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AO . i , . ae b oe \ * Ki ‘ 4 ver * 4 bd Yh. i 4 » ad *Y y 4 Riveg. ‘ Bh" “~" ; r 4 oe » Me i .o e ’ 5 4 4 4 Yon # 1A) Ulonie Pia aie’ 7 ; A, det eB ei J ¥ J auea : es. — — = hs i } a ai. ~ phatase Oe Se 4 Ta A a ee ee gs | . i r Ve iD theds a RES f ¥ sk nA Wid ae | What Lies Beyond the Grave? j/ By WILLIAM’ EVANS, Pu. D., D.D. Author of ‘The Coming King,’ ‘'£pochs in the Life of Christ,’’ ‘‘The Book of Genesis,’’ ‘*The Books of the Pentateuch,”’ etc. New York CHICAGO Fleming H. Revell Company LONDON AND EDINBURGH Copyright, MCMxXxVI, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street Dedicated to my Friend COLONEL A, E. HUMPHREYS Whose Christian Life and Generous Benefactions have been an untold blessing to multitudes Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/afterdeathwhatthO0evan_0O FOREWORD HE subject of the Future Life and Conditions beyond the Grave is always a most interesting one tous all. It is, of course, of particular in- terest to those who have loved ones ‘‘beyond the veil.’’ We are constantly being asked questions regarding life and conditions ‘‘over there.’’ Are our loved ones con- scious? Do they know what is transpiring on this earth? If they know earthly conditions how ean they be happy? Shall we know each other in heaven? How can a mother be happy in heaven if she knows that one of her children is in ‘‘the outer darkness’’? And there are a hundred more such questions that are being continually asked. Is there an answer? We feel confident that there is an- swer sufficient in the Scriptures to give us comfort in our sorrow, reasonable ground for our hope, and suffi- cient spiritual strength to bear the bereavements of life as they may come to us. God has not left us in utter darkness with regard to existence beyond the grave. Some things have been revealed to us. A knowledge of such things is to be had by the study of the Bible touch- ing these matters. Differences of opinions and inter- pretation there will always be, but unanimity sufficient touching the essential things we may count on if we prayerfully and devoutly meditate on the Word of God. It is our prayer that this volume may be the means of healing many a broken heart, binding up many a crushed spirit, and bringing joy and gladness in the contempla- tion of the things which the Father has prepared for them that love Him. W. KE. Los Angeles. Pain ahr hea Ave RE send 20) 7 r re, Ne et at ene iy ei ; oe fe LR wr CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY: THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSIDER- ING THE FUTURE LIFE / 4 ;. ° THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION REGARDING THE FUTURE LIFE . ‘ my ‘ : ‘ ‘ WuaT Is DEATH? . : ‘ ‘ ; ‘ . Wuat Is DEATH? (Continued) . , : : How DEATH COMES TO MEN , ‘ : . ° THE INTERMEDIATE STATE . A ; . : THE RESURRECTION , é : . : THE JUDGMENTS ‘ . . . ; ° : FUTURE RETRIBUTION ‘ : , : ° ° THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS . : ° I INTRODUCTORY: THE IMPORTANCE OF CON- SIDERING THE FUTURE LIFE O subject, perhaps, can more seriously engage N the attention of man than that which deals with his future state. The millions that have died, that now live, and shall live after we are gone— all these are, naturally, keenly interested in what is pos- sible for us to know of that ‘‘land of far distances’’* to- wards which all humanity is journeying. What happens to a soul when it leaves the body that has encased it for years, and starts on that great adven- ture into the ‘‘Near Hereafter’’ or the ‘‘Far Here- after’’? Does it suffer, or is it happy? Does it know what is transpiring on this earth? Is it cognizant, in any degree, of earth conditions? Does it recognize other souls over there which also have made the ‘‘Great Ad- venture’’? Is that soul embodied or disembodied? Just what condition of life and existence does the soul enter into when it makes its appearance on that other shore? Surely one who is destined to make that journey sooner or later, inevitably, whether he will or no, and yet mani- fests no interest whatever in the matter of the soul’s future destiny, must be dead indeed to the things which are highest, best, most far-reaching, and that will concern him throughout the endless ages of eternity. There is another reason why men should manifest a keen interest in this subject. Most, if not all of us, have loved ones who have started on that long journey into 4Isa, 33:17 CR. V. margin): Ld. 12 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN 4 the future life. It would be strange, indeed, should we not be interested in knowing, as far as we can, what has happened to them, what is their condition, and what engages their attention, interest and activity in the great Hereafter, would it not? Could it be shown that they are conscious of what we on earth are doing and that our manner of life may be causing them pleasure or pain— would not that make some difference in the part we are playing in the great drama of life? Is there to be a ‘“second chance’’ after death for those who have missed Christ in their earth life, or is this earthly pilgrimage man’s sole probationary period? Would not a knowl- edge of this question lead us to make the most of our probationary and comparatively brief stay on the earth? There is also a personal reason why our future destiny should intensely grip our interest. We ourselves may, at any moment, be called upon to make this great adventure into that other life. ‘‘Who knoweth the day of his death?’’ ‘‘In the midst of life we are in death.’’ How _- far is it called to the grave? Not far for any one of us. Every step we have taken from the cradle has been to- wards the grave; and every step we shall take from this moment will bring us nearer to the day of our death. On train, in auto, on steamship, on land or seas, walking, riding, in the pulpit, at the bench, by the counter, in the pew, at your desk, by your own fireside the call may come to you to lay down this mortal coil and take your journey into that far-away land. It is not a matter of uncertainty to any one of us as to whether or not he shall die. ‘‘It is appointed unto man once to die.’’? That is his destined end: ‘‘For this is the end of all men.’’* * Heb. 9: 27. * Eccles. 7: 2. INTRODUCTORY 13 Should the Lord tarry ‘ every soul of man on the earth now breathing will some day breathe his last. This is not a matter of debate. It is an accepted fact and every man knows it for himself. And it is the recalling of this fact that should bring every man to the place of serious thought. Every pain and ache we have is a fore- runner of death; it reminds us that we are mortal and subject to decay and death. Every gray hair is an in- dication of that decay which one day will cause the activities of the body in which the soul lives, moves, and has its being, to cease to function. Every time the funeral procession on the street passes us, or we see the erépe hanging on the door, or across its threshold we see a casket carried, or the postman hands us an envelope | with a black border, we are strangely and strikingly reminded that the day will come when the coffin lid will close over our face and hide forever from our view this world in which we have lived; that we too shall be carried to our long rest in the tomb and that life will be going on in this old world without us. Every man knows this for himself, The time of this event may be and is, uncertain, but the, fact of it is certain and sure as that we now live. Some day, my friend, you will close the desk in your office for the last time. No more will your hand turn the pages of the ledger nor take the pen to write a check. That _ evening gown and tuxedo will some day be worn for the | last time, and those jewels adorn another person than > yours. Some day your place in the pulpit, on the bench, in the pew, at the bar, in the office, at the desk, in the home and the schoolroom will be taken by another, and o* Cor: 18> Tea. 14 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? you will have gone on to join that great caravan in its journey to that mysterious bourne. Thus it has ever been, and thus, if Jesus tarries, it ever will be. When that time comes all the money and skill in the world cannot stay the hour of your departure. You will have to bid farewell to the familiar faces, sights and sounds of life even as your fathers have done. This serious event cannot be evaded by any. When the command to leave comes, we must pack up and go. We may have lived out our allotted span of ‘‘three score years and ten,’’* and be living, as it were, on borrowed time, but the eventful and fateful hour will surely come. ““There is no flock, however watched and tended, But one dead lamb is there; There ts no fireside, howso’er defended, But has one vacant chair.’’ It was said of the land of Egypt, in the days of Moses and at the time of the last plague—the death of the first- born of Egypt—that ‘‘there was not a house in which there was not one dead.’’*® So, to-day, it may be said there is scarcely a house in which there is not one dead. One realizes the truth of all this as he walks up and down the streets of his old home town, the place of his boyhood days. He makes inquiry as to the one who lived in this house and that and the other only to be told that they have died. It may be your turn next, reader, and so the subject of ‘‘The Life Beyond,’’ and ‘‘ What Hap- pens after Death’’ should be of intense interest to you. When that last hour comes; when earth recedes and heaven opens; when the voices of earth are no longer heard and the faces we have seen and loved have faded ® Psa. 90: 10. * Exod. 12: 30. INTRODUCTORY 15 from our view; when earth’s night is at hand and we are laid away for our last sleep; when we come to the end of the long, long road that leads to eternity; God grant that it may be well with us; that we may hear the voice of the Son of God bidding us weleome; may there be friends to meet us on that other shore; may our evening- tide be light, and our path be as the path of the just which shineth brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. May we be ‘‘earried by the angels’’ into Jesus’ bosom and rest in the very arms of Jesus!’ Twilight and evening bell And after that the dark And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar. I have read of a nobleman who had a fool in his em- ploy. One day he gave the fool a walking stick and told him to keep it until he should meet a greater fool than himself. For years the jester kept the stick. One day he was called into his master’s room. There he saw his master lying, dangerously ill. ‘‘T am going to leave you,’’ said the nobleman to his fool. ' ‘‘ And whither are you going, and for how long a time will you be away ?’’ asked the fool of his master. *‘Oh, I am going to a far country and I do not know when I shall return, if ever.’’ ‘* Will you be away longer than a year?”’ Luke 16: 22. 16 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? SO Nips 3?” “Two years? ”’ ‘‘Ves, longer than that. I am never coming back.’’ ‘‘Well,’’ said the fool, ‘‘ may I ask what provision you have made for such a long absence in that country to which you are going?”’ ‘‘None,’’ said the nobleman, ‘‘none.’’ ‘‘What,’’ said the fool, ‘‘such a long journey, and no provision made for it?’’ ‘‘None,’’ said the nobleman sadly. ‘‘Then,’’ said the fool, ‘‘you had better take this stick, for with all my folly I am not so great a fool as you have shown yourself to be.’’ Death once came very suddenly to a man of wealth— as it often does. He had sent for his lawyer. They were talking by his bedside as to the disposition of his property. His wife and young daughter sat by his side on the bed. ‘‘T want my wife to have this home and estate,’’ said the dying man to his lawyer within the hearing of his little daughter. The little girl knew naught of the seri- ousness of the situation. It was her first experience in the face of death. After hearing her father say that he wanted mother to have the house, the little girl turned to her dying father. ‘‘Papa,’’ she said, ‘Shave you a home in the place where you are going?’’ Needless to say the question of the child set the dying man thinking. Reader, have you a home in that land? * It is a mark of greatest wisdom to consider the day of one’s death. There are said to be three days of note in every man’s experience: the day of his birth, the day of ® John 14: 1-3. INTRODUCTORY 17 his marriage, and the day of his death. The Bible de- elares that ‘‘It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.’’® Strange wisdom that, which declares it to be better to go to a funeral than to a wedding. That is one of the marks of the Bible’s inspiration. No man would have written it that way. He would have reversed it. ‘‘This is the end of all men.’’ That is to say that all men may not marry, but all men must die. ‘‘O, that they were wise . . . that they would consider their latter end!’’*® When I was in China I noticed there was scarcely a time when I visited the cemeteries or burning ghats but that a Buddhist priest was there. I was told that every Buddhist priest is required by his religion to constantly frequent such places in order that he may meditate upon the brevity and uncertainty of this life. Reader, do you ever think about it? Perhaps it would not be an unwholesome thing for all of us to antedate the day of our death. That day will come and that event must be faced sometime. It cannot always be evaded. Stand by the casket of your departed friend, and ask yourself: ‘‘Were I in his place to-day, where would my soul be?’’ We are living such busy and fretful lives that we are in real danger of forgetting the certain fact that, eventually, death will claim us, and the claim may be presented when we are unprepared to entertain it. A Christian man ealled on a business friend one day to have a chat with him about the things which count for most in life. He saw that his business friend was very busy and sought to evade the interview. ‘‘I see you are *Fccles. 7:2. Deut. 32: 20. 18 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? quite busy to-day,’’ the Christian friend said, “‘so I won’t take up your time.’’ ‘‘Ves, yes,’’ agreed the business man, “‘I am, as you see, very, very busy to-day. Come again, some other day, will you?”’ ‘“Yes, I see that you are busy,’’ returned the Christian as he rose to go. As he did so, he pulled his friend over to him and whispered in his ear: ‘‘Suppose I had been Death? Would you have been too busy, then?’’* There are those who speak in a spirit of braggadocio about death, claiming that they are not afraid to die. ‘“Why, I am not afraid to die,’’ said one such, on one oeeasion, to a minister. ‘‘I could lay my head on my pillow and sleep like a little child, even though I knew I would die to-night. JI have no fear of death.’’ ““You say you are not afraid to die and that you have no fears in death,’’ said the minister in reply. “‘May 1 ask you if you have any hope in death?’’ ‘“Well,’’ said the man, ‘‘no, I cannot say that I have any hope in death; but I have no fear.’’ ‘‘Do you see that cow over yonder grazing?’’ asked the minister. **Yes,’’ replied the man, ‘‘I do.”’ ‘‘Then, you are just like that cow—it just eats, drinks, exists; it has no fear in death, neither has it any hope.”’ No wise, thoughtful man will speak lightly of death. The last fear that is taken from the heart of man is the fear of death. ‘‘The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.’’ * Over the triple doors of the cathedral of Milan three inscriptions span the magnificent arches. In most ele- gant carving over one of these arches there is to be seen "2 Kings 20: 1-7; Luke 12: 20. 4 Oot 15220, INTRODUCTORY 19 a most magnificent wreath of roses, and beneath it the words: ‘‘All that pleases is but for a moment.’’ Over the arch to the left may be seen a sculptured cross, and beneath it the words: ‘‘ All that which troubles is but for a moment.’’ Inscribed on the great central arch lead- ing to the main aisle of the cathedral one may read the words: ‘‘That only is important which is eternal.’’ Oh, if we could but be conscious of these great truths all the time! Would trifles then trouble us? Would we permit ourselves to be fascinated by the world’s passing show? Would we not fix our hearts and minds on the things which, while not seen, are yet eternal? We would live more, I feel sure, for the things of the great Hereafter. Let us ‘‘think on these things.’’* %y John 2: 15-17. *Phil. 4:8. II THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION REGARDING THE FUTURE LIFE to be doubly sure of the reliability of our sources of information. No mere guess, uncertainty or speculation will satisfy the heart in so vital a subject. Great care, therefore, must be exercised in our examina- tion of the sources of knowledge concerning the future life and what lies beyond the grave. The layer of brick is not supposed to be guided by his eye but by the spirit-. level. No matter how good and accurate his own sight may be, his work is sure to be out of plumb unless checked by the spirit-level. So is it with the matter we are considering. We need knowledge that is more than human. We need a hand that is no less than divine to lift up the curtain that divides this world from the next, and permit us to catch glimpses of the great Hereafter, both near and far. Fortunately for us we have such accurate and reliable information.’ Not to pagan sources need we look for such knowledge and information on this subject such as can satisfy and comfort the heart. Pagan thought and literature is all but barren here. With all their learning and philosophy the Greeks had only a shrewd guess, a vague hope, a dim belief with regard to the life beyond the grave. Plato throws only indirect light on the matter. There is very little reference to it before Homer that aids us in con- structing any intelligent view of the subject. In The iB a matter of such great importance as this we need +See Heb. 4: 12% 2 Tim. 3:16, 17. 20 THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION 21 Iliad he refers to human sacrifices to propitiate the spirits. While the Greeks believed, in a vague way, in immor- tality, no one seemed to ask how long it would endure, what was the nature of such existence, what the relation of those in that other world to the people living in this? What evidence does remain, in the form of foods, house- hold articles, field products, ete., in the tombs as they are opened by the archeologists, does not convey to us clearly whether they were acts of respect for the dead, or a manifestation of belief in a future life. We do know that this ancient people believed that the spirits wandered about, avenging the neglect of ancestral wor- ship and injury and wrong done to strangers; enforcing the rights of the first-born, and punishing people for the sin of broken oaths. The tombs, obelisks, pyramids and monuments of the dead scattered all over Egypt are mute witnesses to the fact of a belief in an immortal life beyond the grave having been held by the Egyptians; but they throw very little light on the subject, and the information concern- ing the life to come we are able to derive from such sources 1s very vague, contradictory and unsatisfying. The funeral ceremonies connected with the burning of the dead as practised in India throw very little if any real light on the nature of the future life, save that, in some vague way, the people of India believe in it. The same may be said also of the conception of life after death as it was held by the Romans. Even in the Old Testament Scriptures we do not find the words ‘‘immortal,’’ ‘‘immortality,’’ ‘‘eternal life.’’ We do find the ideas that cluster about these words con- stituting the faith of the Old Testament saints. Job, for example, is very explicit. He says: ‘‘If a man die, he 22 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? shall live again.’’? Job is not here asking a question, as the Authorized Version might lead us to suppose; he is stating a fact of his belief that death of the body does not end it all. There was absolutely not the shadow of a doubt as to existence beyond the grave on the part of the patriarch Job. His conceptions may not have been as clear as those of the New Testament writers, but his faith in immortality was unwavering. He says further: ‘“For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth . . . whomI shall see in my flesh and on my side.’’* David, also, ex- pressed his faith in life after death, when, in connection with the death of his little child, he said: ‘‘He cannot come to me, but I shall go to him;’’* and again: ‘‘My flesh also shall rest in hope; for thou wilt not leave my soul in hades, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.’’* ‘‘I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.’’ ° It is not, however, until we come to the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament that we see the doctrine in a fuller and clearer light. It is said of Jesus Christ that ‘‘He hath abolished death and flashed light upon life and immortality.’’* The teachings, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ flashed unusual light on the subject of existence beyond the grave and caused it to stand out in the midst of blazing glory. To the dark clouds of uncertainty Jesus puts a silver lining of abso- lute assurance, and while He does not take away entirely the minor chord that is connected with death, He does so interweave the major chord with it that throughout all the music you hear the dominant major chord. Im- * Job 14: 14. ® Job 19: 26-28. *2 Sam. 12°22, ° Psa. 16:9, I0. VESe a7e 1S. 2° Tim. Y210; THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION 23 mortality, life beyond the grave, was dark before He came. He flashed light on it—the light of eternity. He illumined it with His divine knowledge. Of course, even with the wonderful illumination which Jesus flashed upon the subject, we do not find all the knowledge we mortals would lke to have or feel, per- haps, we should have concerning the life beyond the grave. There remain, and perhaps always will during our life of limited knowledge here, many questions re- garding that life that will remain unanswered. “‘Ts it so, O Christ in heaven, that whichever way we go, Walls of darkness must surround us; things we would, but cannot know? That the mfinte must bind us as a temple-vail unrent, While the finite ever weartes, and none e’er gain content? **Ts it so, O Christ in heaven, that the souls we love so well, Must remain in pain eternal, must abide im endless hell? And our love avail them nothing, even thine avail no more? Is there nothing that can reach them, nothing bridge the chasm o’er? **Ts it so, O Christ in heaven, that the fulness yet to come, Is so glorious and so perfect, that to know would strike us dumb? That if but for a moment we could pierce beyond the sky With these poor, dim eyes of mortals—we should just see God and die? ”’ _ But perhaps we have as much knowledge of the future “7 Cor. 19422. 24. AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? as we can comprehend with our mortal, finite faculties. One sometimes wonders why those who were raised from the dead, such as Jairus’ daughter,’ the widow of Nain’s son,” Lazarus of Bethany,” and perhaps Paul the apostle, who may have been stoned to death at Lystra and was caught up into heaven hearing things unlawful for man to utter “—I say it is strange that none of these tell us what they saw during the time they were in the Great Hereafter. It has been asked if a child or a savage can understand the life of an intelligent and civilized man? It is assumed it cannot. It is absolutely certain that an ape cannot. And may it not be that the things connected with that other life are as far beyond the ken of our poor, finite powers as the life of the butterfly is beyond the imagination of the chrysalis? Suppose that an in- mate of an institution for the blind and deaf should sud- denly receive both sight and hearing and should en- deavour to communicate to his fellow inmates the glori- ous beauties of nature and life he had seen and heard since his recovery of sight and hearing, would he not find it impossible to tell it? Can a blind man see the beauties of nature? Can a deaf man appreciate the music and harmonies of an oratorio? Perhaps God is holding this revelation in reserve for us. Oh, what will be the surprises of the future! What wonderful things one hour in that other life will reveal! One day, in Calcutta, an old soldier, who had fought in the Indian Mutiny, was telling a group of tourists of*his experiences during those dark days—the thrills, the ad- ventures, the privations, the surprising experiences of those days happily long past. All at once his face * Matt. o. 7 T uke 7. "John 11. ® Acts 14:9 with 2 Cor. 12. THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION 25 lighted up, and he said: ‘‘ But I expect to see even greater surprises than these yet.’’ a The tourists looked at the frail, aged form of the old veteran, and wondered how he, at his age, could expect even greater surprises than those which had already befallen him. One of the number ventured to ask him when he expected to experience such thrills? The old veteran’s face lighted up with radianey: ‘‘ The first five minutes I spend in heaven with my Lord,’’ he replied, ‘‘will be fuller of greater surprises than any that have yet come into my life.”’ And so it shall truly be. What was it the queen of Sheba said? ‘‘And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, and the food of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his eupbearers, and his ascent by which he went unto the house of Jehovah: there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thine acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen; and, behold, the half was not told me; thy wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants that stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be Jehovah thy God who de- lighteth in thee to set thee on the throne of Israel.’’* And are we not reminded of a word that is somewhat like that of this queen: ‘‘ Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him’’?” The wonders and blessings of eternity will far surpass the greatest imaginings of the greatest minds on earth. 1 ay Kings 10: I-9. ML SOOT e seo. III WHAT IS DEATH? r {HERE can be no true understanding of life be- yond the grave until we, in some measure at least, and as far as it is possible, understand what death is. And here we are face to face with a real problem. Are we not as ignorant as to the real nature of death as we are of life, physiologically and scientif- ically? If we are unable to explain what ‘‘life’’ is, how then can we cause men to understand what death is? Indeed, so ignorant are we as to these matters that we cannot even explain what sleep is. May we go a step . further in our confession of ignorance and say that we do not understand what even matter is. Take the phe- nomena of matter. Men have been in touch with it ever since they came upon the earth. They have handled it, eaten it, are made up of it, and have studied and ana- lyzed it, but even now what is unknown of matter is far more than is known. After enumerating and describing some of its properties, scientists become bewildered, and the wisest of them are soon silent. In a letter to Charles Kingsley, Professor Huxley says, **T do not know that matter is anything distinct from force. I don’t know that atoms are anything more than pure myths. . . . My fundamental axiom of specu- lative philosophy is that materialism and spiritualism are opposite poles of the same absurdity—the absurdity of imagining that we know anything about either spirit or matter.’? And Professor August Wiesmann says: 26 WHAT IS DEATH? 27 ** All our knowledge of matter is and remains throughout provisional.’’ If, therefore, as we see is the case, our knowledge of things which are so constantly with us is so limited, what shall we say of those things which are beyond our.mere human ken? Surely for this we need a word of divine revelation. Flesh and blood cannot reveal it unto us." And what does man really know of the origin of life? Life has been under scientific investigation for more than two thousand years, and what do we know of a certainty about it? Sir William Dawson, speaking of the origin of man, says: ‘‘I know nothing about the origin of man save what I am told in the Bible—that God created him.’ I do not know any more than that, and I do not know any man that does. I would say with Lord Kelvin, that there is nothing in science that reaches to the origin of anything.’’ And when it comes to the matter of meta- physics we are still in a maze. What do even our uni- versity men, after years of study, know about the phe- nomena of consciousness, memory, the sense of guilt? They know nothing more of a certainty, than does the man on the farm. 7 So is it with the matter of man’s mere human defini- tion of death. It is to the Bible we must go for a true meaning of death. And let us not forget that in defining death and seeking to find its meaning, we are not re- ferring, certainly not primarily, to that experience as we commonly behold it. To us, in its common, every- day meaning, death means the loss of a loved one from our sight, the coming back to an empty home and lonely fireside where once that loved one dwelt. It means the heartache of missing the companionship of the dear one. *See Matt. 16:17; 11:25. * Gen, 1: 26. 28 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? We associate death with the cessation of breathing, the stilling of the pulse and the heart, the closing of the eyes and ears forever to human sight and sound, the failure of the body to respond to its earthly environment. That is death as commonly viewed and defined. And perhaps ~ that is the most significant thing about it as we view it with our mere human knowledge minus the revelation as contained in the Word of God. But surely death is something deeper than that. Death is more than phys- ical; it is moral, spiritual, yea, eternal. It has relations to God as well as to man, to that other life as well as to this. fl Those who think somewhat deeply, as they stand by a casket containing the dead, know that something has left the body which heretofore animated it, and that that something has gone into another world on a great ad- venture—that something, which looked out from those eyes, that heard through those ears, that flashed love or hate from those eyes and that face has now gone, and is incapable any longer of manifesting itself through the organs of the human body. ‘To the thinker, we say, the potter has left the clay, the actor has gone off the stage, the moulder of life’s actions has left the scene. The real personality has gone; all that is now left is the outer man that contained within it the inner and real man. And all this brings us to that further important ques- tion which must be understood if we are to catch the true meaning of death. And that question is: ‘‘ What 7s man?’?*® Until this question is answered and under- stood we will fail to see the true, deep, inner meaning of the experience we describe as the exit of the spirit, or soul, from the body. *Psa.'8: 4. WHAT IS DEATH? 29 What, then, is man? Man is more than body; nor is he a body with a soul; he is rather a soul dwelling in a body. This is important to remember. Dr. Charles Mayo, the famous Rochester surgeon, tells us that the average man’s body ‘‘ would furnish fat enough to make seven bars of soap; iron enough for a medium-sized nail; sugar enough to fill a salt-shaker; lime enough to white- wash a chicken-coop; phosphorus enough to make the tips of 2,200 matches; magnesium enough for a dose of magnesia; potassium enough to explode a toy cannon, and sulphur enough to rid a dog of fleas; the value of all which is said to be about ninety-nine cents.”’ But is that man—man made in ‘‘the image of God ’’? ‘ Surely not. Man himself knows that he is not that, and that he is worth infinitely more than that. He feels and knows that he is a soul and that the body is but the envelope that contains the spirit; that he has something within him—a spirit—which differentiates him from the mere animal; that over and above all the human ele- ments that are susceptible to decay, he has the spirit which God gave him and which will abide when his earthly frame shall have crumbled into dust. That he knows and of that he feels sure in spite of what any pseudoscience may say to the contrary. That man is more than body and is not primarily body, is clear from the fact that science teaches us that a man has had a number of bodies since he was born, and that the body completely changes every seven years. The man of fifty has had seven different bodies since his birth, and not a vestige of the preceding six remains. The atoms of a man’s body are changing as completely as Stat 20, 272-267. of, £3, 3° Os 6s Pph. 42 24s Col stipe t Thess. 5: 23. 30 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? the beams of the sun and the drops of water that com- pose the stream. But during the changing of these six or seven bodies the man of fifty has remained the same man, for he is more than matter, material, body. His spirit-personality has remained unchanged. Nor should it be overlooked that man is more than brain, too. There are those, to-day, who would say that that is all man is—just brain. Psychologists have made great headway in their studies of the human mind. It, is interesting to read all they have to say about the actions of the brain—its structure, changes by reason of activity, ete. But when we have listened to all this we must say with regard to the brain what was said with reference to the body—that man is not brain; he is more than brain; the brain is not the man. For, as in the case of the man of fifty with reference to the changes in his body, the same can be said with regard to the brain—he has had as many different brains as he has had bodies, and not a vestige of the preceding six brains remains. And yet, the man can remember what he did, thought and planned with those brains which no longer have existence, and he holds himself morally responsi- ble for the thoughts of those brains that have gone. He condemns or approves what they did. That the brain is the seat of thought, will be granted; but it must be ‘denied that it is the origin of thought. It is not the brain that controls the man, but the man that controls the brain. The brain is the violin; man is the violinist. Everything depends on what lies back of the brain. We are told that the brain of an ape is similar, in its physical structure, to that of a man, all of which may be true. Perhaps we might go further, if it were necessary to do so, and say that if you could put behind the brain WHAT IS DEATH? 31 of an ape the spirit and soul® that God has put behind the brain of a man, it might be possible to utilize the brain of the ape even as the brain of a man. ‘‘ There is a spirit in man from the Almighty which giveth him understanding.’’* Let us not overlook that. An ape does not possess that spirit. And so it comes to pass that we must look upon mem- ory as more than a mere function of the brain. The Rich Man in Hades was told to ‘‘remember’’ even though his physical brain lay with his body in the grave.’ ‘‘ Were memory but a series of impressions made on the brain, they could no more survive the dissolution of the brain than impressions on wax could survive the melting of the wax.’’ Let us not forget that back of the brain there is a dominant personality moulding, fashioning, training it. ‘‘I am not my brain; it is mine. I use the brain. I possess it. It is mine; but it is not me.’’ Nor is man mere breath. Because the Hebrew and Greek words for breath and spirit are alike some would have us believe that breath and man are therefore equiv- alent. One has only to substitute the word breath in passages where the word spirit occurs to see how falla- cious such an idea is. Let us cite two illustrations. The apostle Paul says: ‘*‘ And I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus.’’* Suppose we put the word breath in place of the word spirit and see what sense we can make out of the passage. It may be, and doubtless is, a very good thing for a man to have a blame- less rather than a foul breath, but surely that is not in the mind of the apostle in this passage. We cite one more illustration: ‘‘ The Spirit beareth witness with our ®Gen. 2:7. ‘*Job 32:8 ‘Luke 16:25. ‘*1 Thess. 5:23. 32 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? spirit that we are the sons of God.’’’ Is it possible, think you, with any sort of sense, to read the passage thus: ‘‘ The Spirit beareth witness with our breath that we are the children of God’’? Certainly not. Man is preéminently spirit; the spirit is the highest part of his tripartite nature—body, soul and spirit.’ Man has been likened to a three-story structure. The upper story is the place of observation, the place where the Spirit holds communion with man: there the spirit dwells. The second story is the place of the soul, the workshop, the link between the body and spirit, the seat of the emotional nature. The lowest story is that of the body. Some one has said that this structure suffered a severe shock at the time of the Fall. The fall of man” ‘‘was a moral earthquake which so shook the house that the third story fell into the basement.’’ Now the natural man is the soulish or psychical man,” soulish, natural, and sensual meaning practically the same thing. Man, in his natural state, may not be utterly bereft of the spirit or, at least, the capacity for it, but his under- standing is darkened * and is to all intents and purposes “‘dead’’” to God and the things of the Spirit of God, until, by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, it is quickened into life.