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  QUIET TALKS ON LIFE AFTER DEATH
  by Samuel Dickey Gordon
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Gordon's exploration of death and the afterlife, addressing what Scripture
reveals about those who have died in relationship with God, providing
reassurance and biblical teaching about the state of the departed and eternal
hope.

  Chapters: 66

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. Preface
    2. Chapter 1: Death, the Ceaseless Tragedy of Life
    3. Commonplace, But Always Sacred
    4. Death Always a Tragedy
    5. Chapter 2: Those In Touch Of Heart With God Who Died—What Can We Know About Them?
    6. The Oldest Question
    7. A Small Group of Facts
    8. Christianity a Fact
    9. Christ a Fact
   10. Inspired Revelation a-Fact
   11. Muddy Scholarship, and the Real
   12. The Bible Practical
   13. Our Question Aswered
   14. The Changed Outlook
   15. Service According to Ability
   16. Now Turn to the Book
   17. Some Incidental Teachings
   18. Outstanding Passages — Job
   19. Other Old Testament Bits
   20. Jesus' Teachings—A Test Case
   21. The Betrayal-Night Talk
   22. Jesus' Resurrection Incidentals
   23. From Paul's Pen
   24. The Patmos Book
   25. A Underscoring of Facts
   26. The Chariots of the Skies
   27. The Transfiguration
   28. The Damascus Road Event
   29. In Touch of Heart
   30. Because of Jesus' Blood
   31. Chapter 3: The Others Who Have Died—What Can We Know About Them?
   32. A Painful Story
   33. Bad Pendulum Swings
   34. Some War-time Teachings
   35. Spirit-Level Accuracy
   36. Truth Makes a Clean Cut
   37. A Hard List to Quote
   38. The Meaning of "Torment."
   39. In Their Own Shoes
   40. "Without"
   41. Chapter 4: Can We Have Communication With The Dead?
   42. A True Human Instinct
   43. An Aftermath of the War
   44. Three Groups
   45. An Uncharted Realm of Mental Science
   46. The Responses That Do Come
   47. The Authoritative Answer
   48. The Evil Purpose Underneath
   49. The Witch of Endor
   50. Meeting Our Human Need
   51. Getting in Touch
   52. Chapter 5: What Is Death
   53. Pleasing, But Not True
   54. The Meaning Pictured
   55. No Change in God
   56. Tracing the Trail
   57. Five Things Jesus Did
   58. Chapter 6: Is There Another Chance For Salvation After Death?
   59. Four Common Answers
   60. The True Answer
   61. God's Fixed Principle of Action
   62. Two Flaming Proclamations
   63. The Process
   64. A Dramatic Illustration
   65. A Study in Chances
   66. Love Never Faileth

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  CHAPTER 1: PREFACE
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Preface The world is still in the back-wash of the war. The big boat’s gone by,
but the suction behind at her stern is terrific. And we’re all having a time of
it trying to sail across its rough wake. Whether it’s statescraft, or what
passes for statescraft, or economics, or just plain bread and bed and coal,
we’ve all got our hands full, clean to the fingertips, trying to keep afloat,
and not to be sucked under, either financially or morally. For these seem the
two deepest suctions in the wake of the boat. Religion’s in the tug, too; or
rather, religious moorings. The real thing itself is safe enough. But our
connections sometimes seem pretty shifty and uncertain. No statistics can count
up the dead. Violence and disease, gaunt want and strain, have formed their old
alliance, not to mention what’s going on all the time. And their slain outdo our
figur­ing. We’re close up to old Egyptian times,—“Not a house where there was
not one dead,” almost; oft times more than that. And the pull upon one’s
emotional nature is tremendous, while brave hearts go bravely on doing
faithfully the day’s common tasks. But to countless numbers the questions, the
old questions, old as time almost, keep pushing in night and day: Where is he?
Is there life be­yond? If so, where and what? Can we get in touch across this
stubborn barrier—death? Should we, even if we could? Imaginative speculation
regarding the dead, spun, pretty much, like the spider’s web, out of the bowels
of one’s own wishes and longings, spreads like wildfire. The absence of facts,
or rather the persistent ignoring of facts, seems to fertilize its rapid
over-night mushroom growth. And these mushrooms are of the deadly sort. The
unhallowed “strange fire” has swept over the church and the land, on both sides
of the water, like the unchecked dreaded wildfire of the prairie. And, mark you
keenly, it’s not merely a matter of belief like an article in one’s printed
creed, recited either more or less by rote. It gets to be a matter of morals, or
the lack of morals. For belief and character are inseparable twins. One’s real
creed is spelled out in the syllables of his daily contacts. And right well the
crowd knows it. The connection between attempted, so-called, communication with
the dead and demon activity is as old as sin, and as subtle and certain. The
present movement is uncanny in the rapidity of its growth. It is plainly
devilish in its origin and growth and influence. One clear gleam of good
sunlight will cut straight through a skyful of graceful, graytinted clouds. One
good whiff of sharp, bracing air will send the rose-hued clouds helter-skelter.
They’re pretty, those vaporous clouds, brewed up out of sunless dank lowlands
and swamps, but how they do vanish into thin air, as though ashamed, before
clear sunlight and vigorous wind. One fact, simple incontestable fact, puts
these unwholesome spinnings of imaginative specula­tion clear out of the
running. Happily there are facts, clear, well-established, indisputable facts,
fully sufficient to satisfy the keenest brain, and cushion and comfort the torn
heart. They give the distinct key-note for joyous singing in the midst of cloud
and shade. An astronomical expert had gone to Egypt to superintend creation of a
telescope. He noticed that the military post fired a gun at noon every day. He
asked the officer in charge how he got the accurate time for the noon gun. He
got it from his watch. And how did he correct his watch? By the watchmaker in
Cairo. A few days later he inquired of the Cairo watchmaker how he got his
correct time. “By the noon gun!” was the reply. Is this the way some do in the
serious things, the moral things? Each keeping tab with the other, and no
stabilized recognized standard form to go by? As one who has felt, into the
marrow of the bone, the stinging slash of death brushing rudely by; and who
knows, too, and knows certainly, Some One else coming and staying closer by,
with his insistent message of settled certainties, I have tried to gather up
here, in simple shape, the clear proven facts. There is quite enough, a big
enough, to give sure footing and glad singing as we go about the daily task and
through the con­stant tug. We are blest in having a standard to measure by, a
Book that stands giant-like above the crowd of theories and opinions. It will be
noted that I have paraphrased a good many passages of Scripture to get clearer
the meaning of the original language underneath our English. A paraphrase is a
translation of the thought rather than a literal translation of word and
sentence. In their thoughtful effort to avoid any possibil­ity of seeming to
lean this way or that, doctrinally, the translators of our English Bible have
been compelled to make what, oft times, practically amounts to a literal
translation. In the New Testament, for instance, the translations, remark­able
in their accuracy and spirit, are frequently Grecized English rather than
idiomatic English. And so the paraphrases have been worked out here to give more
simply and fully the thought underneath the English. The utmost studious
painstaking care has been taken to make these paraphrases strictly accurate to
the Hebrew and Greek text being quoted. Quotations are from the American
Revision except where otherwise noted.


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  CHAPTER 2: CHAPTER 1: DEATH, THE CEASELESS TRAGEDY OF LIFE
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Chapter 1: Death, the Ceaseless Tragedy of Life


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  CHAPTER 3: COMMONPLACE, BUT ALWAYS SACRED
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Commonplace, But Always Sacred It was almost four on a September morning. A
young man in the vigor of his strength was walking slowly out a deserted street
of one of our Atlantic seaboard cities. The gray was well streaked up the east.
The new day was pushing away the dying night's blackness. But he scarce noticed
it, if at all. He was too much taken up with another conflict of light and
night, in his spirit. His step was slow, his head bent. A deep mood gripped him
hard. He was in the heavy daze of something new, that is, it was new to him. His
house was not far from a famous park. A small quiet graceful stream ran through
it. He climbed the green-clad hill where the city's water was stored. It
overlooked the river beyond, with the wavy mass of the quieting green of the
tree-tops nearer. He drew a little limp-covered book from his pocket. And he sat
down, by turns, looking out over the green and the water, reading in the book,
looking up into the blue. A few hours before a life had slipped out of his
clinging grasp. He had clung tenaciously $ut softly, gradually, insistently, her
spirit had slipped away and was gone. He was dazed with surprise and grief. It
had never occurred to him that she would die. He had held on with love's
unyielding hold till there was nothing left to hold on to. She was gone. Only
the breath-less bit of a precious form remained. They two had been as closely
knit together in spirit as two ever were, or could be. But now she was gone,
gone quite beyond recall That was clear, quite clear. He was outwardly very
quiet, attending to the things that needed doing. But within he gasped. He could
not seem to get his breath. All life was changed. The world was a different
place. She was gone. The daze of it was thick upon him; not stupefying, no,
making him keenly sensitive and alert in spirit, more than ever. Now he. sat
still. The question asking itself of him where is she? The precious bit of
tenemental clay was there, tenderly cared for. But where was she? Not there;
somewhere; where? The little book seemed to open itself at John, the dear old
John story of Jesus. And it seemed to stay open as readily at that unforgetable
Bethany page, the Eleventh Chapter. A new soft light shined in upon, and then
out of, the old words. And a quiet peace came stealing in, a new peace, sweeter,
realer, in the overwhelming daze that well-nigh swamped him. But a great lone
feeling gripped at his heart, mingling with the peace even while yielding to it.
He can't remember how long he sat. Then he climbed slowly down the hill, back
along the street they had so often walked together hand in hand. Back he went to
the old house and the old round, but to a changed life. It would never be the
same again. It couldn't be. He had entered into the sorest experience of his
life. He has never forgotten it. Its memory clings still as fresh as though but
yesterday. "The lights are all out In the mansion of clay; The curtains are
drawn, For the dweller's away; She silently slipped O'er the threshold by night,
To make her abode In the city of light." And yet how commonplace ! Yes,
common-place in its commonness, its frequency, monotonously commonplace. No, no,
quite wrong, never commonplace, sacred, hallowed, a thing quite by itself in its
loneliness and grief, though it happen every hour of the day, to some son and
daughter of man. For death is the commonest thing in life. Its shadow never
leaves. The postman puts the black-bordered reminder into your hand. The
caller's card has the same touch. The garb you passed just now on the street,
the half- masted flag, the tolling of the church bell, the low requiem breathing
out the church windows, the slow-moving procession these are daily things.
Commercialism halts the telegraph system of a nation a scant five minutes to
tell out honor to some one gone, and then picks up its mad rush again. The
trolleys and trams at a brief stand still, the white monument draped in black,
and public buildings covered with the clothes of grief, these tell the same
ceaseless story. If you open the old Book, it's barely open be-fore you hear
Eve's sobs over her boy lying so still. Almost at once you are in that striking
Fifth of Genesis with its requiem of sorrow chanting monotonously, "and he
died." The despairing cries of a race going down under the great wash of
inundating waters, and the wail of broken hearts in Egyptian homes over the
first born gone, catch your sensitive ear. If you hurry on through the pages to
get away, it is but to hear the dear old Singer of Israel sobbing his heart
quite out over his handsome self-willed boy. And the newer leaves open with the
cries of the broken-hearted mothers of little Bethlehem among the hills. The
symphony of sorrow seems never to get to its end.


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  CHAPTER 4: DEATH ALWAYS A TRAGEDY
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Death Always a Tragedy And death is always a tragedy to somebody. Life is
tragic. Death seems but the dark double-knotting on the end of the tragic thread
of life. Never a day passes without death breaking some heart. Never a corner
safe from the dripping rain of death's tears sometime. Homes are broken up. The
hearthstone is left to its white ashes. The dear loved family circle is
scattered beyond reunion here. Habits of a life-time are snapped in their
toughest threads. Plans and ambitions lie scattered to the mocking winds. And
memory trails its minor chords along every street and hallway of the bruised
heart and rudely disturbed life. The world's worst war has added a terrific
emphasis to all this. It was bad enough before. It is running riot now,
seemingly an unchecked, unrestrained, ghoulish riot, despite statesmen and
law-makers, armistices and treaties, and all the rest. But there is something
yet more tragic than these things. There is the terrific uncertainty in most
minds and hearts growing out of these things. Uncertainty, where the heart's
involved, where love's on tenter-hooks, that comes to be the worst pain that can
come. The questions come trooping in, insistently, incorrigibly, by day and by
night, demanding asking space, and giving no breathing room in-between. Is he
still alive? Is there a spirit world? Is there really something beyond this
life? Where has he gone? How are things with him now? All over the world, Orient
and Occident, below the equator and above it, in savage krall and cultured home,
among so-called heathen peoples and in the shining of the flood light of truth,
the cry breaks out of human hearts, where has he gone? Sorrow makes all the race
akin. Differences, hatreds, prejudices, are submerged in the hour of a common
sorrow. Yet there's clear light. There's an answer to these questions. There is
certainty in the place of uncertainty. There's positive dependable information
at hand. It's enough to give the gold-en tint to every black cloud. There's
another bit of music that comes to overcome minor chords in the symphony of
sorrow, even while these still give their sweetened underchording to the new
joyous rhythm, And of that certainty we want to talk a bit now. We want to find
the keynote of the mingled symphony where joy sweetens sorrow, and sets your
hearts a-singing and a-tingling, through the bit of waiting for the reunion day.
Fierce was the wild billow, Dark was the night; Oars laboured heavily, Foam
glimmered white; Trembled the mariners, Peril was nigh; Then said the God of
God, "Peace! It is I."

Ridge of the mountain wave, Lower thy crest! Wail of Euroclydon, Be thou at
rest! Sorrow can never be, Darkness must fly, Where saith the Light of Light,
"Peace! It is I."

Jesus, Deliverer, Come thou to me; Soothe thou my voyaging Over life's sea:
Thou, when the storm of death Roars, sweeping by, Whisper, O Truth of Truth,
"Peace! It is I." Hymn of St. Antolius


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  CHAPTER 5: CHAPTER 2: THOSE IN TOUCH OF HEART WITH GOD WHO DIED—WHAT CAN WE KNOW ABOUT THEM?
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Chapter 2: Those In Touch Of Heart With God Who Died—What Can We Know About
Them?


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  CHAPTER 6: THE OLDEST QUESTION
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The Oldest Question Where is her There's a narrow pine box, and a slender strip
of green sod. But he is not there. Or, is he? He, where is he! It's the oldest
question, that is the oldest tense human question. It has been wrung out in
every generation by grief, staring dry-eyed or sobbing, over the sod strip, out
into the gray beyond. Our earliest mother knelt broken-hearted by the body of
her boy. It was a triple grief with her. Her boy was dead, grief enough that.
But it was through passionate violence, and, worse yet, violence by his own
brother. War had an early start. Grief had its first birthplace in a mother's
broken heart. No, not its first. Its first birth-place was in the heart of God,
when His prodigal world went away from the old fire-side. But then that was a
mother heart a father mother heart, and a broken heart too. Yet, it was the
first human heart. And again you must say, not even that. For God's heart is a
human heart, as well as more. We get our human heart from His human heart, we
made in his likeness. That question, and that grief, have never quit since that
day just outside the Eden gate. The grief sobs out its ceaseless requiem
regardless of clock or clime. And the question intrudes its sharp cutting point
into the most sacred hour and corner. The Greeks were masters of the world.
Their sense of beauty has never been surpassed. Their chiselled marble, chaste
architecture, and noble teachings, set the world's standard. But their answer to
this old question couldn't still the tumult in their own broken hearts. Quite
gone, he had, they said. It's the end. There's nothing beyond. So their brains,
though their hearts never accepted the answer. There was a sharp break between
the two, never bridged by any philosophy. Others of them disagreed. But the best
thing they could do was picturing a cheerless, aimless, colorless existence that
was itself repellant. That was the best answer that the best Greek wisdom and
culture could bring. The Romans were masters of force, sheer brutal force,
organized with rarest skill. Their force mastered the Greeks but it couldn't
force any mastery here. The question forced them to admit themselves mastered,
out-done, in the presence of its breaking grief. They trod the same path hewed
out by Greek philosophy. They had no light to relieve the gray gloom. The
earlier dwellers on the Nile saw no bet-ter light. They could pierce the sky
with their rare pyramidal engineering. But their longing tear-bedimmed eyes
could pierce ahead past the line of the grave not the tiniest scratch, nor the
faintest gleam. The Euphrates sages stopped dumb at the same place, hoping,
wishing, wondering but skeptical. The Phoenicians could shape an alphabet to be
carried through one national culture after another up to our own English. But
they couldn't shape a teaching about the future that could ease the heart tug at
the gateway of the grave. And the later teachers up to this hour, following the
same path of reasoned research, have nothing to add to those earlier thinkers.
The best they can bring is a vague uncertainty. Wearisome comforters are they
all, like job's friends. The candle's snuffed out. He has gone, for good and
all. That's the end. Or, you can dimly see him wandering aimlessly about in a
gray gloom that only adds a touch of bitterness to the heart's grief. It's a
cheerless answer. The cold light of reason is well called cold. This is the best
and the most that its lantern can do, or, at any rate, has done, in the night of
man's sorrow. It's a repellant look out into the dark night. But stop. That's
not all. There is another answer. And it's an answer that answers. There's no
beggarly begging of the question here. And it stands in sharpest contrast to
these others. They are vague. It is positive and clear. There's an element of
thoughtful measured certainty, that begins to ease the heart at once. Indeed
certainty is a marked characteristic of this answer. There is a sheer certainty
that is startling and refreshing. Already the air clears. The clouds scurry.
Sunlight begins to edge the clouds with its cheery golden glint.


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  CHAPTER 7: A SMALL GROUP OF FACTS
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A Small Group of Facts There is a small group of facts that underlie this
teaching of certainty about the life after death. A fact is something that is
really so. It stands in direct contrast with theory or speculation, with mere
logic or argument. A fact is a real state of things. It is something to be
reckoned with in practical life. It is something you can put your finger on and
say "this is so". The sun is a fact. You look up and see it. There it is. The
theorist explains that you really don't see the sun. For it is some ninety-two
or -three million miles away. And the human eye cannot see that far. It's the
reflection you see. And he is quite right in his theorizing. But the crowd, busy
with its daily practical work, is impatient of mere theory. It says, "there's
the sun in plain sight, you can see it. You feel its heat. You work by its
light," And that settles the thing. The 'crowd pushes ahead with its work. And
the crowd is right. The sun is a potent fact in common life. Now, to the plain
man on the street, too busy for fine-spun theory, there is a small group of
facts that stand out to common view as plainly as the sun in the sky. And one's
daily life can be shaped by them as really as by the sun. First of all,
Christian civilization is a fact. It stands out in sharpest contrast with the
civilizaton of the Caesars, which overspread the world in the time of Christ.
Treatment of the weak is the acid test of any civilization. Then, there was
slavery both white and black. Now, there is not only freedom from slavery, but
the highest civil rights for the humblest and state education for all, from the
poorest up. Then, woman was a chattel, a piece of property merely. Now, she is
loved, shielded, cultured, queen of the home, and more. Then, children were
commonly despised and neglected, when not actually thrown to a horrible death.
Now, they are prized and cared for as our most precious possessions. Then,
degrading superstition controlled in the care of the sick, and the mentally
deficient, when they were not wholly ignored. Now, science and a gracious
humanitarianism combine their best, even in caring for those who can offer no
compensation. Then, the most sordid unadulterated selfishness held complete
sway. Now, actually billions of money are given voluntarily for the relief of
the needy. Then, there were no commonly accepted standards of morality. The
question of sex morality was quite commonly regulated by the fact of property
rights, or ownership, as is quite common today where Christian civilization does
not control. Now, in all the lands known as Christian, there is a standard
touching the great moral questions of truth and honesty and right sexual
relations. That standard is continually violated. But it is recognized, and has
an incalculable influence in common life. Take these few items simply as threads
in the whole fabric of similar weave. It is not possible to state the case fully
in brief words. For Christian civilization is an atmosphere filling the lungs of
the western world. We are too much a part of it to sense it fairly. Only a
Roman, dropping down into it, could appreciate the tremendous contrast, as he
tried to catch his startled breath. The contrast is stupendous. These things,
and the like, are recognized as the distinctive traits of Christian
civilization.' The contrast in this regard between western nations and those
where Christian influence has not yet permeated, is both painful, and is a
living exposition of Christian civilization. And all this is in spite of the
fact that our Christian civilization has just suffered its most savage, most
unchristian, most uncivilized, blow; and that too, from within itself. It is in
spite, too, of the fact that the present day feverish restlessness among
so-called Christian nations brings sharply to view conditions and practices that
are decidedly non-Christian. Indeed the question has been freely raised how far
our boasted Christian civilization is mere veneer, of varying thickness, for
something radically different underneath; a pretense covering up something that
needs hiding. This tree seems to 'have grown great until birds find their nests
in its protecting branches, foul scavenger birds, preying on human kind. But
Christian civilization is not an original thing. It has not an independent life.
It has no roots of its own. It is an outgrowth of something else. And that
something else is greater than the outgrowth. The root is more than the shoot
growing out of it, immensely more in this case. If some yet more savage war
swept over the world, and stuck to its job longer, and cleaned the whole thing
of Christian civilization out of existence, the root out of which it grew would
still remain. It would remain as full of life and fertility as before. It would
put forth new shoots. And its growth would again largely cover the earth.


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  CHAPTER 8: CHRISTIANITY A FACT
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Christianity a Fact This leads to the second fact, Christianity is a fact. For
Christian civilization is an outgrowth of Christianity. Christianity is the
root. Christion civilization is the shoot out of the root. It has no separate
life of its own. And more yet, it seems pretty plain that Christian civilization
isn't the chief outgrowth. These radical differences between two civilization
must really be classed as incidentals. Revolutionary they are, blessedly
revolutionary, yet mere by-products. Christian civilization is a by-product;
nothing more. It is a by-product of Christianity. It is not the main thing
itself. For, by common consent, no nation today is Christian in the profession
and daily lives and practices of even a majority of its people. And the
governmental policies, while taking on the outer coloring of Christian
civilization, are underneath, confessedly the reverse of Christian, in the
selfish, grasping spirit that dominates. Christian ity has not had the
opportunity of producing its chief result in the generic life of Christian
nations. So, if these distinctive traits of our characteristic civilization are
mere incidentals or by-products of something else, that something else is seen
to be not only a fact, but a fact of immensely deeper significance. Christianity
is an ideal, a group of moral principles, and it is a vital power, that makes
that ideal and those principles real in human life. It can change radically a
human life from bad to good. And it does it. It presents a high ideal, makes a
man long intensely after it, and then makes it an actual experience in his life,
over-coming the most stubborn opposition. No stronger thing could be said of any
power. It changes the human will. It changes it at the core. And it does it
wholly from within. There is no other power known to man that has done that, or
that can do it. The drunkard becomes sober, and a hater of the evil he once
loved so passionately. The impure becomes pure, the thief honest, the covetous
generous, the wavering and drifting purposeful, the weak strong. And the changed
man becomes a new factor influencing his surroundings. Every continent, and
civilization, and distinct race, has living evidence of such change. Yellow men
and brown, black men and white, have alike revealed this unmatched solitary
power at work. The extremes meet here. The city slum, that ugly ragged
sloughed-off edge of our best civilization, and the savage tribe untouched as
yet by any civilization, acknowledge alike this trans-forming power. This is
what I mean by saying that Christian civilization is merely an incidental of
Christianity. This thing of changing radically human character from bad to good
this is the chief thing. Any thing else is incidental to this. The civilization
is mere surface veneer. This goes down to the very vitals. Indeed this is the
starting point of a true abiding civilization. And so, Christianity is seen to
be a fact, in plain open evidence in the life of the race. It is an indisputable
fact even to those who hate it.


