question; it is the answer to this which sets some on the right hand and
some on the left.

*       *       *       *       *

Let us close as we began, remembering that it is Christ who is to be our
Judge. Therefore will the judgment be according to perfect truth. We
know how He judged men when He was here on earth--without respect of
persons, undeceived by appearances, seeing things always as they are,
calling them always by their true names. And such will His judgment be
hereafter. On the walls of the famous Rock Tombs of Thebes, there is a
group of figures representing the judging of the departed spirit before
Osiris, the presiding deity of the dead. In one hand he holds a
shepherd's crook, in the other a scourge; before him are the scales of
justice; that which is weighed is the heart of the dead king upon whose
lot the deity is called to decide. The pictured symbol is a dim
foreshadowing of that perfect judgment which He who looketh not at the
outward appearance but at the heart will one day pass on all the lives
of men. And yet an apostle has dared to write of "boldness in the day of
Judgment"! Surely St. John is very bold; yet was his boldness
well-based. He remembered the saying of his own Gospel: "The Father hath
given all judgment unto the Son ... because He is the Son of Man." Yes;
He who will come to be our Judge is He who once for us men, and for our
salvation, came down from heaven, and was made man, and upon the Cross
did suffer death for our redemption. Herein is the secret of the
"boldness" of the redeemed.

"Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
'Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.

Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am,
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame."

*       *       *       *       *




CONCERNING THE FUTURE LIFE


"My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But 'tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with Him."
RICHARD BAXTER.

*       *       *       *       *




XVI

CONCERNING THE FUTURE LIFE

"_Where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves
do not break through nor steal._"--MATT. vi. 20.

"_Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched._"--MARK ix.
48.


These are both sayings of Christ, and each has reference to the life
beyond death; together they illustrate the two-fold thought of the
future which finds a place in all the records of our Lord's teaching.

Popular theology, it is sometimes said, seriously misunderstands and
misinterprets Jesus. And so far as the theology of the future life is
concerned there need be no hesitation in admitting that, not
unfrequently, it has been disfigured by an almost grotesque literalism.
The pulpit has often forgotten that over-statement is always a blunder,
and that any attempt to imagine the wholly unimaginable is most likely
to end in defeating our own intentions and in dissipating, rather than
reinforcing, our sense of the tremendous realities of which Christ
spoke. Nevertheless, much as theology may have erred in the form of its
teaching concerning the future, its great central ideas have always been
derived direct from Christ. It has not, we know, always made its appeal
to what is highest in man; it has sometimes spoken of "heaven" and
"hell" in a fashion that has left heart and conscience wholly untouched;
nevertheless, the time has not yet come--until men cease to believe in
Christ, the time never will have come--for banishing these words from
our vocabulary. Unless Christ were both a deceiver and deceived, they
represent realities as abiding as God and the soul, realities towards
which it behoves every man of us to discover how he stands. In the
teaching of Jesus, no less than in the teaching of popular theology, the
future has a bright side and it has a dark side; there is a heaven and
there is a hell.


I


That there is a life beyond this life, that death does not end all, is
of course always assumed in the teaching of Jesus. But it is much more
than this that we desire to know. What kind of a life is it? What are
its conditions? How is it related to the present life? What is the
"glory" into which, as we believe, "the souls of believers at their
death do immediately pass"? Perhaps our first impression, as we search
the New Testament for an answer to our questions, is one of
disappointment; there is so much that still remains unrevealed. We do
indeed read of dead men raised to life again by the power of God, but of
the awful and unimaginable experiences through which they passed not a
word is told.

"'Where wert thou, brother, those four days?'
There lives no record of reply.
.       .       .       .       .
Behold a man raised up by Christ!
The rest remaineth unreveal'd;
He told it not; or something seal'd
The lips of that Evangelist."

How much even Christ Himself has left untold! At His incarnation, and
again at His resurrection, He came forth from that world into which we
all must pass; yet how few were His words concerning it, how little able
we still are to picture it! Nevertheless, if He has not told us all, He
has told us enough. Let us recall some of His words.

He spoke of "everlasting habitations"--"eternal tabernacles"--into which
men should be received. Here we are as pilgrims and sojourners, dwelling
in a land not our own.

"Earth's but a sorry tent,
Pitched but a few frail days;"

and the chances and changes of this mortal life often bear heavily upon
us. But there these things have no place. Moth and rust, change and
decay, sorrow and death cannot enter there.

"The day's aye fair
I' the land o' the leal."

