Page images
PDF
EPUB

sea.

seeds that he has thus reared will be scattered over land and And when then the old world will have become the heap of ruins which the great ones of this age are now seeking to make it, then will burst forth the buds and blossoms that have been planted by that almost forgotten Rabbi, who,we know not fully why he should have been was crucified, JESUS OF Nazareth.

From the top of the mountain to which Satan carried him could be seen all the kingdoms of the world. But Christ's point of vision was far higher. He could see beyond the centuries, and he knew well what was to come to pass. From this point of vision how small do all the things appear that now seem to us so great. That which is to us the end and aim of life, peace, comfort, happiness, was to him, on his life's journey, only a hampering burden; that which is to us praiseworthy prudence and moderation, is in his sight nothing else but a want of confidence in God; that which seems to us to be the wisdom of life, is in his estimation high treason to the kingdom of heaven. And thus has he torn up the last worldly roots and fibers of the heart's purposes and desires. "Then the devil leaveth him, and behold angels came and ministered unto him."

Translated by Rev Edward Smiley.

ARTICLE XXVI.

The Logic of the Immortal Life.

THE domain of theology furnishes no theme that touches so profoundly the dearest interests of mankind as the question of human destiny. To every serious mind that believes in the continued existence of the soul beyond the tomb this, above all others, must assume the gravest magnitude and challenge the most earnest attention. What scenes lie beyond the sunset of our earthly lives? To what shores are these contrary

winds and beating storms on the sea of time, driving this ship of our immortal being? What is the nature of those conditions and surroundings that are reserved for the race of man in the unseen world? These are questions in regard to which no thoughtful person can be entirely indifferent. The soul itself in its present prison house of bondage, pleads for light. The long procession of bereaved ones standing over the graves of their beloved, cry out with bleeding and aching hearts for solution. The deepest spiritual needs and the highest moral interests of humanity alike demand an answer.

Among all the subjects that now agitate either the secular or the relig ious world what one, indeed, more than this, is worthy of sober thought and investigation? What one that involves such solemn and tremendous issues, or comes so near the hearts of mortal beings?

The

And true to the wants and instincts of his nature there has probably existed no question that has so often been the theme in the past of speculation and controversy by man as this. Around it has revolved the most anxious thought and the most earnest inquiries of his intellectual and spiritual being. His curiosity has been awakened and his love of the marvelous intensely excited as he has looked toward the immortal sphere. He has attempted to lift the dark curtains that hide it from his vision and to gaze in upon its sublime mysteries. teachings of the revealed word have not been deemed sufficient to satisfy his inquisitive search. General statements of truth in regard to it have not responded to all the earnest aspirations of his soul. Hence where revelation has not shed its light,and reason dares not tread, or is too weak to climb, his imagination has soared on etherial wings to regions of cloud and mist, and returned with some nicely arranged hypothesis or fancy colored theory and demanded for it a place among the verities of religious faith or hastened to incorporate it into the framework of a creed. To such an extent has man carried his speculations in this direction, that he assumes, in many instances, to speak with oracular knowledge of all the details of the soul's future history to profess the utmost familiarity

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

with the scenes, inhabitants and employments of the post mortem state to determine the capacity of each disembodied spirit the exact measure of its enjoyment and misery---in a word to know even more about the scenes and transactions of the unseen world, than he does about the geography and history of the globe on which he lives.

The primary cause, we believe, that lies at the root of not a small number of visionary speculations of this character as well as of many gross errors that surround this subject, consists in not taking into account the vast and unspeakable dissimilarity that must exist, in the nature of things, between the two worlds- or in other words the assumption that there is little or no difference between the moral conditions of this earthly life and the immortal sphere. For instance, those theories that assert either the temporary or the permanent existence of sin in the future life, all start with the hypothesis that man is essentially the same being, possessing the same wants, passions, feelings, surrounded by the same circumstances, controlled and influenced by the same motives, having the same kind and amount of knowledge, dominated by the same evil tendencies in the world beyond the grave, that mark too often with sad and dark lines his mortal career. Equipped at the very threshhold with a postulate so sweeping and audacious, there are no limits to the number or to the character of the celestial structures that the imagination may rear, or to the kind of pictures it may paint upon them. On such a basis the most fanciful dogmas might be multiplied to any extent and find ample justification, not excluding the one most venerated and prominent in evangelical quarters the doctrine which asserts the permanent fossilization of sinful souls with all its attendant sequences, endless sorrow and crime.

