver up the ,kingdom to ,god1 even the ,father1 when all ,his enemies shall be subjected unto ,him4 ,and when all ,his enemies have been subjected unto ,him1 then shall the ,son also ,himself be subjected unto ,him that put all things under ,him1 that ,god may be all in all4 ,that is what shall be4 ,one day1 somewhere in the far mysterious future the purpose of the ages shall be accomplished4 ,evil shall have vanished out of the universe for ever and ,god shall be all in all4 ,one day again it shall be as at the creation when ,god looked on everything that ,he had made and behold it was very good4 ,how8 ,we know not and we need not know4 ,we need not be able to assert dogmatically how ,he will accomplish ,his purpose4 ,we need not be able to assert that all men shall be saved or that all who are not will be annihilated4 ,but we must be able with trustful hearts to assert ,god's love and ,god's power and the final abolishing of evil1 even though we can only do it with the poet's vagueness3 ,at last ,i heard a voice upon the slope ,cry to the summit1 ,is there any hope8 ,to which an answer pealed from that high land1 ,but in a tongue no man could understand1 ,and on the glimmering summit far withdrawn ,god made ,himself an awful rose of dawn4 #a #a ,john iii4 #h4 #b ,gen4 iii4 #ae4 #c kolasis--chastisement1 correction1 punishment 7see ,greek ,lexicon74 #d ,the same ,greek words are used of ,his enemies' subjection to ,christ as of ,christ's subjection to the ,father suggesting that it would be of the same kind4 #e ,in other antinomies of ,scripture1 e4 g41 ,man's free will and ,god's foreknowledge1 we have to take refuge in a similar belief4 ,,iii ,,heaven ,at last ,i has reached the goal4 ,in that far future comes the glad finale of human history1 the realization of the eternal thought in the mind of ,god from the beginning4 ,as the unwritten play of a great dramatist lies in his mind before it is uttered or acted1 with every problem solved and every contingency provided for--so we believe the whole extended drama lay in the ,eternal ,mind--the path of struggle and pain--the cross-currents of human will--the glorious conclusion of it all4 ,nothing was an after-thought4 ,now at last ,christ shall see of the travail of ,his soul and shall be satisfied4 ,aye--satisfied4 ,it was worth the cost4 ,worth the ,incarnation of the ,eternal ,son--worth the sorrow and the pain--worth being misunderstood and shamed and mocked and scourged and spitted on and crucified--this final satisfaction of ,his tender love4 ,eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things that ,god hath prepared4 ,they shall hunger no more nor thirst any more1 neither shall the sun light on them nor any burning heat1 for the ,lamb which is in the midst of the ,throne shall shepherd them and lead them to eternal fountains of waters1 and ,god shall wipe away every tear from their eyes4 ,there shall be no more death--no mourning nor crying nor pain any more1 for the former things--the old bad things--have passed away4 ,that is the end of ,god's purpose for men4 ,surely it will be the wondering cry of the angels for ever1 ,behold how ,he loved them6 ,i4 ,,what ,,is ,,meant ,,by ,,heaven8 ,to us with our limited faculties ,heaven is practically inconceivable4 ,we have no experience that would help us to realize it4 ,even the inspired writers can but touch the thought vaguely in allegory and gorgeous vision1 piling up images of earthly things precious and beautiful--thrones and crowns and gates of pearl and golden streets in the heavenly city coming down from ,god prepared as a bride adorned for her husband4 ,the only clear thought we have about external things in ,heaven is that ,i who lived here in an earthly body and in the ,near ,hereafter lived a spirit life absent from the body--shall in that ,far ,hereafter have a spiritual body analogous we suppose to the body ,i had on earth4 ,not the poor body1 certainly1 which rotted in the grave1 ashes to ashes1 dust to dust but a glorified body1 and yet it would seem having some strange mysterious connection with the earthly body4 ,as the oak is the resurrection body of the acorn1 and the lily of the ugly little bulb that decayed in the ground1 so