“ And no act of man can do that. It is the work of the Spirit of God to restore the spirit of man to its original and proper place, and that place is primary, so Paul reverses the natural order of body, soul and spirit, and speaks of man in his regenerate order as spirit, soul and body. A natural man is one who is controlled by the soul; a spiritual “ man is one who is conditioned and controlled by the spirit which *Rom. 8: 16. Gen. 3; Rom. 5: 12. 1s) Cot 2: 14, ¥ Eph. 45:18.) 7 Ephi2: 5... “ John3: 5-7. a Cor..25iaaaa ’ WHAT IS DEATH? 33 has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God. A spiritual body “ is not a body of spirit like a ghost,” but one in which the body and spirit are in full harmony. So we see that man is more than body, brain, breath. There is an inner man inside the outer man and this inner man survives the destruction of the outer man.” A preacher was once illustrating this point to some chil- dren. He held in his hand a watch, and said: ‘‘ Chil- dren, what is this I hold in my hand?’’ ‘*A watch, sir,’’ was the answer. ‘*How do you know it is a watch?’’ ‘*We can hear it tick, sir.’’ ‘‘That is correct,’’ said the minister. ‘‘Now I am go- ing to remove the works from the watch-case and hold the works in my right hand and the empty case in my left. Now watch me closely.”’ He then separated the works from the ease and said to the children, ‘‘ Now, in which hand do I hold it? ”’ ‘ Gen. 3:8. 35 36 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? the knowledge of good and evil.’’ This he is warned not to eat of—‘‘for in the day that thou eatest thereof, dying, thou shalt die.’?* Adam and Eve are solemnly warned not even to touch it, much less to partake of its fruit. This command our first parents disobeyed as we know... In so doing they brought down upon themselves the curse: ‘‘In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.’’ So Adam died, in the day that he ate of the tree. Now let us see what really happened to Adam and Eve in the ‘‘day’’ that they died. In the first place a eareful reading of the story tells us that one of the re- sults of their sin was shame: there was an inward self- consciousness of shame: ‘‘they knew that they were naked.’’* But they had been so before they had sinned, and yet they were not then ashamed. There had been no outward change in their appearance. The accusa- tion of their consciences’ rather than the nakedness of their bodies was the cause of their shame. In the next place we note that there was a change in their relation of fellowship with God. No longer did they enjoy unbroken and unhindered fellowship with Him. On the contrary, they ran and tried to hide them- selves when they thought God was coming for the usual communion and walk in the garden.” ‘‘They would hide themselves from the presence of the Lord.’’ Surely there had been no change on God’s part, nor did this aversion to fellowship come from Him. God’s loving heart was the same. Sin had broken their communion with God. The spirit of man had now become sepa- rated from the Spirit of God. And in this sentence lies “Gen. 3: 15-17. ® Gen. 3:6. *Gen. 3:7. *Gen. 3:11. ® Gen. 3:8. a We ap 4 2. - WHAT IS DEATH? 37 the very heart of the meaning of death—it is the sepa- ration of the spirit of man from the Spirit of God. That death, so far as it affected the spirit, took place immediately they had sinned. Its effect upon the body would be seen later, indeed it would be continually in process of taking place until finally the human spirit left the tabernacle of clay. The body was condemned to death even though it was many years before the execu- tion of the sentence was earried out. And unless the death of the spirit is corrected before the death of the body takes place it is likely to become eternal death, in- deed, does so become. So we see that Adam’s sin had already caused ‘‘death’’—that death of the spirit, the separation of the spirit of Adam from the Spirit of God, and that is death in its deepest meaning. During all the years of Adam’s life that death sentence was being carried out so far as it pertained to the body. When Adam was nine hundred and thirty years old, he died.” —then the sentence of death on the body was finally executed. Physical life is the union of the spirit of man with his body. Physical death is the separation of that spirit from his body. Spiritual life is the union of the spirit of man with the Spirit of God. Spiritual death is the separation of man’s spirit from the Spirit of God. Eternal life is the union of the spirit of man with the Spirit of God made perpetual and unending. ternal death is that separation of the spirit of man from the Spirit of God made perpetual and endless.” From what has been said it should be clear that death is essentially a moral, ethical, spiritual thing, even more than it is physical. It is for this reason that the Bible 7 Gen. 5:5. 4 Matt. 25:41, 46; Rev. 20:15; 21:8. 38 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 99 12 declares death to be ‘‘the wages of sin. Spiritual death is the alienation of man’s spirit from the Spirit of God. And it is this spiritual aspect that we need to lay most emphasis on. Jesus may be said to have made light of the death of the body, if not absolutely, cer- tainly relatively. ‘‘Fear not them that kill the body,’’ He said, ‘‘and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: fear him who, after he hath killed, hath power to cast both soul and body into hell: fear him.’’ * The writer to the Hebrews, in referring to the death of Christ, puts it this way: ‘‘That he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.’’” The Greek word for grace differs from that for separate only in one letter. Some manuscripts put the word meaning ‘“separate’’ instead of the word meaning grace, and read the passage this way: ‘‘That he, separated from God, should taste death for every man.’’ This translation certainly bears out what we have here been saying as to the meaning of death. And, after all, was it not this kind of death that Jesus tasted? Did He not ery out on the Cross: ‘‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’’* Was it not from such a death that His holy soul shrank in the garden? Surely Jesus was not pray- ing to be delivered from mere physical death. No one who had talked about physical death as beautifully as Jesus had done, could be afraid of it.° No, physical death was not the cup He was praying might pass from Him.” After He had fought His battle in the garden and angels had strengthened Him, and when Peter took his sword to defend Him—it was then that Jesus said: * Rom. 6: 23. 4 Tuke 12° 4,6: * Heb. 2:8. * Matt. 27:46. “Matt. 9:24; John 11:11. ™ Luke 22: 39-46. WHAT IS DEATH? 39 ‘““The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?’’” So the eup lay ahead of Him even after the struggle of Gethsemane had passed. We do not have here the picture of a martyr but of a suffering God. It is Jesus’ holy soul in distress as He viewed the prospect ahead of being made sin for us,” and in that offering, having the face of the Father hidden from Him.” The cup and death here referred to was the three- hours’ desertion by God while Jesus hung upon the Cross. It was then and thus that He ‘‘tasted death for every man.’’™ In one of the Messianic Psalms in which the sufferings of the Messiah are predicted, we find these words: ‘‘ The pains of Sheol gat hold upon me.’’” What is Sheol? What are the pains of Sheol? The root meaning of Sheol is ‘‘to ask,’’ ‘‘to inquire.’’? Sheol is the place of departed spirits who have missed God and are erying out ‘‘Why? Why?’’ Now think of the words of Jesus: *““My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’’ It is perhaps for this reason that Jesus may be said to have died before He died, by which is meant that the physical death of Jesus, which came after the spiritual death of separation from God, was but a seal of a death that had already taken place when He cried out, ‘‘It is finished, ”’ just as the Incarnation at Bethlehem was but the carry- ing out of a renunciation which, according to the fortieth Psalm, had taken place ages before Bethlehem, when the Son said to the Father: ‘‘Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God.’’™ To sum up then, let us say that death, in its inner *% John 18:11. 3 2 Cor. 8< 27 nilsad 82> EP. PP ha tI? 3. % Psa. 40:6-8; Heb. 10: 5-7. 40 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? and deepest meaning, is the separation of the spirit of man from the Spirit of God, a condition of being dead to the things and life of God in the soul which is im- parted at the time of regeneration. Death, later, issues in the separation of the spirit of man from his body. But it is the first aspect of death here mentioned—the death of the spirit—that the Bible lays most emphasis on. Physical death is viewed as but a mere incident scarcely worthy of thought as compared with that deeper death of the spirit. If this death of the spirit is cor- rected before the death of the body takes place, then the soul enters into eternal life. If it is not thus corrected, then that spiritual death becomes the second or eternal death—the eternal separation of the spirit of man from the Spirit of God. This is a most solemn thought and it is what makes both living and dying a most serious matter. Those who have not experienced the second birth, that birth from above, by the holy Spirit of God and as the result of faith in Christ, must, inevitably, enter into that state of the second death.” It is only as we accept Christ as Saviour that the second death is avoided. He who is born twice, dies but once—the physical death; the second death hath no power over him. This decision must be made before the death of the body overtakes us. Is there any thought, think you, more serious than this that can engage our attention? % John WT 3 Rev. 20:15; 21:8. i HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN (\» we tell what really happens when a man’s spirit leaves his body? Standing by the death- bed of a friend or a loved one, as the last breath is taken and the spirit no longer tenants the body, can we know what happens in that moment of solemn im- port? Has the Bible anything to tell us as to that ex- perience ? There are two ways of dying described in the Bible: dying in sin, and dying in Christ. ‘‘If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins,’’ said Jesus, ‘‘and whither I go ye cannot come.’’* ‘‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.’’* There are the dead in Christ. ‘‘Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him, but woe to the wicked.’’* Perhaps as we stood looking on our friend as he drew his last breath we did not see any difference between the departure of his spirit and that of the man who was not a Christian. Yet, could we but have seen it, there was a difference, and the Scriptures tell us what that difference was. In point of fact what we see may, at times, seem to be at variance with what the Scriptures say; that is, viewing death in its mere outward aspect, and that, of course, is all that man can see. It does happen that, sometimes, a wicked man dies in apparent peace, while the Christian ends his earthly existence with a terrific struggle. But were we able to see inwardly, it would be different. A French nurse, who was present at the deathbed of *John 8:24. *Rev. 14:13. *1 Thess. 4:16. *Num. 23:10. 41 | 42 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? Voltaire, the noted French infidel, being urged to attend an Englishman whose case was critical, asked, ‘‘Is he a Christian ?’’ ‘*Ves,’? was the reply; ‘‘he is a Christian, and of the very highest type, too. But why do you ask the ques- tion ?”? “2 Tim: 4:8. HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN AT for a long time, traveling in some far-away lands? Do you remember the joy that came to your heart as you stepped aboard the ship that would take you home again, to family and loved ones? I can reeall very vividly such an experience, when, after a nine-months’ world- tour I set my face towards home. I can well appreciate what Henry van Dyke felt when he penned these words: "Tis fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down * Among the famous palaces and cities of renown, To admire the crumbly castles and statues of the kings,— But now I think I’ve had enough of antiquated things. So it’s home again and home again, America for me! My heart ris turning home again, and there I long to € In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars, Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars. Oh, London is a man’s town, there’s power in the air; And Paris is a woman’s town with flowers in her hair ; And it’s sweet to dream in Venice, and it’s great to study Rome; But when it comes to living, there is no place like home. I like the German fir-woods in green battalions drilled; I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing fountains filled; But, oh, to take your hand, dear, and ramble for a day In the friendly western woodland where Nature has her way! It was this thought regarding death as expressed by the apostle Paul that brought comfort to the soul of Bret Harte. For years he had been troubled about dying. * Poems of Henry van Dyke. Chas. Scribner’s Sons. 48 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? But the words of Paul comforted and cheered him and chased the clouds of dread away. In the following sonnet he tells us of this experience, both before and after he had come to understand and appreciate the words of Inspired Writ. He says: ‘“As I stand by the Cross on the lone mountain crest, Looking over the ultimate sea; In the gloom of the mountain a ship les at rest, And one sails away from the lea. One spreads its sails o’er a far-reaching track, With pennant and sheet flowing free; One hides in the shadows, with sails laid aback— The ship that 1s waiting for me. ““When, lo, in the distance, the clouds break away; The morn’s glowing portals I see; And I hear from the outgoing ships in the bay, The song of the sailors in glee. \ Then I think of the luminous footprints that bore The comfort o’er dark Galilee; And I wait, gladly wait, for the ship at the shore— The ship that is waiting for me.’’ Again, the apostle Paul uses another word that is strik- ingly significant in describing death. He declares that ‘‘Christ hath abolished death and brought life and im- mortality to light.’?” The word ‘‘abolished’’ in this verse is full of rich meaning. The Greek root from which the word comes denotes a working force and power. The addition of the preposition ‘‘ kata ’’ gives to the word the idea of a double force or power. So that what is taught in this verse concerning death is this: Before Jesus died on the Cross, death was a tremendous force in the world; but His death did something to it; it 72 Tim. 1:10. HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN 49 devitalized it, neutralized it; doubletwisted it; negatived it; rendered it inactive, unproductive, useless, null, void; abrogated it, vanquished it, destroyed it; made it inop- erative and powerless. Now we ean see the deep mean- ing in that wonderful passage: ‘‘ Forasmuch then as the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death he might bring to naught him that had the power (or sovereignty) of death, that is the devil; and might de- liver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (that is the bondage of the fear of death).’’* I do not know very much about bees. I know, of course, that they sting you and can cause very painful wounds. I am informed, however, that when a bee stings you, it leaves its sting in the wound and goes away to die. It can never sting or hurt anybody else. You can let your little child play with it and it cannot hurt your child; its sting is gone. Death stung Jesus on the Cross and it left its sting in Him, and blessed be God, it cannot hurt the believer any more. Christ hath abol- ished death. The grave has capitulated! Death is van- quished! ‘‘Thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’’ “From morn ’til eve they struggled—life and death. At first it seemed to me as though in mirth They contended; as foes of equal worth. But when the sharp red sun cut through its sheath of Western clouds, I saw death’s grip tighten and bear the radiant form of life to earth; And suddenly both antagonists downward fell. * Heb. 2: 14. 50 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? And then, O wonder of wonders! Marvel of marvels! When I went to the spot where both antagonists had fallen, I could not find the body that I sought; But one form was there—the dark, lone form of death— And it was dead.’’ So has Christ triumphed over death and the grave. The Christian can now sing: ‘‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’’” A most wonderful incident is reported in connection with the death of Dwight L. Moody, that world-renowned evangelist. His family were gathered about his bed in his home in Northfield, Massachusetts. They had bidden him farewell as they saw his eyes close in death. They then left the room. But while standing outside the room they thought they heard Mr. Moody moving in his bed or moaning, so they returned to the room and saw the great evangelist with eyes wide open and apparently conscious of his surroundings. It is said that one of his relatives began to pray that Mr. Moody might be spared and again serve God. The evangelist said, ‘‘Do not pray that I may live. I have seen Dwight and Irene [his two grandchildren who had died], and I have seen the face of Jesus, and I am satisfied. Earth is receding; heaven is opening; God is calling me; this is my coronation day!’’ And having thus spoken the great soul actually swept through the gates of that city into the New Jeru- salem. Is not that a wonderful picture of death? mA OOTATe Sse. HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN 51 In dying ‘‘we are not mocked by a blind fury, nor erushed by an abstract law; we are not terrified by a skeleton nor torn by a demon. We are put to sleep by Christ. The keys of death are in His transfigured hands. They are golden keys—they open the door into heaven. The brother of Judge Bartells, when dying, said: ‘‘Open the gates; it is God’s will.’’ The brother of Dr. James Hamilton spoke to him when dying, of *‘death’s cold embrace.’’ He replied: ‘‘There is no cold embrace, William. I am safe in the arms of Jesus.’’ Jesus is ‘‘the death of death and hell’s destruction.’’ “*T shall not die when my swift race is run; Through the mists, I’ll see the rising sun; And He will come, and take me by the hand, and say: ‘Come home.’ And we shall go together into glorious day. With such a knowledge of death, therefore, why should the Christian be afraid of it? Knowing all this, why should Christians ‘‘sorrow as others which have no hope’? To the Scripturally-instrueted Christians there are no pangs in death. I am not now referring to the agony and pain arising from the sickness that causes the dissolution of the soul and body, nor to the heart- ache that comes from having to leave loved ones behind. These are not death; they accompany it; they are the birth-pangs that usher the soul into that new and larger life, an earnest of which God gave to the soul at the time of its regeneration. I remember reading the story of a man who, blind- folded, was suspended by the wrists from a window. He was told that beneath him there yawned an awful 1 Thess. 4: 13. 52 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? chasm thousands of feet deep, and that at any moment the straps which held him suspended might be cut and he would drop to his death in the great chasm below. The sweat stood in beads upon his feverish brow; his heart throbbed with fear ; trembling and agony took hold upon him as he dwelt upon the thought that at any mo- ment he might be plunged into eternity. Then, one of his captors came to him and laughingly said, ‘‘ Well, I guess I’ll cut you down now and let you fall into the abyss below.’’ And, suiting the action to the word, he took a sharp knife, severed the leather straps that held the terrified man suspended, and the frightened man fell—just four inches—to the ground. And his friend laughed. And may not the same be said as to the Christian’s fears of death? May they not be as groundless as those of that frightened man? ‘They are. *“Why be afraid of death? As though your life were breath. Death but anoints the eyes with clay. O glad surprise! ““Why should you be forlorn? Death only husks the corn. Why should you be afraid to meet the thresher of the wheat? “‘Ts sleep a thing to dread? Yet sleeping you are dead Till you wake and rise here, or beyond the skies. ““Why should it be a wrench to leave your wooden bench? Why not run home with happy shout when school is out? “‘The dear ones left behind? O foolish one and blind; A day and you will meet; a night and you will greet. HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN 53 “This is the death of death: To breathe away a breath, And know the end of strife, and taste the endless life. ““And joy without a fear, and smile without a tear; And work, nor care, nor rest, and find the last the best.”’ To the Christian, death is not a descent; it is an ascent upward to be where Christ is. Why then should we fear either for ourselves or our believing dead? One sometimes wonders if a Christian ought to wear mourn- ing for the Christian dead. It is true that it is the ‘‘cus- tom’’ to wear it. But is the Christian to be controlled by the customs of the world? Do not the words of Peter indicate that we have been delivered by the death of Christ from the thraldom of the world’s customs in so far as they indicate the philosophy of man rather than the revelation of God? ‘‘Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain manner of living received from tra- dition from your fathers.’’* The Christian is to have moral originality. He is to dare to stand alone if needs be. He has been redeemed from the slavery to the world’s fashions. He should ‘‘not sorrow, as other which have no hope.’’ Let those who believe that death is triumph for the Christian show the world that they be- lieve it by the manner in which they take death. It was Pliny who said that ‘‘ Death is a pleasure rather than a pain.’? The late Archbishop of Canterbury declared, when dying: ‘‘Dying is not so much after all.’’ One sometimes wonders if this is not the reason for the calm, peaceful and serene expression so often found on the faces of the Christian dead. Let us not be too quick to 7 Pet. 1:18. 54 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? say it is but a form of muscular reaction; let us rather be ready and willing to attribute it to the sublime faith of the dead. Why may not that peaceful expression on the face of the Christian dead be the parting testimony that that soul has entered into that peace which passeth all understanding? Peace! perfect peace! in this dark world of sin? The blood of Jesus whispers peace within. Peace! perfect peace! by thronging duties pressed? To do the will of Jesus this is rest. Peace! perfect peace! with sorrows surging round? On Jesus’ bosom naught but calm 1s found. Peace! perfect peace! with loved ones far away? In Jesus’ keeping we are safe, and they. Peace! perfect peace! our future all unknown, Jesus we know, and He is on the throne. Peace! perfect peace! death shadowing us and ours? Jesus has vanquished death and all rts powers. It is enough: earth’s struggles soon shall cease, And Jesus call to heaven’s perfect peace. I am fond of that expression used by the Master con- eerning the death of Lazarus the beggar: ‘‘The beggar died; and was earried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.’’” Carried by the angels! That is wonderful and comforting. It did seem as though the poor beggar had no one to eare for him in his death. The story in- dicates that he did not have, as the Rich Man had, a funeral. Perhaps he was just thrown into the Potter’s 32 Tuke 16: 22. HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN 55 Field. But Jesus throws a beautiful light on the picture. Lazarus did not die alone. He had the companionship of angels in his death. He had heavenly pallbearers. And God will see to it that we shall not be lonesome in death. He saw to it that we were not alone when we eame into the world. There were father and mother, friends and loved ones, members of our family to wel- come us into this world. And it shall be so when be- lievers leave this world. God will see to it that we are not left alone. Did not the Master speak of our having ‘*friends’’ who would ‘‘welcome us into the everlasting habitations ’’??“ Who can tell what God will do in that hour for a poor, timid, frightened soul? At the couch of the dying Christian will be the angel ushers, those heavenly watchers who are to ‘‘minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation.’’ “* We used to sing when I was a child a hymn about angels hovering about us. Then there is that fine hymn of Faber’s, part of which runs: Hark, hark! my soul! angelic songs are swelling O’er earth’s green fields and ocean’s wave-beat shore; How sweet the truth those blessed strains are telling Of that new life when sin shall be no more. Angels of Jesus, Angels of light, Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night! Angels, sing on! your faithful watches keeping; Sing us sweet fragments of the songs above; Till morning’s joy shall end the night of weeping, And life’s long shadows break in cloudless love. ®Tuke 16:9. 3% Heb, 1: 14. 56 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? I am wondering not how little, but how much of fact there was in the action of that dying loved one who, in the moment of death, reached out her hands, and with a face illumined with a light never seen on land or sea, exclaimed: ‘‘O, mother, mother, I’m coming; I’m com- ing ’’? Who, I repeat, will dare to say what God will do for a frightened, timid soul? ‘‘Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will help thee; I will strengthen-thee, yea I will help thee. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee; when thou passest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee; for I, the Lord thy God, am with thee.’’* ‘‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 99 86 ““He will keep me *til the river Rolls its waters at my feet; Then He’ll bear me safely over, Where the loved ones I shall meet.’’ ELSA. AS ti Psa 23a. VI THE INTERMEDIATE STATE HERE are three stages of man’s existence: the’ earthly stage, in which he is in the body; the intermediate stage, in which he is not in his earthly body (some think that a special kind of body is provided for this particular stage) and the final, eternal stage, in which man is again in his body, the body of his resurrection which shall be his throughout all eternity. It should be understood that no soul is yet in its final and ultimate stage of existence. That shall come to pass, for the righteous, when Christ shall have entered into the fulness | of His glory; for the wicked, after the judg- ment_of the Great White Throne. For that condition, whether it affects the righteous or the wicked, a resurrec- tion body is required. There is no soul in hell yet. Standing by the casket of the dead loved one, we may ask, ‘‘Where is he? Where is his soul or spirit at this moment? When he breathed his last where did he go from here?’’ Can we trace the soul as it left the body and started out on its Great Adventure into the Great Hereafter? These are the questions which naturally arise aS we begin to think at all about the condition of our dead. Can these questions be answered? We think they can—at least, to some extent. There are those who think it is presumptuous for us to make inquiry about the dead. They tell us that we ought to leave the dead alone; allow them to rest in God’s care and keeping. They tell us that we have no more right to probe into the condition of the dead beyond the grave than we have 57 58 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? to disturb the remains of those Egyptian kings who have rested in peace for centuries in their tombs. To confirm this opinion these people quote Scripture. They say ‘‘The secret things belong unto the Lord;’’* we therefore have no right to intermeddle with them. But we may remind such friends that they have quoted but half of the verse. While it is true that ‘‘the secret things belong unto the Lord,’’ we are not to forget that this verse says also that ‘‘the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever.’’ What God has been pleased to reveal in His sacred Word is surely a subject for our knowledge, perusal and inquiry. Further, did not Paul say to the Thessalonian Christians: ‘* Brethren, / I would not have you ignorant concerning them that are \ asleep in Christ, that ye sorrow not as others which have _no hope ’’?* The apostle would not have believers re- main in ignorance concerning the condition and prospects of their dead; he would have us make inquiry concerning their estate. He would guard us from resorting to Spiritualists for such information and would send us ‘‘to the Law and to the testimony.’’® How scant and dim is the light we derive from pagan sources regarding the intermediate state of the soul be- tween death and the resurrection. I stood, one day, in one of the burning ghats in Calcutta, India. I watched the Hindus burning their dead. As the body was being consumed in the artes the priests chanted, while the relatives of the dead prayed. It was told me that as the soul of the deceased was said to be leaving the gross body of earth, which was then being consumed in the flames, it was receiving a subtle body about the size of a thumb. * Deut. 29: 29; eae oe ©} Thess, 4: 13-16. sa. 8: 19-22. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 59 If the relatives would perform the sacred funeral rites at the temple for the succeeding eleven days, then that subtle body would gradually enlarge until it became a complete body, a kind of divinity to which ancestral worship may thereafter be offered. If the relatives were unfaithful to the religious duties, or if the deceased had no relatives to perform them, then the spirit became an angry, roving, tormenting ghost, frequenting and inhab- iting human dwellings, torturing those who had neglected to perform the religious funeral rites for the dead. {I stood watching the Parsees in Bombay, India, carry- ing their dead to the Tower of Silence, there to expose the dead bodies to the carnivorous appetite of vultures and other carrion birds. According to the Parsee belief, that soul, when it left the body, was compelled to cross a bridge that is as sharp as a razor. The souls of the righteous are able to cross in safety; the unrighteous are unable to walk across it and so tumble into the pit below, and so are lost. I talked with a priest of Benares, India, who told me of the numerous transmigrations through which the soul of man had to pass before it reached its final heaven. There were many thousands of transmigrations—from the lowest form of animal life to the very highest order of created beings. Then there is the Mohammedan with his belief regard- ing the intermediate state. I talked with a highly edu- eated Mohammedan in Cairo, Egypt, at the close of one of my lectures there. He referred to the Mohammedan heaven into which the souls of the faithful go at death. It was a heaven of lustful conception, from which the soul of any decent man would surely revolt. It was a place and condition in which a man may have as many 60 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? wives as he wishes, and where he may enjoy the pleasures of life without its pains. Perhaps one ought to refer here to the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory in which souls stay for a long or shorter time according to gifts of money, masses, prayers, ete. Tetzel, the famous seller of indulgences, made much of this teaching just prior to the Reformation. He went up and down Europe saying: ‘‘When money clinks at the bottom of my box, a soul is released from purgatory.”’ It was against such teaching that Luther protested and revolted. Then there are those who maintain that the soul sleeps between death and the pean bat which means, of course, that the soul is! unconscious during that time. There are still arhees who believe that souls of the wicked are annihilated at death. Of course if that be true we do not need to make any inquiry as to what is their state after death. But none of these views are, as it seems to us, in accord with the teaching of Holy Scripture. It will be of spe- cial interest to us, therefore, to inquire carefully as to what the Bible actually teaches regarding the interme- diate state. And particularly shall we consider what Jesus Himself taught concerning it. There are three portions of Scripture to which we may refer as setting forth the teaching of Jesus on the subject—the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus,’ the Transfiguration inci- dent, and the words of Jesus to the penitent thief on the Cross... We may add to these (as illustrating them) the two references in the Epistles of Peter’ in which we *Luke 16: 19-31. *Matt. 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Tuke 9:28-36; cf. 2 Pet. I: 16-18. *TLuke 23: 43. *z Pet. 3:18; 4:6, THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 61 are told that Christ, at His death, went and preached to the spirits in prison. Incidentally we may glance briefly at such phrases as ‘‘the cloud of witnesses’’ * who observe us as we run the race of life; those who are said to be waiting ‘‘to bid us welcome into the everlasting habitations;’’® and the ‘‘joy’’ that is said to take place ‘‘in the presence of the angels of God.’’” Let us look, now, at the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. In order that we may have it before us, it is reproduced here, in full: There was a certain rich man, which was clothed wn purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named. Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his . finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou im thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tor- mented. ®*Heb. 12:1, 2.. °Tuke 16:9. Tuke 15:7, I0. 62 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? And beside all this, between us and you there ts a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he sad, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham sath unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unio them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. There are some interesting things to be said about this narrative. In the first place, I do not think it should be looked upon as a parable. Itisatruestory. It does not begin as parables do, nor is it so introduced. There is no ‘‘It is like unto;”’ or ‘‘To what shall I liken it;”’ or ‘‘the kingdom of heaven is like,’’ ete. It is a clear and plain statement of a fact: ‘‘ There was.’’ A parable has been defined as the statement of an analogy between visible and invisible things. But there is no such analogy here. It is rather a distinct and clear statement with regard to the spiritual things themselves. Nor should it be regarded as a parable setting forth the relation be- tween the Jew and Gentile, for no such great gulf is fixed to-day between them, nor has it ever been for that matter. A Jew could become a Gentile, and a Gentile a Jew, in our Lord’s day even as he can now. Nor is the story merely the recital of current opinion, THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 63 Of course it could be that and yet be true. Because a thing is “‘popular’’ does not mean that it is not true. But a study of our Lord’s discourses clearly reveals the fact that when He came across popular opinion that was false He flayed it alive. The Sermon on the Mount is a witness to that fact: ‘‘Ye have heard that it hath been said . . . butZ say untoyou.’’ It may be true also that the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus does not contain any new truth, but it was truth just the same. Perhaps what is true is not new and what is new is not true. From what we know of the character of our Lord we have aright to believe that He would not have given utterance to what was not true. Jesus would not have assumed existence beyond the grave as here described, of persons, things and conditions which had no reality or existence. Jesus was not only the Way and the Life, but also the Truth.” He spake the very words of God and we know that the words of God are very truth.” What possible reason could Jesus have in preferring a fable to truth? Did He not know conditions as they existed in that other world? Knowing them, what ad- vantage could there be in giving an imaginary account instead of an actual one? What advantage could pos- sibly accrue from deception? It is true that on one oc- easion Jesus confessed a limitation in knowledge con- cerning the time of the day of the Lord.” But what He was ‘‘willingly ignorant’’ of He did not profess to teach as fact and truth; thus His silence was as wonder- ful as His speech. We should not forget, however, that what Jesus did give utterance to was absolute truth. What He did not know He kept silence about—a very good example for many to-day to follow. We conclude, ™ John 14:6. 2 John 12: 48-50; 3: 34. 3 Mark 12: 32. 64 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? therefore, that Jesus actually knew of conditions beyond the grave and in the intermediate state, and that in this story He gives us an accurate account of what was trans- piring over there.