sistent with this concept it is also thought of as an everlasting inheritance. "If children of God, then also heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. viii, 17); and if "sufficient to be made partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. i, 12), their portion is an ever-continuing fellowship with the Eternal One. And so by every inference and suggestion of these scriptures each individual life, whose "fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John i, 3), continues eternally in that blessed companionship. Both in this age and in that which is to come, in this world or in any other to which he may depart, on the earth or in the heavens, the child of God abides in life, and in love, and therefore in endless conscious bliss. accordingly add one word to the beatitude, and say, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall eternally see God." CHAPTER IX THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY 1. The Fact and the Doctrine. In discussing the penal consequences of sin we were naturally led to inquire into the nature and possibilities of a future existence. Every argument bearing on the subject, whether by way of analogy, or of reason, or of scriptural investigation, resulted in the conclusion that man's conscious existence does not end with physical death, and that his personal identity and moral character, whether it be good or whether it be evil, projects itself as by a law of nature into the new state of existence which follows the present mortal life. Aside from the narrow limits of that discussion, our study thus far has been directed mainly to facts of actual experience and of positive knowledge. The nature and moral condition of man as he exists in this world, his sinfulness and his consciousness of guilt, and the varying experiences of repentance, faith, regeneration, sanctification, and eternal life are made familiar to us by the testimony of innumerable witnesses who confirm the biblical teaching concerning these subjects. But coming now to inquire more directly into the nature and possibilities of spiritual life beyond this present world, we enter a realm of mystery. We may distinguish between the fact or certainty of a future life for man and the biblical doctrine of immortality. As a matter of fact, the belief in some form of future existence is well nigh, if not absolutely, as universal as the human race. Our concept of God, our moral sense, our spiritual intuitions, our native longings and hopes, and our growing rational conviction of the conservation and survival of all that is highest and best in the world combine into a sort of a priori assurance of immortality. But when we attempt to formulate our doctrine of the future state, and study the numerous and varying ideals that have been constructed by poetic fancy, we find it difficult to distinguish between what is fact or evident truth, and what is the product of imagination. It is an interesting and not unprofitable study to gather up and compare the different views touching a future life which have been held among the different nations and tribes of men; but the scope of our inquiries is limited to the teachings of the Old and New Testaments. These teachings, however, comprehend the most and the best that has ever anywhere been spoken. What is the biblical doctrine of immortality? 2. Human Limitation and Doubt. The concepts of time and of eternal duration arise from the necessary limitations of our human thought. There is a remarkable statement made in Eccl. iii, 11, which may well receive a passing comment here. The writer says that God "has put eternity (obyn, the everlasting) in their heart, so that man may not find out the work which God has done from beginning to end." His meaning seems to be that God has put in the soul of man the concept of eternal duration, and the result with the wise man is that he perceives and acknowledges the necessary limitations of his finite nature. Beginning and end are alike wrapped in mystery, but the idea of eternity is set in his heart and cannot be put away. In Eccl. xii, 5, it is said that man in dying "goes to his eternal house." He passes into the hidden (comp. by in ver. 14), silent, mysterious realm of the dead. "Who knoweth the spirit of the sons of men whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goeth downward to the earth?" (iii, 21). Doubt and perplexity seem to trouble the soul of this debater, to whom all human pursuits end in "vanity of vanities." With him at least one thing is sure: "The dust [of man's body] shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it" (xii, 7). These words are an obvious allusion to what is written in Gen. ii, 7, and iii, 19, and the bare statement that the spirit returns unto God throws no light upon the nature of the future state of existence. It is as perfectly compatible with a pantheistic conception of absorption into the Infinite as with the belief in a personal future existence of conscious fellowship with God in the heavens. 