also is the resurrection of the dead4 ,it is sown in corruption1 it is raised in incorruption2 it is sown in weakness1 it is raised in power2 it is sown a natural body1 it is raised a spiritual body4 ,that gives very little information but it gives some tangible idea to grasp4 ,beyond this there is no hold for imagination4 ,but as we saw in the earlier chapters on the ,intermediate ,life ,i am still ,i1 the same conscious self through the whole life of ,earth4 and ,hades and ,heaven1 and therefore the real life1 the inner life can still be understood4 ,so when we enquire what can be known about the meaning of ,heaven--at the very start ,i strike the key-note of the thoughts that follow1 in the words of ,christ ,himself1 ,the ,kingdom of ,god is within you4 ,heaven is a something within you rather than without you4 ,heaven means character rather than possessions4 ,the ,kingdom of ,god is not meat and drink1 but ,righteousness and ,peace and ,joy in the ,holy ,ghost4 ,that is the thought which ,i am trying to keep prominent all through this book4 ,hades life is dependent on character4 ,judgment is a sorting according to character4 ,heaven and ,hell are tempers or conditions of character within us4 ,they are not merely places to which ,god sends us arbitrarily4 ,they are conditions which we make for ourselves4 ,if ,god could send all men to ,heaven1 all men would be there4 ,if ,god could keep all men from ,hell1 no one would be there4 ,it is character that makes ,heaven4 ,it is character that makes ,hell4 ,they are states of mind that begin here1 and are continued and developed there4 ,i have known men who were in ,hell here--they told me so--men of brutal character1 men in delirium tremens1 who saw devils grinning at them from the bed4 ,that if continued and developed would mean ,hell there4 ,i have known sweet1 unselfish lives who are in ,heaven here4 ,that continued and developed would mean ,heaven there4 ,you know how one could be in ,heaven here4 ,do you remember these wonderful words of our ,lord1 ,no man hath ascended into ,heaven1 only the ,son of ,man who is in ,heaven8 ,not was1 not shall be1 but is always in ,heaven1 because always in unselfish love--always in accord and in communion with ,god4 ,so1 you see1 a man carries the beginning of ,heaven and ,hell within him1 according to the state of his own heart4 ,a selfish1 godless man cannot have any ,heaven so long as he remains selfish and godless4 ,for ,heaven consists in forgetting self1 and loving ,god and man with heart and soul4 #b ,do you see1 then1 the mistake that people have been making in discussing what is meant by ,heaven8 ,in all ages--in all races--men have speculated about it1 and their speculations have been largely coloured by their characters and temperaments4 ,the ,indian placed it in the ,happy ,hunting ,ground4 ,the ,greeks placed it in the ,islands of the ,blest1 where warriors rested after the battle4 ,the ,northman and the ,mussulman had his equally sensual ,heaven4 ,and many ,christians have as foolish notions as any one else4 ,some think that they win ,heaven by believing something with their minds about our ,lord's atonement4 ,some think they go to ,heaven by soaring up through the air4 ,some of them1 taking in its literal meaning the glorious imagery of the ,apocalypse1 picture to themselves streets of beaten gold and walls of flashing emerald and jasper1 and the wearing of crowns and the singing of ,psalms over and over again through all the ages of eternity4 ,what is the fault in all such8 ,that they do not understand what ,heaven really means4 ,they think of it as a something outside them which anybody could enjoy if he could only get there4 ,they do not understand that ,heaven means the joy of being in union with ,god--that the outward ,heaven has no meaning till the inward ,heaven has begun in ourselves4 ,i need not point out to you that our immortal spirits would find little happiness in golden pavements and gates of pearl4 ,people on this earth1 who have their fill of gold and pearl1 do not always gain much happiness from them4 ,they are mere external things--they cannot give eternal joy1 because that comes from within1 not from without4 ,it depends not on what we