Part 7

There is one matter to which I would refer at this stage, because I think the settlement of it on a reasonable basis will be a great aid to many devout minds. It will be supposed by many that if there is an intermediate state of purification, some mention of it, and some details of it, would be given in revelation. To my mind, the comparative silence of revelation in regard to it, counts for almost nothing in our estimate of its probability--I might almost say of its necessity.

There is one consideration of prime importance in this connection, which ought not to be overlooked. It is this: that in regard even to the future world of final blessedness, we have very meagre details. And there are good reasons why we have not more. I think it is not generally realized how fragmentary are such details; and yet we believe in the fact itself beyond the shadow of a doubt. In fact there are few things in which we have more implicit confidence than a future world of blessedness and glory. But consider how few details of it are revealed. Think of the many subjects closely related to it on which we are in complete ignorance. It may be well to run over some of these matters briefly, that we may realize how utterly ignorant we are of affairs connected with that world of final blessedness. And if that be so in regard to heaven itself, how much less we may expect to be enlightened beforehand on the details of any intermediate state of preparation.

Think of the fact that we are surrounded by other worlds of glory; and yet we do not even know if any of those worlds are inhabited. To be sure, there are considerations founded on the material and moral order of things that assure us almost beyond a doubt that they are inhabited. But there is no proof. We simply do not know. One of those worlds is a thousand times larger than the earth; one is twelve hundred times; several are far more magnificent; yet we do not even know if they have any population.

More than that, we do not know if one of them--or our own earth--has passed through cycles of population during the uncounted centuries of the past. As little do we know if any or all of them will be theatres of life and intelligence in the future. Now if we know so little as to the history of our own and neighboring worlds in the past, and have no revelation as to their future, is it likely that we would be informed as to details of some world of purification located probably away in the realms of space?

Then this sun of ours is fourteen hundred thousand times larger than the earth. But we know almost nothing of his constitution or history. He is really a universe in himself. Of the functions he performs in reference to the worlds that surround him we know a little; but how his heat is sustained--what is attraction--what is his destiny--is all unknown. If we are so ignorant of this primal source of life in all these planetary worlds, are we likely to be informed of the methods of moral discipline, probably in some distant world?

But our sun, large and important as he is, is but a speck in creation. These myriads of stars that shine nightly in the heavens are all suns. It is calculated that the union of the telescope with the photographic plate brings five hundred millions of these stars into view. Some of them are demonstrated to be hundreds of times larger than our sun. But that is nearly all we know about them. Whether any of them has a retinue of worlds revolving around him like our sun, will never be known on this side of time. Then beyond all we can see, we recognize a probability of the existence of uncounted millions of worlds; but we know nothing of them. Therefore we would hardly expect to have details revealed of some distant sphere of purification.

Again, whether any of these worlds have fallen, we do not know; and as little do we know as to whether any of them have been redeemed. We may reason about the matter; but it is only a short way that reason will carry on such a profound question. I believe that the merit of the Sacrifice made in this world of ours might be made available in all worlds that need it, be their sin what it may. It is also very conceivable that the good news might be conveyed to those worlds by angels, just as the good news is made known in our world by men. The same principle would hold. In the one case there would be a wider application of the message than in the other; that is the main difference. And when we think of the swifter and easier movements of angels, even that difference might amount to nothing.

But the whole subject is one on which we have no revelation whatever. Now if there are millions of other worlds, with teeming populations, and if not the most meagre revelation has been made to us as to their moral character or destiny, it is surely not surprising that we have no revelation as to the details of a state of purification beyond this life. We have thankfully to recognize the fact that we are not burdened with revelations which would only confuse and distract us. It is surely a gracious providence that withholds revelations of such details for the present. But that is no argument why such details will not be revealed by and by, any more than that the unrevealed joys of heaven will be disclosed to us when we are able to understand and enjoy them.

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Still more; beyond the realm of stars whose outline is somewhat clearly marked, there is a dim shimmer of glory, suggestive of uncounted millions of stars and systems farther on. This golden glimmer of distant worlds has been likened to a candle shining through a horn. We are simply lost in the extent and glory of the starry hosts. Do we not begin to see that the universe is far too vast to be revealed to mortals? To have the essentials of truth and duty revealed to us here, in this dim corner of the universe, is as much as we ought to expect. By and by we may hope to have larger revelations.

