The Gospel of the Hereafter Part 13

One can see how the constant study of such pa.s.sages should lead men to an enthusiastic hope and lead them to study less carefully the stream of darker teaching that seemed to conflict with these. Whatever may be said against the advocates of Universalism we at least owe to them a clearer emphasizing of the mysterious hopefulness of Scripture as to the final triumph of good.

But with deep reluctance one is bound to a.s.sert that the advocates of Universal Salvation to a great degree ignore or explain away unsatisfactorily much of the sterner side of the Bible. For amid all its hopefulness there is a steadily persistent note in Scripture, stern, awful, sorrowful, which seems impossible to reconcile with Universalism. There are clear and repeated a.s.sertions that some men at any rate will not be saved. It is St. Paul, the author of so many of those hopeful Scriptures quoted, who tells us "even weeping" of men "whose end is destruction" (Phil. iii. 19), and of those whose fate shall be "eternal destruction from the presence of G.o.d" (2 Thess. i.

9). It is the loving Christ Himself who said of one of His apostles, "It were good for that man if he had not been born" (St. Matt. xxvi.

24).

We are warned back too by the tendency of character to grow permanent.

And when we are told that G.o.d "willeth all men to be saved," and that G.o.d can do everything, we are forced to ask, Can G.o.d do contradictory things? Can G.o.d make a door to be open and shut at the same time? Can G.o.d make a thing to be and not to be at the same time? Can G.o.d make a man's will free to choose good or evil and yet secure that he shall certainly choose good at the last? One longs to believe that Universalism should be true, but to believe it we must ignore much of the evidence of Scripture.

III

_The theory of Conditional Immortality, i. e._, that all souls who fail of Eternal Life shall be punished not by Endless Torment, but by Annihilation and the loss of G.o.d and Heaven for ever and ever.

This is another conjecture framed to escape the difficulties of the former two. It would be consistent both with retribution for evil and also with the final victory of good. That in the mysterious nature of things when the malignity of sin becomes incurable, a soul rotted through with sin might ultimately die out of existence; this opinion is at least allowable as a conjecture to escape from the theory of Endless Torment and Sin. It would in a real sense be an everlasting punishment, being an everlasting loss of Heaven and G.o.d. But it too is founded only on part of the evidence, on such texts as "The gift of G.o.d is eternal life," "He that hath the Son hath life," implying that immortality is a conditional thing granted only to those who are saved, and such texts as "eternal _destruction_ from the presence of G.o.d," and the idea of utter annihilation in such pa.s.sages as "burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." There is much in favor of it but there is much in Scripture which makes it difficult to accept it. And it contradicts straight out the wide-spread Christian belief in the essential immortality of the soul (though that belief also needs to be examined). At any rate it cannot claim authority as a theory of future punishment.

IV

These are the only conjectures offered us to solve the difficulties connected with Final Retribution. We find them all unsatisfactory. We have reached no definite doctrine of h.e.l.l. With the evidence at our disposal it seems impossible to do so. The failure of all attempts at reconciling the seeming contradictions of Scripture must suggest to us that the solution of this problem is beyond the range of our present powers. At any rate it is beyond the range of our present knowledge.

Surely it is wise and reverent to think that this points to _some dealing of G.o.d beyond our human ken_ which will one day reconcile all the difficulties.[5] Our little guesses do not exhaust G.o.d's possibilities. Some day we shall find the answer in that land where we shall know even as we are known. And when we find it we know it will be consistent with our highest thoughts of G.o.d. I like to think that it is those who have grown closest to Christ in sympathy for sorrow and pain and who unlike us, know all the facts of the case, who are represented as joining in that glad shout hereafter, "Hallelujah!

salvation and glory and power belong to our G.o.d, FOR TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS ARE HIS JUDGMENTS." Leave the manifestation of this to G.o.d. A wise old man once said, "G.o.d has a good deal of time to do things between this and the other side of eternity."

This then is the conclusion of the whole matter. A return to the reserve and reticence of Scripture. But with this result of our study, that we feel no longer forced to believe of G.o.d that which Conscience declares to be unworthy of Him. We are set free to believe that the Judge of all the earth will do right--that h.e.l.l as well as Heaven is within the confines of His dominion--that evil shall not last for ever; that in spite of all its conflicting evidence the trend of Scripture moves towards the golden age, the final victory of good.

Thus we leave it.

In our final vision of humanity in Christ's great drama of the Judgment, those on the left are pa.s.sing into the outer darkness and as they pa.s.s the curtain falls behind them and we see them no more. We know not what is pa.s.sing in that outer darkness where there is "weeping and gnas.h.i.+ng of teeth." We have no grounds to believe that any soul there is being born again through sorrow and shame, that any spoiled and deformed life is being remoulded in that awful crucible of G.o.d.