[ocr errors]

If, indeed, the mysterious rea!ms of the life hereafter are to be merely a duplicate of our present earthly condition the projection of mankind with the accompanying temptations and appetites of his mortal bring upon an infinite plane, and he is to possess, substantially, the same organization, liable to

the same forms of weakness and error in that life that belong to this terrestrial environment, then no conclusion is more inevitable than that moral evil, with all its inseparable and fearful adjuncts, will be one of the conspicuous features of that life, and the prospect of its final overthrow and destruction is rendered a dark and dubious question. Similar conditions necessarily produce or imply similar results; and the serpent sin once admittted within the opened gates of the celestial life, with equal encouragement and facilities for prosecuting its unholy work, and multiplying its numerous progeny that it possessed on earth, there can exist but slight, if any grounds, for expecting its final extinction. It causes, therefore, no surprise that the advocates of eternal sin should entrench themselves in a fortress so secure and impregnable. It is the chief citadel of their strength, and one from which they cannot be easily dislodged, particularly by those who occupy the same ground of view, and use weapons tempered by the same heat and run in the same mould. The marvel rather is, that believers in a larger hope should be led into this same fatal snare, the acknowledgment of the existence of sin in the immortal state, by which they essentially weaken their own defenses and furnish no little aid and encouragement to the enemy. Assuming such a position they actually fetter their own limbs, and put into the hands of their opponents a formidable instrument of theological warfare that threatens to destroy the foundations of their own faith, or at least, to dim, in a measure, its glorious light. In fact there can be no positive assurance that man's second and eternal Eden, can be made any more secure from the slimy trail of the serpent than the first, unless God has placed at its shining gates the angel of his merciful Providence, with flaming sword, to dispute forever its entrance. Possession once gained, it could assert its title to permanent occupation on the ground of the nature of things," the "freedom of the will," or what is more probable, by that form of argument commonly used by its friends, and which is termed, "reasoning from analogy."

Independent of the testimonies of the revealed word, the grand fact of immortality itself, throws no dim or insignificant light on the nature of the future life. It suggests, at least, to a large degree, the character of these conditions that must necessarily appertain to such a life. It tacitly implies the kind of circumstances that must accompany and influence the soul in its eternal state. It forces, with noonday clearness, upon the conviction, the expressive fact that such a state in all its essential psychical features, must be the complete reversal of our present existence, and that man in passing from time to eternity must enter upon entirely new scenes, and be subject to wholly new conditions. One is mortal, temporary, material, veiled, a dark imprisonment with all the clogs and hindrances of the flesh, while the other is immortal, eternal, celestial, unveiled, an entire emancipation from all earthly and sensual environments. Consequently, all the circumstances of that more glorious and wonderful life, must present a marvellous and decided contrast to the disabilities and impediments of our mortal lot.

[ocr errors]

It would, perhaps, be difficult to find anything in our present experience or knowledge by which to illustrate the great and stupendons change that must take place in the surroundings of the soul as it casts off this burden of clay and sweeps out into the regions of perpetual life and light. We can imagine to some extent the feelings of astonishment and delight that a person who had been born blind, and after living many years in that darkened state, should be suddenly restored to sight, to have unveiled before him all at once the full glory, freedom and beauty of a bright June day. We can under

1 Since writing the above, we have met in the course of our reading with an account of an actual case where a young lady was restored to sight who had been born blind. The writer says, "To describe the sensations of the young lady when the first welcome ray of light entered her hitherto sightless orbs, would be beyond our power. In an instant, as if by magic, the idea of material things which she had cherished for so many years, through the sense of feeling, were entombed in memory. A new and bright world, full of light and life full of wonder and admiration - terrible, because hitherto unknown in its realized beauty and grandeur arose before her. She iooked and trembled; she shook from head to foot, like an aspen leaf; and unable to utter a word, she gazed in wild astonishment on the scene before her. When her emotlon had somewhat subsided, Dr. Cadwell inquired if she saw him, 'Yes,' said she,

--

« PreviousContinue »