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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19082.txt b/19082.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f83b858 --- /dev/null +++ b/19082.txt @@ -0,0 +1,42559 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Destiny of the Soul, by William Rounseville Alger + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Destiny of the Soul + A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life + +Author: William Rounseville Alger + +Release Date: August 19, 2006 [EBook #19082] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DESTINY OF THE SOUL *** + + + + +Produced by Edmund Dejowski + + + + + +THE DESTINY OF THE SOUL. + +A CRITICAL HISTORY +OF THE +DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE, + +BY +WILLIAM ROUNSEVILLE ALGER. + +TENTH EDITION, + +WITH SIX NEW CHAPTERS, AND + +A Complete Bibliography of the Subject. +[Note: bibliography not included here] + +COMPRISING 4977 BOOKS RELATING TO THE NATURE, ORIGIN, AND +DESTINY OF THE SOUL. THE TITLES CLASSIFIED AND ARRANGED +CHRONOLOGICALLY, WITH NOTES, AND INDEXES OF THE AUTHORS AND +SUBJECTS. + +BY EZRA ABBOT, + +PROFESSOR OF NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION IN +THE DIVINITY SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. + + +BOSTON: +ROBERTS BROTHERS. +1880 + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by +WILLIAM ROUNSEVILLE ALGER, +in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United +States for the District of Massachusetts. + +Copyright 1878, W.R. Alger + +ELECTROTYPED BY JOHNSON & CO., PHILADA. + +University Press: John Wilson & Son, +Cambridge. + + +PREFACE TO THE TENTH EDITION. + + +THIS work has passed through nine editions, and has been out of +print now for nearly a year. During the twenty years which have +elapsed since it was written, the question of immortality, the +faith and opinions of men and the drift of criticism and doubt +concerning it, have been a subject of dominant interest to me, and +have occupied a large space in my reading and reflection. +Accordingly, now that my publisher, moved by the constant demand +for the volume, urges the preparation of a new edition introducing +such additional materials as my continued researches have gathered +or constructed, I gladly comply with his request. + +The present work is not only historic but it is also polemic; +polemic, however, not in the spirit or interest of any party or +conventicle, but in the spirit and interest of science and +humanity. Orthodoxy insists on doctrines whose irrationality in +their current forms is such that they can never be a basis for the +union of all men. Therefore, to discredit these, in preparation +for more reasonable and auspicious views, is a service to the +whole human race. This is my justification for the controversial +quality which may frequently strike the reader. + +Looking back over his pages, after nearly a quarter of a century +more of investigation and experience, the author is grateful that +he finds nothing to retract or expunge. He has but to add such +thoughts and illustrations as have occurred to him in the course +of his subsequent studies. He hopes that the supplementary +chapters now published will be found more suggestive and mature +than the preceding ones, while the same in aim and tone. For he +still believes, as he did in his earlier time, that there is much +of error and superstition, bigotry and cruelty, to be purged out +of the prevailing theological creed and sentiment of Christendom. +And he still hopes, as he did then, to contribute something of +good influence in this direction. The large circulation of the +work, the many letters of thanks for it received by the author +from laymen and clergymen of different denominations, the numerous +avowed and unavowed quotations from it in recent publications, +all show that it has not been produced in vain, but has borne +fruit in missionary service for reason, liberty, and charity. + +This ventilating and illumining function of fearless and +reverential critical thought will need to be fulfilled much longer +in many quarters. The doctrine of a future life has been made so +frightful by the preponderance in it of the elements of material +torture and sectarian narrowness, that a natural revulsion of +generous sentiment joins with the impulse of materialistic science +to produce a growing disbelief in any life at all beyond the +grave. Nothing else will do so much to renew and extend faith in +God and immortality as a noble and beautiful doctrine of God and +immortality, freed from disfiguring terror, selfishness, and +favoritism. + +The most popular preacher in England has recently asked his +fellow believers, "Can we go to our beds and sleep while China, +India, Japan, and other nations are being damned?" The proprietor +of a great foundry in Germany, while he talked one day with a +workman who was feeding a furnace, accidentally stepped back, and +fell headlong into a vat of molten iron. The thought of what +happened then horrifies the imagination. Yet it was all over in +two or three seconds. Multiply the individual instance by +unnumbered millions, stretch the agony to temporal infinity, and +we confront the orthodox idea of hell! + +Protesting human nature hurls off such a belief with indignant +disdain, except in those instances where the very form and +vibration of its nervous pulp have been perverted by the hardening +animus of a dogmatic drill transmitted through generations. To +trace the origin of such notions, expose their baselessness, +obliterate their sway, and replace them with conceptions of a more +rational and benignant order, is a task which still needs to be +done, and to be done in many forms, over and over, again and +again. Though each repetition tell but slightly, it tells. + +Every sound argument is instantly crowned with universal victory +in the sight of God, and therefore must at last be so in the sight +of mankind. However slowly the logic of events limps after the +logic of thoughts, it always follows. Let the mind of one man +perceive the true meaning of the doctrine of the general +resurrection and judgment and eternal life, as a natural evolution +of history from within, and it will spread to the minds of all +men; and the misinterpretation of that doctrine so long prevalent, +as a preternatural irruption of power from without, will be set +aside forever. For there is a providential plan of God, not +injected by arbitrary miracle, but inhering in the order of the +world, centred in the propulsive heart of humanity, which beats +throb by throb along the web of events, removing obstacles and +clearing the way for the revelation of the completed pattern. When +it is done no trumpets may be blown, no rocks rent, no graves +opened. But all immortal spirits will be at their goals, and the +universe will be full of music. + +NEW YORK, February 22, 1878. + +PREFACE. + + +WHO follows truth carries his star in his brain. Even so bold a +thought is no inappropriate motto for an intellectual workman, if +his heart be filled with loyalty to God, the Author of truth and +the Maker of stars. In this double spirit of independence and +submission it has been my desire to perform the arduous task now +finished and offered to the charitable judgment of the reader. One +may be courageous to handle both the traditions and the novelties +of men, and yet be modest before the solemn mysteries of fate and +nature. He may place no veil before his eyes and no finger on his +lips in presence of popular dogmas, and yet shrink from the +conceit of esteeming his mind a mirror of the universe. Ideas, +like coins, bear the stamp of the age and brain they were struck +in. Many a phantom which ought to have vanished at the first cock +crowing of reason still holds its seat on the oppressed heart of +faith before the terror stricken eyes of the multitude. Every +thoughtful scholar who loves his fellow men must feel it an +obligation to do what he can to remove painful superstitions, and +to spread the peace of a cheerful faith and the wholesome light of +truth. The theories in theological systems being but philosophy, +why should they not be freely subjected to philosophical +criticism? I have endeavored, without virulence, arrogance, or +irreverence towards any thing sacred, to investigate the various +doctrines pertaining to the great subject treated in these pages. +Many persons, of course, will find statements from which they +dissent, sentiments disagreeable to them. But, where thought and +discussion are so free and the press so accessible as with us, no +one but a bigot will esteem this a ground of complaint. May all +such passages be charitably perused, fairly weighed, and, if +unsound, honorably refuted! If the work be not animated with a +mean or false spirit, but be catholic and kindly, if it be not +superficial and pretentious, but be marked by patience and +thoroughness, is it too much to hope that no critic will assail it +with wholesale condemnation simply because in some parts of it +there are opinions which he dislikes? One dispassionate argument +is more valuable than a shower of missile names. The most vehement +revulsion from a doctrine is not inconsistent, in a Christian +mind, with the sweetest kindness of feeling towards the persons +who hold that doctrine. Earnest theological debate may be carried +on without the slightest touch of ungenerous personality. Who but +must feel the pathos and admire the charity of these eloquent +words of Henry Giles? + +"Every deep and reflective nature looking intently 'before and +after,' looking above, around, beneath, and finding silence and +mystery to all his questionings of the Infinite, cannot but +conceive of existence as a boundless problem, perhaps an +inevitable darkness between the limitations of man and the +incomprehensibility of God. A nature that so reflects, that +carries into this sublime and boundless obscurity 'the large +discourse of Reason,' will not narrow its concern in the solution +of the problem to its own petty safety, but will brood over it +with an anxiety which throbs for the whole of humanity. Such a +nature must needs be serious; but never will it be arrogant: it +will regard all men with an embracing pity. Strange it should ever +be otherwise in respect to inquiries which belong to infinite +relations, that mean enmities, bitter hatreds, should come into +play in these fathomless searchings of the soul! Bring what +solution we may to this problem of measureless alternatives, +whether by Reason, Scripture, or the Church, faith will never +stand for fact, nor the firmest confidence for actual +consciousness. The man of great and thoughtful nature, therefore, +who grapples in real earnest with this problem, however satisfied +he may be with his own solution of it, however implicit may be his +trust, however assured his convictions, will yet often bow down +before the awful veil that shrouds the endless future, put his +finger on his lips, and weep in silence." + +The present work is in a sense, an epitome of the thought of +mankind on the destiny of man. I have striven to add value to it +by comprehensiveness of plan, not confining myself, as most of my +predecessors have confined themselves, to one province or a few +narrow provinces of the subject, but including the entire subject +in one volume; by carefulness of arrangement, not piling the +material together or presenting it in a chaos of facts and dreams, +but grouping it all in its proper relations; by clearness of +explanation, not leaving the curious problems presented wholly in +the dark with a mere statement of them, but as far as possible +tracing the phenomena to their origin and unveiling their purport; +by poetic life of treatment, not handling the different topics +dryly and coldly, but infusing warmth and color into them; by +copiousness of information, not leaving the reader to hunt up +every thing for himself, but referring him to the best sources for +the facts, reasonings, and hints which he may wish; and by +persevering patience of toil, not hastily skimming here and there +and hurrying the task off, but searching and researching in every +available direction, examining and re examining each mooted point, +by the devotion of twelve years of anxious labor. How far my +efforts in these particulars have been successful is submitted to +the public. + +To avoid the appearance of pedantry in the multiplication of foot +notes, I have inserted many authorities incidentally in the text +itself, and have omitted all except such as I thought would be +desired by the reader. Every scholar knows how easy it is to +increase the number of references almost indefinitely, and also +how deceptive such an ostensible evidence of wide reading may be. + +When the printing of this volume was nearly completed, and I had +in some instances made more references than may now seem needful, +the thought occurred to me that a full list of the books published +up to the present time on the subject of a future life, arranged +according to their definite topics and in chronological order, +would greatly enrich the work and could not fail often to be of +vast service. Accordingly, upon solicitation, a valued friend Mr. +Ezra Abbot, Jr., a gentleman remarkable for his varied and +accurate scholarship undertook that laborious task for me; and he +has accomplished it in the most admirable manner. No reader, +however learned, but may find much important information in the +bibliographical appendix which I am thus enabled to add to this +volume. Every student who henceforth wishes to investigate any +branch of the historical or philosophical doctrine of the +immortality of the soul, or of a future life in general, may thank +Mr. Abbot for an invaluable aid. + +As I now close this long labor and send forth the result, the +oppressive sense of responsibility which fills me is relieved by +the consciousness that I have herein written nothing as a bigoted +partisan, nothing in a petty spirit of opinionativeness, but have +intended every thought for the furtherance of truth, the honor of +God, the good of man. + +The majestic theme of our immortality allures yet baffles us. No +fleshly implement of logic or cunning tact of brain can reach to +the solution. That secret lies in a tissueless realm whereof no +nerve can report beforehand. We must wait a little. Soon we shall +grope and guess no more, but grasp and know. Meanwhile, shall we +not be magnanimous to forgive and help, diligent to study and +achieve, trustful and content to abide the invisible issue? In +some happier age, when the human race shall have forgotten, in +philanthropic ministries and spiritual worship, the bigotries and +dissensions of sentiment and thought, they may recover, in its +all embracing unity, that garment of truth which God made +originally "seamless as the firmament," now for so long a time +torn in shreds by hating schismatics. Oh, when shall we learn that +a loving pity, a filial faith, a patient modesty, best become us +and fit our state? The pedantic sciolist, prating of his clear +explanations of the mysteries of life, is as far from feeling the +truth of the case as an ape, seated on the starry summit of the +dome of night, chattering with glee over the awful prospect of +infinitude. What ordinary tongue shall dare to vociferate +egotistic dogmatisms where an inspired apostle whispers, with +reverential reserve, "We see through a glass darkly"? There are +three things, said an old monkish chronicler, which often make me +sad. First, that I know I must die; second, that I know not when; +third, that I am ignorant where I shall then be. + +"Est primum durum quod scio me moriturum: Secundum, timeo quia hoc +nescio quando: Hine tertium, flebo quod nescio ubi manebo." + +Man is the lonely and sublime Columbus of the creation, who, +wandering on this cloudy strand of time, sees drifted waifs and +strange portents borne far from an unknown somewhere, causing him +to believe in another world. Comes not death as a means to bear +him thither? Accordingly as hope rests in heaven, fear shudders at +hell, or doubt faces the dark transition, the future life is a +sweet reliance, a terrible certainty, or a pathetic perhaps. But +living in the present in the humble and loving discharge of its +duties, our souls harmonized with its conditions though aspiring +beyond them, why should we ever despair or be troubled overmuch? +Have we not eternity in our thought, infinitude in our view, and +God for our guide? + + +CONTENTS + + +Part First. + +HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL INTRODUCTORY VIEWS. + +CHAPTER I. + +THEORIES OF THE SOUL'S ORIGIN + +CHAPTER II. + +HISTORY OF DEATH + +CHAPTER III. + +GROUNDS OF THE BELIEF IN A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER IV. + +THEORIES OF THE SOUL'S DESTINATION + +Part Second. + +ETHNIC THOUGHTS CONCERNING A FUTURE LIFE. + +CHAPTER I. + +BARBARIAN NOTIONS OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER II. + +DRUIDIC DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER III. + +SCANDINAVIAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER IV. + +ETRUSCAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER V. + +EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER VI. + +BRAMANIC AND BUDDHIST DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER VII. + +PERSIAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HEBREW DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER IX. + +RABBINICAL DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER X. + +GREEK AND DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER XI. + +MOHAMMEDAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER XII. + +EXPLANATORY SURVEY OF THE FIELD AND ITS MYTHS + +Part Third. + +NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS CONCERNING A FUTURE LIFE. + +CHAPTER I. + +PETER'S DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER II. + +DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS + +CHAPTER III. + +DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE IN THE APOCALYPSE + +CHAPTER IV. + +PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER V. + +JOHN'S DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER VI. + +CHRIST'S TEACHINGS CONCERNING THE FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER VII. + +RESURRECTION OF CHRIST + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ESSENTIAL CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF DEATH AND LIFE + +Part Fourth. + +CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS CONCERNING A FUTURE LIFE. + +CHAPTER I. + +PATRISTIC DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER II. + +MEDIAVAL DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER III. + +MODERN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +Part Fifth. + +HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL DISSERTATIONS CONCERNING A FUTURE LIFE. + +CHAPTER I. + +DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE IN THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES + +CHAPTER II. + +METEMPSYCHOIS; OR, TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS + +CHAPTER III. + +RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH + +CHAPTER IV. + +DOCTRINE OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT; OR, CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE IDEA OF +A HELL + +CHAPTER V. + +THE FIVE THEORETIC MODES OF SALVATION + +CHAPTER VI. + +RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER VII. + +LOCAL FATE OF MAN IN THE ASTRONOMIC UNIVERSE + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CRITICAL HISTORY OF DISBELIEF IN A FUTURE LIFE + +CHAPTER IX. + +MORALITY OF THE DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE + +Part Sixth. + +SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTERS. + +CHAPTER I. + +THE END OF THE WORLD + +CHAPTER II. + +THE DAY OF JUDGMENT + +CHAPTER III. + +THE MYTHOLOGICAL HELL AND THE TRUE ONE; OR, THE LAW OF PERDITION + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE GATES OF HEAVEN; OR, THE LAW OF SALVATION IN ALL WORLDS + +CHAPTER V. + +RESUME OF THE SUBJECT: HOW THE QUESTION OF IMMORTALITY NOW STANDS + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE TRANSIENT AND THE PERMANENT IN THE DESTINY OF THE SOUL + +PART FIRST. + + +HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL INTRODUCTORY VIEWS. + +CHAPTER I. + +THEORIES OF THE SOUL'S ORIGIN. + +PAUSING, in a thoughtful hour, on that mount of observation whence +the whole prospect of life is visible, what a solemn vision greets +us! We see the vast procession of existence flitting across the +landscape, from the shrouded ocean of birth, over the illuminated +continent of experience, to the shrouded ocean of death. Who can +linger there and listen, unmoved, to the sublime lament of things +that die? Although the great exhibition below endures, yet it is +made up of changes, and the spectators shift as often. Each rank +of the host, as it advances from the mists of its commencing +career, wears a smile caught from the morning light of hope, but, +as it draws near to the fatal bourne, takes on a mournful cast +from the shadows of the unknown realm. The places we occupy were +not vacant before we came, and will not be deserted when we go, +but are forever filling and emptying afresh. + +"Still to every draught of vital breath +Renew'd throughout the bounds of earth and ocean, +The melancholy gates of death +Respond with sympathetic motion." + +We appear, there is a short flutter of joys and pains, a bright +glimmer of smiles and tears, and we are gone. But whence did we +come? And whither do we go? Can human thought divine the answer? + +It adds no little solemnity and pathos to these reflections to +remember that every considerate person in the unnumbered +successions that have preceded us, has, in his turn, confronted +the same facts, engaged in the same inquiry, and been swept from +his attempts at a theoretic solution of the problem into the real +solution itself, while the constant refrain in the song of +existence sounded behind him, "One generation passeth away, and +another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever." The +evanescent phenomena, the tragic plot and scenery of human birth, +action, and death, conceived on the scale of reality, clothed in + +"The sober coloring taken from an eye That hath kept watch o'er +man's mortality," + +and viewed in a susceptible spirit, are, indeed, overwhelmingly +impressive. They invoke the intellect to its most piercing +thoughts. They swell the heart to its utmost capacity of emotion. +They bring us upon the bended knees of wonder and prayer. + +"Between two worlds life hovers, like a star' +Twixt night and morn upon the horizon's verge. +How little do we know that which we are! +How less what we may be! The eternal surge +Of time and tide rolls on, and bears afar +Our bubbles: as the old burst, new emerge, +Lash'd from the foam of ages: while the graves +Of empires heave but like some passing waves." + +Widely regarding the history of human life from the beginning, +what a visionary spectacle it is! How miraculously permanent in +the whole! how sorrowfully ephemeral in the parts! What pathetic +sentiments it awakens! Amidst what awful mysteries it hangs! The +subject of the derivation of the soul has been copiously discussed +by hundreds of philosophers, physicians, and poets, from Vyasa to +Des Cartes, from Galen to Ennemoser, from Orpheus to Henry More, +from Aristotle to Frohschammer. German literature during the last +hundred years has teemed with works treating of this question from +various points of view. The present chapter will present a sketch +of these various speculations concerning the commencement and +fortunes of man ere his appearance on the stage of this world. + +The first theory to account for the origin of souls is that of +emanation. This is the analogical theory, constructed from the +results of sensible observation. There is, it says, one infinite +Being, and all finite spirits are portions of his substance, +existing a while as separate individuals, and then reassimilated +into the general soul. This form of faith, asserting the efflux of +all subordinate existence out of one Supreme Being, seems +sometimes to rest on an intuitive idea. It is spontaneously +suggested whenever man confronts the phenomena of creation with +reflective observation, and ponders the eternal round of birth and +death. Accordingly, we find traces of this belief all over the +world; from the ancient Hindu metaphysics whose fundamental +postulate is that the necessary life of God is one constant +process of radiation and resorption, "letting out and drawing in," +to that modern English poetry which apostrophizes the glad and +winsome child as + +"A silver stream +Breaking with laughter from the lake Divine +Whence all things flow." + +The conception that souls are emanations from God is the most +obvious way of accounting for the prominent facts that salute our +inquiries. It plausibly answers some natural questions, and boldly +eludes others. For instance, to the early student demanding the +cause of the mysterious distinctions between mind and body, it +says, the one belongs to the system of passive matter, the other +comes from the living Fashioner of the Universe. Again: this +theory relieves us from the burden that perplexes the finite mind +when it seeks to understand how the course of nature, the +succession of lives, can be absolutely eternal without involving +an alternating or circular movement. The doctrine of emanation +has, moreover, been supported by the supposed analytic similarity +of the soul to God. Its freedom, consciousness, intelligence, +love, correspond with what we regard as the attributes and essence +of Deity. The inference, however unsound, is immediate, that souls +are consubstantial with God, dissevered fragments of Him, sent +into bodies. But, in actual effect, the chief recommendation of +this view has probably been the variety of analogies and images +under which it admits of presentation. The annual developments of +vegetable life from the bosom of the earth, drops taken from a +fountain and retaining its properties in their removal, the +separation of the air into distinct breaths, the soil into +individual atoms, the utterance of a tone gradually dying away in +reverberated echoes, the radiation of beams from a central light, +the exhalation of particles of moisture from the ocean, the +evolution of numbers out of an original unity, these are among the +illustrations by which an exhaustless ingenuity has supported the +notion of the emanation of souls from God. That "something cannot +come out of nothing" is an axiom resting on the ground of our +rational instincts. And seeing all things within our comprehension +held in the chain of causes and effects, one thing always evolving +from another, we leap to the conclusion that it is precisely the +same with things beyond our comprehension, and that God is the +aboriginal reservoir of being from which all the rills of finite +existence are emitted. + +Against this doctrine the current objections are these two. First, +the analogies adduced are not applicable. The things of spirit and +those of matter have two distinct sets of predicates and +categories. It is, for example, wholly illogical to argue that +because the circuit of the waters is from the sea, through the +clouds, over the land, back to the sea again, therefore the +derivation and course of souls from God, through life, back to +God, must be similar. There are mysteries in connection with the +soul that baffle the most lynx eyed investigation, and on which no +known facts of the physical world can throw light. Secondly, the +scheme of emanation depends on a vulgar error, belonging to the +infancy of philosophic thought, and inconsistent with some +necessary truths. It implies that God is separable into parts, and +therefore both corporeal and finite. Divisible substance is +incompatible with the first predicates of Deity, namely, +immateriality and infinity. Before the conception of the +illimitable, spiritual unity of God, the doctrine of the emanation +of souls from Him fades away, as the mere figment of a dreaming +mind brooding over the suggestions of phenomena and apparent +correspondences. + +The second explanation of the origin of souls is that which says +they come from a previous existence. This is the theory of +imagination, framed in the free and seductive realm of poetic +thought. It is evident that this idea does not propose any +solution of the absolute origination of the soul, but only offers +to account for its appearance on earth. The pre existence of souls +has been most widely affirmed. Nearly the whole world of Oriental +thinkers have always taught it. Many of the Greek philosophers +held it. No small proportion of the early Church Fathers believed +it.1 And it is not without able advocates among the scholars and +thinkers + +1 Keil, Opuscula; Be Pre existentia Animarum. Beausobre, Hist. du +Manicheisme, lib. vii. cap. iv. + + +of our own age. There are two principal forms of this doctrine; +one asserting an ascent of souls from a previous existence below +the rank of man, the other a descent of souls from a higher +sphere. Generation is the true Jacob's ladder, on which souls are +ever ascending or descending. The former statement is virtually +that of the modern theory of development, which argues that the +souls known to us, obtaining their first organic being out of the +ground life of nature, have climbed up through a graduated series +of births, from the merest elementary existence, to the plane of +human nature. A gifted author, Dr. Hedge, has said concerning pre +existence in these two methods of conceiving it, writing in a +half humorous, half serious, vein, "It is to be considered as +expressing rather an exceptional than a universal fact. If here +and there some pure liver, or noble doer, or prophet voice, +suggests the idea of a revenant who, moved with pity for human +kind, and charged with celestial ministries, has condescended to + +'Soil his pure ambrosial weeds +With the rank vapors of this sin worn mould,' + +or if, on the other hand, the 'superfluity of naughtiness' +displayed by some abnormal felon seems to warrant the supposition +of a visit from the Pit, the greater portion of mankind, we +submit, are much too green for any plausible assumption of a +foregone training in good or evil. This planet is not their +missionary station, nor their Botany Bay, but their native soil. +Or, if we suppose they pre existed at all, we must rather believe +they pre existed as brutes, and have travelled into humanity by +the fish fowl quadruped road with a good deal of the habitudes and +dust of that tramp still sticking to them." The theory