have1 but on what we are1 not on the riches of our possessions1 but on the beauty of our lives4 ,the gorgeous vision of the ,apocalypse has its meaning1 but it is not the carnal1 literal meaning of foolish men4 ,it tells of the bright river of the water of life2 of glorified cities1 where nothing foul1 or mean1 or ignoble shall dwell2 of the white robes of our stainless purity2 of the crowns and palms1 the emblems of victory over temptation1 of the throne which indicates calm mastery over sin2 of the song and music and gladsome feasting to image faintly the abounding happiness and the fervent thanksgiving for the goodness of ,god4 ,they are all mere symbols--mere earthly pictures with a heavenly meaning1 and the meaning which lies behind them all is this3 ,the joy of ,heaven means the inward joy2 the joy of character2 the joy of goodness2 the joy of likeness to the ,nature of ,god4 ,that is the highest joy of all--the only joy worthy of making ,heaven for men who are made in the image of ,god4 #c ,it is not difficult to show this to any true man or woman who is humbly trying to do beautiful deeds on earth4 ,of course1 if a man be very selfish and worldly2 a man who never tries to help another2 a man who smiles at these things as unreal sentiment2 who tells you that hard cash and success in life1 and to mind number one1 as they say1 are the chief things2 a man who never feels his pulses beat faster at the story of noble deeds--you cannot absolutely prove to him that the joy of character is the highest happiness4 ,you cannot prove to a blind man the beauty of the sunset sky2 you cannot arouse a deaf man to enthusiasm about sweet music2 and you cannot prove to an utterly selfish1 earthly man that self-sacrifice and purity and heroism and love are the loveliest and the most desirable possessions--the sources of the highest and most lasting joy4 ,but ,i feel sure that most of us1 with all our faults1 have in our better moments the desire and the admiration--aye1 and the effort1 too1 after nobleness of life1 and therefore we can understand this highest joy of ,heaven4 ,we have had experience sometimes1 however rarely1 of lovely deeds1 and the sweet1 pure joy that follows in their train4 ,well1 whenever you have conquered some craving temptation or borne trouble for another's sake2 when you have helped and brightened some poor life1 and kept quiet in the shade that no one should know of it2 when you have tried to do the right at heavy cost to yourself2 when the old father or mother at home has thanked ,god for the comfort you have been in their declining years2 whenever in the midst of all your sins you have done anything for the love of ,god or man1 do you not know what a sweet1 pure happiness has welled up in your heart1 entirely different in kind1 infinitely higher in degree than any pleasure that ever came to you from riches or amusement or the applause of men4 ,of this kind surely must be the pure joy of ,heaven4 ,call up the recollection of some of those cherished moments of your life1 and multiply by infinity the pleasure that you felt1 and you will have some faint notion of what is meant by ,heaven1 the ,heaven that ,god designs for man4 ,,ii4 ,,what ,,is ,,heaven',s ,,supreme ,,joy8 ,thus1 then1 we answer the first of our questions--,what is meant by ,heaven8 ,heaven means a state of character rather than a place of residence4 ,heaven means to be something rather than to go somewhere4 ,but though ,heaven means a state of character rather than a place of residence1 yet it means a place of residence1 too4 ,and though ,heaven means to be something rather than to go somewhere1 yet it means to go somewhere1 too4 ,and from this the second question easily follows4 ,what can be known about that life in ,heaven8 ,oh1 for a nearer insight into ,heaven1 ,more knowledge of the glory and the joy1 ,which there unto the happy souls is given1 ,their intercourse1 their worship1 their employ4 ,we do not know a great deal about it4 ,the ,bible is given to help us to live rightly in this world1 not to satisfy curiosity about the other world4 ,but yet some glimpses of the blessed life have come to us1 for our teaching4 ,the first thing to learn is that the chief joy of ,heaven