We may realize this principle more fully if we come down again to the earth, and to enquire if this earth is to be the future abode of the righteous? Some say it is. We simply do not know. When we do not know if this earth is to be our future dwelling place, can we reasonably expect to have details of the place and manner of our purification--though it be a matter of far higher moment?

Then again: Is the earth the final abode of the righteous? Or is it only to be the initial place of future blessedness? Or, are there many heavens, each preceding one to be a preparation for a higher? Here again all our thoughts are drowned.

Or again: Is heaven to be a solid world like this earth, or is it to be an ethereal world? Such questions are far too high for us. In this narrow sphere of earth and time we know almost nothing of the glory to be revealed. I would say that a study of the extent and magnificence of creation would give us some hints of what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard. At all events the more we are acquainted with the glories of the universe, the more we shall realize how little is likely to be revealed of the details of any preparatory stage of final blessedness.

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And besides such a revelation being unreasonable, we believe it would be impossible. There are probably millions of worlds, as well as our own. Each one of these has likely a moral history. Now it is easily conceivable that the services rendered in heaven may have a close relation to some of these worlds. Thus we could not have a revelation of our future service without being let more or less into the moral history of those worlds. But it will be seen at once that this would be utterly beyond us, as well as useless to us at present. In fact it would only perplex and confuse us, and divert our attention from the practical duties of life.

It is remarkable also that we have almost no revelation of the present active service of the better world. To give us such a revelation might involve other revelations which in the meantime are too high and too complicated for us to understand. Everything is beautiful in its season. Just as now we do not try to initiate children into the problems of life that will come with mature age, so we, real children in understanding, are not burdened with the knowledge, and all that such knowledge would involve, that will come in a future life.

Besides; such premature knowledge would probably detach our interest and attention from the duties that press upon us now. We are here with certain duties and interests; and when these are duly apprehended they are quite sufficient to engage our time and thought, without being concerned with the duties that will come with a future state.

* * * * *

Thus we see something of the wisdom and the love in giving us only such details as suit our present limitations. There may be a state of purification beyond this life; but we shall adapt ourselves to that state when the time comes; not before. When we see the character of God, as revealed in His Word; when we realize the sin and misery of our present condition; when we apprehend the wonderful sacrifice that has been made for the recovery of our race; and when we realize the unspeakable glory that may be ours--we begin to see the probability--yes, the necessity--of a process of purification beyond the sphere of time.

IMPRISONED SOULS.

Yet, while we have no details given us as to the process or the time required for purification, we have certain suggestions. In the Old Testament there is a reference to "prisoners of hope." The reference is somewhat obscure, and taken by itself it is of doubtful meaning. But in the New Testament it is intimated that Christ went and "preached to the spirits in prison." There we have a gleam of light as to what is meant by "prisoners of hope." There were imprisoned souls to whom Christ took some joyful message. We have no statement as to the purport of the message, or the circumstances of the prisoners, beyond the fact that they were confined.

While not going outside of what is revealed, it does not seem too much to assume that He took to them the good news of Restoration, and perhaps kindred topics. O yes; the Saviour's death had reference not to ourselves alone, but it had a relation to those in another world.

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Perhaps I ought to say here that this supposed state of discipline is by no means to be confounded with the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory.

The term of duration of purgatorial fire is supposed to be determined by the priest, who can effect a release at any time he pleases. It is simply a matter of payment. And the idea of purgatory may be held--I think is generally held--without conceiving of it as a means of purification. Is it not rather conceived of as a place of punishment?

But the intermediate state we conceive of is a state of purification and education. There may be intense suffering in certain cases. We can conceive that such suffering may be required as a means of purification. In other cases no great suffering, or none at all, may be necessary. By some means, specially adapted to each case, every soul will be prepared to enter a state of blessedness.

Even that final state may have lower grades, preparatory for the higher. It does not seem consistent with God's dealings with man to thrust a frail human spirit into the blinding glory of heaven. It is far more likely that there are lower stages, preparatory for higher. When a child is born into the world it is not even aware for a time that it has entered on a new mode of existence. But it adapts itself unconsciously to its new surroundings, and by easy stages develops perhaps into a poet or a philosopher. In some such way, but on a higher plane, we can believe that the soul is developed in the future life. We may confidently leave all details with Him who is "Wise in Counsel, and excellent in working," and whose love is unchangeable and everlasting.

Just now I have met with a Christian minister whom I know well, and a worthy man he is, who has tried to evade the payment of a very small debt. Now is it to be supposed that when that man dies he will go straight into glory, infected with such a streak of meanness? Then where will it be purged out of him? Will the process of death effect it? Certainly not. What remains then, but that between this life and the next there is some process of purification.