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  CHAPTER 9: CHRIST A FACT
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Christ a Fact But there's another step in the ladder. Put your foot up on the
next rung. Christianity leads you straight to something else. And again it is
something else greater than itself. It's a sharp scale ascending. The something
else proves to be some One else. For Christianity doesn't stand by itself. It is
not a thing nor a system in itself. It is merely a shoot out of a root. As
Christian civilization roots in Christianity, so Christianity roots in Christ.
It comes out of Him. The two are intertwined beyond separation. And it is less
than He. The shoot is less than the root. Cannon Liddon said a few generations
ago, "Christianity is Christ." That is, the real thing of Christianity can be
understood only as one gets to Christ. He is the standard of it. And so we have
the third fact. Christ is a fact. I am ignoring a whole lot of evidence here.
There are large evidential reserves wholly untouched. I am talking for the man
in the street, on the move, to be caught by plain talk if at all. Simply from
this level, where all are compelled to confess what their eyes see, Christian
civilization certifies the fact of Christianity. And the fact of Christianity
certifies the fact of Christ. And Christ stands here not simply for those
thirty-three years of His personality. Christ stands for the potent influences
that radiated, and that radiate, from that personality, and from those years
with their tremendous happenings. The name Christ stands for ideals, the highest
known. It stands for ideals lived amid the stress of our common life; actually
lived. It stands for love and sacrifice beyond what any other did show, or could
show. It stands for power in overcoming the terrific moral inertia of life, the
prejudice and superstition, the hatred of men, and of evil at its deadliest, and
immensely more in completely overcoming the power of death itself, and living
again a new triumphant life on earth past the grave line. Yes, Christ stands for
more yet, the power that can make that ideal a living reality in human life
today. For what has been said of Christianity must be said of Christ. He is the
power of Christianity. Christ is Christianity, the real thing. He is more than
it. For all of its power comes out of Him. Christ is a fact, a tremendous,
unmistakable, unalterable fact. The evidence is plain and open to the man in the
street. A glance at the date line in the morning paper, and at the post-mark of
the last letter that came, tells of the fact of Christ. A touch with some one
you know who lives the real thing, or, who has been blessedly changed in life,
makes that fact take hold of your very heart. But there's another egg in this
nest. A little mothering will bring it to life. The fact of Christ is linked up
with another fact, the Christ-Book. The Bible is a fact, tied and knotted up
with the fact of Christ. The two are inextricably inter-woven. For Christ is the
very heart-blood of this Book. Take Him out of it you cannot, simply cannot! You
would have itself taken out of it. It is striking that you must go to this Book
to get the essential facts about Christ Himself. It is the one original source
of information about Him. The very book that tells at first hand about the
divine Christ must itself be divine. It is a lonely book, solitary, quite by
itself in its standards, its ideals, and its power. It would take a Christ to
make a Christ. And it would take a Christ to make this Christ Book.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 10: INSPIRED REVELATION A-FACT
========================================================================

Inspired Revelation a-Fact The Bible is a fact. I do not mean merely that it is
a fact that there is such a book. But this Book itself is a living fact or
factor in Christian civilization, in Christianity, in Christian propaganda among
non-Christian peoples, in the personal history of Christ Himself, and in the
human lives it has touched and moulded. Wherever it is known, it is accepted as
the one standard of moral teaching, unapproached by any other. By common consent
its contributions to jurisprudence, to political economy, to moral philosophy,
business ethics, sanitation and hygiene, are the underlying foundation of all
books on these subjects. It is characterized by a fine re-serve, a conservative
caution of utterance, and a rare modesty about itself. Its high moral character
is freely accepted wherever it is known. In its ideals of life, unmatched and
unapproached, its originality, its unfailing freshness and adaptation after
centuries, its subtle real touch of something more than human through the human
medium, and in its one outstanding person Christ, it stands in solitary grandeur
among all books of whatever time or clime. The Bible is a fact in the life of
the race. And, now, there's another hatch in this brood. A bit of heart warmth
will quickly pip the shell. Notice a striking thing. This conservative Book
makes a certain claim for itself. It actually claims to be a distinctive
revelation from God Himself. It claims to be so in-breathed by the Holy Spirit
as to be a dependable revelation of God's will and purposes, and of how He sees
that things will work out. And it is so interwoven with these other plain facts
that the acceptance of them, at once, involves the acceptance both of it, and of
its claim. And so, very quietly, a fifth fact adds itself to the group. It is a
fact that there is a revelation from God. I know of course that this is
disputed. It is disputed vigorously with bitterness and persistence. Indeed the
peculiar spirit of bitterness and stubborn tenacity in the propaganda against
this fact is distinctively unscholarly in spirit, and more, it is suggestive of
the real source behind all this sort of thing. There's a bitterness of hate, a
serpentine quality of subtlety and venom, immensely suggestive. But the bit for
the common man on the street, who wants things simple and plain and straight, is
this. The fact that there is a revelation from God is as clearly a fact as these
other facts named. It's as clear as the fact of the sun over-head. A man may
rest in this, as a mere matter just now of flawless logical reason, that the
acceptance of these facts is in full accord with the most rugged intellectual
integrity. The most vigorous insistent mentality can rest content in following
this simple line of reasoning. Merely as a matter of evidence, regardless of the
moral consequences involved, this group of facts may safely be left to the
verdict of the highest judiciaries of these two English-speaking peoples.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 11: MUDDY SCHOLARSHIP, AND THE REAL
========================================================================

Muddy Scholarship, and the Real I have put the thing in this simple direct
positive way because of the muddy scholarship that has such wide sway today.
That is, it passes for scholarship, and it is certainly muddy. It is marked by
the absence of clear vigorous thinking, and of clean-cut utterances. There has
grown up a system of instruction which uses the fine old name of scholarship. It
sits in high places, in universities and divinity schools. And its text books
and influence are in the lower schools. Its dominant method is to raise
questions and leave them hanging in the air, the biggest thing in view. With
elaborately spun speculation, which has a fine scholastic tinge and tang, it
incubates doubt. And the incubated brood far outnumbers those of a natural
mother, as in many a commercialized poultry yard. In choice scholarly language,
with impressive repetition of names prominent in the modern scholarly world, it
breathes out a gray be-dimmed foggy atmosphere of doubt. Such authenticated
facts as would conteract their theories are ignored, or minimized, or skilfully
slurred over. It has become a common thing for young peopie, trained in
Christian homes, and in simple old-fashioned church circles, and in the
old-fashioned beliefs in the essential facts of Christian truth, to be
inoculated with these germs. The disease becomes chronic, and a break of moral
fibre is a result not slow in arriving. We must all be grateful for true
scholarship. Our debt to it can never be paid. It is striking to note that the
best scholarship of the ages is headed in point of time and of preeminence, by
one who may be thoughtfully called the greatest of all scholars. And his
scholarly research work brought him to the acceptance of a direct distinctive
revelation from God. He was learned in all the vast learning of the Egyptian
schools, which were the world's universities of that day. And he had more than
learning. He had that rare scholarly instinct for independent research
regardless of where it leads, which constitutes the real scholarly genius. He
went to the original sources as has none other. Following the Egyptian
University work, and the long post-graduate course in the University of the
Desert, were two exceptional post-graduate courses, of six weeks each, most
intensive research work, on Horeb. That was indeed a going to the original
sources. Real scholarship's results are close at hand in every library of
standard works, for him who wants the facts. And nothing is better settled than
the utter dependability of this old Book, and the essential accuracy of its
transmission to us. We have the Book's message with remarkable dependability and
accuracy, as it came from God to and through its writers, under the holy spell
of God's Spirit, That there is a revelation from God is a fact. That fine word
revelation is used here in its old-fashioned full meaning. There's no thinning
out or watering of its meaning, after modern usage. It is a revelation of
something that could have been gotten in no other way. It is a something that
never has been gotten in any other way. It does not belittle reason. It uses and
honors reason. It is meant to fit into reason's processes. It meets reason at
the line of reason's highest achievement, and leads it into higher fields.
Reason with its marvellous God-like powers, slowly works its way up to certain
conclusions, and then stops. It must stop. It can go no further. This revelation
tells what reason cannot find out, because of its natural limitations. Reverent
God-touched reason accepts reverently God's revelation, and finds it in complete
accord with, and supplementary to, all that itself has done, and in revealing
what it could never find out. This is the fact of revelation. Further, it is
noteworthy that this revelation is in full accord with the moral character of
the Book which contains it. It is in perfect accord with the character of God
and of Christ. It is such a revelation as one would rationally look for from
such a source. In this it stands in sharpest contrast with other literature
dealing with such matter.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 12: THE BIBLE PRACTICAL
========================================================================

The Bible Practical Now it is very striking to notice that this rev-elation, the
old Book of God, deals with the very questions that have puzzled men in every
generation. It answers fully this old question, "where is he?" It brings the
comfort of certain knowledge to the bruised torn heart. It deals with the
questions which the war has brought up all afresh, the other, spirit world, of
which this one we know is only a part, life beyond the grave, communication with
the dead, and this whole group of intense questions. In short, it starts in
where reason is obliged to confess itself unable to go further. It answers them
with a certainty that is nothing less than startling. And so it is in sharpest
contrast with the long line of merely human philosophizings. It comes with a
great sense of relief, of refreshment, and, more, of real comfort and strength.
And as one actually lives the fine habitual surrender to the mastery of the Lord
Jesus, as he grows keener and more disciplined in his mental processes, as he
becomes more sensitive in spirit to the presence and will of the Holy Spirit
within himself, the more does his inner spirit answer to the living Spirit
within this Book, touching all points of this revelation. And the surer becomes
his inner spirit of the reality of God, and of the spirit world. We turn now to
this solitary Book of God. And we bring this oldest tense human question where
is he? At once you are conscious that here the whole outlook is changed. It is
as though you had stepped in out of the night into à house flooded with light,
The whole view-point is diametrically opposite. Outside you seem groping in
darkness, or twilight, or early dawnlight. God is left practically out of the
reckoning, out there. Here God is let in. He is let in at His own valuation.
Once admit God, and the whole equation is changed. The personal equation, that
is, the God equation, completely alters the problem, and its solution. What is
impossible without God, becomes the natural thing once God is admitted. It seems
so natural now that you know instinctively in your spirit that God belongs in.
We find at once that this is a Book of thoughtful distinctions. It doesn't slur
moral matters over. It makes a clear distinction between men, based on their
attitude of heart toward God and good. And sothe answer to the question is in
two parts. The second part is the painful, hurting part of the answer. That will
come in our next talk. Just now we want to talk about the first part of the
answer. What do we certainly know about those in touch of heart with God, who
have died.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 13: OUR QUESTION ASWERED
========================================================================

Our Question Aswered And, I think- it may make things stand out clearer, if,
first of all, I tell a simple connected running story of what happens to these
at death, without using references. Then we will gather the great teaching
passages out of the Book, with chapter and verse, and then gather up certain
out-standing events or incidents of the Book, that illustrate and emphasize the
teachings. The story grows wholly out of these teachings and events. At last
then we come to answer the question, where is he? And one may well get into some
quiet corner, where he can think quietly, and try to take in, the wondrous story
that answers the question. The moment of death has come. The physician, standing
so impressively still, with his trained finger on the pulse, says in a hushed
voice, "he is gone." Where? The beginning of death is the beginning of life. The
close here is the opening there. The end is really the beginning. The shutting
door to us is an opening door to him. At once, quicker than you can bat your
eye, or catch your breath, he is consciously in the immediate presence of our
glorified Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't go alone. A convoy of bright-faced
angel-beings meet him, and take his spirit straight up into the presence of
Christ in the homeland. I said at once. I said it thoughtfully. I was using the
language he and his angel convoy would use. He doesn't travel what we think of
as a long distance through space. He is instantly at his new destination. Time
and space and distance are things that be-long to our thinking down here. It
takes such and such a length of time, we say, to go such and such a distance.
That is necessary earth talk. Up there, in the spirit world, they go as swiftly
as thought through what we call a long distance. We can't take it in possibly,
but it is clearly so. And so the moment he has gone from us here, he has arrived
there, in the new home. He sees Jesus. He meets the loved ones gone before.
There's the wondrous reunion at once. He hears strains of music such as his
human ears have never heard. All pain of body, all distress of mind, all strain
of spirit are all gone. He is at home in a new world, where life and light,
harmony and glad joy, are the very atmosphere to an extent we simply cannot take
in down here. His cup of enjoyment and happiness is full. That is a general
statement of what has come to him the instant he slipped the tether of life
here. Now there are certain detailed particulars of intense interest, of which
we have equal assurance. He is the same person that we knew down here. His
identity is unchanged and undisturbed. The same essential characteristics, the
same individualities, that mark him to his loved ones, remain. All the traits
that go to make up his distinct personality remain the same. All distinctive
moral traits of a weak or not good sort are gone. But through all the growth and
development which now goes forward there will persist the same identity of
person as we knew here. Closely allied to this is the matter of mutual
recognition. One of the commonest of questions is about knowing each other up
there. There is nothing clearer and surer than this thing of instant full mutual
recognition. We shall be more over there, not less, our powers keener and more
developed. But, you are thinking that. years have gone, by earth's reckoning of
time, since they left us. We have changed, perhaps very decidedly. And they have
changed too, have they not? you say. The possibility of meeting the one tenderly
intimately loved without instant recognition comes with a sharp sense of pain. A
mother thinks of her babe, perhaps, who died in infancy. The little one had
already wound its tendrils so tight in and out about the mother heart. Not
unlikely she thinks still of a little babe. Yet she would be grieved and
startled beyond words, after years of separation, to find her child a little
thing quite undeveloped. Well, a little thought reveals the comforting truth.
Over there in His presence is fullness of life. Our spirit perception will be
far keener there than here. Our loved ones will have grown, and in the growth
all that is best has developed, and developed with the distinctive individual
traits. That mother, as she crosses the threshold of the real life, if not
before, will instinctively recognize that her babe has grown, much more, and
better, and differently, than if here. She will be looking to meet her child,
now matured, cultured, poised, grown with the fine growth of all spirit and
mental and individual traits. There will be the intense desire to have it so.
And it is so that she will meet her child. There will be instant recognition
that this thoughtful matured manly man, this womanly woman, grown into the fine
spirit image of Christ, is her child of the long years ago. And with the
recognition will be great joy because of the growth. The recognition will be
instant and mutual and joyous. Now, further, as he comes into Christ's presence
there will be no discussion of his sin. For he, this man we are talking about,
was in touch of heart with the Father. And the sin question has all been settled
for him. Christ's death and resurrection settled it. The blood of Christ covers
his sin. And he is accepted by the Father even as His Only Begotten is accepted.
He begins to appreciate now just what a tremendous thing Jesus did for him in
dying. But there will be certain changes in him of a moral sort. As he comes
into the presence of Christ, certain things in his character will be removed or
changed. It will be done just as putting a lump of gold ore into the fire
instantly makes a separation of whatever there is in the ore that is not gold.
The other part is burned up, or thrown off. Christ is pictured as a man of Fire.
Fire purifies. Fire consumes what can't stand the heat of its flame. Christ's
mere presence will act on one's character as he comes into that presence, just
as the actual fire acts upon the lump of gold ore. Whatever in a man's
character, of the sort characterized by Paul as "wood, hay and stubble," that
is, whatever won't stand the fire of the pure presence of Jesus, will be removed
as by the burning of fire. That is, whatever there is of selfishness,
self-seeking, pettiness, uncontrolled passion, self-will, bitterness,
narrowness, the artificial and the like, will go. It is to be feared that in
some cases the fire will burn up more than it leaves. For fire is relentlessly
truthful and honest. No doubt many a man's life, (that is, the opportunity of
his stay on the earth), will be practically lost because it has been controlled
by un-Christlike motives. But his soul, or after-life, the man himself, will be
saved. For that is a matter of Christ's blood. Indeed some will be saved because
of what the fire does. For not even Christ's blood can save the growth of
selfishness encrusting this man, who at heart really does trust Christ. The
blood saves the man himself, the fire burns up these bad growths. There will be
some pretty severe shrinkage in the presence of the purifying Man of Fire.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 14: THE CHANGED OUTLOOK
========================================================================

The Changed Outlook Then, too, the whole outlook changes up there. It will be
like climbing a high mountain, above the cloud line, after living down here in
the valley among fogs and mists. We shall know fully then, even as also we are
fully known now. The point of view completely changes. Our sense of values will
instantly change, both shrinking and growing. Everything is seen up there at its
real valuation, that is, God's valuation. Some things that we cling to with
desperation will be seen as quite valueless. And things that we dimly recognize
as good yet let slip, or held with a loose hold, will now be seen as purest
gold, of highest value. We shall see clearly even as now God sees clearly.
Things of the earth life, controlling motives, policies of men and groups and
governments, individual suffering, the common acute problems-in all this, there
will be a radical re-shift in values. This sense of the change of values will be
revolutionary. It will come to many with unspeakable tensest surprise, and even
shock, this utter shift of values. Yet it will at once be recognized that now
things are seen at their true value. Then the change of outlook will affect our
understanding of our loved ones still living down on the earth. We shall be
fully conscious of things on the earth. But we shall see all things from God's
point of view. We shall understand much, at least, of God's general plans for
the future. We will sense how things will turn out. And if one thinks,
naturally, how can we know without being disturbed of our loved ones having
difficulties and pain and the like, let it at once be recalled that we shall see
all these things from God's standpoint, There will be an utter change of
proportion in estimating these things. It will be the true proportion. What
holds God steady now in his tender love for us, and yet His intimate knowledge
of things here, that same thing will hold us steady. Then, we want to remember
that our loved ones up there in the homeland, are growing. We know it by simple
inference. For growth is a law of life. And up there they have the real article
of life. Whatever has God's touch upon it grows. And up there is God's own
fireside. All things are His way. And so there is growth of the finest truest
sort, up there. The dear wee babies, the vast majority of those who have gone
through the upper doorway, have been growing. Like the child Jesus, they have
grown in wisdom or understanding, and in stature, and in favor with God and men.
That covers their mental and spirit and social powers. Under the touch of God's
creative power, ever at work, and under the tutelage of their angel-teachers,
they have steadily grown in matured, poised, gentle strength. And so each one
has gone on growing in all the fine traits and powers and understandings and
self-control, that make perfect human character. For heaven is a school as well
as a home. Only both words take on a fineness of meaning there, unknown here.
All the fine training of perfect school-life and all the true sweets and
restraints of fine home-life are the blessed commonplace up there. We have all
suffered a good bit, including God, by the common teachings about heaven. It has
been preached and taught and hymned away out of touch with true human feelings
and thought. I can recall distinctly a few lines of a hymn I knew and sang in my
early growing days. The lines that still stick in my memory said, "Where
congregations ne'er break up, And sabbaths have no end." The melody was a fine
one. I loved it. I find myself singing it now sometimes. The melody has kept the
words living in my memory. But when I thought into it as a boy it didn't awaken
any special enthusiasm over going to heaven. The sabbaths I knew had some
un-natural restraints about them, though I still think that those restraints
that irked were very decidedly better than the looseness that everything runs to
now. I had a boy vision of one ceaseless church service, on plain hard wooden
benches with straight stiff backs, singing psalms and hymns and listening to
long proper sermons, and the like. That's a very simple thing, perhaps childish.
But is it not of a piece of the common idea most folks have about the other
life. I presume the writer of those lines, like many in the same list, was
thinking only of the perfect harmony up there, the sweet fellowship of men with
God. But the way he expressed it doesn't seem to fit into human ideas of things
we common folk have. No, it is God's real home up there. Things are as He plans.
There's what would be called a natural round of life up there. God is a rhythmic
purposeful God, And so there is purpose and motive and definite aim in each
life. There's a working toward a goal, and the zest of seeing things grow under
one's touch. For that belongs to true life. Each one yonder has his task and
round of occupation, and a rare joy in doing it. It's a busy purposeful active
life, up there, but without any strain or worry, crowding or drudgery, or
competition of the hurting sort.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 15: SERVICE ACCORDING TO ABILITY
========================================================================

Service According to Ability Then there's another thing to be said with some
emphasis, and yet said gently. It is said with emphasis because it seems never
spoken of. It is said gently because it touches one of the sore spots in our
common Christian life. And the touch may make somebody a bit sensitive, and
possibly may hurt a bit. Yet the surgeon's knife that cuts is to prepare the way
for healing and health. The word is this, their occupation up there, and the
privilege of personal service for the King, will be according to ability. But
ability has a new meaning, not used down here much. It refers to the spirit
traits one has grown down here. Those who, in the stress of life have been true
to the Lord Jesus here have grown certain traits of character. There has been a
cultivation of the inner spirit life which in turn has given color and shape to
the outer life. In following fully they have had difficult experiences on the
earth. There have been oppositions and persecutions, sometimes of the subtler
sort that cut deep. There has grown a sensitiveness of spirit to the Master's
presence and voice and way of doing things. So there has been grown
unconsciously, largely, the traits needed in the Master's upper service. The
vision has been cleared, the ear trained for his voice, the spirit keen to
understand, the judgment disciplined, the mood made like His own, responsive to
Him, and to those in similar touch with Him. May I say, very gently, that it
seems pathetic how many there are whose one thought seems to be to be sure
they'll be saved? The thought of being serviceable to the Master after being
saved seems to slip quite out. There's a natural concern over personal
salvation, of course, till it's settled right. But so many seem to think that
having fixed up the matter of salvation, very much—I am putting it bluntly as
you take out any insurance policy, they are free to go on their selfish worldly
way, like the outer crowd. The motives of the world seem largely their motives.
It's hard to find the difference. Now, the point to stress is this: our life
there, and our privilege of personal service for the King, will naturally be
moulded on our Christian lives here. It will be reckoned a great honor, the
outstanding honor, to do errands, carry out commissions, and be entrusted with
bits of service. And mark you keenly, all may serve up there, who will. There
will be no favoritism shown. But of course, only those will be sent on some
honored errand who can do it, who have grown the traits of character it calls
for. It seems quite clear that when our Lord Jesus does come again (whenever
that may be), in the second phase of His coming back to the earth to heal its
hurt, He will be accompanied, not by all who are saved through His blood, but by
those who being saved, are also "chosen and faithful." That is, in their life on
the earth, they have answered the call to personal salvation. They have been
chosen for some bit of service, and they have been faithful to their Lord in
doing what He asked. Now, this will naturally be the simple law of service up in
the home-land, and in the coming kingdom time. Those are entrusted with doing
the king's errands, who have grown the traits needed. And those traits are grown
in our earth life by the simple full following of our blessed Lord Jesus. Yet,
let it be carefully noted that every cup of happiness will be full up there.
There will be different sorts of cups, varying sizes, and full recognition of
the differences, yet each will be as full as it will hold. We shall be absorbed
with our glorious King. There will be sweetest fellowship, and fullest accord.
Yet some will be honored in service as others cannot be. And the right of this
will be readily acknowledged by all. But, it does look sometimes, as though
there'd be a lot of people saved as though by the skin of their teeth, in Job's
words. They're in, but barely in; saved, but barely saved. Christ not only had
to die to get them saved, but has to burn off a lot of stuff accumulated down
here that can't get over the door sill up there. This seems to be the simple
picture etched out before our eyes in this old Book of God. There's much local
coloring to add to it. But this answers the age-old question about our loved
ones, in touch of heart with God, who have died.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 16: NOW TURN TO THE BOOK
========================================================================

Now Turn to the Book And now we want to turn to the Book directly for the
detailed study out of which this simple picture is drawn. It will be noted that
these old Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, are flooded with the Kingdom
conception. The continual thought absorbing these writers is not death and
heaven and the life beyond. They are absorbed with a new condition of things
coming on the earth. There's a King coming, and through Him a kingdom. And the
kingdom they are thinking of will be on the earth. The triumph of right on the
earth is their overmastering thought. This prevailing outlook of things is based
distinctly on promises to Abraham, and David, and the other fathers of their
people. It is really the same as with the writers of the Newer Testament, where
the dominant thought is of some One coming back to the earth, to lighten all
wrongs and Edenize the earth again. This kingdom conception and outlook in the
older pages color all the sky continually. This makes the references to the
future life stand out in sharper relief. Indeed the broad view seems to make it
clear that these old writers didn't discuss the future life much. They took it
for granted. This is the setting of the particular passages we want to look at.
It will be noticed that there are other things taken for granted. God is taken
for granted. He is above any such thing as death. We are His creatures, breath
of his own breath. We have the same quality of life as He. We have been badly
hurt by sin. As a result there is death for the body. But the principle of life
within us is of the same essential sort as God's. We are kin in the quality of
life, through His gracious creative touch. All this is the common background
here. The other world is taken for granted. There is another world, another
bigger part of this world we are in. It's another sort of world, that part we
don't see. God's home or fireside is there. There's no death there, with God,
for He talks to successive generations. Men come and go on the earth, but this
One is continuous. In very homely simile, it is like the harvests coming and
going, but the farmer continues season after season. This, be it keenly marked,
is the common point of view of this old Book. And God is directly concerned
about things here. It seems quite natural to them to write down, "and God said,"
as they do countless times. Jacob is awed by God speaking to him at Jabbok, but
it never occurs to him to question it. Abraham's heart is stilled when God
appears in a dream or vision, but he accepts it as a thing to shape his plans
by. And death is taken for granted, as a dreaded passage through to something
beyond. It is something unnatural, a break. It is a thing to be dreaded in
itself, like passing through a dark gloomy valley on your way to the mountain
top. This is revealed incidentally in the language used. For instance death is
commonly spoken of as sleep. Sleep is a temporary thing. It is followed by
waking. There is no direct analogy to death in nature. Winter is not death, but
sleep. The spring is the waking time with all the powers renewed and refreshed.
The grain of wheat is said to "die". But the process it goes through is a
natural stage in the getting of the harvest. The death stage that man knows is
an unnatural thing, a sharp rupture in nature's order (Genesis 2:17). Now, here
in the Book, death is as sleep. The kings are commonly spoken of as sleeping
with their fathers. Jacob says "when I sleep with my fathers." David cries out
joyously "I shall be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness" (Psalms 17:15).
This is as common in the Old, as in the clearer resurrection light of the New
Testament. And it should be noted that this usage of sleep for death is
distinctive to this old Bible. That is, it seems to have originated there. Its
use elsewhere is a copy of this old Biblical usage.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 17: SOME INCIDENTAL TEACHINGS
========================================================================

Some Incidental Teachings There's a group of incidental teachings, that touch
the subject indirectly. Incidental evidence is always strong evidence, like
Ehud's left-handed thrust. It reveals an atmosphere, an attitude, an outlook,
which at once tells the dominating faith. Look at a few of these incidental
teachings. In the creation story, it is said that God breathed into man's
nostrils the breath of life. The lower animal creation had come earlier. Here is
something distinctly additional. God's own breath was breathed into man. Man is
of the essence of God, creatively. We are as God in the possession of life, the
fact of life, and the sort of life. This is creative. It is quite distinct from
redemptive action. The creative, sustaining, preserving, power of God continues
in spite of sin. It's a bit of the love of God. In the outstanding Fifty-third
of Isaiah there stands an incidental word of significance, when thou hast made
his soul, a sin-offering (put to death) he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days." The same is repeated a few lines farther down. Because he poured out
his soul unto death, therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and
so on. Here is not only life after death, but a victorious triumphant life after
a peculiarly humiliating death (Isaiah 53:10-12), indicating the continuation of
life after death had control. In that remarkable last chapter of Daniel, there
is clear teaching of a coming resurrection, with its direct implication of a
continuation of the life of the spirit while the body mingles with the dust.
"Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; these (that
awake) to everlasting life; the others (that do not awake at this time) shall be
to shame and everlasting abhorrence." (Daniel 12:2 translation of Tregelles, the
famouos Hebraist.) And an incidental bit spoken to Daniel personally, closes
that chapter, "Thou shalt rest, and shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the
days." Or paraphrased, "thou shalt die, but when these events occur thou shalt
be living and be in thine allotted place (Daniel 12:13). It will be noticed that
the large group of teachings about the resurrection become invaluable indirect
evidence. Clearly if there is a resurrection, it is based on a continuation of
the human spirit whose body is lying in the grave. The resurrection involves a
continuation of individual identity, for each spirit re-enters its own body. It
takes for granted a spirit world, and that all in touch of heart with God who
have died, are in His immediate presence, and that it is His resistless power in
action overcoming the power of death. All reference to the expected Second
Coming of Christ belongs in this group of incidental teachings, Whatever view we
may hold today regarding that subject is quite immaterial, just now, in this
connection. Clearly in these pages there was a living faith in His return. His
appearance was a thing expected in that generation. These references at once
express belief in the fact of an unseen spirit world, where Christ was then
living in the same body they had seen and touched after his resurrection. Those
who had died, who were in touch with Him, were in that spirit world. They would
return with Him in great victory and gladness. It will be noted that Jesus'
constant stand-point is this: He had come down from His Father's immediate
presence, on an errand to the earth, When the errand was done He would go back
home again. That made the spirit world a very real thing to Him. The
characteristic phrase "eternal life," original with Jesus and the Gospels,
carries with it the same significance. In Peter's address, on the occasion of
the healing of the lame man at the beautiful gate of the temple, he says of
Jesus, "whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restoration of all
things whereof God spoke by the mouth of His Holy prophets." (Acts 3:21) There
was clear teaching that the Jesus whom they had killed was living then, up out
of view, and living such a life of power that He would be returning to take
control of things down here. In his long teaching letter to the disciples in
Rome, Paul makes two incidental allusions full of suggestive meaning. The
sufferings then being endured by some of Christ's followers were intense and
real, but they are said to be insignificant when compared "with the glory which
shall be revealed to us-ward." And in the same paragraph there is a most
touching reference to the whole lower creation. It is said to be full of
inarticulate groanings, the suffering of intense birth-pains, in anticipa tion
of a coming new birth which would include the whole creation, with man himself
(Romans 8:18; Romans 8:22-23). Not only is there life beyond death, but a
victorious life in which all wrongs are righted, and the earth's hurt healed.
This is a gathering of some of the indirect incidental teachings.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 18: OUTSTANDING PASSAGES — JOB
========================================================================