shall consist in that of which we can only dream in this life1 of which we can have but a partial glimpse even in the ,hades or ,paradise ,life--the ,beatific ,vision1 the clear vision and knowledge of ,god4 ,all this life and all the ,paradise life are fitting and training and preparing us for this consummation4 ,wise theologians of old divided the happiness of ,heaven into ,essential and ,accidental4 ,by essential they meant the happiness which the soul derives immediately from ,god's presence1 from the ,beatific ,vision4 ,by accidental they meant the additional happiness which comes from creatures1 from meeting with friends1 from the joyous occupations and all the delights of ever-widening knowledge4 ,but the ,presence of ,god1 the ,vision of ,god1 is the essential thing which gives light and joy to all the others4 ,without that ,vision of ,god all would be dark as this beautiful world would be without the sun4 ,without that joy of ,god's presence all other joys would be spoiled1 just as the gifts of this life would be without the central gift of health4 ,that is the central thought about ,heaven in the ,bible1 the central thought of ,god's noblest saints of old1 aye1 and the central thought of some of the noblest amongst ourselves to-day4 ,does it seem unreal1 unnatural1 to some of us8 ,i can well believe it4 ,few of us love ,god well enough yet to desire ,him above all things4 ,most of us1 ,i fear1 if we would honestly confess it1 think more of the joy of meeting our dear ones than of the joy of being with ,god4 ,but ,god is very gentle with us4 ,he knoweth our frame2 ,he remembereth that we are but dust4 ,he will gradually train us here and hereafter1 and one day we1 too1 shall love ,him above all things4 ,oh6 ,i do think that to know the tender patience of ,christ's love as we shall know it then1 to know ,god as ,he is1 with all the false notions about ,him swept away1 will make it impossible to withhold our love from ,him4 ,and if even our poor love for each other on earth is such a happiness think what joy may come from dwelling in that unutterable ,love of ,god4 ,,iii4 ,,the ,,life ,,in ,,heaven ,what can we know further about the life in ,heaven1 about what the old theologians called the secondary or accidental joys as compared with the supreme joy of the ,beatific ,vision8 ,we know1 first1 ,there shall be no sin there4 ,it shall be a pure and innocent life4 ,all who on earth have been loving1 and pure1 and noble1 and brave1 and self-sacrificing1 shall be there4 ,all who have been cleansed by the blood of ,christ from the defilements of sin1 and strengthened by the power of ,christ against the enticements of sin1 shall be there4 ,there shall be no drunkenness nor impurity there1 nor hatred1 nor emulation1 nor ill temper1 nor selfishness1 nor meanness4 ,ah6 it is worth hoping for4 ,we poor strugglers who hate ourselves and are so dissatisfied with ourselves1 who look from afar at the lovely ideals rising within us1 who think sorrowfully of all which we might have been and have not been--let us keep up heart4 ,one day the ideal shall become the real4 ,one day we shall have all these things for which ,god has put the craving in our hearts to-day4 ,we shall have no sin there4 ,we shall desire only and do only what is good4 ,we shall be there what we have only seemed or wished to be here--honest1 true1 noble1 sincere1 genuine to the very centre of our being4 ,no sin there4 #b ,and that will make it easier to understand the second fact revealed to us4 ,no sorrow there4 ,they shall hunger no more1 neither thirst any more4 ,there shall be no more curse 444 no pain1 nor sorrow1 nor crying1 and ,god shall wipe away all tears from their eyes4 ,that is not hard to believe4 ,sin is the chief cause of our sorrow on earth4 ,if there be no sin there2 if all are pure and unselfish and generous and true1 and if ,god wipes away all tears that come from causes other than sin1 it is easily understood4 ,but let us not degrade this thought or make it selfish or unreal4 ,one often hears the sneer or the doubt about the happiness of ,heaven while any exist who have lost their ,heaven4 ,we do not know the answer now4 ,but we shall know it then4 ,and we must be absolutely