“ But even if the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus were a parable, it could be truth for all that. The Parable of the Sower is true even though couched in parabolic form, is it not? The early Chris- tian Church believed that Jesus was telling a true story when He told the people about Dives and Lazarus. Many Christian scholars maintain that Jesus was doubt- less reading out of the Book of Life * in which He found the name of Lazarus but not that of the Rich Man, and for that reason the Rich Man has been ealled ‘‘ Dives.”’ Jesus, however, did not name him. Now what does the story of Dives and Lazarus teach us regarding conditions beyond the grave and in the intermediate state in particular? Let us see. We can follow the Master in the events of the story in so far as they happen on this side of the grave. We can well picture to ourselves the Rich Man with whom every day was a festal day, who was always dressed in his Sunday best, and whose entire existence seemed to be one that centered about the questions: ‘‘ What shall I eat? What shall I drink? Wherewithal shall I be clothed?’’* The greater questions of life he seems to have entirely over- looked or wilfully neglected and ignored. His relations to both God and man he seems to have forgotten or repudiated in his greed and selfishness. It would have been pertinent for him to have propounded to himself the questions: ‘‘Am I worth feeding or dressing? Do I make a real return in and to life for the food, drink and clothing I am taking from it?’’ It is sad to say it, * John 3:11. % Rev. 20: 12-15. * Matt. 6: 31. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 65 but it is true, there are men and women who are not worth feeding or clothing. Life would be better without them. They are not worth the amount of food they eat nor the clothing they wear. They add nothing to the moral values of life. They but cater to its moral decay. Life would be much better without them. Such a being was this Rich Man. We ean easily follow him, I say, as the Master sketches his life, then his death and burial. We can follow the procession up to the edge of the grave, but there we stop; there our knowledge of what happened to him ceases. We are dependent upon the words of Jesus for a description of what happened after that. We can follow the story, too, so far as it relates to Lazarus. We can see him as he lies there at the gate of the Rich Man’s mansion. His body is a loathsome sight —‘‘full of sores.’? Hunger is gnawing at his very vitals. He craves for even the crumbs that are thrown to the dogs, but in vain does he thus plead. No man gave unto him. More pity and sympathy does he find from the dogs which came and licked his sores, than from his felowman. Death reaches him first. This is merei- ful, for it relieves him of his intense suffering, and at the same time gives Dives a longer chance for repent- ance. No funeral is accorded Lazarus as was provided, so we are told, for the Rich Man. Doubtless the body of the beggar was cast into the Potter’s Field. Was he not a pauper? Up to this point, then, we can follow Laza- rus, too. But beyond it, we must again listen to the words of Jesus would we know what happened to the poor beggar after he died. And we may thoroughly rely upon the words of Jesus as to the future, even as we are able to rely on them in 66 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? so far as they pertain to matters in this life and within the realm of our experience. There is not a word that fell from the lips of Jesus regarding this life and which may be put to the proof in this life, that, when thus tested, is not found to be absolutely true. We can trust Him, then, as to what He teaches us regarding the future and things which are beyond our mere human ken, experi- ence and comprehension. ‘‘Let not your heart be trou- bled; ye believe in God; believe also in me. In my Fa- ther’s house are many mansions; if it were not so would I have told you?’’” I have put the closing phrase of this quotation in the interrogative rather than the affirmative form because I believe it is permissible to doit. It is as though Jesus said: ‘‘I want you to believe all I have told you about the future. Did I ever tell you any- thing that was not true? What I have told you of the present, and of that which comes within the realm of your present experience, has turned out to be true, has it not? So you ean depend upon what I have to say with regard to the future; were it not so I would not have told you, would I?’’ Of course we understand that the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus is not intended to give us a detailed account of life beyond the grave. Had that been its purpose Jesus would doubtless have gone more into de- tail. Indeed, it may be said that the primary purpose of Jesus in narrating this story was not that we might know what was going on in that other world—inci- dentally, of course, that is taught—but to show the awful penalty of a selfish, godless life, a life that ignores the need of man and its duty to God. And in doing this Jesus lifts up the curtain that divides this world from * John 14: I-3. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 67 the next and permits us to catch a glimpse of conditions there. What does this story teach us? In the first place, it is clear from it that there is an existence beyond the grave; that this life is not all; that there is another and larger life beyond the grave. Both religion and science agree in this. Death is not the end of everything; * it is but the beginning of something larger and more far- reaching. The soul does not cease to exist when it has left the body; it has but taken its first step into that other life, into the Great Hereafter. Man everywhere and always has believed in an exist- ence beyond the grave. Some years ago, Robert Inger- soll, the noted infidel, was lecturing all over the country, ridiculing the idea of a life beyond the grave. Lying dead in his casket, he was as faultlessly dressed in death as he had been in life. Some one passing by the casket, stopped, and remarked: ‘‘Poor Bob! All dressed up and nowhere to go.’’ But it is a very real question as to whether Ingersoll did not actually believe in an ex- istence after death. When he was accused of being an atheist, he denied it. ‘‘I am not an atheist,’’ he said. *‘T do not say there is no God. I am an agnostic; I do not know.’’ One is almost compelled to believe, however, when he reads Ingersoll’s oration at the graveside of his brother, that he did really believe in a future life. ‘‘Death is a narrow vale,’’ he said, ‘‘between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look be- yond the heights. We ery aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing ery. From the unreplying lips of the voiceless dead there comes no response. But 8B Tuke 12: 3-5; Heb. 9: 27. 68 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? in the hour of death hope sees a star and listening love hears the rustle of an angel’s wing. There was, there is, no greater man than my brother.’’ I think we see here something which lay underneath all Ingersoll’s so- called infidelity. At heart, he believed in an existence beyond the grave. ‘This speech, we believe, so declares it. ‘‘Tf a man die, he shall live again.’’* These are the words of Job and once again I put them in the affirma- tive rather than the interrogative form because they as- sert the certainty of the patriarch’s belief in the future life. This is clear from the words which follow this bold affirmation: ‘‘I will wait until my release cometh. . . . Thou wilt call and I will answer thee. . . . I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. . . . WhomTI shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold.’’” In the story of Dives and Lazarus, Jesus is speaking of the Intermediate, not the Final State; of the Near, not the Far, Hereafter. He is not speaking of hell but of hades; not of the final and ultimate abode of the righteous in the day of the new heaven and the new earth, but of the intermediate state of the righteous while awaiting that glorious day. This fact shouldn’t be overlooked. He is speaking of conditions as they ex- isted previous to His own death and resurrection. The death and resurrection of Jesus made great changes in conditions in that other world, the Intermediate State, especially as they pertained to the righteous dead as we shall see later in these pages. The conditions Jesus here describes are running parallel with conditions which are existent upon the earth during the lifetime of Dives and Lazarus. Dives’ brethren are still living the same selfish * Job 14: 14. * Tob 19: 26. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 69 lives they lived when he was with them, and so he re- quests that Lazarus be sent unto them to warn them lest they also come to the place of torment in which Dives now finds himself.” Both Dives and Lazarus are conscious in that_inter- mediate state. There is no intimation here of soul- sleeping nor annihilation. They are speaking, feeling, thinking much as they did on earth—at least the Rich Man is, as his language clearly shows. He is as con- scious of conditions in the Hereafter state as he seems to be of conditions existing at his home on the earth among his brothers. Dives is said to be ‘‘tormented.’’* That implies con- sciousness surely. You cannot punish a stone, or any- thing unconscious. Doubtless he had been tormented while here upon the earth. No man ean live the utterly selfish life he lived and be as hard-hearted to the ery of the poor as he was and not have moments when his heart and conscience give him some trouble. When he was alone with his thoughts he had had his moments of torment. But his wealth and position af- forded him so many opportunities of easing that torment. He could go to the club and the theatre; he could visit his friends; travel North in the summer and South in the winter; these, and many other things he could do to ‘‘take his mind off’’ his troubles and forget the things which caused him torment. There were countless ways in which he could ease himself of his burden and forget, at least for the time being. But now, in the state in which he finds himself in that other life, all the things which might alleviate his torment are absent; he is alone with himself, his conscience, the memory of his misdeeds 4 Tuke 16:27, 28 “TLuke 16: 23, 25. 70 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? and lost opportunities, and, for many a man, yea and every man such as he, this is ‘‘torment’’ indeed, even | should there be no physical, bodily pain in that condi- | tion. Lazarus is said to be ‘‘comforted.’?™ Doubtless he had had his seasons of comfort while on the earth, brief though, perhaps, they were. His physical condition was so direful, his body so sick, his mind so depressed, so many reverses came to him, so many afflictions seem to have fallen to his sad lot that his comfort was greatly interfered with. But now, in ‘‘paradise,’’ in Abraham’s bosom, where he now finds himself, in this new stage of existence in life beyond the grave into which he has now entered, all these dire calamities have no place, hence his comfort is not marred as it was while on the earth. So he is comforted. Dives, it should be noted, is conscious also of the awful condition of his brothers. His words concerning them show censure, because, perchance, he felt they had not been sufficiently warned as to this awful state beyond the grave; or it may be that he is really con- cerned about the sad moral condition of his brethren. Whatever construction may be placed on his words it is clearly evident that he was conscious as to the character of conditions then existing in his former home. Surely no doctrine of the intercession of the saints can be based on these words of Dives. In the first place this is not a saint who is interceding; again, the plea was ineffectual. And it may be that he is rather fault- finding than interceding.™ So far as memory is concerned there seems to be no break between this life and that beyond the grave. 8 Thid. *4Tuke 16: 28, THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 71 Dives is called upon to remember how he lived while on the earth and his heartless attitude towards his needy neighbour.” So we may understand in this connection, as stated in the earlier pages of this book, that per- sonality is more than brain. Here we see that there is apparently no break in memory. Dives is the same per- sonality he was when on earth. Death had not destroyed his personality. A man will be himself throughout the endless ages of eternity. He can never get away from himself. ‘‘Handle me and see that it is I, myself.’’* Death does not change the bent of my life and char- acter; it fixes it. I will be in the next world what I am when death finds me in this—only more so, as we shall see later in our discussion. What our bent of life and the nature of our choices were during our earthly life and when death found us, that we shall be, only in- creasingly so, in the great Near Hereafter. Our char- acter has determined our destiny and condition. So far as we know, this earthly life is our sole probationary period.” The use to which a man puts his life while here on earth determines its condition and character in that after life. Here is an interesting paraphrase of Revelation 22:11: **He that is set on being unrighteous, let him be free to wholly follow his choice, even here, and do unrighteous- ness, and it will be with an ever-increasing momentum. And he that is set in his choice to go on to the un- restrained depths of lustful passion to indulgence, shall be left utterly free to follow that choice, and it will be found that the slant down gets steadily steeper and sharper. He that is set on following only the righteous and good and pure will be wholly free to follow % Tuke 16: 25. 6 Tuke 24: 39. at Of 2) Cnr ae — 72 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? the bent of his choices with an ever-increasing bent of momentum upward. And he‘that will choose to climb the hill towards the highest peak of personal purity and holiness, perfection of character, will have the fullest freedom in following his bent or choice; and he will find, too, the steepest heights more easily climbed as he goes up. And when Jesus comes He will give to every man according as his choice has been.’’™ | God has ordained that man shall be a free agent; that he shall make his own choices, be they good or bad. And thus it will ever be. The bent of a man’s life is that which he himself has chosen, and that bent decides what his character shall be, and that character, in turn, de- termines what his condition and destiny in the other life shall be. God has always dealt with man along the line of this fundamental principle of free agency. God did not compel Adam to obedience; He left him free to choose it. So has it been with every other person since Adam. God will not interfere with that human preroga- tive, so far as the individual himself is concerned. There are times when God steps in and interferes with the de- praved will of man, when that will might seem to in- terfere with His redemptive purposes (as in the ease of Joseph and his brethren) ;” but even in that case, God rather overrules than interferes with human freedom. A man by his own individual choices decides what his acts shall be; those acts form his character, and these, in turn, his destiny for the future. Man himself, not God, has decided it.” In a very real sense, then, it cannot be said that God sends any man to hell. The man who goes there has *°S. D. Gordon. * Gen, 37 with 50: 190, 20. 80 See 1 Kings 20: 40. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 73 chosen that destiny for himself. There is a law of gravi- tation in the spiritual, even as in the natural world. Every man has his own place; every man finds his own place, and every man goes to his own place. It is written of Judas that ‘‘he might go to his own place;’’” of Peter, when he was released from prison, that ‘‘he went to his own company’’*—a band of praying people. So it is ever with man. He himself decides his destiny and his future. And it should not be forgotten that, so far as we know, this life is the sole probationary period in which a man decides the matter of his future destiny. Over there there is ‘‘a great gulf fixed’’; change from one condition to another is impossible. A man decides for himself on which side of the gulf he will find himself in that other life. Sometimes we hear men, in speaking of the future, say: **Well, I’ll take my chances on getting a safe place in that other world.’’ Well, my friend, your choice is your chance and your chance is your choice. Your choice now is your chance then. You will find yourself where you have chosen to be. You have a chance of changing now, but there will be no such chance once you have passed over the line into the Great Hereafter. This is the thought that gives seriousness to living and imposes on one a deep sense of moral obligation for the choices one makes in life. No man’s life or destiny, either here or in that other world, is an accident; nor does it come about casually, or by chance, or at random. It is the result of deliberate choices on his part. Such expres- sions as ‘‘should it fall to one’s lot,’’ ‘‘be one’s fate,’’ ‘should one stumble on, or light upon,’’ ‘‘ blunder or hit upon,’’ are ruled out in the consideration of our sub- ** Acts 1:25. 82 Acts 12: 12, 74 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? ject. A man’s future destiny will be the result of his own inclinations, intentions, purposes, and options. It will be the outgrowth and consequence of his own mind, wish, pleasure, bent and disposition. What is a ‘‘chance’’? It has been defined as an op- portunity. Strictly speaking, a chance has in it the two- fold idea of the absence of an assigned cause, and the absence of an apparent design. It is something unin- tentional, accidental, unintended ; something undesigned, at random, purposeless. But no such elements enter into the deciding of a man’s future life and existence beyond the grave. God gives opportunity to every man here to choose life or death, heaven or hell, bliss or woe. Any final sentence that may be pronounced by God on man ean be but the result of the man’s own deliberate choice, or the result of his bad choices in life. Another thing we should remember in this connection, and that is, that the power to choose good lessens with every yielding to evil; yea, even the power to exercise choice at all, whether for good or bad, is lessened with the refusal of a man to exercise that power; ultimately it will result in its loss. Even in nature we know it to Ibe true that when any power is not used, or is abused, lit atrophies. There is a lessening, a shrinking, an at- tenuation, an emaciation of those parts that are not used. So the fakir in India loses the use of the arm he ‘has declined to use for years. So with fishes in the ‘Mammoth Cave in Kentucky; they have eyeballs and eye- ‘sockets, but no sight, for there has been no use of those organs. So the man who constantly refuses to choose the good will eventually be unable to choose it and the choice to evil will be the permanent thing in his life; indeed he will become mere driftwood. ‘‘He that is un- - “ THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 75 just, let him be unjust more and more. He that is filthy, let him be filthy more and more. He that is holy, let him be holy more and more. He that is righteous, let him be righteous more and more.’’™ ‘This is not only Scripture truth; it is also true in nature, science and psychology. We are now familiar with what may be ealled the science of chances. Men have reduced the matter of taking chances to a science. So all large financial and insurance companies employ men who devote their entire time to the matter of taking chances. These men are called actuaries. They are experts in the matter of chanees. Their findings are based on observable facts and circumstances in life as viewed by them. They feel quite confident that they know what will happen under certain given circumstances in life, and on the decisions of these experts very large sums of money are invested or withheld from investment by these large financial and insurance companies. If the company chooses to go against the advice of the experts on chances, then it is the company’s fault and loss. Only very rarely, if at all, is such a hazardous risk taken. The man who goes against the advice of these men is playing a losing game, and the chances of winning are against him. So is it with reference to the things of the soul. A man’s chance in his choice. God has determined that by a law that is absolutely unerring, trustworthy, reliable, self-evident and axiomatic. God will judge every man according as his choices have been. No man need de- lude himself on that score. If we fail to make our ehoice for God, Christ, religion, prayer, the Bible, the Church, and righteousness here, there will be no chance Rev. 22:11 (R. V.); see Matt. 25: 28, 20. 76 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? to do so in the Hereafter, for we would not use the chance there, even were it offered to us, any more than we used it here when it was offered to us. So even if the love of God, which we say is ‘‘broader than the measure of man’s mind,’’ were to result in extending to us another chance in the Hereafter—for which we have no Scriptural warrant—what reason have we to believe that man would accept it? The law of chances is against him. He is taking a risk when ‘‘the chances are all against him,’’ when there is not the slightest chance of his winning. He is a fool, and not a clever fool at that. He is ‘‘ playing a losing game’’—a game that is doomed to be lost by every law of ‘‘chances.’’ ‘*Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.’’ How solemn these words! Death is the fixing time. Jesus said: ‘‘If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins, and whither I go ye cannot come.’’* Can- not come! How different similar words addressed to Peter: ‘‘ Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me hereafter.’?* Never can the man who dies impenitently and without receiving the Christ offered to him go ‘‘to be with Christ.’’ That is a matter forever settled by the infallible words of the great Teacher Himself: ‘‘ And beside all this, betwixt us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.’’”® What language can be more decisive than that? Study the Sermon on the Mount and note what Jesus has to say about ‘‘The Two Ways:’’ * life and death. Nowhere, at any point, do these two ways converge. * John 8: 24. ® John 13: 36; cf. 16: 20-22, *Tuke 16: 26. ot Matt. p7 ira. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 77 They are forever separate: one leading to Life, the other to Death. In the same sermon, Jesus calls on men to practise moral and spiritual surgery or they will be lost. He calls upon men to pluck out the right eye, cut off the right hand and foot if these lead to sin. He then tells us the reason: ‘‘It is better to enter into Life [eternal life beyond| maimed, rather than having two eyes, two hands, two feet, to be cast into hell-fire, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched’’ (refer- ring to the future state of the lost).“ Here is a clear statement that once a man has crossed the line from this life into the Hereafter without having made the necessary preparation there is no hope of recovery or of his ever entering into Life. ‘‘ When once the master of the house is risen up and shut to the door,’’ those on the outside knock in vain for entrance. The voice of the Master will exclaim: ‘‘Depart from me, I know you not.’’” Death closes the opportunity of change from death to life eternal. The judgment is for the deeds done in the body,” and that means during man’s probationary period on the earth while he was in the body, not while he is in the intermediate state and his body is corrupting in the grave. Dying time, then, is fixing time. Let us not forget that. When death overtakes a man and finds him unfit for the presence of God, then his doom is settled, his fate sealed, his destiny fixed irrevocably and forever. His nature, character and disposition have become stereotyped. He will be unholy ‘‘still’’; unrighteous *‘still.’’ The loss of the soul is irretrievable.” The germ of sin in the lost man has become ineradicable, the *® Mark 9: 43-50. ®Tuke 13: 24-28. “2 Cor. 5:10; cf. Rev. 20: 12. @ Mark 8: 37. 78 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? stain of his iniquity indelible, and the bond which unites him to his wrong choices indissoluble. There is no more chance for him to change than for the leopard to change his spots or the Ethiopian his skin.” The judgment pro- nounced upon him is as unchangeable as the law of the Medes and the Persians, which altereth not.* When the unrepentant man is called upon to cross his Jordan, his Stygian shore, when once he has “‘ecrossed the bar,’’ then life’s bark will lie stranded, aground, transfixed upon the farther shore, a wreck of what might have been. Nor will there be any tide to lift that bark from yonder bar; no, not forever. O, how solemn a thing is life! What use are we making of this probationary period? ‘*To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’’ These words were spoken by our Lord as He hung upon the Cross. They were addressed to the dying thief at His side. By a wondrous flash of faith the penitent thief had come to see in the crucified Christ the coming King, and, in the glow of that faith, exclaimed: ‘‘Lord, re- member me when thou comest into thy kingdom.’’ It was in reply to this great flight of faith that Jesus ut- tered the words we are now to consider: ‘‘ Verily, I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’’ So this is where the soul of Jesus went immediately after it left His body and where it remained during the time the body was in the tomb in Joseph’s garden. ‘To-day . . . with me in paradise.’’? ‘‘Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.’’ “ But where and what is paradise? There are four paradises mentioned in the Bible. The first was in Fete 13% 23. “Dan. 6: 12. * Acts 2: 27. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 79 Eden; * the second below the earth;“ the third is now above—Paul was ‘‘caught up into paradise’’;“ the fourth will again be on the earth in the days succeeding the millennium.” “‘To-day . . . With mein paradise.’’ At the time of Christ, the intermediate state, the abode of the dead, whether righteous or unrighteous, was below the earth. The Apostles’ Creed refers to Christ as having ‘‘de- scended into hades.’’ Peter, in his first Epistle, declares that ‘‘Christ was put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.’’® ‘‘For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.’?® Paul also refers to Christ’s descent into paradise, when, in his letter to the Ephesians, he says: ‘‘ Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?’’™ Perhaps also the expression: ‘‘He led captivity captive,’’” may have reference to this same event—the descent into hades, to the upper part of it. The abode or world of the dead, in the time of Christ, was called ‘‘sheol’’ (Hebrew) and ‘‘hades’’ (Greek). It was divided into two parts: an upper and a lower. The upper part was called ‘‘ paradise,’’” or ‘‘ Abraham’s bosom ;’’™ the lower part was ‘‘hades,’’ strictly so-called. pasen. 2°98: Ezek. 28:13. “Luke 23:43. “2 Cori tata = Rey. 2:7: 21: I0. “'r Pet. 3:18. “2-Pet 4:6. Peon a9, "Eph.4:8 “Luke 23:43. ™“Lukew6: 22.1, 80 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? Into this ‘‘paradise’’ the souls of the righteous went, while the souls of the wicked found their abode in hades proper.” But let us not forget that the whole abode was given the general name of “‘hades’’ or ‘‘sheol,’’ even though, speaking more particularly, there were the two divisions with their respective names referred to. Over this entire realm Satan held sovereignty: ‘‘ Foras- much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power [or sovereignty] over death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.’’” Jesus Christ by His death rendered the power of Satan over that realm in- operative; He took from him the keys of death: ‘‘I am he that liveth, and became dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore; and have the keys of hades and of death.’?" And so ‘‘having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it,’’~ that is, in His Cross. The hostile powers of sin, death and darkness Jesus overcame and lashed them as captives to the wheels of His victorious chariot. It seems to be the teaching of the Word of God that Jesus, between the time of His death, resurrection, and appearance to Mary and the disciples, went and visited hades, the region and abode of the dead. The infidel, Celsus, ridiculed the belief of the Early Chureh in the visit of Christ to hades and His preaching to the spirits there. He says: ‘‘I suppose your Master when He failed to persuade the living had to try to persuade the dead.’’ To which Origen replied: ‘‘Whether it please 55 ‘ 56 . ere Rann: "Col 21s THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 81 Celsus or not, we of the Church assert that the soul of our Lord, stripped of its body, held converse with other souls that He might convert those capable of instruc- tion.’’? Tertullian and Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, pic- ture Christ not only among the souls of those who had been disobedient, but also holding blessed intercourse with those who had struggled after right and who had not seen His face on the earth. They picture how the holy prophets ran to our Lord; how Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, David and John the Baptist, and others ran to Him with the ery, ‘‘O, death, where is thy sting! O, grave, where is thy victory! for the Conqueror has redeemed us!’’* Did the visit of Christ to the intermediate state make any changes in the condition of the dead there? Did He preach the Gospel to those in the lower part—hades proper, in a way that constituted an offer of salvation to those who heard it?” Or was the proclamation but a heralding of His victory over sin, death, the grave, the devil and all the powers of darkness—a victory won through His death and resurrection? Was the ‘‘preach- ing of the gospel to them that are dead’’ “—to those in the upper part—paradise, Abraham’s bosom, a definite and deliberate liberating of the souls of the righteous, which up to that time had been in the power of Satan, and a taking of such souls with Him into the glory, in other words, a leading of captivity captive? Many such questions cluster about the subject of Christ’s visit to the realm of the dead. Perhaps they cannot be answered to the satisfaction of all concerned, and perhaps this is not the place to enter into an exhaustive study of the many 5° See Smyth, “Gospel of the Hereafter.” 7 Pet. 3:18. 1 Pet. 4:6. 82 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? phases of the subject. Something, however, should be said, for our theme demands it, even though it be but a brief word about the matter, for it properly comes within the sphere of our study at this time of life beyond the grave. In the first place, let us consider the visit of Christ to the lower part of hades—the abode of the unrighteous dead, the ungodly and disobedient, those described by Peter as being ‘‘disobedient in the days of Noah,’’ etc.® Hades proper was the abode of such: not paradise nor Abraham’s bosom, mark you, but hades. Of course the reference to those of Noah’s day does not mean that only such were there, but that they were samples” of the class there: all that had lived disobedient and ungodly lives. That this was a visit to lost souls, seems clear, irrespective of what the purpose of that visit was. Two opinions are held with regard to Christ’s visit to the region of lost souls: One, that Christ, during that visit, made a bona fide offer of salvation to such, and so those in hades were given another or a second chance to be saved—at least those were who had never had the opportunity of hearing the story of Christ and His Cross; and all this so that when they stood before the throne for judgment they would have no excuse to offer; so reference is made in Peter’s text, to their being judged.“ The other school of interpreters maintains that there is no second offer of salvation taught here, but that Jesus visited the realm of the dead in order to herald His victory, not to preach His Gospel, our attention being drawn to the fact that while the Greek word here trans- lated ‘‘preached’’ is often used for the preaching of the Gospel, yet it is not the usual one for ‘‘evangelization’’; @1 Pet. 3:18. ® See 2 Pet. 2:6, “1 Pet. 4:6. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 83 that it is the word the gladiator uses when he is pro- claiming his victory over his opponent; so Christ heralded His victory over Satan, death, the grave, prin- cipalities and powers when He made that visit, and there the matter ended so far as the unrighteous were eoncerned. There are still others who maintain that the reference to spirits here is to fallen angels, such as are referred to in Genesis as ‘‘the sons of God,’’” and such as ‘‘kept not their first estate but left their own habita- tion.’’“ Still others make it refer to the preaching of Enoch in antedeluvian times. May it not be that the two passages in Peter refer to the two visits Jesus made to the realm of the dead ?—the first describing His visit to hades proper, the lower part, to proclaim His victory over sin, Satan, death and all His foes; the second, portraying His visit to the upper part of hades, called ‘‘paradise’’ and ‘‘Abraham’s bosom,’’ in order not only to proclaim His victory over death but also to take all those righteous souls, which up to this time had been held captive by ‘‘him that had the power over death, that is, the devil,’? “ with Him into the glory, and so lead captivity captive,” so that now the souls of the righteous go to the paradise which is above, where Christ is, the upper part of hades being now empty? We ask, may not these be the two great truths taught by Peter in his epistle? To us it certainly seems so. But we would not be over-dogmatic here. The word used for ‘‘preached’’ in the second reference in Peter, and which refers to the visit to the abode of the souls of the righteous, is the ordinary word for the proclama- tion of the ‘‘good news.’’ Certain it is that when the ® Gen. 6: 4. % Tude 1:6. * Heb. 2: 14. “Eph: 42: 84 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? believer in Christ now dies he goes to be with Christ; ® he is at home with the Lord,” in the paradise which is now above. And we think it is not stretching the real meaning of the Scripture to say that all the Old Testa- ment saints, which up to the time of Christ’s death and resurrection were in that upper part of hades, are now with Christ in paradise above, as trophies and first- fruits of His glorious victory.” Referring a little more in particular to Christ’s visit to the upper part of hades, we may say that it seems very clear from the Scriptures that the death and resurrection of Jesus made tremendous changes in the world of the dead, that is, of the righteous dead. Jesus said to the disciples: ‘‘In my Father’s house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.’’” Evidently, then, that place in heaven was not yet prepared. ~~ Even the soul of Jesus went to hades and not to heaven, during the days His body rested in the tomb.” But after those three days a tremendous change took place in regard to the condition of the righteous dead. ‘‘And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of their graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city and ap- peared unto many.’’™ These saints, it may be assumed, were those, or at least among those who ascended with Christ on high when He led captivity captive.” That the Old Testament saints were waiting for the finished work of Christ in order to their perfection is © Phil. ‘y* ot: 9 2 Cor.i5 2S. ™* See Heb. 12: 22, 23. @jJohn 14:1-3 ® Me ae i ™ Matt. 27: 51-53. ph. 4:8. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 85 clear from a consideration of certain passages in the Scriptures. It was evidently in the divine plan that these Old Testament saints should not be made perfect without us: ‘‘And these all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise; God hav- ing provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.’’ The Old Testament saints, then, were waiting for an event which would per- fect them. Now, in that light, let us note these wonder- ful words: ‘‘But ye are come unto mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.’’?” Does it not seem then as though some wonderful event had taken place whereby these imperfect men were made perfect? We think so. What was that thing? Let us see. So long as the veil that separated the Holy from the Most Holy Place was remaining, the way into the presence of God was not open to all; the high priest alone could thus come before God. Perfection, therefore, was impossible through the Levitical priesthood, ‘‘the Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience.’’“ Thus we see that the death of Christ by which the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom,” brought perfection to those who so long had been waiting for it. This we believe to be the, or an, explanation as to what took place in relation to ® Heb. 11: 30, 40. Y Heb. 127 2224. *® Heb. 9:8, 9. ® Matt. 27:51; Heb. 9:3. 