Outstanding Passages — Job We come now to the great outstanding teaching
passages. It will be noted that these are not isolated texts, picked out. Rather
they are some of the peaks of the mountain ranges. Peaks and mountain range are
parts of the same thing. Turn first of all to the Book of Job. There is good
reason for accepting Job as the earliest of all the books, in its writing. If
written by Moses, as is the early reliable tradition, and altogether likely, it
would reveal not only the conviction of the patriarch Job himself, but of the
scholarly Moses who chooses this incident for his ,remarkable essay on the
problem of suffering. It reflects the common belief of the early twilight of the
race. Or, should we more properly say, before the early creative floodlight had
dimmed. There are two outstanding passages here, both from the lips of job
himself. The "if-a-man-die-shall-he-live-again" passage (Job 14:14), and the
other "I know that my Redeemer liveth." (Job 19:25-27). These two famous bits
that have been quoted so much, seem at first flush to be on opposite sides of
the question in point. The first seems plainly to express doubt, or, at least, a
question. The second rings with assurance. The two really must be taken
together. It seems quite clear that they both were spoken within an hour's time
in the running conversation of these four men. As they are talking the cutting
replies of his critics have turned the sick man's mood so that the second bit,
the "Redeemer" passage seems to be merely a shift of emphasis, a making intenser
the statement already made in the first passage. If one read the question "if a
man die shall he live again?", in its connection as it stood in their
conversation, it seems plainly to be, not a question of uncertainty, but rather
an affirmation, a confession of his faith that he was confident he would live
again. Notice, the preceding paragraph (Job 14:7-12) is taking the lower view of
things as seen on the earth. The tree dies and is gone. The man dies and is seen
no more on the earth, just like the tree. But in this paragraph containing the
question (Job 14:13-17), the point of view is clearly shifted. There Job is
speaking to God. The point of view is wholly changed. It's the upper, the higher
view. Listen: "Oh that thou wouldst hide me in the world of departed spirits.
That thou would keep me secret (hidden in safety, as in Psalms 27:5 "He will
keep me secretly in his pavilion: in the covert of his tent will he hide me.")
until thy wrath (in straightening out wrong) be past. That thou wouldst appoint
me a set time, and (then) remember me! If a man die, shall he live? (I am so
sure of it that) All the days of my present time of apprenticeship or discipline
will I wait Till my release or graduation cometh. Thou wilt call (me up into thy
presence), and I will answer thee (and come). Thou wouldst have a desire to
(me), the work of Thy (own) Hand. But now (during this time of discipline on
earth) thou numberest (or keepest a sharp count on) my steps." To one coming
afresh to see just what job is saying, it seems plainly a confession of
confidence in the final result when the present distress is past. A slight
change in the order of the English would seem fairer to Job's thought: "If a man
die, he shall live, or live again." Then a little later, maybe half an hour, the
mood of talk changes, and he sees only the one thing. Emphasis of certainty
fills all his thought as his voice rings out "I know that my Redeemer liveth." A
glance over the connection (Job 19:13-19; Job 19:25) makes it plain that "my
Redeemer" is put in contrast with a number of other items, "my brethren, "mine
acquaintance," "my kinsfolk," "my familiar friends," "my house," "my maid," "my
servant," "my wife," "my children," all these have failed in some way. But my
Redeemer, ah ! I know about Him. He is unfailing That word "Redeemer" had a
strong tender intimacy of meaning to Job and his listeners quite missed by us
westerners, far removed from the usages of his people. His redeemer was his
"goel," that is, his nearest kinsman who, because of the tie of blood between
them, would come to his help in any distressing emergency. There was no closer
family tie than that of the goel, the vindicator, or blood brother, who stood up
in his strength to righten the distress or wrong of his kinsman (See Leviticus
25:25 and Rth_3:9-12; Rth_4:1; Rth_4:6; Rth_4:8 and many kindred passages.) Now
this distressed man in the tightest corner of his life, wealth gone, home,
children, standing, reputation, all gone, and almost his life gone, at bay
before these teasing, nagging pretender friends, cries out: ah! I have a
kinsman. He is of my own family and I am of His. There's the tie of blood
between us. He is full able to cover all my need, and He will do it. He is my
kinsman-redeemer. He will buy back all I've lost, and make it good to me. "He
liveth. I don't see Him with these eyes, nor feel Him, nor hear His voice, but
He liveth. Liveth, a perpetual present tense. I shall know death, but He knows
only life. And He is my nearest Kinsman-redeemer. He will see that this death
distress is overcome, and I shall live with Him, my Kinsman. He shall "stand up"
ready for action on my behalf, when action time comes. "At last," at the end of
this troubled earth experience, He will stand up on behalf of me, His kinsman.
Death will have done its work. It will have done its worst. This body of mine
itched and tantalized, scratched and weak, shall be laid away with its
mother-dust. But that's as far as death can go. It's the last of things here,
but the first of things there. Life will just be beginning then. Then apart from
my flesh, separate from it, I shall see my Kinsman-redeemer, God, I, even I
myself shall see Him. And He will not be a stranger to me, but my nearest and
dearest Kinsman (Job 19:25-27 paraphrased, see revision, margin. See paragraph
in Preface on paraphrases.) Now note the truth taught. There is continuation of
life beyond the grave for this man who is in touch of heart with God. It is in
the presence of God Himself, who is known as an intimate friend and kinsman, so
it's a joyous life, with all hopes fulfilled. There is continuation of personal
identity. "I even I." There is a righting of all the unevennesses and wrongs of
earth. And the quality of life beyond is the same as God's own life, for He and
His redeemed ones are of the same family stock. They are kinsmen. There's no
closer tie than the family tie. It is striking that back in the dawn light of
the race this bit of clear teaching stands out so sharp and positive. Even the
Fifteenth of First Corinthians is no more positive- than this.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 19: OTHER OLD TESTAMENT BITS
========================================================================

Other Old Testament Bits Much later comes a striking bit in King Saul's time (1
Samuel 27:3-12). It is the famous story of the witch of Endor. This story will
be taken up fully in the chapter on communication with the dead. It is one of
the two exceptional instances in the Bible of communication with those who had
died. just now we want merely to notice that Samuel did come, to the witch's
intense fright and utter astonishment. And, of course, quite apart from her
witchery and pretended power. Samuel had been dead for some time. Now he comes
back for a brief moment. He was recognized by Saul. He talked just as he had
always talked to Saul before his death. Saul was quick and keen to note that he
was getting another stinging rebuke as of old. Samuel gave precise unmistakeable
accurate information of what would happen on the morrow. There is no
double-meaninged cryptic playing with words. The kingdom lost to Saul, his
defeat in battle, and his death with that of his sons-that's the unwelcome
message. Not only was Samuel still living in the spirit world, but his identity
was unmistakeable. His concern in affairs of the earth was keen, as ever. His
characteristics were the same, his mentality as vigorous, and his speech as
clear 'and incisive, as before his death. When David's child died, he says in
answer to his servant's surprise and questions, "I will go to him, but he will
not return to me" (2 Samuel 12:23). Here is David's belief in the continued
existence of his child after death, the expected reunion with one whom his
intense emotional nature loved dearly, with identity and recognition both
directly implied. And further there is no hint of any earlier alleviation of
their separation through communication with his child during his own life time,
though that sort of pretension was the common practice among all the surrounding
nations, and well known among the Israelites. Instead it is plainly said that
the child would not return to him here. David's teaching in the Psalms is as
clear, and has a running joyous note in it. The Sixteenth Psalm is exultant in
its assurance of faith in God, and of God's faithfulness. It makes a running
summary of the wondrous blessings in the present life of trusting God wholly.
And then comes this climax (Psalms 16:9-11, paraphrased). "(Even) my body also
shall lie down in the grave in confidence. For thou wilt not abandon, or
forsake, my soul in the world of departed spirits ; Neither wilt thou suffer thy
holy one himself (thy beloved) to see (or go down into) the pit. (Instead) thou,
personally, wilt show me the path of life (while my body waits in confidence the
day of reunion): In thy presence is fulness of joy; At thy right hand there are
pleasures forever-more." This nut is as full of meat as it can stick. Here is
continuation of life after his body has been laid in the grave. It is in the
very presence of God, and is a life of fullest pleasure and enjoyment. Clearly,
to David's thought, things have reached a climax of joyous living in the life
beyond. He is not less than when here, but more, a wondrous gracious delightful
more. There is identity and recognition clearly inferred, and a fulfilment of
all he had hoped for. And the resurrection of his body is anticipated, for it
lies down in the grave confidently, in hope of a coming day of reunion with his
spirit. The Seventeenth Psalm has the same high exultant assurance. David has
been talking of the selfish wicked who oppress him, and who have all their good
things in the present life. Then comes this closing bit: "As for me (in contrast
with these others) I shall behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be
satisfied, when I awake, with what I find thee to be when I am in thy presence"
(Psalms 17:15 paraphrased). Here are the same notes. There is an after life. For
himself it will be in God's own presence. It fully satisfies the hopes and
expectations even of David's vivid imagination. The Forty-ninth Psalm, from one
of the sons of Kbrah, runs out in much detail the contrasted conditions between
those in touch of heart with God and those not. It's a graphic picture
throughout. Then this is placed in sharpest contrast: "But God will redeem or
vindicate my soul from the power of the world of departed spirits (at death).
That power will not get control over me. For He (Himself) will receive me."
(Psalms 49:15 paraphrased) The Seventy-third Psalm, from Asaph's pen, is in the
same strain (Psalms 73:24) of contrast between the wicked and those trusting
God. This is the setting of the words: "Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel (in
the Midst of the present difficult struggle), And afterward receive me to glory
or with glory." And the same contrast comes again later (Psalms 140:13). "The
upright shall dwell in thy presence," while the wicked are cast into the fire.
Ecclesiastes strikes the low level ideally or spiritually of Solomon's writings.
He writes as a jaded cynic, worn dull with his excessive passionate indulgences.
But even here is the incidental recognition of the after life. "Who knoweth (any
longer here on earth) the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the
beast that goeth downward" (Ecclesiastes 3:21). That is, they are both alike so
far as the earth goes: both gone: both die. The only difference is afterwards,
one goes up, the other down. And again "the dust (of the body) returns to the
dust of the earth as it (originally) was, and the spirit returneth to God who
gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7). In an exultant climax of victory over all Israel's
enemies, Isaiah cries out, "He hath swallowed up death forever; and the Lord God
will wipe away tears from off all faces" (Isaiah 25:8). This looks forward, is
its face meaning, to the coming kingdom on the earth. But it is also a distinct
recognition of the transient character of death. Death is to be put to death.
And life is to reign in place of death. This passage becomes the more
significant as later it is made the basis of Paul's ringing cry of triumph over
death in his first Corinthian letter (1 Corinthians 15:50-57). In this same
climax there is a still more striking bit from Isaiah's pen. Isaiah is talking
to God. He says, "Thy dead shall live. My dead bodies shall rise (speaking as
the national leader). Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust (of the grave);
for the dew of God is a life-giving dew, and the earth shall cast forth the
dead" (Isaiah 26:19 paraphrased). There is a resurrection of the dead bodies of
those in touch with God. That is a recognition that their spirits have been
living. Now there is a reunion. And it's a time of joyous singing.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 20: JESUS' TEACHINGS—A TEST CASE
========================================================================

Jesus' Teachings—A Test Case One of the most positive teachings was given by
Jesus in the running fire of dispute with some of the national leaders during
the last few weeks (Mark 12:18-27 and parallels). It was in His answer to the
prize or pet question of the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the atheists, the
rank materialists, of the Jewish nation. Their chief characteristic was a
nonbelief in the resurrection. But that is merely made the outstanding feature
in their creed of atheistic materialism. Now they make a carefully planned
attack upon Jesus. They feel so sure of being able to get Him in a corner that
their attack is made in the open, before the thickening Passover crowds. They
had a test case to present. It was clearly their standing illustration. They
considered it simply unanswerable. A man had died leaving his widow childless.
In accordance with Jewish custom his brother had married the widow to perpetuate
the family line. But he also died, and also, childless, and so in turn, seven
brothers, each dying without leaving an heir. Now in the resurrection that Jesus
believed in and taught, whose wife would she be, for they each had her in turn.
And one can see them chuckling under their breath, with an unholy hate and glee
mingling in their gloating eyes. This had never been answered yet. It was
unanswerable, they were quite sure. Ah, now they had Him ! And out in the open
too. It would be a public defeat for this man they hated. Jesus reply is so
simple and quiet and clear and absolutely convincing that His questioners are
utterly silenced. They have no reply. And that is saying a lot for an Oriental,
and a Jew, and a Sadducee, and a skeptic. Jesus answers in effect: "It's no
wonder you make such blunders, for you evidently don't know your own Scriptures.
And you don't know the power of God. For the other world has not the same
limitations as this. There they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are
upon the level of the angels. For neither can they die any more." Then He goes
on in quaint language: "as touching the dead, that they are raised; have ye not
read in the book of Moses, in the place concerning the Bush, how God spoke unto
him saying, 'I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob'." Then He adds with that convincing unanswerable quietness: "He is not
the God of the dead, but of the living." God is a God of life. Abraham and these
others were indeed dead in the common language and experience of earth; but they
were not really dead. They were living when the word was spoken to Moses out of
the burning unburnt bush four centuries and more after their death on the earth.
They were living as Jesus spoke the words. They were living with God. They had
the same quality as He of being alive. Those in touch of heart with God have the
same qualities as He. All continue to have some part of creative life. These
have the same sort of full life as God Himself. He is a living God. They are
living too, the same quality of life as He. And the force of the answer is seen
in the attitude of these critical quizzers. They are silenced, actually
silenced! They haven't a word in reply There's a touch of the real in Jesus'
words that gives a peculiarly convincing power to them. The Sadducees retire
abashed, confounded, dumbfounded, utterly routed. It's such a victory for Jesus
that another group of His. enemies muster their forces to try to gain some of
the lost ground. God is a living God. Those in touch of heart with Him are like
Him. They take on His quality of life. Though they have died here yet they are
living. They are living with Him. They are living His sort of life. It's His
power that makes it so, overcoming all the power of death. The Book clearly
teaches it. So Jesus teaches here.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 21: THE BETRAYAL-NIGHT TALK
========================================================================

The Betrayal-Night Talk The Betrayal-night talk, between Jesus and the inner
circle, has some clear explicit bits (John 13-17). Jesus' intimate, John, says
plainly that Jesus knew that the time had now come for him to leave this world
and go back up home to the father (John 13:1). After Judas his gone out, in
spite of the utmost to keep him in, Jesus talks about His Father's house,
evidently up in another world. He was going there now soon. But in this going
away from them He was thinking and planning about them. He was going on their
behalf. He was going so as to get a place ready for them to come to. Then He
would come back and take them up with Himself. And so they would all be together
again up in the Father's house, gathered about the old home fireside. Could
there be a simpler, more realistic picture of life after death, the real life
after the abnormal break of death (John 14:1-3). Then when things aren't quite
plain to their groping minds he goes on to explain that He's made an arrangement
for the in-between time before this plan had worked out. He would send some One
else, like Himself, who-would come and stay with them. And He, this coming One,
would be everything He Himself had been to them, and immensely more. It is
striking that the Holy Spirit here in us, and with us, is clearest evidence
about this whole question we are talking over (John 14:16-26). That quiet peace
in your heart, that hunger to be pure, that prayer tug, all this sort of thing
tells of the Spirit's presence within. And it tells too, that that loved one
gone from us here, is now up in His presence, face to face, in full enjoyment of
the real, griefless life up there. And then the great simple talk with the
Father under the full mellow moon — could any thing make the other world, the
reality of the Father, and of things up there, could any thing make these stand
out more realistically and dramatically, and satisfyingly (John 17)? The words
to the poor thief, hanging by Jesus' side on Calvary, must have come with a
peculiar comfort to that man (Luke 23:39-43). "Today, thou shalt be with me in
Paradise" The word Paradise clearly stands for some desirable blissful place.
Jesus Himself would go there at His death. He would go there at once on leaving
the earth. The thief would be with Him. They would be alive, and together in
this place of enjoyment. This man would be with Jesus because of his attitude
toward Jesus, his touch of heart with Him. That attitude was one of recognition
of Jesus as "Lord." There was acceptance of Him as Master. This was a radical
change from his early life. It was a penitential change. The prayerful mood was
in control now. And there was positive certainty that it would be so "thou
shalt." The Love Chapter of First Corinthians has a bit of contrast between our
understanding of things now, and as it will be at some future time (1
Corinthians 13:9-12 paraphrased). There is a time coming when prophecy shall be
done away, for it will all have been fulfilled; speaking in various tongues
shall cease, for there will be one tongue common to all; and the pain- ful
acquiring of knowledge shall be a thing past because we shall know fully, and
learn easily. At present we see as something is reflected in a piece of polished
steel, or in a mirror, indistinctly, as though through a cloud. But then
face-to-face, that is my face, your face, to Jesus' face (Compare Exodus 33:11).
Now we know only in part; but then we shall know fully even as now we are fully
known. When that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done
away, or swallowed up, the less in the greater, the thin line of light in the
noon shining.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 22: JESUS' RESURRECTION INCIDENTALS
========================================================================

Jesus' Resurrection Incidentals That great resurrection climax of Paul's in his
letter to his Corinthian converts and friends is one of the choice classics of
this sacred Book. The whole story there is one of the most fascinating from the
Tarsan's thoughtful pen. The resurrection of Jesus is the chief corner stone of
the whole fabric of Christian truth and fact. But we are not concerned just now
with that. But with the other things, the incidentals, tremendous incidentals,
that are part and parcel of the other. Look at these incidentals. There is
another world, a spirit world. Jesus is alive up there. He is in command up
there. He has at his disposal all things in heaven and on earth. His power is
more than we can take in. He is the same Jesus who fed men down here, and
healed, and taught, and that died. That upper spirit world is the big thing in
comparison with this old earth. It is the center of things, the center of earth
control. All things here are regulated there, even the desperate fight against
the revolutionary powers of evil. It's the real world. Jesus' whole heart and
thought is in things down here. He holds as precious to Himself, unspeakably
precious, every one who follows Him simply and fully, and so is in touch of
heart with Himself. His plans of action center here on earth. There's a waiting
time just now. With infinite patience He is letting the great pore problem of
evil work itself out on the earth. But one day He will intervene. Intervention
is plainly on the schedule. With most studiously careful regard to every one
involved, human being and spirit being, he is holding intervention back. For He
is just to all, even to the great evil spirit prince. But the intervention day
is as surely coming as that He died and rose again. - In this great Corinthian
climax the program of action for the earth is given in broad outline (1
Corinthians 15:22-27). When the intervention day does come then all of His who
have died will rise up out of their graves even as He did. As He comes down
toward earth, the spirit magnetism of His presence coming nearer will draw their
bodies up into reunion with their glad spirits. Then follows the new order of
things on the earth, His order of things at last. And when the purpose of that
is achieved, and all contrary rule and authority is utterly abolished, then the
kingdom is turned over to the Father. And the climax of the kingdom is this,
that death, man's last enemy, is itself put to death. There is given here too,
what may be called the personal program He has arranged for His own trusting
ones (1 Corinthians 15:50-57). It is called a "mystery," that is simply
instruction or information for the inner circle. The intervention day will be
heralded by the sounding of a trumpet as of a summons to form in rank.
Instantly, quicker than you can blink your eye-lid, the bodies lying in the
grave of those in touch, will know a new life as their spirits, now in Christ's
presence, re-enter their old dwelling places, each spirit to his body. And they
will rise up toward their center of spirit gravity, the glorified Jesus. And all
those who are living on the earth, and have that same vital heart touch, will as
instantly experience some change in their bodies, making them answer to a pull
of gravity upward. Courteously they wait until those who have died have preceded
them, and then all together, loved one living joined with loved one who has
died, they will be at once in the presence of Jesus. Christ is called here in
regard to His resurrection, "the first-fruits" (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). That
is, He becomes the model on which His followers' resurrection will be shaped. He
rose. They will rise. His body rose: theirs will be raised. His was a changed
body, its limitations gone, and new powers come; so theirs. His identity
remained, and he was recognized; so with them. Joseph's emptied tomb becomes a
guarantee of countless other emptied graves. Jesus living up there now becomes a
guarantee that these others are living. They share the same sort of life as He,
a full abundant victorious over-flowing life. He is the "first fruits."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 23: FROM PAUL'S PEN
========================================================================

From Paul's Pen There is no more exquisitely worded reference to the change from
this world to the next than in Paul's Second Corinthian letter (2 Corinthians
5:1-8). He thinks of the body as a tent easily taken down or shifted. Death is
the taking down of the tent. He thinks of Christ's Second Coming as meaning for
him a new sort of life, swallowing up or absorbing into itself the sort of
bodily life he is living here. Then he thinks of the body as a garment or suit
of clothing. Dying is like putting the old suit off. It is in anticipation of
something better. There's a new suit of clothes to be put on, a new life
immediately following the break of death in the old life. If Christ should come
while he is still living then the new suit would be put on over the old. The new
life would swallow up the old or present life without the break of death. He has
the intensest desire that the great change should come, not by death, but by
Christ's return. But whichever way it may turn out for him there would be the
same happy result. He would instantly be in Christ's own immediate presence
revelling in the wondrous new life. To be present here in his body meant absence
from the immediate presence of his Lord. And for his spirit to leave his body
meant an instant going into the immediate conscious presence of the Lord he so
adored. In the circular letter Paul sent out to the group of churches centering
in Ephesus, he pictures the Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary now seated in the
upper world at the Father's right hand, in absolute possession of all power,
both in the spirit world and on the earth (Ephesians 1:20-22). There is a
companion picture to this in Colossians, the two fitting together. The breadth
of view in this double picture is refreshing. The Ephesian bit pictures Christ
after His errand to the earth. In this Colossian bit He is seen before the
errand to the earth (Colossians 1:14-18). His presence on earth is like a
hyphen, a tremendous tragic glorious hyphen, in His whole career. He it was who
did things that far off creative week. Then He did His errand to earth. Then He
went back again, and sits quietly waiting the next step in the program that
shall show the full roundness of his planning. There's a bit in the First
Thessalonian letter of peculiar interest, because Paul is writing to comfort
some who are sorrowing over the death of loved ones (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
The teaching is tied up with the expected Second Coming of Christ, whenever that
may be. As surely as Jesus died and rose again, so sure is it, Paul says, that
through Jesus, God will bring up out of the grave into His own presence, with
Jesus, those trusting ones who have died. Then he gives the detail of how it
will be done. The Lord will descend out of the upper spirit world, where He is
now. First of all, those trusting Him will rise up out of their graves; then the
living ones who trust are also caught up. And so they are all together. Apart
from Second Coming teaching, it is a very real picture of life after death, a
glad joyous picture. The writer of the Hebrews, quite probably some close friend
and disciple of Paul, tells what happened on the other side of that cloud that
Luke says served Jesus for transit up through the blue. He "sat down (as one
whose task for the present was done) on the right hand (the place of power) of
the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3). Plainly there's something very real the
other side of the upper blue, and some One very real, too; and some other ones
very really with Him. Peter's First Epistle has some interesting bits of
teaching about this whole question we are considering in these talks. We shall
be turning to him later. Just now this fits in here (1 Peter 3:18). Speaking of
Jesus, he says, "being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit."
That "but" seems to throb with eager life. It's a hinge opening the door into
the beyond. Peter is referring to what happened to Jesus at the moment of his
death on the cross. As he experienced death in his body he likewise experienced
just the reverse in his spirit life. The two parts of the sentence stand in
contrast to each other. The force of the language used implies that as there
came a decrease of life in the body, to the point of extinction, there came an
increase of life in the spirit. That is, not merely that his spirit continued to
live, but that there was an increase of life, either more or, of a different
higher sort, or both of these. In his First Epistle, John says that we don't
know at present just what we shall be in the future life. But we do know that
when Christ appears openly before the gaze of men, we who are in touch shall be
like Him, for we shall see Him even as He is (1 John 3:2-3).


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 24: THE PATMOS BOOK
========================================================================

The Patmos Book John's Patmos Book begins with a wondrous look at the glorified
Jesus, and then gives four looks into the upper spirit world. In that look at
Jesus Himself, as seen glorified, there's the simple striking description of His
person which quite overwhelms John. But when Jesus begins to talk it is the same
sort of talk John was used to from his Master. The gentle right hand touches him
again, and the quieting words come, "Fear not: I am the First and Last, and the
Living One; and I became dead and behold! I am alive; I am alive endlessly; and
more than that, I have the keys, the absolute control, of death and of the whole
spirit world, Where men go at death" (Revelation 1:17-18 paraphrased). That's
pretty clear unmistakeably plain talk about life after death from One whom we
are disposed to trust to the last ditch. Then there are four looks at those who
are allied in heart with Jesus. In the first, those who have suffered martyrdom
for His sake are seen in His own immediate presence, honored and comforted, and
told to be patient a bit longer while things are working out on the earth up to
the great climax (Revelation 6:9-11). In the second look, there's a vast
uncountable number who have been caught up out of the great tribulation. They
have been purified by the blood of Jesus. Now they are in the immediate presence
of the glorified Jesus, singing rapturously, with shining faces and every mark
of delight and victory and fullness of life (Revelation 7:9-17). They're busily
occupied in service, doing the errands and tasks assigned them, and on terms of
closest intimacy with Jesus Himself. The third of these gives the same sort of
description (Revelation 14:1-5). The completed number of the redeemed are in the
very presence of the Lord Jesus, singing the wondrous song of the re-deemed,
purified now, and in fullest fellowship with their Lord, whom they follow
absolutely without question or quibble. Then the last of these looks up into the
real world, the headquarters world, comes at the last. All the church has come
to love that closing bit of John's Revelation for the winsomeness of the picture
drawn. John's own spirit is so stirred in this last book that his grammar has a
hard time. His native Hebrew spirit and thought have a hard time of it trying to
tell out the full story in the Greek language which most of the Church he is
writing to used. He actually makes new grammatical adjustments. When we see
Jesus' face there'll be a good many adjustments, some of them pretty radical
ones, too. Here he sees men of the earth gathered about the Father, as a great
family gathers in the evening of a long day about the fireplace in the old home
(Revelation 21:3-7). God and men are living together. Death is gape. Tears and
pain are only a memory! There is the sweetest intimacy between God and men, as
between a father and his dear son. Then the scene shifts out to the garden of
the home (Revelation 22:1-5). Here again they are all together in fine
fellowship. Men are face-to-face with their wondrous Father-Mother-Saviour God.
They are busily occupied with glad errands and tasks at His bidding. Sin's curse
is gone. Sickness is no more. Healing is everywhere. It's one long glad daytime,
in the gracious sunshine of Jesus' own presence.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 25: A UNDERSCORING OF FACTS
========================================================================

A Underscoring of Facts Now there's an underscoring for all this clear positive
teaching. It's a tremendous underscoring. There are in this old Book of God
certain outstanding events that are illustrations of this teaching. Illustration
is the very life-blood of teaching. One man actually going up off the earth
before the watching eyes of men is worth a hundred statements that the thing can
be done. One man actually dead and buried, and then rising up out of the grave,
where they buried him, and being seen and touched and talked with, this is
simply unanswerable. When teaching is backed up by an event of that sort every
doubting critical mouth is shut. The teaching itself stands out in its strength
in the presence of the event. The event is explained clearly and fully by the
teaching. The two interlace unbreakably. The case could not be stronger. Now,
there are in this solitary old Book twelve separate occurrences, fully vouched
for, illustrating the teaching we have been gathering up. Five of these are in
the Old Testament; seven are in the New. In the Old, there are two men who went
up into the other world, the upper spirit world, without dying, Enoch and
Elijah. There are two other persons who had died and were then brought back to
life, one through the prayer and faith of Elijah, the other through Elisha. And
then there's the obscure instance of an unknown man brought back to life through
touch with Elisha. In the New there are three brought back to life through
Jesus' power; that is, Jairus' daughter, the son of the widow of Nain, and
Lazarus. There is the woman Dorcas of Joppa on the Mediterranean coast, brought
back through Peter's action; and the unnamed young man of Troas on the
Dardanelles coast, through Paul's intervention. Then there is the appearance of
Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. And at the climax stands the
resurrection of Jesus Himself and His ascension, a twin event. Let us look a
little at these, briefly, yet enough to make the essential facts stand out clear
and distinct. It is put down as a fact that Enoch went up from earth into God's
immediate presence (Genesis 5:21-24, with Hebrews 11:5). He did not die. His
body was not laid in a grave. He went up body and all, up through the blue
above, into the spirit world where God's own home is. That is the simple
tremendous thing put on record here as a fact. Enoch was not an obscure person.
He was the best known man of his day. He was the head of the first family of his
time, and the head of the race which was then simply one large family. The
outstanding thing in his character, commonly spoken of, was this, in the simple
language of the record, that he "walked with God." And this is directly
connected with the unusual, manner of his leaving the earth. God and he were on
the friendliest terms. It was the realest sort of touch of heart, a true
friendship. One can imagine what a sensation the occurrence made. It will be
helpful to try to think back and call to mind what effect such an occurrence had
at the time. It may have been one day as he was standing in a group on the
street of the village, perhaps talking of the reality of God and of God's
presence, while some looked askance at him, some were critical, some maybe with
an expression of pity that this man, their most famous kinsman, was so peculiar
on this subject. While they were looking they are astounded to see his face turn
up as though seeing something they couldn't see. A light of rarest beauty
overspread his face as though he were looking into the face of his dear Friend.
A hush comes aver them. Then his feet are off the ground. He's rising up into
the air, unsupported by anything they can see; yet he doesn't fall. He keeps
moving up and up, and then is seen no more. And they know in their inmost
spirits, this critical worldly-minded group, they recognize unmistakeably what
has happened. God has taken their kinsman up to live with himself in the upper
spirit world. It was a common fact that a man whom everybody knew had
disappeared up through the up-per blue, and never came back. And furthermore
that the strange happening fitted perfectly into this man's desire. His life
made it seem a natural thing. As he had walked with God in spirit in his common
life it fitted in that he should actually go up and walk with Him in the real
world, in the spirit world. It is vouched for as a fact by this old Book of God.
One fact vouches for another. The thing was the talk of the whole racial
community. It was not done in a corner. It made Enoch's witnessing tremendous.
Without doubt it made a profound impression on the whole race. God was brought
into life in a strangely new and very real way. There seems to have been a
purpose of God in this. The occurrence is exceptional. Some day we shall
probably understand that better. This man Enoch was peculiarly God's witness to
the whole race, God's loving faithful witness, when it wasn't easy. He told what
he wot, what he wit, what he witnessed, what he knew, about the real God and His
friendship with himself. We may hear from Enoch again before things get to their
climax. There was a purpose of God in the happening (Jude 1:4-5).