But as we watch the awful shadows of that outer darkness, there comes beyond it on the far horizon the quivering of a coming dawn. For that age of G.o.d's Gehenna is to have its end, and far away the day will dawn for which the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together; when evil shall have vanished out of the universe for ever; when death and h.e.l.l, the evil and the Evil One shall be cast into the lake of fire; when "at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of things in Heaven and earth, and under the earth" (in the world of the dead). "And every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of G.o.d the Father." "Then cometh the end," says St. Paul, "when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to G.o.d, even the Father, when all His enemies shall be subjected unto Him. And when all His enemies have been subjected unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subjected unto Him that put all things under Him, that G.o.d may be all in all."

That is what shall be. One day, somewhere in the far mysterious future the "purpose of the ages" shall be accomplished. Evil shall have vanished out of the universe for ever and G.o.d shall be all in all. One day again it shall be as at the creation when "G.o.d looked on everything that He had made and behold it was very good." How? We know not and we need not know. We need not be able to a.s.sert dogmatically how He will accomplish His purpose. We need not be able to a.s.sert that all men shall be saved or that all who are not will be annihilated. But we must be able with trustful hearts to a.s.sert G.o.d's love and G.o.d's power and the final abolis.h.i.+ng of evil, even though we can only do it with the poet's vagueness:

At last I heard a voice upon the slope Cry to the summit, "Is there any hope?"

To which an answer pealed from that high land, But in a tongue no man could understand, And on the glimmering summit far withdrawn G.o.d made Himself an awful rose of dawn.

[1] 1 John iii. 8.

[2] Gen. iii. 15.

[3] _kolasis_--chastis.e.m.e.nt, correction, punishment (see Greek Lexicon).

[4] The same Greek words are used of His enemies' subjection to Christ as of Christ's subjection to the Father suggesting that it would be of the same kind.

[5] In other antinomies of Scripture, _e. g._, Man's free will and G.o.d's foreknowledge, we have to take refuge in a similar belief.

III

HEAVEN

At last "I" has reached the goal. In that far future comes the glad finale of human history, the realization of the eternal thought in the mind of G.o.d from the beginning. As the unwritten play of a great dramatist lies in his mind before it is uttered or acted, with every problem solved and every contingency provided for--so we believe the whole extended drama lay in the Eternal Mind--the path of struggle and pain--the cross-currents of human will--the glorious conclusion of it all. Nothing was an after-thought. Now at last Christ "shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied." Aye--satisfied. It was worth the cost. Worth the Incarnation of the Eternal Son--worth the sorrow and the pain--worth being misunderstood and shamed and mocked and scourged and spitted on and crucified--this final satisfaction of His tender love. "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things that G.o.d hath prepared. They shall hunger no more nor thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them nor any burning heat, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall shepherd them and lead them to eternal fountains of waters, and G.o.d shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death--no mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things--the old bad things--have pa.s.sed away."

That is the end of G.o.d's purpose for men. Surely it will be the wondering cry of the angels for ever, "Behold how He loved them!"

I. WHAT IS MEANT BY HEAVEN?

To us with our limited faculties Heaven is practically inconceivable.

We have no experience that would help us to realize it. Even the inspired writers can but touch the thought vaguely in allegory and gorgeous vision, piling up images of earthly things precious and beautiful--thrones and crowns and gates of pearl and golden streets in the heavenly city "coming down from G.o.d prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

The only clear thought we have about external things in Heaven is that "I" who lived here in an earthly body and in the Near Hereafter lived a spirit life "absent from the body"--shall in that Far Hereafter have a spiritual body a.n.a.logous we suppose to the body "I" had on earth. Not the poor body, certainly, which rotted in the grave, "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" but a "glorified body," and yet it would seem having some strange mysterious connection with the earthly body. As the oak is the resurrection body of the acorn, and the lily of the ugly little bulb that decayed in the ground, "so also is the resurrection of the dead.

It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." That gives very little information but it gives some tangible idea to grasp. Beyond this there is no hold for imagination.

But as we saw in the earlier chapters on the Intermediate Life I am still "I," the same conscious self through the whole life of Earth.

and Hades and Heaven, and therefore the _real life, the inner life_ can still be understood. So when we enquire what can be known about the meaning of Heaven--at the very start I strike the key-note of the thoughts that follow, in the words of Christ Himself, "The Kingdom of G.o.d is within you." Heaven is a something within you rather than without you. Heaven means character rather than possessions. The Kingdom of G.o.d is not meat and drink, but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost.

That is the thought which I am trying to keep prominent all through this book. Hades life is dependent on character. Judgment is a sorting according to character. Heaven and h.e.l.l are tempers or conditions of character within us. They are not merely places to which G.o.d sends us arbitrarily. They are conditions which we make for ourselves. If G.o.d could send all men to Heaven, all men would be there. If G.o.d could keep all men from h.e.l.l, no one would be there. It is character that makes Heaven. It is character that makes h.e.l.l. They are states of mind that begin here, and are continued and developed there.

I have known men who were in h.e.l.l here--they told me so--men of brutal character, men in delirium tremens, who saw devils grinning at them from the bed. That if continued and developed would mean h.e.l.l there.