Again, Christ said, "I go to prepare a place for you." Just as when a
little child is born into the world it comes to a place made ready for
it by the thousand little tendernesses of a mother's love, so does death
lead us, not into the bleak, inhospitable night, but into the "Father's
house," to a place which love has made ready for our coming. "Father,
into Thy hands I commend My spirit." _Into Thy hands_--thither Jesus
passed from the Cross and the cruel hands of men; thither have passed
the lost ones of our love; thither, too, we in our turn shall pass. Why,
then, if we believe in Jesus should we be afraid? "Having death for my
friend," says an unknown Greek writer, "I tremble not at shadows."
Having Jesus for our friend we tremble not at death.

Further, Christ taught us, the heavenly life is a life of service. Every
one knows how largely the idea of rest has entered into our common
conceptions of the future. It is indeed a pathetic commentary on the
weariness and restlessness of life that with so many rest should almost
have come to be a synonym for blessedness. But rest is far from being
the final word of Scripture concerning the life to come. Surely life,
with its thousandfold activities, is not meant as a preparation for a
Paradise of inaction. What can be the meaning and purpose of the life
which we are called to pass through here, if our hereafter is to be but
one prolonged act of adoration? We shall carry with us into the future
not character only but capacity; and can it be that God will lay aside
as useless there that which with so great pains He has sought to perfect
here? It is not so that Christ has taught us to think: "He that received
the five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou
deliverest unto me five talents: lo, I have gained other five talents.
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast
been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things: enter
thou into the joy of thy lord." God will not take the tools out of the
workman's hands just when he has learned how to handle them; He will not
"pension off" His servants just when they are best able to serve Him.
The reward of work well done is more work; faithfulness in few things
brings lordship over many. Have we not here a ray of light on the
mystery of unfinished lives? We do not murmur when the old and tired are
gathered to their rest; but when little children die, when youth falls
in life's morning, when the strong man is cut off in his strength, we
know not what to say. But do not "His servants serve Him" there as well
as here? Their work is not done; in ways beyond our thoughts it is going
forward still. [60]

One other question concerning the future with which, as by an instinct,
we turn to Christ for answer is suggested by the following touching
little poem:

"I can recall so well how she would look--
How at the very murmur of her dress
On entering the room, the whole room took
An air of gentleness.

That was so long ago, and yet his eyes
Had always afterwards the look that waits
And yearns, and waits again, nor can disguise
Something it contemplates.

May we imagine it? The sob, the tears,
The long, sweet, shuddering breath; then on her breast
The great, full, flooding sense of endless years,
Of heaven, and her, and rest."

Can we quote the authority of Jesus for thoughts like these? The point
is, let it be noted, not whether we shall know each other again beyond
death, but whether we shall be to each other what we were here. At the
foot of the white marble cross which his wife placed upon the grave of
Charles Kingsley are graven these three words: _Amavimus, Amamus,
Amabimus_ ("We have loved, we love, we shall love"). After Mrs.
Browning's death her husband wrote these lines from Dante in her
Testament: "Thus I believe, thus I affirm, thus I am certain it is, that
from this life I shall pass to another better, there, where that lady
lives, of whom my soul was enamoured." Will Christ counter-sign a hope
like this? I do not know any "proof-text" that can be quoted, yet it
were profanation to think otherwise. There are many flowers of time, we
know, which cannot be transplanted; but "love never faileth," love is
the true _immortelle_. And whatever changes death may bring, those who
have been our nearest here shall be our nearest there. And though, as I
say, we can quote no "proof-text," our faith may find its guarantee in
the great word of Jesus: "If it were not so, I would have told you."
This is one of the instincts of the Christian heart, as pure and good as
it is firm and strong. Since Christ let it pass unchallenged, may we not
claim His sanction for it? If it were not so, He would have told us.


II


I turn now to the reverse side of Christ's teaching concerning the
future. And let us not seek to hide from ourselves the fact that there
_is_ a reverse side. For, ignore it as we may, the fact remains: those
same holy lips which spoke of a place, "where neither moth nor rust doth
consume," spoke likewise of another place, "where their worm dieth not,
and the fire is not quenched."