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 26: THE CHARIOTS OF THE SKIES
========================================================================

The Chariots of the Skies More than twenty centuries after Enoch, a similar
event is recorded of another man who was in unusual touch with God, Elijah. He
went up while Elisha was watching, up into the air through the blue vault above,
body and all. The fact is attested in this Book of God, by a most reputable
witness (2 Kings 2:1-12). His going is described in some detail. It is certainly
dramatic. In a whirl of wind chariots of flame swept down from above and caught
him up and away out of sight. Elijah is one of the chief outstanding characters
of this Book of God. He was a great leader of righteousness. He braved the
licentiously idolatrous Ahab in his palace with severest denunciation of his
damnable, evil practices. He locked up the windows of heaven for forty-two
months, and then unlocked them in most dramatic fashion. It was said by the last
of the Hebrew prophets, Malachi, that he would return for a further bit of
outstanding witnessing. This so took hold of the Hebrew imagination that they
freely discussed whether Jesus was not Elijah returning as foretold. John the
Herald is said by Jesus, to have fulfilled at that time the ministry spoken of
by Elijah. There is good reason for thinking it quite likely that, like Enoch,
Elijah's earthly task is not yet done. Each man in his generation was distinctly
the outstanding witness to God and God's truth, when belief in both was
peculiarly imperilled. It seems quite likely that the exceptional experience of
those two men in their manner of leaving the earth points to a future bit of
service down here in some great moral emergency. It was not a reward simply,
though that element may have entered in incidentally. It points rather to the
future when there will be exceptional need for their exceptional service for God
to the race. Apparently they will yet know death. But just now the bit to mark
is that this dependable old Book states as facts that they went up, bodily, into
the upper spirit world. So there is such a world. Their bodies went up there.
Their bodies must have known some radical change fitting them for the new wholly
different sphere. And, as we shall see now in a moment, Elijah clearly retained
his identity, and his grade of intelligence up in that spirit realm, not to say
any more just now. And whatever would be true of the one, Elijah, would as
likely be as true of the other, Enoch. There are three instances recorded of
dead persons being restored to life by Jesus. They are recorded as well
authenticated facts. Their significance in this present connection becomes very
marked. The three were at different stages of death. Jairus' daughter had just
died (Luke 8:41-42; Luke 8:49-56, and parallels). The son of the widow of Nain
was being carried out to his burial (Luke 7:11-17). Lazarus had lain in the
grave four days (John 11:17-44). The fact of death was quite clearly established
in each instance. There could be no question in the case of Lazarus, nor of the
Nain young man. And when Jesus said to the group in Jairus' house that she was
not dead, but asleep, they laughed him to scorn, "knowing that she was dead."
That is, all the usual evidences of death in each case were so plain that the
thing was beyond question. Their spirits were brought back to the bodies they
had left. And the bodies themselves were retouched with vigor so as to serve as
a dwellingplace for their spirits. Their spirits were still living while their
bodies lay dead. They were recalled from where they were. So there was not only
continuation of spirit life, but identification of the human spirit and its
body. Each spirit and its body belong together. Indeed we know that the body
comes to take on the character of the human spirit living in it. It is chiefly
noticeable to us in the face because that can be read more easily. But the
impress of the spirit is in the entire body. Some other human spirit didn't come
back to Lazarus' body. Lazarus' returning spirit did not get into some other
body in that graveyard. There was clear identification of spirit and body. When
they had that glad reunion supper in Bethany with Jesus as the guest of honor,
there was no question in anybody's mind about either the identity of Lazarus, or
of their recognizing him and he them. Ask Mary what her plain senses told her.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 27: THE TRANSFIGURATION
========================================================================

The Transfiguration We turn now to the story of the transfiguration of Jesus.
And we are not concerned just now with its significance. We simply take note of
certain incidental facts in the account. It is put down as a fact that Moses and
Elijah were there. Moses had died, something like fifteen hundred years before.
Elijah had not died but had disappeared from human view, up-ward, through the
upper blue, something like eight hundred years before. Now both men are plainly
seen. Then it is clear that they had been living all that time somewhere else
than on the earth. Their identity was quite clear. The three disciples
recognized them at once to be Moses and Elijah. It seems quite unnecessary to
say that of course Moses and Elijah recognized each other. They were in closest
sympathetic touch with Jesus, His purposes and plans. They knew beforehand what
would happen to Jesus at Jerusalem. There was perfect repose of spirit on their
part; no distress, no agonizing. They were perfectly at themselves. Their
intelligence was fully on the level they had known and shown in their early
lives. Their grasp of the great events being worked out by Jesus' errand to the
earth, seems quite full and complete. That is, their outlook takes in events of
earth, their connection with the upper world, and it takes in future events.
Clearly they were in full touch of understanding with the great purpose of
Christ in going to Calvary, though nobody on earth seemed to understand. They
saw things on earth from God's point of view. And they recognized that His plans
would triumph. They talk of the decease that Jesus would "accomplish". When the
conversation was over they disappeared as they had come. Where did they go?
Presumably back up where they had been. By mere inference where are they now?
Clearly still living in full possession of their faculties, up in that spirit
world where Christ joined them at His ascension. And it would seem from other
scripture (Malachi 4:5-6) that Elijah has a bit of work to do down on the earth
before things get straightened out down here. And that it will be the same sort
of thing he did so boldly in Ahab's iniquitous day. He seems reserved for that
sort of work, and that sort of time. Evidently these two men are more, than when
they were on earth. There is broader grasp, keener spirit perception, and clear
knowledge of the way things will work out. Elijah has no use now for that
coniferous juniper tree. He has been graduated from the juniper-tree course. The
two instances of Dorcas (Acts 9:36-43), and of the young man at Troas (Acts
20:7-12), give the same essential facts. They add emphasis to the others.
Tremendous emphasis it is. This is indeed living testimony, irrefutable. The
resurrection of Jesus stands wholly by itself. The fact of His actual death
stands in-disputable. At the core that's a physician's question. And the simple
unlabored use of exact language gives the physician the essential in-formation.
The spear thrust into His side brought out, not blood, but "blood and water."
The separation in the fluid had taken place. That at once told that death had
occurred. I have no thought of gathering up here the detailed evidences of
Jesus' resurrection. There is no point in repeating that. Many excellent
summaries can be found in any good library or minister's study. Let it be enough
just now to say this, with thoughtful measured words. There is no fact of common
history better authenticated by reliable evidence than the resurrection of
Jesus: This evidential material in the case, considered merely as, evidence, is
complete and irrefutable. As much can be said for the several appearances of
Jesus after the resurrection, and also for His ascension. This could be called
the greatest fact of all. It would be more accurate to say, the fact of greatest
significance. Its meaning can be put in this way. Jesus' spirit was living while
His body lay in the grave. Then His spirit re-entered His body. Again He moved
among men as before, though clearly free of the limitations known before. He was
recognized. His identity was quite clear. He was more afterwards than before.
All limitations were gone. A new power lifting Him quite above common conditions
was evident. In plain sight of man He went up, body and all, up through the
doorway of the blue above. He is alive. He is somewhere up. Some day He is
coming back, the way He went, He said. What has already happened to Him of the
sort involved makes it good inferential reasoning that He will do as He has said
in this regard. For He is more now than before.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 28: THE DAMASCUS ROAD EVENT
========================================================================

The Damascus Road Event One other event in this solitary old Book of God crowds
for space here. That is the experience of. Saul on the Damascus road. It may
well be put as a climax to the resurrection of Jesus: for it is a direct result
of that resurrection. And a most tremendous result it proves to be. Saul was a
cultured man, of disciplined mentality. In modern language, he was a university
bred man, of an old honored family, and a leader among the younger set in
Jerusalem. He was in close touch with the group of Jerusalem leaders that
planned the death of Jesus. He came to the fore shortly after that event, in the
persecution of Christ's followers that followed. He became the aggressive leader
of this persecution, recognized by the national leaders, and fully empowered by
them in his persecuting leadership. He had gone to the extreme degree in hatred
of this despised Jesus, and his teachings, and his followers. Nothing could
exceed the intent' of his bitter hatred and aggressive persecution. His spirit
at this point, is vivid ly described in the record, "Saul yet breathing
threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord." That is the man
Saul. Then comes the occurrence on the Damascus road (Acts 9:1-22 with
parallels). It came suddenly. It became the outstanding experience of Saul's
life. He never gotover it. Suddenly a light blazed out before his eyes. It came
from above. It was not sunlight. It was brighter, this man of keenly trained
powers of observation said. With the strange blaze of light came a power that
impelled him, against his will, to fall prone to the earth. There was a clear
distinct voice. Then ensued a brief conversation between himself and some One
connected with the light and the voice. And this One plainly said, "I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest." From that hour Saul was an utterly transformed man. From
being a bitter enemy, using all his unusual, finely trained, native powers and
leadership against Jesus, he became His most devoted follower and exponent.
There is no transformation in the character of a strong man so complete, so
sudden, and so wide-sweeping. No such similar transformation can be found
recorded. Saul's case stands utterly alone, unanswerably alone. And, mark you
keenly, there is no evidence stronger, viewed simply as evidence regardless of
moral conclusions involved, none stronger, clearer nor more convincing,
evidentially, than the recorded facts in the case of the conversion on the
Damascus road of this man Saul, taken in connection with his wide influence in
the spread of the Christian faith. Note the teaching involved. The man Jesus who
had been killed was now alive. He was somewhere in an upper spirit world. He was
in full possession of His faculties. He was in full vigor of action. He was
possessed of a power, clearly more than human, nothing less than superhuman or
divine. His identity, His concern with affairs on the earth, the rare intimacy
of His relation with His followers, insisted upon so tenderly and tenaciously,
His masterful overwhelming action, all these were unmistakable to this
exceptional, rarely trained, Herculean-willed man, who had so bitterly hated
Him. And who now completely reversed his course and became His devoted follower.
Never, was a strong career so radically, so dramatically reversed. His devotion
became as marked as his hatred had been. Nothing could dim the burning of his
devotion to Jesus. Break of family ties, quite certain loss of family
inheritance, break of friendship, the bitterest social ostracism, relentless
persecution, truly Oriental in its hounding intensity, the extremest personal
hardship continued through years, and at the end a violent death, all these
proved simply fuel to increase the flaming fire of his devotion to the Man of
Light and Power and of the Voice, on the Damascus Road. Such are the teachings,
such the events or occurrences, out of which grows the sweet story of assurance
regarding loved ones in touch with God, gone from our clinging hungry grasp.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 29: IN TOUCH OF HEART
========================================================================

In Touch of Heart But who are these of whose happy condition in the spirit world
we are so sure, and of which we know so much certainly? All who have gone? It
pains one to say an emphatic no to that question. I have said it is those in
touch of heart with God. I have not used that good Bible word, "believe". The
two phrases, "in touch of heart with God," and "believing on the Lord Jesus,"
really mean just the same thing.' Then, why not use this last common Bible
phrase? I'll tell you why. "Believe" has been twisted so much out of its simple
fine true meaning. It has been made to mean believing things, believing creeds
and church formulas, and so on. It really does mean just what I have used here.
It means touch of heart with God. And that touch can be only through Jesus
Christ. That simple language includes a changed attitude toward God where the
life has been wrong. It means all that believe, and trust, love and devotion,
can mean. There must be the real personal touch of heart with our Father-God,
who is known only to anyone anywhere through Jesus Christ, the Man who died on
Calvary. I have not spoken of Church membership. Simply because it, too, is
another of the fine things that has suffered at men's hands. It has been
severely discounted. The true thing is really at a premium. It is to be feared
that there are those in church membership who are not in touch of heart with
Jesus, God to us. And it is quite clear that there are many not in church
membership, many who have no opportunity for that fine privilege, who yet are in
the real touch of heart that is the decisive thing. And I have not spoken of
when they have come into that saving touch. With some it may have been a
life-long experience; with some a much shorter story. Some come creeping in at
close of the day of life, as a tired child creeps into the mother's lap and
snuggles down contentedly. The mother would not turn away her child. And
certainly the Man who died will not turn away any that really in heart turn to
Him with as much as half the blinking of an eager asking eye. There will be
distinctions made up there, as we have seen, intelligent thoughtful
distinctions. But anyone who comes for that touch of heart, however
inarticulately expressed, will find himself in the blest presence of Christ at
the close of his day of earthly life. And where believing prayer has been sent
up for loved ones, there will be that touch some time. Of that there can be no
question.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 30: BECAUSE OF JESUS' BLOOD
========================================================================

Because of Jesus' Blood But one last word crowds for place. And I am giving it
the most prominent place, at the close, the climax, of this simple
heart-to-heart talk. It is this: Why are these in the glad conscious presence of
Christ and of their loved ones in the upper home-land. How do, they get there?
And the answer is simple, but it goes to the very tap-root of all Christian
teaching. It is because Jesus died and rose again. That, all of that, only that,
and that to the exclusion of everything else. There will be no slurring over of
sin, nor of stubborn insistence on one's own way in defiance of God's way. Sin
can't be ignored, neither by human law, nor by God. Personal rebellion or
defiance of God the very core of sin can't be slurred over nor winked at. It
will not be because we have been consistent members of the Church, nor because
active in good works. It will not be because of some great personal sacrifice
we've made, nor because we've stopped enemy steel and lead with our bodies.
It'll not even be because we've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. It'll be
solely and only because Jesus took on Himself what was due us for our sins, and
wrong-doing, and the like. His blood poured out till no red drops remained
unspilled, His life burned out sacrificially till no white ashes remained for
the flames of death to feed upon, this, only this, is the reason why these go up
into yonder Presence. These other things are good, in so far as they are good.
Believing is the connecting link with the thing that does the saving. There must
be the connecting link, the touch of heart. But the one thing that saves is the
precious life-blood of Jesus poured out till death claimed his body. And then
His rising again tied the knot on the end of His sacrificial atoning death for
us. That made clear and complete His victory over sin and death, and over the
prince of death. A young Italian girl sat at her fruit stand intently absorbed
in reading a small book. A gentleman, pausing to get some fruit, asked her what
she was reading with so much interest. She replied, rather timidly, "the Word of
God, sir." But he was one who called himself a skeptic, and delighted in
spreading his skeptical poison. He said "who told you the Bible is the Word of
God?" With child-like simplicity she replied, "God told me, Himself." "God told
you ! Impossible ! How did He tell you? You have never seen Him nor talked with
Him. How could He tell you?" And for a few moments the girl was confused, and
silent. Then looking up she said respectfully: "Sir, who told you there is a sun
in the sky up there?" And the gentleman replied, rather contemptuously, "Who
told me? Nobody; I don't need to be. told. The sun tells this about itself. It
warms me. I Jove its light." And the young Italian girl earnestly answered, "You
have put it straight, sir, for the sun, and for the Bible. That's the way God
tells me this is His book. I read it. It warms my hearts. It gives me light. I
love its light and warmth. None but God could give the light and warmth I get
from this Book." And he turned quietly away, abashed by her simple faith. I do
not know what communion she had connection with. Her nationality would suggest
the Latin communion. But there was the touch of heart with God. That's the thing
that counts, now and up yonder.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 31: CHAPTER 3: THE OTHERS WHO HAVE DIED—WHAT CAN WE KNOW ABOUT THEM?
========================================================================

Chapter 3: The Others Who Have Died—What Can We Know About Them?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 32: A PAINFUL STORY
========================================================================

A Painful Story There are others who have died. This distressing fact, but
clearly it is a fact. This is a painful story. I shall attempt to point out the
bad swings of the pendulum, both ways, and then to point out the truth lying in
between. It'll be a painful thing to do. It should be keenly noticed in the
start why there are others. It is not because of anything that God does. It is
because of something that some men do. And it is because, further, of something
that they don't do in response to God's repeated wooing. It is by this action,
and lack of other sort of action, that they constitute them-selves the others.
It was clearly never intended that there should be others. It is a break in the
original plan. Man has in him the power to break God's plans so far as he
himself is concerned. God gave him that power, the highest of all human power,
namely, full freedom of choice and decision and action. There are two
fundamental points in the original plan; first, that man should be like God,
like Him in fullest freedom of choice and action. And second, that the two, God
and man, should always be, and keep, in full touch with each other. Clearly the
second hinged on the first. The full touch could be only through man's choice to
have it so. God will not take away that right of free action, even though it be
used to break His own heart. He is true to man, and man's highest power, clear
to the endless end. This is a hard story to tell. On one hand to tell it true
and straight, and yet not be hard, nor seem hard in the telling. And, on the
other hand, to let human feeling have its true full human sway, and yet be true
to the man in danger,-it's a hard story to tell. It calls for a rare blend of
human feeling and yet of fidelity to facts. One must be both- tender and true.
It is not at all surprising that the pendulum has had such a time of it swinging
back and forth. The common teaching of the Church from, say, the fourth century
up to the Protest-ant revolt was quite definite, with a natural intensifying
tendency. Loyal membership in the Church was taught as essential to salvation
from hell. And there was no awed hushing of the voice in pronouncing that
fearsome word nor mincing of words nor imagination in picturing its fiery
terrors. No account was taken of the vast numbers who had never heard of the
Church nor of Christ. One flat statement covered the subject for all. The
Protestant Movement took over the same sweeping positiveness in the teaching on
the subject, with one marked outstanding exception. The emphasis on the one
essential saving thing was changed from membership in the Church to a saving
faith in Christ. But much of the harshness that had characterized the common
Church teaching persisted throughout the Protestant Movement, and was quite set
in its hardened and ever hardening form. A common reference has been made to a
certain well-known French-Swiss leader of the Protestant Movement, picturing
infants burning in the flames of the lost world. Ian Maclaren, in one of his
stories of Scotland, pictures a small Scottish lad sitting in the country church
listening. It was the evening service. The little church was lit with candles. A
candle sputtered on the pulpit desk. The subject of eternal punishment was being
discussed. All the boy remembered was the tall lean stern faced preacher, in
silence, holding a piece of paper in the flame of the candle till it was quite
consumed, and then in awful tones describing that as what happened to the
impenitent. And the boy, terror-stricken, shrank smaller and tighter into the
corner of the hard-seated pew, trying to get away from such a God as was being
pictured. That may well be reckoned an extreme instance. We'll hope so. But it
points distinctly the general trend.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 33: BAD PENDULUM SWINGS
========================================================================

Bad Pendulum Swings It was quite the natural thing that there should be a
decided swing away from such teaching. The human heart naturally revolted from
such a picture. And almost always when the pendulum of teaching starts the other
way it goes to the extreme. This swing-away took three forms. Universalism
"taught that all men would be saved finally._ There would be no others. A proper
retribution for wrong would be disciplinary, and corrective. And when the
discipline had done its work the man would be saved. By a skillful swinging into
view of some Scripture statements, mingled with suitable logic, a strong case is
made out, especially for those who want to think that way. The fair criticism of
this teaching is that it takes what statements of scripture suit its purpose,
and ignores the -rest. fhat's rather a favorite method. Anything can be proven
from the Bible by that method. There's another theory that has had wide swing,
and has had many exponents. It is called conditional immortality. It teaches
that only those in touch with Christ have eternal life; the rest simply cease to
exist. Annihilationism is another term for the same general teaching. This is
built up chiefly by a skilful playing on the language of Scripture. The plain
common meaning of certain words is ignored or slurred over, and the words are
restricted to the meaning preferred. Much is made of certain Greek words which
are used in the same restricted way as English words. The bother with this
teaching is that it is unphilosophical, illogical, and un-Biblical. It is
unphilosophical because spirit cannot cease to exist. It is of the essence of
God. It is illogical because it twists and plays with the plain accepted meaning
of common language. It is un-Biblical because it plainly ignores certain Scrip
ture statements not suited to its purpose. A third sort of teaching has had a
wide swing. It is called final restorationism. It teaches that at some time in
the far future, after certain stages of retribution are passed, disciplinary,
corrective, and so on, there will be a complete full restoration of all, men,
angels and even Satan himself, all restored to perfect touch with God again.
Like the other two, this teaching is based on certain statements of Scripture,
certain skilful playing with the meaning of words, certain at-tractive use of
logic, and a careful ignoring of other Scripture statements; a rarely compounded
blend of all four of these. But the commonest idea since the war is what might
be called, the continuance teaching. That is, there is said to be no real
difference, morally or inregard to character, as one crosses the line of death.
Death itself, of course, makes a certain radical difference. But apart from that
there is no difference, it is said. The untold thousands who have died in the
war, are pictured as wandering about the earth, disembodied, floating through
space. They continue the old habits of this life, smoking, drinking, using the
same sort of profane, and semi-profane and vulgar language. There is no radical
moral change, no suffering connected in any way with their former life. And
there's no change of attitude toward Christ, or good, or sin. This is the
commonest teaching of the present day in the vast cheap literature of books and
magazines that the crowds are devouring. Let it be noted carefully that the
first and third named are very attractive teachings. A very plausible case can
be made in each instance. There is a tremendous emotional appeal in them. One
could most earnestly wish that they were full true. May I say, very reverently,
that I have no doubt it is the devout wish of God that they might be true. For
anything else is a break in His cherished plans. But they all fail to take
account of two fundamental things, man's utter freedom of choice, and the real
character of the thing commonly called sin. We all laugh at the ostrich for
hiding its small head in the sand so as not to see the danger threatening. Yet
to ignore any facts, and to ignore plain teaching of God's Word, clearly is as
much playing the fool as does the poor small-brained ostrich. One fact, just
one, left out of reckoning, completely changes the conclusion. Such conclusion,
however skilfully and logically worked out, is quite worthless, and worse yet,
dangerous, because misleading. As a result of the wide spread of these and like
teachings, there has come a most marked swing away, among adherents of
Protestant churches of all shades, from the old teaching. And the loosening hold
of the Catholic Church upon its people comes to much the same thing. The boast
of certain so-called liberal axiominations is that they have not increased in
numbers, but that their teachings have permeated all the other Churches. And all
observation tends to confirm their contention.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 34: SOME WAR-TIME TEACHINGS
========================================================================

Some War-time Teachings Without doubt the common feeling today in all our
churches is that a man will "pull safely through somehow." Regardless of his
belief or lack of it, regardless of his manner of life, he will finally get
safely past all danger of this thing called punishment or hell; things will go
"all right" with him. Of quite recent years a certain type of evangelist has had
a swing throughout our American cities, truly remarkable for some features of
such, effort. They are widely endorsed as preaching "the old Gospel." Their
frequent reference to future punishment has been one of the prominent features.
But blunt plainness of speech has run into a usage of the words "hell" and
"damned," and, the like, that is such an imitation of common vulgar profanity as
to be really blasphemous, and to make one cringe. And the common attitude of the
crowds toward the subject itself is quickly and painfully revealed in the peals
of laughter and the applause greeting all such references. It seems plainly a
matter of merriment to them, so far has the pendulum swung the other way. The
war has intensified tremendously some good tendencies, and a great many very bad
ones. And certainly this matter has not escaped its evil contagion. On both
sides the water the teaching has been common that if a soldier made his
so-called supreme sacrifice in action, that that would absolutely secure his
salvation. This has been repeated so commonly and so positively as to have been
accepted by the crowds. Certainly no loyal Britisher nor American would wish to
diminish one whit recognition of the splendid sacrifice made by thousands of
soldiers during the war. But it is surely a great unkindness, a grievous wrong,
to those men, not to say more just now, so to deceive them, and that on the very
edge of possible death. A minister friend told me of an experience he had. He
was visiting one of our great soldier camps. He was trying to tell the real
Gospel story, tactfully, winningly and fully. A soldier with serious face came
to his quarters one night after service. He said, "We men have been discussing
this thing down our street, and we had it settled that if we die in action, our
salvation's secured. That's what we've been told. Now, you say there must be
something else to fix things for us. We men are all mixed up. And my friend
tried in his brotherly fashion to make things clear. Recently at an
international convention of rescue mission workers, it was the common agreement
among the delegates that this idea was so inbred with ex-service men that it
immensely hindered efforts to win them to a simple faith in Christ. Very
thoughtfully it can be said that everywhere this is the commonplace of belief
regarding any such thing as punishment in the after life for wrong doing. It
simply isn't so. That's the common thought. It is the extreme swing of the
pendulum from the other extreme teaching of the Church in earlier centuries and
even recent years. These are two extremes. At one extreme hell is practically
the biggest thing in the universe, with heaven a small affair, comparatively. At
the other extreme there is no hell at all. It is quite rubbed out. You say,
"that's putting it too strong isn't it? Hell the biggest thing?" No, that is the
simple direct logical conclusion of the common teaching for centuries. Those who
have been in the membership of the Church in pre-Protestant days, and the
members of the Catholic Church since, are a distinct minority of the whole race,
even reckoning, as was done, that all subjects of Catholic countries were, and
are, members of the Church. Indeed it would be quite fair to say a small
minority, as one thinks through the gradual spread of Church authority in
European lands during early centuries. And then, recalling the common Protestant
qualification for salvation, which, of course, is the Scriptural one, all those
who have heard of Jesus Christ since He was on earth, in any way, would be a
somewhat less-small minority, and all who have accepted Him even nominally are a
distinctly smaller minority. And beyond that point we won't push just now. Now,
think around the earth, and think through the long centuries. Quite clearly,
ac-cording to the common interpretation of both qualifications, the vast
majority must be reckoned outside, consigned to endless woe. That's the plain
logical conclusion. Is it surprising that the swing has been so strong toward
the no-hell extreme? We shall find the truth in between these two extremes.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 35: SPIRIT-LEVEL ACCURACY
========================================================================