of +development, deriving human souls by an ascension from the lower +stages of rudimentary being, considered as a fanciful hypothesis +or speculative toy, is interesting, and not destitute of plausible +aspects. But, when investigated as a severe thesis, it is found +devoid of proof. It is enough here to say that the most +authoritative voices in science reject it, declaring that, though +there is a development of progress in the plan of nature, from the +more general to the more specific, yet there is no advance from +one type or race to another, no hint that the same individual ever +crosses the guarded boundaries of genus from one rank and kingdom +to another. Whatever progress there may be in the upward process +of natural creation or the stages of life, yet to suppose that the +life powers of insects and brutes survive the dissolution of their +bodies, and, in successive crossings of the death gulf, ascend to +humanity, is a bare assumption. It befits the delirious lips of +Beddoes, who says, + +"Had I been born a four legg'd child, methinks I might have found +the steps from dog to man And crept into his nature. Are there not +Those that fall down out of humanity Into the story where the +four legg'd dwell?" + +The doctrine that souls have descended from an anterior life on +high may be exhibited in three forms, each animated by a different +motive. The first is the view of some of the Manichean teachers, +that spirits were embodied by a hostile violence and cunning, the +force and fraud of the apostatized Devil. Adam and Eve were angels +sent to observe the doings of Lucifer, the rebel king of matter. +He seized these heavenly spies and encased them in fleshly +prisons. And then, in order to preserve a permanent union of these +celestial natures with matter, he contrived that their race should +be propagated by the sexes. Whenever by the procreative act the +germ body is prepared, a fiend hies from bale, or an angel stoops +from bliss, or a demon darts from his hovering in the air, to +inhabit and rule his growing clay house for a term of earthly +life. The spasm of impregnation thrills in fatal summons to hell +or heaven, and resistlessly drags a spirit into the appointed +receptacle. Shakspeare, whose genius seems to have touched every +shape of thought with adorning phrase, makes Juliet, distracted +with the momentary fancy that Romeo is a murderous villain, cry, + +"O Nature! what hadst thou to do in hell +When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend +In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?" + +The second method of explaining the descent of souls into this +life is by the supposition that the stable bliss, the uncontrasted +peace and sameness, of the heavenly experience, at last wearies +the people of Paradise, until they seek relief in a fall. The +perfect sweetness of heaven cloys, the utter routine and safety +tire, the salient spirits, till they long for the edge and hazard +of earthly exposure, and wander down to dwell in fleshly bodies +and breast the tempest of sin, strife, and sorrow, so as to give a +fresh charm once more to the repose and exempted joys of the +celestial realm. In this way, by a series of recurring lives below +and above, novelty and change with larger experience and more +vivid contentment are secured, the tedium and satiety of fixed +happiness and protection are modified by the relishing opposition +of varied trials of hardship and pain, the insufferable monotony +of immortality broken up and interpolated by epochs of surprise +and tingling dangers of probation. + +"Mortals, behold! the very angels quit +Their mansions unsusceptible of change, +Amid your dangerous bowers to sit +And through your sharp vicissitudes to range!" + +Thus round and round we run through an eternity of lives and +deaths. Surfeited with the unqualified pleasures of heaven, we +"straggle down to this terrene nativity:" When, amid the sour +exposures and cruel storms of the world, we have renewed our +appetite for the divine ambrosia of peace and sweetness, we +forsake the body and ascend to heaven; this constant recurrence +illustrating the great truths, that alternation is the law of +destiny, and that variety is the spice of life. + +But the most common derivation of the present from a previous life +is that which explains the descent as a punishment for sin. In +that earlier and loftier state, souls abused their freedom, and +were doomed to expiate their offences by a banished, imprisoned, +and burdensome life on the earth. "The soul," Plutarch writes, +"has removed, not from Athens to Sardis, or from Corinth to +Lemnos, but from heaven to earth; and here, ill at ease, and +troubled in this new and strange place, she hangs her head like a +decaying plant." + +Hundreds of passages to the same purport might easily be cited +from as many ancient writers. Sometimes this fall of souls from +their original estate was represented as a simultaneous event: a +part of the heavenly army, under an apostate leader, having +rebelled, were defeated, and sentenced to a chained bodily life. +Our whole race were transported at once from their native shores +in the sky to the convict land of this world. Sometimes the +descent was attributed to the fresh fault of each individual, and +was thought to be constantly happening. A soul tainted with impure +desire, drawn downwards by corrupt material gravitation, hovering +over the fumes of matter, inhaling the effluvia of vice, grew +infected with carnal longings and contagions, became fouled and +clogged with gross vapors and steams, and finally fell into a body +and pursued the life fitted to it below. A clear human child is a +shining seraph from heaven sunk thus low. Men are degraded +cherubim. + +"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: +The soul that rises with us, our life's star, +Hath had elsewhere its setting, +And cometh from afar." + +The theory of the pre existence of the soul merely removes the +mystery one stage further back, and there leaves the problem of +our origin as hopelessly obscure as before. It is sufficiently +refuted by the open fact that it is absolutely destitute of +scientific basis. The explanation of its wide prevalence as a +belief is furnished by two considerations. First, there were old +authoritative sages and poets who loved to speculate and dream, +and who published their speculations and dreams to reign over the +subject fancies of credulous mankind. Secondly, the conception was +intrinsically harmonious, and bore a charm to fascinate the +imagination and the heart. The fragmentary visions, broken +snatches, mystic strains, incongruous thoughts, fading gleams, +with which imperfectrecollection comes laden from our childish +years and our nightly dreams, are referred by self pleasing fancy +to some earlier and nobler existence. We solve the mysteries of +experience by calling them the veiled vestiges of a bright life +departed, pathetic waifs drifted to these intellectual shores over +the surge of feeling from the wrecked orb of an anterior +existence. It gratifies our pride to think the soul "a star +travelled stranger," a disguised prince, who has passingly +alighted on this globe in his eternal wanderings. The gorgeous +glimpses of truth and beauty here vouchsafed to genius, the +wondrous strains of feeling that haunt the soul in tender hours, +are feeble reminiscences of the prerogatives we enjoyed in those +eons when we trod the planets that sail around the upper world of +the gods. That ennui or plaintive sadness which in all life's deep +and lonesome hours seems native to our hearts, what is it but the +nostalgia of the soul remembering and pining after its distant +home? Vague and forlorn airs come floating into our consciousness, +as from an infinitely remote clime, freighted with a luxury of +depressing melancholy. + +"Ah! not the nectarous poppy lovers use, +Not daily labor's dull Lethean spring, +Oblivion in lost angels can infuse +Of the soil'd glory and the trailing wing." + +How attractive all this must be to the thoughts of men, how +fascinating to their retrospective and aspiring reveries, it +should be needless to repeat. How baseless it is as a +philosophical theory demanding sober belief, it should be equally +superfluous to illustrate further. + +The third answer to the question concerning the origin of the soul +is that it is directly created by the voluntary power of God. This +is the theory of faith, instinctively shrinking from the +difficulty of the problem on its scientific ground, and evading it +by a wholesale reference to Deity. Some writers have held that all +souls were created by the Divine fiat at the beginning of the +world, and laid up in a secret repository, whence they are drawn +as occasion calls. The Talmudists say, "All souls were made during +the six days of creation; and therefore generation is not by +traduction, but by infusion of a soul into body." Others maintain +that this production of souls was not confined to any past period, +but is continued still, a new soul being freshly created for every +birth. Whenever certain conditions meet, + +"Then God smites his hands together, +And strikes out a soul as a spark, +Into the organized glory of things, +From the deeps of the dark." + +This is the view asserted by Vincentius Victor in opposition to +the dogmatism of Tertullian on the one hand and to the doubts of +Augustine on the other.2 It is called the theory of Insufflation, +because it affirms that God immediately breathes a soul into each +new being: even as in the case of Adam, of whom we read that "God +breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a +living soul." The doctrine drawn from this Mosaic text, that the +soul is a divine substance, a breath of God, miraculously breathed +by Him into every creature at the commencement of its existence, +often reappears, and plays a prominent part in the history of +psychological opinions. It corresponds with the beautiful Greek +myth of Prometheus, who is fabled to have made a human image from +the dust of the ground, and then, by fire stolen from heaven, to +have animated it with a living soul. So man, as to his body, is +made of earthly clay; but the Promethean spark that forms his soul +is the fresh breath of God. There is no objection to the real +ground and essence of this theory, only to its form and +accompaniments. It is purely anthropomorphitic; it conceives God +as working, after the manner of a man, intermittently, +arbitrarily. It insulates the origination of souls from the fixed +course of nature, severs it from all connection with that common +process of organic life which weaves its inscrutable web through +the universe, that system of laws which expresses the unchanging +will of God, and which constitutes the order by whose solemn logic +alone He acts. The objection to this view is, in a word, that it +limits the creative action of God to human souls. We suppose that +He creates our bodies as well; that He is the immediate Author of +all life in the same sense in which He is the immediate Author of +our souls. The opponents of the creation theory, who strenuously +fought it in the seventeenth century, were accustomed to urge +against it the fanciful objection that "it puts God to an invenust + +2 Augustine, De Anima et ejus Origine, lib. iv. + + +employment scarce consistent with his verecundious holiness; for, +if it be true, whenever the lascivious consent to uncleanness and +are pleased to join in unlawful mixture, God is forced to stand a +spectator of their vile impurities, stooping from his throne to +attend their bestial practices, and raining down showers of souls +to animate the emissions of their concupiscence"3 + +A fourth reply to the inquiry before us is furnished in +Tertullian's famous doctrine of Traduction, the essential import +of which is that all human souls have been transmitted, or brought +over, from the soul of Adam. This is the theological theory: for +it arose from an exigency in the dogmatic system generally held by +the patristic Church. The universal depravity of human nature, the +inherited corruption of the whole race, was a fundamental point of +belief. But how reconcile this proposition with the conception, +entertained by many, that each new born soul is a fresh creation +from the "substance," "spirit," or "breath" of God? Augustine +writes to Jerome, asking him to solve this question.4 Tertullian, +whose fervid mind was thoroughly imbued with materialistic +notions, unhesitatingly cut this Gordian knot by asserting that +our first parent bore within him the undeveloped germ of all +mankind, so that sinfulness and souls were propagated together. 5 +Thus the perplexing query, "how souls are held in the chain of +original sin," was answered. As Neander says, illustrating +Tertullian's view, "The soul of the first man was the fountain +head of all human souls: all the varieties of individual human +nature are but modifications of that one spiritual substance." In +the light of such a thought, we can see how Nature might, when +solitary Adam lived, fulfil Lear's wild conjuration, and + +"All the germens spill +At once that make ingrateful man." + +In the seventh chapter of the Koran it is written, "The Lord drew +forth their posterity from the loins of the sons of Adam." The +commentators say that God passed his hand down Adam's back, and +extracted all the generations which should come into the world +until the resurrection. Assembled in the presence of the angels, +and endued with understanding, they confessed their dependence on +God, and were then caused to return into the loins of their great +ancestor. This is one of the most curious doctrines within the +whole range of philosophical history. It implies the strict +corporeality of the soul; and yet how infinitely fine must be its +attenuation when it has been diffused into countless thousands of +millions! Der Urkeim theilt sich ins Unendliche. + +"What! will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?" + +The whole thought is absurd. It was not reached by an induction of +facts, a study of phenomena, or any fair process of reasoning, but +was arbitrarily created to rescue a dogma from otherwise +inevitable rejection. It was the desperate clutch of a heady +theologian reeling in a vortex of hostile argument, and ready to +seize any fancy, however artificial, to save + +3 Edward Warren, No Pre Existence, p. 74. + +4 Epistola CLXVI. + +5 De Anima, cap. x. et xix. + + +himself from falling under the ruins of his system. Henry Woolner +published in London, in 1655, a book called "Extraction of Soul: a +sober and judicious inquiry to prove that souls are propagated; +because, if they are created, original sin is impossible." + +The theological dogma of traduction has been presented in two +forms. First, it is declared that all souls are developed out of +the one substance of Adam's soul; a view that logically implies an +ultimate attenuating diffusion, ridiculously absurd. Secondly, it +is held that "the eating of the forbidden fruit corrupted all the +vital fluids of Eve; and this corruption carried vicious and +chaotic consequences into her ova, in which lay the souls of all +her posterity, with infinitely little bodies, already existing."6 +This form is as incredible as the other; for it equally implies a +limitless distribution of souls from a limited deposit. As Whewell +says, "This successive inclusion of germs (Einschachtelungs +Theorie) implies that each soul contains an infinite number of +germs."7 It necessarily excludes the formation of new spiritual +substance: else original transmitted sin is excluded. The doctrine +finds no parallelism anywhere else in nature. Who, no matter how +wedded to the theology of original sin and transmitted death, +would venture to stretch the same thesis over the animal races, +and affirm that the dynamic principles, or animating souls, of all +serpents, eagles, and lions, were once compressed in the first +patriarchal serpent, eagle, or lion? + +That the whole formative power of all the simultaneous members of +our race was concentrated in the first cell germ of our original +progenitor, is a scientific impossibility and incredibleness. The +fatal sophistry in the traducian account of the transmission of +souls may be illustrated in the following manner. The germs of all +the apple trees now in existence did not lie in the first apple +seed. All the apple trees now existing were not derived by literal +development out of the actual contents of the first apple seed. +No: but the truth is this. There was a power in the first apple +seed to secure certain conditions; that is, to organize a certain +status in which the plastic vegetative life of nature would posit +new and similar powers and materials. So not all souls were latent +in Adam's, but only an organizing power to secure the conditions +on which the Divine Will that first began, would, in accordance +with His creative plan, forever continue, His spirit creation. The +distinction of this statement from that of traduction is the +difference between evolution from one original germ or stock and +actual production of new beings. Its distinction from the third +theory the theory of immediate creation is the difference between +an intermittent interposition of arbitrary acts and the continuous +working of a plan according to laws scientifically traceable. + +There is another solution to the question of the soul's origin, +which has been propounded by some philosophers and may be called +the speculative theory. Its statement is that the germs of souls +were created simultaneously with the formation of the material +universe, and were copiously sown abroad through all nature, +waiting there to be successively taken up and furnished with the +conditions of development.8 These latent seeds of souls, swarming +in all places, are drawn in with the first breath or imbibed with +the earliest nourishment of the + +6 Hennings, Geschichte von den Seelen der Menschen, s. 500. + +7 Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. I. b. ix. ch. iv. +sect. 4. + +8 Ploucquet, De Origin atque Generatione Anima Humana ex +Principiis Monadologicis stabilita. + +new born child into the already constructed body which before has +only a vegetative life. The Germans call this representation +panspermismus, or the dissemination theory. Leibnitz, in his +celebrated monadology, carries the same view a great deal further. +He conceives the whole created universe, visible and invisible, to +consist of monads, which are not particles of matter, but +metaphysical points of power. These monads are all souls. They are +produced by what he calls fulgurations of God. The distinction +between fulguration and emanation is this: in the latter case the +procession is historically defined and complete; in the former +case it is momentaneous. The monads are radiated from the Divine +Will, forth through the creation, by the constant flashes of His +volition. All nature is composed of them, and nothing is +depopulated and dead. Their naked being is force, and their +indestructible predicates are perception, desire, tendency to +develop. While they lie dormant, their potential capacities all +inwrapped, they constitute what we entitle matter. When, by the +rising stir of their inherent longing, they leave their passive +state and reach a condition of obscure consciousness, they become +animals. Finally, they so far unwind their bonds and evolve their +facultative potencies as to attain the rank of rational minds in +the grade of humanity. Generation is merely the method by which +the aspiring monad lays the organic basis for the grouped building +of its body. Man is a living union of monads, one regent monad +presiding over the whole organization. That king monad which has +attained to full apperception, the free exercise of perfect +consciousness, is the immortal human soul. 9 Any labored attempt +to refute this ingenious doctrine is needless, since the doctrine +itself is but the developed structure of a speculative conception +with no valid basis of observed fact. It is a sheer hypothesis, +spun out of the self fed bowels of a priori assumption and +metaphysic fancy. It solves the problems only by changes of their +form, leaving the mysteries as numerous and deep as before. It is +a beautiful and sublime piece of latent poetry, the evolution and +architecture of which well display the wonderful genius of +Leibnitz. It is a more subtle and powerful process of thought than +Aristotle's Organon, a more pure and daring work of imagination +than Milton's Paradise Lost. But it spurns the tests of +experimental science, and is entitled to rank only among the +splendid curiosities of philosophy; a brilliant and plausible +theorem, not a sober and solid induction. + +One more method of treating the inquiry before us will complete +the list. It is what we may properly call the scientific theory, +though in truth it is hardly a theory at all, but rather a careful +statement of the observed facts, and a modest confession of +inability to explain the cause of them. Those occupying this +position, when asked what is the origin of souls, do not pretend +to unveil the final secret, but simply say, everywhere in the +world of life, from bottom to top, there is an organic growth in +accordance with conditions. This is what is styled the theory of +epigenesis, and is adopted by the chief physiologists of the +present day. Swammerdam, Malebranche, even Cuvier, had defended +the doctrine of successive inclusion; but Wolf, Blumenbach, and +Von Baer established in its place the doctrine of epigenesis. 10 + +9 Leibnitz, Monadologie. + +10 Ennemoser, Historisch psychologische Untersuchungen tiber den +Ursprung der menschlichen Seelen, zweite Auflage. + + +Scrupulously confining themselves to the mass of collected facts +and the course of scrutinized phenomena, they say there is a +natural production of new living beings in conformity to certain +laws, and give an exposition of the fixed conditions and sequences +of this production. Here they humbly stop, acknowledging that the +causal root of power, which produces all these consequences, is an +inexplicable mystery. Their attitude is well represented by +Swedenborg when he says, in reference to this very subject, "Any +one may form guesses; but let no son of earth pretend to penetrate +the mysteries of creation." 11 + +Let us notice now the facts submitted to us. First, at the base of +the various departments of nature, we see a mass of apparently +lifeless matter. Out of this crude substratum of the outward world +we observe a vast variety of organized forms produced by a +variously named but unknown Power. They spring in regular methods, +in determinate shapes, exist on successive stages of rank, with +more or less striking demarcations of endowment, and finally fall +back again, as to their physical constituents, into the inorganic +stuff from which they grew. This mysterious organizing Power, +pushing its animate and builded receptacles up to the level of +vegetation, creates the world of plants. + +"Every clod feels a stir of might, +An instinct within it that reaches and towers, +And, grasping blindly above it for light, +Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers." + +On the level of sensation, where the obscure rudiments of will, +understanding, and sentiment commence, this life giving Power +creates the world of animals. And so, on the still higher level of +reason and its concomitants, it creates the world of men. In a +word, the great general fact is that an unknown Power call it what +we may, Nature, Vital Force, or God creates, on the various planes +of its exercise, different families of organized beings. Secondly, +a more special fact is, that when we have overleaped the mystery +of a commencement, every being yields seed according to its kind, +wherefrom, when properly conditioned, its species is perpetuated. +How much, now, does this second fact imply? It is by adding to the +observed phenomena an indefensible hypothesis that the error of +traduction is obtained. We observe that human beings are begotten +by a deposit of germs through the generative process. To affirm +that these germs are transmitted down the generations from the +original progenitor of each race, in whom they all existed at +first, is an unwarranted assertion and involves absurdities. It is +refuted both by Geoffrey St. Hilaire's famous experiments on eggs, +and by the crossing of species.12 In opposition to this +theological figment, observation and science require the belief +that each being is endowed independently with a germ forming +power. + +Organic life requires three things: a fruitful germ; a quickening +impulse; a nourishing medium. Science plainly shows us that this +primal nucleus is given, in the human species, by the union of the +contents of a sperm cell with those of a germ cell; that this +dynamic start is imparted from the life force of the parents; and +that this feeding environment is + +11 Tract on the Origin and Propagation of the Soul, chap. i. + +12 Flourens, Amount of Life on the Globe, part ii. ch. iii. sect. ii. + +furnished by the circle of co ordinated relations. That the +formative power of the new organism comes from, or at least is +wholly conditioned by, the parent organism, should be believed, +because it is the obvious conclusion, against which there is +nothing to militate. That the soul of the child comes in some way +from the soul of the parent, or is stamped by it, is also implied +by the normal resemblance of children to parents, not more in +bodily form than in spiritual idiosyncrasies. This fact alone +furnishes the proper qualification to the acute and significant +lines of the Platonizing poet: + +"Wherefore who thinks from souls new souls to bring, +The same let presse the sunne beames in his fist +And squeeze out drops of light, or strongly wring +The rainbow till it die his hands, well prest." + +"That which is born of the flesh is flesh: that which is born of +the spirit is spirit." As the body of the child is the derivative +of a germ elaborated in the body of the parent, so the soul of the +child is the derivative of a developing impulse of power imparted +from the soul of the parent. And as the body is sustained by +absorbing nutrition from matter, so the soul is sustained by +assimilating the spiritual substances of the invisible kingdom. +The most ethereal elements must combine to nourish that consummate +plant whose blossom is man's mind. This representation is not +materialism; for spirit belongs to a different sphere and is the +subject of different predicates from matter, though equally under +a constitution of laws. Nor does this view pretend to explain what +is inherently transcendent: it leaves the creation of the soul +within as wide a depth and margin of mystery as ever. Neither is +this mode of exposing the problem atheistic. It refers the forms +of life, all growths, all souls, to the indefinable Power that +works everywhere, creates each thing, vivifies, governs, and +contains the universe. And, however that Power be named, is it not +God? And thus we still reverently hold that it is God's own hands +"That reach through nature, moulding men." The ancient heroes of +Greece and India were fond of tracing their genealogy up directly +to their deities, and were proud to deem that in guarding them the +gods stooped to watch over a race of kings, a puissant and +immortal stock, + +"Whose glories stream'd from the same clond girt founts +Whence their own dawn'd upon the infant world." + +After all the researches that have been made, we yet find the +secret of the beginning of the soul shrouded among the fathomless +mysteries of the Almighty Creator, and must ascribe our birth to +the Will of God as piously as it was done in the eldest mythical +epochs of the world. Notwithstanding the careless frivolity of +skepticism and the garish light of science abroad in this modern +time, there are still stricken and yearning depths of wonder and +sorrow enough, profound and awful shadows of night and fear +enough, to make us recognise, in the golden joys that visit us +rarely, in the illimitable visions that emancipate us often, in +the unearthly thoughts and dreams that ravish our minds, +enigmatical intimations of our kinship with God, prophecies of +a super earthly destiny whose splendors already break through the +clouds of ignorance, the folds of flesh, and the curtains of +time in which our spirits here sit pavilioned. + +Augustine pointedly observes, "It is no evil that the origin of +the soul remains obscure, if only its redemption be made +certain."13 Non est periculum si origo animoe lateat, dum +redemptio clareat. No matter how humanity originates, if its +object be to produce fruit, and that fruit be immortal souls. When +our organism has perfected its intended product, willingly will we +let the decaying body return into the ground, if so be we are +assured that the ripened spirit is borne into the heavenly garner. +Let us, in close, reduce the problem of the soul's origin to its +last terms. The amount of force in the universe is uniform.14 +Action and reaction being equal, no new creation of force is +possible: only its directions, deposits, and receptacles may be +altered. No combination of physical processes can produce a +previously non existent subject: it can only initiate the +modification, development, assimilation, of realities already in +being. Something cannot come out of nothing. The quickening +formation of a man, therefore, implies the existence, first, of a +material germ, the basis of the body; secondly, of a power to +impart to that germ a dynamic impulse, in other words, to deposit +in it a spirit atom, or monad of life force. Now, the fresh body +is originally a detached product of the parent body, as an apple +is the detached product of a tree. So the fresh soul is a +transmitted force imparted by the parent soul, either directly +from itself, or else conditioned by it and drawn from the ground +life of nature, the creative power of God. If filial soul be +begotten by procession and severance of conscious force from +parental soul, the spiritual resemblance of offspring and +progenitors is clearly explained. This phenomenon is also equally +well explained if the parent soul, so called, be a die striking +the creative substance of the universe into individual form. The +latter supposition seems, upon the whole, the more plausible and +scientific. Generation is a reflex condition moving the life basis +of the world to produce a soul, as a physical impression moves the +soul to produce a perception.15 + +But, however deep the mystery of the soul's origin, whatever our +conclusion in regard to it, let us not forget that the inmost +essence and verity of the soul is conscious power; and that all +power defies