In considering this solemn matter we must learn to keep wholly separate
from it a number of difficult questions which have really nothing to do
with it--with which, indeed, we have nothing to do--and the introduction
of which can only lead to mischievous confusion and error. What is to
become of the countless multitudes in heathen lands who die without
having so much as heard of Christ? How will God deal with those even in
our own Christian land to whom, at least as it seems to us, this life
has brought no adequate opportunity of salvation? What will happen in
that dim twilight land betwixt death and judgment which men call "the
intermediate state"? Will they be few or many who at last will be for
ever outcasts from the presence of God? These are questions men will
persist in asking, but the answer to which no man knows. Strictly
speaking, they are matters with which we have nothing to do, which we
must be content to leave with God, confident that the Judge of all the
earth will do right, even though He does not show us how. What we have
to do with, what does concern us, is the warning of Jesus, emphatic and
reiterated, that sin will be visited with punishment, that retribution,
just, awful, inexorable, will fall on all them that love and work
iniquity.

"But why," it may be asked, "why dwell upon these things? Is there not
something coarse and vulgar in this appeal to men's fears? And, after
all, to what purpose is it? If men are not won by the love of God, of
what avail is it to speak to them of His wrath?" But fear is as real an
element in human nature as love, and when our aim is by all means to
save men, it is surely legitimate to make our appeal to the whole man,
to lay our fingers on every note--the lower notes no less than the
higher--in the wide gamut of human life. The preacher of the gospel,
moreover, is left without choice in the matter. It is no part of his
business to ask what is the use of this or of that in the message given
to him to deliver; it is for him to declare "the whole counsel of God,"
to keep back nothing that has been revealed. And the really decisive
consideration is this--that this is a matter on which Christ Himself has
spoken, and spoken with unmistakable clearness and emphasis. Shall,
then, the ambassador hesitate when the will of the King is made known?
More often--five times more often, it is said[61]--than Jesus spoke of
future blessedness did He speak of future retribution. The New Testament
is a very tender book; but it is also a very stern book, and its
sternest words are words of Jesus. "For the sins of the miserable, the
forlorn, the friendless, He has pity and compassion; but for the sins of
the well-taught, the high-placed, the rich, the self-indulgent, for
obstinate and malignant sin, the sin of those who hate, and deceive, and
corrupt, and betray, His wrath is terrible, its expression is
unrestrained."[62] "Jesu, Thou art all compassion," we sometimes sing;
but is it really so? St. Paul writes of "the meekness and gentleness of
Christ"; and for many of the chapters of Christ's life that is the right
headline; but there are other chapters which by no possible manipulation
can be brought under that heading, and they also are part of the story.
It was Jesus who said that in the day of judgment it should be more
tolerable for even Tyre and Sidon than for Bethsaida and Chorazin; it
was Jesus who uttered that terrible twenty-third chapter of St.
Matthew's Gospel, with its seven times repeated "Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites!" it was Jesus who spoke of the shut door and
the outer darkness, of the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not
quenched, of the sin which hath never forgiveness, neither in this
world, nor in that which is to come, and of that day when He who wept
over Jerusalem and prayed for His murderers and died for the world will
say unto them on His left hand, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into the
eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels." These are
_His_ words, and it is because they are His they make us tremble. He
_is_ "gentle Jesus, meek and mild"; that is why His sternness is so
terrible.

These things are not said in order to defend any particular theory of
future punishment--on that dread subject, indeed, the present writer has
no "theory" to defend; he frankly confesses himself an agnostic--but
rather to claim for the solemn fact of retribution a place in our minds
akin to that which it held in the teaching of our Lord. We need have no
further concern than to be loyal to Him. Does, then, such loyalty admit
of a belief in universal salvation? Is it open to us to assert that in
Christ the whole race is predestined to "glory, honour, and
immortality"? The "larger hope" of the universalist--

"that good shall fall
At last--far off--at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring"--

is, indeed, one to which no Christian heart can be a stranger; yearnings
such as these spring up within us unbidden and uncondemned. But when it
is definitely and positively asserted that "God has destined all men to
eternal glory, irrespective of their faith and conduct," "that no
antagonism to the Divine authority, no insensibility to the Divine love,
can prevent the eternal decree from being accomplished," we shall do
well to pause, and pause again. The old doctrine of an assured salvation
for an elect few we reject without hesitation. But, as Dr. Dale has
pointed out,[63] the difference between the old doctrine and the new is
merely an arithmetical, not a moral difference: where the old put
"some," the new puts "all"; and the moral objections which are valid
against the one are not less valid against the other also. I dare not
say to myself, and therefore I dare not say to others, that, let a man
live as he may, it yet shall be well with him in the end. The facts of
experience are against it; the words of Christ are against it. "The very
conception of human freedom involves the possibility of its permanent
misuse, of what our Lord Himself calls 'eternal sin.'" If a man can go
on successfully resisting Divine grace in this life, what reason have we
for supposing that it would suddenly become irresistible in another
life? Build what we may on the unrevealed mercies of the future for them
that live and die in the darkness of ignorance, let us build nothing for
ourselves who are shutting our eyes and closing our hearts to the Divine
light and love which are already ours.