Spirit-Level Accuracy Now we want to turn to this Book of God. And we want to
get all of what it says, and fit together in one simple clear story. Clearly
this is the only sane thing to do, get all the Book says, take its statements at
their plain common meaning, and let that tell the story, regardless of how it
may send our theories and ideas helter-skelter. Any thing else is clearly a
fool's job. Have you ever watched a skilful bricklayer at work He has a
delicately constructed instrument called a spirit-level. The instrument is so
constructed as to indicate if a surface is quite level, or, is out of the level.
As the brick-mason lays his bricks, layer-by-layer, he is constantly holding the
spirit-level to the work to test its being level or straight. He puts it on top
of the bricks, and in front, and up and down, constantly testing. He would tell
you it's the only safe thing to do. All surveyors and builders use such a
device, a standard gauge for determining levels accurately. They must. They have
no choice. Otherwise they and their work would be rejected. Recently I watched a
sort of scrub bricklayer at work on the foundation of a small frame house that
had been moved. He had no spirit level. He went "by his eye." That was quite
satisfactory to him. But the work he did was anything but satisfactory. It was
painfully out of level, though as it happened, in this small unimportant case,
apparently, not dangerous. But as I watched him I thought of other builders,
builders of character, who go "by the eye," or by what they prefer to think is
sufficient standard. And pretty wobbly work they do in character-building. And
the bother is, there's serious danger to life, in their inefficient standardless
work. Happily there is a spirit-level by which to test all human teachers and
teachings. And there's only one, as with the brick-layer and surveyor. And
whatever work is not done by the standard spirit-level, is worthless, and worse
yet, may prove very dangerous to human life. This is a three-part spirit-level:
the Holy Spirit, in the Book, and that in the hands of a man strongly yielded to
the Spirit's sway. The Spirit Himself is the standard. He speaks in this Book.
And so it becomes the standard. And its teachings can be fully and clearly
grasped only by one in touch with that Spirit, naturally. Though any one may
read and get the general drift of teaching. And so, now, we want to turn and try
to find out just what the teaching of this Book is, the rounded-out, poised,
full, teaching, on this most vital subject. This talk and the last one of this
series, "Another Chance," belong together. They touch two phases. They are put
separately as a matter of teaching principle, to get a clearer look at each
phase and so a clearer grasp of the whole thing. This talk gathers up the facts
in the case. The last talk touches the principle and process underlying the
facts.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 36: TRUTH MAKES A CLEAN CUT
========================================================================

Truth Makes a Clean Cut Turning now to the Book, the first thing one notes is
this, there is a sharp distinction drawn between those not in touch of heart
with God, commonly called here "the wicked," and those in touch of heart with
Him, commonlly called here "the righteous." In these talks these two alternate
phrases are taken as exact equivalents. That sharp distinction is markedly
prominent in the Psalms, and the Gospels, but indeed runs clear through, from
end to end, of the Book. There is none of the slurring over so familiar among us
today. A second thing that stands out clean-cut and sharp is this, that
distinction plainly extends beyond the line of death. The same moral differences
noted in this life persist beyond the grave. I had almost said that it is on
every page, so common is it. These are two most striking things to note at the
outstart. The spirit-level marks a difference at once, and a persistent
difference. Now, note the language used in the Old Testament for the place where
the wicked dead are said to go. For instance, "Jehovah hath executed judgment;
the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. The wicked shall be turned
into hell, even all the peoples that forget God" (Psalms 9:16-17). The Hebrew
word under that English word "hell" is "sheol," so translated literally in the
revised versions. The word "sheol" itself means literally, the underworld, a
cavity, or a hollow subterranean place. It has two distinct meanings in the
common usage of the Bible times, a neutral meaning, and a positive meaning. In
its neutral meaning it refers simply to the world of departed human spirits,
regardless of what their condition there is. In its positive meaning it is used
for the place of punishment. The wicked are spoken of as having gone to "Sheol,"
but they are not in God's presence, but instead they are said to be in torment
and anguish. Those who have died, being in touch of heart with God, are spoken
of as being in sheol (the world of departed spirits), but they are also spoken
of as being in the immediate presence of God. The word, neutral in itself, gets
its positive meaning front some words added, to make the meaning quite clear.
For instance, "a fire is kindled in my anger, and burneth unto the lowest hell
(sheol)" (Deuteronomy 32:22 see connection). Here it is associated directly with
fire, and with punishment on evil. Speaking warningly of the adulterous woman
and those in fellowship with her, "her steps take hold of hell" (sheol); "her
house is the way to hell" (sheol); "her guests are in the depths of hell"
(sheol). (Proverbs 9:18). Speaking of the arch-enemy of God and of all good,
"hell (sheol) from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming." "Thou
shalt be brought down to hell" (sheol). (Isaiah 14:9; Isaiah 14:15). About half
the number of times the word is used it is translated "the grave," in the old
authorized version; the other half (roughly), "hell"; a few times, "the pit." In
the New Testament there are two Greek words translated, in the common version,
"hell". These two are "Hades" and "Gehenna". They cover the same ground as the
one word "sheol" in the Old. The word "Hades" is neutral. It means simply the
world of departed human spirits, where all go who die. The other word,
"Gehenna," originally was the name for the valley outside Jerusalem where in
earlier days little children were thrown into fire in idolatrous worship. When
this horrible practice was abolished, the place was used for all sorts of
refuse, for dead animals, and the unburied bodies of criminals. Its fires
continually burned with an intense burning. Now this word is clearly used by
Christ as a name for the place of punishment for wicked men. For instance Jesus
says of certain ones. "shall be in danger of the hell (Gehenna) of fire"
(Matthew 5:22; Matthew 5:29-30. See also for usage of Gehenna, Matthew 10:28;
Matthew 18:9; Matthew 23:15; Matthew 23:33). Here plainly it cannot mean the
Gehenna burning outside the Jerusalem walls. It must mean something else,
something for certain men corresponding to this fire for the refuse. Then it is
noted that toward the close, in the Revelation, other words are used in the same
sense as Gehenna is used earlier, "abyss," "the lake of fire," and "the second
death". These last two are said to be the same thing. Thither are said to go,
Satan, his human leaders in the last great warfare against God, and all men not
in touch of heart with God (See Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:1-3; Revelation
20:6; Revelation 20:10; Revelation 20:14-15.) There is the distinct intimation
that this is the final disposition of these, as though the final permanent form
which things take for these mentioned. Now turn to Jesus' own teachings. Shall
we remind ourselves of the outstanding character of Jesus, His humanness, His
sympathy with suffering, His tenderness of heart and of speech, His self
forgetful unselfishness in relieving suffering? These are among His most
characteristic traits, admitted and admired by all. All this makes certain
teachings stand out in bold relief. Look at some of these words of His. "Enter
ye in by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction . . ." For narrow is the gate and straightened the way that
leadeth unto life" (Matthew 7:13-14). Here "destruction" is put in contrast with
"life". There are two ways and two radically different ends to them. "Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in thy name," and so on.
"And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from nie, ye that
work iniquity" (Matthew 7:22-23). Here the absence of touch of heart is hidden
under religious pretensions. And the result is put as absence from Christ's
presence in the future life. More vigorous language is used a little later in
the same connection, where those not in touch of heart are "cast forth into the
outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew
8:12). Unmistakeable talk, that! And under the guise of a parable the same dread
language is used twice again for those found lacking in the final settlements
(Matthew 22:13; Matthew 25:30). The fact of a settlement day for all men, with a
most studious fairness in taking account of all modifying facts and
circumstances, and a dreadful result for some, is plainly taught in these thrice
repeated words, "it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah
(who were visited even in this life with such terrible judgment) in the day of
judgment, than for you." (Matthew 10:15; Matthew 11:22-24 with variations.)
Listen again: In the end of the (present) age, "the Son of Man shall . . gather
out . . all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall
cast them into the furnace of fire: There shall be the weeping and the gnashing
of teeth." (Matthew 13:41-42 and repeated with variation in verses Matthew
13:49-50). Could words be plainer or more heart-breaking? With a triple
variation of language, he says that it is better to suffer some in this life in
the decision to be true and keep true than to suffer immeasurably more in the
next life. "It is better for thee to enter into life maimed rather than . to go
into the Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire." Then is added the terribly
graphic rhetoric "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched"
(Mark 9:43-49). In the close of His talk on Mount Olivet, He pictures the
adjustments of the final settlement time in terrible language: "Then shall the
king (pictured' in verse thirty-one as Himself) say unto them on His left hand,
depart from me under a curse into the eternal fire." And, "these shall go away
into eternal punishment" (Matthew 25:41-46). And again listen to this word: "He
that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on
Him" (John 3:36). With these quotations from Jesus' own lips, can there be any
question as to the impression He meant to give in these teachings?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 37: A HARD LIST TO QUOTE
========================================================================

A Hard List to Quote Let me add only a few others to this list of heart-breaking
quotations. Paul tells the Athenians, "(God) hath appointed a day in which He
will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He hath appointed" (Acts
17:31). He speaks plainly in the Romans epistle about the impenitent: "after thy
hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of
wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every
man what is due to his deed. . . unto them who are men of guile, selfishness,
cunning, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and
indignation; tribulation and anguish upon every spirit of man that worketh
evil." (Romans 2:5-6; Romans 2:8-9, paraphrased partly). "The Lord knoweth how
(1: e., fairly in justice) to keep the unrighteous under punishment, unto the
day of judgment" (2 Peter 2:9). And this bit, "the heavens that now are, and the
earth by the same word (of God as in creation) have been stored up with fire,
being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men" (2
Peter 3:7 read connection). Jude's intense little letter has this, "angels. . .
he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great
day" (Jude 1:6). It is most striking that in the midst of that final description
of rarest beauty of the heavenly world, which has so taken hold of the human
heart, right in the very heart of it, in sharpest contrast with all the
surroundings, stands this bit: "But the cowards, and unbelieving, and
abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and dealers with demons, and
worshippers of anything and any one else than God, and all sorts of liars, their
part shall be in the lake of fire and brimstone; which is the second death
(Revelation 21:8 paraphrased). And the last word is this: "without are the mangy
scavenger dogs, and the partners with demons. . . and everyone that doeth a lie"
(Revelation 22:15 paraphrased partly). What a world of meaning packed into one
word "without". It stands in contrast with the vision of rare beauty of God's
homeland. Could more be said? Could anything be worse? Without! That ends the
list at present. And I am personally glad. It has been a task of suffering to
gather them out, and go over them, word by word, and pile them all up together.
I'm glad the heart-breaking task is done for now. It will be noted that there
seem to be two stages in point of time, in the place of punishment. At the
present time these others are somewhere separated from God, and in mental and
spirit anguish. The words used are "Ge-henna", "outer darkness", "unquenchable
fire", and the like. There seems a second stage indicated, a final stage; called
"the lake of fire", and "the second death", which are indicated as the same
thing. Satan himself is now not in hell, but somewhere in the lower heavens
below God's throne, and above the earth (Ephesians 6:12 with Revelation 12:7).
He is to be cast down to the earth, and later is cast into the abyss, or the
lake of fire (Revelation 12:9; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:1-2; Revelation
20:10). This is the phrase used for the final place for both Satan and some men.
There seems to be a-program of events outlined, with which this is connected.
There is to be a different order of things on the earth some day, running a long
time. At its close there is a short moral crisis on the earth, And then follows
the final disposition of things. The final settlement with Satan and any
preferring Satan's way, comes in this final disposition.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 38: THE MEANING OF "TORMENT."
========================================================================

The Meaning of "Torment." But there is one outstanding bit of Jesus' teaching
that deals explicitly with this matter of the life beyond the grave. And I want
to bring it in here. It is the remarkable story of the rich man and poor beggar
in the Sixteenth of Luke. The story is drawn out by the criticism of the
Pharisees, and is aimed directly at them. The Pharisees were the dominant party
in Jewish politics. They were the official religious leaders. For church and
state were one thing. They posed before the crowds as saints. And it was
notorious that they were as bad in their lives as bad could be. Their criticism
of Jesus for His friendliness to the poorest classes drew out the three
matchless parables of the Fifteenth of Luke, and that of the unjust steward in
the Sixteenth. The Pharisee leaders were in the crowd listening. The money
parable stirred them. They scoffed openly. For they were "lovers of money." Then
Jesus touched another sorely sensitive spot with them by speaking of the easy
divorce so common among them. Then at once He begins on this story of the rich
man and the poor beggar. Their conditions in this life are touched first. The
rich man was not simply rich. He was notoriously selfish. He lived "in mirth and
splendour every day," a constant round of lavish selfish pleasure-seeking. The
beggar was afflicted in body as well as being a pauper. He was carried by some
kind friend of his class to the rich man's gate daily, depending on scraps for
subsistence. But even the dogs were kinder to him than his selfish rich
brother-man whose servants threw out the crumbs. Then there's the swift sudden
change. The beggar died. That was the earthly end for him. The rich man died,
and was buried. The splendour of life lingered over his remains. That was the
earthly end for him. Then comes the second picture, in the next life. Again
there's the same painful contrast between the two, but with places exactly
reversed. The beggar is tenderly carried by angels up into Abraham's bosom, the
Jewish statement for utmost bliss. Not because he is a beggar, of course. He
simply goes by natural spirit gravity to where his spirit kinsfolk are. The rich
man is in Hades. That tells us nothing of his condition until the phrase is
added, "being in torment." That last word tells the story for him. It is so not,
of course, because he is rich. He simply goes by natural movement to his center
of spirit gravity. That word "torment" is the significant word. Let us look at
its meaning. It is used four times in this story, in our common authorized
version. There are two different words underneath. The Revisions translate one
of these, "in anguish." The rich man says, "I am in anguish in this flame." And
Abraham says, "thou art in anguish." This word translated anguish occurs four
times in the New Testament. It occurs twice here. It is the word used of Joseph
and Mary's distress over the absence of the boy Jesus (Luke 2:48), and by Paul's
Ephesian friends over his farewell words (Acts 20:38). In both cases it is
translated sorrowing. Thayer's Greek Lexicon indicates these as the only
occurrences. Its original meaning is to cause intense pain, to be in anguish, to
torment or distress one's self. The. word clearly refers to one's mental and
spirit condition, simply that. The other word translated here "torment," occurs
in varying form twenty-two times, in thirteen instances [Matthew 4:24; Matthew
8:6; Matthew 8:29 (Mark 5:7; Luke 8:28); Matthew 14:24; (Mark 6:48) Matthew
18:34; Luke 16:23; Luke 16:28; 2 Peter 2:8; Revelation 9:5; (three times);
Revelation 11:10; Revelation 12:2; Revelation 14:10-11 (twice); Revelation 18:7;
Revelation 18:10; Revelation 18:15; Revelation 20:10. It is translated "vexed"
once, "pained" or "in pain" once, "distressed" twice, and some form of "torment"
eighteen times. Once the alternate phrase "have no rest" is added, and once
"sorrow," where torment is used. Its original meaning has reference to the
testing of metals by a touchstone. It came to be used for testing by torture to
compel one to tell the truth. The meaning of all words grows and changes with
usage. Note the usage in the Scriptures of this word, Twice it is used of
intense suffering through disease, once for the pains of child-birth, once for
the difficulty of rowing in a storm, twice for persons distressed in mind and
spirit by the con-duct of others, once as a name for a jailor, once by demons of
their suffering, once of pain inflicted upon men by demons, once of Satan's
suffering in the future state, once of suffering in the future state by men,
once of the doom of Babylon, and twice of the suffering of this rich man in the
story we are studying. That is to say, omitting the story in Luke, and omitting
the use as a name for a jailor, six times it is used for pain or suffering
wholly within one's self connected with the common experiences of life, and two
of these six times the suffering is wholly of mind and spirit. Twice it is used
of demons suffering. Three times it is used of punishment inflicted in judgment.
But whether, in this last the suffering is of mind and spirit only, or through
some positive act of God in punishment is not specified. Judging by this usage
it would seem usually to mean pain growing out of one's actions or through
common experience and not through arbitrarily chosen punishment inflicted by
God. Turning back now to the story of this man, he says, using this word, "I am
in anguish in this flame." And his pain, as of being burned by fire, is further
stressed in this plea to .Abraham "that he may dip his finger in water and cool
my tongue." The language intimates that it is a terrible thirst that is burning
him up. It will be noticed that there is no change of spirit or of heart in this
rich man. The only thing that is bothering him is his suffering. There's no
thought of regret nor of remorse for the intense selfishness of his former
life.. And his plea, while a perfectly natural one, is still simply to get some
ease for himself. He is sorry to be in such an awful fix. There's no suggestion
of anything beyond that. Clearly his attitude toward God remains as before. The
life there in that regard is merely an extension of the life he lived here. He
is the same man in spirit as he was. That's clear, and that seems the decisive
thing. And in Abraham's reply to his plea, two things stand sharply out. There
can be no alleviation of pain by the method the rich man suggests. And the added
words take hard hold of one's eye and ear and inner being, "between us and you
there's a great gulf fixed," an impassable gulf. What that gulf is will be
touched upon in our last talk, on "Another Chance." Just now it's enough to let
the terrible fact stand out, naked and gaunt and real. This is the most
outstanding teaching on this matter from the lips of the tender-hearted,
tender-spoken Jesus. There's another life beyond the grave. There's a
distinction made between men in that next life. That distinction is shaped up,
down in this life. It continues beyond the grave as started here. There is a
place of intensest pain of some sort over there. The language used here suggests
simply pain of spirit. That of course is the in-tensest kind known. There's also
a place of happiness. Some are in each. There's an impassable gulf between the
two.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 39: IN THEIR OWN SHOES
========================================================================

In Their Own Shoes Now, let me try to gather up a few conclusions from all these
and kindred passages. There is a sharp distinction drawn between two classes of
men. It is based wholely on their voluntary continued attitude of heart toward
the good and right and pure. At the present time God is not acting in judgment.
He is letting things work out their natural course. But he is keeping close
watch, and there's a day of settlement surely coming. There's a place of
punishment in the next life. It passes through two stages. There is the present
stage, running concurrently with the history of man on the earth. There is the
final stage, beginning with the completely new adjustment of heavens and earth.
That place of punishment is a place of intensest pain of mind and spirit. It is
not clear that there is anything in addition to that intensest of all suffering.
The inferences are against its being so. That place is not made by God. It is
the creation or product of those who stubbornly set themselves against God. It
seems that their accumulated action carried to its logical extent, with an
increasing momentum, produces the condition that is called hell. That is the
word used for the place where all such will go by the natural movement of their
spirit gravity. God does not send any one there. Whoever goes there, goes on his
own feet, in his own shoes, by the use of his own free action and only so. And
it seems quite clear that he stays there in the same way as he goes. Hell has,
and will have, no such huge population as would be logically concluded from much
teaching on the subject. But there is un-mistakeable evidence that there is a
group of incorrigibles. The language of Scripture leads one to say, a small
minority of incorrigibles. Note these words used at the very close, "and if any
was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire"
(Revelation 20:15). Those words "if" and "any" are very suggestive. It is not
the language we commonly use for a great crowd, but rather of exceptional
instances. That all this is so is utterly heart-breaking to God. It is wholly
against His will and plan. But, with the utmost reverence be it said, that God
Himself cannot change the thing without infringing on man's utter freedom of
action. The only possible way of removing utterly any even remote possibility of
hell would be by destroying man's freedom of action. It is objected that, if all
this be so, it is a de-feat for God. And so, it is said it could not be, for
surely at the last God will be completely triumphant. And that has a very very
strong appeal in it. It is to be noted however, that such reasoning is not based
on God's revelation, but on logic, our reasoning processes. Logic is very
subtle. The least slip in the process spoils the conclusions. And logic is a
very slippery thing. One item left out, even though unconsciously, knocks the
conclusion out. On the other side, there are two things to be said. God will be
victorious, even under such circumstances as outlined in this talk, in this: He
will have held unflinchingly and unfalteringly, to the original high standard
for man, namely that man shall be in His own very image. He will have held to it
against the utmost to swerve Him from it. Man is as free in his will as God is
in His. Man retains his high estate in being free to use his will as he will,
even while he is damning himself in using it in a bad way. It is full victory
for God's great love-purpose in creation. And meanwhile there is clear
inferential evidence that the door of right choice is always open, even though
it is never used by some. This is the reasoned-out reply. It is the logic
process. And again it is recalled that a single flaw in logical reasoning, even
though undiscovered, a single factor omitted, quite changes the conclusion.
There's something better, more conclusive, on the other side. That is the
revealed fact of truth in God's inspired Book. A single citation here contains
enough if there were no more. It is from the final view given of earth's
affairs. It deals with the racial climax. It is the description of God's ideal
at the very culmination (Revelation 21:1; Revelation 22:5). Evil has been judged
finally. Satan is disposed of. The old earth is displaced by a new or wholly
regenerated earth. Our language seems almost used to the full in the attempt to
picture the beauty and bliss, the peace and happiness, of that ideal, now become
really real. In the very midst of this glowing highly-colored picture comes the
bit to be quoted here. It could not stand in sharper contrast with its immediate
surroundings than it does. It is like a spot of blackest ink on whitest paper,
like a mangy cur among thoroughbreds. It's a thing a man, of himself, would
never have done, put this statement in that setting of bliss and purity and
beauty. Listen to the words so out of keeping with their surroundings: "But"
but, what a tremendous but !—"for the fearful (or cowardly) and abominable, and
murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers (partners with demon spirits) and
idolaters (worshippers of anything and any one rather than of God), and all
(sorts of) liars, their part is in the lake that burneth with fire and
brimstone, which is the second death" (Revelation 21:8). That doesn't at all
mean that these people are commonly known as murderers and sorcerers and liars
and so on. Some of them may be. It is the language of the Holy Spirit. It is
describing things as He sees them (Note the blunt honest language used by the
Holy Spirit of the apostle Judas. John 12:6). His eye looks through to the
motives as well as the common trend of life. Many of these are what would be
called cultured persons, moving in church circles. But the Holy Spirit, looking
down into their motives and lives, sees that this man is using some power he has
against another to the degree of shortening the other's life or worse. That man
is unclean in his thoughts and imagination and acts. This other one is having
communication with evil spirits, which is commonly called spiritism; and that
one yonder is living a lie, or practicing deception.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 40: "WITHOUT"
========================================================================

"Without" And in the epilogue the same note is struck again. And it is most
significant that this time it is directly connected with that highest of all
human powers, free choice, God's best gift to man. Listen: "He that is set on
being unrighteous, let him be free to follow his choice and do unrighteousness,
and it will be with a constantly increasing momentum. "And he that is set on
going to the passionate depths of evil doing will be free to follow his bent,
with the slant down getting steeper" (Revelation 22:11 paraphrased). And then
the same thing, in the same two degrees, is spoken of those choosing the right
way. And when Jesus comes to get things straightened out, He will give to each
man as his choice has been (Revelation 22:12 paraphrased). And then blessing is
pronounced on those who insist on choosing the right regardless of difficulties
and opposition, and so do the thing that goes with right choice, go for
cleansing to the Blood of the Lamb (Revelation 22:14 with Revelation 7:14). Then
immediately comes the terrible "without" sentence. "Without are those whose
choice takes them there, those who do not go to be washed." And the Eye that
sees things just as they are, sees that underneath whatever veneering may be
used, they are in spirit as the mangy scavenger curs of the Orient, they are
those having touch with demon spirits, the unclean, those who unfeelingly use
their power to crowd others to the shortening of their lives, those that put
self and its interests above God, and the climax is reached in those who love
and practice deception of any sort (Revelation 22:15 paraphrased). Who shall
speak after God? Who shall give contrary opinion after the Book has spoken? This
is the last word on the subject. And the ostrich shutting its eyes to danger
becomes a surer victim of the danger. We'll do well not to see an ostrich if
there's a mirror at hand. That is all for now. We take the matter up again from
a totally different angle, in our last Talk. This Talk deals with the facts in
the case. The last one deals with the principle and the process that underly and
go with the facts. It's been a hard story to tell. It's been told with an aching
heart. Yet the truth must be told simply, clearly, and in due connection with
related truth. To be tender-hearted without being truthful is not loving. It is
unkind. It is cowardly. To tell such truth, without being broken-hearted by the
awfulness of it, is to be hard hearted, inhuman, un-Godlike. Jesus' most
terrible denunciation of the Jewish leaders ends in a great sob (Matthew 23:37).
And a few days later that sob of grief broke his heart. He made the one great
solitary sacrifice, that no man might ever be left outside because of his sin
score; that so the man who chooses Him as Saviour may have the full right in the
Father's house. I recall sitting one evening as a guest in the big dining room
of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Mr. Moody himself was sitting at the
head of the faculty table. And after the meal there was a little informal
speaking. A member of the faculty told a witty story, the point of which was
regarding future punishment. It was greeted with a general laugh. Instantly Mr.
Moody was on his feet. "Well," he said, "whenever you do talk about hell, let it
be with tears in your voice." There was the rare blend of tenderness and truth
that always marked Moody, and Moody's Master.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 41: CHAPTER 4: CAN WE HAVE COMMUNICATION WITH THE DEAD?
========================================================================

Chapter 4: Can We Have Communication With The Dead?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 42: A TRUE HUMAN INSTINCT
========================================================================

A True Human Instinct It is perfectly natural to want to talk with our loved
ones who have died. It adds to our grief that we cannot. It's a true human
instinct to miss them, and long intensely for them, and to feel lonely in their
absence. All this may be kept out of sight, pretty much, under a strong good
self-control. But anything else is not natural. Death is always a shock, even
when expected. It makes a bad break in one's life. I know a young man who wrote
to his mother every day, even if only a few lines, when his work took him quite
away from her. And when she slipped from his grasp it took the longest time and
some strange feelings to break that daily writing habit. He had prayed daily for
her. And it seemed so queer not to. It seemed like not being true to her, as
though it were disloyal not to be naming her in the daily prayer.. Then he
learned to put praise in the place of the old-time prayer, that, she was safe
past troublous things, up in the Master's own presence. But what a wrench that
change of habit did make ! I have a dear friend whose husband suddenly snapped
the life-cord, and was gone. They had lived an ideal life together for long
years. She always leaned upon his counsel and fellowship in family matters. And
it seemed as if she could not get used to doing without him. A bit of her very
self had gone. Grief, tense, deep, overwhelming, is the natural thing. Its
emotional sweep and suction is tremendous, quite beyond words. It takes a fine
strong self-control to hold steady and keep the true poise. Many don't. They
fail. They are swamped. The vision blurs. The judgment wavers. Action comes
under the sway of blurred vision, and twisted judgment. Emotion should never be
allowed to take the reins and drive. When it is so, whatever the emotion be,
grief or joy, love or hate, there's a runaway, a break-down and smash-up ahead.
The will must always hold the lines hard and steady. It should be influenced,
fully by natural emotion, by knowledge, and by disciplined judgment. But the
will must keep control. Death, never lazy, has been running riot of late, with a
ghoulish uncanny glee. The world's worst war has counted the dead into millions,
Actual violence has been joined by strain, disease, and sheer want, in claiming
occupants for the grave. The natural strain which death always puts on the
living has been intensified terrifically.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 43: AN AFTERMATH OF THE WAR
========================================================================