annihilation. It is an old declaration that what +begins in time must end in time; and with the metaphysical shears +of that notion more than once the burning faith in eternal life +has been snuffed out. Yet how obvious is its sophistry! A being +beginning in time need not cease in time, if the Power which +originated it intends and provides for its perpetuity. And that +such is the Creative intention for man appears from the fact that +the grand forms of belief in all ages issuing from his mental +organization have borne the stamp of an expected immortality. Our +ideas may disappear, but they are always recoverable. If the souls +of men are ideas of God, must they not be as enduring as his mind? + +13 Epist. CLVI. + +14 Faraday, Conservation of Force, Phil. Mag., April, 1857. + +15 Dr. Frohschammer, Ursprang der menechlichen Seelen, sect. 115. + + +The naturalist who so immerses his thoughts in the physical phases +of nature as to lose hold on indestructible centres of +personality, should beware lest he lose the motive which propels +man to begin here, by virtue and culture, to climb that ladder of +life whose endless sides are affections, but whose discrete rounds +are thoughts. + +CHAPTER II. + +HISTORY OF DEATH. + +DEATH is not an entity, but an event; not a force, but a state. +Life is the positive experience, death the negation. Yet in nearly +every literature death has been personified, while no kindred +prosopopoeia of life is anywhere to be found. With the Greeks, +Thanatos was a god; with the Romans, Mors was a goddess: but no +statue was ever moulded, no altar ever raised, to Zoe or Vita. At +first thought, we should anticipate the reverse of this; but, in +truth, the fact is quite naturally as it is. Life is a continuous +process; and any one who makes the effort will find how difficult +it is to conceive of it as an individual being, with distinctive +attributes, functions, and will. It is an inward possession which +we familiarly experience, and in the quiet routine of custom we +feel no shock of surprise at it, no impulse to give it imaginative +shape and ornament. On the contrary, death is an impending +occurrence, something which we anticipate and shudder at, +something advancing toward us in time to strike or seize us. Its +externality to our living experience, its threatening approach, +the mystery and alarm enwrapping it, are provocative conditions +for fanciful treatment, making personifications inevitable. + +With the Old Aryan race of India, death is Yama, the soul of the +first man, departed to be the king of the subterranean realm of +the subsequent dead, and returning to call after him each of his +descendants in turn. To the good he is mild and lovely, but to the +impious he is clad in terror and acts with severity. The purely +fanciful character of this thought is obvious; for, according to +it, death was before death, since Yama himself died. Yama does not +really represent death, but its arbiter and messenger. He is the +ruler over the dead, who himself carries the summons to each +mortal to become his subject. + +In the Hebrew conception, death was a majestic angel, named +Sammael, standing in the court of heaven, and flying thence over +the earth, armed with a sword, to obey the behests of God. The +Talmudists developed and dressed up the thought with many details, +half sublime, half fantastic. He strides through the world at a +step. From the soles of his feet to his shoulders he is full of +eyes. Every person in the moment of dying sees him; and at the +sight the soul retreats, running through all the limbs, as if +asking permission to depart from them. From his naked sword fall +three drops: one pales the countenance, one destroys the vitality, +one causes the body to decay. Some Rabbins say he bears a cup from +which the dying one drinks, or that he lets fall from the point of +his sword a single acrid drop upon the sufferer's tongue: this is +what is called "tasting the bitterness of death." Here again, we +see, it is not strictly death that is personified. The embodiment +is not of the mortal act, but of the decree determining that act. +The Jewish angel of death is not a picture of death in itself, but +of God's decree coming to the fated individual who is to die. + +The Greeks sometimes depicted death and sleep as twin boys, one +black, one white, borne slumbering in the arms of their mother, +night. In this instance the phenomenon of dissolving +unconsciousness which falls on mortals, abstractly generalized in +the mind, is then concretely symbolized. It is a bold and happy +stroke of artistic genius; but it in no way expresses or suggests +the scientific facts of actual death. There is also a classic +representation of death as a winged boy with a pensive brow and +an inverted torch, a butterfly at his feet. This beautiful image, +with its affecting accompaniments, conveys to the beholder not +the verity, nor an interpretation, of death, but the sentiments +of the survivors in view of their bereavement. The sad brow denotes +the grief of the mourner, the winged insect the disembodied +psyche, the reversed torch the descent of the soul to the under +world; but the reality of death itself is nowhere hinted. + +The Romans give descriptions of death as a female figure in dark +robes, with black wings, with ravenous teeth, hovering everywhere, +darting here and there, eager for prey. Such a view is a +personification of the mysteriousness, suddenness, inevitableness, +and fearfulness, connected with the subject of death in men's +minds, rather than of death itself. These thoughts are grouped +into an imaginary being, whose sum of attributes are then +ignorantly both associated with the idea of the unknown cause and +confounded with the visible effect. It is, in a word, mere poetry, +inspired by fear and unguided by philosophy. + +Death has been shown in the guise of a fowler spreading his net, +setting his snares for men. But this image concerns itself with +the accidents of the subject, the unexpectedness of the fatal +blow, the treacherous springing of the trap, leaving the root of +the matter untouched. The circumstances of the mortal hour are +infinitely varied, the heart of the experience is unchangeably the +same: there are a thousand modes of dying, but there is only one +death. Ever so complete an exhibition of the occasions and +accompaniments of an event is no explanation of what the inmost +reality of the event is. + +The Norse conception of death as a vast, cloudy presence, darkly +sweeping on its victims, and bearing them away wrapped in its +sable folds, is evidently a free product of imagination brooding +not so much on the distinct phenomena of an individual case as on +the melancholy mystery of the disappearance of men from the +familiar places that knew them once but miss them now. In a +somewhat kindred manner, the startling magnificence of the sketch +in the Apocalypse, of death on the pale horse, is a product of +pure imagination meditating on the wholesale slaughter which was +to deluge the earth when God's avenging judgments fell upon the +enemies of the Christians. But to consider this murderous warrior +on his white charger as literally death, would be as erroneous as +to imagine the bare armed executioner and the guillotine to be +themselves the death which they inflict. No more appalling picture +of death has been drawn than that by Milton, whose dire image has +this stroke of truth in it, that its adumbrate formlessness +typifies the disorganizing force which reduces all cunningly built +bodies of life to the elemental wastes of being. The incestuous +and mistreated progeny of Sin is thus delineated: + +"The shape, +If shape it might be call'd that shape had none +Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb, +Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd, +For each seem'd either, black it stood as night, +Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell, +And shook a dreadful dart: what seem'd his head +The likeness of a kingly crown had on." + +But the most common personification of death is as a skeleton +brandishing a dart; and then he is called the grisly king of +terrors; and people tremble at the thought of him, as children do +at the name of a bugbear in the dark. What sophistry this is! It +is as if we should identify the trophy with the conqueror, the +vestiges left in the track of a traveller with the traveller +himself. Death literally makes a skeleton of man; so man +metaphorically makes a skeleton of Death! All these +representations of death, however beautiful, or pathetic, or +horrible, are based on superficial appearances, misleading +analogies, arbitrary fancies, perturbed sensibilities, not on a +firm hold of realities, insight of truth, and philosophical +analysis. They are all to be brushed aside as phantoms of +nightmare or artificial creations of fiction. Poetry has mostly +rested, hitherto, on no veritable foundation of science, but on a +visionary foundation of emotion. It has wrought upon flitting, +sensible phenomena rather than upon abiding substrata of facts. +For example, a tender Greek bard personified the life of a tree as +a Hamadryad, the moving trunk and limbs her undulating form and +beckoning arms, the drooping boughs her hair, the rustling foliage +her voice. A modern poet, endowed with the same strength of +sympathy, but acquainted with vegetable chemistry, might personify +sap as a pale, liquid maiden, ascending through the roots and +veins to meet air, a blue boy robed in golden warmth, descending +through the leaves, with a whisper, to her embrace. So the +personifications of death in literature, thus far, give us no +penetrative glance into what it really is, help us to no acute +definition of it, but poetically fasten on some feature, or +accident, or emotion, associated with it. + +There are in popular usage various metaphors to express what is +meant by death. The principal ones are, extinction of the vital +spark, departing, expiring, cutting the thread of life, giving up +the ghost, falling asleep. These figurative modes of speech spring +from extremely imperfect correspondences. Indeed, the unlikenesses +are more important and more numerous than the likenesses. They are +simply artifices to indicate what is so deeply obscure and +intangible. They do not lay the secret bare, nor furnish us any +aid in reaching to the true essence of the question. Moreover, +several of them, when sharply examined, involve a fatal error. For +example, upon the admitted supposition that in every case of dying +the soul departs from the body, still, this separation of the soul +from the body is not what constitutes death. Death is the state of +the body when the soul has left it. An act is distinct from its +effects. We must, therefore, turn from the literary inquiry to the +metaphysical and scientific method, to gain any satisfactory idea +and definition of death. + +A German writer of extraordinary acumen and audacity has said, +"Only before death, but not in death, is death death. Death is so +unreal a being that he only is when he is not, and is not when he +is."1 This paradoxical and puzzling as it may appear is +susceptible of quite lucid interpretation and defence. For death +is, in its naked significance, the state of not being. Of course, +then, it has no existence save in the conceptions of the living. +We compare a dead + +1 Feuerbach, Gedanken uber Tod and Unsterblichkeit, sect. 84. + + +person with what he was when living, and instinctively personify +the difference as death. Death, strictly analyzed, is only this +abstract conceit or metaphysical nonentity. Death, therefore, +being but a conception in the mind of a living person, when that +person dies death ceases to be at all. And thus the realization of +death is the death of death. He annihilates himself, dying with +the dart he drives. Having in this manner disposed of the +personality or entity of death, it remains as an effect, an event, +a state. Accordingly, the question next arises, What is death when +considered in this its true aspect? + +A positive must be understood before its related negative can be +intelligible. Bichat defined life as the sum of functions by which +death is resisted. It is an identical proposition in verbal +disguise, with the fault that it makes negation affirmation, +passiveness action. Death is not a dynamic agency warring against +life, but simply an occurrence. Life is the operation of an +organizing force producing an organic form according to an ideal +type, and persistently preserving that form amidst the incessant +molecular activity and change of its constituent substance. That +operation of the organic force which thus constitutes life is a +continuous process of waste, casting off the old exhausted matter, +and of replacement by assimilation of new material. The close of +this process of organific metamorphosis and desquamation is death, +whose finality is utter decomposition, restoring all the bodily +elements to the original inorganic conditions from which they were +taken. The organic force with which life begins constrains +chemical affinity to work in special modes for the formation of +special products: when it is spent or disappears, chemical +affinity is at liberty to work in its general modes; and that is +death. "Life is the co ordination of actions; the imperfection of +the co ordination is disease, its arrest is death." In other +words, "life is the continuous adjustment of relations in an +organism with relations in its environment." Disturb that +adjustment, and you have malady; destroy it, and you have death. +Life is the performance of functions by an organism; death is the +abandonment of an organism to the forces of the universe. No +function can be performed without a waste of the tissue through +which it is performed: that waste is repaired by the assimilation +of fresh nutriment. In the balancing of these two actions life +consists. The loss of their equipoise soon terminates them both; +and that is death. Upon the whole, then, scientifically speaking, +to cause death is to stop "that continuous differentiation and +integration of tissues and of states of consciousness" +constituting life. 2 Death, therefore, is no monster, no force, +but the act of completion, the state of cessation; and all the +bugbears named death are but poor phantoms of the frightened and +childish mind. + +Life consisting in the constant differentiation of the tissues by +the action of oxygen, and their integration from the blastema +furnished by the blood, why is not the harmony of these processes +preserved forever? Why should the relation between the integration +and disintegration going on in the human organism ever fall out of +correspondence with the relation between the oxygen and food +supplied from its environment? That is to say, whence originated +the sentence of death upon man? Why do we not live immortally as +we are? The current reply is, we die because our first parent +sinned. Death is a penalty inflicted upon the + +2 Spencer, Principles of Psychology, pp. 334-373. + + +human race because Adam disobeyed his Maker's command. We must +consider this theory a little. + +The narrative in Genesis, of the creation of man and of the events +in the Garden of Eden, cannot be traced further back than to the +time of Solomon, three thousand years after the alleged +occurrences it describes. This portion of the book of Genesis, as +has long been shown, is a distinct document, marked by many +peculiarities, which was inserted in its present place by the +compiler of the elder Hebrew Scriptures somewhere between seven +and ten centuries before Christ.3 Ewald has fully demonstrated +that the book of Genesis consists of many separate fragmentary +documents of different ages, arranged together by a comparatively +late hand. Among the later of these pieces is the account of the +primeval pair in paradise. Grotefend argues, with much force and +variety of evidence, that this story was derived from a far more +ancient legend book, only fragments of which remained when the +final collection was made of this portion of the Old Testament.4 +Many scholars have thought the account was not of Hebrew origin, +but was borrowed from the literary traditions of some earlier +Oriental nation. Rosenmuller, Von Bohlen, and others, say it bears +unmistakable relationship to the Zendavesta which tells how +Ahriman, the old Serpent, beguiled the first pair into sin and +misery. These correspondences, and also that between the tree of +life and the Zoroastrian plant hom, which gives life and will +produce the resurrection, are certainly striking. Buttmann sees in +God's declaration to Adam, "Behold, I have given you for food +every herb bearing seed, and every tree in which is fruit bearing +seed," traces of a prohibition of animal food. This was not the +vestige of a Hebrew usage, but the vegetarian tradition of some +sect eschewing meat, a tradition drawn from South Asia, whence the +fathers of the Hebrew race came.5 Gesenius says, "Many things in +this narrative were drawn from older Asiatic tradition." 6 Knobel +also affirms that numerous matters in this relation were derived +from traditions of East Asian nations.7 Still, it is not necessary +to suppose that the writer of the account in Genesis borrowed any +thing from abroad. The Hebrew may as well have originated such +ideas as anybody else. The Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the +Chaldeans, the Persians, the Etruscans, have kindred narratives +held as most ancient and sacred.8 The Chinese, the Sandwich +Islanders, the North American Indians, also have their legends of +the origin and altered fortunes of the human race. The +resemblances between many of these stories are better accounted +for by the intrinsic similarities of the subject, of the mind, of +nature, and of mental action, than by the supposition of +derivation from one another. + +Regarding the Hebrew narrative as an indigenous growth, then, how +shall we explain its origin, purport, and authority? Of course we +cannot receive it as a miraculous revelation conveying infallible +truth. The Bible, it is now acknowledged, was not given in the +providence + +3 Tuch, Kommentar uber Genesis, s. xcviii. + +4 Zur altesten Sagenpoesie des Orients. Zeitschrift der deutschen +Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, band viii. ss. 772-779. + +5 Mythologus, (Schopfung and Sundenfall, ) band i. s. 137. + +6 Article "Adam," in Encyclopadia by Ersch and Gruber. + +7 Die Genesis erklart, s. 28. + +8 Palfrey's Academical Lectures, vol. ii. pp. 21-28. + + +of God to teach astronomy, geology, chronology, and the operation +of organic forces, but to help educate men in morality and piety. +It is a religious, not a scientific, work. Some unknown Hebrew +poet, in the early dawn of remembered time, knowing little +metaphysics and less science, musing upon the fortunes of man, his +wickedness, sorrow, death, and impressed with an instinctive +conviction that things could not always have been so, casting +about for some solution of the dim, pathetic problem, at last +struck out the beautiful and sublime poem recorded in Genesis, +which has now for many a century, by Jews, Christians, +Mohammedans, been credited as authentic history. With his own +hands God moulds from earth an image in his own likeness, breathes +life into it, and new made man moves, lord of the scene, and lifts +his face, illuminated with soul, in submissive love to his +Creator. Endowed with free will, after a while he violated his +Maker's command: the divine displeasure was awakened, punishment +ensued, and so rushed in the terrible host of ills under which we +suffer. The problem must early arise: the solution is, to a +certain stage of thought, at once the most obvious and the most +satisfactory conceivable. It is the truth. Only it is cast in +imaginative, not scientific, form, arrayed in emblematic, not +literal, garb. The Greeks had a lofty poem by some early unknown +author, setting forth how Prometheus formed man of clay and +animated him with fire from heaven, and how from Pandora's box the +horrid crew of human vexations were let into the world. The two +narratives, though most unequal in depth and dignity, belong in +the same literary and philosophical category. Neither was intended +as a plain record of veritable history, each word a naked fact, +but as a symbol of its author's thoughts, each phrase the +metaphorical dress of a speculative idea. + +Eichhorn maintains, with no slight plausibility, that the whole +account of the Garden of Eden was derived from a series of +allegorical pictures which the author had seen, and which he +translated from the language of painting into the language of +words. At all events, we must take the account as symbolic, a +succession of figurative expressions. Many of the best minds have +always so considered it, from Josephus to Origen, from Ambrose to +Kant. What, then, are the real thoughts which the author of this +Hebrew poem on the primal condition of man meant to convey beneath +his legendary forms of imagery? These four are the essential ones. +First, that God created man; secondly, that he created him in a +state of freedom and happiness surrounded by blessings; third, +that the favored subject violated his Sovereign's order; fourth, +that in consequence of this offence he was degraded from his +blessed condition, beneath a load of retributive ills. The +composition shows the characteristics of a philosopheme or a myth, +a scheme of conceptions deliberately wrought out to answer an +inquiry, a story devised to account for an existing fact or +custom. The picture of God performing his creative work in six +days and resting on the seventh, may have been drawn after the +septenary division of time and the religious separation of the +Sabbath, to explain and justify that observance. The creation of +Eve out of the side of Adam was either meant by the author as an +allegoric illustration that the love of husband and wife is the +most powerful of social bonds, or as a pure myth seeking to +explain the incomparable cleaving together of husband and wife by +the entirely poetic supposition that the first woman was taken out +of the first man, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. All early +literatures teem with exemplifications of this process, a +spontaneous secretion by the imagination to account for some +presented phenomenon. Or perhaps this part of the relation +"and he called her woman [manness], because she was taken +out of man" may be an instance of those etymological myths with +which ancient literature abounds. Woman is named Isha because she +was taken out of man, whose name is Ish. The barbarous treatment +the record under consideration has received, the utter +baselessness of it in the light of truth as foundation for literal +belief, find perhaps no fitter exposure than in the fact that for +many centuries it was the prevalent faith of Christendom that +every woman has one rib more than man, a permanent memorial of the +Divine theft from his side. Unquestionably, there are many good +persons now who, if Richard Owen should tell them that man has the +same number of ribs as woman, would think of the second chapter of +Genesis and doubt his word! + +There is no reason for supposing the serpent in this recital to be +intended as a representative of Satan. The earliest trace of such +an interpretation is in the Wisdom of Solomon, an anonymous and +apocryphal book composed probably a thousand years later. What is +said of the snake is the most plainly mythical of all the +portions. What caused the snake to crawl on his belly in the dust, +while other creatures walk on feet or fly with wings? Why, the +sly, winding creature, more subtle, more detestable, than any +beast of the field, deceived the first woman; and this is his +punishment! Such was probably the mental process in the writer. To +seek a profound and true theological dogma in such a statement is +as absurd as to seek it in the classic myth that the lapwing with +his sharp beak chases the swallow because he is the descendant of +the enraged Tereus who pursued poor Progne with a drawn sword. Or, +to cite a more apposite case, as well might we seek a reliable +historical narrative in the following Greek myth. Zeus once gave +man a remedy against old age. He put it on the back of an ass and +followed on foot. It being a hot day, the ass grew thirsty, and +would drink at a fount which a snake guarded. The cunning snake +knew what precious burden the ass bore, and would not, except at +the price of it, let him drink. He obtained the prize; but with +it, as a punishment for his trick, he incessantly suffers the +ass's thirst. Thus the snake, casting his skin, annually renews +his youth, while man is borne down by old age.9 In all these cases +the mental action is of the same kind in motive, method, and +result. + +The author of the poem contained in the third chapter of Genesis +does not say that man was made immortal. The implication plainly +is that he was created mortal, taken from the dust and naturally +to return again to the dust. But by the power of God a tree was +provided whose fruit would immortalize its partakers. The penalty +of Adam's sin was directly, not physical death, but being forced +in the sweat of his brow to wring his subsistence from the sterile +ground cursed for his sake; it was indirectly literal death, in +that he was prevented from eating the fruit of the tree of life. +"God sent him out of the garden, lest he eat and live forever." He +was therefore, according to the narrative, made originally subject +to death; but an immortalizing antidote was prepared for him, +which he forfeited by his transgression. That the writer made use +of the trees of life and knowledge as embellishing allegories is +most + +9 Alian, no Nat. Animal., lib. vi. cap. 51. + + +probable. But, if not, he was not the only devout poet who, in the +early times, with sacred reverence believed the wonders the +inspiring muse gave him as from God. It is not clear from the +Biblical record that Adam was imagined the first man. On the +contrary, the statement that Cain was afraid that those who met +him would kill him, also that he went to the land of Nod and took +a wife and builded a city, implies that there was another and +older race. Father Peyrere wrote a book, called "Praadamita," more +than two hundred years ago, pointing out this fact and arguing +that there really were men before Adam. If science should +thoroughly establish the truth of this view, religion need not +suffer; but the common theology, inextricably built upon and +intertangled with the dogma of "original sin," would be hopelessly +ruined. But the leaders in the scientific world will not on that +account shut their eyes nor refuse to reason. Christians should +follow their example of truth seeking, with a deeper faith in God, +fearless of results, but resolved upon reaching reality. + +It is a very singular and important fact that, from the appearance +in Genesis of the account of the creation and sin and punishment +of the first pair, not the faintest explicit allusion to it is +subsequently found anywhere in literature until about the time of +Christ. Had it been all along credited in its literal sense, as a +divine revelation, could this be so? Philo Judaus gives it a +thoroughly figurative meaning. He says, "Adam was created mortal +in body, immortal in mind. Paradise is the soul, piety the tree of +life, discriminative wisdom the tree of knowledge; the serpent is +pleasure, the flaming sword turning every way is the sun revolving +round the world."10 Jesus himself never once alludes to Adam or to +any part of the story of Eden. In the whole New Testament there +are but two important references to the tradition, both of which +are by Paul. He says, in effect, "As through the sin of Adam all +are condemned unto death, so by the righteousness of Christ all +shall be justified unto life." It is not a guarded doctrinal +statement, but an unstudied, rhetorical illustration of the +affiliation of the sinful and unhappy generations of the past with +their offending progenitor, Adam, of the believing and blessed +family of the chosen with their redeeming head, Christ. He does +not use the word death in the Epistle to the Romans prevailingly +in the narrow sense of physical dissolution, but in a broad, +spiritual sense, as appears, for example, in these instances: "To +be carnally minded is death;" "The law of the spirit of life in +Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death." For the +spiritually minded were not exempt from bodily death. Paul himself +died the bodily death. His idea of the relations of Adam and +Christ to humanity is more clearly expressed in the other passage +already alluded to. It is in the Epistle to the Corinthians, and +appears to be this. The first man, Adam, was of the earth, earthy, +the head and representative of a corruptible race whose flesh and +blood were never meant to inherit the kingdom of God. The second +man, Christ the Lord, soon to return from heaven, was a quickening +spirit, head and representative of a risen spiritual race for whom +is prepared the eternal inheritance of the saints in light. As by +the first man came death, whose germ is transmitted with the +flesh, so by the second man comes the resurrection of the dead, +whose type is seen in his glorified ascension from Hades to +heaven. "As in Adam all die, even so in + +10 De Mundi Opificio, liv lvi. De Cherub. viii. + + +Christ shall all be made alive." Upon all the line of Adam sin has +entailed, what otherwise would not have been known, moral death +and a disembodied descent to the under world. But the gospel of +Christ, and his resurrection as the first fruits of them that +slept, proclaim to all those that are his, at his speedy coming, a +kindred deliverance from the lower gloom, an investiture with +spiritual bodies, and an admission into the kingdom of God. +According to Paul, then, physical death is not the retributive +consequence of Adam's sin, but is the will of the Creator in the +law of nature, the sowing of terrestrial bodies for the gathering +of celestial bodies, the putting off of the image of the earthy +for the putting on of the image of the heavenly. The specialty of +the marring and punitive interference of sin in the economy is, in +addition to the penalties in moral experience, the interpolation, +between the fleshly "unclothing" and the spiritual "clothing +upon," of the long, disembodied, subterranean residence, from the +descent of Abel into its palpable solitude to the ascent of Christ +out of its multitudinous world. From Adam, in the flesh, humanity +sinks into the grave realm; from Christ, in the spirit, it shall +rise into heaven. Had man remained innocent, death, considered as +change of body and transition to heaven, would still have been his +portion; but all the suffering and evil now actually associated +with death would not have been. + +Leaving the Scriptures, the first man appears in literature, in +the history of human thought on the beginning of our race, in +three forms. There is the Mythical Adam, the embodiment of +poetical musings, fanciful conceits, and speculative dreams; there +is the Theological Adam, the central postulate of a group of +dogmas, the support of a fabric of controversial thought, the lay +figure to fill out and wear the hypothetical dresses of a +doctrinal system; and there is the Scientific Adam, the first +specimen of the genus man, the supposititious personage who, as +the earliest product, on this grade, of the Creative organic force +or Divine energy, commenced the series of human generations. The +first is a hypostatized legend, the second a metaphysical +personification, the third a philosophical hypothesis. The first +is an attractive heap of imaginations, the next a dialectic mass +of dogmatisms, the last a modest set of theories. + +Philo says God made Adam not from any chance earth, but from a +carefully selected portion of the finest and most sifted clay, and +that, as being directly created by God, he was superior to all +others generated by men, the generations of whom deteriorate in +each remove from him, as the attraction of a magnet weakens from +the iron ring it touches along a chain of connected rings. The +Rabbins say Adam was so large that when he lay down he reached +across the earth, and when standing his head touched the +firmament: after his fall he waded through the ocean, Orion like. +Even a French Academician, Nicolas Fleurion, held that Adam was +one hundred and twenty three feet and nine inches in height. All +creatures except the angel Eblis, as the Koran teaches, made +obeisance to him. Eblis, full of envy and pride, refused, and was +thrust into hell by God, where he began to plot the ruin of the +new race. One effect of the forbidden fruit he ate was to cause +rotten teeth in his descendants. He remained in Paradise but one +day. After he had eaten from the prohibited tree, Eve gave of the +fruit to the other creatures in Eden, and they all ate of it, and +so became mortal, with the sole exception of the phoenix, who +refused to taste it, and consequently remained immortal. + +The Talmud teaches that Adam would never have died had he not +sinned. The majority of the Christian fathers and doctors, from +Tertullian and Augustine to Luther and Calvin, have maintained the +same opinion. It has been the orthodox that is, the prevailing +doctrine of the Church, affirmed by the Synod at Carthage in the +year four hundred and eighteen, and by the Council of Trent in the +year fifteen hundred and forty five. All the evils which afflict +the world, both moral and material, are direct results of Adam's +sin. He contained all the souls of men in himself; and they all +sinned in him, their federal head and legal representative. When +the fatal fruit was plucked, + +"Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat, Sighing through +all her works, gave signs of woe That all was lost." + +Earthquakes, tempests, pestilences, poverty, war, the endless +brood of distress, ensued. For then were + +"Turn'd askance The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more +From the sun's axle, and with labor push'd Oblique the centric +globe." + +Adam's transcendent faculties and gifts were darkened and +diminished in his depraved posterity, and all base propensities +let loose to torment, confuse, and degrade them. We can scarcely +form a conception of the genius, the beauty, the blessedness, of +the first man, say the theologians in chorus.11 Augustine +declares, "The most gifted of our time must be considered, when +compared with Adam in genius, as tortoises to birds in speed." +Adam, writes Dante, "was made from clay, accomplished with every +gift that life can teem with." Thomas Aquinas teaches that "he was +immortal by grace though not by nature, had universal knowledge, +fellowshipped with angels, and saw God." South, in his famous +sermon on "Man the Image of God," after an elaborate panegyric of +the wondrous majesty, wisdom, peacefulness, and bliss of man +before the fall, exclaims, "Aristotle was but the rubbish of an +Adam, and Athens the rudiments of Paradise!" Jean Paul has +amusingly burlesqued these conceits. "Adam, in his state of +innocence, possessed a knowledge of all the arts and sciences, +universal and scholastic history, the several penal and other +codes of law, and all the old dead languages, as well as the +living. He was, as it were, a living Pegasus and Pindus, a movable +lodge of sublime light, a royal literary society, a pocket seat of +the Muses, and a short golden age of Louis the Fourteenth!" + +Adam has been called the Man without a Navel, because, not being +born of woman, there could be no umbilical cord to cut. The +thought goes deep. In addition to the mythico theological pictures +of the mechanical creation and superlative condition of the first +man, two forms of statement have been advanced by thoughtful +students of nature. One is the theory of chronological progressive +development; the other is the theory of the + +11 Strauss gives a multitude of apposite quotations in his +Christliche Glaubenslehre, band i. s. 691, sect. 51, ff. + + +simultaneous creation of organic families of different species or +typical forms. The advocate of the former goes back along the +interminable vistas of geologic time, tracing his ancestral line +through the sinking forms of animal life, until, with the aid of a +microscope, he sees a closed vesicle of structureless membrane; +and this he recognises as the scientific Adam. This theory has +been brought into fresh discussion by Mr. Darwin in his rich and +striking work on the Origin of Species12 The other view contrasts +widely with this, and is not essentially different from the +account in Genesis. It shows God himself creating by regular +methods, in natural materials, not by a vicegerent law, not with +the anthropomorphitic hands of an external potter. Every organized +fabric, however complex, originates in a single physiological +cell. Every individual organism from the simple plant known as red +snow to the oak, from the zoophyte to man is developed from such a +cell. This is unquestionable scientific knowledge. The phenomenal +process of organic advancement is through growth of the cell by +selective appropriation of material, self multiplication of the +cell, chemical transformations of the pabulum of the cell, +endowment of the muscular and nervous tissues produced by those +transformations with vital and psychical properties. + +But the essence of the problem lies in the question, Why does one +of these simple cells become a cabbage, another a rat, another a +whale, another a man? Within the limits of known observation +during historic time, every organism yields seed or bears progeny +after its own kind. Between all neighboring species there are +impassable, discrete chasms. The direct reason, therefore, why one +cell stops in completion at any given vegetable stage, another at +a certain animal stage, is that its producing parent was that +vegetable or that animal. Now, going back to the first individual +of each kind, which had no determining parent like itself, the +theory of the gradually ameliorating development of one species +out of the next below it is one mode of solving the problem. +Another mode more satisfactory at least to theologians and their +allies is to conclude that God, the Divine Force, by whom the life +of the universe is given, made the world after an ideal plan, +including a systematic arrangement of all the possible +modifications. This plan was in his thought, in the unity of all +its parts, from the beginning; and the animate creation is the +execution of its diagrams in organic life. Instead of the lineal +extraction of the complicated scheme out of one cell, there has +been, from epoch to epoch, the simultaneous production of all +included in one of its sections. The Creator, at his chosen times, +calling into existence a multitude of cells, gave each one the +amount and type of organic force which would carry it to the +destined grade and form. In this manner may have originated, at +the same time, the first sparrow, the first horse, the first man, +in short, a whole circle of congeners. + +"The grassy clods now calved; now half appear'd +The tawny lion, pawing to get free +His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds, +And rampant shakes his brinded mane." + +12 The most forcible defence of this hypothesis is that made by +Herbert Spencer. See, in his volume of Essays, No. 2 of the +Haythorne Papers. Also see Oken, Entstehung des ersten Menechen, +Isis, 1819, ss. 1117-1123. + + +Each creature, therefore, would be distinct from others from the +first. "Man, though rising from not man, came forth sharply +defined." The races thus originated in their initiative +representatives by the creative power of God, thenceforth possess +in themselves the power, each one, in the generative act, to put +its typical dynamic stamp upon the primordial cells of its +immediate descendants. Adam, then, was a wild man, cast in +favoring conditions of climate, endowed with the same faculties as +now, only not in so high a degree. For, by his peculiar power of +forming habits, accumulating experience, transmitting acquirements +and tendencies, he has slowly risen to his present state with all +its wealth of wisdom, arts, and comforts. + +By either of these theories, that of Darwin, or that of Agassiz, +man, the head of the great organic family of the earth, and it +matters not at all whether there were only one Adam and Eve, or +whether each separate race had its own Adams and Eves,13 not +merely a solitary pair, but simultaneous hundreds, man, physically +considered, is indistinguishably included in the creative plan +under the same laws and forces, and visibly subject to the same +destination, as the lower animals. He starts with a cell as they +do, grows to maturity by assimilative organization and endowing +transformation of foreign nutriment as they do, his life is a +continuous process of waste and repair of tissues as theirs is, +and there is, from the scientific point of view, no conceivable +reason why he should not be subject to physical death as they are. +They have always been subject to death, which, therefore, is an +aboriginal constituent of the Creative plan. It has been +estimated, upon data furnished by scientific observation, that +since the appearance of organic life on earth, millions of years +ago, animals enough have died to cover all the lands of the globe +with their bones to the height of three miles. Consequently, the +historic commencement of death is not to be found in the sin of +man. We shall discover it as a necessity in the first organic cell +that was ever formed. + +The spherule of force which is the primitive basis of a cell +spends itself in the discharge of its work. In other words, "the +amount of vital action which can be performed by each living cell +has a definite limit." When that limit is reached, the exhausted +cell is dead. To state the fact differently: no function can be +performed without "the disintegration of a certain amount of +tissue, whose components are then removed as effete by the +excretory processes." This final expenditure on the part of a cell +of its modification of force is the act of molecular death, the +germinal essence of all decay. That this organic law should rule +in every living structure is a necessity inherent in the actual +conditions of the creation. And wherever we look in the realm of +physical man, even "from the red outline of beginning Adam" to the +amorphous adipocere of the last corpse when fate's black curtain +falls on our race, we shall discern death. For death is the other +side of life. Life and death are the two hands with which the +organic power works. + +The threescore simple elements known to chemists die, that is, +surrender their peculiar powers and properties, and enter into new +combinations to produce and support higher forms of life. +Otherwise these inorganic elemental wastes would be all that the +material universe could show. + +13 The Diversity of Origin of the Human Races, by Louis Agassiz, +Christian Examiner, July, 1850. + + +The simple plant consists of single cells, which, in its +development, give up their independent life for the production +of a more exalted vegetable form. The formation of a perfectly +organized plant is made possible only through the continuous dying +and replacement of its cells. Similarly, in the development of an +animal, the constituent cells die for the good of the whole +creature; and the more perfect the animal the greater the +subordination of the parts. The cells of the human body are +incessantly dying, being borne off and replaced. The epidermis or +scarf skin is made of millions of insensible scales, consisting of +former cells which have died in order with their dead bodies to +build this guardian wall around the tender inner parts. Thus, +death, operating within the individual, seen in the light of +natural science, is a necessity, is purely a form of self +surrendering beneficence, is, indeed, but a hidden and indirect +process and completion of life.14 + +And is not the death of the total organism just as needful, just +as benignant, as the death of the component atoms? Is it not the +same law, still expressing the same meaning? The chemicalelements +wherein individuality is wanting, as Wagner says, die that +vegetable bodies may live. Individual vegetable bodies die that +new individuals of the species may live, and that they may supply +the conditions for animals to live. The individual beast dies that +other individuals of his species may live, and also for the good +of man. The plant lives by the elements and by other plants: the +animal lives by the elements, by the plants, and by other animals: +man lives and reigns by the service of the elements, of the +plants, and of the animals. The individual man dies if we may +trust the law of analogy for the good of his species, and that he +may furnish the conditions for the development of a higher life +elsewhere. It is quite obvious that, if individuals did not die, +new individuals could not live, because there would not be room. +It is also equally evident that, if individuals did not die, they +could never have any other life than the present. The foregoing +considerations, fathomed and appreciated, transform the +institution of death from caprice and punishment into necessity +and benignity. In the timid sentimentalist's view, death is +horrible. Nature unrolls the chart of organic existence, a +convulsed and lurid list of murderers, from the spider in the +window to the tiger in the jungle, from the shark at the bottom of +the sea to the eagle against the floor of the sky. As the perfumed +fop, in an interval of reflection, gazes at the spectacle through +his dainty eyeglass, the prospect swims in blood and glares with +the ghastly phosphorus of corruption, and he shudders with +sickness. In the philosophical naturalist's view, the dying +panorama is wholly different. Carnivorous violence prevents more +pain than it inflicts; the wedded laws of life and death wear the +solemn beauty and wield the merciful functions of God; all is +balanced and ameliorating; above the slaughterous struggle safely +soar the dove and the rainbow; out of the charnel blooms the rose +to which the nightingale sings love; nor is there poison which +helps not health, nor destruction which supplies not creation with +nutriment for greater good and joy. + +By painting such pictures as that of a woman with "Sin" written on +her forehead in great glaring letters, giving to Death a globe +entwined by a serpent, or that of Death as a + +14 Hermann Wagner, Der Tod, beleuchtet vom Standpunkte der +Naturwissenschaften. + +skeleton, waving a black banner over the world and sounding +through a trumpet, "Woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth!" by +interpreting the great event as punishment instead of fulfilment, +extermination instead of transition, men have elaborated, in the +faith of their imaginations, a melodramatic death which nature +never made. Truly, to the capable observer, death bears the double +aspect of necessity and benignity: necessity, because it is an +ultimate fact, as the material world is made, that, since organic +action implies expenditure of force, the modicum of force given to +any physical organization must finally be spent; benignity, +because a bodily immortality on earth would both prevent all the +happiness of perpetually rising millions and be an unspeakable +curse upon its possessors. + +The benevolence of death appears from this fact, that it +boundlessly multiplies the numbers who can enjoy the prerogatives +of life. It calls up ever fresh generations, with wondering eyes +and eager appetites, to the perennial banquet of existence. Had +Adam not sinned and been expelled from Paradise, some of the +Christian Fathers thought, the fixed number of saints foreseen by +God would have been reached and then no more would have been +born.15 + +Such would have been the necessity, there being no death. But, by +the removal of one company as they grow tired and sated, room is +made for a new company to approach and enjoy the ever renewing +spectacle and feast of the world. Thus all the delightful boons +life has, instead of being cooped within a little stale circle, +are ceaselessly diffused and increased. Vivacious claimants +advance, see what is to be seen, partake of what is furnished, are +satisfied, and retire; and their places are immediately taken by +hungry successors. Thus the torch of life is passed briskly, with +picturesque and stimulating effect, along the manifold race of +running ages, instead of smouldering stagnantly forever in the +moveless grasp of one. The amount of enjoyment, the quantity of +conscious experience, gained from any given exhibition by a +million persons to each of whom it is successively shown for one +hour, is, beyond all question, immensely greater and keener than +one person could have from it in a million hours. The generations +of men seem like fire flies glittering down the dark lane of +History; but each swarm had its happy turn, fulfilled its hour, +and rightfully gave way to its followers. The disinterested +beneficence of the Creator ordains that the same plants, insects, +men, shall not unsurrenderingly monopolize and stop the bliss of +breath. Death is the echo of the voice of love reverberated from +the limit of life. + +The cumulative fund of human experience, the sensitive affiliating +line of history, like a cerebral cord of personal identity +traversing the centuries, renders a continual succession of +generations equivalent to the endless existence of one generation; +but with this mighty difference, that it preserves all the edge +and spice of novelty. For consider what would be the result if +death were abolished and men endowed with an earthly immortality. +At first they might rejoice, and think their last, dreadest enemy +destroyed. But what a mistake! In the first place, since none are +to be removed from the earth, of course none must come into it. +The space and material are all wanted by those now in possession. +All are soon mature men and women, not another infant ever to hang +upon a mother's breast or be lifted in a father's arms. + +15 Augustine, Op. Imp. iii. 198. + + +All the prattling music, fond cares, yearning love, and +gushing joys and hopes associated with the rearing of children, +gone! What a stupendous fragment is stricken from the fabric of +those enriching satisfactions which give life its truest value and +its purest charm! Ages roll on. They see the same everlasting +faces, confront the same returning phenomena, engage in the same +worn out exercises, or lounge idly in the unchangeable conditions +which bear no stimulant which they have not exhausted. Thousands +of years pass. They have drunk every attainable spring of +knowledge dry. Not a prize stirs a pulse. All pleasures, +permutated till ingenuity is baffled, disgust them. No terror +startles them. No possible experiment remains untried; nor is +there any unsounded fortune left. No dim marvels and boundless +hopes beckon them with resistless lures into the future. They have +no future. One everlasting now is their all. At last the incessant +repetition of identical phenomena, the unmitigated sameness of +things, the eternal monotony of affairs, become unutterably +burdensome and horrible. Full of loathing and immeasurable +fatigue, a weariness like the weight of a universe oppresses them; +and what would they not give for a change! any thing to break the +nightmare spell of ennui, to fling off the dateless flesh, to +die, to pass into some unguessed realm, to lie down and sleep +forever: it would be the infinite boon! + +Take away from man all that is dependent on, or interlinked with, +the appointment of death, and it would make such fundamental +alterations of his constitution and relations that he would no +longer be man. It would leave us an almost wholly different race. +If it is a divine boon that men should be, then death is a good to +us; for it enables us to be men. Without it there would neither be +husband and wife, nor parent and child, nor family hearth and +altar; nor, indeed, would hardly any thing be as it is now. The +existent phenomena of nature and the soul would comprise all. And +when the jaded individual, having mastered and exhausted this +finite sum, looked in vain for any thing new or further, the world +would be a hateful dungeon to him, and life an awful doom; and how +gladly he would give all that lies beneath the sun's golden round +and top of sovereignty to migrate into some untried region and +state of being, or even to renounce existence altogether and lie +down forever in the attractive slumber of the grave! Without +death, mankind would undergo the fate of Sisyphus, no future, and +in the present the oppression of an intolerable task with an +aching vacuum of motive. The certainty and the mystery of death +create the stimulus and the romance of life. Give the human race +an earthly immortality, and you exclude them from every thing +greater and diviner than the earth affords. Who could consent to +that? Take away death, and a brazen wall girds in our narrow life, +against which, if we remained men, we should dash and chafe in the +climax of our miserable longing, as the caged lion or eagle beats +against his bars. + +The gift of an earthly immortality conferred on a single person a +boon which thoughtless myriads would clasp with frantic triumph +would prove, perhaps, a still more fearful curse than if +distributed over the whole species. + +Retaining his human affections, how excruciating and remediless +his grief must be, to be so cut off from all equal community of +experience and destiny with mankind, to see all whom he loves, +generation after generation, fading away, leaving him alone, to +form new ties again to be dissolved, to watch his beloved ones +growing old and infirm, while he stands without a change! His love +would be left, in agony of melancholy grandeur, "a solitary angel +hovering over a universe of tombs" on the tremulous wings of +memory and grief, those wings incapacitated, by his madly coveted +prerogative of deathlessness, ever to move from above the sad rows +of funereal urns. Zanoni, in Bulwer's magnificent conception, says +to Viola, "The flower gives perfume to the rock on whose breast it +grows. A little while, and the flower is dead; but the rock still +endures, the snow at its breast, the sunshine on its summit." A +deathless individual in a world of the dying, joined with them by +ever bereaved affections, would be the wretchedest creature +conceivable. As no man ever yet prayed for any thing he would pray +to be released, to embrace dear objects in his arms and float away +with them to heaven, or even to lie down with them in the kind +embrace of mother earth. And if he had no affections, but lived a +stoic existence, exempt from every sympathy, in impassive +solitude, he could not be happy, he would not be man: he must be +an intellectual marble of thought or a monumental mystery of woe. + +Death, therefore, is benignity. When men wish there were no such +appointed event, they are deceived, and know not what they wish. +Literature furnishes a strange and profound, though wholly +unintentional, confirmation of this view. Every form in which +literary genius has set forth the conception of an earthly +immortality represents it as an evil. This is true even down to +Swift's painful account of the Struldbrugs in the island of +Laputa. The legend of the Wandering Jew,16 one of the most +marvellous products of the human mind in imaginative literature, +is terrific with its blazoned revelation of the contents of an +endless life on earth. This story has been embodied, with great +variety of form and motive, in more than a hundred works. Every +one is, without the writer's intention, a disguised sermon of +gigantic force on the benignity of death. As in classic fable poor +Tithon became immortal in the dawning arms of Eos only to lead a +shrivelled, joyless, repulsive existence; and the fair young witch +of Cuma had ample cause to regret that ever Apollo granted her +request for as many years as she held grains of dust in her hand; +and as all tales of successful alchemists or Rosicrucians concur +in depicting the result to be utter disappointment and revulsion +from the accursed prize; we may take it as evidence of a +spontaneous conviction in the depths of human nature a conviction +sure to be brought out whenever the attempt is made to describe in +life an opposite thought that death is benign for man as he is +constituted and related on earth. The voice of human nature speaks +truth through the lips of Cicero, saying, at the close of his +essay on Old Age, "Quodsi non sumus immortales futuri, tamen +exstingui homini suo tempore optabile est." + +In a conversation at the house of Sappho, a discussion once arose +upon the question whether death was a blessing or an evil. Some +maintained, the former alternative; but Sappho victoriously closed +the debate by saying, If it were a blessing to die, the immortal +gods would experience it. The gods live forever: therefore, death +is an evil.17 The reasoning was plausible and brilliant. Yet its +sophistry is complete. To men, conditioned as they are in this +world, death may be the greatest blessing; while to the gods, +conditioned so differently, it may have no similar application. + +16 Bibliographical notice of the legend of the wandering Jew, by +Paul Lacroix; trans. into English by G.W. Thornbury. Grasse, Der +ewige Jude. + +17 Fragment X. Quoted in Mare's Hist. Lit. Greece, book iii. chap. +v. sect. 18. + + +Because an earthly eternity in the flesh would be a frightful +calamity, is no reason why a heavenly eternity in the spirit +would be other than a blissful inheritance. + +Thus the remonstrance which may be fallaciously based on some of +the foregoing considerations namely, that they would equally make +it appear that the immortality of man in any condition would be +undesirable is met. A conclusion drawn from the facts of the +present scene of things, of course, will not apply to a scene +inconceivably different. Those whose only bodies are their minds +may be fetterless, happy, leading a wondrous life, beyond our +deepest dream and farthest fancy, and eternally free from trouble +or satiety. + +Death is to us, while we live, what we think it to be. If we +confront it with analytic and defiant eye, it is that nothing +which ever ceases in beginning to be. If, letting the +superstitious senses tyrannize over us and cow our better part of +man, we crouch before the imagination of it, it assumes the shape +of the skeleton monarch who takes the world for his empire, the +electric fluid for his chariot, and time for his sceptre. In the +contemplation of death, hitherto, fancy inspired by fear has been +by far too much the prominent faculty and impulse. The literature +of the subject is usually ghastly, appalling, and absurd, with +point of view varying from that of the credulous Hindu, +personifying death as a monster with a million mouths devouring +all creatures and licking them in his flaming lips as a fire +devours the moths or as the sea swallows the torrents,18 to that +of the atheistic German dreamer, who converts nature into an +immeasurable corpse worked by galvanic forces, and that of the +bold French philosopher, Carnot, whose speculations have led to +the theory that the sun will finally expend all its heat, and +constellated life cease, as the solar system hangs, like a dead +orrery, ashy and spectral, the ghost of what it was. So the +extravagant author of Festus says, + +"God tore the glory from the sun's broad brow And flung the +flaming scalp away." + +The subject should be viewed by the unclouded intellect, guided by +serene faith, in the light of scientific knowledge. Then death is +revealed, first, as an organic necessity in the primordial life +cell; secondly, as the cessation of a given form of life in its +completion; thirdly, as a benignant law, an expression of the +Creator's love; fourthly, as the inaugurating condition of another +form of life. What we are to refer to sin is all the seeming +lawlessness and untimeliness of death. Had not men sinned, all +would reach a good age and pass away without suffering. Death is +benignant necessity; the irregularity and pain associated with it +are an inherited punishment. Finally, it is a condition of +improvement in life. Death is the incessant touch with which the +artist, Nature, is bringing her works to perfection. + +Physical death is experienced by man in common with the brute. +Upon grounds of physiology there is no greater evidence for man's +Spiritual survival through that overshadowed crisis than there is +for the brute's. And on grounds of sentiment man ought not to +shrink from sharing his open future with these mute comrades. Des +Cartes and Malebranche taught that animals are mere machines, +without souls, worked by God's arbitrary power. Swedenborg held +that "the souls of brutes are extinguished with their bodies." 