certain that the answer lies not in the direction of selfish indifference4 ,the higher any soul on earth grows in love the less can it escape unselfish sorrow for others4 ,must it not be so in that land too8 ,surely the ,highest ,himself must have more pain than any one else for the self-caused misery of men4 ,if there be joy in ,his presence over one that repenteth must there not be pain over one that repenteth not8 ,we can only say in our deep ignorance that until the day when all evil shall have vanished there are surely higher things in ,god's plan for ,his redeemed than selfish happiness and content4 ,there is the blessedness that comes of sympathy with ,him in the pain which is the underside of the ,eternal ,love4 #c ,no sin in ,heaven4 ,no sorrow in ,heaven4 ,what else do we certainly know8 ,that the essence of the ,heaven life will be love4 ,the giving of oneself for the service of others4 ,the going out of oneself in sympathy with others4 ,there at last will be realized ,st4 ,paul's glorious ideal4 ,there it can be said of every man1 ,he suffereth long and is kind2 envieth not2 vaunteth not himself2 is not puffed up2 seeketh not his own2 behaveth not uncourteously4 ,he is like the eternal ,god ,himself1 who beareth all things1 hopeth all things1 endureth all things 7#a ,cor4 xiii4 #d-g74 #d ,we may well believe that there will be no dead level of attainment1 no dead level of perfection and joy4 ,that would seem to us very uninteresting4 ,if we may judge from ,god's dealings here and from the many texts of ,scripture1 there will be an infinite variety of attainment1 of positions1 of character4 ,in the ,father's house there are many mansions4 ,our ,lord assumes that we would expect that from our experience here4 ,if it were not so1 ,i would have told you4 ,i suppose there will be little ones there needing to be taught and weak ones needing to be helped2 strong leaders sitting at ,his right hand in ,his ,kingdom1 and poor backward ones who never expected to get into it at all4 ,and so surely we may believe1 too1 will there be varieties of character and temperament4 ,we shall not lose our identity and our peculiar characteristics by going to ,heaven1 by being lifted to a higher spiritual condition4 ,just as a careless man does not lose his identity by conversion1 by rising to a higher spiritual state on earth1 so we may well believe when we die and pass into the life of the waiting souls1 and again when at ,christ's coming we pass into the higher ,heaven we shall remain the same men and women as we were before and yet become very different men and women4 ,our lives will not be broken in two1 but transfigured4 ,we shall not lose our identity2 we shall still be ourselves2 we shall preserve the traits of character that individualize us2 but all these personal traits and characteristics will be suffused and glorified by the lifting up of our motive and aim4 ,as far as we can judge1 there will be a delightful1 infinite variety in the ,heaven-life4 ,what else8 ,there shall be work in ,heaven4 ,the gift of ,god is eternal life and that life surely means activity4 ,we are told ,his servants shall serve ,him4 ,we are told of the man who increased the talents or the pounds to five or ten that he was to be used for glorious work according as he had fitted himself--,lord1 thy talent hath gained five talents1 ten talents4 ,what was the reply8 ,you are now to go and rest for all eternity4 ,not a bit of it4 ,be thou ruler over five cities1 over ten cities2 enter thou into the joy of thy ,lord4 ,i know some men who are now retired after a very busy active life of work1 and they hate the idleness1 they are sick of it4 ,no wonder the conventional ,heaven does not appeal to them4 ,ah1 that is not ,god's ,heaven4 ,they rest from their labours4 ,yes2 but that word labours means painful strain4 ,in eternal1 untiring youth and strength we shall be occupied in doing ,his blessed will in helping and blessing the wide universe that ,he has made4 ,who can tell what glorious ministrations1 what infinite activities1 what endless growth and progress1 and lifting up of brethren1 ,god has in store for us through all eternity4 ,thank ,god for the thought of that joyous work of