An Aftermath of the War And so it was quite the thing to be expected that there
would be an intense revival of interest in the old questions about the. dead,
and. especially about whether we can communicate with the dead. And it has come,
with a rush. The movement has swept these two English-speaking peoples like the
wild-fire of the prairies that spreads and rages unchecked. Under various names,
spiritualism, spiritism, psychic phenomena, occultism and so on, it is the old
fire burning more intensely than ever, even in pulpits, as well as out of them.
There has suddenly sprung up unparalleled additions to the literature of the
subject. In our own country decidedly more than a hundred new books have
appeared since the Spring of 'Eighteen, with new titles being added every week.
There are said to be nineteen periodicals devoted to spiritism as a cult, able
to pay their own way. One book, from a British pen, is listed in the public
libraries as among the five or six most in demand. One London society is said -
to have a collection of three thousand volumes dealing directly with various
phases of spiritism. And the mechanical means provided to facilitate so-called
communication with the dead have been in common demand and use to such an extent
as to be used to point witticisms in the daily papers. The more recent name for
this contrivance is very suggestive, a "ouija" board. The name is a mongrel
combination of two languages, "oui," French; "ja," German; that is, "yes yes."
It will assent to anything you suggest, whatever your language, and give the
comfortable feeling that you are right in your hopes and yearnings. Two
prominent men in England have become leaders in the movement. One of these has
made quite a remarkable visit to the United States. An able scientist in the
physicist realm, with a noble presence, fine use of cultured language, and
skilful publicity, he has had great crowds wherever he has gone. It is
interesting that in a recent review of the opinion of more than a hundred
leading American scientists, educators and specialists in psychology, the
concensus was decidedly against his stand and teaching, judged wholly from the
scientific, scholarly standpoint. It has been suggested that if he had employed
the same puerile methods in the physicist realm he would never have emerged from
the shades of obscurity. Yet one can be sympathetic with him to a certain
degree, personally, while utterly opposed to his teaching. For as great an
emotional nature as his, unsteadied by moorings, could easily be swept aside by
the great personal grief that came to him through the war. The other of these
two is a gifted writer of detective stories, chiefly, which have been read
wherever English is read. It is not surprising that these two Englishmen have
had such a wide hearing among the unthinking. Yet in neither case do the special
training and achievement which have made these men so well and favorably known,
give special qualification for sifting evidence, or of being competent judges,
on this present subject. Rather it would take a specialized mental discipline to
break away from their accustomed work, and acquire competence of judgment in
examining a. matter so utterly removed from their special studies. But let us
get to our question about communication with the dead. And it is most striking
to note that this is one of the very oldest of questions. Its beginnings run far
back into the mistiest past. This present wild-fire is not only not a new thing,
but one of the oldest and grayest, its edges all frayed by the wear of time.
Communication with the dead, in some phase of it, is the main underpinning of
nearly all the religions of the world, both civilized and savage. The two
outstanding exceptions are Judaism and Christianity. Ancestor-worship, or the
cult of the dead is the staple of most religions from early Egyptian through
Greek, Roman, Phoenician, up to present day Chinese and Japanese. It is
associated most in our thought today with China. With them the spirit of the
dead father or other kinsman is supposed to enter the ancestral tablet and to
commune with his living kin. He is supposed to do more, he favors and helps and
protects his living kinsfolk. For a slavish fear really underlies their
ancestor-worship, though perhaps unconsciously. In its higher forms this
ancestor-worship is an abnormal, morbid extension of proper veneration for one's
parents and elders. It becomes an improper exaggeration of a perfectly proper
thing. It easily degenerates into its lower form of communication with spirits,
that is, into necromancy, witchcraft, and the like. Veneration degenerates into
slavish fear and dread.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 44: THREE GROUPS
========================================================================

Three Groups But now, let us face fairly the question: can we have communication
with the dead? There are those who assert positively that we can. Their common
teaching is that the spirits of the dead do come back to us, that they try to
get into communication, and that the difficulty involved is because they and we
are in two quite different spheres. And so, they say, there is naturally some
difficulty, like in the use of two different languages until we have become
learned in their use. These people fall into three groups. At the lowest level
are those who believe in ghosts. These are usually the ignorant and
superstitious. Though it is surprising how common this sort of thing is among
all classes. The ghosts are supposed to be spirits of human beings who have
died, and who return to their former abodes. One strange feature of this belief
is the terrible sense of fear that goes with it. It is as though loved ones had
changed their character through death, and now would do harm. I recall a
sensible remark made by a simple man in a backward country district. A sense of
terror had seized a certain group because the ghost of a recently deceased
kinsman was thought to have come back. "Well," he said, "if he's in hell he
can't come back; and if he's in heaven, he doesn't want to come back." But such
sensible talk is not as common as one could wish. Then there are the
professionals who make a livelihood by their art. These are commonly known today
as mediums. That is the word in use now. They are supposed to supply the medium
of communication between the two worlds. This is a very large class, to be found
in all our cities on both sides of the water. Sometimes they are called
clairvoyants, which simply means those who can see clearly. The word is from the
French, as is the other word commonly used, "seance," meaning simply a sitting
or a session, used for the time spent in getting the alleged communication. The
third group is supposed to be on a higher level. These are the so-called
scientific investigators. They profess to put the whole thing upon a scientific
or scholarly basis. The common phrase here is psychical research. With this is
associated the study of the character of hypnotism, mesmerism, magnetism, and
the like. And without any doubt there is here a wide legitimate sphere for
research. Though one notes the constant tendency by some to drop to the lower
levels. It is rather surprising what a degree of credulity can be shown in this
re-search by some who are insistent on rigid evidence in other fields. The
British Society for Psychical Research has had on its rolls the names of many
distinguished publicists and men prominent in various walks, though its
activities seem controlled by a certain distinctive group with marked leanings
toward the results they are eager to find. These are the three groups.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 45: AN UNCHARTED REALM OF MENTAL SCIENCE
========================================================================

An Uncharted Realm of Mental Science It should be noted carefully here that
there is a legitimate psychical research which belongs to the realm of mental
science or psychology. There are certain functions of the mind that seem never
to have been fully understood, nor adequately explained and defined. Mental
science, or psychology, as convention-ally treated in all text books and
schools, has ignored these functions. That's one extreme. The psychical
specialists who attempt to treat the subject in a scholarly way do not as a
rule, make clear analysis and distinctions. That's the other extreme. Without
question there is here a field of research in mental science not yet adequately
explored and charted. There seem plainly to be mental traits or gifts or
functions that properly belong to our natural stock of mental powers, but which
seem to have been lost, or partially lost, through the hurt of sin. Some still
have them in varying degree. But commonly we are so ignorant of just what they
are that they seem uncanny to the common man. These traits or functions are said
to belong to the sub-conscious mind. That is they are working while we are
unconscious of them. They are also said to belong to the subliminal mind. That
is, the mind below the threshold of what we are conscious of. The thought is the
same with both terms. For instance one will have a premonition about a loved one
who is at a distance, quite apart from any information that has come through the
ordinary channels. He may have a similar premonition about some coming event.
Without any doubt the Holy Spirit guides those in touch with him regarding such
things. But distinctly in addition to this guidance, there is undoubtedly a
mental trait that takes account of such things. But this is much more marked in
some, and in others quite missing. I have an intimate friend who has this sort
of mental quality to rather a marked degree. For instance it comes to him that a
certain one will call and will act in a certain detailed way. And so it turns
out. He has had the experience of driving along a country road and of seeing
places and people and incidental happenings as though in his mind's eye, and
only so. Then after driving maybe two or three miles he would come across
exactly what his spirit vision had discerned. He is an earnest Christian man,
somewhat familiar with the dangers we are speaking of here. And he follows the
settled principle of not seeking to tamper with a realm unfamiliar, but instead
prayerfully to hold all his powers subject to the Holy Spirit's constant
guidance. One remarkable thing he constantly experiences is the strong impulse
to pray for certain ones, indeed an intense drawing aside for such prayer, as
though the one brought to mind were in peculiar need or danger or temptation.
And repeatedly the knowledge has come afterwards of the sore need or danger or
special temptation, and the deliverance. If one find himself possessed of some
such gift in some marked degree, he should pray quietly over it. Dedicate it,
with all your powers, to the Master. Never seek to use it save as you use any
better-understood power, by the Holy Spirit's gracious guidance, in practical
ways. Be cautious, just because of the element of not clearly understanding the
gift. Something akin to this sort of thing, though quite distinct, is the
experience of some saintly people, as they near death's door. As they draw near
the veil between this and the spirit world, seems to grow thinner. As the
physical powers weaken, the spirit vision seems able to see what could not be
seen before. As Stephen stood in the midst of the raging murderous mob bent on
his blood, the eyes of his spirit were opened. He saw what was clearly beyond
the range of physical eyesight. And what did he see? Jesus ! glorified, standing
at the Father's right hand (Acts 7:55). I recall as though yesterday the light
that came into the face of a dear saint as she was slipping out over into the
King's presence. She looked quietly intently up, as though she could see some
one or some thing which we could not see. A delighted look lightened her eyes
and face. Then she looked around at those surrounding her bed, as though she
would say "Can't you see, too?" Then she sank into the sleep that carried her
spirit into the presence of Him she loved so devotedly. The word telepathy has
been coined for something akin to this, though distinctly different. That is the
communication of one person with another in close sympathy without the ordinary
recognized means of communication. One mind seems to communicate with another
without words, looks, gestures, or the like. Some are much more sensitive to
this sort of thing than others. Without any doubt our common ignorance of these
little-understood mental traits or powers, has been skilfully made use of by
professional experts who themselves are peculiarly sensitive in these
directions, and have carefully cultivated that sensitiveness. There is apt to be
with these professional spiritists a subtle blend of what is quite legitimate
with that which is distinctly illegitimate, and is cunning trickery. And the
uninformed man, perhaps under the stress of some great grief, is quite swept off
his feet.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 46: THE RESPONSES THAT DO COME
========================================================================

The Responses That Do Come Now these are the people, these three groups, who
answer yes to our question. They say there is a response to this attempt to
communicate. And let it be said here quite plainly and positively that there are
responses. There can be no question of that. But please note keenly, the
character of these responses. Without exception they are vague, indefinite,
insufficient, frequently childish. They are double meaninged; that is they can
be turned this way, or this other opposite way. They sometimes are dovetailed
with exquisite shrewdness into suggestions given or drawn out. If indeed these
responses were communications from our loved dead it would be rather
disheartening. For judging from these, it would seem clear that those we loved
have undergone a decided decadence in their mental powers. The commonsense with
which they used to talk seems painfully missing. Now, the intense, vital
question is where do these undoubted responses come from? The spiritists or
mediums say they come from the spirits of our dead talking with us. Certain
psychologists, who specialize on the psychical side of things, say they come
from within ourselves, from the workings of our subconscious minds. After long
careful, prayerful study I have reached the deliberate conclusion that there are
five possible sources from which they may come, and only these five. These
experts say they do come from our loved dead. They may come from a subtle
interplay of the inner working of two human minds, the mind of the enquirer and
that of the professional. That would make it wholly mental. They may come
through the cunning deception of the expert working on an overwrought emotional
condition of the enquirer, or, dealing with undisciplined, untaught, credulous
enquirers or observers. They may come, are you listening quietly, for this is
tremendous, yet I am saying it very deliterately, they may come from demons. Or,
they may come through a subtle mixture of two or more of these, inextricably
interwoven. I am quite clear that all these five things must be taken into
account, and that they cover all the ground. Our English friend, who lectured so
widely in the United States, in response to the criticism that these responses
are so unsatisfactory and childish, is reported to have replied in effect that
the fact of a response established that there is communication with the one
desired. It seems quite incredible that a man of his intelligence could have
made such a reply. It is so utterly childish in its ignorance of the various
possible sources of such phenomena. Now, let me go one step further. I have come
to a clear settled personal conviction about where these responses come from.
This conviction has come slowly. It has come, not through ignoring any evidence,
but weighing everything most carefully. I have carefully read ghost stories and
allied literature. I have talked, both here and in Great Britain and Continental
Europe, with sensible people, who have had unusual experiences. I have tried to
examine the Psychical Research Society, and similar, literature. And though I
have never gone to a spiritistic seance, as a matter of principle and of deep
conviction, yet I have talked with those who have. And I have come to three
deliberate conclusions. First, human spirits do not return to talk with us.
There is never communication with them. Second, haunted houses, apparitions, and
the like, can always be explained fully, either by the presence of demons, or by
the working of our subtler mental processes, that is, by subjective impressions,
hallucinations, and the like. And third, the responses that come through
spiritistic experts, are never messages from the dead. Some of them are from
demons. And their purpose in this we shall see in a few moments. Some are the
unconscious interplay of the subtler mental processes of the two in touch, the
enquirer and the expert. And some are simply deliberate skilful deception by the
spiritistic expert. It is of intense interest to note the conditions - which
these experts say are essential to getting what they call good results, namely,
there must be a non-critical spirit. That really means with them a
non-scrutinizing spirit. There should in-stead be a passive, acquiescent,
sympathetic spirit. The more fully one can yield up all self-control over his
faculties, and yield wholly to the influences of the expert, the better the
results gotten, they say.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 47: THE AUTHORITATIVE ANSWER
========================================================================

The Authoritative Answer But we haven't really got our answer yet. The
authoritative answer is yet to come. And it is authoritative. It leaves nothing
to be said. When we get that the case is settled. It is the answer of this old
Book of God. It becomes of intense interest to note that this Book recognizes
this question, discusses it fully, and answers it flatly and fully and
positively. Let us look at this authoritative answer. The Bible is an index to
the moral customs and conditions of the nations surrounding the old Jewish
nation. And that means practically of all the nations of that old world. For the
Jewish domain lay at the center. All the nations touched that domain directly or
indirectly. Every national culture influenced its life, as in the after
centuries every civilization marched its armies over that territory. The
prohibitions contained in the Ten Commandments, with the numerous detailed
prohibitions grouped with them, became a perfect bit of mirror reflecting common
moral conditions among these surrounding nations. From the earliest times there
was in all these nations a class of experts in the cult of the dead, the
foretelling of the future, the settling of doubtful questions, interpretation of
dreams, and in general the magical and mysterious. Practically this was the
priestly class. For this sort of thing was connected with, and made up a large
part of, their religion" (Genesis 41:8; Exodus 7:11; Exodus 7:22; Exodus 8:7;
Daniel 2:2; Daniel 2:10; Daniel 2:27; Daniel 4:6-7). Such a class of
professionals flourished at various times among the Jews though expressly
prohibited (1 Samuel 15:23; 1 Samuel 28:3; 1 Samuel 28:8-15. 2 Kings 21:6; 2
Kings 23:24). The various names by which these magical experts were known are
significant. They let in a flood of light as to these forbidden practices.
There's an index given in Moses' farewell talks in the Plains of Moab
(Deuteronomy 18:9-14). "There shall not be found with thee any one that maketh
his son or daughter to pass through the fire, one that useth divination, one
that practices augury, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a
consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer." These are
grouped together as one class, equally abominable to God, with nine varying
names according to methods used, or the pretensions made. Then the whole class
is grouped up under two names, augury and diviners. One of these names deals
distinctively with consulting the dead, that is, necromancer, one who consults
the dead, and divines or foretells by that means. The name used for another one
of these lets in a flood of clear light on the whole class, that is, "a
consulter with a familiar spirit. Familiar spirit is the old English word for
devil or demon. The word underneath here is one of those used for a devil or
demon. That is to say, the pretended purpose of all these was communication with
the dead. The real purpose underneath was communication with demons or evil
spirits. In other words, all this was devilcraft. So the Holy Spirit reveals
plainly here. Other names are sometimes used for the same general craft,
astrologers, stargazers, monthly prognosticators, sooth-sayers (Isaiah 47:12-13;
Jeremiah 27:9-10). It is of interest to note that the designation, "black art,"
and "black magic," which are commonly used for devilcraft grow out of the word
necromancer. By an accidental slip of a single letter, "c" was changed to "g,"
and so the word read, negromancer, that is negro, a black man, negromancer, one
who divined by black, or dark, or forbidden means. That term "black art" has
come to be quite commonly used for all devil-craft. It is synonymous with
sorcery and witch-craft. Now the thing that stands out with unmistakeable
emphasis is this: all this sort of thing was forbidden by God. It was forbidden
in the strongest language. It was characterized as the very worst sort of
wickedness. And it was to be met with the extremest penalty. Note some of the
passages. One in particular stands out as a sort of index to all. It is spoken
to Israel at a time when the nation was far down the spiritual decline that at
least disrupted it. "And when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have
familiar spirits (demons) and unto the wizards that chirp, and that mutter:
should not a people seek unto their God? Should they seek unto the dead on
behalf of the living? To the teaching and testimony (of God's word)! If they
speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning (that is, no
dawning, no hope) for them" (Isaiah 8:19-20). Pretty plain talk that. How
peculiarly it fits in with common life today! These devil crafts-men were
aggressively at work. But it was a time of sore stress in the nation. There was
sore need of guidance. What would they do? How wholesomely simple the answer. Go
to God's Book. It has plain teaching. It will tell you, and more, if you don't,
things will go bad, only bad, with you, sooner or later. Listen to these three
passages spoken, be it keenly marked, by God Himself, and simply re-cited by
Moses with the great Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not suffer a sorceress to
live" (Exodus 22:18). "Ye shall not use enchantments, nor practice augury."
"Turn ye not unto them that have familiar spirits (demons), nor unto the
wizards; seek them not out, to be defiled by them. I am Jehovah your God"
(Leviticus 19:26; Leviticus 19:31). "The soul that turneth unto them that have
familiar spirits (demons), and unto the wizards, to play the harlot after them,
I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his
people." "A man or a woman that hath a familiar spirit (demon) or that is a
wizard, shall surely be put to death; they shall be stoned with stones."
(Leviticus 20:6; Leviticus 20:27). Could stronger language be used? These
practices were defiling, befouling, morally dirty. They were classed with the
worst sort of sexual impurity. They were the worst sort of enmity to God. They
were to be visited with the extreme penalty, death, and death in one of its most
painful drastic forms, stoning. Another of these stinging characterizations
comes from the lips of Samuel. He is talking with King Saul. And if any body in
this old Book could use plain tense stinging talk it was Samuel. Listen to him,
and watch Saul's face whitening under the writhing rebuke. "Rebellion (that is,
simply failure to obey Gad) is as witchcraft (devil craft), and stubbornness
(being set in your own way even against God's way) is extreme iniquity and
devil-worship" (1 Samuel 15:23 partly paraphrased.) In other words, these evil,
occult, magical, practices were the extreme form of badness. They were devilish.
That's the superlative degree. It is striking to note that these things become
the common touchstone of the worst wickedness. National reformations hit
directly at them (1 Samuel 28:3; 1 Samuel 28:9; 2 Kings 23:24 et al.) Bad kings,
revived them (2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chronicles 33:6). It was because of such
practices, and others kin to them, that the Canaanitish nations had been cast
out, and that long after, Israel went to pieces (2 Kings 16:3; 2 Kings 17:7).
They are repeatedly referred to in the denunciation of the prophets (Isaiah
19:3; Isaiah 29:4; Isaiah 44:25; Jeremiah 27:9-10; Micah 3:6-7; Micah 3:11;
Malachi 3:5). With these sharp-cut words from the Old Testament in mind it
becomes of intense interest to turn to the other end of the Book. Paul in his
old age, with spirit vision made sensitive by the Holy Spirit's touch, discerns
that in the end of the Church period, "Some (in the Church) shall fall away from
the (true) faith, giving heed to seducing (that is misleading, "vagabond")
demons, and to things taught by demons through pretended good men who really
speak lies, and whose con-sciences are seared as with a hot iron" (1 Timothy
4:1-2 paraphrased).


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 48: THE EVIL PURPOSE UNDERNEATH
========================================================================

The Evil Purpose Underneath Here then is the plain teaching of God's Word.
Nothing could be plainer nor more explicit. Attempted communication with the
dead is allied directly with the worst black art. It is grouped with devilcraft.
It is really dealing with demons. It is a distinctly forbidden realm, marked
sharply off. The prohibition could not be more explicit and express. The
prohibition is put in strongest language. Such practices are characterized as
defiling, befouling, abominable. They were to be visited with the extreme
penalty. But, there's even more than this to be most carefully noted. That is
the utter incompetence of such attempts to give what we desire. There simply is
not, and cannot be, any such communication with our loved ones who have gone. So
that pretensions of this sort area deliberate deception. The fact that there are
such pretensions, made so positively and aggressively, at once becomes
significant. There is clearly a purpose back of this. It is a purpose of evil.
Indeed it is a purpose of the Evil One himself. He is clearly the one behind all
this sort of thing. And his purpose is as plain as it is brazen and startling.
He wants to get control of men. He can get control only through their consent;
extracted under deception when not openly given. Demoniacs are extreme instances
of such control. They are human beings possessed and con-trolled to such an
extent as to have lost self-control completely. They really are too much under
demon control to be serviceable to the devil. It's a case where the demons are
not kept in hand by their chief. They get out of his control. Demoniacs in the
Gospel are instances of this sort of thing. They can be found in heathen lands
today, though their families are commonly ashamed to have the fact known. In the
western world the uncontrollable cases of demon possession are mostly in the
insane asylum. But these likewise are too far gone to be serviceable to the Evil
One. He prefers simply enough control of a man so he can have use of him in the
usual avenues of life, mingling among his fellows. The danger of tampering with
this sort of thing is terribly real. I remember a small book that came into my
hands years ago in London. It was devoted to the discussion of the serious
dangers attending practices of this sort. It was not written at all from a
Christian stand-point; indeed just the opposite. That makes its warnings more
pointed. The writer was not concerned apparently with the question of right or
wrong, but only with the danger to one's mental powers and self-control. In
speaking of those who attempt communication with the spirit world, he said,
quoting freely, "They open a door that by and by they cannot shut, when they
earnestly want to shut it." And he went on to instance cases he knew of the
deplorable disastrous results that had followed, including his own experiences.
Even our well-known English author and lecturer, already referred to, warns his
readers against the dangers attending spiritistic experiments. This is very
significant. I recall a man I came in touch with in North-ern Germany some years
ago. He was an honest, earnest, simple-hearted peasant. He had been eager for
certain experiences that others of his acquaintance had. He was plainly
demon-possessed, and yet against his will. The evidence was unmistakeable to me.
Happily through prayer and instruction he was set free. But I was struck at the
time with the unusually clear statement he made to me of how his trouble came.
He said, "I was ignorant of the danger; I opened the door; the evil spirit came
in; and I couldn't free myself of his presence." These illustrate the terrible
dangers of tampering with such things.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 49: THE WITCH OF ENDOR
========================================================================

The Witch of Endor But now before leaving this part of our talk where the
Scripture is being quoted, I want to refer to two passages more. These come at
the first flush as a distinct surprise. There are two instances in the Bible of
communication with those who have died. They stand out sharply as the only two.
They were plainly planned by God himself. And they stand out in such detailed
contrast as must be painful in the extreme to those believing in the devil's
sort of communications. The first of these is the case of Samuel and the witch
of Endor (1 Samuel 28:3-19). Look at it briefly. King Saul, who sought the
witch's help, was out of touch with God. That is an outstanding feature of the
story. Twice he had openly disobeyed God's explicit command. And he was the
national leader. That made a bad thing so much worse. Whatever he did, the
crowds would do (1 Samuel 13:8-14; 1 Samuel 15:1-23). Now in an emergency (it's
always an emergency that tempts one so sorely), he sought an illegitimate means
of guidance. He himself had forbidden witchcraft under penalty of death. Now,
disguised, he makes a secret night journey up north to Endor to consult a witch
there. He succeeds in overcoming her cautious regard for her own safety in doing
a prohibited thing, and asks her to bring Samuel up for consultation. Samuel had
been dead some little time. Now the striking thing to note is, that Samuel did
come and talk with Saul. But it is quite clear that the witch had nothing to do
with Samuel's coming. Instead she was utterly taken back, astonished and
startled beyond measure by what happened. The whole thing was taken quite out of
her hands. To her intense fright a spirit actually came up before her eyes.
There is instant identification of who it is. It is Samuel, No one was better
known to the common people, for years the nation's great leader. Her recognition
of him is immediate and unquestioning. At once a startled cry comes from her
lips. The common translation in the King James' version and in the Revisions is,
"she cried with a loud voice." A more full accurate translation would be "she
was greatly startled and gave out suddenly a piercing shriek of distress." Her
shrewd native cunning made her quick to sense instantly that this disguised man
consulting her was the King himself. Samuel, who had put Saul on the throne,
actually coming up in person in this unprecedented way, naturally suggested to
her keen wits that this other was Saul. For the break between Samuel and Saul
had been open talk. This is the first thing to note. The witch had nothing to do
with Samuel's coming. This was a new experience to her, and a distinctly
unwelcome experience. Something was happening wholly out of her realm of
incantation. A second thing to notice is the contrast of the sharpest kind
between this communication from Samuel and all so-called communications from the
dead. The latter are characteristically vague, cryptic, or cunningly double
meaninged and distinctly below the known intelligence of the one supposed to be
speaking. And further they seek to leave an agreeable impression. But, here,
Samuel speaks in his accustomed way. He gave definite detailed information, of a
very unwelcome sort about the triple tragic happenings of the morrow. Saul would
be deeated by the Philistines. He would lose the kingdom, and he would meet
death, and his sons with him. And with this was a stinging rebuke that must have
had a decidedly unpleasant familiarity to Saul as it cut its edge into the
quick. And now, mark keenly the influence of this incident on these
impressionable Hebrew Orientals. The thing was commonly known. It could not be
hid. The grapevine telegraph took it to every corner of Israel. It was the talk
of the nation. And, more, it plainly gave a sharp set-back to witchery and all
like practices. There is no mention or allusion to such things for at least half
a century, though they had been prevalent up to this time. An awe or fear comes
over the people. They are afraid to attempt this sort of thing. God had rebuked
it. This is the only thing of the sort in the whole Old Testament. The other
exceptional instance is the appearance of Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration
(Matthew 17:1-8 and parallels). This is referred to only because it plainly is
an instance of communication with the dead. But it is recognized at once that it
belongs to a wholly different realm from that being discussed, and as much above
it as the heavens are above the earth. Moses had died sixteen centuries before.
Now he plainly appears. He appears in company with Elijah, the fiery denouncer
of all witchery and devilcraft. His identity is undoubted. Recognition of him is
immediate. He talks with our Lord Jesus. He talks too, on a subject peculiarly
obnoxious to the devil and to the whole tribe of the black art under whatever
guise, namely, the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. These are the two
exceptions in this Book. And plainly they do but put into a sharper prominence
the terrible characterizations and prohibitions of this Book on the whole brood
of practices of devilcraft and its allied arts. Plainly in these two instances
God deemed it wise for some practical purpose to have these occurrences take
place and be recorded. And in both cases He took the initiative.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 50: MEETING OUR HUMAN NEED
========================================================================