19 + + +18 Thomson's trans. of Bhagavad Gita, p. 77. + +19 Outlines of the Infinite, chap. ii. sect. iv. 13. + + +Leibnitz, by his doctrine of eternal monads, sustains the +immortality of all creatures. + +Coleridge defended the same idea. Agassiz, with much power and +beauty, advocates the thought that animals as well as men have a +future life. 20 The old traditions affirm that at least four +beasts have been translated to heaven; namely, the ass that spoke +to Balaam, the white foal that Christ rode into Jerusalem, the +steed Borak that bore Mohammed on his famous night journey, and +the dog that wakened the Seven Sleepers. To recognise, as Goethe +did, brothers in the green wood and in the teeming air, to +sympathize with all lower forms of life, and hope for them an open +range of limitless possibilities in the hospitable home of God, is +surely more becoming to a philosopher, a poet, or a Christian, +than that careless scorn which commonly excludes them from regard +and contemptuously leaves them to annihilation. This subject has +been genially treated by Richard Dean in his "Essay on the Future +Life of Brutes." + +But on moral and psychological grounds the distinction is vast +between the dying man and the dying brute. Bretschneider, in a +beautiful sermon on this point, specifies four particulars. Man +foresees and provides for his death: the brute does not. Man dies +with unrecompensed merit and guilt: the brute does not. Man dies +with faculties and powers fitted for a more perfect state of +existence: the brute does not. Man dies with the expectation of +another life: the brute does not. Three contrasts may be added to +these. First, man desires to die amidst his fellows: the brute +creeps away by himself, to die in solitude. Secondly, man inters +his dead with burial rites, rears a memorial over them, cherishes +recollections of them which often change his subsequent character: +but who ever heard of a deer watching over an expiring comrade, a +deer funeral winding along the green glades of the forest? The +barrows of Norway, the mounds of Yucatan, the mummy pits of +Memphis, the rural cemeteries of our own day, speak the human +thoughts of sympathetic reverence and posthumous survival, typical +of something superior to dust. Thirdly, man often makes death an +active instead of a passive experience, his will as it is his +fate, a victory instead of a defeat.21 As Mirabeau sank towards +his end, he ordered them to pour perfumes and roses on him, and to +bring music; and so, with the air of a haughty conqueror, amidst +the volcanic smoke and thunder of reeling France, his giant spirit +went forth. The patriot is proud to lay his body a sacrifice on +the altar of his country's weal. The philanthropist rejoices to +spend himself without pay in a noble cause, to offer up his life +in the service of his fellow men. Thousands of generous students +have given their lives to science and clasped death amidst their +trophied achievements. Who can count the confessors who have +thought it bliss and glory to be martyrs for truth and God? +Creatures capable of such deeds must inherit eternity. Their +transcendent souls step from their rejected mansions through the +blue gateway of the air to the lucid palace of the stars. Any +meaner allotment would be discordant and unbecoming their rank. + +Contemplations like these exorcise the spectre host of the brain +and quell the horrid brood of fear. The noble purpose of self +sacrifice enables us to smile upon the grave, "as some sweet +clarion's breath stirs the soldier's scorn of danger." + +20 Contributions to the Natural History of the United States, vol. +i. pp. 64-66. Umbreit, fiber das Sterben ais einen Akt menschlich +personlicher Selbststandigkeit. Studien und Kritiken, 1837. + + +Death parts with its false frightfulness, puts on its true beauty, +and becomes at once the evening star of memory and the morning +star of hope, the Hesper of the sinking flesh, the Phosphor of +the rising soul. Let the night come, then: it shall be welcome. +And, as we gird our loins to enter the ancient mystery, we will +exclaim, with vanishing voice, to those we leave behind, + +"Though I stoop Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud, It is but for +a time I press God's lamp Close to my breast: its splendor, soon +or late, Will pierce the gloom: I shall emerge somewhere." + +CHAPTER III. + +GROUNDS OF THE BELIEF IN A FUTURE LIFE. + +IT is the purpose of the following chapter to describe the +originating supports of the common belief in a future life; not to +probe the depth and test the value of the various grounds out of +which the doctrine grows, but only to give a descriptive sketch of +what they are, and a view of the process of growth. The objections +urged by unbelievers belong to an open discussion of the question +of immortality, not to an illustrative statement of the suggesting +grounds on which the popular belief rests. When, after sufficient +investigation, we ask ourselves from what causes the almost +universal expectation of another life springs, and by what +influences it is nourished, we shall not find adequate answer in +less than four words: feeling, imagination, faith, and reflection. +The doctrine of a future life for man has been created by the +combined force of instinctive desire, analogical observation, +prescriptive authority, and philosophical speculation. These are +the four pillars on which the soul builds the temple of its hopes; +or the four glasses through which it looks to see its eternal +heritage. + +First, it is obvious that man is endowed at once with +foreknowledge of death and with a powerful love of life. It is not +a love of being here; for he often loathes the scene around him. +It is a love of self possessed existence; a love of his own soul +in its central consciousness and bounded royalty. This is an +inseparable element of his very entity. Crowned with free will, +walking on the crest of the world, enfeoffed with individual +faculties, served by vassal nature with tributes of various joy, +he cannot bear the thought of losing himself, of sliding into the +general abyss of matter. His interior consciousness is permeated +with a self preserving instinct, and shudders at every glimpse of +danger or hint of death. The soul, pervaded with a guardian +instinct of life, and seeing death's steady approach to destroy +the body, necessitates the conception of an escape into another +state of existence. Fancy and reason, thus set at work, speedily +construct a thousand theories filled with details. Desire first +fathers thought, and then thought woos belief. + +Secondly, man, holding his conscious being precious beyond all +things, and shrinking with pervasive anxieties from the moment of +destined dissolution, looks around through the realms of nature, +with thoughtful eye, in search of parallel phenomena further +developed, significant sequels in other creatures' fates, whose +evolution and fulfilment may haply throw light on his own. With +eager vision and heart prompted imagination he scrutinizes +whatever appears related to his object. Seeing the snake cast its +old slough and glide forth renewed, he conceives, so in death man +but sheds his fleshly exuvia, while the spirit emerges, +regenerate. He beholds the beetle break from its filthy sepulchre +and commence its summer work; and straightway he hangs a golden +scarsbaus in his temples as an emblem of a future life. After +vegetation's wintry deaths, hailing the returning spring that +brings resurrection and life to the graves of the sod, he dreams +of some far off spring of Humanity, yet to come, when the frosts +of man's untoward doom shall relent, and all the costly seeds sown +through ages in the great earth tomb shall shoot up in celestial +shapes. On the moaning sea shore, weeping some dear friend, he +perceives, now ascending in the dawn, the planet which he lately +saw declining in the dusk; and he is cheered by the thought that + +"As sinks the day star in the ocean bed, And yet anon repairs his +drooping head, And tricks his beams, and with new spangled +ore Flames in the forehead of the morning sky, So Lycidas, sunk +low, shall mount on high." + +Some traveller or poet tells him fabulous tales of a bird which, +grown aged, fills its nest with spices, and, spontaneously +burning, soars from the aromatic fire, rejuvenescent for a +thousand years; and he cannot but take the phoenix for a +miraculous type of his own soul springing, free and eternal, from +the ashes of his corpse. Having watched the silkworm, as it wove +its cocoon and lay down in its oblong grave apparently dead, until +at length it struggles forth, glittering with rainbow colors, a +winged moth, endowed with new faculties and living a new life in a +new sphere, he conceives that so the human soul may, in the +fulness of time, disentangle itself from the imprisoning meshes of +this world of larva, a thing of spirit beauty, to sail through +heavenly airs; and henceforth he engraves a butterfly on the +tombstone in vivid prophecy of immortality. Thus a moralizing +observation of natural similitudes teaches man to hope for an +existence beyond death. + +Thirdly, the prevailing belief in a future life is spread and +upheld by the influence of authority. The doctrine of the soul's +survival and transference to another world, where its experience +depends on conditions observed or violated here, conditions +somewhat within the control of a select class of men here, such a +doctrine is the very hiding place of the power of priest craft, a +vast engine of interest and sway which the shrewd insight of +priesthoods has often devised and the cunning policy of states +subsidized. In most cases of this kind the asserted doctrine is +placed on the basis of a divine revelation, and must be implicitly +received. God proclaims it through his anointed ministers: +therefore, to doubt it or logically criticize it is a crime. +History bears witness to such a procedure wherever an organized +priesthood has flourished, from primeval pagan India to modern +papal Rome. It is traceable from the dark Osirian shrines of Egypt +and the initiating temple at Eleusis to the funeral fires of Gaul +and the Druidic conclave in the oak groves of Mona; from the +reeking altars of Mexico in the time of Montezuma to the masses +for souls in Purgatory said this day in half the churches of +Christendom. Much of the popular faith in immortality which has +prevailed in all ages has been owing to the authority of its +promulgators, a deep and honest trust on the part of the people in +the authoritative dicta of their religious teachers. + +In all the leading nations of the earth, the doctrine of a future +life is a tradition handed down from immemorial antiquity, +embalmed in sacred books which are regarded as infallible +revelations from God. Of course the thoughtless never think of +questioning it; the reverent piously embrace it; all are educated +to receive it. In addition to the proclamation of a future life by +the sacred books and by the priestly hierarchies, it has also been +affirmed by countless individual saints, philosophers, and +prophets. Most persons readily accept it on trust from them as a +demonstrated theory or an inspired knowledge of theirs. It is +natural for modest unspeculative minds, busied with worldly cares, +to say, These learned sages, these theosophic seers, so much more +gifted, educated, and intimate with the divine counsels and plan +than we are, with so much deeper experience and purer insight than +we have, must know the truth: we cannot in any other way do so well +as to follow their guidance and confide in their assertions. +Accordingly, multitudes receive the belief in a life to come on +the authority of the world's intellectual and religious leaders. + +Fourthly, the belief in a future life results from philosophical +meditation, and is sustained by rational proofs.1 For the +completion of the present outline, it now remains to give a brief +exposition of these arguments. For the sake of convenience and +clearness, we must arrange these reasonings in five classes; +namely, the physiological, the analogical, the psychological, the +theological, and the moral. + +There is a group of considerations drawn from the phenomena of our +bodily organization, life and death, which compose the +physiological argument for the separate existence of the soul. In +the first place, it is contended that the human organization, so +wondrously vitalized, developed, and ruled, could not have grown +up out of mere matter, but implies a pre existent mental entity, a +spiritual force or idea, which constituted the primeval impulse, +grouped around itself the organic conditions of our existence, and +constrained the material elements to the subsequent processes and +results, according to a prearranged plan.2 This dynamic agent, +this ontological cause, may naturally survive when the fleshly +organization which it has built around itself dissolves. Its +independence before the body began involves its independence after +the body is ended. Stahl has especially illustrated in physiology +this idea of an independent soul monad. + +Secondly, as some potential being must have preceded our birth, to +assimilate and construct the physical system, so the great +phenomena attending our conscious life necessitate, both to our +instinctive apprehension and in our philosophical conviction, the +distinctive division of man into body and soul, tabernacle and +tenant. The illustrious Boerhaave wrote a valuable dissertation on +the distinction of the mind from the body, which is to be found +among his works. Every man knows that he dwells in the flesh but +is not flesh. He is a free, personal mind, occupying and using a +material body, but not identified with it. Ideas and passions of +purely immaterial origin pervade every nerve with terrific +intensity, and shake his encasing corporeity like an earthquake. A +thought, a sentiment, a fancy, may prostrate him as effectually as +a blow on his brain from a hammer. He wills to move a palsied +limb: the soul is unaffected by the paralysis, but the muscles +refuse to obey his volition: the distinction between the person +willing and the instrument to be wielded is unavoidable. + +Thirdly, the fact of death itself irresistibly suggests the +duality of flesh and spirit. It is the removal of the energizing +mind that leaves the frame so empty and meaningless. Think of the +undreaming sleep of a corpse which dissolution is winding in its +chemical embrace. A moment ago that hand was uplifted to clasp +yours, intelligent accents were vocal on those + +1 Wohlfarth, Triumph des Glaubens an Unsterblichkeit und +Wiedersehen uber jeden Zweifel. Oporinus, Historia Critica +Doctrina de Immortalitate Mortalium. + +2 Muller, Elements of Physiology, book vi. sect. i. ch. 1. + + +lips, the light of love beamed in that eye. One shuddering sigh, +and how cold, vacant, forceless, dead, lies the heap of clay! It +is impossible to prevent the conviction that an invisible power +has been liberated; that the flight of an animating principle has +produced this awful change. Why may not that untraceable something +which has gone still exist? Its vanishing from our sensible +cognizance is no proof of its perishing. Not a shadow of genuine +evidence has ever been afforded that the real life powers of any +creature are destroyed.3 In the absence of that proof, a multitude +of considerations urge us to infer the contrary. Surely there is +room enough for the contrary to be true; for, as Jacobi profoundly +observes, "life is not a form of body; but body is one form of +life." Therefore the soul which now exists in this form, not +appearing to be destroyed on its departure hence, must be supposed +to live hereafter in some other form.4 + +A second series of observations and reflections, gathered from +partial similarities elsewhere in the world, are combined to make +the analogical argument for a future life. For many centuries, in +the literature of many nations, a standard illustration of the +thought that the soul survives the decay of its earthy investiture +has been drawn from the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the +butterfly.5 This world is the scene of our grub state. The body is +but a chrysalis of soul. When the preliminary experience and +stages are finished and the transformation is complete, the spirit +emerges from its cast off cocoon and broken cell into the more +ethereal air and sunnier light of a higher world's eternal day. +The emblematic correspondence is striking, and the inference is +obvious and beautiful. Nor is the change, the gain in endowments +and privileges, greater in the supposed case of man than it is +from the slow and loathsome worm on the leaf to the swift and +glittering insect in the air. + +Secondly, in the material world, so far as we can judge, nothing +is ever absolutely destroyed. There is no such thing as +annihilation. Things are changed, transformations abound; but +essences do not cease to be. Take a given quantity of any kind of +matter; divide and subdivide it in ten thousand ways, by +mechanical violence, by chemical solvents. Still it exists, as the +same quantity of matter, with unchanged qualities as to its +essence, and will exist when Nature has manipulated it in all her +laboratories for a billion ages. Now, as a solitary exception to +this, are minds absolutely destroyed? are will, conscience, +thought, and love annihilated? Personal intelligence, affection, +identity, are inseparable components of the idea of a soul. And +what method is there of crushing or evaporating these out of +being? What force is there to compel them into nothing? Death is +not a substantive cause working effects. It is itself merely an +effect. It is simply a change in the mode of existence. That this +change puts an end to existence is an assertion against analogy, +and wholly unsupported. + +Thirdly, following the analogy of science and the visible order of +being, we are led to the conception of an ascending series of +existences rising in regular gradation from coarse to fine, from +brutal to mental, from earthly composite to simply spiritual, and +thus pointing up the rounds of life's ladder, through all nature, +to the angelic ranks of heaven. Then, feeling his kinship and +common vocation with supernal beings, man is assured of a loftier +condition of + +3 Sir Humphry Davy, Proteus or Immortality. + +4 Bakewell, Natural Evidence of a Future State. + +5 Butler, Analogy, part i. ch. 1. + + +of existence reserved for him. There are no such immense, vacantly +yawning chasms, as that would be, between our fleshly estate and +the Godhead. Nature takes no such enormous jumps. Her scaling +advance is by staid and normal steps. + +"There's lifeless matter. +Add the power of shaping, +And you've the crystal: add again the organs +Wherewith to subdue sustenance to the form +And manner of one's self, and you've the plant: +Add power of motion, senses, and so forth, +And you've all kinds of beasts: suppose a pig. +To pig add reason, foresight, and such stuff, +Then you have man. +What shall, we add to man +To bring him higher?" + +Freedom from the load of clay, emancipation of the spirit into the +full range and masterdom of a spirit's powers! + +Fourthly, many strong similarities between our entrance into this +world and our departure out of it would make us believe that death +is but another and higher birth.6 Any one acquainted with the +state of an unborn infant deriving its sole nutriment, its very +existence, from its vascular connection with its mother could +hardly imagine that its separation from its mother would introduce +it to a new and independent life. He would rather conclude that it +would perish, like a twig wrenched from its parent limb. So it may +be in the separation of the soul from the body. Further, as our +latent or dimly groping senses were useless while we were +developing in embryo, and then implied this life, so we now have, +in rudimentary condition, certain powers of reason, imagination, +and heart, which prophesy heaven and eternity; and mysterious +intimations ever and anon reach us from a diviner sphere, + +"Like hints and echoes of the world To spirits folded in the +womb." + +The Persian poet, Buzurgi, says on this theme, + +"What is the soul? The seminal principle from the loins of +destiny. This world is the womb: the body, its enveloping +membrane: The bitterness of dissolution, dame Fortune's pangs of +childbirth. What is death? To be born again, an angel of +eternity." + +Fifthly, many cultivated thinkers have firmly believed that the +soul is not so young as is usually thought, but is an old stager +on this globe, having lived through many a previous existence, +here or elsewhere.7 They sustain this conclusion by various +considerations, either drawn from premises presupposing the +necessary eternity of spirits, or resting on dusky reminiscences, +"shadowy recollections," of visions and events vanished long ago. +Now, if the idea of foregone conscious lives, personal careers oft +repeated with unlost being, be admitted, as it frequently has been +by such men as Plato and Wordsworth, all the + +6 Bretschneider, Predigten uber Tod, Unsterblichkeit, und +Anferstehung. + +7 James Parker, Account of the Divine Goodness concerning the +Pre existence of Souls. + + +connected analogies of the case carry us to the belief that +immortality awaits us. We shall live through the next transition, +as we have lived through the past ones. + +Sixthly, rejecting the hypothesis of an anterior life, and +entertaining the supposition that there is no creating and +overruling God, but that all things have arisen by spontaneous +development or by chance, still, we are not consistently obliged +to expect annihilation as the fate of the soul. Fairly reasoning +from the analogy of the past, across the facts of the present, to +the impending contingencies of the future, we may say that the +next stage in the unfolding processes of nature is not the +destruction of our consciousness, but issues in a purer life, +elevates us to a spiritual rank. It is just to argue that if +mindless law or boundless fortuity made this world and brought us +here, it may as well make, or have made, another world, and bear +us there. Law or chance excluding God from the question may as +easily make us immortal as mortal. Reasoning by analogy, we may +affirm that, as life has been given us, so it will be given us +again and forever. + +Seventhly, faith in immortality is fed by another analogy, not +based on reflection, but instinctively felt. Every change of +material in our organism, every change of consciousness, is a kind +of death. We partially die as often as we leave behind forgotten +experiences and lost states of being. We die successively to +infancy, childhood, youth, manhood. The past is the dead: but our +course is still on, forever on. Having survived so many deaths, we +expect to survive all others and to be ourselves eternally. + +There is a third cluster of reasonings, deduced from the +distinctive nature of spirit, constituting the psychological +argument for the existence of the soul independent of the body. In +the outset, obviously, if the soul be an immaterial entity, its +natural immortality follows; because death and decay can only be +supposed to take effect in dissoluble combinations. Several +ingenious reasons have been advanced in proof of the soul's +immateriality, reasons cogent enough to have convinced a large +class of philosophers.8 It is sufficient here to notice the +following one. All motion implies a dynamic mover. Matter is +dormant. Power is a reality entirely distinct from matter in its +nature. But man is essentially an active power, a free will. +Consequently there is in him an immaterial principle, since all +power is immaterial. That principle is immortal, because +subsisting in a sphere of being whose categories exclude the +possibility of dissolution.9 + +Secondly, should we admit the human soul to be material, yet if it +be an ultimate monad, an indivisible atom of mind, it is immortal +still, defying all the forces of destruction. And that it actually +is an uncompounded unit may be thus proved. Consciousness is +simple, not collective. Hence the power of consciousness, the +central soul, is an absolute integer. For a living perceptive +whole cannot be made of dead imperceptive parts. If the soul were +composite, each component part would be an individual, a +distinguishable consciousness. Such not being the fact, the +conclusion results that the soul is one, a simple substance.10 + +8 Astrue, Dissertation sur l'Immaterialite et l'Immortalite de +l'Ame. Broughton, Defence of the Doctrine of the Human Soul as an +Immaterial and Naturally Immortal Principle. Marstaller, Von der +Unsterblichkeit der Menschlichen Seele. + +9 Andrew Baxter, Inquiry into the Nature of the Soul. + +10 Herbart, Lehrbuch zur Psychologie, sect. 150. + + +Of course it is not liable to death, but is naturally eternal. + +Thirdly, the indestructibleness of the soul is a direct inference +from its ontological characteristics. Reason, contemplating the +elements of the soul, cannot but embrace the conviction of its +perpetuity and its essential independence of the fleshly +organization. Our life in its innermost substantive essence is +best defined as a conscious force. Our present existence is the +organic correlation of that personal force with the physical +materials of the body, and with other forces. The cessation of +that correlation at death by no means involves, so far as we can +see, the destruction or the disindividualization of the primal +personal force. It is a fact of striking significance, often +noticed by psychologists, that we are unable to conceive ourselves +as dead. The negation of itself is impossible to consciousness. +The reason we have such a dread of death is that we conceive +ourselves as still alive, only in the grave, or wandering through +horrors and shut out from wonted pleasures. It belongs to material +growths to ripen, loosen, decay; but what is there in sensation, +reflection, memory, volition, to crumble in pieces and rot away? +Why should the power of hope, and joy, and faith, change into +inanity and oblivion? What crucible shall burn up the ultimate of +force? What material processes shall ever disintegrate the +simplicity of spirit? Earth and plant, muscle, nerve, and brain, +belong to one sphere, and are subject to the temporal fates that +rule there; but reason, imagination, love, will, belong to +another, and, immortally fortressed there, laugh to scorn the +fretful sieges of decay. + +Fourthly, the surviving superiority of the soul, inferred from its +contrast of qualities to those of its earthy environment, is +further shown by another fact, the mind's dream power, and the +ideal realm it freely soars or walks at large in when it +pleases.11 This view has often been enlarged upon, especially by +Bonnet and Sir Henry Wotton. The unhappy Achilles, exhausted with +weeping for his friend, lay, heavily moaning, on the shore of the +far sounding sea, in a clear spot where the waves washed in upon +the beach, when sleep took possession of him. The ghost of +miserable Patroclus calve to him and said, "Sleepest thou and art +forgetful of me, O Achilles?" And the son of Peleus cried, "Come +nearer: let us embrace each other, though but for a little while." +Then he stretched out his friendly hands, but caught him not; for +the spirit, shrieking, vanished beneath the earth like smoke. + +Astounded, Achilles started up, clasped his hands, and said, +dolefully, "Alas! there is then indeed in the subterranean abodes +a spirit and image, but there is no body in it."12 The realm of +dreams is a world of mystic realities, intangible, yet existent, +and all prophetic, through which the soul nightly floats while the +gross body slumbers. It is everlasting, because there is nothing +in it for corruption to take hold of. The appearances and sounds +of that soft inner sphere, veiled so remote from sense, are +reflections and echoes from the spirit world. Or are they a direct +vision and audience of it? The soul really is native resident in a +world of truth, goodness, and beauty, fellow citizen with divine +ideas and affections. Through the senses it has knowledge and +communion with the hard outer world of matter. When the senses +fall away, it is left, imperishable denizen of its own appropriate +world of idealities. + +11 Schubert, Die Symbolik des Traumes. + +12 Iliad, lib. xxiii. ll. 60 106. + + +Another assemblage of views, based on the character of God, form +the theological argument for the future existence of man.13 +Starting with the idea of a God of infinite perfections, the +immortality of his children is an immediate deduction from the +eternity of his purposes. For whatever purpose God originally gave +man being, for the disinterested distribution of happiness, for +the increase of his own glory, or whatever else, will he not for +that same purpose continue him in being forever? In the absence of +any reason to the contrary, we must so conclude. In view of the +unlimited perfections of God, the fact of conscious responsible +creatures being created is sufficient warrant of their perpetuity. +Otherwise God would be fickle. Or, as one has said, he would be a +mere drapery painter, nothing within the dress. + +Secondly, leaving out of sight this illustration of an eternal +purpose in eternal fulfilment, and confining our attention to the +analogy of the divine works and the dignity of the divine Worker, +we shall be freshly led to the same conclusion. Has God moulded +the dead clay of the material universe into gleaming globes and +ordered them to fly through the halls of space forever, and has he +created, out of his own omnipotence, mental personalities +reflecting his own attributes, and doomed them to go out in +endless night after basking, poor ephemera, in the sunshine of a +momentary life? It is not to be imagined that God ever works in +vain. Yet if a single consciousness be extinguished in everlasting +nonentity, so far as the production of that consciousness is +concerned he has wrought for nothing. His action was in vain, +because all is now, to that being, exactly the same as if it had +never been. God does nothing in sport or unmeaningly: least of all +would he create filial spirits, dignified with the solemn +endowments of humanity, without a high and serious end.14 To make +men, gifted with such a transcendent largess of powers, wholly +mortal, to rot forever in the grave after life's swift day, were +work far more unworthy of God than the task was to Michael Angelo +set him in mockery by Pietro, the tyrant who succeeded Lorenzo the +Magnificent in the dukedom of Florence, that he should scoop up +the snow in the Via Larga, and with his highest art mould a statue +from it, to dissolve ere night in the glow of the Italian sun. + +Thirdly, it is an attribute of Infinite Wisdom to proportion +powers to results, to adapt instruments to ends with exact +fitness. But if we are utterly to die with the ceasing breath, +then there is an amazing want of symmetry between our endowments +and our opportunity; our