And that case is only a typical one. If we knew all, perhaps we should find that there is a mean streak of some kind in every one of us. How then shall we get rid of it? Just ponder that problem for awhile.

IX.

THE SPIRITS IN PRISON.

The Descent of Jesus into Hades--Singular Reserve of Preachers --Purgatory--Dr. Gerhardt's Book--A Bodily Resurrection--The Spirit World Requires a Spirit Body.

Here I would advert briefly to a topic that seems to me to have a strong bearing in the same direction. I mean the descent of Jesus into Hades, and the intimation that He "preached to the spirits in prison." On this subject the whole Christian world--at least the Protestant world--has maintained a singular reserve. In fact I have never heard the matter even once casually referred to in any Protestant pulpit. It may be that even a casual reference to it might be taken as favoring the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory. Such is the craven fear that men have of being supposed to be tainted with Romanism. In other cases it may be that the whole subject is thought to be involved in so much mystery that it is better to leave it alone. But I believe that if we had a larger and more sympathetic view of the entire domain of truth, this topic would be seen to be radiant with eternal hope.

In this spirit it is referred to by Dr. Calvin S. Gerhardt in his book on "Death and the Resurrection." That book came out some years ago, and there were some letters passed between the author and myself in reference to the contents. He holds the view that the body of Christ was not raised, but His spirit only; and he tries to sustain that view by a variety of arguments, some of which seem to me very unworthy. My own view is, that the body was actually raised, but that now being a spiritual body it had the power of transformation, so that at pleasure it could become visible or invisible to fleshly eyes.

However, in the same connection Dr. Gerhardt refers to Christ's descent into Hades; and he treats that matter with a candor and eloquence, along with good sense, that in my opinion, leaves nothing to be desired. I will here transcribe some passages of his on that topic, and so dismiss further discussion of it. He says:

"The popular doctrine which teaches that the opportunity of salvation _always_ ends with the present life, finds no support in sacred Scripture and is completely overthrown by Christ's descent into Hades. This important stage of His mission is often overlooked, or ignored; and we must confess that we too stand with bated breath, before the problem which its consideration presents, for we are confronted here with mysteries. But the mysteries are not closed, and are not utterly incapable of solution."

Again he says: "Christ's visits to the earth were few and brief after His resurrection. Where then was He during the forty days when not visible to His disciples? Not in heaven, for He had not yet ascended. Neither was He on earth, for if any one truth was constantly more fully enforced by Him, it was that through His death He had passed beyond the sphere of the earthly. Where else then could He have sojourned but in Hades--that unseen world of the dead into which all men pass when they lay aside their mortal bodies, and begin to live in spiritual bodies."

Again: "To the penitent thief on the cross Jesus said, 'To-day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.' The Saviour, therefore, must have gone to the regions of the dead, for to the Jews, Paradise meant the locality in Hades to which the blessed dead were received."

Again: "St. Peter not only assures us that Christ descended into Hades, but also tells us why He went thither, 'Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit,' in which he also went and preached to the spirits in prison."

Again: "Again 'For unto this end was the gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit,'"

Again: "These passages of Scripture, as well as the whole drift of the New Testament, make plain the important truth that the great work which our Saviour prosecuted on earth He continued also in Hades. His incarnation and full union with us, in our earthly, mortal life, involved Him in a similar revelation to the dead, according to their altered conditions and environment. What He did for our earthly life He did for them there in full harmony with the changed circumstances of their post-mundane form of existence."

Again: "By His descent into Hades," says Martensen, "Christ revealed Himself as the Redeemer of all souls."

Once more: "The descent into the realm of the dead gave expression to the truth, that the distinctions Here and There--the limits of space--are of no significance regarding Christ, and do not concern His kingdom. No powers of nature, no limits of space or of time, can hinder Christ from finding His way to souls. His kingdom has extended even into the region of the dead, and still includes that region; and the distinctions of living and dead, of earlier and later generations of men, of times of ignorance and times of knowledge, possess but a transient significance."

In confirmation of these views, I would add one consideration of rather an abstract character. When our Saviour died on the cross, why did He not revive at once? Instead of that we know that He waited until the third day. I have no doubt that one reason was, that He intended that all believers in Him might have a conclusive proof that He had really died and revived. But one other reason may have been this, that He intended to visit the spirits in prison, and in order to be en rapport with them, He needed to go in the spirit. They were in the spirit; and for Him to go to them in a human body would have been to interpose an effectual barrier between Himself and them. If they are somewhere in the spirit world, a spirit body alone could reach them.