never-tiring youth and vigour2 work of men proudly rejoicing in their strength1 helping the weak ones1 teaching the ignorant aye6 perhaps for the very best of us going out with ,christ into the outer darkness to seek that which is lost until ,he find it4 ,for even that is not shut out beyond the bounds of possibility in the impenetrable mystery of the ,hereafter4 ,do you know ,whittier's beautiful poem of the old monk who had spent his whole life in hard and menial work for the rescue and help of others8 ,and when he is dying his confessor tells him work is over1 ,thou shalt sit down and have endless prayers1 and wear a golden crown for ever and ever in ,heaven4 ,ah1 he says1 ,i'm a stupid old man4 ,i'm dull at prayers4 ,i can't keep awake1 but ,i love my fellow men4 ,i could be good to the worst of them4 ,i could not bear to sit amongst the lazy saints and turn a deaf ear to the sore complaints of those that suffer4 ,i don't want your idle ,heaven4 ,i want still to work for others4 ,the confessor in anger left him1 and in the night came the voice of his ,lord-- ,tender and most compassionate4 ,never fear1 ,for ,heaven is love1 as ,god ,himself is love2 ,thy work below shall be thy work above4 #a ,be sure that the repose of ,heaven will be no idling in flowery meadows or sitting for ever in a big temple at worship1 as the poor1 weary little children are sometimes told after a long sermon in church4 ,no1 there is no temple in ,heaven1 we are told--no ,church4 ,because all life is such a glad serving and rejoicing in ,god that men need no special times and places for doing it4 ,,iv4 ,,shall ,,we ,,know ,,one ,,another ,,in ,,heaven8 ,what else can we learn8 ,shall we know one another8 ,does any one really doubt it who believes in ,god at all8 ,what sort of ,heaven would it be otherwise8 ,what sort of comfort would there be if we did not know one another8 ,oh1 this beggarly faith1 that ,god has to put up with1 that treats the ,father above as it would treat a man of doubtful character4 ,i must have ,his definite texts4 ,i must have ,his written pledges1 else ,i will not believe any good thing in ,his dealing4 ,that is our way4 ,we talk very piously about our belief in ,god's love1 but we are afraid to infer anything1 to argue anything from the infinitude of that love4 ,no1 we must have ,god's bond signed and sealed4 ,i do believe that one reason why we have not more of direct answers about the mysteries of the future life is because ,god thought that no such answer should be necessary--that ,his love1 if one would only believe in it1 is a sufficient answer to them all4 ,there is less need of discussing the subject here1 since we have already dealt with the question of ,recognition in the ,intermediate ,life 7,part ,i1 ,chapter ,,vii74 ,if even in that imperfect state absent from the body we saw reason to hope for recognition1 think how that hope rises to certainty in the great perfect life of ,heaven where ,i shall be again in the body the glorious perfect spiritual body4 ,as ,i have pointed out the ,bible gives only passing hints on the subject4 ,but it comforts the mourners with the thought of meeting those whom ,christ will bring with ,him4 ,what would be the good of meeting if they should not know them8 ,st4 ,paul expects to meet his converts and present them before ,christ4 ,how could he do so if he did not know them8 ,our ,lord depicts ,dives and ,lazarus even in the lower ,hades life as knowing each other4 ,he says to the dying thief as they went within the veil1 ,to-day shalt thou be with ,me4 ,what could it mean except they should know each other within8 ,but surely the ,bible does not need to say it4 ,it is one of those things that we may assume with certainty4 ,we know that ,heaven would scarce be ,heaven at all if we were to be but solitary isolated spirits amongst a crowd of others whom we did not know or love4 ,we know that the next world and this world come from the same ,god who is the same always4 ,we know that in this world ,he has bound us up in groups1 knowing and loving and sympathizing with each other4 ,unless ,his method utterly changes ,he must do the same hereafter4 ,and we have seen what a prophecy of recognition lies deep in the very fibres