attainments are most superfluously +superior to our destiny. Can it be that an earth house of six feet +is to imprison forever the intellect of a La Place, whose +telescopic eye, piercing the unfenced fields of immensity, +systematized more worlds than there are grains of dust in this +globe? the heart of a Borromeo, whose seraphic love expanded to +the limits of sympathetic being? the soul of a Wycliffe, whose +undaunted will, in faithful consecration to duty, faced the fires +of martyrdom and never blenched? the genius of a Shakspeare, whose +imagination exhausted worlds and then invented new? There is vast +incongruity between our faculties and the scope given them here. +On all it sees below the soul reads "Inadequate," and rises + +13 Aebli, Unsterblichkeit der menschlichen Seele, sechster Brief. + +14 Ulrici, Unsterblichkeit der menschlichen Seele aus dem Wesen +Gottes erwiesen. + + +dissatisfied from every feast, craving, with divine hunger and +thirst, the ambrosia and nectar of a fetterless and immortal +world. Were we fated to perish at the goal of threescore, God +would have harmonized our powers with our lot. He would never have +set such magnificent conceptions over against such poor +possibilities, nor have kindled so insatiable an ambition for so +trivial a prize of dust to dust. + +Fourthly, one of the weightiest supports of the belief in a future +life is that yielded by the benevolence of God. Annihilation is +totally irreconcilable with this. That He whose love for his +creatures is infinite will absolutely destroy them after their +little span of life, when they have just tasted the sweets of +existence and begun to know the noble delights of spiritual +progress, and while illimitable heights of glory and blessedness +are beckoning them, is incredible. We are unable to believe that +while his children turn to him with yearning faith and gratitude, +with fervent prayer and expectation, he will spurn them into +unmitigated night, blotting out those capacities of happiness +which he gave them with a virtual promise of endless increase. +Will the affectionate God permit humanity, ensconced in the field +of being, like a nest of ground sparrows, to be trodden in by the +hoof of annihilation? Love watches to preserve life. It were +Moloch, not the universal Father, that could crush into death +these multitudes of loving souls supplicating him for life, dash +into silent fragments these miraculous personal harps of a +thousand strings, each capable of vibrating a celestial melody of +praise and bliss. + +Fifthly, the apparent claims of justice afford presumptive proof, +hard to be resisted, of a future state wherein there are +compensations for the unmerited ills, a complement for the +fragmentary experiences, and rectification for the wrongs, of the +present life.15 God is just; but he works without impulse or +caprice, by laws whose progressive evolution requires time to show +their perfect results. Through the brief space of this existence, +where the encountering of millions of free intelligences within +the fixed conditions of nature causes a seeming medley of good and +evil, of discord and harmony, wickedness often triumphs, villany +often outreaches and tramples ingenuous nobility and helpless +innocence. Some saintly spirits, victims of disease and penury, +drag out their years in agony, neglect, and tears. Some bold +minions of selfishness, with seared consciences and nerves of +iron, pluck the coveted fruits of pleasure, wear the diadems of +society, and sweep through the world in pomp. The virtuous suffer +undeservedly from the guilty. The idle thrive on the industrious. +All these things sometimes happen. In spite of the compensating +tendencies which ride on all spiritual laws, in spite of the +mysterious Nemesis which is throned in every bosom and saturates +the moral atmosphere with influence, the world is full of wrongs, +sufferings, and unfinished justice.16 There must be another world, +where the remunerating processes interiorly begun here shall be +openly consummated. Can it be that Christ and Herod, Paul and +Nero, Timour and Fenelon, drop through the blind trap of death +into precisely the same condition of unwaking sleep? Not if there +be a God! + +15 M. Jules Simon, La Religion Naturelle, liv. iii.: +l'Immortalite. + +16 Dr. Chalmers, Bridgewater Treatise, chap. 10. + + +There is a final assemblage of thoughts pertaining to the +likelihood of another life, which, arranged together, may be +styled the moral argument in behalf of that belief.17 These +considerations are drawn from the seeming fitness of things, +claims of parts beseeching completion, vaticinations of +experience. They form a cumulative array of probabilities whose +guiding forefingers all indicate one truth, whose consonant voices +swell into a powerful strain of promise. First, consider the +shrinking from annihilation naturally felt in every breast. If man +be not destined for perennial life, why is this dread of non +existence woven into the soul's inmost fibres? Attractions are co +ordinate with destinies, and every normal desire foretells its own +fulfilment. Man fades unwillingly from his natal haunts, still +longing for a life of eternal remembrance and love, and confiding +in it. All over the world grows this pathetic race of forget me +nots. Shall not Heaven pluck and wear them on her bosom? Secondly, +an emphatic presumption in favor of a second life arises from the +premature mortality prevalent to such a fearful extent in the +human family. Nearly one half of our race perish before reaching +the age of ten years. In that period they cannot have fulfilled +the total purposes of their creation. It is but a part we see, and +not the whole. The destinies here seen segmentary will appear full +circle beyond the grave. + +The argument is hardly met by asserting that this untimely +mortality is the punishment for non observance of law; for, +denying any further life, would a scheme of existence have been +admitted establishing so awful a proportion of violations and +penalties? If there be no balancing sphere beyond, then all should +pass through the experience of a ripe and rounded life. But there +is the most perplexing inequality. At one fell swoop, infant, +sage, hero, reveller, martyr, are snatched into the invisible +state. There is, as a noble thinker has said, an apparent "caprice +in the dispensation of death strongly indicative of a hidden +sequel." Immortality unravels the otherwise inscrutable mystery. + +Thirdly, the function of conscience furnishes another attestation +to the continued existence of man. This vicegerent of God in the +breast, arrayed in splendors and terrors, which shakes and +illumines the whole circumference of our being with its thunders +and lightnings, gives the good man, amidst oppressions and woes, a +serene confidence in a future justifying reward, and transfixes +the bad man, through all his retinue of guards and panoplied +defences, with icy pangs of fear and with a horrid looking for +judgment to come. The sublime grandeur of moral freedom, the +imperilling dignities of probation, the tremendous +responsibilities and hazards of man's felt power and position, are +all inconsistent with the supposition that he is merely to cross +this petty stage of earth and then wholly expire. Such momentous +endowments and exposures imply a corresponding arena and career. +After the trial comes the sentence; and that would be as if a +palace were built, a prince born, trained, crowned, solely that he +might occupy the throne five minutes! The consecrating, royalizing +idea of duty cannot be less than the core of eternal life. +Conscience is the sensitive corridor along which the mutual +whispers of a divine communion pass and repass. A moral law and a +free will + +17 Crombie, Natural Theology, Essay IV.: The Arguments for +Immortality. Bretschneider, Die Religiose Glaubenslehre, sect. +20-21. + + +are the root by which we grow out of God, and the stem by which we +are grafted into him. + +Fourthly, all probable surmisings in favor of a future life, or +any other moral doctrine, are based on that primal postulate +which, by virtue of our rational and ethical constitution, we are +authorized and bound to accept as a commencing axiom, namely, that +the scheme of creation is as a whole the best possible one, +impelled and controlled by wisdom and benignity. Whatever, then, +is an inherent part of the plan of nature cannot be erroneous nor +malignant, a mistake nor a curse. Essentially and in the finality, +every fundamental portion and element of it must be good and +perfect. So far as science and philosophy have penetrated, they +confirm by facts this a priori principle, telling us that there is +no pure and uncompensated evil in the universe. Now, death is a +regular ingredient in the mingled world, an ordered step in the +plan of life. If death be absolute, is it not an evil? What can +the everlasting deprivation of all good be called but an immense +evil to its subject? Such a doom would be without possible solace, +standing alone in steep contradiction to the whole parallel moral +universe. Then might man utter the most moving and melancholy +paradox ever expressed in human speech: + +"What good came to my mind I did deplore, Because it perish must, +and not live evermore." + +Fifthly, the soul, if not outwardly arrested by some hostile +agent, seems capable of endless progress without ever exhausting +either its own capacity or the perfections of infinitude.18 There +are before it unlimited truth, beauty, power, nobleness, to be +contemplated, mastered, acquired. With indefatigable alacrity, +insatiable faculty and desire, it responds to the infinite call. +The obvious inference is that its destiny is unending advancement. +Annihilation would be a sequel absurdly incongruous with the +facts. True, the body decays, and all manifested energy fails; but +that is the fault of the mechanism, not of the spirit. Were we to +live many thousands of years, as Martineau suggests, no one +supposes new souls, but only new organizations, would be needed. +And what period can we imagine to terminate the unimpeded spirit's +abilities to learn, to enjoy, to expand? Kant's famous +demonstration of man's eternal life on the grounds of practical +reason is similar. The related ideas of absolute virtue and a +moral being necessarily imply the infinite progress of the latter +towards the former. That progress is impossible except on +condition of the continued existence of the same being. Therefore +the soul is immortal.19 + +Sixthly, our whole life here is a steady series of growing +preparations for a continued and ascending life hereafter. All the +spiritual powers we develop are so much athletic training, all the +ideal treasures we accumulate are so many preliminary attainments, +for a future life. They have this appearance and superscription. +Man alone foreknows his own death and expects a succeeding +existence; and that foresight is given to prepare him. There are +wondrous impulses in us, constitutional convictions prescient of +futurity, like those prevising instincts in birds leading them to +take preparatory flights before their actual migration. + +18 Addison, Spectator, Nos. 3 and 210. + +19 Jacob, Beweis fur die Unsterblichkeit der Seele aus dem +Begriffe der Pflicht. + + +Eternity is the stuff of which our love, flying forward, builds +its nest in the eaves of the universe. If we saw wings growing +out upon a young creature, we should be forced to conclude that +he was intended some time to fly. It is so with man. By exploring +thoughts, disciplinary sacrifices, supernal prayers, holy toils +of disinterestedness, he fledges his soul's pinions, lays up +treasures in heaven, and at last migrates to the attracting clime. + +"Here sits he, shaping wings to fly: His heart forebodes a +mystery; He names the name eternity." + +Seventhly, in the degree these preparations are made in obedience +to obscure instincts and the developing laws of experience, they +are accompanied by significant premonitions, lucid signals of the +future state looked to, assuring witnesses of its reality. The +more one lives for immortality, the more immortal things he +assimilates into his spiritual substance, the more confirming +tokens of a deathless inheritance his faith finds. He becomes +conscious of his own eternity.20 When hallowed imagination weighs +anchor and spreads sail to coast the dim shores of the other +world, it hears cheerful voices of welcome from the headlands and +discerns beacons burning in the port. When in earnest communion +with our inmost selves, solemn meditations of God, mysterious +influences shed from unseen spheres, fall on our souls, and many a +"strange thought, transcending our wonted themes, into glory +peeps." A vague, constraining sense of invisible beings, by whom +we are engirt, fills us. We blindly feel that our rank and +destination are with them. Lift but one thin veil, we think, and +the occult Universe of Spirit would break to vision with cloudy +crowds of angels. Thousand "hints chance dropped from nature's +sphere," pregnant with friendly tidings, reassure us. "Strange," +said a gifted metaphysician once, "that the barrel organ, man, +should terminate every tune with the strain of immortality!" Not +strange, but divinely natural. It is the tentative prelude to the +thrilling music of our eternal bliss written in the score of +destiny. When at night we gaze far out into immensity, along the +shining vistas of God's abode, and are almost crushed by the +overwhelming prospects that sweep upon our vision, do not some +pre monitions of our own unfathomed greatness also stir within us? +Yes: "the sense of Existence, the ideas of Right and Duty, awful +intuitions of God and immortality, these, the grand facts and +substance of the spirit, are independent and indestructible. The +bases of the Moral Law, they shall stand in every tittle, although +the stars should pass away. For their relations and root are in +that which upholds the stars, even with worlds unseen from the +finite, whose majestic and everlasting arrangements shall burst +upon us as the heavens do through the night when the light of this +garish life gives place to the solemn splendors of eternity." + +Eighthly, the belief in a life beyond death has virtually +prevailed everywhere and always. And the argument from universal +consent, as it is termed, has ever been esteemed one of the +foremost testimonies, if not indeed the most convincing testimony, +to the truth of the doctrine. Unless the belief can be shown to be +artificial or sinful, it must seem conclusive. Its innocence is +self evident, and its naturalness is evidenced by its +universality. + +20 Theodore Parker, Sermon of Immortal Life. + + +The rudest and the most polished, the simplest and the most +learned, unite in the expectation, and cling to it through +every thing. It is like the ruling presentiment implanted in +those insects that are to undergo metamorphosis. This believing +instinct, so deeply seated in our consciousness, natural, +innocent, universal, whence came it, and why was it given? +There is but one fair answer. God and nature deceive not. + +Ninthly, the conscious, practical faith of civilized nations, to +day, in a future life, unquestionably, in a majority of +individuals, rests directly on the basis of authority, trust in a +foreign announcement. There are two forms of this authority. The +authority of revelation is most prominent and extensive. God has +revealed the truth from heaven. It has been exemplified by a +miraculous resurrection. It is written in an infallible book, and +sealed with authenticating credentials of super natural purport. +It is therefore to be accepted with implicit trust. Secondly, with +some, the authority of great minds, renowned for scientific +knowledge and speculative acumen, goes far. Thousands of such men, +ranking among the highest names of history, have positively +affirmed the immortality of the soul as a reliable truth. For +instance, Goethe says, on occasion of the death of Wieland, "The +destruction of such high powers is something which can never, and +under no circumstances, even come into question." Such a dogmatic +expression of conviction resting on bare philosophical grounds, +from a mind so equipped, so acute, and so free, has great weight, +and must influence a modest student who hesitates in confessed +incompetence.21 The argument is justly powerful when but humanly +considered, and when divinely derived, of course, it absolutely +forecloses all doubts. + +Tenthly, there is another life, because a belief in it is +necessary to order this world, necessary as a comfort and an +inspiration to man now. A good old author writes, "the very nerves +and sinews of religion is hope of immortality." The conviction +that there is a retributive life hereafter is the moral cement of +the social fabric. Take away this truth, and one great motive of +patriots, martyrs, thinkers, saints, is gone. Take it away, and to +all low minded men selfishness becomes the law, earthly enjoyment +the only good, suffering and death the only evil. Life then is to +be supremely coveted and never put in risk for any stake. Self +indulgence is to be secured at any hazard, little matter by what +means. Abandon all hope of a life to come, and "from that instant +there is nothing serious in mortality." In order that the world +should be governable, ethical, happy, virtuous, magnanimous, is it +possible that it should be necessary for the world to believe in +an untruth? + +"So, thou hast immortality in mind? +Hast grounds that will not let thee doubt it? +The strongest ground herein I find: +That we could never do without it!" + +Finally, the climax of these argumentations is capped by that +grand closing consideration which we may entitle the force of +congruity, the convincing results of a confluence of harmonious +reasons. The hypothesis of immortality accords with the cardinal +facts of observation, meets all points of the case, and +satisfactorily answers every requirement. + +21 Lewis, Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion. + + +It is the solution of the problem, as the fact of Neptune explained +the perturbations of the adjacent planets. Nothing ever gravitates +towards nothing; and it must be an unseen orb that so draws our +yearning souls. If it be not so, then what terrible contradictions +stagger us, and what a chilling doom awaits us! Oh, what mocking +irony then runs through the loftiest promises and hopes of the +world! Just as the wise and good have learned to live, they +disappear amidst the unfeeling waves of oblivion, like snow flakes +in the ocean. "The super earthly desires of man are then created +in him only, like swallowed diamonds, to cut slowly through his +material shell" and destroy him. + +The denial of a future life introduces discord, grief, and despair +in every direction, and, by making each step of advanced culture +the ascent to a wider survey of tantalizing glory and experienced +sorrow, as well as the preparation for a greater fall and a sadder +loss, turns faithful affection and heroic thought into "blind +furies slinging flame." Unless immortality be true, man appears a +dark riddle, not made for that of which he is made capable and +desirous: every thing is begun, nothing ended; the facts of the +present scene are unintelligible; the plainest analogies are +violated; the delicately rising scale of existence is broken off +abrupt; our best reasonings concerning the character and designs +of God, also concerning the implications of our own being and +experience, are futile; and the soul's proud faculties tell +glorious lies as thick as stars. Such, at least, is the usual way +of thinking. + +However formidable a front may be presented by the spectral array +of doubts and difficulties, seeming impediments to faith in +immortality, the faithful servant of God, equipped with +philosophical culture and a saintly life, will fearlessly advance +upon them, scatter them right and left, and win victorious access +to the prize. So the mariner sometimes, off Sicilian shores, sees +a wondrous island ahead, apparently stopping his way with its +cypress and cedar groves, glittering towers, vine wreathed +balconies, and marble stairs sloping to the water's edge. He sails +straight forward, and, severing the pillared porticos and green +gardens of Fata Morgana, glides far on over a glassy sea smiling +in the undeceptive sun. + +CHAPTER IV. + +THEORIES OF THE SOUL'S DESTINATION. + +BEFORE examining, in their multifarious detail, the special +thoughts and fancies respecting a future life prevalent in +different nations and times, it may be well to take a sort of +bird's eye view of those general theories of the destination of +the soul under which all the individual varieties of opinion may +be classified. Vast and incongruous as is the heterogeneous mass +of notions brought forth by the history of this province of the +world's belief, the whole may be systematized, discriminated, and +reduced to a few comprehensive heads. Such an architectural +grouping or outlining of the chief schemes of thought on this +subject will yield several advantages. + +Showing how the different views arose from natural speculations on +the correlated phenomena of the outward world and facts of human +experience, it affords an indispensable help towards a +philosophical analysis and explanation of the popular faith as to +the destiny of man after death, in all the immense diversity of +its contents. An orderly arrangement and exposition of these +cardinal theories also form an epitome holding a bewildering +multitude of particulars in its lucid and separating grasp, +changing the fruits of learned investigation from a cumbersome +burden on the memory to a small number of connected formularies in +the reason. These theories serve as a row of mirrors hung in a +line of historic perspective, reflecting every relevant shape and +hue of meditation and faith humanity has known, from the ideal +visions of the Athenian sage to the instinctive superstitions of +the Fejee savage. When we have adequately defined these theories, +of which there are seven, traced their origin, comprehended their +significance and bearings, and dissected their supporting +pretensions, then the whole field of our theme lies in light +before us; and, however grotesque or mysterious, simple or subtle, +may be the modes of thinking and feeling in relation to the life +beyond death revealed in our subsequent researches, we shall know +at once where to refer them and how to explain them. The precise +object, therefore, of the present chapter is to set forth the +comprehensive theories devised to solve the problem, What becomes +of man when he dies? + +But a little while man flourishes here in the bosom of visible +nature. Soon he disappears from our scrutiny, missed in all the +places that knew him. Whither has he gone? What fate has befallen +him? It is an awful question. In comparison with its concentrated +interest, all other affairs are childish and momentary. Whenever +that solemn question is asked, earth, time, and the heart, natural +transformations, stars, fancy, and the brooding intellect, are +full of vague oracles. Let us see what intelligible answers can be +constructed from their responses. + +The first theory which we shall consider propounds itself in one +terrible word, annihilation. Logically this is the earliest, +historically the latest, view. The healthy consciousness, the +eager fancy, the controlling sentiment, the crude thought, all the +uncurbed instinctive conclusions of primitive human nature, point +forcibly to a continued existence for the soul, in some way, when +the body shall have perished. And so history shows us in all the +savage nations a vivid belief in a future life. But to the +philosophical observer, who has by dint of speculation freed +himself from the constraining tendencies of desire, faith, +imagination, and authority, the thought that man totally ceases +with the destruction of his visible organism must occur as the +first and simplest settlement of the question.1 The totality of +manifested life has absolutely disappeared: why not conclude that +the totality of real life has actually lost its existence and is +no more? That is the natural inference, unless by some means the +contrary can be proved. Accordingly, among all civilized people, +every age has had its skeptics, metaphysical disputants who have +mournfully or scoffingly denied the separate survival of the soul. +This is a necessity in the inevitable sequences of observation and +theory; because, when the skeptic, suppressing or escaping his +biassed wishes, the trammels of traditional opinion, and the +spontaneous convictions prophetic of his own uninterrupted being, +first looks over the wide scene of human life and death, and +reflectingly asks, What is the sequel of this strange, eventful +history? obviously the conclusion suggested by the immediate +phenomena is that of entire dissolution and blank oblivion. This +result is avoided by calling in the aid of deeper philosophical +considerations and of inspiring moral truths. But some will not +call in that aid; and the whole superficial appearance of the +case regarding that alone, as they then will is fatal to our +imperial hopes. The primordial clay claims its own from the +disanimated frame; and the vanished life, like the flame of an +outburnt taper, has ceased to be. Men are like bubbles or foam +flakes on the world's streaming surface: glittering in a momentary +ray, they break and are gone, and only the dark flood remains +still flowing forward. They are like tones of music, commencing +and ending with the unpurposed breath that makes them. Nature is a +vast congeries of mechanical substances pervaded by mindless +forces of vitality. Consciousness is a production which results +from the fermentation and elaboration of unconscious materials; +and after a time it deceases, its conditions crumbling into their +inorganic grounds again. + +From the abyss of silence and dust intelligent creatures break +forth, shine, and sink back, like meteor flashes in a cloud. The +generations of sentient being, like the annual growths of +vegetation, by spontaneity of dynamic development, spring from +dead matter, flourish through their destined cycle, and relapse +into dead matter. The bosom of nature is, therefore, at once the +wondrous womb and the magnificent mausoleum of man. Fate, like an +iron skeleton seated at the summit of the world on a throne of +fresh growing grass and mouldering skulls, presides over all, and +annihilation is the universal doom of individual life. Such is the +atheistic naturalist's creed. However indefensible or shocking it +is, it repeatedly appears in the annals of speculation; and any +synopsis of the possible conclusions in which the inquiry into +man's destiny may rest that should omit this, would be grossly +imperfect. + +This scheme of disbelief is met by insuperable objections. It +excludes some essential elements of the case, confines itself to a +wholly empirical view; and consequently the relentless solution it +announces applies only to a mutilated problem. To assert the +cessation of the soul because its physical manifestations through +the body have ceased, is certainly to affirm without just warrant. +It would appear impossible for volition and intelligence to + +1 Lalande, Dictionnaire des Athees Anciens et Modernes. + + +originate save from a free parent mind. Numerous cogent evidences +of design seem to prove the existence of a God by whose will all +things are ordered according to a plan. Many powerful impressions +and arguments, instinctive, critical, or moral, combine to teach +that in the wreck of matter the spirit emerges, deathless, from +the closing waves of decay. The confirmation of that truth becomes +irresistible when we see how reason and conscience, with delighted +avidity, seize upon its adaptedness alike to the brightest +features and the darkest defects of the present life, whose +imperfect symmetries and segments are harmoniously filled out by +the adjusting complement of a future state.2 + +The next representation of the fate of the soul disposes of it by +re absorption into the essence from which it emanated. There is an +eternal fountain of unmade life, from which all individual, +transient lives flow, and into which they return. This conception +arose in the outset from a superficial analogy which must have +obtruded itself upon primitive notice and speculation; for man is +led to his first metaphysical inquiries by a feeling contemplation +of outward phenomena. Now, in the material world, when individual +forms perish, each sensible component relapses into its original +element and becomes an undistinguishable portion of it. Our +exhaled breath goes into the general air and is united with it: +the dust of our decaying frames becomes part of the ground and +vegetation. So, it is strongly suggested, the lives of things, the +souls of men, when they disappear from us, are remerged in the +native spirit whence they came. The essential longing of every +part for union with its whole is revealed and vocal throughout all +nature. Water is sullen in stillness, murmurs in motion, and never +ceases its gloom or its complaining until it sleeps in the sea. +Like spray on the rock, the stranding generations strike the +sepulchre and are dissipated into universal vapor. As lightnings +slink back into the charged bosom of the thunder cloud, as eager +waves, spent, subside in the deep, as furious gusts die away in +the great atmosphere, so the gleaming ranks of genius, the +struggling masses of toil, the pompous hosts of war, fade and +dissolve away into the peaceful bosom of the all engulfing SOUL. +This simplest, earliest philosophy of mankind has had most +extensive and permanent prevalence.3 For immemorial centuries it +has possessed the mind of the countless millions of India. Baur +thinks the Egyptian identification of each deceased person with +Osiris and the burial of him under that name, were meant to denote +the reception of the individual human life into the universal +nature life. The doctrine has been implicitly held wherever +pantheism has found a votary, from Anaximander, to whom finite +creatures were "disintegrations or decompositions from the +Infinite," to Alexander Pope, affirming that + +"All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is, +and God the soul." + +The first reasoners, who gave such an ineradicable direction and +tinge to the thinking of after ages, were furthermore driven to +the supposition of a final absorption, from the + +2 Drossbach, Die Harmonie der Ergebnisse der Naturforschung mit +den Forderungen des Menschlichen Gemuthes. + +3 Blount, Anima Mundi; or, The Opinions of the Ancients