I have known sweet, unselfish lives who are in Heaven here. That continued and developed would mean Heaven there. You know how one could be in Heaven here. Do you remember these wonderful words of our Lord, "No man hath ascended into Heaven, only the Son of Man who is in Heaven"? Not _was_, not _shall be_, but is always in Heaven, because always in unselfish love--always in accord and in communion with G.o.d.

So, you see, a man carries the beginning of Heaven and h.e.l.l within him, according to the state of his own heart. A selfish, G.o.dless man cannot have any Heaven so long as he remains selfish and G.o.dless. For Heaven consists in forgetting self, and loving G.o.d and man with heart and soul.

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Do you see, then, the mistake that people have been making in discussing what is meant by Heaven? In all ages--in all races--men have speculated about it, and their speculations have been largely coloured by their characters and temperaments. The Indian placed it in the Happy Hunting Ground. The Greeks placed it in the Islands of the Blest, where warriors rested after the battle. The Northman and the Mussulman had his equally sensual Heaven. And many Christians have as foolish notions as any one else. Some think that they win Heaven by believing something with their minds about our Lord's atonement. Some think they go to Heaven by soaring up through the air. Some of them, taking in its literal meaning the glorious imagery of the Apocalypse, picture to themselves streets of beaten gold and walls of flas.h.i.+ng emerald and jasper, and the wearing of crowns and the singing of Psalms over and over again through all the ages of eternity.

What is the fault in all such? That they do not understand what Heaven really means. They think of it as a something outside them which anybody could enjoy if he could only get there. They do not understand that Heaven means the joy of being in union with G.o.d--that the outward Heaven has no meaning till the inward Heaven has begun in ourselves. I need not point out to you that our immortal spirits would find little happiness in golden pavements and gates of pearl. People on this earth, who have their fill of gold and pearl, do not always gain much happiness from them. They are mere external things--they cannot give eternal joy, because that comes from within, not from without. It depends not on what we have, but on what we are, not on the riches of our possessions, but on the beauty of our lives.

The gorgeous vision of the Apocalypse has its meaning, but it is not the carnal, literal meaning of foolish men. It tells of the bright river of the water of life; of glorified cities, where nothing foul, or mean, or ign.o.ble shall dwell; of the white robes of our stainless purity; of the crowns and palms, the emblems of victory over temptation, of the throne which indicates calm mastery over sin; of the song and music and gladsome feasting to image faintly the abounding happiness and the fervent thanksgiving for the goodness of G.o.d. They are all mere symbols--mere earthly pictures with a heavenly meaning, and the meaning which lies behind them all is this: _The joy of Heaven means the inward joy; the joy of character; the joy of goodness; the joy of likeness to the Nature of G.o.d_. That is the highest joy of all--the only joy worthy of making Heaven for men who are made in the image of G.o.d.

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It is not difficult to show this to any true man or woman who is humbly trying to do beautiful deeds on earth. Of course, if a man be very selfish and worldly; a man who never tries to help another; a man who smiles at these things as unreal sentiment; who tells you that hard cash and success in life, and "to mind number one," as they say, are the chief things; a man who never feels his pulses beat faster at the story of n.o.ble deeds--you cannot absolutely prove to him that the joy of character is the highest happiness. You cannot prove to a blind man the beauty of the sunset sky; you cannot arouse a deaf man to enthusiasm about sweet music; and you cannot prove to an utterly selfish, earthly man that self-sacrifice and purity and heroism and love are the loveliest and the most desirable possessions--the sources of the highest and most lasting joy. But I feel sure that most of us, with all our faults, have in our better moments the desire and the admiration--aye, and the effort, too, after n.o.bleness of life, and therefore we can understand this highest joy of Heaven. We have had experience sometimes, however rarely, of lovely deeds, and the sweet, pure joy that follows in their train. Well, whenever you have conquered some craving temptation or borne trouble for another's sake; when you have helped and brightened some poor life, and kept quiet in the shade that no one should know of it; when you have tried to do the right at heavy cost to yourself; when the old father or mother at home has thanked G.o.d for the comfort you have been in their declining years; whenever in the midst of all your sins you have done anything for the love of G.o.d or man, do you not know what a sweet, pure happiness has welled up in your heart, entirely different in kind, infinitely higher in degree than any pleasure that ever came to you from riches or amus.e.m.e.nt or the applause of men. Of this kind surely must be the pure joy of Heaven. Call up the recollection of some of those cherished moments of your life, and multiply by infinity the pleasure that you felt, and you will have some faint notion of what is meant by Heaven, the Heaven that G.o.d designs for man.

II. WHAT IS HEAVEN'S SUPREME JOY?

Thus, then, we answer the first of our questions--What is meant by Heaven? Heaven means a state of character rather than a place of residence. Heaven means to be something rather than to go somewhere.

But though Heaven means a state of character rather than a place of residence, yet it means a place of residence, too. And though Heaven means to be something rather than to go somewhere, yet it means to go somewhere, too. And from this the second question easily follows.

What can be known about that life in Heaven?