If we were literally to "live as seeing Him who is invisible," the common works of earth could no longer be performed, save as a duty, and in a dream. It is well for us that we walk by faith, and not by sight." If we could realize both the nearness and the fulness of Eternity, we should be unfitted for the requirements of this earthly

state.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE GREAT ENIGMA.

-not

WE are accustomed to say that Christ brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel; by which we mean,that he first taught the doctrine of a future life, scarcely even that he threw any new light on the nature of that life; for the doctrine was held, long before he lived, by many uncivilized tribes; it was the received opinion of most, if not all, among the Oriental nations; and it was an established tenet of the most popular and powerful sect among the Jews; but that he gave to the doctrine, for the first time, an authoritative sanction; he announced it as a direct revelation from the Deity; and, as it were, exemplified and embodied it in his own resurrection. But, as we have

already come to the conclusion that Christianity was not a Revelation in the ordinary sense of the word, Christ's inculcation of the doctrine becomes simply the added attestation of the wisest and best man who ever lived, to a faith which has been cherished by the wise and good of all times and of all lands.

In consequence of this view of Christianity, a future life becomes to us no longer a matter of positive knowledge-a revealed fact-but simply a matter of faith, of hope, of earnest desire; a sublime possibility, round which meditation and inquiry will collect all the probabilities they can. Christianity adds nothing certain to our convictions or to our knowledge on the subject, however rich it may be in suggestions of the truth. Let us, therefore, by a short statement of its views of futurity, see how far they are such as can be accepted by a cultivated and inquiring age.

It may seem to many a strange observation, but we greatly question whether the views of Christ regarding the future

world (so far as we can gather them from the imperfect and uncertain records of his sayings, which alone we have to go by) were not less in advance of those current in his age and country, than his views upon any other topic. The popular opinion-that he made a matter of certainty what before was only a matter of speculation-has blinded our perceptions on this point. When we put aside this common misconception, and come to examine what the notions inculcated by the Gospel concerning the nature of this futurity really were, we shall be surprised and pained to find how little they added, and how little they rose superior, to those current among the Pharisees and the Essenes at the date of its promulgation; and perhaps even how far they fell short of those attained by some pious pagans of an earlier date.

The scriptural idea of Heaven, so far as we can collect it from the Gospels, seems to have been :

1. That it was a scene hallowed and embellished by the more immediate, or at least more perceptible, presence of God, who is constantly spoken of as "Our Father who is in Heaven." It is the local dwelling-place of the Creator, lying exterior to and above the Earth, and into which Christ visibly ascended. Indeed, notwithstanding the distinct and repeated assertions of the perpetual superintendence of God, He is depicted much more as a local and limited, and much less as a pervading and spiritual Being, in the New Testament than in many of the Psalms and in Job. The delineations of the former are far more simple, affectionate, and human-far more tinged with anthropomorphism, in the tone at least; those of the latter more vague, more sublime, more spiritual. In this point, the Gospel idea of one of the attributes of Heaven, though eminently beautiful, natural, and attractive, will scarcely bear scrutiny. That in a future state we shall be more conscious of God's presence, is not only probable, but is a necessary consequence of the extension and purification of our faculties; that He dwells there more than here is an obviously untenable conception. The notion may be said to be subjectively true, but objectively false.

2. That Heaven would be a scene of retribution for the deeds and characters of earth has been the view of its essential nature taken by nearly all nations which have believed in its existence: to this idea the Gospel has added

S

nothing new. That it would also be a state of compensation, to rectify the inequalities and atone for the sufferings of our sublunary life, has long been the consolatory notion of the disappointed and the sorrow-stricken. This idea Christianity especially encourages; nay, unless we are to allow an unusually free deduction for the hyperbolical language which the New Testament habitually employs, it would appear to carry it to an extent scarcely reconcilable with sober reason or pure justice; almost countenancing the notion—so seducing to the less worthy feelings of the discontented and the wretched-not only that their troubles will be compensated by a proportionate excess of future joy, but that earthly prosperity will, per se, and apart from any notion of moral retribution, constitute a title to proportionate suffering hereafter that, in truth, Heaven will be the especial and exclusive patrimony of the poor and the afflicted. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." "Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh. But woe unto ye that are rich, for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto ye that are full, for ye shall hunger. Woe unto ye that laugh now, for ye shall weep." The parable of Dives and Lazarus inculcates the same notion. Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." It is very difficult to discover on what worthy conception of Divine Providence the ideas inculcated in these last quotations can be justified, or how they can be reconciled with the doctrine of a just moral retribution; and it is equally difficult to shut our eyes to the encouragement they may give and have given to the envious and malignant feelings of grovelling and uncultured minds '.

66

3. The eternal duration of the future existence has, we believe, with all nations formed a constituent element of the doctrine; though it is so far from being a necessary one, that it is not easy to discover whence its universal adoption

1 See Eugene Aram, chap. viii., for an illustration. A Calvinist peasant considered that the choicest bliss of Heaven would be "to look down into the other place, and see the folk grill." Tertullian has a passage, part of which Gibbon quotes (c. xv.), expressing the same idea in language quite as horrible. We believe there is a similar passage in Baxter's Saints' Rest.

is to be traced. To this idea Scripture has added another, which presents a stumbling-block to our moral and our metaphysical philosophy alike-viz. the unchanging character of both its pains and pleasures. We attempt in vain to trace in the Gospel the least evidence that the future state is to be regarded as one of progress-that its sufferings are to be probationary and purifying, and therefore terminable; or its joys elevating and improving, and therefore ever advancing. If any doctrine be distinctly taught by Scripture on this point, it clearly is, that the lot of each individual is fixed for ever at the judgment day. In this it stands below both Pagan and Oriental conceptions. The Gospel view of the eternity of the future life, which fully approves itself to our reason, is one which it shares with all theories: its conception of the eternity of future punishments, in which it stands almost alone, is one, the revolting character of which has been so strongly felt, that the utmost ingenuity both of criticism and of logic, has been strained for centuries-the first, to prove that the doctrine is not taught, the second, to prove that it ought to be received. Neither have succeeded. It seems to us unquestionable that the doctrine is taught in the clear language of Scripture, and was held unhesitatingly by the Apostles and the first Christians; and all the attempts yet made to reconcile the doctrine with divine justice and mercy are calculated to make us blush alike for the human heart that can strive to justify such a creed, and for the human intellect which can delude itself into a belief that it has succeeded in such justification.

That would be a great book, and he would be a great man, that should detect and eliminate the latent and disfigured truth that lies at the root of every falsehood ever yet believed among men. In Scripture we meet with several doctrines which may be considered as the approximate formula, the imperfect, partial, and inaccurate expression, of certain mighty and eternal verities. Thus, the spirituality of Christ's character and the superhuman excellence of his life, lie at the bottom of the dogma of the Incarnation; which was simply " a mistake of the morally for the physically divine," an idea carnalized into a fact. In the same manner, the doctrine of the eternity of future punishments, false as it must be in its ordinary signification, contains a glimpse of one of the most awful and indisputable truths.