86 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? the souls of the righteous and Christ’s visit to them in that upper part of hades. Since that time the saints of both Old and New Testaments have immediate access into the presence of God; the ‘‘place’’ has now been pre- pared; Jesus has fulfilled the promise He made to His disciples.” Let us look now a little into the nature and purpose of Christ’s visit to the lower part of the world of the dead—hades proper, the abode of the lost. We have already mentioned that there is a difference of opinion as to the purpose of that visit. Some maintain that an offer of salvation was made, while others look upon the purpose as being one in which Christ merely proclaimed His victory over sin, death, Satan and all His foes. But a word should be said here as to the doctrine of a second chance which is said to have been given to the lost in hades. It is referred to in some quarters as ‘‘that larger hope.’’ Is it true that Jesus really made a genuine offer of salvation during that visit? Is it true that a man who has had a chance to accept Jesus Christ as his per- sonal Saviour and has refused to do so, will have another opportunity in the next life? And do we find in this incident narrating Christ’s visit to hades any ground for such a hope? In the preceding pages sufficient has been said to indicate just where the writer stands with regard to this life being the sole, probationary period. He believes the issues of eternity are settled in this life and by the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. There are some preachers, teachers and writers who have expressed themselves with regard to the heathen and those who, like them, have never had the opportunity of either accepting or rejecting Jesus Christ—such as con- © John 14:1-3; Heb. 11: 16. a” OE de - — 2 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 87 stitute the third class of beings in the intermediate state, and perhaps by far the largest class. What such writers and preachers have to say ought to be considered as purely speculative, yet it has been accepted in many eircles as a reasonable hypothesis. It is the opinion of the author that such speculation should be noted and answered. Of course it is assumed that no doctrine of the faith can be based on inference or speculation. The Christian must have an undisputedly clear passage of Divine Writ on which to base his faith. This is con- ceeded. And what are called ‘‘fair inferences’’ are to be cautiously guarded. We should, however, know the position of others with regard to the future state in order to correct any misconceptions regarding the matter. For this reason, therefore, we mention them. There are, we may suppose, three classes of people in the intermediate state: Those who have believed in God. and accepted Christ as their Saviour when He was pro- claimed to them; those who have wilfully rejected Christ and His claims when they were presented to them; and those who have never heard of Christ and, consequently, have neither accepted nor rejected those claims, the op- portunity of doing so having never been afforded them. As to the first class, we may say with certainty that they are safe with Christ, and at home with the Lord. With regard to the wilful rejectors of Christ, I think it has been clearly shown in these pages that their period of probation ended with their death, so that for them there is no second chance, no larger hope. Were it possible even, as we have intimated some do hope, that the love of God should offer to them another opportunity of accepting Christ—which, from the Seriptures, we see no reason to believe He will—the odds are all against their 88 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? availing themselves of the opportunity; they would doubtless do what they did here: reject it. But what about the third class—those who have never heard of Christ and so have not had the opportunity of accepting or rejecting Him and His claims? What is to become of them? ‘‘Is it possible,’’? we are asked, ‘‘is it likely that God may give to them an opportunity of hearing of Christ and of accepting Him?’’ We are as- sured that this would not be a second chance; it would be their first. And even with regard to this class we are informed there should be no doubt that the principle of choice which has already been enunciated would control choice and destiny there and then. Given a man who had never heard of Christ during his earthly life, but yet followed the light that God gave him, the probabili- ties are that he would do the same in that other life when the light was offered him. But if a man of this elass did not follow the light God gave him when he was on the earth, but chose darkness and disobedience instead, the probabilities are that he would do the same with reference to any offer of light that might be made to him in the Hereafter. The same principle of choice, we are told, applies there even as here :—that death does not change character and bent; it but fixes them. May not a follower of light here be the same there; and a rejector of light be the same there? And may it not be that this is what Origen has reference to, when, in his reply to Celsus, he refers to those in that other world who were capable of instruction—those who followed the light as they had it when on earth? Such is the argument presented. We are asked then to consider, in this connection, the words of Jesus regarding those favoured cities of Galilee SS Oe ee eee THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 89 which had witnessed His life and mighty works: ‘‘ Then began he to upbraid the cities in which most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee Chorazin! Woe unto thee Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have re- pented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, thou shalt be brought down to hell; for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have re- mained unto this day. But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.’’® We are, further, asked to consider what Jesus meant by these words? Did He mean to say that Tyre, Sidon, Sodom, Nineveh and Gomorrah had not had the chance that Bethsaida and Capernaum and the cities that had seen and felt His ministry but had not responded to it had been given? Did He mean that we should infer that had these cities been given such an opportunity they would have embraced it and repented? And would it be fair to infer, knowing what we do of the righteous- ness of God, from these words of Jesus, that such an opportunity may (not necessarily shall) be offered to them before they come up to judgment? Was such an offer made to this class of people when Christ visited the lower part of hades? Is that an opportunity being offered to such now and will it continue to be offered? We are reminded ‘‘that no reference is here being made to the class of wilful rejectors, nor even to those who 81 Matt. II : 20-24. 90 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? among the class that have not had the opportunity of hearing Christ’s Gospel but who yet did not follow the light they had but rejected it while on earth, but only to those among this class who did follow the light they had even though it came short of the light of the Gospel of Christ which they never had the chance to hear.’’ These are interesting questions and problems and will never be finally settled by men. Eternity alone will reveal the solution, and answer be given to the satisfac- tion of all. We know that the Judge of all the earth will do right.” We can safely leave these problems with Him, while we seek to do our duty in taking the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. Carey, Moffat, Brainerd, Hudson Taylor, Judson— these great pioneer missionaries believed that without Christ the heathen were lost. Theology may have changed its views on that question somewhat during these later years, but it remains yet to be proven that these missionaries were wrong. They believed that ‘‘as many aS have sinned without law, shall also perish without law ;’’* that ‘‘he that knew not his lord’s will and yet did things worthy of stripes shall be punished with few stripes;’’ that there will be different degrees of punish- ment, and a different standard of judgment for those who have had the light of the Gospel and those who have not. But these missionaries believed that all men out- side of the redemption that is in Jesus Christ are lost; that only the Gospel of Christ can save; that, in the last analysis, men are lost not because they have rejected Christ but because they are sinners;™ that Christ alone can save; that men are by nature lost and condemned, ” Gen. 18:25; Psa. 11:7: 2 Tim. 4:8. 8 Rom. 2:12. 8 Rom. 1:18, 28. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 91 and that, so far as we know, unless they receive Jesus as Saviour, that condemnation remains. What God may or may not do in the case of those who have never heard the Gospel we leave to Him. Our duty is to evangelize, not to speculate. We have our marching orders: ‘‘Preach the gospel to every creature.’’™ Let us obey those orders, and be slow to accept any doctrine that would rob us of our missionary incentive to evangelize the heathen because of any unwarranted assumption that God will or may take care of them in some special way at the Judgment. What are our loved ones doing in the intermediate state? Here is another very interesting question and difficult, perhaps impossible, to answer satisfactorily to _ all, Here again ignorance has to be confessed as to any clear, unequivocal, positive teaching of the Bible in an- swer to this question. Inferences there are, and perhaps logical ones which may lead some to a practical cer- tainty, but inferences they remain. One may say, ‘‘ Why then not leave the subject alone and quit speculating and inferring?’’ That would be an easy way out of the matter, but it would be to deny the deepest instincts of the soul any chance to be heard. We are constantly asking questions about the condition of our loved ones in the other life. We cannot help it. To be interested at all in the Hereafter is to ask questions abont it. What are the inferences which many think fairly de- ducible from the general teaching of the Bible on which we may make some statements regarding the matter? Of some things we may be absolutely sure. Our dead in Christ are with the Lord, present and at home with Him; they are safe in His keeping and happy in His Mark 16:16; Matt. 28: 18, 109. 92 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? love. And that, of course, is wonderful. Where Jesus is is heaven. So in attempting to answer this question we may again have to depend upon inferences made from certain Scriptures dealing with the future life. ‘‘Do our loved ones in that intermediate state know what is transpiring on this earth?’’ That is a question which is continually being asked, especially by those who have had loved ones leave them for that other land. If the reader is not already tired of the word ‘‘inferences’’ may we dare to again refer to it in connection with this phase of our subject. It would be difficult to point to any Seripture that most emphatically and beyond the shadow of a doubt, answers this question. The best we can do is to hope that certain fair inferences may be true. It is certain that Dives in hades knew Lazarus, and Abraham, too,” for that matter, from which we may infer that we shall know more there than we did here, just as the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration knew Moses and Elias whom they had never seen.” ‘‘Now we know in part; then shall we fully know.’’® Moses and Elijah spoke with Christ ‘‘conecerning the (death or) decease which he should accomplish at Jeru- salem.’’ Then those celestial visitors knew what was in the mind of Jesus, how the disciples had treated the sub- ject when Jesus broached it to them, and what was shortly to take place in Jerusalem.” Moses and Elijah certainly were acquainted with earth conditions. Jesus said there was ‘‘joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.’’” Then there must be knowledge in heaven of such conversions on earth. * TV uke \16: 23,24. | ™ Matt. 17: Luke o)" 1 Corsigt Game 89 Matt. 16: 21-25. 9 Take 1539) an THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 93 In the Book of Revelation we find the saints in heaven rejoicing over the fall of Babylon.” Then they knew what was transpiring or was going to transpire on earth, did they not? There is considerable difference of opinion as to the meaning of that wonderful passage in Hebrews: ‘‘ Where- fore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.’?” Exegetically, it may be granted that the apparently primary meaning of the word ‘‘witnesses’’ refers to that wonderful galaxy of men of faith in the preceding chapter—men who by their faith have borne witness to God and have had wit- ness borne to them by God. Yet, notwithstanding this, there are very few commentators who do not make men- tion of the reference in these words to the ‘‘race’’ that we down here are running in the presence of our loved ones who may be watching us from the gates of heaven. Of course, of this interpretation we cannot be certain; it is beautiful nevertheless. And perhaps we again may call this interpretation inferential. Is this inference a fair one? Is there anything in Scripture that contradicts it? The fishermen on the shore of the Adriatic Sea are said to have had a beautiful custom. At eventide, when they went out to fish, and after they had been out on the water for some time, their wives were in the habit of go- ing down to the shore and singing a verse of some hymn which, borne over the sea, would be heard by their hus- bands out on the deep. When the husbands heard it they would sing a verse also and that, too, would be * Rev. 19. mi Fteb, T2555. 2. 94 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? carried by the wind to the shore. And so their wives, hearing it, would know their husbands were safe out there on the mighty deep. One sometimes wonders whether, if our ears were not stopped as they are by ‘human infirmity and sin, we too might not hear voices from the other shore? We recall that when Elisha’s servant was discouraged as he saw the mighty men that had come to arrest his master, the prophet told him that “they that be for us are more than they that be against us.’’ But the servant saw only himself and his master. Then the prophet prayed to God that He would open the servant’s eyes. God did, and behold, the servant saw that the mountains round about were filled with horses and chariots of fire.” What could we see, and hear, think you, if, in some such way as God opened this servant’s eyes and Jesus opened the eyes and understandings of the Emmaus dis- ciples,“ the Heavenly Father would remove the scales from our eyes, and give to us hearing more than natural? Who ean tell? Let us not limit God. And let us not be so narrow in our faith that we shall not be willing to take from the Scriptures the comfort that may be found even in inferences providing they are fair and just in- ferences and do not do violence to the analogy of faith and are not contradicted by the Scriptures. O, Jesus, teach us, not how little but how much we may believe of all the wonderful things Thou hast in store for them that love Thee! ““Tf you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back; "Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track. % 2 Kings 6:17. “Tuke 24: 13-32. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 95 And if, perchance, faith’s light is dim because the oil is low; Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go. **Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the storm; Call back, and say He kept you when the forest’s roots were torn; That when the heavens thundered and the earthquake shook the hill, He bore you up and kept you where the very air was stall. ““O, friend, call back and tell me, for I cannot see your face; They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound in the race; Bui there are mists between us and my spirit eyes are dim, And I cannot see the glory though I long for word of Him. ““But if you’ll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry, And if you'll say He saw you through the night’s sin-darkened sky— If you’ve gone a little way ahead of me, call back; "Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.’’ ‘How can our loved ones in that other land be happy,’’ it is often asked, ‘‘if they know what is going on down here on the earth?’’ That mother, for example, who sees the sin and waywardness of her child, and knows that to continue in that way of life means that he will be lost—how can she be happy in heaven and know that her boy on earth is suffering, in sorrow, and is lost? But, are we sure that she would be happier if 96 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? she were ignorant as to her boy’s condition? Does igno- rance always tend to happiness? Ask a mother now on earth whose son or daughter is in trouble, adversity, or living a life of sin, and who never writes her a word as to where they are or what they are doing. Do you think that mother is happy because she is ignorant as to the condition of her child? Certainly not. If you could talk with her you would hear her say: ‘‘O, if they would only write me and let me know where they are and what they are doing it would not be so hard to bear.’’ So you see ignorance does not, necessarily, tend to happi- ness. Again we are asked, ‘‘ Would not our loved ones in heaven suffer if they knew what was going on on the earth?’’? Perhaps they would. Does not God suffer? Is there no pain in the heart of the Christ as He looks down and sees the waywardness of men, and at the treat- ment He receives from their hands? If there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over repentant sinners, why may there not be ‘‘sorrow’’ over those who repent not? Have you a loved one in that other world—a mother, perchance? Would you make her happy? Then give your heart to Christ, become a Christian, serve the Christ she loved and followed and that will give her happiness—if the knowledge we have been speaking of is possible there. Cease living the life that causes un- happiness. This is the practical way of dealing with this question. Let us not spend time in distracting argu- ment over the question. The way to show the greatest concern in the happiness or unhappiness of our departed loved ones is to desist from doing that which might give pain either to them or Christ and to do those things, and live that life, that will bring joy to all concerned. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 97 I read some time ago of a young man who, after living a life of sin, was converted to Christ. After he had risen from his knees, having surrendered himself to Christ, he stood weeping as though his heart would break. The pastor who stood by his side asked him why he was not happy seeing he had taken that great step that brought him into fellowship with God and Christ? **Oh,’’ replied the newly-converted man, ‘‘I am happy in that thought, but I was just thinking of the many heartbreaks I caused my mother for so many years before she died. She prayed for me so earnestly that I might become a Christian, but I refused to hear the voice of Christ. Oh, if she only knew what I had done to-night, she would be so happy. If she only knew, my joy, too, would be complete.’’ ‘‘Are you sure she does not know ?’’ said the pastor in reply. ‘‘Are we not told by Jesus that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth? How do you know but that your mother is one of those in the presence of God? Perhaps she does know. Personally, I think she does, and is participating in your new-found joy to- night.”’ **Oh,’’ exclaimed the young man, his face aglow with hope, ‘‘that thought makes me happy; I believe it now.”’ Was the pastor right, think you? Who will say he was not? When I was but a little child how well I recollect How I would grieve my mother with my folly and neg- lect ; And now that she has gone to heaven I miss her tender care: O Saviour. tell my mother. I’ll be there! 98 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? Though I was often wayward, she was always kind and good; : So patient, gentle, loving, when I acted rough and rude; My childhood griefs and trials she would gladly with me share: O Saviour, tell my mother, I’Ul be there! When I became a prodigal, and left the old roof-tree, She almost broke her loving heart in mourning after me; And day and night she prayed to God to keep me in His care: O Saviour, tell my mother, I’ll be there! One day a message came to me, 1t bade me quickly come If I would see my mother ere the Saviour took her home; I promised her, before she died, for heaven to prepare: O Saviour, tell my mother, I’ll be there! VII THE RESURRECTION C SHE fact of the belief in a future life and exist- ence beyond the grave is not peculiar to Chris- tianity. It is found in all religions. That mankind continues its existence beyond the grave is the belief of the entire race. Crude and grotesque many of the views of the future existence advocated by different peoples may be, nevertheless there is the belief in man’s immortality. It is a universal tenet of man’s religion. What ts unique in, and peculiar to Christianity is, that there shall be a resurrection of the body; that the souls of men will not remain in an unembodied or dis- embodied state; that men are to be real human beings in the world to come. But can there be a real, true human being without a body of some kind? We think not. A complete human being is a spirit or soul clothed in a body. And this is the clear teaching of the Bible and the Christian religion. We are not to be beings above us, like angels; nor are we to be beings below us, like demons; we are to be true human beings, our souls clothed with new bodies in that other life. The salva- tion which is in Jesus Christ guarantees the resurrection of all men * and the blessedness of existence in that new body to the believing. In speaking of the resurrection body, it may be well at this point to differentiate between resurrection and reanimation. Perhaps the most helpful illustration of *z Cor. 15:22. 99 100 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? this distinction and difference is that of the reanimation of Lazarus* and the resurrection of Jesus.” The coming forth of the body of Lazarus from the tomb was not, strictly speaking, a resurrection; it was rather a re- animation. Lazarus did not come forth in a new body, but in the same body which was placed in the tomb; the same body, unchanged, in which he had lived before; the body that again became mortal and died even as it had before. In the case of Jesus’ coming forth from the tomb it was different ; it was a real resurrection, for while the body with which Jesus issued forth from the tomb had a relation to and an identity with that which had been placed in the tomb, it must be said that it was the same body, ‘‘but with splendid additions’’; it was no longer mortal, nor did it ever see decay; Jesus did not die again.” The body of Lazarus was limited in its move- ments and nature even as it had been before; but the body of Jesus was not, as was evidenced by the fact that He could enter a room through barred doors and win- dows * and could vanish instantly from the sight of the disciples.” It was necessary to move the stone that cov- ered the mouth of the tomb of Lazarus in order that he might come out. That was not necessary in the case of Christ. It is true that the ‘‘stone was rolled away’’ from Jesus’ tomb, but that was not to let Christ out but to permit others to see within, for there were evidences of resurrection within which it was necessary that the disciples in particular should see. We know the result of the vision of the inside of the tomb, on John, for ex- ample: ‘‘He saw and believed.’’* The body of Jesus after His resurrection was not the same ‘‘body of hu- i John II, * John 20; Matt. 28; Mark 16; Luke 24. Rom. 6:9. ®John 20: 19-21. °® Luke 24:31. *John 20: 1-10, THE RESURRECTION 101 miliation’’ as before, and as was the case in the re- animation of Lazarus; it was ‘‘a body of glory.’’ So we see that there is a difference with a distinction be- tween the reanimation of Lazarus and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So this human nature of ours is, in Christ, to be glorified. We are to have bodies and be truly human in that other world. It is interesting to note that the apostle, in referring to Christ now in the glory, says: ‘There is one mediator between God and man, himself man, Christ Jesus.’’* This humanity of ours has been sanctified by His Incarnation. ‘‘He took not on him the nature of angels, but of the seed of Abraham.’’* So these ‘‘bodies of our humiliation shall be transformed into the likeness of the body of his glory.’’® The resurrection of Jesus from the dead guarantees that all men, irrespective of condition or position, shall rise from the dead: ‘‘For as in Adam all die (physi-: cally), so in Christ shall all be made alive’’” (physically, of course, for it is the resurrection of the body that forms the theme of the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians). There is no doctrine of universal salva- tion taught in this passage; indeed, the thought of salva- tion of the soul is not at all involved here. Paul is dis- cussing the reality and fact of the resurrection of the body as a careful reading of the chapter shows. ‘‘ Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.’’” ‘‘There shall be a resurrection both of the just and the unjust.” ‘2 mame: :) Acts 7: 56. °Heb. 2: 14-16. “Phil. 3:20, 21. ea or, 15 > 22, ® John §: 20, % Acts 24: 15. 102 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? Put an acorn in the hands of the apostle and at once he is feeling the weight of the mighty oak. Show him a single sheaf of wheat and he is calling our attention to great fields of waving grain. So is it with the resur- rection of Jesus: Paul will have every man raised be- eause He was raised. The resurrection of the Christ is the guarantee of the resurrection of all men. No GENERAL RESURRECTION The Scriptures do not, however, as we view them, teach that there will be a general resurrection of all men at one time. Indeed, on the contrary, they teach that the righteous and unrighteous are not raised simul- taneously. The resurrection of the just is prior to and separate from that of the wicked—the rest of the dead. The resurrection of believers is called the resurrection out from among the dead. The eminent Hebrew scholar, Tragelles, who was said to have been pensioned by the British Government for his scholarship, translates Daniel 12:2 in a most inter- esting way, and in a manner which corroborates the point we are here discussing. Here is the reading: ‘*And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some (who awake at this time) to ever- lasting life, and some (literally, those who do not awake at this time) to shame and everlasting contempt.’’ Other well-known Hebrew scholars translate the same passage as follows: ‘‘And [at that time] many [of the people] shall awake [or be separated] out from among the sleepers in the earth dust. These [who awake] shall be unto life eternal, but those [who do not awake at that time] shall be unto shame and contempt everlast- ing.’’ It seems clear, then, from this passage that all —_—— THE RESURRECTION 103 do not awake at one [this] time, but only as many ‘‘as are found written in the book.’’ ” Paul, we believe, teaches the same truth: *‘For as in Adam all die, even so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first- fruits; then they that are Christ’s, at his coming; then cometh the end.’’” The apostle, it seems to us, clearly indicates an interval of time by the use of the ‘‘then’’ /and ‘‘afterwards,’’? words which in Greek clearly indi- eate an interval of time taking place between (for il- lustration of which compare ‘‘For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first, the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear’’”). Surely, in these words of Christ an interval of time is intended between each *‘then.’? So with our Corinthian passage: There is **Christ, the first-fruits’’; after that—two thousand years almost have elapsed since Christ rose from the dead—the resurrection of ‘‘them that are Christ’s,’’ that is to say, believers; then, after that—who can say how long after?—comes the resurrection of the ‘‘rest of the dead.’’ Was it not for this out-from-among-the-dead resurrec- ion that the apostle Paul was so earnestly striving to be accounted a worthy participant when he wrote—If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of (more literally, out from among) the dead?” Paul did not have to strive to live a worthy, sacrificial, devoted life in order that he might be raised from the dead, for, as we have already seen, every person will be raised from the dead irrespective as to moral character. Paul him- self so taught; so did Jesus. What Paul was striving to Darn, 12: 1: *T Corts 32225 Mark 4: 28. Se Phil) 3 3X1: 104 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? be counted worthy of was the first resurrection,” the resurrection of the just,° of the righteous from anong the wicked, the better resurrection,” the resurréction unto life,” of the dead in Christ * of them that are Christ’s,” that resurrection that shall admit into the millennial state.” May we not look on that event re- corded in Matthew as an illustration of the out-from- among-the-dead resurrection unto life and glory ?—‘‘ And the tombs were opened; and many of the bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; and coming forth out of their tombs after his resurrection they en- tered into the holy city and appeared unto many.’’ * ‘‘And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resur- rection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.’’” Here surely is a clear mark of time between the resurrection of the righteous and that of the wicked; the one coming before, and the other after the millennium, a thousand years separating them. Nor are we to spiritualize this resur- rection. The first resurrection is just as literal and no more spiritual than that described in verse twelve of ® Rev. 20:5, 6. ® Luke 14: 14. TLE, PE ae, 1 John 5:20. Ts GCorsre ss a Matt, 27) Soin THE RESURRECTION 105 this same chapter, where the writer says: ‘‘ And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of the things written in the books. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hades gave up the dead which were in them.’’ The resurrection of the saints—the first resurrection—is not to be understood as ‘‘a revival of the cause, principles, doctrines, charac- ter and spirit of the early martyrs and saints,’’ nor the spiritual quickening of dead souls into life. These were not spiritually dead; on the contrary they are declared *‘blessed, holy, just and good.’’ Hence it is not a spiritual but a literal resurrection to which reference is here made. ‘For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.’ The word ‘‘shout’’ is an interesting one. It is the word of command given by a general to his own army, a signal or sound not known to the opposing forces. It comes from the word ‘‘keleuo,’’? meaning ‘‘to give orders.’’ In this passage we have the only place in the New Testament in which this word ‘‘shout’’ (keleusma) is found. Other words translated ‘‘shout’’ are found, such as ‘‘epiphonein,’’ which refer to a loud shout made for or against a person. We may say that the ‘‘shout’’ to which Paul here refers will awaken only the dead in Christ, even as the voice of Jesus, calling Lazarus by name, brought but Lazarus from the dead. So shall it be in that day when the trump (salpizo) of God will sound aloud to attract the attention of the dead 41 Thess. 4: 16. 106 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? in Christ, the saints which sleep in the dust. It is inter- esting to note that no trumpet sounds at the end of the . thousand years. The football signals which the spec- tators hear ealled out from the field may not mean much to them, but oh, how much they mean to the players who understand their full meaning and so quickly and ea- gerly respond to them! This call will take place when the last trumpet ™ shall sound. The word ‘‘last’’? as here used does not neces- sarily, if at all, denote the last in point of time. The word is taken from the Roman military code of signals and indicates the trumpet call for marching. We may say that the first trumpet sound meant to fall in; the second, for attention, while the third or last indicated the command to march. Further, we may note in this con- nection that Christ who is the ‘‘second’’ man is also called the ‘‘last’’ Adam; the ‘‘second’’ thus being equiv- alent to ‘‘the last.’’” This, too, is in harmony with Paul’s idea of the order of the resurrection: ‘‘ But every man in his own order’’—the word ‘‘order’’? meaning company, regiment, battalion.” Just as Lazarus heard the voice of the Master calling him by name and came forth from the tomb, so shall it be in that day when ‘‘the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ rise first.’’ ‘Marvel not at this.”” What wonderful power there was in the voice of Christ! One sometimes thinks that had Jesus not called Lazarus by name, and said ‘‘ Lazarus, come forth!’’ that that Voice would have penetrated the whole region of the dead and all the dead would have come forth and every grave have been left empty. Some Ar Cor. 1s2)52! 1) Cor#15 + AB-A7, *y Cor. 15 a4 THE RESURRECTION 107 day that will be the case, even though not simultane- ously, for ‘‘the hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and come forth.’’* Objections have been raised against this out-from- among-the-dead theory, and a claim made for a general resurrection of all men at one and the same time. It is objected that by the first resurrection is meant the revival of the spirit of the early martyrs. Still it is quite difficult to think of beheading ideas, and some- what confusing to picture spirits sitting on thrones. Under ordinary circumstances we would say that resur- rection has to do with bodies rather than spirits, As supporting the doctrine of a general resurrection, our attention is drawn to the words of Paul before the Jewish council: ‘‘ But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they eall a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers, believing all things which are according to the law and which are written in the prophets; having hope towards God, which these also themselves look for, that there shall be a resurrection both of the just and un- gust.’?® These words, it is urged, teach a simultaneous resurrection of both the righteous and wicked. But do they? Let us examine the context in which we find these words; let us look at them in their setting. It was the belief and teaching of the Pharisees that the resurrection would be confined to the bodies of the just only, many denying the resurrection of the wicked at all. Paul is correcting this misconception as well as aiming a blow at the Sadducees who disbelieved in a future resurrection at all. So instead of teaching a simultaneous resurrec- tion of the just and the unjust he is assuring them that there will certainly be a resurrection of both, a fact *% John 5:20 Acts 24: 15. 108 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? which, as we have seen, some denied. Not one person, says the apostle, shall escape the resurrection; no one shall remain in the grave; all shall come forth. This is Paul’s argument: he is claiming the universality not the contemporaneousness of the resurrection of all mankind. Still another verse is set forth as teaching a general resurrection of all men at the same time. The words of Jesus are quoted: ‘‘Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good to the resurrection of life; they that have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.’’“ We are told that the ex- pression ‘‘the hour’’ settles the fact that all shall come forth from their graves at the same time. But, we ask, how long is that hour? How does Jesus Himself use the word hour in close connection? In verse twenty-five: ‘*The hour cometh and now is,’’ ete.; also in the pre- ceding chapter: ‘‘The hour cometh when ye shall worship the Father,’’ ete. That ‘‘hour’’ has lasted almost two thousand years now. That hour was then, is now, yea and ever shall be, for always shall men worship the Fa- ther in spirit and in truth. Thus we see that in both instances the hour referred to is twice as long as the millennium period. How long the last hour or last day “ will be—who ean tell? They will be long enough for all these future events to transpire in, that is if that is the place for them to be effected. ‘“The dead in Christ shall rise first.??” The dead in Christ, they are everywhere,—‘under monumental piles, storied urns and marble busts; sleeping in un- marked graves; in the lonely churchyard, and beneath the moaning waves of the restless sea; those who have © John 5:20. * John 6: 54. 1 Thess. 4: 14-16. ea. ee ee THE RESURRECTION 109 died by rack, by stake and torture ; those who have fallen - in the fields of battle; those who have passed through — the gates of disease and pain, and others who have gone as when the sun sets and its colours fade softly and quietly from the evening sky.’’ ‘‘The dead in Christ shall rise first. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord!’’