*       *       *       *       *

"Behold, then, the goodness and severity of God;" and may His goodness
lead us to repentance, that His severity we may never know. This is,
indeed, His will for every one of us: He has "appointed us not unto
wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ." If we are lost we are suicides.

THE END





Footnote 1: J. Stalker, _The Christology of Jesus_, p. 23, footnote.

Footnote 2: "The sources for our knowledge of the actual teaching of
Jesus do not lie merely in the Gospel accounts, but also in the
literature of the apostolic age, especially in the Epistles of Paul....
Even had no direct accounts about Jesus been handed down to us, we
should still possess, in the apostolic literature, a perfectly valid
testimony to the historical existence and epoch-making significance of
Jesus as a teacher."--H.H. Wendt, _Teaching of Jesus_, vol. i, p. 28.

Footnote 3: _What is Christianity?_ p. 20.

Footnote 4: _Three Essays on Religion_, p. 253.

Footnote 5: _Literature and Dogma_, p. 10.

Footnote 6: See Harnack's _What is Christianity_? p. 4.

Footnote 7: See A.S. Peake's _Guide to Biblical Study_, p. 244.

Footnote 8: _Thoughts on Religion_, p. 157.

Footnote 9: _The Kingdom of God_, p. 50.

Footnote 10: "Christian apologists," says Dr. Sanday, "have often done
scant justice to the intensity of this [monotheistic] faith, which was
utterly disinterested and capable of magnificent self-sacrifice."--Art.
"God," Hastings' _Dictionary of the Bible_, vol. ii, p. 205.

Footnote 11: See R.F. Horton's _Teaching of Jesus_, p. 59.

Footnote 12: A.M. Fairbairn, _Christ in Modern Theology_, p. 244.

Footnote 13: On the subject of this chapter see especially G.B. Stevens'
_Theology of the New Testament_, chap. vi.

Footnote 14: _Christian Doctrine,_ p. 77.

Footnote 15: Bishop Gore, _Bampton Lectures,_ 1891, p. 13.

Footnote 16: J. Denney, _Studies in Theology_, p. 25.

Footnote 17: For an admirable statement of the argument of this
paragraph see D.W. Forrest's _Christ of History and experience_, chap.
i. and note 4, p. 385.

Footnote 18: Cp. Denney's note on St. Paul's description of Christ, "Him
who knew no sin," in 2 Cor. v. 21: "The Greek negative (mae), as
Schmiedel remarks, implies that this is regarded as the verdict of some
one else than the writer. It was Christ's own verdict upon Himself."

Footnote 19: _The Death of Christ_, p. 28.

Footnote 20: _The Philosophy of the Christian Religion_, p. 408.

Footnote 21: John xii. 27, 28; xiii. 31; xvii. 1.

Footnote 22: G.B. Stevens, _Theology of the New Testament_, p. 133.

Footnote 23: I quote once more from Dr. Denney.

Footnote 24: J. Denney, _Studies in Theology_, p. 154.

Footnote 25: See W.N. Clarke's _Outlines of Christian Theology_, p. 373.

Footnote 26: "It is the Holy Spirit who supplies the _bodily presence_
of Christ, and by Him doth He accomplish all His promises to the Church.
Hence, some of the ancients call Him 'Vicarium Christi,' 'The Vicar of
Christ,' or Him who represents His person and dischargeth His promised
work: _Operam navat Christo vicariam."_--Owen, _Works,_ vol. iii. p.
193.

Footnote 27: "Our sources with the utmost possible uniformity refer to
the Spirit in terms implying personality."--Stevens, _Theology of the
New Testament_ (p. 215), where the whole question is discussed with
great fullness and fairness.

Footnote 28: John Watson, _The Mind of the Master_, p. 321. May we
remind Dr. Watson of what he has himself written on the first page of
his _Doctrines of Grace_: "It was the mission of St. Paul to declare the
gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to the nations, and none of
his successors in this high office has spoken with such persuasive
power. _Any one differs from St. Paul at his intellectual peril_, and
every one may imitate him with spiritual profit."