X.

DIVINE LOVE.

Infinite Being and Perfection--Grades of Being--Variety--Man's Limitations--Moral Beings--Hopeless Surroundings--All Are Children of God--Righting the Wrongs of Time--"The Heart of the Universe is Love" --Eternal Conscious Torment Incredible--Conquering Power of Love --Eternal Purpose Will Not Fail--Omnipotence in the Moral Realm--The Divine Expression of Love--Universal Atonement Involves Universal Salvation--Final Success of God's Designs--Will Evil Necessarily Perpetuate itself?--Triumph of Good Over Evil--Few Stripes or Many --Reformatory Punishment--Bringing Good out of Evil--Possibilities of Redeeming Grace--The Ransomed of the Lord--Wrath but the Shadow of Love--Former Eternity of Sinlessness--Wrath no Constituent of the Divine Character--Pity and Indignation.

There can be no mistake here. The Scripture declares, again and again that God is Love. Also, the Scripture is clear in regard to His infinity. In fact our reason would almost carry us so far. For if all things had a Creator, that Creator must have had no beginning. But we take it that God will be freely conceded to be infinite in His being, and in the qualities of His character.

He is infinite then in His love. Being infinite in His being, He could be no less than infinite in His love. That surely means that He loves every being that He has made. Will He not therefore do the most and best that is possible to be done for each one of His creatures? To be sure, there are grades of being. Some have a larger capacity than others. We know of no law by which love would impel the Creator to create all beings alike. No, there is a law of variety which we shall consider later; and that accounts for beings of different function, capacity, surroundings, employment, and so on. At the same time, is it not safe to infer that there is a possible maximum of happiness which every being has attained, or will attain, under a government of divine love?

Of course there may be limitations. Man has been made a free being. He may therefore limit his own possibilities. He may deliberately choose to do wrong. Thus he may impose a limitation on himself. In one sense this may be considered a great misfortune. But how else could a moral being be created? We cannot conceive of any other way. If we had not been created moral beings, we could never rise to anything worth while. God wanted to make the most and the best of us. But with that possibility of rising there was also the possibility of falling. Therefore, so far as that consideration is concerned, our creation, on this human status, was an expression of infinite love.

But then, the present is a state of discipline. Since sin has come in, and so marred our perfection and happiness, it has been ordained that the present life will be a preparation for a better future life. Therefore our present sinful limitations are not finally disastrous. They may be even turned to benedictions. Instances are not wanting where untold suffering has issued in great moral perfection, with a corresponding high place in the world beyond. Such considerations as these show clearly that our creation, even though we are fallen, was an act of infinite love.

Yes, but what about the untold millions who do not turn their present suffering to good account? Especially what about the uncounted millions of heathen? Many of them were born into conditions of utter hopelessness; their surroundings were of the worst; it would be utterly futile to expect that their present life could be a preparation for final blessedness.

Now is it to be supposed for a moment that God does not love every heathen just as He loves every Christian? Surely, they are all His children, and He loves every one of them with a Father's love. Then what about the other millions that live in Christian lands who have no idea of making the present life a preparation for the future? Are they not all equally dear to Him? Let us rise above all insular, mean, petty love of our own, and think of the love of God--impartial, free, infinite, everlasting! Can it be believed that the few favored ones who have lived in certain surroundings, and who thus have come to hear and heed the message of salvation, are destined for everlasting bliss; while all others, naturally no worse than they, are consigned to everlasting woe? Are these few fleeting years, and circumstances which we had little or no hand in forming, charged with such eternal possibilities? Yet we profess to believe that God rules, and that He loves every one of His creatures with an everlasting love!

Surely every candid mind and every human heart will repel such a possibility as their final extinction or damnation. And when we realize that God has all eternity to right the wrongs of time, we begin to realize that the present is but one epoch of His administration.

I have just read these words of an orthodox divine: "The heart of the universe is love." Yes, that is the language of the heart in its best moods, whatever our creed may be. And the heart will sometimes speak its conviction strongly. It does seem that orthodox divines at times forget that according to their belief God consigns untold millions of His creatures to eternal fire. Yet surely He is "the heart of the universe;" and "the heart of the universe is love." Does it not seem the blackest of contradictions?