* What a wonderful truth: The dead in Christ shall arise, shall be clothed with incorruption, shall put on immortality! The body of the child of God shall awake. What a miracle in this day when miracle is denied! This body in which we have sinned, suffered, ached, pained, groaned, died, and that has been put into the grave—this body shall rise again. Darkness may overshadow it; the chill and damp of the tomb may mould it; worms may eat it; the elements may dissolve — it, yea annihilate it, but glory be to God, it shall rise triumphant over death and the grave! MHast thou this flower of faith in the garden of thy heart? Canst thou, my soul, lift up thy voice and sing, ‘‘I know that my Redeemer liveth, and because He lives, I, too, shall live, J, too, shall live? Come, my soul, why art thou cast down and disquieted within thee? Knowest thou not, O child of mortality, worm of the dust, that thou art heir to immortality ?”’ THE GLORIFIED BopIEs OF THE RIGHTEOUS The question may be asked, ‘‘ With what body do the righteous come forth from the grave?’’ The same ques- tion is asked in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians by the sneering and sceptical in the Early Church: ‘And with what body do they come forth?’’™ One can almost hear and feel the sneer as he reads the words. 8 Rev. 14: 13. My Cor. 25 tas a0y ace 110 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? But after all that is a question immaterial, for ‘‘God will give it a body as it hath pleased him.’’™ There are those who say that a resurrection is im- possible. ‘‘Do not the atoms of which the body is com- posed, intermingle, at death, with other bodies and be- come a part of such bodies?’’ they ask. ‘‘How then, at the resurrection day, can these atoms which once com- posed these bodies of ours but since death have become parts of other bodies, be brought back to our bodies, for they cannot be in two places at one time?’’ But is it not true that it is not the identity of the molecules composing our bodies but their number and relation that constitute identity. Our bodies are con- stantiy changing. We are told that they change com- pletely every seven years. Yet our identity remains. The drops of water that form the whirlpool are con- stantly changing but the whirlpool is the same. The beams of the sun are constantly changing but the sun is the same. The infinite resources of God and Nature are not to be baffled by the grave. Because the Scrip- tures teach a literal resurrection of the body, it is not necessary, we think, to insist on the resurrection of the very identical body—tooth, hair, nail, that was put into the ground. For example, it is not necessary to insist that at the resurrection those limbs, which the wounded American soldier was compelled to leave behind on the battlefields of France, will come floating over continents to join the body here. The analogy of Nature ought to teach us this: ‘‘But thou wilt say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come forth. . . . That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body which shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain. But God giveth it a ’ . : h : THE RESURRECTION 111 body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.’’?*® You place a canna bulb under the ground. It is a dry, parched, homely looking thing; very different to that which springs up from it. As the result of the planting you have a most gorgeous ecanna-lily flower. It is quite different in appearance from that which you placed under the ground. That is true; but it is a eanna lily and not a rose that comes up. The identity is preserved. And that is all we need to insist upon with regard to the resurrection—that our identity will be preserved. After all it is not so much a question of material identity as of glorified individuality. The growth of the seed shows that there may be personal identity under a complete change of physical conditions. The saying of Jesus, ‘‘being children of the resurrec- tion’’* is quite interesting in this connection. In this world it takes a long time to prepare and develop the human body to full maturity. From the moment of its conception it passes through many stages, changes, phases of growth and transitions ere it reaches fulness of stat- ure. Some say it takes twenty-eight years to accom- plish this. But in the resurrection it shall not be so. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the soul will spring to the new body which God has prepared for it. All this will be ‘‘according to the working of the might of his strength.’?” Perhaps we may say four things at least about this new body of the believer: It need not be absolutely identical, so far as matter is concerned, with that which we placed in the grave. It will, how- ever, have some organic connection with that body which descended into the grave. It will be a body which God according to His sovereign power will bestow. It will ™1 Cor. 15: 37, 38. *® Luke 20: 36. * Phil. 3: 21. 112 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? | be a body which will be a vast improvement on the old one. Of all this we may be certain. So let us take courage and thank God for the blessed hope of im- mortality of the body. Let us say that it will be like this body of our humiliation but with magnificent, glori- ous additions. RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN Shall we know and recognize each other in heaven? Shall the mother know her child as her child? Shall we know each other in the same relationships we sustained while on earth? How many times is this question asked, and with what interest and ofttimes anxiety? And how little we know at times how much the happiness of the inquirer depends upon the answer given to the question. To some it would seem as if heaven would not be heaven if we were to be unable to recognize those whom we ‘“have loved long since, and lost a while.’’ “‘How dark, how drear, would be the fondest world of bliss, If, wandering through each radiant zone, We failed to find the loved of this! ’’ It does seem as though our deepest instincts eall for such recognition, and surely these instincts are God- given. Are they not an ‘‘earnest’’* of that which shall be to those who love God? Hath not God made us thus? Are we not, even in this world, social creatures? Shall we be less so in that other and larger world? 'To mingle with people and to be unable to know and recognize them and distinguish them one from another—is that Sa Corser s, . THE RESURRECTION 113 reasonable to suppose? Shall we be solitary, isolated spirits there? There is love in that far-away land; of that we are sure; and there must be some one to love; but will we be able to know and differentiate between those we meet there and love? Why this lonesome feel- ing in our hearts for our departed loved ones? It seems to increase with the passing of the years in spite of our friends’ assurance that Time is a great healer. Does God intend to satisfy this longing, this yearning from which we never seem quite to get away? You may take the calf from the cow, and the kittens from the mother and in a very few days they will be forgotten by the mother. But how different with the human mother! Many years after, when her head is gray and bowed with the passing of the years, and when all else seems to have been forgotten, or if remembered makes little impres- sion, how quickly you can bring the tears to her eyes and the pain to her heart when you speak of that little child that died in her arms forty years ago. Shall we know less in heaven than we do here? We know our loved ones here, do we not? Why then should we not know them there? ‘‘Now I know in part, then shall I know even as also I am fully known.’”’ ‘‘ Now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face.’’™ A ragged little street urchin stood outside a toy-store looking at the wonderful toys. It was the day before Christmas. With what wondering eyes and longing heart he viewed those beautiful things for which he hankered but which his poverty prevented his enjoying! He turned away with keen disappointment and with an ache in his heart, but not before he had put out his hand in an attempt to touch the toys. Alas, there was the rt Gor 53h a2. 114 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? glass window between him and them. He turned away to go to his wretched lodgings again. While crossing the street he was run over by an automobile. He was hurt, but not fatally. They picked him up and took him to the hospital. The next day was Christmas. Kind friends had provided toys for the children in the hos- pital to brighten their Christmastime. So two boxes of — toys were brought to the wounded boy. One of them was a box of lead soldiers such as he had seen in the window the day before and which he longed to possess; indeed it was to handle these that he put out his hand and found the window between him and the toys. Now, as he lay there on the hospital bed, he gazed with won- dering expression on the box of toy soldiers. He could scarce believe what he saw. He put out his hand to touch them, and then, such an expression of joyful sur- prise came over his face as he exclaimed, ‘‘Oh, there is no glass between them, is there?’’ So shall it be in that great day when we shall stand before the King. Now we see through a glass darkly, but not then; we shall see face to face in that day. And surely what we know here and recognize as through a mirror, dimly, we shall fully recognize when we stand in all the fulness of the divine glory. We have already seen that those who have died in Christ are alive, active, conscious in that other life. Even Dives, in hades, is able to think and to recognize Lazarus. The world over one finds such a belief. No matter how steeped in ignorance any pagan tribe may be, there is that lingering hope that there will be recognition in that other world. How did this universal longing come into the human heart? Surely it is not by training, education or tradition, for many of these tribes THE RESURRECTION 115 have not had such privileges. God must have put it there. We make much of what is called ‘‘ The Universal Argument’’ for the existence of God; why not make as much of it for recognition in the next world? Let us believe that we can. We may say that these are but natural inferences and not Scriptural arguments. One may ask: ‘‘ Does the Scripture distinetly and un- equivocally teach recognition in the future life?’’ That may be a very difficult question to answer by ‘‘yes’’ or ‘‘no.’’ All questions cannot be thus answered. Some maintain they can. I recall hearing of a witness who seemed to delight in refusing to answer the lawyer’s questions by ‘‘yes’’ or ‘‘no.’’ Finally, in exasperation, the lawyer said to him, ‘‘I want you to answer all the questions I ask you by ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ ”’ “‘T am sorry,’’ was the reply, ‘‘but it cannot be done. There are questions which cannot be answered by ‘yes’ eat, 7°? ‘You are mistaken,’’ said the lawyer, ‘‘there are no such questions, and I challenge you to ask me one that cannot be answered by ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ ”’ ‘‘Very well,’’ said the witness, ‘‘I’ll ask you one: ‘When did you stop beating your wife?’ ”’ The lawyer stammered and beat about for an answer, but of course failed. So there are questions that cannot be so lightly answered as by ‘‘yes’’ or ‘‘no.’’ And the question of recognition in heaven is one of them. But even if it be impossible to cite Scripture that clearly and without dispute gives hope for such a gracious experi- ence in that other life, that would not mean that there were not Scriptural inferences so just and fair as to lead us to believe almost if not as strongly as though there were a positive word. If the Seriptures do not contra- 116 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? dict fair inferences why not hope in such fair inferential teachings. We are living in a scientific age. We demand proof for everything. That is our poverty. We are inclined to look with disdain on those who believe so easily. We smile rather patronizingly at those who give easy cre- dence to the things of religion; they are so unsuspecting, unsuspicious, credulous, yea, we go so far as to call them gullible. We are prone to pride ourselves as those who are to be convinced only on the presentation of evi- dence, of scientific fact. We demur, hesitate, distrust; we are sceptical, incredulous, unbelieving of anything that does not have the mark of scientific proof. Doubt- ing Thomas is the idol of such. Like him they say: ‘“Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.’’ Well, he had the opportunity, for Jesus stood before him and challenged such ‘‘proof’’ and ‘‘investigation.’? Whether Thomas accepted the challenge or not we do not know. But Jesus gave him the opportunity. Jesus does not despise faith in whatever way it comes. But He does pity the poor fellow who will not believe unless he sees and feels, unless he has scientific proof and fact before him. To discover a fact is something, but it is a paltry thing as compared with the perception of a truth. To perceive by faith a great spiritual truth is far greater than to be convinced by a scientific fact. Is not this what Jesus meant when He said to Thomas: **Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.’ ® Did He not mean the same thing when He said to Peter: © John 20: 20. THE RESURRECTION 117 ‘‘Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven’’?* Herein lies the poverty of this scientific age :—that it is destitute of that exceedingly greater at- tainment—faith, shall we not rather say that gift, rather than attainment, of God; that power to perceive truth rather than to discover fact; that power to believe in spite and scorn of evidence; shall we eall it the will, power, faith to believe? This is not to discourage nor belittle the presentation of facts and proof, but only to magnify that which is infinitely higher—the perception by faith, as a revelation of the Holy Spirit to man, of spiritual truth.” So a devout and humble child of God can see more on his knees than a philosopher can on a mountain top. And it is for the same reason that many a simple child of God has gone clean into the kingdom of truth while the scholar, depending on mere proofs, has been compelled to stand outside fumbling with the latch. ‘‘I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth; because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes; even so, Father, for it seemeth good in thy sight.’’* There is a strange and significant expression running throughout the Old Testament. It is this: ‘‘Gathered unto his people.’’ For example: God said unto Moses, **Come up into the mount and die, and be gathered unto thy people.’’“ Just what did God mean by this ex-— pression, ‘‘be gathered unto thy people’’? He surely could not have referred to mere burial, for Moses was not gathered unto his people in that respect. Moses died alone on the mount, the place of his burial no one yet “ Matt. 16: 17, “Chit Cor. 22 faite: 4 Matt. z1: 25. “Deut. 32: 50. 118 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? knows. Aaron, his brother, was buried on the side of Mount Hermon; Miriam, his sister, was buried in the desert, while his mother doubtless lay resting in some burial plot in Egypt. There must, therefore, have been a reference to something deeper than mere burial. What was that deeper meaning? Was it that he should meet those whom he had loved long since and lost a while in that ‘‘land that is fairer than day’’? David felt the loss by death of his young child very keenly. During the illness of the child for days and nights he ate nothing, nor did he change his dress; he fasted and wept, hoping that perchance God might spare the life of the child. When, however, that did not seem to be the divine will, and the child died, David cheered his heart and acquiesced in the will of God gladly. In response to the faith which was in his soul, David ex- claimed: ‘‘He cannot come to me, but I shall go to him.’’“ May we not see in this confession of David a belief in the fact that he would be able to see and recog- nize his child in that golden future day? We think so. It seems clear from the story of The Rich Man and Lazarus,” that Dives, Abraham and Lazarus knew each other. It is equally clear from the Transfiguration story that the disciples knew Moses and Elijah whom they had indeed never seen.” Shall we not know those whom we have seen, have well known and lived with, lo, these many years? Is not this a fair inference? Again we think so. Our Lord, when warning the disciples against covet- ousness, bids them use ‘‘the mammon of unrighteous- ness’’ [time, talent, money, gifts] to make friends with, so that when death overtakes us we shall have such “2 Sam. 12: 22, 23. *Tuke 16:19-31. “ Matt. 17: 1-12, EE a THE RESURRECTION 119 friends—that is to say those whom we by the proper use of our time, talents, gifts, money, have won for Christ and helped and blessed—to welcome us into the ever- lasting habitations.” Does not this indicate that we shall be able to recognize those whom we have helped, blessed and led to Christ? Surely, in some degree at least, it does. To the dying thief on the Cross, who, in a magnificent flight of faith, had seen in the dying Christ the coming King, Jesus said: ‘‘To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’’“” This expression, it seems to us, implies that there would be mutual recognition. The Church at Thessalonica was deeply spiritual. It most fervently and ardently believed in the second com- ing of the Lord. So firm was their faith in this doctrine that when their loved ones died they felt that, being dead, they would not have a share in the glories attend- ing the second advent. In this they were mistaken; so Paul writes the first epistle to comfort them in this re- gard. He tells them that when Jesus comes for His saints, the first thing He will do will be to raise the righteous dead, their dead in Christ; then, after that, He will change the righteous living, and together, they shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, there to be with Him forever. This was to be their comfort. But would this be any comfort, think you, if they were not to know their loved ones from strangers? Unless they were assured they would know and greet their loved ones how could these words indeed comfort them?” To these same Thessalonian Christians Paul expresses his desire to visit them as he has often purposed to do, but has been hindered for one reason or another. He tells * Luke 16:9. © Tuke 23: 43. 1 Thess. 4: 13-20. 120 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? them, however, that even though he should not again see their faces in the flesh, he would see them in the glory: ‘‘Wor what is my joy and my crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming ?’’™ The disciples knew Jesus after His resurrection. There are some interesting things we may learn about this subject in the consideration of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. He Himself drew attention to the nail prints in His hands and feet and the mark of the spear-thrust in His side as marks of identity by which they might know that He was the same Jesus whom they had known in life: ‘‘ Handle me and see that it is I myself.’?” The Christ they knew in life had not lost all connection with the Christ they now looked upon. The Jesus of the flesh and the risen Christ were indis- solubly united. ‘‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to- day and forever.’’” Jesus, you see, would have the dis- ciples understand that He was not altogether dissoci- ated from the former life and conditions. The wounds in His hands, feet and side would remind them of this. Here were objective marks of identity with the past, not mere subjective thoughts and wishes. It is true that the body of His resurrection was un- fettered by time or space as the body of His flesh had been. He could pass through closely barred doors and windows and could quickly and easily vanish from their presence.” He could reveal or conceal His identity at will.” He could emerge from the tomb while the stone was yet in front of its mouth. All this is true; but the resurrection body had an identity with the former one 1 Thess. 2: 17-10. ? Luke 24: 30. ® Heb. 13:8. John 20:19, 20, 27; Luke 24: 31. ®Tuke 24: 16. - 4 a coat oe _ : ee ee ee Sail THE RESURRECTION 121 —only it had magnificent additions. It was the body of His glory. That the resurrection body of Jesus had some vital connection and identity with the body He had while in the flesh is evident, further, by some coinci- dences, undesigned, it is true, but all the more valuable because of that fact. For example: As Jesus walked with the two disciples on the Emmaus road, they did not know Him—‘‘ for their eyes were holden that they might not know him.’’ “ When, however, at their most earnest solicitation, Jesus went into the house with them to dine and remain for the night, He became known to them. But how? The text says: ‘‘He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.’’™ But just how? Perhaps they saw His hands, which up to this time had been hidden from them, and they saw the prints of the nails in them, and thus recognized that it was Jesus. That is quite possible and perhaps reasonable to suppose. But to me there seems another mode of recognition, and one which I love to dwell upon m this connection. They sat down at the table to eat. Jesus was the honoured guest, and, naturally, they look to Him for the prayer for the blessing on their meal. He was asked to ‘‘give thanks.’’ He did so, and in the giving of thanks for the bread He became known to them. Was there any one else who could ever ask the blessing as Jesus did? Had they not seen and heard it again and again during the three years or more they were with Him? And now, here He is again asking the blessing, in the same way, with the same expression and words. At once they recall the Master; they recognize in the stranger who had walked with them, none other than Jesus. And so it was that Jesus carried with Him %Tuke 24: 16. 7 Tuke 24: 35. 122 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? the same manners and characteristics in connection with “‘saying grace’’ that He had with Him while in the flesh, So all relations between the previous life and the one He was now living were not dissolved. Another unstudied, incidental matter, but fraught with comforting truth. As Mary Magdalene stood without the tomb weeping as though her heart would break, there approached her a man, whom she supposed to be the gardener. He said to her: ‘‘Woman, why weepest thou??? ‘‘They have taken away my Lord,”’ she replied, ‘and I know not where they have laid him.’’ The man standing by her side then uttered the one word, ‘‘Mary.’’ At once, she recognized that Voice, even though she had not looked up. No one could call her name as Jesus did, and so, without having looked into the face of Jesus, she eried out, ‘‘Rabboni!’’* So Jesus had the same voice after as before His resurrection, had He? It would seem so. Would you not know that voice that used to eall you by your first name even though it has been silent for years? Of course you would know it. You would know it even amid the loudest burst of heaven’s great chorus. And, saying a brief word further as to the connection between the body of the former days and the days of His resurrection, it may not be amiss to draw attention to the fact that the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus were allied and linked with and very much like those of former days. It seems as though there had been no break by reason of death in the plans. ‘‘ Go into Galilee; he will meet you there, even as he said.’’” He was known to the disciples on the lake of Galilee by a miraculous draught of fishes such as He had given °° John 20: 16. ° Matt. 28:7. THE RESURRECTION 123 them during the days of His flesh.” We have already referred to the breaking of the bread and the sound of His voice. So you see no man really begins life all over again in that other world. It is not altogether new; it is not al- together dissociated from the past. The song they sing there is the song of redemption—it has in it a memory of and a relation to the past; the worshippers know that it is to the Lamb they owe their redemption, and that it was He Who had washed them from their sins.” Little can be said as to the ‘‘how’’ and ‘‘means’’ of recognition. The modus operandi we may not know here. It is, or at least should be, enough that we shall know each other in that ‘‘land of far distances. ’’ ““Soul of my soul, I shall meet thee again— With God be the rest.”’ Perhaps we shall not need the trappings of introduc- tion we are accustomed to here. The disciples on the mount knew Moses and Elijah whom they had never seen. Just how, we do not know; but the fact remains that they knew them. **Tt was not mother that I knew thy face; It was my heart that cried out, Mother!’ I have wondered sometimes if our Lord’s victory over Satan, death and the grave does not demand the recogni- tion of our loved ones who have died in Christ? We are told that Christ has abolished death, and robbed the grave of its victory.” What does death do to us? Does it not tear our loved ones from our tender embrace? © John 21: I-I0. S Reve Te se 0), @y Cor. 15:55, 50. 124 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? Shall not the triumph of Christ reverse all this and give them back to us? Can the victory be a complete one if it stops short of this accomplishment? We simply ask the question. Can I still ery out ‘‘O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory!’’ if death and the grave still rob me of my loved ones and that forever? But you may ask: ‘‘ How will my little child know me, and how shall I know my child? She was a mere child when she died. Has she not grown during all these years since she left us and went to that other land? How then shall we know each other?’’ I wonder, some- times, if we do not make a mistake in this connection by thinking that the recognition is to come all from our side. May it not be, think you, that they may have been watching us, yea and waiting for us, all these years? And if it be true that they know what is transpiring down here, may they not have marked the change and growth that has come over us during the passing of the years, so that we will not be strange to them as we stand at the golden gate awaiting entrance into the Holy City? May they not have been watching us as we have been changing from youth to age and our hair has turned from brown to gray? Who will say that this may not be so? I love to think or hope it may be so. I remember reading a little while ago of a reunion between a mother and son. They had not seen each other for thirty years. He was stolen from her when he was a mere child, and now he stands before her a grown man with beard! Yet in a few moments she knew him. ‘Always a boy to her, no matter how old he’s grown, She’s blind to his strands of gray, she’s deaf to his manly tone.’? THE RESURRECTION 125 How will our loved ones look when next we see them? Oh, how many hearts are asking that question, and how much it would mean to be able to answer it without the slightest shadow of a doubt! “‘Not changed, but glorified! O beauteous thought Por those who weep, Mourning the loss of some dear face, departed, Fallen asleep! How will tt look? The face that we have cherished, Hushed into silence, never more to comfort The hearts of men; Gone like the shadows of another Sntipha Beyond our ken. ‘How will it look, the face that we have cherished, When next we meet? Will it be changed—so glorified and saintly That we shall know it not? Will there be nothing that will say, ‘I love thee, And I have not forgot’? O faithful heart! the same loved face, transfigured, Shall meet thee there, Less sad, less wistful, in immortal beauty, Divinely fair. **Let us be patient, we who mourn with weeping Some vanished face; The Lord has taken, but to add more beauty And a dwiner grace.’’ What a glorious thought for the believers who die in Christ and for those who have hope in Him! It is for this reason that the apostle exhorts us to ‘‘sor- row not as others which have no such hope.’’* The word ‘‘sorrow’’ here is used to indicate inward grief as contrasted with outward manifestations of sorrow. With 1 Thess. 4: 13. 126 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? such a hope for our beloved dead why should we grieve as others? Should the Christian put on mourning? Why should we thus proclaim to the world the very opposite of what our faith teaches us? Why not rather put on gladness that our beloved dead have entered into that new and eternal state of bliss? “‘When we cross the valley there need be no shadows, When life’s day is ended and its sorrows o’er; When the summons eomes to meet our blessed Saviour; When we rise to dwell with Him for evermore. ““Shadows; no need of shadows, When at last we lay life’s burdens down. Shadows; no need of shadows, When at last we gain the victor’s crown. ““When our loved ones leave us there need be no shadows, If their faith is fixed on Jesus as their Lord; For they go to be with Him who died to save them, To be with the One whom they have long adored. “*When He comes to meet us there need be no shadows ; When He comes in all His glorious array; When the trump shall sound and loved ones waken, When He leads us onward with triumphant sway.”’ ets oe VIII THE JUDGMENTS IKE Death, the subject of Judgment is one of mingled fear and hope, sadness and gladness ac- cording to how it is viewed and one’s readiness for it. ‘‘And as Paul reasoned of righteousness, tem- | perance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and an- swered, Go thy way for this time, when I have a more convenient reason I will call for thee.’’* Nor is Felix the only one that has trembled at the thought of a com- ing day of judgment. Paul, the aged apostle, rejoiced in prospect of a judgment day when the awards of life would be distributed by the righteous Judge: ‘‘For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appear- ing. 292 It is perhaps difficult for any man to examine his own life, thoughts and actions and, believing in a coming judgment, rest quite comfortable in the thought that he will have to give an account of every word, deed, thought in that future day of reckoning. Can a man think of even one day’s experiences in the light of the white holi- ness of God’s throne and feel quite at rest? How we fear even human scrutiny! The sight, even here, of a * Acts 24: 25. 22 Tim. 4:8. 127 128 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? judge, a lawyer, a court and jury before which we may be called to stand causes us to have a feeling of fear. How much more then the thought of the day when we shall be compelled to stand before Him whose eyes are like fire and whose feet are like brass that burneth in a furnace?* One may be inclined to say, ‘‘Oh, I have outgrown those Dantean, Miltonic ideas of judgment and hell; I have no fears any more regarding them.’’ But we are not dealing with ideas of the judgment as set forth by Dante and Milton, but with the statements of the inspired Word of God, the final arbiter of faith and destiny. A good deal would be accomplished if we could get people to reading the Bible more than they do and less of the human opinions about the Bible. Why are people—some of them Christians—content to remain sec- ond-hand believers? Why not study the sources of in- formation at first hand? I believe that much of the © spirit of braggadocio we see nowadays would vanish could we get people to listen to the sane teachings of the Word of God and not the vain imaginings of men. Have you, my reader, ever given the subject of the judg- ment any real thought for yourself? The subject is one of joy for the believer, for then he will receive his fulness of reward for the good he has done while in the body in this life. He does not always meet with approval for good here. Ofttimes he is eriti- cized, maligned, misrepresented, misjudged. But the day is coming when he will receive back every bit of good he has done for the Master. ‘‘Hope is sown for the righteous.’’* The wicked are not always punished here for their wickedness nor are the righteous always re- warded for the good they do. There is a day of reckon- * Rev. 1: 14, ‘Psa. 97: II. THE JUDGMENTS 129 ing coming when both shall receive their due.” Of course the righteous has, even here, the reward that comes from the consciousness of having done the will of God and the right; that in itself is blessed; he has a bit of heaven here to begin with; he has the ‘‘earnest of the Spirit.’’* But the day of fulness of reward is coming. That will be a glad day. *‘When I hear the wicked call on the rocks and hills to fall; When I see them start and shrink from the fiery deluge brink— Then, dear Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. “‘When I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty not my own; When I see Thee as Thou art, serve Thee with un- sinning heart— Then, dear Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe.’’ There are two outlooks spoken of in the Scriptures: one of gladness and one of dread and fear. ‘‘Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, with- out sin unto salvation.’’* There is the glorious outlook of the righteous. Then there is the dreadful prospect of the wicked: ‘‘A certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adver- saries.’’ © There are those who make strenuous objections to what they term ‘‘the appeal to the element of fear.’’ They tell us we should appeal to love and hope, to the highest motives in man. And that is true when such an appeal ®Rom, 2:5. "3 Cor §?5. * Heb. 9: 28. ® Heb. 10:27; 12: 25-20. 130 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? can be made; but there are men to whom nothing but the appeal to fear will move to right action. It is true that fear is the lowest of the motives that move men, but that it is cowardly to use it we deny. The Master used it many times. He did not think it beneath His dignity to warn men to “‘Fear not them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him who after he hath killed, hath power to east both soul and body into hell; fear him.’’® Three times in one chapter He warns against the worm that dieth not and the fire that is never quenched.” Nor does He hesitate to warn against hell fire. We have become so delicate in our vocabulary that we speak of hell as hades to-day. We have changed our vocabulary because we have changed our faith. And what shall we say as to one of His pronouncements at the judgment: ‘‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into ever- lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment.’?’ ™ Was Jesus a coward in thus making appeal to fear? Why then should those who make the same appeal be accused of being cowardly, hard-hearted, and lacking in human compassion? The judge, lawyer, schoolmaster and doctor appeal to fear—are they cowardly? We see, to our deep regret, the result in some families where the parents have been too indulgent and have failed to ap- peal to the element of fear. A healthy, wholesome fear is a good, stimulating thing. There is something in God for the wicked to be afraid of. Let us not forget that. The Master used it; so may we. ‘‘The servant is not greater than his Lord.’’” ®*Tuke 12: 4, 5. * Mark 9: 43-48. ™ Matt. 25:41, 46. *% John 13: 16, THH JUDGMENTS 131 Perhaps there is not enough appeal to fear and the conscience in the preaching of to-day. Men are not dis- turbed as they should be about their sins and future retribution. It would be a healthy thing methinks for both pulpit and pew had we more appeal made to the fact and certainty of a coming day of judgment. You do not think less of your doctor because he tells you that you have a cancer or tuberculosis, if his examination re- veals such conditions, do you? Certainly not; you are glad he has found out the real truth and warned you so that perhaps by care the days of your natural life may be lengthened. Nor do you call him an alarmist because he thus has diagnosed your condition. So is it and should always be with the true minister of the Gospel. He is under obligation to preach and proclaim what he finds in the Bible. If there is one thing certain in the divine revelation it is that some day every man and woman will have to stand before God and give account for the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or bad. And that preacher is a coward and unworthy of his trust who fails to thus warn. Men, methinks, would be more careful in their way of living were they to think ‘of that coming day. I recall reading that when Luther was on trial before an ecclesiastical court, he spoke thoughtlessly, not taking time to consider the importance or results of what he might say. Then his attention was drawn to the fact that behind the judges’ bench two secretaries were mak- ing a record of all he said and that what he said would be used against him. ‘‘Then,’’ replied the reformer, ‘‘T shall have to be more careful what I say, seeing it will be used against me.’’ So it seems to me that we all would be more careful did we remember that what we 132 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? say and do will be used for or against us in that great day. Few things in the Bible are more confidently affirmed than that there shall be such a future judgment day. As certain as the inviolable oath of God, as sure as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, as infallible as the teaching of Jesus—so certainly is the fact of a judgment day recorded in the Bible. ‘‘It is appointed unto man once to die; and after this the judgment.’’ * ‘‘There is the end of it all,’’ said a seeptic to a man standing by his side watching a funeral procession pass by. ““No,’’ said his friend, ‘‘that is not the end, for after death comes the judgment; and what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ?’’ “God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath or- dained; and hath given proof to all men in that he hath raised him [Jesus Christ] from the dead.’’“ ‘‘For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.’’* “God will bring into judgment every work with every secret thing, whether it be good or bad.’’* ‘‘In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel.’’” Not one living soul will escape coming up to the judgment. Even the Christian, for whom there is no judgment as to life and death, will have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ for the reward or loss of reward, for the ‘‘things done in the body, whether they be bad or good.’’ How solemn are those words found in the Revelation: * Heb. 9: 27. “Acts 17° 37, * 2 Cor. cere 7° Rom. 2: 16, Rom. 2: 16. THE JUDGMENTS 133 —‘‘And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hades gave up the dead that were in them; and they were all judged out of the things which were writ- ten in the books. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.’’ * No one escaped, you see. Even the sea gave up its secrets. Sometime ago a man murdered one of his fel- low-fishermen and threw the body into Lake Michigan. The murderer fled, but after three or four days came back again to his house by the lake. And, lo, to his horror, the water washed up to the door of his house the body of the man he had murdered! So the sea gave up the dead which was in it. So in that great day the sea, death, the grave, yea, and hades, all will give up the dead that are in them. None shall escape the ordeal of the judgment. Eugene Aram’s corpse will not remain hid- | den: the brook-bed dries up and the wind blows away the leaves which cover it. No secret will be forever withheld. Oh, this is a thought that takes the glamour out of sin, whether open or secret. ‘‘Thou, God, seest me.’’?” ‘‘Prepare to meet thy God.’’” Let none be deluded by thinking that God is too good to bring men into judgment. Let us not abuse the glorious truth of the Fatherhood of God. It is not a #® Rev. 20: 12-15. | * Gen, 16: 13. *7 Amos 4:12. 134 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? weak, sickly, effeminate thing. God is a righteous Fa- ther. How anxious the apostle Peter is to keep us from misunderstanding God when he says: ‘‘And if ye eall on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.’’” One has well said that we look unto the Fatherhood of God for sweetness; Peter would have us see whiteness. We look for gentleness; Peter would have us look for holiness. We look to the Fatherhood of God for tender yearning over the sinner; Peter will not have us overlook the divine and Fatherly hostility towards sin. We associate with the Fatherhood of God the idea of the fireside; Peter would have us link it with the whiteness of the throne. We think of laxity; Peter will have us remember righteousness. When we speak of the Fatherhood of God we are apt to think only of the Father that pitieth, forgiveth and loveth—ideas which belong to the fireside in the home; Peter would have us remember that it is of a Father that judgeth and punisheth also that He would have us think. This is a striking, daring comparison of terms, is it not?” It is the wedlock of the Father and the Judge. And men should never forget this tremendous truth. ‘‘The Lord knoweth how to reserve the ungodly unto the judg- ment of the great day.’’® No GENERAL JUDGMENT Here again, as in the case of the resurrection, we need to be reminded that the Bible does not teach a ‘‘ general”? judgment day; a day when all, at the same time and place, shall stand before God to be judged. The fact of the matter is that there are a number of judgments "1 Pet. 1:17. * After Jowett. 5 Pet. 2io THE JUDGMENTS 135 referred to in the Scriptures: that of Satan, of evil angels, of the world, of the living nations, of the judg- ment seat of Christ, of the Great White Throne. There ean be no intelligent understanding of the matter unless this fact is kept in mind. There is the gudgment of Satan. That took place at the Cross, in one sense; in a larger and fuller sense it is yet future. ‘‘Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out.’?” ‘‘Of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged.’’* ‘‘I beheld Satan as lightning fallen from heaven.’’” ‘‘The accuser of the brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God, day and night.’’* ** And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.’’” How little we know of the tre- mendous significance of the victory of the Cross and how far-reaching its effects! ‘‘And having spoiled princi- palities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.’’” Here is a dramatic pic- ture of Christ, by His death on the Cross, throwing off from Himself the hostile powers and principalities. ‘‘The paradox of the Cross is here presented in the strongest light. Here is triumph in helplessness and glory in shame. The convict’s gibbet is the victor’s car. The seemingly vanquished is the triumphant victor. The point of most awful defeat is seen to be the very apex of imperishable triumph.’’” The evil principalities and powers—that means Satan and his angels—are flung off * John 12: 31, 32. *% John 16: 11. *Tuke 10: 18 ** Rev. 12: 10. *8 Rev. 20: I0. pfs Wa) BA a ® See Weymouth. 136 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? from Him, and He displays them as His conquered ene- mies. | | Here is a great truth for the Christian to grasp. Satan is a conquered enemy. The great adversary of the soul eannot lay a finger on the Christian without the divine permission, even as Satan could not lay a finger on Job without God permitting him to do so: ‘‘Hast thou not set a hedge about him, and all that he hath, so that I may not touch him?’’* ‘‘Simon, Simon, Satan hath made request for you that he might have you to sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.’’” Of his own accord Satan could not sift Peter; he had to get permission even to sift the chaff out of the apostle. During this present age Satan has great power. He is the controlling force in the lives of the wicked. Just as the righteous are led by the Spirit of God™ so the wicked are led by Satan. He is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience.“ Satan is the head of the kingdom of darkness just as Jesus is the Head of the kingdom of light.” The devil is the prince and ruler of this world. ‘‘The whole world lieth in the lap of the evil one.’’?” Jesus never underestimated or ridiculed the power and existence of Satan as so many are doing to-day. To Jesus Satan and evil angels were as real as God and good angels. But Satan’s doom is inevitable. “God will bruise Satan under your feet shortly.’?® Eventually he will be cast into the lake of fire to be tormented day and night for ever and ever. The judg- ment pronounced upon Satan at the Cross insures his destruction. | S Job 1:9-11. “Luke 22:31, 32. “Rom. 8:14. “Eph. 2: 1-3. * Matt. 12: 26-28, * 1 John 5: 10. * Rom. 16: 20. THE JUDGMENTS 137 There is then a judgment of this world. ‘*Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me. This spake he signifying by what death he should die.’’* By the world is meant that system or order of things antagonistic to God and hostile to His will and purposes. So Satan is the god of this world [age].” In this created world in which we live there is a system, an organized Satanic system, which is doomed, judgment having been pronounced upon it at the Cross. There have been great crises in the world’s history, but none so great as that which took place at the Cross—the judgment of this world. At the Cross the world showed its attitude towards God and His Christ. The rejection of Christ is a world as well as an indi- vidual problem. The world must be dealt with for its treatment of the Christ problem. There is a world-con- sciousness and a world-guilt. Some day this world will come to see its error in the rejection and crucifixion of the Son of God. The Cross is a revelation of the world’s standards of life and its estimates of values; also its views of the Son of God and His atoning death. Some day this world will have to face God and give an account for its treatment of His Son. And that is true, too, of those systems, movements, and tendencies in the world to-day which are antagonistic to Christ, be they political, military, social, economic, educational. The wisdom of this world,” too, is doomed, and so are those who use it to despoil souls of their faith in God and religion. It is no smal] matter when educational institutions and pro- fessors destroy the faith of our youth by injecting doubt and unbelief into their minds. The godless, ® John 12:31, 32. "5. Cor. 4° 4. “7 Cor. 236 138 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? Christless and irreligious legislation of this world will also come up before the judgment. This world with its countenancing of the opium and drink traffic and such things as destroy the bodies and souls of men will have to face the judgment. Nations as well as individuals ten RTT aise a CONN natalia na ot shall come up for judgment: “And before - him shall be gathered all the nations. ein V4 a‘ - It is for this reason that we are commanded not to love the world. We must set our affections on God and the things which abide forever. ‘‘Love not the world neither the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world: and the world passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.’’ ® There are those who make light of the statement of divine writ that this old world will one day be brought face to face with a great crisis of judgment. They de- clare that things are going to continue on their even way as they have done since the beginning of the creation. Peter tells us about such people: ‘‘In the last days, seoffers shall come, walking after their own lusts and saying: Where is the promise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the ereation. For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens that were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water; whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.’’“ So when Meath. a5 3/32, “1 John 2: 15-17. @2 Pet: s14% THE JUDGMENTS 139 men say this old world is not doomed they willingly and stubbornly close their eyes to patent and divinely re- vealed facts. And so is the wisdom of this world doomed. ‘‘The. world by its wisdom knew not God.’’ All that goes. under the name of learning, scholarship, advanced thought, science, ete., and that is contrary to the Christ and His Cross is doomed. God will ‘‘take the wise in their own craftiness.’’ ‘‘The wisdom of this world . . « will come to nought.’’? Our faith is to stand not - in the wisdom of men, but in the power and wisdom of God. And perhaps we should say here that every in- stitution and every teacher promulgating teaching that is antagonistic to Christ and His Cross is doomed. And this note needs to be sounded far and wide to-day. This is an age in which we worship education. We have made a god out of scholarship. The university has become more than the Church and the professor than the prophet. This is a reversal of true values and spells doom. We do not need to get away from Christ for advancement in knowledge, for ‘‘in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; and we are com- plete in him.’’“ There is an advance in knowledge which is not progress but apostasy, and that is any ad- vanee in knowledge that takes us away from Christ. Advance in Christ there may be, but advancement away from Christ there must not be. It is against this danger that John in his second epistle warns us: ‘‘ Whosoever goeth onward [desireth to take the lead, the preéminence, to be counted as an advanced thinker] and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, he hath not God.’’* There is also a judgment of the believer’s sins. This, e Cola ss: ®2 John 7-9. 140 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? too, took place at the Cross. Oh, how wonderful is the Cross! How much that concerns us and our salvation took place on that rugged hill outside the city wall of Jerusalem! ‘‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life.’’“ The moment a man believes in Jesus Christ as Saviour and accepts Him as such, that very moment the sin question is set- tled; never again will it be brought up as to eternal life and death. That matter was settled once for all at the Cross. A judgment against the believer’s sins took place there and God will not again bring them into judg- ment: ‘‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.’’ Mark you, it is not the merey of God, but His justice and righteousness that guarantees the forgiveness of sin to the truly penitent. Jesus bore the believer’s sins on the Cross; He bore their guilt and punishment. To punish the penitent sinner who believes in Jesus would be to punish sin a second time,” which would be a breach of faith with the vicarious Sufferer and an injustice to the sinner himself who, in the person of his Substitute, has suffered and died. ‘‘There is therefore now no con- demnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.’?“ ‘‘There- fore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’?” The sin which con- stituted a barrier between God and the sinner has been removed by the death of Christ. We are reconciled;™ God is propitiated.” “John 5: 14. “+ John 1:09. ®Cf. Num. 20: 10-13; Heb. 9: 26-28. “Rom. 8:1. “Rom. 5:1, m2 Cor: 5218-20; ? Tuke 18:13 R. V. M.; Rom. 3: 25. THE JUDGMENTS 141 **My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought— My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to His Cross and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O, my soul!’’ There 7s a judgment, however, in connection with the believer and his sins. That is a judgment by the be- liever upon himself. ‘‘But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.’’* Yet, strictly speaking, the sin here referred to does not concern so much the Christian’s sins and sin- ful habits as it concerns himself—that he should allow such to have any place in his life as a redeemed child of God, for whom the power of Satan has been broken and who is indwelt by One who is greater than he that is in the world. Victory has been guaranteed by the Cross and the believer should not permit himself to be overcome by defeated enemies.. That is the matter for judgment. ““And I have wounded Thee. , Wounded the dear, dear hand that held me fast? 1 % 2% He Ee % 4 Sorrow and bitter grief replace my bliss; I have no room for any other thought than this— That I have sinned, have wounded Thee. * % K x K x if O, how could I grieve Thee so? Thou could’st have kept. . My fall was not the failure of Thy Word. * % ye He % % Eo O, Saviour, bid me go and sin no more.’’ %y Cor. Ir: 28-32. 142 AFTER DEATH—WH£T THEN? We come next to consider the judgment seat of, Christ“ This is a judgment for Christians alone. It is one that does not concern the question of eternal life or death. That question was settled once for all, as we have already seen, when the believer accepted Christ as his atoning Redeemer. This Judgment is for the award- ing of the saints. It is for the revealing of the sons of God. In this world the Christian does not always re- ceive his reward for the good he has done. The day is coming when he will, however. ‘‘For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body ac- eording to that which he hath done, whether it be good or bad.’’?™ That the reference here is to believers only is clear from the entire context. There awaits a mani- festing, a revealing, of the sons of God.” We travel im cogmito here in this world. We are really the sons of God here, but it doth not appear so to the world. Some day it will be revealed. ‘‘Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God; and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that when it shall be manifested we shall be hke him for we shall see him as he is.”??” Some day the child of God will stand out in all his royal dignity and glory. What a day of rejoicing that will be! The believer is saved by faith; he is rewarded accord- ing to his works. There will be degrees of reward in heaven as there will be degrees of punishment in hell. > 'Cor. 5’: 10. Rom. 8: 19-21. mT Johnie 1, 2 THE JUDGMENTS 143 Some will be set over ten cities, others over five.” Some will be punished with many stripes, others with few.” Every Christian’s cup will be full, no doubt, but, as some one has well said, ‘‘all cups will not be of the same size.’’ Some Christians will be saved yet, so as by fire,” that is to say they themselves will be saved but their works will be burnt up. Others will receive an abundant entrance” into the glory land, like a ship coming into harbour under full sail. No Christian can sin with im- punity. Every sin brings judgment, yea, and loss, too. Every neglect of duty brings loss of reward. ‘‘Beware that no man take thy crown.’’” When a Christian sins and then confesses and puts that sin away, is that the end of it? It isso far as its guilt being taken away and its being forgiven is concerned. But that is not all there is to it. Judgment, in the sense of discipline, yea and loss of reward, follows that sin.” This is what should make a Christian walk humbly after he has committed asin. There is far too much levity connected with for- giveness. We should feel a sense of shame that we, who have been redeemed by His blood and made heirs through His grace, should think so little of Him as to grieve Him and wound Him afresh with our sin. One sometimes feels that, after committing a sin and confessing it, he does not want to sing but rather walk humbly before the Lord. To be wounded in the house of one’s friends * is very much more hurtful than to be wounded by one’s enemies. ‘‘Et tu, Brute!’ The Christian is not always rewarded in this life. ‘*Hope is sown for the righteous.’’ The future will re- ® Tuke 19: 17-19. ® Luke 12:47, 48 ™y Cor. 3: 15. W2 Pet 125u “ Rev. 3: If. x Cor. I1:'20-32. s Zech.\13¢ 0, 144 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? veal the harvest. The inheritance, which is incorrupti- ble and undefiled, is laid up for the Christian.“ This does not mean that he does not have an experience of blessedness here. He does; but the fulness of his re- ward is in the future. Nor does it mean that in order for the Christian to save his soul for the future he must lose the best there is in this hfe. That is a wrong con- ception of the Master’s words: ‘‘For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’?® A man does not have to lose the best there is in this life in order to gain heaven. Nor does it fol- low that the man who loses his soul gets the best there is in this world. He may lose the best in this life and also in that life to come. We value things not for what they are in themselves, but for the satisfaction they are eapable of yielding to us; and the true Christian gets a hundred times more out of the present life than he did before he began to make sacrifices for his divine Master. ‘‘ And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake shall receive a hundredfold in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting.’’ ® There is also the judgment of the living nations.” It is recorded in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. A eareful reading shows us that it is not a judgment of individuals but of nations. Further, we believe it to bea judgment of those nations that have had partictilar re- lation to, and dealings with, God’s Chosen People, the Jews. This particular Judgment, we feel, should not be considered in any other light. Too often we hear it made the basis of a doctrine of salvation by works—which “; Pet, 124-5. ® Mark 8: 36. *® Matt. 19:29; Mark 10: 29, 30. * Matt. 25: 31-46. THE JUDGMENTS 145 eannot be, of course, for were that true, it would be contrary to the analogy of faith and the general tenor of Scripture teaching, which clearly shows that salva- * tion is absolutely by grace without any works of our own. ‘To add one single work of ours to the finished work of Christ would be to insult the Spirit of God. Social service must look elsewhere for any doctrine of salvation by works it may desire to base on this par- ticular judgment. Social service is a blessed thing; but it should not be forgotten that it is a service and not a Gospel. It follows faith in Christ. The Gospel needs no adjective, such as ‘‘social’’ before it, and he who thus amends it thereby shows his ignorance of the true nature of the Gospel. Works follow, they do not precede faith. And works will follow faith; they cannot help it. A man may have works without faith—we see that on every hand. But no man ean have faith and not works, for ‘faith without works is dead, being alone.’’ Can that faith save? Certainly not. Works have an important place in the Christian life; they follow faith; they are the basis of the Christian’s reward, but they are not a ticket of entrance into heaven. That this judgment of the living nations is not to be confounded with that of the Great White Throne is clear from the fact thaf it is the living and not the dead that are before Christ for judgment; and, further, Christ is dealing with nations and not individuals (‘‘every man’’) “ as is the case in the last judgment. God will . deal with nations for their conduct even as He deals with individuals. This point need not be argued with those who are acquainted with the contents of the Old Testa- * Rom. 3:10, 20; Gal. 2:16, 21; 3:10; Eph. 2:5-8. ™ Jas. 2: 14-20. ” Rev. 20: 13. 146 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? ment. God dealt with the nations of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and other nations for their treatment of His peo- ple Israel, and He will do so again. ‘‘I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee.’??“ We see the truth of this in history. Those nations that have been kind to Israel have been blessed and those nations that have persecuted them have been cursed. God still has His eye on His chosen people. He is not through with them yet. They are yet to play an important part in the world’s history as the present revival among them shows. We of to-day need to keep our eye on Palestine and the Jew. Let the nations of the earth beware how they treat this people. The day of their return has begun—and God will finish what He has begun, all the malice and spite of man to the contrary notwithstand- ing.” We come, finally, to the judgment of the Great White Throne.” This is the last and greatest assize. Here is the record of it: ‘‘And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand be- fore God: and the books were opened: and another book “was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to his works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.’’® ™ Gen. 12: 3. ” Rom. 11, .. “Rev. 20: ra-38, THE JUDGMENTS 147 That this is the resurrection of the wicked dead is clear from the preceding verses of this chapter which deseribe the resurrection of the righteous dead who have been raised and reigning with Christ a thousand years.” Those remaining in their graves after the resurrection of the righteous are called the rest of the dead,” those who have no part whatever in the first resurrection ; they are not priests of God and of Christ, nor are they among the holy ones; they are the wicked, who are now to stand before the Great White Throne to meet their doom. Reference is here made to the books and to the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things recorded in ‘‘the books.’’ The ‘‘book of life’’ is there to bear witness to the fact that the names of those to be now judged are not written therein. None of those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be in this judgment. When the Book of Life is opened the names of the wicked are not found there. When their names are called there is no one to stand for them. Can we now appreciate what Jesus meant when He said: ‘*Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven. But who- soever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before my Father and the holy angels.’?” Here are men that were too cowardly to acknowledge Jesus down here on the earth; now their own names stand unacknowledged before the Throne. When the Book of Life is opened, my friend, will your name be found there?” Will you have any one to confess you before the Father? Will there be any one to stand up for you in that day? When the Book of Life is opened will there be a blank where ™ Rev. 20: 3-6. ® Rev. 20: 5. ® Matt. 10: 32, 33. ™ Luke 10: 20. 148 3 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? your name should have been? We are told that when Napoleon died on the island of St. Helena, his companion in exile and faithful friend went to the Governor-Gen- eral of the island and announced the fact of the ex- emperor’s death, at the same time asking permission to have the words: ‘‘Napoleon, Emperor’’ carved on the tombstone. This permission was refused. And so, we are told, the tombstone bore this inscription: ‘‘ Here lies one with no name.’’? How tragic an ending to what might have been a most wonderful life! Will your end- ing be as tragic as that when the Book of Life is opened? “‘Lord, I care not for riches, neither silver nor gold; I would make sure of heaven, I would enter the fold; In the Book of Thy kingdom, on tts pages so fair: . Tell me, Jesus my Saviour—Is my name written there? “Is my name written there, on its pages so fair? In the book of Thy kingdom—Is my name written there?’? The ‘‘books’’ were there and opened in order that the judgment meted out might be in accordance with each man’s record. Every man is judged according to the things written in the books. Every man will get a square deal in the judgment. And there will be degrees of punishment, too. A man’s life and its opportunities and privileges will be taken into consideration. It shall be more tolerable “ for some than for others. Some will be punished with many stripes, others with few.” There will be no respect of persons” in the judgment of that day. It was said of Jesus during the days of His flesh: *“Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, for thou re- *% Luke 10: 12, ® Luke 12:47, 48. Rom. 2:11. THE JUDGMENTS 149 81 gardest not the person of men.’’” What was true of Jesus then will be true of Him in that day of judgment. Every mask will be torn off, and men will appear in their true character before Him, irrespective of station, position, scholarship, ignorance, wealth or poverty. ‘‘Hor there is no respect of persons with God.’’ ‘‘For as many as have sinned without law, shall perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law, in the day when God shall reveal the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.’’” ‘‘There is, of course, an infinite diversity in both mental and moral charac- teristics in the various members of the human race, and in their worldly position and possessions. These out- ward distinctions often serve as a mask [persona] more or less completely hiding from the individual and from others the soul or spirit within which constitutes the real and enduring man and is common to the whole race. The glance, however, of our one Father penetrates through the mask. In His dealings with us He ignores outward distinctions, and does not accept any one’s ‘“person.”’ Christ ts to be the Judge. This truth must not be overlooked. ‘‘The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father; he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.’’* ‘‘God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; and hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead.’’™ **In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by ®* Luke 20: 21. ® Rom. 2: 16, 8 John 5: 22, 23. * Acts 17<2t, 150 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? Jesus Christ.’?” ‘‘Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead.’’™ ‘‘The Son of Man shall come and before him shall be gathered all the na- tions. ‘‘God hath committed all judgment unto the Son because he is the Son of Man.’’™ Men try to evade Christ and His claims to-day, and they seem to succeed in doing so. The day will surely and certainly come when they cannot evade Him. They will have to meet Him face to face. Jesus Christ and His claims must be faced sooner or later. No man can ultimately and finally avoid them. The day will come when ‘‘every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.’’® Would it not be better to face Him and His claims now, and acknowledge Him freely and by faith as Saviour than to have to be compelled to bow in fear and dread and have to acknowledge Him as Judge and hear Him say: ‘‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels’’?” ‘‘Be wise, ye sons of men. Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye _ perish by the way.’’” This great fact that Christ is to be the Judge seems to be the warning note of the epistle to the Hebrews which speaks so solemnly of ‘‘a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries’? of the Christ. ‘‘For if we sin wilfully (that is if after all the proofs we have had presented to us regarding Christ and His sacrificial work we turn away from Him) after that we have received the knowl- edge of truth, there remaineth no more (a, or other)- sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of >> 86 > Tim. 4:1. Matt. 25 * 30, 31. “John St27 * Phil. 2: 9-11. © Matt. 25:41; 7:23. ° Psa. 2:02 THE JUDGMENTS 151 judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without merey under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be counted worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath eounted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace. For we know him that saith, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord; and again, The Lord shall judge his people. . . . For our God is also a consuming fire. . . . Itisa fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’’” Think you that in the face of these solemn Scriptures men can reject the Son of God, treat lightly His claims, scorn His Cross as the divine way of forgiveness—and get away with it? Surely no man is foolish enough to believe that in the face of this evidence. Jesus Christ and His claims must be met—shall it be—now, or then? When shall it once be? The deciding question of the Judgment will be a twofold one: ‘‘What think ye of the Christ?’’ and ‘*What shall I do with Jesus which is called Christ?’ ” On the answer to this twofold question hangs the eternal destiny of men. Let us not misstate this matter; let us understand it clearly. Christ is the issue of eternity. ‘‘For this crisis eame I into this world.’’ The Man of the Cross is the Man of the Throne. If you have shared with Him in His Cross, you shall also share with Him in the glory of His throne. If, however, you have re- fused Him here, you will be banished from Him there. There must be no confusing of the issue. Let us be clear about that. Peter, in his second epistle, makes this ™ Heb. 10: 27-31: 12: 20. @ Matt. 22:\423 27." 22: Ul 152 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? point clear. He says that “‘the denial of the Lord that bought them’’ is the sin that is brought up before the judgment, and which brings ‘“‘swift destruction upon men.’’™ The fact that Jesus is to be the Judge guarantees a square deal to every man. All judgment is committed to Jesus Christ ‘‘because he is the Son of Man.’’™ This assures us of all needed sympathy at the judgment. He understands all about our circumstances: ‘‘I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is, and hast not denied my name.’’” He knows what a struggle it took to confess Him amid such surroundings. He under- stands the circumstances under which we had to live our life, fight our battles and meet our temptations. ‘‘He was tempted in all points like as we are, sin apart.’’™ ‘“We have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.’? How comforting, in the light of this truth, the words of Revelation: ‘‘T know,’’ ‘‘T know,’’ ‘‘I know.’’” There will be no man in that day that will find fault with the judgment. He will acknowledge that he has received a square deal. ‘‘The judge of all the earth will do right;’’ ‘‘God is righteous; I and my people are wicked.’’ ® MoPeéte 20555) % John’s +27. 4 "= Rey, (2813, hse Feber Pf Rew 222, 0010253 NT G.5re: * Gen. 18:25; Exod. 9: 27. te : ; a) ‘ , .— - ae eee a Oe ee ee ee ee IX FUTURE RETRIBUTION q “SHE term ‘‘retribution’’ is to be preferred to that of ‘‘punishment.’’ The idea of vindic- tiveness has been associated in the minds of many people with the former word and it is very diffi- eult to dissociate that idea from their conception of pun- ishment. The thought of revenge was not in the word as originally used; it is entirely foreign to its meaning. For this reason, therefore, we use the word ‘‘retribu- tion.’’ The subject of future retribution is a most difficult one to speak or write about. No one should speak or write | about it unless through tears. Not to be broken-hearted is to be hard-hearted. To proclaim all the truth as it is’ revealed in the Word of God and not offend some who read or hear is a practical impossibility. Most people have formed very decided opinions regarding the sub- ject of future retribution. The topic is such an awful one that many people shut their ears to the truth. They simply will not listen. They say, in the words of the prophet of old: ‘‘Prophesy unto us smooth things.’’* The doctrine of hell is an alarming subject and there are many people who most seriously object to being alarmed. Again in the words of the prophet they say: ‘‘ Prophesy unto us peace.’’ But how ean a true messenger say: **Peace, peace, when there is no peace’’?? All extremes should be avoided in the discussion of eer. B30, 2 Jer. 6: 14. 153 154 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? this subject. This is at once admitted. All the facts should be presented; nothing should be left out; yet radicalism should be avoided. There are those who preach hell with vigour and neglect heaven. On the other hand there are those who lay great emphasis on heaven but ignore hell altogether. All-heaven and all- hell preaching should alike be avoided. We should give each condition and place its due proportion in our think- ing and proclamation. ‘To leave out any one fact con- nected with either heaven or hell is fatal to a real con- clusion. We must have all the facts in the case. No evidence should be withheld. It has been well said that the discussion of this sub- ject must be loving and true. To be tolerant without being truthful is not being loving; it is unkind; it is - eruel; it is cowardly. Yet, as has been said, to tell the truth without being broken-hearted is to be hard-hearted. It is worthy of note that the twenty-third chapter of Matthew—that chapter so full of invectives hurled by the Master at the hypocrisy of the Pharisees—ends with a sob and in tears: ‘‘And Jesus . . . wept.’?* A man, who had listened to cardinal Newman preach, came to his house one day and desired an interview. The ealler was ushered into the library of the cardinal’s home. Soon the prelate came down-stairs and in a very cordial way greeted the caller. ‘‘My friend, what can I do for 4 you?’’ asked Newman. ‘“Well,’? said the visitor, ‘‘didn’t you say in your sermon yesterday that Jesus was love?’’ ‘‘T did. But why do you ask? Do you not believe chile Ge ‘I certainly do not,’’? answered the visitor. ‘‘Read ® Matt. 23: 37. FUTURE RETRIBUTION 155 that, and after reading it tell me if you can still say that Jesus was love.’’ The cardinal took the proffered Testament which the visitor had opened at the twenty-third chapter of Matthew. He looked it over carefully and then began to read it aloud, as he thought Jesus uttered it— with a heart full of love and compassion. When he had finished he turned to give back the Testament to the ealler, and found him in tears. ‘“What is the matter, my friend?’’ asked Newman. ‘“Oh, I was just thinking that if Jesus said those words as you have read them, He must have been loving.’’ So should it be with our presentation of the subject of future retribution. We should be true, yet loving—lov- ing, yet true. The subject, fortunately, is not a matter of mere hu- man opinion; it is not a subjective affair. It is a matter of divine revelation; it is objJective—the evidence is out- side of ourselves in the last analysis. Of course con- science and intuition may help to corroborate revelation, but, ultimately, the Bible is the court of final appeal. The subject of future retribution is found between the covers of the Bible—and quite prominently, too. This cannot reasonably be denied. It is, of course, the duty of the ambassador of heaven to proclaim what is within that revelation. It is not his to argue nor reason why it should be thus and so any more than the United States ambassador has any right to question the wisdom or correctness of any message that may be sent to him from his Government to present to.a Foreign Court or Govern- ment. He is but the mouthpiece, for the time being, of the State. ‘‘Now then we are ambassadors for Christ.’ * 72 Cotes: 20 156 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? We do not create the message; we deliver it. It is not ours to even defend it; it is ours to proclaim it. As to whether it is just or compatible with our own ideas as to what the message ought to be is no concern of ours. We have but one thing to do, and that is to deliver the message. The results are with God not with the preacher. Sometimes the deliverance of a government’s message to another government results in the ambassador being sent home. But that is what he is to expect. He is there to do his duty to his own government and country let the results be what they may. So the preacher is not the creator of his message; nor is he called upon to argue for its truth and reasonableness; whether it is compati- ble or not with other phases of the divine character is not his concern. Once assured that he has the message of the King,’ he has no alternative but to deliver it—let consequences be what they may. The preacher does not originate his message; he delivers it. , The doctrine of heaven.and.hellrise.or.fall.together,. for both rest.upon the same divine.revelation—the Word of God. Itisnota question as to what we as individuals may think about the matter,.but what the inspired Word of God declares relative to the subject. The matter is one of objective revelation, not of subjective speculation. Both heaven and hell are described in metaphoric, sym- bolic and allegoric terms, and both have the word ‘‘ever- jlasting’’* attached to them. Some one has said that if the threatenings of God are unreliable, so are His prom- ises; and if His denunciations are empty, what becomes || of His invitations? It was John Ruskin who said that \\**the denial of hell was most damaging because the most attractive form of infidelity.’? Its denial is as old as the °Jer. 23:28; Jonah 3:2. * Matt. 25: 46. FUTURE RETRIBUTION 157 human race, for even in Eden Satan said: ‘‘ Ye shall no die.’ * Future retribution formed an important part of the teaching of Jesus and the revelation of God and the fu- ture life which He brought to mankind. A careful study of all the passages in which our Lord makes reference to the subject clearly shows us that it formed not merely an incidental but a most fundamental part of His doctrine regarding the future state.” It formed the dark back- ground from which the redeeming love of God shone forth in magnificent relief. But it was surely there as a background. He did not ignore it. And the Gospel loses much of its force when this subject is neglected. The fact of it shows the urgency of repentance in this life, a duty which cannot be postponed until the future when it will be too late. The religion of Jesus Christ is one of rescue_as well as repair. It delivers men from something as well as saves | : them for something. It rescues them from wrath to ’ come* as well as keeping them in this life and giving them at last an abundant entrance into the kingdom of the Father.” It gives pardon, peace, power and joy here; it crowns our victorious struggles at last with the divine glory; but it also delivers us from hell and ever- lasting punishment.” Let us not overlook this fact. That Jesus taught this doctrine should be an end to all controversy on the subject as to whether there is such a place and condition or not. If it can be shown from * Gen. 3:4. ® See Matt. 5:22, 20, 30; 7:10; z. 12; 10:28; 13:41, 42, 40, 503 22:13; 25:30, 31, 41, 46; 23:15, 33; Mark 3:20; 5:20; 9:43- 49; Luke 13:28; 12:4, 5; 12:47, 48; John 8: 21, 24; Rev. 20: 10, 14, 15; John ts: 6, etc. * Rom. R062 Thess. 1-102, 2 Pet. 1:17, .)" Matt: 25 * 46: 158 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? a fair, grammatical, contextual, exegetical interpreta- tion of the teaching of Jesus that He actually taught such a condition of life beyond the grave, then we ought to believe it no matter how great may be the difficulties ‘though, perhaps, not Hane for us to proclaim Bs ‘ ‘There are certain things which, we think, should be conceded in the considerationof-the-matter..of future retribution. The first is that there will be. a, difference.in. the con- dition of the righteous and the wicked in the next world. This should be clearly and fairly admitted. If we give to the justice of heaven the same common sense. that, we. give to.the justice of earth, ‘then somewhere in the next world we will place.a-penitentiary where the wicked are ~ kept. The presence of a clean city implies the existence of commons where all that is unclean is cast. Surely. we do not think for a single moment that Czolgosz and McKinley, Guiteau and Garfield, “Booth and Lincoln, Judas and Paul, Herod and Christ are in the same place. | Surely no serious-minded man would, for a moment, en- tertain such an idea.” If there were no hell we would feel that there ought to be one for the wicked. So we _ conclude, even apart from the revelation of the divine Word, that there is a different destiny for the good and the bad,,.the righteous and the wicked, the godly and ungodly, the chaff and wheat. ‘‘Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him, but woe to the wicked.’’* ‘Tet me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.’’” ‘‘The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death.’ Gen. 18: 25. Numbers 23: 10. Num. 23: 10. *“ Prov. 10; 283 41? 2, FUTURE RETRIBUTION 159 ‘And they (those who feared the Lord) shall be mine, saith Jehovah of hosts, even mine own possession, in the day when I do act. And I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. And ye shall tread down the wicked, and they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in that day that I do act, saith Jehovah of hosts. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and gambol as the calves of the stall.’’ * In the next place we will admit, I feel sure, that the Judge of all the earth will do right; that He will give every man a square deal; that He will take into consid- eration the Rrcametingss and setting of a man’s life, his environment and what comes to him from heredity, the opportunities or privileges that have been his and those of which he has been deprived. All this, we feel sure, we have shown in our discussion of The Judgment by the Son of Man.” The fact that it will be more tolerable “ for some than for others predicates a differ- ence in the standard of judgment and its awards. Further, we will admit that the lack of details sufficient to satisfy our knowledge or perhaps curiosity is not a valid argument against the existence and reality of fu- ture retribution. There are very many details lacking in the Biblical deseription of heaven, but we do not con- sider that to be an argument against the existence or reality of heaven. ‘‘No one knows where, in the plane- tary system, the earth is, whether near or far from the centre of the universe; or in what direction, up or down * Mal. 3: 16-18. * See pp. 149, 150. ™ Matt. 11: 20-24.. 160 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? it is moving, or what are the bounds of space. Yet the earth is real; it has a place, and is moving in spite of our ignorance of these details. We will all acknowledge, too, I am sure, that prejudice will shut our eyes to fact and truth. The trouble with a bigot is that the more light you throw into him the blinder he becomes. It is quite easy, and shall we say quite natural, to become prejudiced with regard to an unpleasant subject like this one of future retribution. We need, therefore, to be on our guard against prejudice in considering it. I heard of a man who, being quite hostile to the deity of Christ and His physical resurrec- tion, asked a second-hand book-dealer to set aside for him any book that came into the store that argued against both these great facts connected with Christ. This man had a closed mind to truth. It is said of a certain well- known professor that, on seeing a newly-discovered geo- logical specimen that controverted one of his theories, he quietly said: ‘‘If no one were looking I would be glad to throw that fossil out of the window.’’ That is what we call holding a prejudiced mind. No truth can get in there, and as the late Professor Hyatt, of Har- vard, once said that ‘‘a scientific man who has a theory to support is as stubbornly difficult to convince as any other man.”’ There is a story told of a farmer who was visiting a zoo. He stood amazed as he looked at a dromedary with a great hump on its back. When he was told that there was yet another animal with two humps on its back he ridiculed the idea, and swore that there could not be such a freak animal. When, later, he was shown a eamel, and his attention drawn to the two humps on its back, he exclaimed with an emphatic shake of the FUTURE RETRIBUTION 161 foot: ‘‘I tell you there ain’t no such animal.’’ We must have a love for fact and truth irrespective as to whether or not it agrees with our already formed ideas and no- tions. We must be willing, if we are to be discoverers of truth, to throw overboard whatever theory we have previously held if further light shows it to be in error. And it is just such an attitude of mind that we need and must have if we are to arrive at the truth concerning the doctrine of future retribution. It is said of Kats ED Chatteris that, when dying, he said: ‘‘I will give one} \, hundred thousand dollars to any man who will prove to me that there is no hell.’? ~~ It is undoubtedly true that the language describing future retribution is metaphorical and figurative; but that is also true with regard to the Biblical descriptions of heaven. Figurative language stands for something; it represents stern reality even though couched in symbolie terms and parabolic form. Nor should we forget that according to the law of language the reality is always more intense than the figure describing it. These figures of speech stand for startling facts; they are emblems of a terrific reality. Just as in the case of heaven the figures of speech represent the most. wonderful and ele- gant beauty and eternal bliss, so these descriptions of future retribution must stand. as representing the most awful, unutterable suffering: the worm representing, perhaps, the accusing conscience, and the fire that is never quenched, physical suffering, insatiable desire. So the call to Dives to remember may set forth the tortures of the soul for neglect, for time and opportunity misspent es now beyond recall. Thus hell has been described | “Truth seen too late.?? Let us not be misled: the | 4 iia will exceed, not fall short of the metaphor, f 162 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? It must be conceded, also, in the discussion of this subject, that in the final analysis the appeal for decision must be the Bible. The proof is, in the main and in the ultimate, objective—it is outside ourselves. This as- sumes the integrity of the sacred Scriptures and their final authority in matters of faith and doctrine. This must be assumed here, for we have not space, neither is it the place, to discuss the authority of the Scriptures. There are certain things, relative to future retribution, - that the Bible is very clear and explicit about. Let us look at these things for a moment: It is certain that no argument as to the love and power of God to save to the uttermost, however plausible and eloquent, can cancel the great fact of the free agency of man, or the clear, plain utterances made by our loving Lord as to the destiny of the impenitently wicked. The love and justice of God are not incompatible terms. Justice is love in tears. The same God is both loving and just. It is certain, too, from the teaching of the Scriptures that God is not too good to punish sinners. Yet we hear statements to this effect quite frequently. How one can | make such statement in the face of the explicit teaching of the Bible to the contrary is difficult to understand. One has but to read the words of Jude” and Peter” their epistles to see how such a statement is confuted. In these epistles certain persons, cities, and events are held up as specimen warnings, ensamples, examples ”™ to those who should hereafter live ungodly lives and yet think they will escape the punishment due to such man- ner of living. If God spared not the angels, Sodom * Jude I 2 Pet: 2. "> Pet, 2: 6; Jude 7; Rom. 9: 209. FUTURE RETRIBUTION 163 and Gomorrah, the old world which perished in the flood, and the sons of Core, what reason have we for saying that God is too good to punish sin? Was He too good to destroy the old world because of its sin? Why should it be considered impossible that He should do the same thing with this present evil world?” He spared not angels when they sinned; why should He spare men who do likewise? The fact that He has done so once, is evi- dence that He will do so again; indeed the Bible very clearly declares that He will do so. Any view held to the contrary is the result, Peter says, of willing ignorance;” it is the result of a not wanting to believe; it is a will to disbelieve. There is such a thing even as there is, as the late Professor James said: ‘*A will to believe.’? Much depends upon one’s attitude of mind. The facts of God’s dealings as we know them in history and providence are all in favour of future retribution; the Bible is unequivocally clear about it; prejudice alone denies it. A man once wrote Voltaire as follows: ‘‘I have suc-| _ ceeded in getting rid of the idea of hell.’? ‘‘ Allow me! a to congratulate you,’’ Voltaire replied; ‘‘I am very far. from it.’? Men say: ‘‘God is a loving Father.’’ True, ' but He is not a weak, effeminate, foolish Father. He is not like David who let his son Ammon go unpunished although incorrigibly bad, and who let Absalom go with- out disciplinary reproof, rebuke, punishment, with the | result that Absalom became a murderer and Ammon an | adulterer. David was a good king but a weak father. | Is God like that? Assuredly not. Did not God rebuke | Eli because he had not disciplined his children?™ God “2 Pet. 3:5-0. 72) Ret 33 35, #1 Sam, 2: 12-17, 27-36: 4: 12-18. ty ~ 164 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? is a Father, but He is not ‘‘a daddy.’’ There is the Dead Sea. Nothing can live in it. It is ‘‘an ugly scar on the earth’s surface.’? There it has stood for all these centuries. It is not palatable, nor can one swim in it. IT can bear witness to the truth of both things from per- sonal experience. For all these centuries it has stood as a warning illustration that God will punish sin and wrong-doing even as He punished Sodom and Gomorrah. ‘So God’s laws are mercifully inexorable because they ‘are merciless. So is it with Nature’s laws. Fire will burn your hand if thrust into it. So it is merciful (in that it teaches you that a penalty is attached to dis- _ obedience) because it is so merciless [gives sure punish- Sr ae eal #3 ‘ment]. How different man’s laws! They are loose. ‘There is no teeth in them.’ And so it comes to pass that failure to uphold the law and punish those who defy and break it leads to more thefts, murders, ete. So the lawlessness of a king, president, governor, mayor, sena- tor, representative, alderman or any other public official © ‘leads to the lawlessness of the nation.’’ God ts a loving Father; He is also a ‘‘consuming fire. 99 25 Let us not imagine that we shall escape the judgment of a just and loving Father if we continue to be gainsaying, disobe- dient and wicked children. Is the United States too good to punish wrong-doing? Is she not considered weak when she does not do so? What becomes of the child whose father is too good to chastise it for wrong-doing? We know, for we see so many sad illustrations of such undisciplined children. God is a Moral Governor as well as a Father, and His creative love does not blind Him to the wilful deliberate wickedness of those who should render Him a loving obedience and service. God was a * Heb. 12: 20. FUTURE RETRIBUTION 165 Father to Israel, yet they did not escape His wrath in the wilderness.” Nor shall we escape if we, like them, turn ourselves away from God and His holy will.” That Jesus clearly taught future retribution there can be no doubt if we accept the record of the Gospels. The appeal of Jesus again and again to fear is staggering. Time after time, seven times indeed, He refers to the weeping, and the wailing, and the gnashing of teeth;* three times to the fire that shall never be quenched; ” thrice to the worm that dieth not;* twice to torment or anguish.” He mentions the fact that the Rich Man in hades was called upon to remember ™ while there. What an awful thing it must be to have to do that in hades! It is bad enough to have to remember in this life, where memory is imperfect; but think of what it must be to have to recall and remember in that other world where the human handicaps of memory are removed! ‘There, memory is a haunting ghost. What a stern reality! Again and again Jesus makes use of the word “‘eternal’’ or ‘‘everlasting’’ in His description of future retribution of the wicked, even as He does in describing the bliss of the righteous: ‘‘ And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlast- ing life.’’® There has been considerable discussion, especially among those who are antagonistic to the doc- trine of future retribution of the wicked, as to the mean- ing of the word ‘‘everlasting.’’ They would remind us that the Greek word does not mean ‘‘endless’’ or ‘‘ with- out end’’ but ‘‘age-long,’’ thus indicating that there might be an end to the retribution of the wicked. Dare * + Cor. 10: 6-13. * Heb. 2: 3: 12:25. “Matt, 8: 12: 133.42, 50; 22:.133 24:51; 25:30: [Luke 19728. * Mark 9:44, 45, 48. ™Luke 16:23, 28, * Tuke 16: 25. * Matt. 25: 41, 46. 166 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? one say that he becomes a little suspicious when a man begins thus to play with the meaning of Greek words; that there may be an attempt to change the vocabulary because there has been a change in views? It is very often the case—of that we are very sure. Perhaps the man who makes so much of the meaning of Greek words understands very little about them. That, too, is too often the case with those who refer most to it. And then, of what advantage is it to refer the English reader to the Greek word? He does not understand it, nor can he say whether or not you are telling the truth about the Greek word and its meaning. How can he be ex- pected to tell whether you are right or wrong in your definition of the word in question? He cannot. I am more and more convinced that the Spirit of God filling a man’s soul can teach him more of the divine will than a mere study of Greek words. And I am not belittling the study of Greek when I say that. A knowledge of Greek has its advantages; it has its disadvantages, too. So far as I understand the Standard Versions of the Bible, to-day, they come pretty near giving an accurate translation of the divine mean- ing of the Word of God. He must be a profound scholar in Greek to beat the translation given us by the Ameri- can Standard Version, or even the King James Version. This would be equally true of the English Revised Ver- sion. What interests me most in this connection is, what impression does the use of the word ‘‘eternal’’ and ‘‘everlasting’’ make on the mind of the English reader? Ts it not that the misery and punishment of the wicked is unending? And TI do not believe that the Son of God intended to scare men with a lie. Do you? Our Lord’s words: ‘‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into FUTURE RETRIBUTION 167 everlasting fire’? . . . ‘‘These shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal,’’ * seem to us to most clearly and unequivocally teach that eternal punishment is contrasted with eternal life, and that if there is to be an end to the woe of the wicked there is also to be an end to the bliss of the righteous. Is not that a fair conclusion? Candidly now, is it not? Taking the words as they stand, what other conclusion can one honestly come to with reference to the matter? In one of the songs of Revelation we find these words: ‘‘ And they fall down and worship him that liveth for ever and ever.’?™ Here you have the same expression that describes the retribution of the wicked. If there may be an end to that retribution then there may be an end to God. But the life of God is without end. Why not then the retribution of the wicked? You tell me the idea is abhorrent. Perhaps it is, in our human way of looking at it. This is not denied for the moment. But are we to allow our feelings to decide the interpre- tation of the Word of God? If then the woe of the wicked is to last as long as the life of God and the joy of the righteous in what other way, think you, could God have impressed upon us that fact save by the use of the words ‘‘eternal’’ and ‘‘everlasting’’? It has been said that the adjective ‘‘eternal’’ occurs about seventy times in the New Testament. It is, of course, very important that we ascertain, in each par- ticular instance, just what it signifies. Does it mean, for example, that which belongs to a certain age or ages, as in the expression ‘‘the life of the ages,’’” and ‘‘the power of the age to come’’?™” Or does it refer to un- 8 Matt. 25:41, 46. * Rev. 4:9. ® Matt. 19: 16. *° Heb. 6: 5. 168 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? limited duration and ‘‘without end’’? There can be no doubt that the word does characterize and qualify a life and experience peculiar to a future age; “ but there can be absolutely no question that it also, and perhaps more frequently, expresses unlimited, unending duration. So Weymouth in referring to Matthew 18:8: ‘‘cast into eternal fire;’’ says that ‘‘the word does mean ‘everlast- ing’ in the strongest, unlimited sense of that word,’’ and “‘that it cannot reasonably be doubted.’’ There is also the “expression: ‘‘unto the ages of the ages,’’ or ‘‘for ever and ever,’’* to be considered in this eonnection. This term means ages tumbling on ages, ages succeeding ages, and is an expression surely indi- eating unlimited duration. And this expression is used to describe the duration of future retribution, and the dominion of Christ.* Certain arguments against the doctrine of future retribution should here be considered, even though briefly. We have not space for any lengthy discussion. We would simply indicate what they are and say a brief word in reply. In the first place there are those who maintain that the doctrine of future retribution is inconsistent with the power of God. Their argument, briefly, is as follows: To hold the doctrine of eternal punishment predicates the eternal existence of sin and the sinner; also an un- ending struggle between righteousness and unrighteous- ness, Satan and God; a struggle which, apparently, God is not able to bring to an end, a fact, which, if true, would seem to indicate that God is not omnipotent, not in this matter at least. But, it is maintained, our belief in God is that He is omnipotent. What should be said in See Matt. 7:14; 18:8, 9. *® Rev, 14: 113 cf. §: 1% FUTURE RETRIBUTION 169 reply? We adhere to the omnipotence of God. We ask why should the unendingness of sin be any more an argu- ment against the omnipotence of God than the beginning or continuance of sin since the creation? Why could, or did not, the power of God prevent its entrance into the world? Why did not God forbid sin having a be- ginning? The mystery regarding sin, it seems to us, is not that it should have no end but that it should have had a beginning. Did not God know when He made man a free agent that man would abuse that free agency and bring shame and disaster upon himself and his posterity? Why, then, we may ask, did He make man? Here is mystery, indeed. The answer to the question we cannot, perhaps, now know. Some day, it may be, we shall understand it; perhaps in that great hereafter when the mysteries of life will all be made plain, per- haps then we shall understand. But, at the present, we see no more inconsistency in the unendingness of sin and the sinner than that sin and the sinner should have had a beginning. We are in the presence of mystery. Let us admit it. There are those who hold that the doctrine of future retribution 7s inconsistent with the justice of God. It is maintained that eternal punishment is out of all propor- tion to the guilt of the offence committed. Man’s life on the earth, it is said, is short at best. Why then pun- ish finite sin with infinite woe? In reply it may be said that we have very little conception of the real nature of sin, its guilt and enormity. Because we are sinners by nature and choice it is difficult to understand how sin must appear to an absolutely holy God. Until we come to see sin as God sees it we shall be unable to attribute injustice to God for the penalty He attaches to the sin of 170 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? the impenitently wicked, or that there is disparity be- tween the offence and its. punishment. But is a man’s sin confined to his own lifetime? If you drop a stone into the ocean it will make a circle on the water, then another circle, and still another, and so on ad infimtum, stopping, who can tell where? May it not be so with a man’s sin? ‘‘No man liveth to him- self.’’® It is said of Abel and the good life he lived that ‘‘he being dead, yet speaketh.’’“” Why may not that be true also of. the influence of a bad man’s life? It is said that the crocodile lays her eggs in the sand and then goes away and leaves them to hatch without her. Her presence is not necessary for further propagation. So is it with a man and his sin. There is an employer, with young men and women under him learning the business. They hear him lie, see him practice deceit, and withal succeed and get promotion. They emulate his vices for they consider that they lead to success. They go on continuing to practice them. That employer may have come to his senses and renounced his evil ways, but those young men and women who have gone out from under his influence to practice the things they saw and heard him do may not have renounced the evil prac- tices. What can that man do to stop his sin and its influence? Practically nothing. His sin is continuing even without his presence. Jesus spoke of such a thing as an eternal sin.” We have already seen in our discussion of the intermediate state that death does not change a man’s bent and char- acter; that what his inclinations are here, that they will be in the hereafter, only more so.” Why then, if a man’s Rom. 14:7. * Heb. 11: 4. * Mark 3:29. _ ®@ Rev. 22:10, II. FUTURE RETRIBUTION 171 bent has been towards evil and sin, and he has loved and chosen it in preference to righteousness, why, we ask, may not that attitude continue forever? Granted the eternal existence of sin, why should there not be eternal punishment for sin? Men have before them here and now the possibility of eternal life and bliss if they wish it. No injustice can be attributed to God, then, because a man, in spite of the loving wooing of Christ and His Gospel, prefers to choose death and woe?* , Nor should we forget in this connection much depends upon the character of the persons sinned against as to the nature and character of the punishment meted out. Guilt, even in this life and among men, is proportioned in accordance with the position of the person sinned against. A crime committed against a fellow man is not so heinous as if committed against one’s parents, is it? Is a crime against a ruler not more grievous than one committed against an ordinary citizen? and is not the punishment meted out different? What shall we say then as to sin committed against Christ and God?“ Once again, there are those who maintain that the doctrine of future retribution 7s inconsistent with the mercy of God. The thought is inconceivable, we are told, that God should punish man unless it be for his reform and improvement. ‘To such the idea of punishment as a punitive measure merely seems out of the question. But it may be asked in reply: Does not God permit much suffering here in this world and how much of it is un- deserved by those suffering? Why then is it any more inconsistent with the mercy of God that such undeserved suffering should be permitted here than that deserved $ Joshua 242153 Matt. 7:13, 14; John 5: 40. “Cf. John 16:9, Io. 172 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? suffering should be permitted to exist in the next world where wicked men ought to be punished? Our observa- tion and experience tell us that there are wicked men in this life who deserve punishment and who are not pun- ished here; we feel they ought to be punished somewhere. But why should we say that God inflicts punishment on the wicked and is therefore unmerciful in thus inflict- ing? Why not say rather that man brings the punish- ment upon himself, that he creates his own retribution? ® God has done everything possible,“ in harmony with man’s free agency, to prevent his ruin. And after all future retribution is not so much punishment for what they have done as it is for being what they have become It is much with them as it is with the drunkard: habitual drunkenness is the result of continual yielding to drink. May it not be that the worm that dieth not may signify the remorse that comes over the lost as they contemplate what they might have been and become and how they have thus unfitted themselves for heaven ? If it be true that this doctrine is at variance with the mercy of God how comes it that Jesus taught it? Did not Jesus understand and represent the mercy of God as no one else ever did? The fact then that He taught this doctrine is proof sufficient that it is not incompati- ble with the merey of God. This should be a sufficient ~ answer to the objection. It is further said, though perhaps not as seriously as in regard to the other objections just mentioned, that it would destroy the happiness of the righteous for them to know that some of their fellows, perhaps their own loved ones, were thus suffering beyond hope of reprieve. We have dealt to some extent with this phase of the ©2 Pet. 2:1. Wiss 6 a FUTURE RETRIBUTION 173 question on a preceding page, and it is not necessary to repeat what was there said. The reader may turn to it and review it.” This brief word may be added, how- ever: Of course it is admitted that we shall have memory in heaven. Were not this the case we could hardly be real human beings. The songs we sing there will have in them the sentiment of Calvary and as we sing our minds will unquestionably go back to that green hill, ‘‘where our dear Lord was crucified.’’ Yet, while ad- mitting all this, we must not forget that memory at best is but partial. It would be impossible for us to recall and remember all the friends we have met and known in life, nor can it be said that we really miss them all. Then, too, there are friends who by reason of their con- duct, have changed our feelings towards them and have practically passed out of our life. Yea, I think we may go one step further, and say that it is quite conceivable, possible, probable for our feelings towards a most inti- mate relative and loved one to so change that instead of our being happy where they are their very presence brings misery to us. We actually see this to be the ease at times when the feelings between husband and wife, parent and child have, for some serious reason, under- gone change. Now, seeing all this is true in our rela- tions here on the earth, why may not the same thing be true with reference to our relations in that other world? It is quite possible that our friend’s and relative’s hatred of God may be so distasteful to us as to make it quite possible that we shall not miss them. We will there see not merely a tear in the eye of the sinner; we shall see also hatred of God in his heart. Then, too, is it not pos- sible that we shall be so taken up with the things that “Pp. 90-06. 174 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? concern God that we shall not miss all else, nor be able to recall the fate of those who have rejected the love and merey of God as offered in Christ? Of course, in the last analysis, we have no right to make our happiness in heaven dependent upon any earthly conditions what- soever. By such reasoning we “‘do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.’’® CERTAIN VIEWS OF FUTURE RETRIBUTION CONTRADICTORY . TO SCRIPTURE The Annihilation Theory. There are those who main- tain that at death the wicked are blotted out of exist- ence. Some annihilationists, however, allow for a period of punishment, long or short as the case may be, after which the wicked are blotted out of existence for ever- more. The ungodly cease to be; they are as a dream as when one awaketh and behold they are not. This view we think is based on a misconception of the meaning of certain Scriptural terms which describe the future retribution of the wicked, such, for example, as ‘*death,’? ‘‘The wages of sin is death,’’® ‘‘the second death,’’” ‘‘death through sin,’’” and ‘‘so death passed upon all men.’’” The annihilationist maintains that death in these, and other places where the punishment of the wicked is referred to, means extinction of being, a ceasing to be. But a careful examination into the etymology and context of the passages containing such terms, together with the Scripture usage, will, we feel sure, show that such a construction cannot be placed on death. Eternal life, for instance, means, in its Scripture usage, more than existence; it refers to a quality of existence, namely blessedness, a life lived in bliss with @ Matt. 22:20. “Rom. 6:23. “Rev. 20:14. ™Rom. 5:12. FUTURE RETRIBUTION 175 God. It does not mean, certainly not exclusively, and perhaps not even primarily, to exist throughout eternity merely. ‘That idea is, of course, in the word, but the reference is primarily to quality of years rather than to their quantity. So is it with the phrase ‘‘eternal death.’’ Because the wicked do not have eternal life, it by no means follows that they cease to exist. Indeed the con- trary is the case, for ‘‘once born a soul dies not; ’tis an eternal thing.’’ Death, as here used, describes the eter- nal state of the soul separated from God, light, love, bliss. It was said to Adam: ‘‘In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.’?” Surely death in this instance did not mean cessation of being, for Adam lived hundreds of years after this sentence was passed upon him. Nor can it be said of Jesus that when He died upon the Cross that He ceased to exist. Far from it, for He said: ‘‘I am he that liveth; I became dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore.’’™ It is said of one whose life is devoted to pleasure-seeking: ‘‘She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.’?™ Surely death in this instance cannot mean ceasing to be. So is it with the word ‘‘lost’’?” when applied to the wicked. It refers to condition, not annihilation. Nor ean it be said that, in a single instance, the word ‘‘destrue- tion,’’ as used in the Scripture, is, necessarily, equivalent to annihilation or extinction. Christ, by His death on the Cross, is said to have destroyed Satan.” That surely does not mean that He annihilated the devil, for the devil still lives and is quite active among the sons of men. What it does mean is that Jesus made the power @ Gen. 2:17; cf. Rom. 5: 12. % Rev. 1:17, 18. “> Tim. 5:6. *® Tuke 19: 10. % Heb. 2: 14. 176 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? of Satan over death of none effect, that He spoiled the purposes of the devil and made them inoperative so far as the saints were concerned. The idea of extinction of being is not to be found in this word. It is true that certain Old Testament passages seem to teach extinction, such as—‘‘ They shall consume as the fat of lambs;’’™ or ‘‘It shall leave them neither root nor branch.’’?® But these, and other passages like them, will be found, when viewed in the light of their context, to refer to the place of the wicked on the earth,” and not to their state in the other life. It is, therefore, when we think of death as being spiritual separation from God that all becomes clear. Nor does that other phase of annihilationism which holds that after a period of punishment the wicked are blotted out of existence, find any Scriptural ground. Indeed, it seems to us as though such a thought is harder to believe of God than the other. Can you con- ceive of God raising the wicked from the dead for a brief period of punishment and then blotting them out of ex- istence? Furthermore: such a view would seem to us to do violence to the justice of God, for to blot out all the wicked would be to fail to recognize what we have seen to be a fundamental principle of the Judgment— that each man will be rewarded according to what his works have been. The annihilationist would treat all the wicked alike. This is unfair and inconsistent with the Scripture which teaches that some are punished with many stripes, and others with few.” There are degrees of punishment for the wicked as there are of reward for the righteous. This brief period of existence, preceding * Psa.//37 5.20. ® Mal. 4:1. Psa. 37:9, 10, 20, 34, 36. © Luke 12: 47, 48. FUTURE RETRIBUTION 177 their blotting out forever, does not meet the facts in the ease. The doctrine of annihilation would do away with this righteous standard of judgment, therefore it cannot be true. Man is more than a material being; he is intensely spiritual. Nor can the spirit cease to exist for it is the essence of God; but the annihilationist would reduce man to the level of the material. Nor should it be overlooked in this connection that the belief of the Christian Church for some nineteen cen- turies has been against the annihilation view; indeed, ‘‘this doctrine was not maintained by any considerable | body of men until the nineteenth century.’’ It is not unfair, we think, to say that the doctrine is of pagan origin. The people of India as well as many savage tribes, centuries ago, believed and taught that although the wicked lived hereafter, their existence would be brief, and that the surviving spirit would die again once for all and be devoured of the gods. They taught that some more highly favoured souls might be permitted to live a little longer time, but the masses would evaporate for- ever. ‘‘When a man has once died, he will, naturally, keep on living, barring the annihilation which will be his lot if he has deeply offended the gods; these, instead of living thereafter, sink into the ‘lap of destruction,’ otherwise called ‘black darkness,’ ‘the hole that has no hold,’ ‘the pit below’ where life evaporates or ceases al- together.’’ The men who ‘‘get immortality’? are those ‘who please the gods.’’ The way to please the gods is to sacrifice to them, to offer ‘‘the sacrificial gifts of the gods.’’ Neither reward nor punishment were regarded among such savage tribes as being everlasting; ‘‘even the gods are of indefinite duration.’’ 178 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? There is then what may be called the doctrine of ‘Universalism. According to this belief, everybody— ' some professing it include even the devil—will be saved. Salvation is to be extended to the devil and his angels and they will accept it, and, ultimately, everybody will be in harmony with God. This, it seems to us, is a (dangerous doctrine. A chaplain in an Ohio penitenti- ‘ary is reported to have said: ‘‘I consider Universalism ‘the worst form of infidelity. Nearly all of our prisoners have been affected with it during their career of vice. 'Nothing else, they say, could have held them up in crime at the risk of life they took at every step but the thought which they had tried to entertain, that after death they would eventually go to heaven.’’ A prominent judge once said: ‘‘ Were all ministers to preach the doctrine of universal salvation there would soon be a hell in this world, if not in the next.’’ These testimonies, of course, must be taken as the opinions of individual men, but, in our judgment, they are worth quoting as fairly representing the tendency of this particular doctrine. Naturally, we say, that if this doctrine is taught in the Scriptures we all should welcome it, for it has this in its favour—it is a desirable doctrine and for which we could all devoutly wish. It does seem to us, however, that such a belief does away with the seriousness of preaching. If there be no dan- ger there is no need of sounding the alarm.. Men do not ring the fire-bell if there be no fire, nor do they put out the life-boat if there be no wreck. I read sometime ago of a Universalist preacher who was invited to supply a pulpit for a Sunday. He preached eloquently and declared that there was no such thing as future retribution ; that the loving Father would FUTURE RETRIBUTION 179 gather us all to be with Himself even though we had been disobedient children here on the earth. At the close of the service he intimated to the committee that he would welcome a return invitation another Sunday. In response; to his request, one of the committee said: ‘‘My friend, : if what you say is true, we do not need you to preach |” to us. If what you say is untrue, we do not want you’ to preach tous. If your doctrine is true we do not need | you; if it is false, we do not want you.’’ So there it! rested. A eareful review of the Scriptures on which the Uni- versalist would base his belief does not, in our judgment, justify his conclusion. Let us look at them for a mo- ment. Reference is made to the expression ‘‘the restitu- tion of all things’’” as indicating Universalism. But does it? View the passage in its setting and relation to the Old Testament to which it here refers, and it will be clearly seen that the passage refers to certain prom- ises and things foretold by the Old Testament prophets. No idea of universal salvation can at all be legitimately inferred even from this passage. The reference to the great contrast between Adam and Christ, as made by Paul in his wonderful Roman epistle ® should not be made to teach universal salvation for its main thought is but to show that we regain in Christ what we lost in Adam. We should not forget, however, that to be in Christ implies an act of faith and receiving on the part of those who participate in Christ’s death, and that those who refuse to enter into that re- lationship of faith remain under the condemnation™ of which this chapter speaks and which is the heritage, peices: 94-204!) < @ Acts 5: 12-21. ©” Acts §+20 180 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? naturally, of the posterity of Adam unless in Christ by, faith. Nor does that famous passage in First Corinthians— ‘‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive’’“°—teach universal salvation. A careful reading of the chapter reveals the incontrovertible fact that Paul is speaking of the resurrection of the body. He is not in the slightest way referring to the salvation of the soul as we understand that term to refer to salva- tion here. What he does say is this: That as in Adam all men die (physically), so, in Christ, shall all men be raised (physically). It is perfectly true, as is said in another place in this ehapter of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, that the day will come when God shall be ‘fall in all,’’? and ‘‘all things shall be made subject to him;’’® but subjection is not salvation; it is a com- pulsory submission because of the mighty power of God. And is it not just at this point where Universalism falls down—its inability to reconcile the sovereignty of God with the free will of man? The doctrine of future retribution may have many difficulties—and it has—but they are trifling as compared with the difficulties created by doctrine which contradicts it. That God wills to have all men saved is a fact we all admit.“ For this noble end He gave His Son to die upon the Cross. For this He sent His prophets to plead with men. ‘‘Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel???” But there is a vast difference v & GOs; 184 22: *1 Cor. 15: 24-28, “1; Tim. 2: 3-4. “Ezek. 33: 11. FUTURE RETRIBUTION 181 between what God wills, in the sense of desires, and what He decrees, in the sense of fiat. The Divine wishes may not be carried out because of the wilfulness of man;“ but the Divine decree will be carried out to its consummation, irrespective of the malice, will or opposition of man, demon or Satan. That God desires the salvation of all men is true; all men are not saved because some will not yield themselves to the Divine wish and will;” nor will God interfere with man’s free agency and force a sur- render. It is in this sense that such passages as speak of the will of God expressing itself in the salvation of all men are to be understood. To say that all men, eventually, will be saved, is to directly contradict the teachings of Jesus: ‘‘He that be- lieveth not shall be damned;’’” ‘‘And these shall go away into everlasting punishment ;’’” ‘‘ Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire;’’” ‘‘Gather the tares into bundles and east them into the fire. As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire; so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and them that do iniquity ; and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.’’® ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned.’’” It is sometimes argued that the words: ‘‘ Every sacri- fice shall be salted with salt’? implies that there will be final restoration, for salt, it is maintained, is a symbol of purification. But is salt not also, and perhaps more pe Ct, 2 Pet. 3:1-9 “John 5: 40:. Matt: 23:37: Psalm 110: 3. ® Mark 16: 16. % Matt. 25: 46. ? Matt. 25: 41. ® Matt. 13: 40-42. ™ Mark 9: 40. 182 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? so, a symbol of preservation? for the same passages that speak of the ‘‘worm that dieth not and the fire that is never quenched’’ refer also in the same connection to the same words: ‘‘Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt’’?“ If Divine chastening proves ineffective and fails to purify here, even though men are surrounded by the helpful influences of grace, how can we expect it to be effective there where such influences do not exist? If divine love has been ineffectual here, even through chastisement, why should we expect it to be different there? _y On one occasion Jesus said, ‘‘It were good for that i \ man if he had never been born.’’” How can we explain this expression if future punishment leads to restora- tion? The existence of Judas (concerning whom these words were spoken) would have been a blessing if, eventually, it led to eternal bliss. Yet Jesus said: ‘‘It were good for that man if he had never been born.’’ There is such a thing as an eternal sin“ which hath no forgiveness; so the existence of the sinner who is never forgiven must forever exclude him from heaven. An eternal sin is clearly a sin which remains unpardoned. It is a sin of the ages. It remains, forever, unabsolved, unpardoned. There is still one more objection to the doctrine of future retribution that we should like to deal with here. It is that of the unconsciousness of the soul; the sleep of the soul, particularly between death and the resurrec- tion; a sleep which results, finally, in the case of the wicked, in annihilation of being. But, again, a careful review of the passages adduced to prove this teaching shows that no such construction can be placed upon ™ Matt. 26: 24. Mark 3: 20. FUTURE RETRIBUTION 183 them when they are examined grammatically and in the light of their context. The soul never sleeps. Nowhere does the Bible say it does. The Scriptures refer sleep to the body, not to the soul: ‘‘And many of the bodies of the saints which slept, arose.’?’?” The bodies, mark you, not the souls. ‘‘And many of the sleepers in the dust shall awake.’?’“ The soul does not sleep in the dust; the body does. Surely Paul’s expressed desire to ‘depart and be with Christ, which is very far better,’’” can scarcely be harmonized with an unconscious state. Would unconsciousness be comparable with the conscious presence of Christ such as Paul enjoyed even down here on the earth? For with Paul, to live was Christ.” Fur- ther, if the souls of the departed are unconscious how ' do we harmonize that with the fact that ‘‘the unrighteous are guarded for punishment unto the day of judgment.’’® Were Lazarus and Dives and Abraham, as pictured by our Lord in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, unconscious?” We think not. The mere absence of the body does not produce unconsciousness. The rich man in hades was called upon to remember even while his body was buried in the grave. The angels do not have bodies such as we have, and yet they are conscious be- ings, are they not? Here again is a theory that has more difficulties than the plain Bible doctrine of future retribution. Moses and Elijah, after having been dead from ten to fifteen centuries, are on the mount with Jesus and the disciples, conscious and cognizant of what is to transpire at Jerusalem and at Calvary.® The statement in Ecclesiastes: ‘‘that the dead know ™ Matt. 27: 52. 53. "Dan: 1221, 2 Ve] . . Phil. 1: 23. Pal) 21 Or eet re ich ? Luke 16: 19-31. % Luke 9: 30, 31. 184 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? not anything,’’™ cannot be construed as teaching the un- consciousness of the soul at death. Perhaps what the writer of that Book had in mind was, that the dead know nothing that is transpiring on this earth,” not that they were unconscious in the other world. But that this expression does not denote unconsciousness is with- out doubt clear from its use elsewhere. The same ex- pression is used of the soldiers who took sides with Absalom against his father David. It is said that they went with Absalom ‘‘knowing nothing.’’* Does that mean that they were’ unconscious? Certainly not; the idea is absurd. What it does mean is that they knew not of Absalom’s plot against his father. Again, take the use of the word in connection with Jonathan’s sery- ant. David was not sure, nor was Jonathan for that matter, how Saul felt towards him. Jonathan prom- ised to find out and let David know. This was their plan: David was to hide in the field. Jonathan was to come out into the field, ostensibly to hunt, having bow and arrows with him. If, when the boy ran after the arrows, Jonathan called out ‘‘They are beyond you,’’ then David was to take that as a signal to flee. So Jonathan did. And we read that the boy went after ‘the arrows ‘‘knowing nothing,’’ ‘‘he knew not any- thing.’’?” Does that mean that the boy was unconscious? No, it simply means that he was not aware of the sign existing between Jonathan and David, ‘‘for he knew not anything. ’’ Eccles. 9: 5. *® Cf. Job 14: 21. 84 Mapai ¢ IT. sy Sam. 20: 39. x THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS ‘ ), YE have now reached the last chapter in our study of the Future Life and of our enquiry concerning what lies beyond the grave. We have considered the final and future retribution of the wicked. We shall now dwell upon the future and eternal bliss of the righteous. Heaven is a most wonderful subject. The word is a most elastic and comprehensive one, as used in the Scrip- tures. It is used in quite a number of senses and in both the singular and plural tenses." Heaven is God’s dwelling place;* it is where His throne is;* it is the right hand of the Majesty on high.* It is where Christ is;° where He now appears in the presence of God for us.. From heaven He came,’ to heaven He returned,* and it is from heaven that He will again come.’ Angels have their dwelling-place in heaven; there are to be seen the cherubim and seraphim.” Our loved ones— ‘“the spirits of just men made perfect’’ and ‘‘the Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven’’ —are there.” We read also of the heaven where the birds are,* of the stars of the heaven,” of the heavens in which dwell the principalities and powers.” Sometimes heaven is 1 Kings 8: 27, etc. *z Kings 8: 30. "Isa, G21: *Heb. 1:3; 8:1. ° Acts 8:56; Heb. 1:3. ® Heb. 9: 24. * John 3: 13. PActs 1:11. ;° Matt. 24: #3 Acts I: It. ® Matt. 18: 10; Heb. 12: 22. a. 6: 1-6. * Heb. 12: 22, 23. 8 Gen. 1:26; Matt. 8: pat 6: 26. 4 Mark 13:25. * Eph. 6: 12. 185 186 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? called the air, and the sky.“ At times the word is to be found in the plural and then again in the singular. The Revised Version ofttimes uses the plural where the Authorized uses the singular, and vice versa.* Then again, the Greek Testament uses the plural in instances in which both the Authorized Version and the Revised Version uses the singular.” Just how many heavens there are we do not know, perhaps we shall not be ever able to know while we are down here. The Rabbis tell us there are seven heavens. Paul declares that-he was caught up to the ‘‘third’’ heaven.” What we do know is that God is supreme in and over them all, that Jesus passed through the heavens” and took His seat at the right hand of the majesty on high * there to appear before the face of God,° within the veil, in our behalf, and that He is Head over all principalities and powers in the heavenlies,* whether they be good or bad. A distinction is clearly made in the Scriptures be- tween ‘‘the heavens’? and the heaven where God’s dwelling-place is, that is, heaven itself, within the veil, where the very face of God may be seen. A very care- ful consideration, therefore, of the context in each in- stance is necessary in order to ascertain the correct meaning of heaven as used in any particular passage. Nor should we confound heaven * with the kingdom of heaven ™ and the kingdom of God.” False arguments are sometimes built on such confusion. For instance, there are those who would have us believe that there 6 Matt. 8: 20. ™Tuke 12:56; Matt. 16: 3. *% Gen. 1:1; Deut. 11:21: Job 20:27; Eph. 1: 10; Col. 1:5. * Matt. 6:9; Luke 11:2. '2.Cor! 1272) 1 Heb. 4: 14. % Eph.) 1: 20-22. a Ries 8: 30. Matt. 6 ee uke 6: 20. THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 187 is no such place as heaven; they tell us that heaven is a state or condition of heart and mind. ‘‘Did not Jesus tell us that ‘the kingdom of God’ is within you?’’™ they ask. But the kingdom of God is not heaven. There may be, doubtless is, much in common to them both, but there is a difference between them that must be recog- nized. And in this connection it may be well to note that Jesus did not really say ‘‘The kingdom of God is , within you,’’ but ‘‘The kingdom of God is in your midst.’’”" He would have them understand that in their midst stood the King, and that where the King stood, there the kingdom was. It is true that ‘‘the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost,’’* but the kingdom of God is not heaven, al- though peace, righteousness and joy are to be found in heaven itself. The distinctions we have mentioned here are most necessary to observe if we are to understand correctly just what is to be the condition of the righteous in that eternal state of bliss. Heaven is a broad and compre- hensive term and may be a place, or condition, or both, as the passage in question may determine. Of this we should, however, be clear that there is a vast difference between ‘‘the heavens’’—of which there may be many, and that heaven of heavens, heaven itself where God dwells and where His face is seen. The references to the future state of bliss for the righteous are scattered throughout the Bible. The last two chapters of the Book of Revelation, however, give us a most comprehensive account of the final abode of the saints. And to these chapters we turn. The last two chapters of Revelatton—perhaps we ought *®Tuke 17:20, 21. ™See R. V. margin. 78 Rom. 14:17. 188 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? to say the Book itself—may be said to give us the only detailed account of heaven, of life beyond the veil. We do have intimations in Ezekiel, perhaps, but nothing like the detail of the Apocalypse. Of course we have the story of Jacob’s Ladder,” in the Old Testament, but no real vision of heaven connected with it. We have also the record of Moses being with God for two periods of forty days, but all we know of that visit is that his face did shine.” Stephen declare he saw the heaven opened and Jesus standing on the right hand of God;* but that’s all. Paul was caught up into the third heaven and heard and saw many things not lawful to utter,” but he did not tell us about the details of paradise. None of these told us what they saw. But John is told to “‘write the things which thou hast seen and send them to the churches.’’* So we are richer in our knowledge of heaven because we have the Book of Revelation and par- ticularly the last two chapters. What do these chapters tell us about the future state of bliss for the redeemed of God? In the first place they describe a new sphere of exist- ence for the saints of God: ‘‘And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.’’™ How like the prophecy of Isaiah this sounds: ‘‘For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. The former troubles are forgotten; they are hid from mine eyes.’’® ‘‘For as the new heavens and the new * Gen. 28: 12-17. *° Exod. 24: 12-18, *Acts 7: 56. 82 Cor, 12..%-16 % Rev. 1: 10, 20. * Rev. 21: 1. * Isa.\05 * to, THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 189 earth which I will make shall remain before me.’’?™ And so Peter declares that ‘‘according to his promise, we look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.’ ™ It seems as though the heavens as well as the earth have been affected by sin.* But the curse of sin will be removed from both heaven and earth. The day is com- ing when the ‘‘heavenlies’’ will be cleared of all the evil principalities and powers” which now infest them. No more shall these evil forces and deterrent powers harass the children of men. Nor shall the heavens rain down destruction upon the work of man’s hands. No more shall storm, lightning, hurricane, make havoe of man’s dwellings. The earth, so cursed by sin and Satan, will again resume her Edenic condition. The wilderness shall blossom as the rose. Nothing shall hurt or destroy in all the holy mount of God. The curse which, by reason of sin, has been resting upon Nature will be re- moved. No longer will beast and man be hostile to each other, for the lion shall lie down with the lamb and a little child shall lead them. Briers and thorns shall no longer curse the ground: instead of the brier shall come up the fir tree. ‘‘Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the mirage shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water: in the habitation of jackals where they lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The Way of ™ Isa°66.: 22: Mia Pet 3s 24. 8 See Heb. 9: 23. ® Eph. 6: 10-12. 190 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for the redeemed. . . . No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast go up thereon; they shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; and they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.’’ ® ‘¢ And the sea is no more.’’” ‘To the Jew the sea was an emblem of unmixed peril. He was by no means a seafaring man. The surging of the sea struck terror to the Jewish heart. Perhaps John, as he wrote these words on the isle of Patmos,” could hear the sea washing the sides of that great rocky eminence. Then, too, the sea is a symbol of the restlessness and turmoil of men, peoples and nations: * ‘‘the seas roaring for fear of the things that are coming on men.’’“ Again, and in this very Book of Revelation, the sea and waters are symbols of those godless nations at whose hands the Jews had suffered so much.” John himself was, at the moment of his writing these words, a sufferer under the hand of Rome. It is from the sea that John sees the great beast “ that is to be the terrific enemy of the chosen people. Daniel, too, beholds these same enemies coming up from the sea or on the shores of the sea.” These all have now ‘‘fled away; and no place is found for them.’’* The heavens are cleansed of the evil pow- ers; they have been folded up as a napkin and laid away © for their last sleep. All that molested, despoiled y coal tanern: “ Rev. 21:1. @ Rev. 1:9. Tea) am sony har! “Luke 21: 25. © Rev. 17: 15. “Rey. 1321: St an. v7 te, * Rev. 20: II. bafta Lola Paik Poin EG bbe THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 191 and ruined man on the earth has been abolished. The restless, feverish anxiety of national calamity has been quieted. Within that new abode of life for the saints of God— the ‘‘new heavens and the new earth’’—there is a new sphere of life for the redeemed: ‘‘The holy city, the new Jerusalem.’’” ‘‘And I saw the holy city, new Jeru- salem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God; having the glory of God.’’ The final abode of the righteous is here likened to a city. Ten times it is so called.” So heaven is a place as well as, and even more than, a state of mind and heart. We have already referred to the statement of Jesus as to the kingdom of heaven being ‘‘within you,’’” and have showed that it might, perhaps, better be rendered, ‘‘the kingdom of heaven is in your midst.’’ We have seen, further, that the kingdom of heaven is not, strictly speak- ing, heaven. The kingdom of God is entered by the new birth ;” it is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; but it is to be distinguished from heaven. That Christians have even now an earnest of the Spirit,” a little bit of heaven in their hearts as certainty that some day they will have the full share, there can be no ques- tion. But a heavenly state of mind and the final abode of the righteous are not one and the same thing. ° Rev. 21:2, 10, 14-16, 18, 10, 21, 23. *Tuke 17:20, et P. Lonty, 3°,°5, * Eph, 1:13, 14; 2 Cor. § 192 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? It is interesting to note that the story of the Bible is a Tale of Two Cities. The first city is that built and named by Cain.” It was a civilization without God. Its development is seen later in connection with the tower of Babel,” and all through the Bible we see its growth and characteristic opposition to God. In Revelation it is called ‘‘Babylon, the great enemy of God’s cause and people;’’” it represents the highest point of civilization without God. But Genesis records the story of the build- ing of another city_and civilization in which God should be honoured and His will done, approximately, if not perfectly. Abraham started out ‘‘to seek a city whose maker and builder was God.’’" And to some extent it was approximated. Jerusalem and Palestine was the attempt to have a civilization with God in it. And this city of God has never failed entirely from the earth. The Chureh of Christ is now seeking to evidence it. Some day, as the last two chapters of Revelation show, that city will appear in its perfected and finished form as the holy city, the New Jerusalem; the city in which God dwells with His people. The final abode of the righteous is to be a city. The race began 1 in a garden; it will find its consummation in a city. It has been said that God made the country, man the suburbs, and the devil the city. But that is not true. Perhaps God’s ideal of life is the city, even as. His ideal form of government is not democracy but ab- solute monarchy—there will be one King over all in that day.” And after all is it not true that the value and blessing of a government lies not so much in its form as %® Gen. 4: 16-25. 5 Gen. II. 8 Rev. ch Heb. 11: 8-10; Gen. 12: 1-4. * Isa. aes THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 193 its nature. Russia is worse off under Soviet rule than she was at any time under her Czar’s. The Architect and Builder of this city is God.” We think of some beautiful cities we have seen which have been designed and built by man. What will this Holy City be like when we recall that God is the Builder and Maker? We have a picture in the Creation story in Genesis of the beautiful earth which God prepared ere He placed man on it: ‘‘And God saw everything that he had made and _ behold it was very good.’?” What think you, will be the glory and beauty of that eternal city which God has prepared for those who love Him? ‘Hye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it en- tered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.’’“ ‘‘I go to prepare a place for you.’’® ‘‘He hath prepared for them a city.”’® How paltry the Hanging Gardens of Babylon as compared with this Eden of God! The name of the city is Jerusalem. That name was as music in the ears of a Jew. What city in all the world was like unto Jerusalem! ‘‘If I forget thee, O Jern- salem, let my right hand forget her skill; let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.’’“ ‘‘And the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, see- ing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, and I said unto the king, Let the king live forever; why should not my eountenanece be sad, when the city, the place of my fa- thers’ sepulchres lieth waste, and the gates thereof are ® Heb. 11: 10. © Gen. 1: 31. * 1 Cor. 2:7-9. @ John 14:3. * Heb. 11: 16. “Psa. 9377 5,6, 194 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? consumed with fire?’’® In a strange way God has pre- served that city and that name even from the days of Melchisedek, king of Salem.“ But it is to be the New Jerusalem, the holy city, the city of truth, the holy mountain, the city prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. It is the heavenly Jerusalem,” the Jerusalem which is above all.“ The capitol city has now been cleansed from her filthiness and defilement. The guilt of her sin has been washed away. Jerusalem is now the city of righteousness. It comes down from heaven and therefore is pure and holy. The old city with its awful memories has passed away. The new city, ‘‘the city of my God,’’® now appears, and to that city is given the name ‘‘Jerusalem.’’ It is not called Rome, or London, or New York, or Corinth, or Paris, or Constantinople, but Jerusalem, the city of the great King, the ‘‘city of my God.’’ These other cities which have stood for military power, classic culture and philosophy, worldly pomp and fashion have ceased to be—‘‘the world passeth away and the fashion thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.’’” That alone abides which has on it the stamp of God, religion, Christ, the eternal. This new city is described in considerable detail in these two chapters of Revelation. There are its walls.” They are great and high. That means that the holy city is secure and safe from all assaults of any possible foe. The righteous shall then have security in all their dwell- ings. There will be no state of fear or apprehension. *® Neh. 2: 2, 3. ® Gen. 14: 18; ne y a © * Heb. 12:22; Rev. 21: 2, 10. ® Gal. 4: 20. * Rev. 3: 12. viz John 2: 15-17. 71 John 21: pe 17, THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 195 Mention is made of the gates.” They are built of pearl. Angels are the guardians standing before them. There are twelve gates: three on each of the four points of the compass. Does not this suggest that the redeemed from all quarters shall find a place in the new city? And there will not be a few saved, either. ‘‘And I saw a great multitude which no man could number.’’” Do you not see them flocking, crowding through the gates? One gate on the North, South, East, and West will not suffice for the multitudes that are crowding in; there are twelve gates. ‘‘Many shall sit down in the king- dom.’’ Only the saved pass through those gates. The angels are there to see to that. Only such as have their names written in the book of life will be able to give the countersign and pass through the gates into the city. ‘“And there shall in no wise enter into it anything un- clean, or he that maketh an abomination or a lie; but only they that are written in the Lamb’s book of life.’’” The foundations of the city™ are of precious stones. There are twelve foundations and on them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The Church of Christ is ‘‘built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner- stone.’?” The early Church ‘‘continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine.’’* The faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” is the doctrine that will give us the foundation, for that faith in Jesus will provide passport for entrance into the city of God. This is a very important thing to remember in this day when a difference is made between the teachings of Jesus and Tr John 21 * t2, 27. 37 John 7: 9. Cie Mate ae ir ™ Rev. 21: 27. ® Rev. 21: 14, 18. "Eph. 2: 19-20. ® Acts 2: 42. ” Jude 3. 196 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? the apostles, and the affirmation made that the writings of the apostles are not inspired and authoritative as are those of Jesus. The entire written Word of God is equally inspired,” and the words of apostle and prophet are expressive of the holy will of God even as the teach- ings of Jesus. Reference is made to the citizens of that holy city. They are the saved of the nations.” No unsaved person will find any place there. It is the abode of the saints. The overcomers find entrance here. The fearful or cowards, those who did not fight the good fight of faith in order to overcome, are left outside of the city. ‘*Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city. Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie.’’ ‘*And there shall in no wise enter into it any- thing unclean.’’* O God, may there be no power in sin to keep us out of that city, to blind our eyes so that we should miss that beatific vision and share in the life of the redeemed! Keep us clean and pure and holy, truthful, trusting and believing. Our attention is directed to the magnitude of this new city: ‘*‘And he that spake with me had for a meastre a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the walls thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth; and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand fur- longs; the length, the breadth and the height thereof *'2 Tim. 3: 16° 2.Pet. 1:20, 21: Rev. 21:24; 22:14. * Rey. 21:8. * Rev. 22: 14, 15. THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 197 are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits.’’™ How small, puny and in- significant earthly cities are in contrast with this city of God! The old Jerusalem was thirty-three stadia; the New Jerusalem is forty-eight hundred. Nineveh was four hundred, and Babylon four hundred and eighty. Oh, how large and how perfect a place is that city! There will be room for all who desire to enter. The earth was not large enough to receive the Christ- Child,” but heaven will not close its doors to those who truly desire to enter and who choose the Christ as their Saviour, having washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Nor should we overlook the fact that within that city just as within that new abode for the righteous there was a new sphere of life—the holy city, so within that new city there are New Conditions of Life for the Redeemed. Let us look at the inspired description of these new con- ditions of life. In the first place, God has His home, His dwelling- place in that city. ‘‘And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them and they shall be his peo- ples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.’’* It is true that God, even now, dwells in the heart of His people by faith: ‘‘If a man love me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.’’” But what will it be to be in the very presence of God Himself and to have Him as our constant Companion, “Rev. 21: 15-17. STuke 2:7. Pt Rey, 21:3: * Tohn 14: 23. 198 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? to tabernacle with us, live with us, dwell with us? And we shall have been so changed and conformed into His » image that we shall be fit to have the divine Guest with us. Think of what it will mean to have uninterrupted communion with God! In the next place we note that there will be a cessation of the things that characterized this earth-life and that brought sorrow and heartache: ‘‘And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more: the first [former] things are passed away. And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. . . . And there shall be no night there . . . nor shall there be curse any more.’’* Surely this is a happy state even if judged only by these negatives. But there is also the bringing in of that which is new: there is the tree of life, the throne of God,” a new serv- ice,” a new light.” The tree of life we have missed since the second and third chapters of Genesis. Nowhere in the Bible between the beginning of Genesis and here in Revelation do we find it. It was a merey of God that He kept man from eating of that tree and thus living forever in a sinful state. God had something better in store for man than that. Here is the tree of life of which a man may now eat and, in a glorified, sinless state, live forever. Here is a city through whose streets no hearse creeps slowly with its burden to the tomb, the green fields of which are never ripped open to receive ® Rev. he 53 22:3-5. ® Rev. 22:2. Rev. 22: 3. * Rev: 215.23. THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 199 the dead. The name of widow and orphan is not known there. The inhabitants never say, ‘‘I am sick.’?’ They hunger no more, nor is there sighing.and weeping. None in that country shall ever tire; no sickness shall pale the cheek nor pain cause the limbs to shiver. All is eternal youth there. Nor is there any night” to fear and dread. What this means only the suffering, timid and fearful can imagine. ‘‘T am content that I have seen the city; and without weariness will I go nearer to it; not all my life long will I suffer its bright golden gates to disappear from my sight.’’ The Homeland! O the Homeland! The land of the free- born! There’s no night in the Homeland, but aye the fadeless morn; I’m sighing for the Homeland, my heart is aching here; There is no pain in the H omeland to which I’m drawing near. My Lord is in the Homeland, with angels bright and fair; There’s no sin in the Homeland, and no temptation there ; The music of the Homeland is ringing in my ears; And when I think of the Homeland my eyes are filled with tears. My loved ones in the Homeland are waiting me to come, Where neither death nor sorrow invades their holy home; O dear, dear native Country! O rest and peace above! Christ bring us all to the Homeland of Thy redeeming love. @ Rev. 21: 25. 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Hehe bs Oi eA ve , % , L p ‘ « ‘ 7] sf n 7 ‘ ‘ A t s reek i > J ] i i ; j : a ‘7 iy i eT ( Hi he AA f y ge { - une ee) *, ‘ \ - { } A \ y ! a) A) ‘ ‘ Lal = ‘ ‘ one ! "A ’ . \ \ , > jv Sn iw j 7. 4 7 B f ‘ ' ‘ j ' + Tay Piya By : ih } ’ iat rk Ms 4 / i" rm er | ts : , ' “ | = 4 Wy rity i; , -. 4 i) a ; ‘ a " i ‘ . Th hae’ My ‘ im % , } ‘ { : * a : PRAYER, DEVOTIONAL, Ete. R. A. TORREY, D.D. The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power $1.75 “Not long since we were asked to name the best book on the subject of prayer. We feel perfectly safe in say- ing there is no better, safer and more helpful book than this, and people should read it if they wish something really worth while.”’—Herald and Presbyter. EDWARD M. BOUNDS, D.D. ene Rees berate rl aeerlbectteaie Bimal nhed Essentials of Prayer Edited by Homer W. Hodge, D. D. $1.25 “Covers many phases of prayer and in each instance gives one of the most helpful discussions for pastor or layman that this reviewer has yet come across. 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