Footnote 29: See, in confirmation of the argument of this paragraph,
Orr's _Christian View of God and the World_, p. 401 ff., and Art. "The
Kingdom of God," in Hastings' _Dictionary of the Bible_; Denney's
_Studies in Theology_, Lect. VIII.

Footnote 30: J. Watson, _The Mind of the Master_, p. 323.

Footnote 31: F.G. Peabody, _Jesus Christ and the Social Question_, pp.
88, 89.

Footnote 32: _Fellowship with Christ_, p. 157.

Footnote 33: See Trench's _Study of Words_, p. 100.

Footnote 34: The chapter entitled "Christ's Doctrine of Man" is one of
the most suggestive chapters in Dr. Bruce's admirable work _The Kingdom
of God_.

Footnote 35: _Studies in Theology_, p. 83.

Footnote 36: See Hastings' _Dictionary of the Bible_, Art. "Sin," vol.
iii. p. 533.

Footnote 37: This is the R.V. marginal rendering of Gen. iv. 13.

Footnote 38: R.W. Dale, _Evangelical Revival and other Sermons_, p. 66
ff.

Footnote 39: _The Kingdom of God_, p. 203.

Footnote 40: In his famous sermon on the Pharisees, _University
Sermons_, p. 32.

Footnote 41: R.W. Church, _Gifts of Civilisation_, p. 71.

Footnote 42: Prov. iv. 7: "Get wisdom; and with all thy getting get
understanding," which does not mean simply, "Whatever else you get, be
sure to get understanding." The marginal reference is to Matt. xiii. 44:
wisdom, like the pearl of great price, is to be secured with, _i.e._ at
the cost and sacrifice of, everything else that can be gotten. (See J.R.
Lumby on "Shortcomings of Translation," _Expositor_, second series, VOL.
iii. p. 203.)

Footnote 43: 2 Cor. v. 9 R.V. margin.

Footnote 44: _Laws of Christ for Common Life_, p. 59.

Footnote 45: _Bible Characters: Stephen to Timothy_, p. 95.

Footnote 46: _On the Authorized Version of the New Testament_, p. 14.

Footnote 47: I am indebted for these two quotations to Bishop Paget's
_Spirit of Discipline_, p. 66.

Footnote 48: P. Carnegie Simpson, _The Fact of Christ_, pp. 116, 117.

Footnote 49: _Time and Tide_, p. 224.

Footnote 50: F.G. Peabody, _Jesus Christ and the Social Problem_, p.
219.

Footnote 51: Emerson had surely overlooked this nobler meaning of the
word when he wrote, "They [the English] put up no Socratic prayer, much
less any saintly prayer, for the queen's mind; ask neither for light nor
right, but say bluntly, 'grant her in health and wealth long to live'"
(_English Traits_).

Footnote 52: To those who are interested in the subject of this chapter
Prof. Peabody's book already referred to, and an article entitled "The
Teaching of Christ concerning the Use of Money" _(Expositor,_ third
series, vol. viii. p. 100 ff.) may be recommended.

Footnote 53: _Studies in Theology_, p. 239.

Footnote 54: "There is no subject on which it is more difficult to
ascertain the teaching of Christ than that which relates to the future
of the kingdom."--A.B. Bruce, _The Kingdom of God_, p. 273.

Footnote 55: J. Agar Beet, _The Last Things_, p. 46.

Footnote 56: Marcus Dods, _The Parables of our Lord_ (first series), p.
238.

Footnote 57: _Cathedral and University Sermons_, p. 10.

Footnote 58: John Watson, _The Mind of the Master_, pp. 203, 204.

Footnote 59: See T.G. Selby's _Imperfect Angel and other Sermons_, p.
211. Cf. Zachariah Coleman in "Mark Rutherford's" _Revolution in Tanners
Lane_: "That is a passage that I never could quite understand. I never
hardly see a pure breed, either of goat or sheep. I never see anybody
who deserves to go straight to heaven or who deserves to go straight to
hell. When the Judgment Day comes it will be a difficult task."

Footnote 60: See the very striking and beautiful chapter entitled "The
Continuity of Life" in Watson's _Mind of the Master_.

Footnote 61: See T.G. Selby's _Ministry of the Lord Jesus_, p. 279.

Footnote 62: R.W. Church, _Human Life and its Conditions_, p. 103.

Footnote 63: In a striking article entitled "The Old Antinomianism and
the New" (_Congregational Review_, Jan. 1887).