concerning +Man's Soul after this Life. + + +impossibility, in that initiatory stage of thought, of grasping +any other theory which would apparently meet the case so well or +be more satisfactory. They, of course, had not yet arrived at the +idea that God is a personal Spirit whose nature is revealed in the +constitutive characteristics of the human soul, and who carries on +his works from eternity to eternity without monotonous repetition +or wearisome stagnancy, but with perpetual variety in never +ceasingmotion. Whatever commences must also terminate, they said, +forgetting that number begins with one but has no end. They did +not conceive of the universe of being as an eternal line, making +immortality desirable for its endless novelty, but imaged it to +themselves as a circle, making an everlasting individual +consciousness dreadful for its intolerable sameness, an immense +round of existence, phenomena, and experience, going forth and +returning into itself, over and over, forever and ever. To escape +so repulsive a contemplation, they made death break the fencing +integument of consciousness and empty all weary personalities into +the absolute abyss of being. + +Again: the extreme difficulty of apprehending the truth of a +Creator literally infinite, and of a limitless creation, would +lead to the same result in another way. Without doubt, it seemed +to the naive thinkers of antiquity, that if hosts of new beings +were continually coming into life and increasing the number of the +inhabitants of the future state, the fountain from which they +proceeded would some time be exhausted, or the universe grow +plethoric with population. There would be no more substance below +or no more room above. The easiest method of surmounting this +problem would be by the hypothesis that all spirits come out of a +great World Spirit, and, having run their mortal careers, are +absorbed into it again. Many especially the deepest Oriental +dreamers have also been brought to solace themselves with this +conclusion by a course of reasoning based on the exposures, and +assumed inevitable sufferings, of all finite being. They argue +that every existence below the absolute God, because it is set +around with limitations, is necessarily obnoxious to all sorts of +miseries. Its pleasures are only "honey drops scarce tasted in a +sea of gall." This conviction, with its accompanying sentiment, +runs through the sacred books of the East, is the root and heart +of their theology, the dogma that makes the cruelest penances +pleasant if a renewed existence may thus be avoided. The sentiment +is not alien to human longing and surmise, as witnesses the night +thought of the English poet who, world sated, and sadly yearning, +cries through the starry gloom to God, + +"When shall my soul her incarnation quit, And, readopted to thy +blest embrace, Obtain her apotheosis in thee?" + +Having stated and traced the doctrine of absorption, it remains to +investigate the justice of its grounds. The doctrine starts from a +premise partly true and ends in a conclusion partly false. We +emanate from the creative power of God, and are sustained by the +in flowing presence of his life, but are not discerptions from his +own being, any more than beams of light are distinct substances +shot out and shorn off from the sun to be afterwards drawn back +and assimilated into the parent orb. We are destined to a +harmonious life in his unifying love, but not to be fused and lost +as insentient parts of his total consciousness. We are products of + +God's will, not component atoms of his soul. Souls are to be in +God as stars are in the firmament, not as lumps of salt are in a +solvent. This view is confirmed by various arguments. + +In the first place, it is supported by the philosophical +distinction between emanation and creation. The conception of +creation gives us a personal God who wills to certain ends; that +of emanation reduces the Supreme Being to a ghastly array of laws, +revolving abysses, galvanic forces, nebular star dust, dead ideas, +and vital fluids. According to the latter supposition, finite +existences flow from the Infinite as consequences from a +principle, or streams from a fountain; according to the former, +they proceed as effects from a cause, or thoughts from a mind. +That is pantheistic, fatal, and involves absorption by a logical +necessity; this is creative, free, and does not presuppose any +circling return. Material things are thoughts which God +transiently contemplates and dismisses; spiritual creatures are +thoughts which he permanently expresses in concrete immortality. +The soul is a thought; the body is the word in which it is +clothed. + +Secondly, the analogy which first leads to belief in absorption is +falsely interpreted. Taken on its own ground, rightly appreciated, +it legitimates a different conclusion. + +A grain of sand thrown into the bosom of Sahara does not lose its +individual existence. Distinct drops are not annihilated as to +their simple atoms of water, though sunk in the midst of the sea. +The final particles or monads of air or granite are not +dissolvingly blended into continuity of unindividualized +atmosphere or rock when united with their elemental masses, but +are thrust unapproachably apart by molecular repulsion. Now, a +mind, being, as we conceive, no composite, but an ultimate unity, +cannot be crushed or melted from its integral persistence of +personality. Though plunged into the centre of a surrounding +wilderness or ocean of minds, it must still retain itself unlost +in the multitude. Therefore, if we admit the existence of an +inclusive mundane Soul, it by no means follows that lesser souls +received into it are deprived of their individuality. It is "one +not otherwise than as the sea is one, by a similarity and +contiguity of parts, being composed of an innumerable host of +distinct spirits, as that is of aqueous particles; and as the +rivers continually discharge into the sea, so the vehicular +people, upon the disruption of their vehicles, discharge and +incorporate into that ocean of spirits making the mundane Soul."4 + +Thirdly, every consideration furnished by the doctrine of final +causes as applied to existing creatures makes us ask, What use is +there in calling forth souls merely that they may be taken back +again? To justify their creation, the fulfilment of some educative +aim, and then the lasting fruition of it, appear necessary. Why +else should a soul be drawn from out the unformed vastness, and +have its being struck into bounds, and be forced to pass through +such appalling ordeals of good and evil, pleasure and agony? An +individual of any kind is as important as its race; for it +contains in possibility all that its type does. And the purposes +of things, so far as we can discern them, the nature of our +spiritual constitution, the meaning of our circumstances and +probation, the resulting tendencies of our experience, all seem to +prophesy, not the destruction, but the perfection and +perpetuation, of individual being. + +4 Tucker, Light of Nature, Part II. chap. xxii. + + +Fourthly, the same inference is yielded by applying a similar +consideration to the Creator. Allowing him consciousness and +intentions, as we must, what object could he have either in +exerting his creative power or in sending out portions of himself +in new individuals, save the production of so many immortal +personalities of will, knowledge, and love, to advance towards the +perfection of holiness, wisdom, and blessedness, filling his +mansions with his children? By thus multiplying his own image he +adds to the number of happy creatures who are to be bound together +in bands of glory, mutually receiving and returning his affection, +and swells the tide of conscious bliss which fills and rolls +forever through his eternal universe. + +Nor, finally, is it necessary to expect personal oblivion in God +in order to escape from evil and win exuberant happiness. Those +ends are as well secured by the fruition of God's love in us as by +the drowning of our consciousness in his plenitude of delight. +Precisely herein consists the fundamental distinction of the +Christian from the Brahmanic doctrine of human destiny. The +Christian hopes to dwell in blissful union with God's will, not to +be annihilatingly sunk in his essence. To borrow an illustration +from Scotus Erigena,5 as the air when thoroughly illumined by +sunshine still keeps its aerial nature and does not become +sunshine, or as iron all red in the flame still keeps its metallic +substance and does not turn to fire itself, so a soul fully +possessed and moved by God does not in consequence lose its own +sentient and intelligent being. It is still a bounded entity, +though recipient of boundless divinity. Thus evil ceases, each +personality is preserved and intensely glorified, and, at the same +time, God is all in all. The totality of perfected, enraptured, +immortalized humanity in heaven may be described in this manner, +adopting the masterly expression of Coleridge: + +"And as one body seems the aggregate Of atoms numberless, each +organized, So, by a strange and dim similitude, Infinite myriads +of self conscious minds In one containing Spirit live, who fills +With absolute ubiquity of thought All his involved monads, that +yet seem Each to pursue its own self centring end." + +A third mode of answering the question of human destiny is by the +conception of a general resurrection. Souls, as fast as they leave +the body, are gathered in some intermediate state, a starless +grave world, a ghostly limbo. When the present cycle of things is +completed, when the clock of time runs down and its lifeless +weight falls in the socket, and "Death's empty helmet yawns grimly +over the funeral hatchment of the world," the gates of this long +barred receptacle of the deceased will be struck open, and its +pale prisoners, in accumulated hosts, issue forth, and enter on +the immortal inheritance reserved for them. In the sable land of +Hades all departed generations are bivouacking in one vast army. +On the resurrection morning, striking their shadowy tents, they +will scale the walls of the abyss, and, reinvested with their +bodies, either plant their banners on the summits of the earth in +permanent encampment, or storm the battlements of the sky and +colonize heaven with flesh and blood. + +5 Philosophy and Doctrines of Erigena, Universalist Quarterly +Review, vol. vii. p. 100. + + +All advocates of the doctrine of psychopannychism, or the sleep +of souls from death till the last day, in addition to the general +body of orthodox Christians, have been supporters of this +conclusion.6 + +Three explanations are possible of the origination of this belief. +First, a man musing over the affecting panorama of the seasons as +it rolls through the year, budding life alternating with deadly +desolation, spring still bringing back the freshness of leaves, +flowers, and carolling birds, as if raising them from an annual +interment in winter's cold grave, and then thinking of the destiny +of his own race, how many generations have ripened and decayed, +how many human crops have been harvested from the cradle and +planted in the tomb, might naturally especially if he had any +thing of the poet's associating and creative mind say to himself, +Are we altogether perishable dust, or are we seed sown for higher +fields, seed lying dormant now, but at last to sprout into swift +immortality when God shall make a new sunshine and dew +omnipotently penetrate the dry mould where we tarry? No matter how +partial the analogy, how forced the process, how false the result, +such imagery would sooner or later occur; and, having occurred, it +is no more strange that it should get literal acceptance than it +is that many other popular figments should have secured the firm +establishment they have. + +Secondly, a mourner just bereaved of one in whom his whole love +was garnered, distracted with grief, his faculties unbalanced, his +soul a chaos, is of sorrow and fantasy all compact; and he solaces +himself with the ideal embodiment of his dreams, half seeing what +he thinks, half believing what he wishes. His desires pass through +unconscious volition into supposed facts. Before the miraculous +power of his grief wielded imagination the world is fluent, and +fate runs in the moulds he conceives. The adored form on which +corruption now banquets, he sees again, animated, beaming, clasped +in his arms. He cries, It cannot be that those holy days are +forever ended, that I shall never more realize the blissful dream +in which we trod the sunny world together! Oh, it must be that +some time God will give me back again that beloved one! the +sepulchre closed so fast shall be unsealed, the dead be restored, +and all be as it was before! The conception thus once born out of +the delirium of busy thought, anguished love, and regnant +imagination, may in various ways win a fixed footing in faith. + +Thirdly, the notion which we are now contemplating is one link in +a chain of thought which, in the course of time and the range of +speculation, the theorizing mind could not fail to forge. The +concatenation of reflections is this. Death is the separation of +soul and body. That separation is repulsive, an evil. Therefore it +was not intended by the Infinite Goodness, but was introduced by a +foe, and is a foreign, marring element. Finally God will vanquish +his antagonist, and banish from the creation all his thwarting +interferences with the primitive perfection of harmony and +happiness. Accordingly, the souls which Satan has caused to be +separated from their bodies are reserved apart until the fulness +of time, when there shall be a universal resurrection and +restoration. So far as reason is competent to pronounce on this +view considered as a sequel to the disembodying doom of man, it is +an arbitrary piece of fancy. Philosophy ignores it. Science gives +no hint of it. + +6 Baumgarten, Beantwortung des Sendschreibens Heyns vom Schlafe +der abgeschiedenen Seelen. Chalmers. Astronomical Discourses, iv. + + +It sprang from unwarranted metaphors, perverted, exaggerated, +based on analogies not parallel. So far as it assumes to rest +on revelation it will be examined in another place. + +Fourthly, after the notion of a great, epochal resurrection, as a +reply to the inquiry, What is to become of the soul? a dogma is +next encountered which we shall style that of a local and +irrevocable conveyance. The disembodied spirit is conveyed to some +fixed region,7 a penal or a blissful abode, where it is to tarry +unalterably. This idea of the banishment or admission of souls, +according to their deserts, or according to an elective grace, +into an anchored location called hell or heaven, a retributive or +rewarding residence for eternity, we shall pass by with few words, +because it recurs for fuller examination in other chapters. In the +first place, the whole picture is a gross simile drawn from +occurrences of this outward world and unjustifiably applied to the +fortunes of the mind in the invisible sphere of the future. The +figment of a judicial transportation of the soul from one place or +planet to another, as if by a Charon's boat, is a clattering and +repulsive conceit, inadmissible by one who apprehends the +noiseless continuity of God's self executing laws. It is a jarring +mechanical clash thrust amidst the smooth evolution of spiritual +destinies. It compares with the facts as the supposition that the +planets are swung around the sun by material chains compares with +the law of gravitation. + +Moral compensation is no better secured by imprisonment or freedom +in separate localities than it is, in a common environment, by the +fatal working of their interior forces of character, and their +relations with all things else. Moreover, these antagonist +kingdoms, Tartarean and Elysian, defined as the everlasting +habitations of departed souls, have been successively driven, as +dissipated visions, from their assumed latitudes and longitudes, +one after another, by progressive discovery, until now the +intelligent mind knows of no assignable spot for them. Since we +are not acquainted with any fixed locations to which the soul is +to be carried, to abide there forever in appointed joy or woe, and +since there is no scientific necessity nor moral use for the +supposition of such places and of the transferrence of the +departed to them, we cannot hesitate to reject the associated +belief as a deluding mistake. The truth, as we conceive it, is not +that different souls are borne by constabulary apparitions to two +immured dwellings, manacled and hurried into Tophet or saluted and +ushered into Paradise, but that all souls spontaneously pass into +one immense empire, drawn therein by their appropriate +attractions, to assimilate a strictly discriminative experience. +But, as to this, let each thinker form his own conclusion. + +The fifth view of the destination of the soul may be called the +theory of recurrence.8 When man dies, his surviving spirit is +immediately born again in a new body. Thus the souls, assigned in +a limited number to each world, continually return, each one still +forgetful of his previous lives. This seems to be the specific +creed of the Druses, who affirm that all souls were created at +once, and that the number is unchanged, while they are born over +and over. A Druse boy, dreadfully alarmed by the discharge of a +gun, on being asked by a Christian the cause of his fear, replied, +"I was born murdered;" that is, the soul of a man who had been +shot + +7 Lange, Das Land der Herrlichkelt. + +8 Schmidius, Diss. de Multiplici Animarum Reditu in Corpora. + + +passed into his body at the moment of his birth.9 The young +mountaineer would seem, from the sudden violence with which he was +snatched out of his old house, to have dragged a trail of +connecting consciousness over into his new one. As a general rule, +in distinction from such an exception, memory is like one of those +passes which the conductors of railroad trains give their +passengers, "good for this trip only." The notion of an endless +succession of lives on the familiar stage of this dear old world, +commencing each with clean wiped tablets, possesses for some minds +a fathomless allurement; but others wish for no return pass on +their ticket to futurity, preferring an adventurous abandonment +"to fresh fields and pastures new," in unknown immensity, to a +renewed excursion through landscapes already traversed and +experiences drained before. + +Fourier's doctrine of immortality belongs here. According to his +idea, the Great Soul of this globe is a composite being, +comprising about ten billions of individual souls. Their +connection with this planet will be for nearly eighty thousand +years. Then the whole sum of them will swarm to some higher +planet, Fourier himself, perhaps, being the old gray gander that +will head the flock, pilot king of their flight. Each man is to +enjoy about four hundred births on earth, poetic justice leading +him successively through all the grades and phases of fortune, +from cripplehood and beggary to paragonship and the throne. The +invisible residence of spirits and the visible are both on this +globe, the former in the Great Soul, the latter in bodies. In the +other life the soul becomes a sharer in the woes of the Great +Soul, which is as unhappy as seven eighths of the incarnated +souls; for its fate is a compound of the fates of the human souls +taken collectively. Coming into this outward scene at birth, we +lose anew all memory of past existence, but wake up again in the +Great Soul with a perfect recollection of all our previous lives +both in the invisible and in the visible world. These alternating +passages between the two states will continue until the final +swooping of total humanity from this exhausted planet in search of +a better abode.10 + +The idea of the recurrence of souls is the simplest means of +meeting a difficulty stated thus by the ingenious Abraham Tucker +in his "Light of Nature Pursued." "The numbers of souls daily +pouring in from hence upon the next world seem to require a +proportionable drain from it somewhere or other; for else the +country might be overstocked." The objection urged against such a +belief from the fact that we do not remember having lived before +is rebutted by the assertion that + +"Some draught of Lethe doth await, As old mythologies relate, The +slipping through from state to state." + +The theory associated with this Lethean draught is confirmed by +its responsive correspondence with many unutterable experiences, +vividly felt or darkly recognised, in our deepest bosom. It seems +as if occasionally the poppied drug or other oblivious antidote + +9 Churchill, Mount Lebanon, vol. ii. ch. 12. + +10 Fourier, Passions of the Human Soul, (Morell's translation,) +Introduction, vol. i. pp. 14-18; also pp. 233-236. + + +administered by nature had been so much diluted that reason, only +half baffled, struggles to decipher the dim runes and vestiges of +a foregone state; + +"And ever something is or seems That touches us with mystic +gleams, Like glimpses of forgotten dreams." + +In those excursive reveries, fed by hope and winged with dream, +which scour the glens and scale the peaks of the land of thought, +this nook of hypothesis must some time be discovered. And, brought +to light, it has much to interest and to please; but it is too +destitute of tangible proof to be successfully maintained against +assault.11 + +There is another faith as to the fate of souls, best stated, +perhaps, in the phrase perpetual migration. The soul, by +successive deaths and births, traverses the universe, an +everlasting traveller through the rounds of being and the worlds +of space, a transient sojourner briefly inhabiting each.12 All +reality is finding its way up towards the attracting, retreating +Godhead. Minerals tend to vegetables, these to animals, these to +men. Blind but yearning matter aspires to spirit, intelligent +spirits to divinity. In every grain of dust sleep an army of +future generations. As every thing below man gropes upward towards +his conscious estate, "the trees being imperfect men, that seem to +bemoan their imprisonment, rooted in the ground," so man himself +shall climb the illimitable ascent of creation, every step a star. +The animal organism is a higher kind of vegetable, whose +development begins with those substances with the production of +which the life of an ordinary vegetable ends.13 The fact, too, +that embryonic man passes through ascending stages +undistinguishable from those of lower creatures, is full of +meaning. Does it not betoken a preserved epitome of the long +history of slowly rising existence? What unplummeted abysses of +time and distance intervene from the primary rock to the Victoria +Regia! and again from the first crawling spine to the fetterless +mind of a Schelling! But, snail pace by snail pace, those +immeasurable separations have been bridged over; and so every +thing that now lies at the dark basis of dust shall finally reach +the transplendent apex of intellect. The objection of theological +prejudice to this developing succession of ascents that it is +degrading is an unhealthy mistake. Whether we have risen or fallen +to our present rank, the actual rank itself is not altered. And in +one respect it is better for man to be an advanced oyster than a +degraded god; for in the former case the path is upwards, in the +latter it is downwards. "We wake," observes a profound thinker, +"and find ourselves on a stair: there are other stairs below us, +which we seem to have ascended; there are stairs above us, many a +one, which go upward and out of sight." Such was plainly the trust +of the author of the following exhortation: + +"Be worthy of death; and so learn to live That every incarnation +of thy soul In other realms, and worlds, and firmaments Shall be +more pure and high." + +11 Bertram, Prufung der Meinung von der Praexistenz der +menechlichen Seele. + +12 Nurnberger, Still Leben, oder uber die Unsterblichkeit der +Seele. + +13 Liebig, Animal Chemistry, ch. ix. + + +Bulwer likewise has said, "Eternity may be but an endless series +of those emigrations which men call deaths, abandonments of home +after home, ever to fairer scenes and loftier heights. Age after +age, the spirit that glorious nomad may shift its tent, fated not +to rest in the dull Elysium of the heathen, but carrying with it +evermore its twin elements, activity and desire." + +But there is something unsatisfactory, even sad and dreary, in +this prospect of incessant migration. Must not the pilgrim pine +and tire for a goal of rest? Exhausted with wanderings, sated with +experiments, will he not pray for the exempted lot of a contented +fruition in repose? One must weary at last of being even so +sublime a vagabond as he whose nightly hostelries are stars. And, +besides, how will sundered friends and lovers, between whom, on +the road, races and worlds interpose, ever over take each other, +and be conjoined to journey hand in hand again or build a bower +together by the way? A poet of finest mould, in happiest mood, +once saw a leaf drop from a tree which overhung a mirroring +stream. The reflection of the leaf in the watery sky hollow far +below seemed to rise from beneath as swiftly as the object fell +from above; and the two, encountering at the surface, became one. +Then he sang, touching with his strain the very marrow of deepest +human desire, + +"How speeds, from in the river's thought, +The spirit of the leaf that falls, +Its heaven in that calm bosom wrought, +As mine among yon crimson walls! +From the dry bough it spins, to greet +Its shadow on the placid river: +So might I my companions meet, +Nor roam the countless worlds forever!" + +Moreover, some elements of this theory are too grotesque, are the +too rash inferences from a too crude induction, to win sober +credit to any extent. It is easy to devise and carry out in +consistent descriptive details the hypothesis that the soul has +risen, through ten thousand transitions, from the condition of red +earth or a tadpole to its present rank, and that, + +"As it once crawl'd upon the sod, It yet shall grow to be a god;" + +but what scientific evidence is there to confirm and establish the +supposition as a truth? Why, if it be so, to borrow the humorous +satire of good old Henry More, + +"Then it will follow that cold stopping curd And harden'd moldy +cheese, when they have rid Due circuits through the heart, at last +shall speed Of life and sense, look thorough our thin eyes And +view the close wherein the cow did feed Whence they were milk'd: +grosse pie crust will grow wise, And pickled cucumbers sans doubt +philosophize!" + +The form of this general outline stalks totteringly on stilts of +fancy, and sprawls headlong with a logical crash at the first +critical probe. + +The final theory of the destination of souls, now left to be set +forth, may be designated by the word transition.14 It affirms that +at death they pass from the separate material worlds, which are +their initiating nurseries, into the common spiritual world, which +is everywhere present. Thus the visible peoples the invisible, +each person in his turn consciously rising from this world's +rudimentary darkness to that world's universal light. Dwelling +here, free souls, housed in frames of dissoluble clay, + +"We hold a middle rank 'twixt heaven and earth, +On the last verge of mortal being stand, +lose to the realm where angels have their birth, +Just on the boundaries of the spirit land." + +Why has God "broken up the solid material of the universe into +innumerable little globes, and swung each of them in the centre of +an impassable solitude of space," unless it be to train up in the +various spheres separate households for final union as a single +diversified family in the boundless spiritual world? 