of that nature which ,god has implanted in us4 ,if we shall not know one another1 why is there this undying memory of departed ones1 the aching void that is never filled on earth8 ,the lower animals lose their young and in a few days forget them4 ,but the poor1 human mother never forgets4 ,when her head is bowed with age1 when she has forgotten nearly all else on earth1 you can bring the tears into her eyes by mentioning the child that died in her arms forty years ago4 ,did ,god implant that divine love in her only to disappoint it8 ,god forbid6 ,a thousand times1 no4 ,in that world the mother shall meet her child1 and the lonely widow shall meet her husband1 and they shall learn fully the love of ,god in that rapturous meeting with ,christ's benediction resting on them4 ,i know there are further questions rising in our hearts4 ,will our dear ones remember us8 ,will they1 in all the years of progress1 have grown too good and great for fellowship with us8 ,there is no specific answer save what we can infer from the boundless goodness and kindness of ,god4 ,since ,he does not forget us we may be sure they will not forget us4 ,since ,his superior greatness and holiness does not put ,him beyond our reach1 we may be sure that theirs will not--their growth will be mainly a growth of love which will only bring them closer to us for ever and ever4 ,v4 ,,how ,,do ,,men ,,enter ,,heaven8 ,we have asked1 ,what is meant by ,heaven8 ,what can be known of the details of life in ,heaven8 ,and now ,i close this book with the solemn question for us all3 ,how shall we enter ,heaven8 ,if you have followed me thus far the answer is easy4 ,though there is a special place which shall be ,heaven1 yet1 if ,heaven means a state of mind rather than a place of residence1 if ,heaven means to be something rather than to go somewhere1 though it means to go somewhere1 too1 then the answer is easy4 ,we enter ,heaven by a spiritual1 not by a natural act4 ,we begin ,heaven here on earth1 not by taking a journey to the sun or the planets1 not by taking a journey from this world up through the air1 but by taking a journey from a bad state of mind to a good state of mind2 from that state of mind which is enmity against ,god1 to that of humble1 loyal1 loving obedience to ,christ4 ,it is not so much that we have to go to ,heaven4 ,we have to do that1 too4 ,but ,heaven has to come to us first4 ,heaven has to begin in ourselves4 ,the beginning of ,heaven is not at that hour when the eye grows dim and the sound of friendly voices becomes silent in death1 but at that hour when ,god draws near and the eyes of the spiritual understanding are opened1 and the soul sees how beautiful ,christ is1 how hateful sin is2 the hour when self-will is crucified1 and the ,god-will is born in the resolutions of a new heart4 ,then ,heaven has begun1 the ,heaven that will continue after our death4 ,do we believe that this is the right way to think of ,heaven8 ,for if so it is a serious question for us all4 ,what about my hopes of entering ,heaven8 ,if ,heaven consists of character rather than possessions1 of a state of mind rather than a place of residence1 if1 in fine1 ,heaven has to begin on earth1 what of our hopes of entering ,heaven8 ,is it not pitiful to hear people talk lightly about going to ,heaven1 whose lives on earth have not any trace of the love and purity and nobleness and self-sacrifice of which ,heaven shall entirely consist hereafter8 ,to see men with the carnal notions about ,heaven as a place of external glory and beauty and jasper and emerald1 where1 after they have misused their time on earth1 they shall fly away like swallows to an eternal summer4 ,why1 what should they do in ,heaven8 ,they would be miserable there even if they could get there4 ,they would be entirely out of their element1 like a fish sent to live on the grass of a lovely meadow4 ,those who shall enjoy the ,heaven hereafter are they whose ,heaven has begun before4 ,they who may hope to do the work of ,god hereafter are those who are humbly trying to do that will on earth4 ,these shall inherit the everlasting ,kingdom4 ,unto which blessed ,kingdom may ,he vouchsafe to bring us all6 ,amen4 #a ,whittier1 ,the ,brother of ,mercy4