3. Doctrine of the Old Testament. In a study of the Hebrew scriptures we find a number of allusions to a current doctrine of the continuance of personal life beyond its present state, but all of them together are insufficient to make up a clear or satisfactory revelation touching the life to come. Little, if anything, can be found in the most ancient portions of the Old Testament literature. It is remarkable that the appeal which is employed to awaken faith and hope in Israel is not to the thought or motives of a future existence and a judgment to come, but to the living God, "who brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." In that land of the Nile the Israelites must have come more or less in contact with the Egyptian doctrine of the underworld, and of the solemn judgment to be passed before Ra and Osiris and Ptah. It may be that the absence of any corresponding doctrine among the emancipated Hebrews was a designed reaction from excess of that subject brought to their attention in their house of bondage. They went forth to emphasize rather the laws of righteous judgment in the present world, "to keep the commandments of Jehovah, to walk in all his ways, to serve him with all the heart and soul; for he is the great God, who doth execute justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loveth the sojourner" (Deut. x, 12-18). (1) Sundry Intimations. Nevertheless there are various intimations of belief in a future life noticeable in the Old Testament. The theophanies and angelophanies, whether they be regarded as historical facts or matters of vision and dream and ideal description, suggest another and higher realm of spiritual beings. To the Hebrew seer this world was all alive with God and his angels. It would seem, in fact, that the doctrine of immortality among any people becomes definite and positive according as the doctrine of God becomes clearly defined and exalted. The statement that a patriarch died in a good old age, and "was gathered to his people" (Gen. xxv, 8, 17; xxxv, 29; xlix, 29, 33), appears to mean something different from burial in the ancestral tomb, but is too vague to furnish anything more than the general idea of a gathering in the realm of the dead. The grave itself seems in some way to connect with a vast underworld of departed souls. The superstitions of necromancy imply a belief in the continued life of those who had disappeared from the world. The story of Saul's interview with the witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii) shows a current belief that a prophet like Samuel might be summoned back from the underworld to speak with the king of Israel. And the traditions of Enoch and Elijah, and their translation without seeing death, necessarily involve some notion of a heavenly state where godly men may continue to hold exalted fellowship with God. (2) Expressed in Many Psalms. The psalms and hymns and spiritual songs of a nation usually express their belief in a future life, if any such belief exist at the time of their composition. In Psa. lxxiii, 23-26, it is easy to see an outgrowth of the idea of Enoch walking with God: I am continually with thee; Thou hast holden my right hand. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire My flesh and my heart faileth; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. In these lines we observe how an elevated theism accompanies and enhances the idea of a heavenly life with God, a life that must needs continue beyond this earthly state of being. A similar sentiment is conspicuous in the language of Psa. xvi, 10, 11: Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol; In thy presence is fulness of joy; In thy right hand there are pleasures forever. This devout singer is evidently smitten with the conviction that he is absolutely safe in the hand of his God. He expresses his calm assurance and joyful expectation that the pathway of life will open before him as he goes onward, and he has a blessed security for the present and the future because Jehovah is always before him, or at his right hand (ver. 8). His pathway to the life eternal might lead him through "the valley of the shadow of death" (comp. Psa. xxiii, 4), and down into the darkness of Sheol, but then with another psalmist he could say: "God will redeem my soul from the hand of Sheol; for he will take me" (xlix, 15). Here, as in Psa. lxxiii, 24, there is an obvious allusion to the translation of Enoch, whom "God took" (nps, Gen. v, 24), and the thought may be that he will not enter into the realm of Sheol at all, but that God will come to his rescue and take him away to himself, as he did the ancient father of Methuselah. The same living trust in God and the idea of continuous dwelling with him are apparent in many other psalms: God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble; Therefore will we not fear though the earth change, And though the mountains be moved in the heart of the seas. Thou art my hiding place; thou wilt preserve me from trouble; Be thou to me a rock of habitation, Whereunto I may continually resort. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High He is my refuge and my fortress; My God in whom I trust. 'All such metaphors of secure abode, secret intercourse and abiding trust in the eternal and invisible God evince a strong faith |