Meeting Our Human Need The question of praying for the dead is an intensely
interesting one. It is on the other side of this subject; not seeking help from
the dead, but seeking to be helpful to them. The custom of praying for the dead
has been in the Church, to varying extent, since the second century. It is
common in certain sections of the Church of England today, and in certain
communions that recognize that Church's leadership. There is only one passage of
Scripture quoted in its support, namely 2 Timothy 1:18. But this is quoted on
the supposition that one, Onesiphorus, was dead, which is quite possible but not
at all certain. The utter silence of Scripture on the subject, apart from this
doubtful passage, would seem distinctly significant. We are not told to pray for
the dead. If our loved ones are in our Lord's presence prayer seems needless. If
they are not, are they past the influence of prayer? The last chapter touches on
this. Meanwhile praise can well take the place of prayer as the names of our
dear ones come to our lips at prayer time. Now there remains just one word more
to add. And it is a word of deepest significance. Grief is still epidemic.
Hearts are still sore and bleeding. The hearthstone is still lonely. Every meal
time brings up heartbreaking memories. Loneliness still eats its acid way in.
We're hungrier than ever for fellowship. We're so needing plain straight
guidance in our every day affairs. We do want to know about our loved ones. Is
there no close-up, warm, help for us these days when grief drips its ceaseless
rain all the day and far into the night? Well, there's an answer to these human
heart cries. And it is immediate and plain and full, and has a real human heart
throb in it. There's a Friend who will share your lonely corner with you, and
fill it and you with warmth and fellow-ship and glad song. He's real, this
Friend. He has the human touch. He knows all about things down here, He knows
what it is to lose a dear friend through unexpected . death. There isn't one
experience down here that He doesn't know by the feel, except experiences that
come through wrong choice. And so He can tell you what to do in emergencies and
tight corners and everywhere else. And He will do it. And more than that He is
in as close touch with your loved one who's gone as with you. He is your
connecting link. What do I mean? Whom am I talking about. Listen, while I try to
get past the sometimes hardened shell of familiar words to the tense throbbing
realities inside them. He's the Holy Spirit. He understands by the feel, all
that Jesus went through. But there is more. He is the Spirit of the glorified
enthroned Jesus. He knows all our true human feelings and He knows all the
divine power. For He is truly God, as well as human. His coming to live in you
is so real a thing that it couldn't be more real. He spoke in this Book of God.
He speaks in it. He will talk through its pages to you today. He will talk
directly to your inmost spirit. He will surround you with the atmosphere of His
own presence.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 51: GETTING IN TOUCH
========================================================================

Getting in Touch But, you say, just how can He become real to me like you say.
Listen, the answer is so simple, yet it is radical. It is this: surrender
yourself to the Lord Jesus as Master as well as Saviour. Make that surrender a
habitual thing. In a sane wholesome way make this the touch-stone of your daily
life to please Him. Put His Word in the central place, the first place, before
all other reading. Get a bit of quiet time alone with it, daily. Drink it in.
Devour its contents. Breathe in its spirit. Absorb it. Brood over it. Learn to
spend the day with God. He is with you, and in you, in the person of His Holy
Spirit. Thank Him for His presence. Do it daily. Sing Him a song of,, praise. Do
it habitually. Talk to Him when you don't need to ask for something. Practice
His presence. He is there by your side as you are reading this. Learn to spend
the day with Him. All this sort of thing will discipline your judgment. You will
become keen to know the meaning of "watch and pray"., Watch is for the subtle
crafty enemy, masquerading much these days in his "angel of light" costume, with
unctuous voice, and reverent mien. You learn to pray with one eye open. The two
must be balanced in your practice, with wholesome sanity, trained vision, and
disciplined judgment. But somebody says that this doesn't help you a bit, for
you are not in, touch with God. Your mind is tormented with doubts about God,
and His Word, and all this. Well, here's a bit for you if you're honest. That
may be a big if. But honesty is the first essential. Listen. My honestly
skeptical friend can get a response direct from God to his own soul, if he
really wants it. There's a pierced Hand on the knob at your door right now.
There's someone waiting, waiting now on your door step, waiting to come in. And
He will give you a response that will satisfy your deepest longings. A mother
with troubled face, spoke to John Bartholomew Gough at the close of one, of his
famous temperance lectures. She had a darling boy, a man, but her boy. He called
himself a skeptic. And the mother's heart was like to break. Would Mr. Gough
talk with her boy. That was her request. They met. The young man poured out his
doubts. He seemed really sincere. Mr. Gough listened in his friendly way.
Finally he said, "Why don't you pray? Prayer is a natural thing." But whom
should he pray to? He didn't think there was a God. Mr. Gough said, "Why not
pray to Love. You believe in love. You believe in your dear mother's love for
you. That's a pure holy passion." That touched a sensitive spot. The young man
said he would. In his bedroom that night he knelt with closed eyes, and cried
out passionately, "Oh, Love 1" Instantly, though so softly, the words seemed
spoken in his inner being, "God is Love." And at once, he followed the impulse
that came, and cried out, "Oh, God." Again so softly, the words he knew by
heart, seemed spoken within, "God so loved the world that He gave His Only
Be-gotten." And again, yielding to the quick impulse in his spirit, his lips
cried out, "Oh, Christ." And at once something came. An exquisite sense of peace
stole into his spirit, as he was kneeling. The fog of doubts, where were they? A
thousand questions remained unanswered, but there was that singular quiet sense
of peace within. He was in touch with Him, who made peace by the blood of the
Cross. Any body who will, can get in touch. For He, the Man who was done to
death for us, is now within reach. The honest heart reaching can get in touch.
And that touch with Him, answers all questions and needs.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 52: CHAPTER 5: WHAT IS DEATH
========================================================================

Chapter 5: What Is Death


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 53: PLEASING, BUT NOT TRUE
========================================================================

Pleasing, But Not True Death means death of the body. That is the common
meaning, the plain everyday meaning. That is the biggest thing we're conscious
of. It's the thing we feel most. The body we loved so much lies lifeless. It is
laid away under the sod. We do not see it. There is the utter absence of the
loved one. The spirit that looked out of the bodily eyes has gone from, us. The
break between body and spirit is complete. He is dead. The separation between
him and us is entire. That is the commonest meaning. And that meaning is quite
correct so far as it goes. But it is a limited meaning. It's the thing that
absorbs us most, if not to the exclusion of everything else. Yet there is more.
And we want to talk in a purely practical way about that more. There is a common
teaching about death that is directly opposite to the Biblical teaching. It
belittles death to the point of practically ignoring it. Though of course, the
fact of bodily death cannot be ignored. Death is pictured as a mere transition..
It is a natural step from one state of existence to another, it is said. It is
not an enemy, and not a thing to be dreaded. This teaching is marked by vague
looseness of statement. Clean-cut thinking, sharp distinctions, clear careful
definitions are absent. In their place is a mixture of partial truths expressed
in beautiful language, with the clear-cut, sharp lines of truth blurred.
Some-choice bits of literature have been produced. They have found their way
freely into Christian circles. Death is likened to certain changes of
development that take place in the natural order. The caterpillar passes into
the chrysalis form, and by and by emerges a rarely beautiful butterfly. And
death among men is likened to these transitions. The whole thing of death is
made to appear as simple and natural a transition as these. This sounds very
beautiful. And it is acceptable to many folks, if not most. They like it. But it
entirely ignores certain facts. It is quite opposed to the plain teaching of the
Book of God. And the practical effect is not only not good. It is, bad. It tends
to blur the fact that the time of death is a time of moral adjustment. And these
adjustments hinge on our choices and on our character. It belittles or ignores
what Jesus did for us when He died. It tends to keep us from putting choice of
Christ as Saviour in the big place, where it belongs, in our thinking. And it
lulls us into a sort of fool's paradise that every-thing is all right with us
regardless of how we've lived, or what we've believed.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 54: THE MEANING PICTURED
========================================================================

The Meaning Pictured Now, I want to turn to the Old Book. It is very striking to
find in its very opening pages a definition of death. For that is what it
practically is. It is a pictured definition. And that makes it easy for us all
to get. For all the world loves and looks at a picture. And when some skilled
artist who's studied it, points out the colorings, the lights and shades, and
groupings and postures, it becomes fascinating. Look at this picture. It's in a
garden. Man's friendly God is walking through the garden, side by side with the
man. They are fellows together in their fine friendliness of feeling. Man's
Fellow is showing him about the garden, making him familiar with his new home.
They stop under a tree. And there the word is quietly and clearly spoken: "In
the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). It's the tree
of choice. It's the practical touchstone of their continued sweet companionship
together. God is pleading for the man to use his power of choice right. Their
fine fellowship together was the plea, a tremendous plea.. God was saying, as
father to son, "Let us always keep in fullest touch." But it was a matter for
the man's decision. By using his power of choice in choosing right, constantly,
he would become like God in character as well as in sovereignty of choice.
That's the first time death is referred to. The actual phrase used is this,
"dying, thou shalt die." There is a beginning, a process, and a finished result.
Then comes the temptation story, the yielding to temptation, and the break of
fellowship. Now, note keenly, what "die" actually meant to these two early
kinsfolk of oars. They ate the for-bidden fruit. At once they were conscious of
some difference in themselves. There came a self-consciousness regarding their
bodies which was not there before. It seems not good, for they do something to
remove or correct it. There was no actual change in them from what had been
before, except mental or in spirit. The forbidden act made a change. They were
separated from what they had been before. It proves to be a separation in spirit
from God. Things are not between them as they had been. Then comes a second
step. They try to hide from God. Already they misunderstand Him. They think
because they cannot see Him that he cannot see them. The ostrich had an early
imitator. But they want to get away from God. That's the big thing. The
separation between Him and them is increasing, and it is increasing by their
action. There's no difference in God. But plainly there's a longing for
separation from Him. And that means there is a separation in spirit, grown wider
by the longing to get away from His presence. Then comes the third stage in the
process. They are driven out of the immediate conscious presence of God. Though,
as noted elsewhere, the driving out was almost certainly a moral thing, their
sense of the presence of God now influencing them to leave that presence
voluntarily. Then comes the story of the awful break in the home. That inner
spirit, that sought separation from God among the trees of the garden, grows
strong and passionate in the home. It leads Cain to seek a forced separation
from one whose presence he has come to hate. Then comes the final stage in this
pictured meaning of "die" or death. Nine hundred and some odd years later it is
said of Adam "and he died." God had said, "in the day thou eatest thereof dying
thou shalt die". The dying began on that day. Yet bodily death was deferred for
over nine hundred years.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 55: NO CHANGE IN GOD
========================================================================

No Change in God Plainly enough death here means separation in spirit from God.
It has a beginning. It continues as a process, intensifying in character. It is
a final result. It affects the man's spirit toward God at once. It comes, by and
by, to affect his body. The hold of the human spirit on the body in which it
lives is affected. Bodily conditions are affected. And that grows and
intensifies until the spirit and body can no longer hold together. The
separation of spirit from God comes to include bodily conditions. It is noticed
further that there is in this picture no change of action or attitude on God's
part. The separation is a grief to Him. He continues His creative sustaining
touch just as far as he is allowed to. The separation is wholly on man's part.
It is in his spirit. It is in his will. He wants to get away. That finally
results in the full separation that eventually brings bodily death. Let it be
noted very keenly that here death is an unnatural thing. It is a break in the
natural order. It clearly enough was not in the original plan. It couldn't be.
It is a direct result of break of touch with God. God never planned separation
of any sort from man. And, at the core, that's just what death is. Life is full
contact with God. Death is the reverse, a break in that contact. Plainly if the
wire's cut the current can't get through. It will be noticed that in this
pictured definition there are two stages to death. There is the present or
immediate. This is in one's spirit, or inner attitude toward God. There comes a
change there at once when the break with God occurs. And God calls it death.
Then there is the second stage, the death to the body. That did not come till.
long after-wards. It is really a less thing than the other. Though it is the big
thing in our common thought of death. The deeper, more serious thing, was in the
inner spirit. That happened at once, and went on increasing in its grip and
influence. Here then is the pictured definition of what death means. It is the
reverse of life. Life is full touch of spirit or heart with God. Any break in
that touch means the loss of life, in some measure, and that is called death.
This death is a thing of growth. It moves from one stage to a deeper. It
eventually comes to include death of the body. That is the big thing in our
common thinking, but not in this Book. Now, this gives the meaning of death
throughout this old Book of God. Put in so distinctly at the very beginning it
dearly set the standard of meaning throughout.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 56: TRACING THE TRAIL
========================================================================

Tracing the Trail Now take a thoughtful run through the Book. Do it for
yourself. Plainly it is a sheer impossibility to quote the long string of
passages. But we can follow the trail of the definition. It is an easy trail to
follow. And when one has followed it to the end, another run through brings to
one's attention the countless illustrations. The separation of spirit which the
definition emphasizes as the crucial thing colors the narrative from end to end.
Now, just a few looks at that trail. Death is separation in one's spirit from
God. It affects one's spirit at once, and with a growing intensity. It affects
one's body at once, imperceptibly, increasing gradually until it quite loses
contact with the human spirit inhabiting it, within certain time limits (Matthew
8:22; Luke 15:24; Luke 15:32; Romans 8:6; Ephesians 2:1; Ephesians 2:5;
Ephesians 5:14; 1 Timothy 5:6; Revelation 3:1). Death is the immediate logical
outcome of sin. It is not a result of arbitrary action on God's part. Sin is
death in the green; death is sin dead ripe. Sin is death begun; death is sin in
its final finished shape. Here is the grammar of the verb to sin. Present tense,
to sin; first future tense, to suffer; second future tense, death. The verb
becomes a noun; the pliable verb a hardened, set noun (Romans 5:12; Romans 6:21;
Romans 6:23). Death does not mean merely bodily death (1 Timothy 5:6; Revelation
3:1; Ephesians 2:1; Ephesians 2:5; Ephesians 5:4), though, of course, it comes
to include that. It is not cessation of existence. Spirit never ceases to be. It
cannot. The rich man still lived, quite possibly against his will, after his
body was dead (Luke 16:19-31). And death is as clearly not being asleep. For
spirit never sleeps. The same reference covers that. Death is not a natural
thing. It is unnatural. It is a break in the natural order, and so, being a
break, it is a thing painful in itself. It is natural to dread death, and to
shrink from it. Death is an enemy, intruding upon a forbidden domain. That word
"enemy" sums up the whole case here (1 Corinthians 15:16). Death, from its
beginning to its end, passes through three stages. The first stage is the break
of spirit with God. It is the rupture of friend-ship or fellowship with Him. Man
was made to be God's fellow. And his remaining in that relation depends on his
own desire, his choice and action (Genesis 2:17, with most of the quotations
already made). God eagerly longs for that fellowship, but only on the level
where fellowship belongs, that is, when it is freely given. That's the first
stage. It begins at once with the beginning of wrong choice. This is the worst,
the most damnable stage, thus far. It is spirit death. It goes to the very
roots. It puts the dry rot of death into the very seed of life. It is death by
suicide. The man cuts himself off from the source of his life. It means
separation from God, separation of spirit, of heart. This reveals the bigness of
what Christ must do when He's allowed to. He has to make a wholly new start
(John 3:3-6). The second stage is the thing that bulks so big with us when we
speak of death, that is, death of the body. The break between the human spirit
and its body becomes complete. That break of spirit with God, working
imperceptibly from the moment of the break, now affects the body in the extreme
degree. This is the least part of death. It is the temporary stage. And this
stage is for all, believers and others alike, up to the limit of time when
Christ comes again. Then there comes a change for those in touch with Him. There
is the third stage. This is the final, the permanent stage. This is not for all.
It is only for those who incorrigibly insist in their choice of leaving God and
Christ out. It is called "the second death." The first death is that spirit
death already mentioned. This is that same first death in its final hardened
form (Revelation 2:11; Revelation 20:6; Revelation 20:14; Revelation 21:8).


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  CHAPTER 57: FIVE THINGS JESUS DID
========================================================================

Five Things Jesus Did This brings us up sharply to just what Jesus did. It makes
us see what a desperate task He undertook. It was nothing less than dealing with
dead men. And the only way of doing it was to begin a new life within. In the
beginning it was simply a matter of creation. But now, of a new creation, with
the wreck of the old one to handle and clear away. Man was enslaved to Satan
(Romans 6:16). That slavery must be broken. But death was the stamp of the
slavery, Satan's mark of control. Death must then be put to death, and he that
had the power of death must be throttled. Sin itself, with all the long damnable
heart-breaking human story that has worked out of that break with God, became a
slander on God's character and on God's management of the world. For God had let
things run on in their bad way, instead of clearing the whole thing up at once,
as He could rightly have done. Then, too, it must be made clear what sort of a
God God is, and why He has let things run on without prompt settlement. And then
our hearts had become hardened against God. That separation brought hardening.
And the hardening grew steadily harder, and yet more obstinately hard. That
spirit death had penetrated clear into the inner marrow of our hearts. Now, hush
your hearts, and look with bated breath and reverently bowed heads at what Jesus
did. He got into touch with us men, first of all. He lived, simply lived, a
simple true human life, in all its commonplace round of duty and temptation, for
thirty years, ten-elevenths of his full span of life. So He got in touch with
us. So He really was one of us. So He kept in fullest touch with the Father in
the daily round of a common human life. Then He voluntarily gave His life up and
out for us. He took upon Himself the death that belonged to us, death of body,
aye, far more, and deeper, and bitterer, the death of spirit that was bound up
with separation from the Father's conscious presence. That's the meaning of that
heart-breaking cry; "Why didst thou forsake me?" He took upon Himself all that
was coming to us. He went down into the jaws of death, into the belly of hell.
And there He put Death to death. He throttled it past any reviving. Through
going to death himself, he utterly annihilated the power of him that has the
power of death, that is the devil himself (Hebrews 2:14). Than having
effectively dealt that death blow, He quietly rose up again, out of death's
domain, back toward the true center of gravity of His own life. And when He came
up He brought something up with Him, a great priceless something. He brought up
life, His own life, a new sort of deathless life that could never know any taint
of death. He brought it up into plain view where all might see, and so could
make their new choice, the choice of Himself, as Saviour and Redeemer and Master
(2 Timothy 1:10 paraphrased). So He settled up our sin score, set us free of our
slavery to sin, gave us a new eternal sort of life, vindicated God's patient
enduring of sin's havoc, and broke our hearts with His untenable love. And, now,
anybody who'll get in touch of heart with Him, Christ, will escape death and
have life. He will pass out of that separation which is death into the full
touch that is life (John 3:16; John 5:21; John 5:24; John 8:31; John 11:25). Yet
freedom from the smaller item of death, bodily death, is not promised. In its
place is promised a rising up out of the grave for our bodies even as His rose
(John 6:39-40; John 6:44; John 6:54). And then something more and greater yet is
promised. That is, such victory in our spirits over the dark fearsome enemy,
death, that when it does come to our bodies we shall greet it with a joyous
shout of victory (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). And meanwhile there remains always
with us the glad possibility that His own return to earth shall spare us that
last touch with our old enemy. But Jesus does yet more. He's not through with
death yet. Twice over we are told that he has "abolished death" (1 Corinthians
15:25-26 revised; 2 Timothy 1:10). That is, he made it wholly inoperative, put
it completely out of action. Taking all the Scripture passages concerned, that
clearly means three things. It means that spirit death is done away for all who
come into touch with Jesus. It means further that during the kingdom time,
actual death, meaning bodily death, will cease on earth (1 Corinthians
15:25-26), probably gradually until complete. And the third meaning is this.
There will he a final abolition or destroying of death for all, at the end of
things on the earth (Revelation 21:4). That is, for all except Satan and anyone
that incorrigibly insists on going his way (Revelation 20:14-15; Revelation
21:8). Death is put to death for all who will have it so. And it is so only
because Christ suffered what we are spared.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 58: CHAPTER 6: IS THERE ANOTHER CHANCE FOR SALVATION AFTER DEATH?
========================================================================

Chapter 6: Is There Another Chance For Salvation After Death?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 59: FOUR COMMON ANSWERS
========================================================================

Four Common Answers This is a question of chances. This talk will be a sober
thoughtful study of chances. We say that every man should have a fair chance.
That is ingrained in us. The Britisher prides himself on his proverbial
insistence on "fair play." And the American likes to think that that is one of
his strongest traits, too. Underneath everything else, that is really the
question here. Will every man have a "fair chance"? Will he get "fair play"?
That is to say, is God fair? Will he be fair with us when settling time comes?
There've been some vigorous things said on the other side. Are these fair to
God? God's good name has been slandered quite a bit. They say He will not give a
man a fair chance. Are "they" right or wrong? A chance is an opportunity. This
is a question of opportunity. If you dig under that, it is really a question of
a man's use of opportunity. Or rather, dig in just a bit deeper, it's a matter
of keeping hold of our ability to use the opportunity. For this touches directly
one of the automatic laws of life. That is to say, what we don't use we lose.
That is an inexorable law. What we can do, and don't do, by and by we lose the
power to do. That "can" is lost. Failure to do steals away the power to do. If
you refuse to use your eye, if you stay in the dark, by and by you can't use
your eye. The seeing power is gone out of the eye. If you don't use any given
set of muscles they go bad. You can't use them when you would. The real question
is this, will the man who has had full opportunity of making right choice here,
and who has not used it, will he have an-other opportunity? Will the present
opportunity be lengthened out beyond the grave? Or, digging deeper, if a man
hasn't used his opportunity here, will his using power stick by him over there?
For, be it keenly marked, every man is master of his own destiny. He makes his
own life. His present action controls his future. Every man is a prince in his
own right. God said at the start, "have dominion" or mastery. Man is a master.
He is masterful in his own action. He was made so. He is made so. And so it can
be said thoughtfully that life opportunity. I mean to say this, and say it as
strongly as I can, this: the biggest single thing in life is that it is an
opportunity. If a man is alive, he has opportunity, opportunity to pick and
choose, to decline and refuse, to go up or down. The earth is peculiarly the
place of opportunity. Life is an open door to every man. The earth is an open
door to every one on it. Is this the reason why there is such a terrific moral
battle on here? Is this why the Evil One seems to be massing all his forces now
and here? For it is clear enough that the earth is a battlefield, above all
else, a tremendous moral battlefield. Every man's life is a battlefield. For the
battle of earth is fought out and settled on the human battlefield of a man's
life. The black pencil mark is under that "another". Is there another chance?
All life is a chance, as long as it may be, always long enough to use the
opportunity it is. Is there another chance after this? There are four common
answers to this question. That fact of four shows how folks don't agree. Some
say that one doesn't need another chance. No matter how we've used or not used
our chance here, the thing goes only one way. We'll all pull through on the
other side past any threatening dangers. And lately they have been adding,
"We'll all pull through easily." Then there is an increasing number of those who
say, quite positively, "Yes, there is another chance." Different groups gather
here. Strange to say, there are two separate "no" answers. And they come from
two groups aggressively opposed to each other. Some say, "No, there's not
another chance because if you haven't used your chance here, that's the end of
you. You simply . cease to exist. There's no other chance for you, because
there's no "you" left to have another chance. This teaching is called
"conditional immortality." Immortality or continued existence is conditioned on
one's relation to Christ, these teach. The second "no" group puts the same
general answer, but from a radically different angle. This is the old so-called
orthodox group. In-stead, of another chance there is a ceaseless time of
sleepless remorse over the unused chance. The tooth of pain never ceases cutting
into your increasingly sensitive spirit, they say. The flame never burns out.
It's a plain blunt "no," unadulterated, unmitigated, sometimes uttered in harsh
forbidding tones.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 60: THE TRUE ANSWER
========================================================================

The True Answer What is the true answer? Is there an authoritative answer? Yes,
there is. There is an authoritative Book. And it gives the one authoritative
answer. It is the one source of reliable information. For we must have here not
opinion, nor theory, nor wish. The thing is too serious. We must know
authoritatively, if that's possible. Happily it is possible. The Book of God
gives clear positive answer. Let me at once give the Book's answer in a single
sentence. Then we'll turn to the Book for its own specific statements. And the
startling thing to note is this, that it doesn't agree directly with any one of
these four answers. Though its answer comes to be practically the same in effect
as one of them. The Book's answer is this. Yes and no: so far as the character
of God's love is concerned there is another chance, that seemingly never runs
out; so far as a man's decision is concerned there is no other chance. And man's
decision is the decisive thing there, as here. That seems undoubtedly to be the
Book's own authoritative answer. Now turn and look into the Book, for its
detailed teachings. And the first question, that comes up for its answer is
this: Is death the dividing line of opportunity? Life is opportunity. When does
that opportunity close? At death? Certainly death is a radical turning-point.
When is the final decision rendered? Listen to this word of Jesus: "If thy hand
cause thee to stumble, cut it off; it is good for thee to enter into life (that
is, the life beyond) maimed, rather than having two hands to go into Gehenna,
into the unquenchable fire." And then follows the emphasis of a repetition twice
over, with variations of "foot" and "eye". And then this terrific underscoring,
"where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." (Mark 9:42-48).
Quite plainly our Lord teaches here that death is the decision time. It is the
dividing line of opportunity. Life is opportunity; death is the close of
opportunity. Then there is another very decisive and explicit passage. It is the
story of the rich man and the poor beggar in the Sixteenth of Luke (Luke
16:19-31). That story is taken up rather fully in the third of these talks, "The
Others." Clearly here death is the settlement time. At death each case is
closed. And it is settled on its merits as it stands at that point. The award
decided upon begins at the turning-point of death. Yet on the other hand,
there's something else. This is not all the Scripture teaching. We want to be
careful to get all, and then strike the balance. There is the striking passage
in First Peter. There are two bits here that connect and run together. First
comes this, speaking of Christ, "being put to death in the flesh, but made alive
in the spirit; in which he also went and preached to the spirits in prison, that
aforetime were disobedient, when the long suffering of God waited in the days of
Noah, and so on (1 Peter 3:18-20; 1 Peter 4:6). Note a few things about this
passage. These spirits clearly were of men, human spirits, who had been
disobedient to God's voice during their life on the earth, while Noah was
building the ark. They had been swept away in the great cataclysm of the flood.
And they are spoken of in the spirit world as being "in prison!' This is the
only place that that phrase is used for punishment in the next world (See
however Jude 1:6). Now, it plainly says that Jesus went and preached to them.
The word preached is that commonly used for preaching the Gospel. The plain
inference of the connection is that while Jesus' body lay in Joseph's tomb, His
spirit went on this gracious errand of mercy. He preached the message of the
Father's love, and of His own sacrifice on Calvary, just made, The first
preaching of the Calvary message was by the Calvary Man. Then Peter picks up
this thread again, a few lines further down. "For unto this end was the Gospel
preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed according to men who
are still in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." Here is stated
the purpose of the preaching. It was with a view to the coming time of judgment.
It was to insure perfect fairness in the judging. There was to be full fair
opportunity in order to a fair impartial judgment. The supposition at once is
that these had not had that full opportunity essential to a fair just judgment
in their cases. In the race-wide sweep of the terrible flood catastrophe that
came, they had not had that fair chance. And, at first flush, it would seem at
once that these did have another chance for their salvation, after death. But a
moment's thinking quickly indicates that it was not another. It was apparently
their first opportunity. The whole swing of the connection makes that seem quite
clear. It was the exquisite fairness of God giving them a chance which seemingly
they had not had. And, note further please, very keenly, this is the only
passage of the sort in the whole Book of God. It stands out as the solitary
lonely exception. This is immensely suggestive and significant. Thousands of
passages, literally, urging right choice, and urging it now; one, just one,
speaking by inference of a possible opportunity in the future life. And the
reference is incidental. For the main thing Peter is talking about is God's
fairness in judgment. Teachers and educators will be keen to note the teaching
principle here. Incessant repetition makes the essential thing stand out. The
incidental drops practically out of view under the continued emphasis on the
main point. The Bible is an intensely practical book. It is a model in practical
psychology, as well as in applied pedagogy. It is aiming continually at an
immediate practical impression that shall influence one's decisions and life. It
doesn't tell all the truth. It does tell all we need to know for right decision.
And its whole insistent plea is this: Choose; choose the only right; choose it
now, now.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 61: GOD'S FIXED PRINCIPLE OF ACTION
========================================================================

God's Fixed Principle of Action Take another look at the Book. There is a
principle underlying God's treatment of men who set themselves against Him. It
is a settled principle. He never varies from that principle by so much as the
narrow width of a slender hair. It is not a principle of punishment, primarily.
Though the fact of punishment is tied up with it. It is not a using of God's
superior power against these men. And it. is not an arbitrary imposing of His
will upon those unable to resist or get away. Indeed it is not an arbitrary
principle in any way. I use that word arbitrary in the good sense, of course. It
may mean capricious or unreasoning. But in law it means such action or decision
as is properly settled upon by the personal judgment of opinion of a judge or
tribunal. It stands in contrast with decisions settled by certain established
rules or equities. It should be noted that' arbitrary action is recognized as
quite proper. And God might act in what would be called an arbitrary way, with
full justice and right. Yet the principle that controls him is not arbitrary. It
goes deeper. It has more of the heart element in it. I might say it has more of
the good human element in it. I mean the sympathetic fellow feeling element,
that feels with a man in his difficulties and surroundings. It is not on the
level of law and right, merely. It is not merely what God might properly do. No,
the controlling principle is up on the level of love, a strong controlling love.
It is a matter of what He prefers to do. It is not the principle controlling a
severe judge, perfectly proper in itself. It is rather the principle that
controls a wise father. Some one thinks here of that Twenty-fifth of Matthew. In
the judgment scene depicted there, the King on the throne, who is the Son of Man
Himself, acting as judge, says to some, "Depart; under a curse," and so on. That
does indeed seem like a properly arbitrary judgment of the King. Yet as one fits
it in with all other passages dealing with the same matter, it is seen to be
simply the judge's statement of how the scales swing. The judge holds the scale
steady and true. The man's action tips them this way or that. The judge
announces which way the scales tip. His action is recitative rather than
arbitrary. That fixed principle that controls God in His dealings with the man
who sets himself against God, as with all men, is this: every man shall be
utterly free to think ,and act as he chooses. That was the dominating principle
in Eden. It is the dominating principle as God breathes creative life and spirit
being into every babe born. It will remain in absolute control in the future,
wherever a man may choose to go. God has never taken that gift of free choice
back. He never will. To appreciate keenly how finely true this is one must brood
over the character of God. He is not a judge, merely. He is that indeed, in the
finest sense. But He is more than that word makes us think of. He is indeed, as
the old phrase goes the moral Ruler of the universe. But with God the whole
thing is on a higher, deeper, tenderer, humaner, level. It will help get at the
thing to recall some of the earlier ideas of the word "father". There are ideals
inherent in the word which we westerners have lost, in some measure. The father
was the head of the family. He ruled. There was no exception possible to his
rulings. He was the priest of the family. He led its worship. He stood to the
family for God, and stood to God for the family. He was the teacher,
instructing, disciplining, training and moulding. And with these, mingled
inextricably was the tenderness of the father for his own child, companionship
with the child, devotion to the child, an intense ambition and pleasure in. the
future of the child, and in an emergency any sacirfice needed for the sake of
it. That old idea carried to its fullest degree, re-fined to the utmost, is the
one word for God. He is peculiarly the Father. And be it keenly noted, He
retains that relation creatively toward every man regardless of how that man
treats God. He can't, of course, do all He would do except as the man
voluntarily, gladly lets Him. It will surely help here to make a contrast. Black
put beside white looks blacker, or shows how black it really is. In contrast
with the true meaning of father as seen in God, look at a weak human father.
David let his son, Amnon, go unrebuked and unpunished, though his wrong was as
bad as bad could be. David let his favorite son Absalom also go free of rebuke
or discipline or punishment. Yet Absalom was a murderer as Amnon was an
adulterer. So lust and violence, two of the worst demons, were let loose in his
kingdom. Yet David was a wise ruler. But the father in him overcame the king in
him. His emotion blurred his judgment. He knew full well as king, how evil the
thing was, and how disastrous to his rule and kingdom. But the emotion in him
dimmed his eye, and unsteadied his usually shrewd judgment. The result was that
lust and blood ran riot. In the bad mix-up, he actually let the weakened
fatherly traits in himself de-throne him as king. That's an illustration of weak
fatherhood.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 62: TWO FLAMING PROCLAMATIONS
========================================================================

Two Flaming Proclamations It will clear the ground, too, and help to sharper
thinking, to remember the meaning of a phrase like "the wrath of God." It does
not mean that God is angry in the common usage of that word. May I use a very
homely phrase simply to make things clearer? It does not mean that He is "mad at
you," in the common use of that term. Merely to put the thing that way makes it
clear at once to thoughtful people that, of course, it does not. Yet may I
remind you that the unthinking crowd unthinkingly has just that idea, especially
when under the sway of some gifted religious demagogue. Now, a little thinking
into the character of God reveals the fact that the wrath of God is His purity
blazing out against impurity. It is his fine sense of justice flaming out
against rank injustice, His honesty burning as a fire against all dishonesty,
deception, and trickery of every sort. His wrath is never against man, except as
the man gets so tangled up in the bad to which he's committed himself that the
two are inseparable. "The wrath of God is revealed . . . against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men" (Romans 1:18). Now, look at the Scriptures on the
principle that controls God in this matter. On the very first leaf of the Book
man is entrusted with the power of free choice and action (Genesis 2:16-17). His
continued good fellowship with God is conditioned on his own choice. Not to eat
of the tree would keep him in touch with God. He is told not to eat. Yet it is a
matter of choice. He can eat if he will. He has the ability. Yet if he do, the
break fellows at once. "Dying, thou shalt die"; a beginning, a process, a
finished result. The worst result is plainly stated at once as a help and a
warning. God Himself, man's Fellow in the garden, is the wooing by His mere
presence, the pleading, that he do not eat of the tree. There would be
separation. It would naturally be heart-breaking to God. There at the very
start, is the statement of the fundamental principle of free choice. On the last
page of the Book is the same identical thing (Revelation 22:11-15 paraphrased).
It is connected with that most winsome picture of the future life in the
presence of God. But there's a bit of ugly black coloring in the picture. Then
comes the bit emphasizing this unchangeable principle of God's great love for
man, the principle of utter free choice. Listen: "He that is set on being
unrighteous, let him be wholly free to follow his choice, even here, and do
unrighteousness." And the faithful warning word is graciously added, "and it
will be with an ever increasing momentum." "And he that is set in his choice to
go on to the unrestrained depths of lustful passionate indulgence shall be left
utterly free to follow his choice, and it will be found that the slant down gets
steadily steeper and sharper." Then the other side is put in the same two
degrees. "He that is set in his choice to follow only the right and pure and
good will be wholly free to follow the bent of his choice, with an ever
increasing ease of movement upward." "And he that chooses to climb the hill
toward the highest peak of personal purity and holiness or wholeness, perfection
of character, will have the fullest freedom in following his bent or choice. And
he will find, too, the steepest heights more easily climbed as he goes up." And
when Jesus comes to straighten things out, He will give "to each man according
as his choice has been." And his blessing is given those who have insisted on
right choice in spite of difficulties and opposition. These now do the thing
that goeth hand-in-hand with right choice. They go for cleansing to the blood of
the Lamb (Revelation 22:14 with 7:14). And "without" are those whose choice
leads and leaves them there. Those two passages stand like two flaming
proclamations at the beginning and end of this Book of God. He means that there
shall be no ignorance nor mistake nor misunderstanding on this unwavering
principle that controls Himself, this highest rarest gift of God to man, of free
choice. Now, all the way between, the Book is simply crammed with statements and
illustrations of this same thing. Open almost anywhere, at random, and you will
find pleadings to choose the right, warnings against persistence in wrong
choice, and illustrations of those who do, and those who do not, make right
choice. Here then is the clear unmistakeable rare principle of strong love that
controls God in His dealings with the man who is set against God's way of
things. It is an unvarying principle. Love never faileth. It was so at the
beginning. It has been kept up, unflagging, all along the way. It stays clear
through to the unending end. Man's freedom of action is never interfered with by
so much as half the breadth of a narrow hair.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 63: THE PROCESS
========================================================================

The Process Now it is fairly fascinating to find that with this principle goes
,a process. The two go together hand in glove. The principle of love is side by
side with a rare process of love. I refer to the process by which a man goes to
hell (the pen sticks with sheer pain at putting down the necessary words,) if he
go. He is not sent there. He is not put there. It is not a case of superior
physical force taking possession of him, overcoming his resistance, and
compelling him somewhere against his will. All human analogies, such as arrest
by officers of the law, and enforced imprisonment in the penitentiaries, quite
fail to tell the story here. And further, it is not by any arbitrary action of
God's, however fair and just it might be, by common consent. The process is
simply this The man is left to himself. What God does is this: Ho does nothing.
He leaves the man to himself. Now, the look into the Book. In the story of man's
being put out of Eden it says of God, "so He drove out the man" (Genesis 3:24).
And the picture we have all had, pretty much is that of God in some forcible way
driving Adam and Eve out, and they reluctantly forced to yield to a power they
could not withstand. The same identical word is used by Cain on the other side
of the page, "Behold, thou hast driven me out this day . . . and from thy face
shall I be hid" (Genesis 4:14). And one gets precisely the same picture as in
the case of Adam and Eve. But, mark thoughtfully, what it says a few lines
further down in describing what actually took place: "And Cain went out from the
presence of Jehovah" (Genesis 4:16). This at once throws light on the expulsion
from Eden, as well. That last sentence would naturally mean that there was no
physical force used, but only moral. The whole probability, practically to the
point of certainty, is that Adam and Eve were greatly awed by God's presence and
words. They were conscience-stricken, humiliated to the very dust. And they went
out even as Cain. The sense of God's love and goodness to them, and his purity,
and the bitter sense of their shame, their awful failure, the terrible break
that they had caused between themselves and God, that sense and that only, drove
them out. The whole fair presumption is that the sense of the character of God
was so strong upon them that they walked out of their own accorde, so far as any
action on God's part was concerned, of the sort that we think of as physical.
This fits in perfectly with the very striking language Paul uses in that
outstanding First of Romans. There is a terrific indictment of the whole race in
its sin of going its own way clean against God's way. And then Paul clearly
states God's treatment of them. Three times over its says "God gave them up."
(Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28). He did His best to restrain them. His
love, His creative and sustaining and preserving care, His pleadings and
wooings, were lavished on them. Then came the terrible words quoted, "He gave
them up." He simply answered their tacit persistent prayer to be left alone. He
left them, alone. He left them to themselves. The process is quite clear. A few
years later, writing from Rome to the Ephesians, Paul traces the steps in the
process, on the human side, by which a man goes away from God to his doom
(Ephesians 4:17-19). He says, "Walk no longer as the outsiders (Gentiles) also
walk in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding,
alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them,
because of the hardening of their heart; who being past feeling give themselves
up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness:" The natural
steps in the process are partially reversed here. He begins where the outsiders
are at the time walking, or living the wrong sort of life. Then he traces the
steps backward toward their starting-point, and adds the climax. Let us put them
in the order in which they naturally happen. First, there's the "hardening of
the heart," or setting one's will against God. This results in their being
"alienated," that is, cut off from God. Their action automatically cuts them off
from God, but in their wilful ignorance they don't realize what they are doing.
Then quickly follows their being "darkened in their understanding." The whole
mental processes are affected. The moral vision blurs. They call good evil, and
evil good; darkness light and the reverse, and so on (see Isaiah 5:20). With
this is joined naturally "the vanity of their minds." In failing to get things
straight, they easily get full of their own ideas spun out of the fancy of their
colored imaginations. And this of course controls their "walk," that is, the
practices of their daily life. And when this stage is reached, it quickly gets
to the sad "past feeling" stage, morally. They give them-selves up to
unrestrained passion and lust. And the last, hardened stage is where lust is
traded in for sordid gain. The whole movement, it will be thoughtfully noticed
is automatic. It is the natural logical staircase downward. And that is
describing things in this life. It is like that here. What will it be there?
Here, now, grace still influences, even though resisted. There, then, it
apparently is quite kept out, shut out. Jesus' treatment of Judas that betrayal
night sheds a flood of light here (John 13:21-30). There was the utmost effort
to keep Judas in. The plain-spoken warning Judas instantly recognized as meant
for himself. Then there's the bit of tender personal love-touch in handing Judas
the tid-bit, the first morsel from the dish containing the simple evening meal.
But Judas hardens his heart against warnings and tender pleadings alike. That
hardening, which was a shutting out of God, was a letting in of some one else.
Then Judas, bent on carrying his purpose, rises and goes out. And it was black
night out where he had gone.


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  CHAPTER 64: A DRAMATIC ILLUSTRATION
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A Dramatic Illustration It will be noticed that these passages all have to do
with the present life. And we are talking about the future life. But these
reveal God's habit in dealing with men. And at heart, this is a question about
God. Will God be fair? In the common talk of the crowd, "will God play fair?"
These passages show how God does now. They do more. They show the principle that
controls Him in his dealings. We see His unvarying insistence of man being free
to choose. And they show the process that works out under that principle. Unless
there are some specific statements in the Book regarding a change of principle
and process we would naturally look for this treatment to continue beyond the
grave. And, be it carefully noted, there are no such specific statements. But,
now, we turn to another sort of passage. It is the story of Pharaoh in Egypt.
And it should be keenly noted that here God is dealing in judgment. That is, He
is acting to settle-up long-standing wrongs, and to straighten them out. The
Hebrews had been wronged in the most grievous way for several generations. The
Pharaohs had oppressed them with increasing heartless severity. There had been a
long period of long-suffering by God toward the Pharaohs. Now a settlement time
has come. That is what judgment, in principle, is. There are now specific
warnings and requests and pleadings with Pharaoh before action is taken finally.
Then comes a carefully graduated series of transactions that constitute a
visitation of judgments upon Egypt. They grow steadily from less to greater,
from bad to worse. And there's always an interval between times to give Pharaoh
opportunity to make the changes needed. There is a significant word here. It
seems to be used about nineteen times in a brief space. It's the word "harden,"
in varying forms. God says, "I will harden his (Pharaoh's) heart" (Exodus 4:21;
Exodus 7:3; Exodus 14:4; Exodus 14:17). Nine times it says, with some
variations, that He hardened Pharaoh's heart (Exodus 7:13-14; Exodus 7:22;
Exodus 9:12; Exodus 9:35; Exodus 10:20; Exodus 10:27; Exodus 11:10; Exodus
14:8). And five times it says that Pharaoh hardened his heart, or was stuhborn
(Exodus 8:15; Exodus 8:19; Exodus 8:32; Exodus 9:7; Exodus 9:34). That hardening
was, and is, an unnatural thing, though so common. Man was created to live in
touch with God. Out of that touch he is out of his native environment. And he
doesn't act as he naturally would. Pharaoh had persistently shut God's pleadings
with his inner heart, and God's presence, out. He cut himself off from that
influence which would have made him act in a true human natural way. The result
is expressed in this significant way. His heart was hardened or heavy. It was
stubbornly set. And it says distinctly that he sinned in this very thing of
hardening himself against God (Exodus 9:34). He had been doing this for long.
Now the decision time has come. God purposes to let the Egyptians and the
Hebrews and the world know directly of His rejected scorned power. He simply now
withdraws some of the creative touch He has been keeping on Pharaoh. Some of his
gracious restraint is withdrawn. That is all. He doesn't do anything except to
stop, partly, what He has been doing. The visitation of judgment runs through
plagues or pests, disease, storms, the death of every Egyptian first-born son,
and the drowning of the Egyptian army. In each case it is quite possible that
the action came simply through the withdrawal of divine restraint. And
every-thing of the sort in the Book favors the supposition that that was the way
it did come. In the case of the first-born dead there was nothing that the
Egyptians could see that happened to kill their heirs. They simply knew that the
babe or boy or young man was found lying dead in his bed. In the case of the
army drowning the wind blew back the waters. It was a special act of God's power
on behalf of His people. He held the waters back. When they were safe, that
power was withdrawn. The law of gravity pulled the waters back again. The
Egyptians in their headstrong rage put themselves in danger. The danger
materialized. The waters swamped them. The process was wholly a natural one.
Now, this is more than history. It is teaching, picture teaching. It's a triple
picture. It's a picture of God's patience, the most marked trait of His
character in the whole story. It's a picture of the obstinate headstrong
stubborn will of a man, out of his native element, God's gracious presence. It's
a picture of the principle and process in judgment. There are certain apparent
partial exceptions to this law of action. It seems like- arbitrary action on
God's part in the flood that destroys the whole race, except eight persons; and
in the terrific lightning-storm that wiped out Sodom and the other cities of the
Plain. But it is not at all clear that there was arbitrary action.. Ít is
impossible to know. And if so, it extended simply to the time element involved.
Sin left to itself burns itself out. There seems here simply a shortening of the
time involved in the natural process. And maybe not even that, for there may
have been a patiently extended restraint that prevented disaster from coming
earlier. Then the restraint withdrawn, nature's process worked out naturally,
and maybe faster through the acceleration of long restraint withdrawn. Let it be
thoughtfully marked that God has hung up these and other danger signals in full
view. The train I was on the other day ran by a large powder factory. And
everywhere about the place I could read, even as we hurried by, the warnings in
large letters against "matches" and the like. We ran by some out-buildings of
the railroad company, with stringent warnings in plain view against inflammables
because of the contents of these buildings. God's danger signals are in big bold
letters, hung up where all the race can read. The Dead Sea is a warning signal,
known to all. It's the deepest ugliest scar on the earth's surface. No life can
exist there, neither animal nor vegetable. It points out the fact of judgment on
'wrong. But there's something closer by. Nature's common laws are inexorable,
mercilessly inexorable, aye, because merciless therefore merciful, mercifully
inexorable. The fire mercilessly burns your hand if you stick it in. Instantly
you snatch it out. The pain mercifully leads you to keep your whole anti from
the flame. In contrast, man's laws are notoriously loose. And so the contagion
of evil spreads. One murderer acquitted is followed by other murders. It never
fails. Failure to uphold the dignity of law leads to a lowered moral tone in the
community, inevitably. A king or a president, loose in his personal morality,
always leads the crowd down the same incline. Nature's laws are merciful because
they are so merciless. The warning signals are at hand everywhere. This then
traces the process of God's dealing with the man who sets himself against God.
It is a process of patient strong love on God's part, and of reluctant
witholding of what is being rejected. It is, a process of terrible de-gradation
on man's part, gradation downwards.


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  CHAPTER 65: A STUDY IN CHANCES
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A Study in Chances And now we swing back to our starting point on this talk. It
is really quite accurate to say that this is a study of chances. That is to say,
technically, theoretically, the thing is not settled at death. It is never
settled. The way is always open for another chance. That statement is logically
technically, accurate. Underscore technically. Technically means so far as the
points of logic are concerned. But what about actually? The man on the street is
impatient of theory. He is concerned only with the practical. And so now we will
discuss the thing wholly from the practical, the common sense point of view.
What are a man's chances who passes out of this life without taking advantage of
his opportunity Godward? And the answer to this is very plain and positive. You
know that there is now a science of chances. At least it is reckoned a science
for all practical, that is to say, for money-making purposes. The great life
insurance and assurance companies have experts on chances. And the huge volume
of business they transact, involving billions of dollars, is based wholly on the
findings of these experts. These men are called actuaries. An actuary is one
skilled in the doctrine and practice of chances as applied to human life. They
calculate your chance of life in the most critical impersonal dispassionate way.
They have the whole subject of chances down to a science. That is, down to the
point of definite knowledge of certain facts and tendencies. They have worked
out a law of chances. It is with them purely a matter of money. Now let me say
soberly that there is here a study in the science of chances. And when you sift
the thing down to the last word, the final word is not spoken by God. It is
spoken by the man concerned. It is wholly a matter of his choice. It can be
said, very thoughtfully, that so far as God is concerned, judging simply from
His character as revealed in this Book, that there is never a time when a man
turning to God in true penitence would not find God's door wide open. But, but,
the probability or chance of a man changing his choice is so extremely remote
that it can be said in the most positive terms that there is not another chance
beyond the grave. The matter rests with the man. And he won't give himself the
chance. The man who doesn't do today, what he knows in his heart he should do,
is are you listening very quietly? is, let me say it very quietly, but as
plainly as English can put it, he is playing the part of a it's a hard word to
say, but it's literally a true word, so it must be said, even though saying it
gives sharpest pain, he is playing the part of a fool. He is a fool, and not
even a bright fool. He is playing a losing game. That means a lost game. He is
still playing but the game is settled by the law of chance, and settled lost.
That is not simply using strong language. It is really an understatement. The
word fool is less than what the man is. Why do I say that? Listen very
thoughtfully, and I will tell you why. It is easier to make the right choice
today than it will be tomorrow. It will be actually harder tomorrow. No, that
isn't simply good Methodist exhorting. That's true, as a mere bit of pure
psychology. It's a scientific statement according- to the fixed law of chances.
Let me explain why. You see the whole thing depends on the thing in the man that
does the choosing. If he knows today, by the inner feel, that he should accept
Jesus as his Saviour, with all that that means, and he doesn't do it, he is
making a decision. He is choosing. He is choosing not to choose. That act of
choosing affects his choosing power. It becomes at once a bit more set in its
way, the way he has set it. It's like a bit of cement, it begins to harden. You
say, "O, yes, but it's very slight." Yes, but however slight, it is so. He has a
tougher task tomorrow. That inner pull is offset. And every tomorrow the thing
gets more set. It grows unlikelier every day that he will do that bit of
choosing, simply because, just now, the choosing power is harder set the other
way. If you do a thing once you can do it again. And you are likely to. You will
do it faster and more easily, and better or more decidedly or more skilfully.
Now let that go on for years, and then keep going on beyond the grave. And it
comes to the point where he can't change. Theoretically he can. So far as God is
concerned the way is open to him. Actually he can't. The choosing power is
hardened beyond change. When he could, he wouldn't. Now he can't. And note
sharply, he doesn't want to. It isn't to say that now when he would he can't;
not that. He still can, so far as God is concerned, but he does not want to. He
wants to get away from the suffering, working out of his insistent choice. But
he doesn't want to get into normal touch with God, through the crucified Christ.
This is the "great gulf fixed," the impassable gulf. The rich man in Luke
Sixteenth evinced no desire to change his choice. There was no change in his
attitude toward God nor toward his own selfish life on the earth. The only thing
distressing him was the pain he was suffering. He wanted to get rid of that.
That was all. For notice how that choosing power in a man is limbered up so it
can reverse itself. It is not by some act of judgment, nor by pain, nor
suffering of any sort. All evidence makes it quite clear that these things of
themselves do not soften; they harden. It is only God's gracious softening
mellowing touch that can unlimber that hardened stiffened rusted will. And
that's shut out. The man has shut out the one thing that would normalize his
choosing faculty and help him change his choice.


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  CHAPTER 66: LOVE NEVER FAILETH
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Love Never Faileth And so this authoritative Book makes very positive statements
about the terrible final result for the man who insists on leaving God out, or
openly antagonizes His rule. The Book has a distinctive way of putting things.
It is a popular book, in the best sense of that word. It is, of course, an
Oriental book. And that is the same thing as saying that it is a book for the
common crowd of men everywhere. The Oriental mode of thought and expression is
really photographic. That is, it catches a picture at one point only. It states
final fixed results, but doesn't go to giving the process by which that result
is reached. The characteristic western way is different. I mean the cultured
scholarly way. I could say the book way as distinct from the common way of the
crowd. It goes to processes. It analyzes and. dissects the process by which the
result is reached. It is more like the moving picture photographs, giving the
story in successive steps. There's a distinct touch of divine wisdom and insight
in the use of this Oriental mode in the make-up of the Bible. For this is the
common mode of thought and expression, not only of the Oriental world to this
day, but, broader, the common method of the crowds everywhere, in west-ern
civilized lands as well as in the uncivilized and half-civilized lands. And so
the Book in its rare wisdom puts the thing in the way that is instantly
understood by the common people everywhere around the world, and by all others,
too. It states the final result. And it is found to be the result which we have
found here at the end of our study of the process. It is the result reached by
the specialist in the law of probability. It makes a profound impression upon a
man studying the process to find the rare accuracy and the profound human wisdom
of the statements of this old Listen to its simple, tremendously positive,
language. "He that believeth not (or disbe lieveth) shall be damned (or
condemned)" (Mark 16:16). "He that believeth (or obeyeth) not the son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). "These shall go away
into everlasting (or eternal) punishment" (Matthew 25:46). These are
authoritative statements of this Book of God. And they are fully concurred in by
the human law of probabilities. And so very thoughtfully you repeat the answer
to the question. Is there another chance after death? Yes, and no. So far as the
character of God's love is concerned there is another chance, a chance that
seemingly never runs out. So, far as man's decision is concerned there is not
another chance. And man's decision is the decisive thing. God Leaves the matter
with a man's free choice. He insists that a man shall stay up on the original
level of free choice and action. And so the last word, on the last page in the
old Book, is a pleading word. It is spoken by the Man who died. He cries out
earnestly, "He that will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation
22:17 l.c.). The legend is told of a French mother who loved her son with a
tense unselfish devotion. But he was caught by the wildfire of lust, and the
flames burned deep. He came under the fascination of a rarely beautiful but
utterly heartless bad woman. The mother held on to her son with love's tenacity
and pleadings. The evil woman was enraged that she was not able to wipe out
completely the mother's influence. In an evil hour, when her spell was strong,
she got the young man's promise to bring to her the heart of his mother. The
legend pictures him keeping the promise. He was hurrying to his appointment with
the evil charmer, with the bundle under his arm that contained his mother's
heart. He stumbled and fell. And at once the voice he knew so well spoke with
tender solicitude out of the bleeding heart, "Oh, my son, are you hurt," There
was no reproach; only love; love's concern; undying self-effacing love. A
legend; yes, but it is true to life. It pictures the true mother. He could kill
her, but he couldn't kill her love, nor still her voice. The mother love is the
greatest human love known. The true mother-heart comes the nearest to God's
heart. God suffers when any creative child of his suffers. He suffers more over
any one going to hell than the man who goes suffers. The man's capacity for
finer suffering grows less. The finer feelings grow gross. God's suffering
increases. But he won't rob man of his highest power, free choice, even to
lessen his own suffering. God's love never faileth. It can't. It won't.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/quiet-talks-on-life-after-death/
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