15 The +surmise is not unreasonable, but recommends itself strongly, +that, + +"If yonder stars be fill'd with forms of breathing clay like ours, +Perchance the space which spreads between is for a spirit's +powers." + +The soul encased in flesh is thereby confined to one home, its +natal nest; but, liberated at death, it wanders at will, +unobstructed, through every world and cerulean deep; and +wheresoever it is, there, in proportion to its own capacity and +fitness, is heaven and is God.16 All those world spots so thickly +scattered through the Yggdrasill of universal space are but the +brief sheltering places where embryo intelligences clip their +shells, and whence, as soon as fledged through the discipline of +earthly teaching and essays, the broodlet souls take wing into the +mighty airs of immensity, and thus enter on their eternal +emancipation. This conjecture is, of all which have been offered +yet, perhaps the completest, least perplexed, best recommended by +its harmony with our knowledge and our hope. And so one might wish +to rest in it with humble trust. + +The final destiny of an immortal soul, after its transition into +the other world, must be either unending progress towards infinite +perfection, or the reaching of its perihelion at last and then +revolving in uninterrupted fruition. In the former case, pursuing +an infinite aim, with each degree of its attainment the flying +goal still recedes. In the latter case, it will in due season +touch its bound and there be satisfied, + +"When weak Time shall be pour'd out Into Eternity, and circular +joys Dance in an endless round." + +14 Taylor, Physical Theory of Another Life, ch. xii. + +15 Taylor, Saturday Evening, pp. 95-111. + +16 Taylor, Physical Theory of Another Life, ch. xvii. + + +This result seems the more probable of the two; for the assertion +of countless decillions of personalities all progressing beyond +every conceivable limit, on, still on, forever, is incredible. If +endless linear progress were the destiny of each being, the whole +universe would at last become a line! And though it is true that +the idea of an ever novel chase attracts and refreshes the +imagination, while the idea of a monotonous revolution repels and +wearies it, this is simply because we judge after our poor earthly +experience and its flagging analogies. It will not be so if that +revolution is the vivid realization of all our being's +possibilities. + +Annihilation, absorption, resurrection, conveyance, recurrence, +migration, transition, these seven answers to the question of our +fate, and of its relation to the course of nature, are thinkable +in words. We may choose from among them, but can construct no real +eighth. First, there is a constant succession of growth and decay. +Second, there is a perpetual flow and ebb of personal emanation +and impersonal resumption. Third, there is a continual return of +the same persistent entities. Fourth, all matter may be sublimated +to spirit, and souls alone remain to occupy boundless space. +Fifth, the power of death may cease, all the astronomic orbs be +populated and enjoyed, each by one generation of everlasting +inhabitants, the present order continuing in each earth until +enough have lived to fill it, then all of them, physically +restored, dwelling on it, with no more births or deaths. Sixth, if +matter be not transmutable to soul, when that peculiar reality +from which souls are developed is exhausted, and the last +generation of incarnated beings have risen from the flesh, the +material creation may, in addition to the inter stellar region, be +eternally appropriated by the spirit races to their own free range +and use, through adaptations of faculty unknown to us now; else it +may vanish as a phantasmal spectacle. Or, finally, souls may be +absolutely created out of nothing by the omnipotence of God, and +the universe may be infinite: then the process may proceed +forever. + +But men's beliefs are formed rather by the modes of thought they +have learned to adopt than by any proofs they have tested; not by +argumentation about a subject, but by the way of looking at it. +The moralist regards all creation as the work of a personal God, a +theatre of moral ends, a just Providence watching over the parts, +and the conscious immortality of the actors an inevitable +accompaniment. The physicist contemplates the universe as +constituted of atoms of attraction and repulsion, which subsist in +perfect mobility through space, but are concreted in the molecular +masses of the planets. The suns are vast engines for the +distribution of heat or motion, the equivalent of all kinds of +force. This, in its diffusion, causes innumerable circulations and +combinations of the original atoms. Organic growth, life, is the +fruition of a force derived from the sun. Decay, death, is the +rendering up of that force in its equivalents. Thus, the universe +is a composite unity of force, a solidarity of ultimate unities +which are indestructible, though in constant circulation of new +groupings and journeys. To the religious faith of the moralist, +man is an eternal person, reaping what he has sowed. To the +speculative intellect of the physicist, man is an atomic force, to +be liberated into the ethereal medium until again harnessed in +some organism. In both cases he is immortal: but in that, as a +free citizen of the ideal world; in this, as a flying particle of +the dynamic immensity. + +PART SECOND. + + +ETHNIC THOUGHTS CONCERNING A FUTURE LIFE. + +CHAPTER I. + +BARBARIAN NOTIONS OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +PROCEEDING now to give an account of the fancies and opinions in +regard to a future life which have been prevalent, in different +ages, in various nations of the earth, it will be best to begin by +presenting, in a rapid series, some sketches of the conceits of +those uncivilized tribes who did not so far as our knowledge +reaches possess a doctrine sufficiently distinctive and full, or +important enough in its historical relations, to warrant a +detailed treatment in separate chapters. + +We will glance first at the negroes. According to all accounts, +while there are, among the numerous tribes, diversities and +degrees of superstition, there is yet, throughout the native pagan +population of Africa, a marked general agreement of belief in the +survival of the soul, in spectres, divination, and witchcraft; and +there is a general similarity of funeral usages. Early travellers +tell us that the Bushmen conceived the soul to be immortal, and as +impalpable as a shadow, and that they were much afraid of the +return of deceased spirits to haunt them. They were accustomed to +pray to their departed countrymen not to molest them, but to stay +away in quiet. They also employed exorcisers to lay these ill +omened ghosts. Meiners relates of some inhabitants of the Guinea +coast that their fear of ghosts and their childish credulity +reached such a pitch that they threw their dead into the ocean, in +the expectation of thus drowning soul and body together. + +Superstitions as gross and lawless still have full sway. Wilson, +whose travels and residence there for twenty years have enabled +him to furnish the most reliable information, says, in his recent +work,1 "A native African would as soon doubt his present as his +future state of being." Every dream, every stray suggestion of the +mind, is interpreted, with unquestioning credence, as a visit from +the dead, a whisper from a departed soul. If a man wakes up with +pains in his bones or muscles, it is because his spirit has +wandered abroad in the night and been flogged by some other +spirit. On certain occasions the whole community start up at +midnight, with clubs, torches, and hideous yells, to drive the +evil spirits out of the village. They seem to believe that the +souls of dead men take rank with good or bad spirits, as they have +themselves been good or bad in this life. They bury with the +deceased clothing, ornaments, utensils, + +1 Western Africa, ch. xii. + + +and statedly convey food to the grave for the use of the +revisiting spirit. With the body of king Weir of the Cavalla +towns, who was buried in December of 1854, in presence of several +missionaries, was interred a quantity of rice, palm oil, beef, and +rum: it was supposed the ghost of the sable monarch would come +back and consume these articles. The African tribes, where their +notions have not been modified by Christian or by Mohammedan +teachings, appear to have no definite idea of a heaven or of a +hell; but future reward or punishment is considered under the +general conception of an association, in the disembodied state, +with the benignant or with the demoniacal powers. + +The New Zealanders imagine that the souls of the dead go to a +place beneath the earth, called Reinga. The path to this region is +a precipice close to the sea shore at the North Cape. It is said +that the natives who live in the neighborhood can at night hear +sounds caused by the passing of spirits thither through the air. +After a great battle they are thus warned of the event long before +the news can arrive by natural means.2 It is a common superstition +with them that the left eye of every chief, after his death, +becomes a star. The Pleiades are seven New Zealand chiefs, +brothers, who were slain together in battle and are now fixed in +the sky, one eye of each, in the shape of a star, being the only +part of them that is visible. It has been observed that the +mythological doctrine of the glittering host of heaven being an +assemblage of the departed heroes of earth never received a more +ingenious version.3 Certainly it is a magnificent piece of insular +egotism. It is noticeable here that, in the Norse mythology, Thor, +having slain Thiasse, the giant genius of winter, throws his eyes +up to heaven, and they become stars. Shungie, a celebrated New +Zealand king, said he had on one occasion eaten the left eye of a +great chief whom he had killed in battle, for the purpose of thus +increasing the glory of his own eye when it should be transferred +to the firmament. Sometimes, apparently, it was thought that there +was a separate immortality for each of the eyes of the dead, the +left ascending to heaven as a star, the right, in the form of a +spirit, taking flight for Reinga. + +The custom, common in Africa and in New Zealand, of slaying the +slaves or the wives of an important person at his death and +burying them with him, prevails also among the inhabitants of the +Feejee Islands. A chief's wives are sometimes strangled on these +occasions, sometimes buried alive. One cried to her brother, "I +wish to die, that I may accompany my husband to the land where he +has gone. Love me, and make haste to strangle me, that I may +overtake him."4 Departing souls go to the tribunal of Ndengei, who +either receives them into bliss, or sends them back, as ghosts, to +haunt the scenes of their former existence, or distributes them as +food to devils, or imprisons them for a period and then dooms them +to annihilation. The Feejees are also very much afraid of Samiulo, +ruler of a subterranean world, who sits at the brink of a huge +fiery cavern, into which he hurls the souls he dislikes. In the +road to Ndengei stands an enormous giant, armed with an axe, who +tries to maim and murder the passing souls. A powerful chief, +whose gun was interred with him, loaded it, and, when + +2 Shortland, Traditions of the New Zealanders, ch. vii. + +3 Library of Ent. Knowl.: The New Zealanders, pp. 223-237. + +4 Wilkes, Narrative of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, vol. iii. +ch. 3. + + +he came near the giant, shot at him, and ran by while the monster +was dodging the bullet. + +The people of the Sandwich Islands held a confused medley of +notions as to another life. In different persons among them were +found, in regard to this subject, superstitious terror, blank +indifference, positive unbelief. The current fancy was that the +souls of the chiefs were led, by a god whose name denotes the +"eyeball of the sun," to a life in the heavens, while plebeian +souls went down to Akea, a lugubrious underground abode. Some +thought spirits were destroyed in this realm of darkness; others, +that they were eaten by a stronger race of spirits there; others +still, that they survived there, subsisting upon lizards and +butterflies.5 What a piteous life they must have led here whose +imaginations could only soar to a future so unattractive as this! + +The Kamtschadales send all the dead alike to a subterranean +elysium, where they shall find again their wives, clothes, tools, +huts, and where they shall fish and hunt. All is there as here, +except that there are no fire spouting mountains, no bogs, +streams, inundations, and impassable snows; and neither hunting +nor fishing is ever pursued in vain there. This lower paradise is +but a beautified Kamtschatka, freed from discommoding hardships +and cleansed of tormenting Cossacks and Russians. They have no +hell for the rectification of the present wrong relations of +virtue and misery, vice and happiness. The only distinction they +appear to make is that all who in Kamtschatka are poor, and have +few small and weak dogs, shall there be rich and be furnished with +strong and fat dogs. The power of imagination is very remarkable +in this raw people, bringing the future life so near, and +awakening such an impatient longing for it and for their former +companions that they often, the sooner to secure a habitation +there, anticipate the natural time of their death by suicide.6 + +The Esquimaux betray the influence of their clime and habits, in +the formation of their ideas of the life to come, as plainly as +the Kamtschadales do. The employments and enjoyments of their +future state are rude and earthy. They say the soul descends +through successive places of habitation, the first of which is +full of pains and horrors. The good, that is, the courageous and +skilful, those who have endured severe hardships and mastered many +seals, passing through this first residence, find that the other +mansions regularly improve. They finally reach an abode of perfect +satisfaction, far beneath the storms of the sea, where the sun is +never obscured by night, and where reindeer wander in great droves +beside waters that never congeal, and wherein the whale, the +walrus, and the best sea fowls always abound.7 Hell is deep, but +heaven deeper still. Hell, they think, is among the roots, rocks, +monsters, and cold of the frozen or vexed and suffering waters; +but + +"Beneath tempestuous seas and fields of ice +Their creed has placed a lowlier paradise." + +The Greenlanders, too, located their elysium beneath the abysses +of the ocean, where the good Spirit Torngarsuk held his reign in a +happy and eternal summer. The wizards, who pretended to visit this +region at will, described the disembodied souls as pallid, and, if +one + +5 Jarves, Hist. of the Sandwich Islands, p. 42. + +6 Christoph Meiners, Vermischte Philosophische Schriften, 169-173. + +7 Prichard, Physical Hist. of Mankind, vol. i. ch. 2. + + +sought to seize them, unsubstantial.8 Some of these people, +however, fixed the site of paradise in the sky, and regarded the +aurora borealis as the playing of happy souls. So Coleridge +pictures the Laplander + +"Marking the streamy banners of the North, And thinking he those +spirits soon should join Who there, in floating robes of rosy +light, Dance sportively." + +But others believed this state of restlessness in the clouds was +the fate only of the worthless, who were there pinched with hunger +and plied with torments. All agreed in looking for another state +of existence, where, under diverse circumstances, happiness and +misery should be awarded, in some degree at least, according to +desert.9 + +The Peruvians taught that the reprobate were sentenced to a hell +situated in the centre of the earth, where they must endure +centuries of toil and anguish. Their paradise was away in the blue +dome of heaven. There the spirits of the worthy would lead a life +of tranquil luxury. At the death of a Peruvian noble his wives and +servants frequently were slain, to go with him and wait on him in +that happy region.10 Many authors, including Prescott, yielding +too easy credence to the very questionable assertions of the +Spanish chroniclers, have attributed to the Peruvians a belief in +the resurrection of the body. Various travellers and writers have +also predicated this belief of savage nations in Central Africa, +of certain South Sea islanders, and of several native tribes in +North America. In all these cases the supposition is probably +erroneous, as we think for the following reasons. In the first +place, the idea of a resurrection of the body is either a late +conception of the associative imagination, or else a doctrine +connected with a speculative theory of recurring epochs in the +destiny of the world; and it is in both instances too subtle and +elaborate for an uncultivated people. Secondly, in none of the +cases referred to has any reliable evidence been given of the +actual existence of the belief in question. It has merely been +inferred, by persons to whose minds the doctrine was previously +familiar, from phenomena by no means necessarily implying it. For +example, a recent author ascribes to the Feejees the belief that +there will be a resurrection of the body just as it was at the +time of death. The only datum on which he founds this astounding +assertion is that they often seem to prefer to die in the full +vigor of manhood rather than in decrepit old age! 11 Thirdly, we +know that the observation and statements of the Spanish monks and +historians, in regard to the religion of the pagans of South +America, were of the most imperfect and reckless character. They +perpetrated gross frauds, such as planting in the face of high +precipices white stones in the shape of the cross, and then +pointing to them in proof of their assertion that, before the +Christians came, the Devil had here parodied the rites and +doctrines of the gospel. 12 They said the Mexican goddess, wife of +the sun, was Eve, or + +8 Egede, Greenland, ch. 18. + +9 Dr. Karl Andree, Gronland. + +10 Prescott, Conquest of Peru, vol. i. ch. 3. + +11 Erskine, Islands of the Western Pacific, p. 248. + +12 Schoolcraft, History, &c. of the Indian Tribes, part v. p. 93. + + +the Virgin Mary, and Quetzalcoatl was St. Thomas! 13 Such +affirmers are to be cautiously followed. Finally, it is a quite +significant fact that while some point to the pains which the +Peruvians took in embalming their dead as a proof that they looked +for a resurrection of the body, Acosta expressly says that they +did not believe in the resurrection, and that this unbelief was +the cause of their embalming.14 Garcilaso de la Vega, in his +"Royal Commentaries of the Peruvian Incas," says that when he +asked some Peruvians why they took so great care to preserve in +the cemeteries of the dead the nails and hair which had been cut +off, they replied that in the day of resurrection the dead would +come forth with whatever of their bodies was left, and there would +be too great a press of business in that day for them to afford +time to go hunting round after their hair and nails.15 The fancy +of a Christian is too plain here. If the answer were really made +by the natives, they were playing a joke on their credulous +questioner, or seeking to please him with distorted echoes of his +own faith. + +The conceits as to a future life entertained by the Mexicans +varied considerably from those of their neighbors of Peru. Souls +neither good nor bad, or whose virtues and vices balanced each +other, were to enter a medium state of idleness and empty content. +The wicked, or those dying in any of certain enumerated modes of +death, went to Mictlan, a dismal hell within the earth. The souls +of those struck by lightning, or drowned, or dying by any of a +given list of diseases, also the souls of children, were +transferred to a remote elysium, Tlalocan. There was a place in +the chief temple where, it was supposed, once a year the spirits +of all the children who had been sacrificed to Tlaloc invisibly +came and assisted in the ceremonies. The ultimate heaven was +reserved for warriors who bravely fell in battle, for women who +died in labor, for those offered up in the temples of the gods, +and for a few others. These passed immediately to the house of the +sun, their chief god, whom they accompanied for a term of years, +with songs, dances, and revelry, in his circuit around the sky. +Then, animating the forms of birds of gay plumage, they lived as +beautiful songsters among the flowers, now on earth, now in +heaven, at their pleasure.16 It was the Mexican custom to dress +the dead man in the garb appropriated to the guardian deity of his +craft or condition in life. They gave him a jug of water. They +placed with him slips of paper to serve as passports through +guarded gates and perilous defiles in the other world. They made a +fire of his clothes and utensils, to warm the shivering soul while +traversing a region of cold winds beyond the grave.17 The +following sentence occurs in a poem composed by one of the old +Aztec monarchs: "Illustrious nobles, loyal subjects, let us aspire +to that heaven where all is eternal and corruption cannot come. +The horrors of the tomb are but the cradle of the sun, and the +shadows of death are brilliant lights for the stars." 18 + +13 Squier, Serpent Symbol in America, p. 13. + +14 Acosta, Natural and Moral History of the Indies, book v. ch. 7. + +15 Book ii. ch. 7. + +16 Clavigero, History of Mexico, book vi. sect. 1. + +17 Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, vol. i. ch. 6. + +18 Ibid. sect. 39. + + +Amidst the mass of whimsical conceptions entering into the faith +of the widely spread tribes of North America, we find a ruling +agreement in the cardinal features of their thought concerning a +future state of existence. In common with nearly all barbarous +nations, they felt great fear of apparitions. The Sioux were in +the habit of addressing the deceased at his burial, and imploring +him to stay in his own place and not come to distress them. Their +funeral customs, too, from one extremity of the continent to the +other, were very much alike. Those who have reported their +opinions to us, from the earliest Jesuit missionaries to the +latest investigators of their mental characteristics, concur in +ascribing to them a deep trust in a life to come, a cheerful view +of its conditions, and a remarkable freedom from the dread of +dying. Charlevoix says, "The best established opinion among the +natives is the immortality of the soul." On the basis of an +account written by William Penn, Pope composed the famous passage +in his "Essay on Man:" + +Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind +Sees God in clouds and hears him in the wind. +His soul proud Science never taught to stray +Far as the solar walk or milky way: +Yet simple nature to his faith hath given, +Behind the cloud topp'd hill, an humbler heaven, +Some safer world in depth of woods embraced, +Or happier island in the watery waste. +To be, contents his natural desire: +He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire, +But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, +His faithful dog shall bear him company." + +Their rude instinctive belief in the soul's survival, and surmises +as to its destiny, are implied in their funeral rites, which, as +already stated, were, with some exceptions, strikingly similar +even in the remotest tribes.19 + +In the bark coffin, with a dead Indian the Onondagas buried a +kettle of provisions, a pair of moccasins, a piece of deer skin +and sinews of the deer to sew patches on the moccasins, which it +was supposed the deceased would wear out on his journey. They also +furnished him with a bow and arrows, a tomahawk and knife, to +procure game with to live on while pursuing his way to the land of +spirits, the blissful regions of Ha wah ne u.20 Several Indian +nations, instead of burying the food, suspended it above the +grave, and renewed it from time to time. Some writers have +explained this custom by the hypothesis of an Indian belief in two +souls, one of which departed to the realm of the dead, while the +other tarried by the mound until the body was decayed, or until it +had itself found a chance to be born in a new body.21 The +supposition seems forced and extremely doubtful. The truth +probably lies in a simpler explanation, which will be offered +further on. + +19 Baumgarten, Geschichte der Volker von America, xiii. haupts.: +vom Tod, Vergribniss, und Trauer. + +20 Clarke, Onondaga, vol. l. p. 51. + +21 Muller, Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen, sect. +66. + + +The Winnebagoes located paradise above, and called the milky way +the "Road of the Dead." 22 It was so white with the crowds of +journeying ghosts! But almost all, like the Ojibways, imagined +their elysium to lie far in the West. The soul, freed from the +body, follows a wide beaten path westward, and enters a country +abounding with all that an Indian covets. On the borders of this +blessed land, in a long glade, he finds his relatives, for many +generations back, gathered to welcome him.23 The Chippewas, and +several other important tribes, always kindled fires on the fresh +graves of their dead, and kept them burning four successive +nights, to light the wandering souls on their way.24 An Indian +myth represents the ghosts coming back from Ponemah, the land of +the Hereafter, and singing this song to the miraculous Hiawatha: + +"Do not lay such heavy burdens +On the graves of those you bury, +Not such weight of furs and wampum, +Not such weight of pots and kettles; +For the spirits faint beneath them. +Only give them food to carry, +Only give them fire to light them. +Four days is the spirit's journey +To the land of ghosts and shadows, +Four its lonely night encampments. +Therefore, when the dead are buried, +Let a fire, as night approaches, +Four times on the grave be kindled, +That the soul upon its journey +May not grope about in darkness." 25 + +The subject of a future state seems to have been by far the most +prominent one in the Indian imagination. They relate many +traditions of persons who have entered it, and returned, and given +descriptions of it. A young brave, having lost his betrothed, +determined to follow her to the land of souls. Far South, beyond +the region of ice and snows, he came to a lodge standing before +the entrance to wide blue plains. Leaving his body there, he +embarked in a white stone canoe to cross a lake. He saw the souls +of wicked Indians sinking in the lake; but the good gained an +elysian shore, where all was warmth, beauty, ease, and eternal +youth, and where the air was food. The Master of Breath sent him +back, but promised that he might at death return and stay. 26 The +Wyandots tell of a dwarf, Tcha ka bech, who climbed a tree which +grew higher as often as he blew on it. At last he reached heaven, +and discovered it to be an excellent place. He descended the tree, +building wigwams at intervals in the branches. He then returned +with his sister and nephew, resting each night in one of the +wigwams. + +22 Schoolcraft, History, &c. of the Indian Tribes, part iv. p. +240. + +23 Ibid. part ii. p. 135. + +24 Ibid. part v. p. 64; part iv. p. 55. + +25 Longfellow, Song of Hiawatha, xix.: The Ghosts. + +26 Schoolcraft, Indian in his Wigwam. p 79. + + +He set his traps up there to catch animals. Rising in the night to +go and examine his traps, he saw one all on fire, and, upon +approaching it, found that he had caught the sun! + +Where the Indian is found believing in a Devil and a hell, it is +the result of his intercourse with Europeans. These elements of +horror were foreign to his original religion.27 There are in some +quarters faint traces of a single purgatorial or retributive +conception. It is a representation of paradise as an island, the +ordeal consisting in the passage of the dark river or lake which +surrounds it. The worthy cross with entire facility, the unworthy +only after tedious struggles. Some say the latter are drowned; +others, that they sink up to their chins in the water, where they +pass eternity in vain desires to attain the alluring land on which +they gaze.28 Even this notion may be a modification consequent +upon European influence. At all events, it is subordinate in force +and only occasional in occurrence. For the most part, in the +Indian faith mercy swallows up the other attributes of the Great +Spirit. The Indian dies without fear, looking for no punishments, +only for rewards.29 He regards the Master of Breath not as a holy +judge, but as a kind father. He welcomes death as opening the door +to a sweet land. Ever charmingly on his closing eyes dawns the +prospect of the aboriginal elysium, a gorgeous region of soft +shades, gliding streams, verdant groves waving in gentle airs, +warbling birds, herds of stately deer and buffalo browsing on +level plains. It is the earth in noiseless and solemn +metamorphosis.30 + +We shall conclude this chapter by endeavoring to explain the +purport and origin of the principal ceremonies and notions which +have now been set forth pertaining to the disembodied state. The +first source of these particulars is to be sought, not in any +clear mental perceptions, or conscious dogmatic belief, but in the +natural workings of affection, memory, and sentiment. Among almost +every people, from the Chinese to the Araucanians, from the +Ethiopians to the Dacotahs, rites of honor have been paid to the +dead, various offerings have been placed at their graves. The +Vedas enjoin the offering of a cake to the ghosts of ancestors +back to the third generation. The Greeks were wont to pour wine, +oil, milk, and blood into canals made in the graves of their dead. +The early Christians adopted these "Feasts of the Dead" as +Augustine and Tertullian call them from the heathen, and +Celebrated them over the graves of their martyrs and of their +other deceased friends. Such customs as these among savages like +the Shillooks or the Choctaws are usually supposed to imply the +belief that the souls of the deceased remain about the places of +sepulture and physically partake of the nourishment thus +furnished. The interpretation is farther fetched than need be, and +is unlikely; or, at all events, if it be true in some cases, it is +not the whole truth. In the first place, these people see that the +food and drink remain untouched, the weapons and utensils are left +unused in the grave. Secondly, there are often certain features in +the barbaric ritual obviously metaphorical, incapable of literal +acceptance. For instance, the Winnebagoes light a small fire on +the grave of a deceased warrior to light him on his journey to the +land of souls, + +27 Loskiel, Hist. Mission of United Brethren to N. A. Indians, +part i. ch. 3. + +28 Schoolcraft, Indian in his Wigwam, p. 202. History, &c. of +Indian Tribes, part iv. p. 173. + +29 Schoolcraft, History of Indian Tribes, part ii. p. 68. + +30 Ibid. pp. 403, 404. + + +although they say that journey extends to a distance of four days +and nights and is wholly invisible. They light and tend that +watch fire as a memorial of their departed companion and a rude +expression of their own emotions; as an unconscious emblem of +their own struggling faith, not as a beacon to the straying ghost. +Again, the Indian mother, losing a nursing infant, spurts some of +her milk into the fire, that the little spirit may not want for +nutriment on its solitary path.31 Plato approvingly quotes +Hesiod's statement that the souls of noble men become guardian +demons coursing the air, messengers and agents of the gods in the +world. Therefore, he adds, "we should reverence their tombs and +establish solemn rites and offerings there;" though by his very +statement these places were not the dwellings or haunts of the +freely circuiting spirits.32 + +Not by an intellectual doctrine, but by an instinctive +association, when not resisted and corrected, we connect the souls +of the dead in our thoughts with the burial places of their forms. +The New Zealand priests pretend by their spells to bring wandering +souls within the enclosed graveyards.33 These sepulchral folds are +full of ghosts. A sentiment native to the human breast draws +pilgrims to the tombs of Shakspeare and Washington, and, if not +restrained and guided by cultivated thought, would lead them to +make offerings there. Until the death of Louis XV., the kings of +France lay in state and were served as in life for forty days +after they died.34 It would be ridiculous to attempt to wring any +doctrinal significance from these customs. The same sentiment +which, in one form, among the Alfoer inhabitants of the Arru +Islands, when a man dies, leads his relatives to assemble and +destroy whatever he has left, which, in another form, causes the +Papist to offer burning candles, wreaths, and crosses, and to +recite prayers, before the shrines of the dead saints, which, in +still another form, moved Albert Durer to place all the pretty +playthings of his child in the coffin and bury them with it, this +same sentiment, in its undefined spontaneous workings, impelled +the Peruvian to embalm his dead, the Blackfoot to inter his +brave's hunting equipments with him, and the Cherokee squaw to +hang fresh food above the totem on her husband's grave post. What +should we think if we could foresee that, a thousand years hence, +when the present doctrines and customs of France and America are +forgotten, some antiquary, seeking the reason why the mourners in +Pere la Chaise and Mount Auburn laid clusters of flowers on the +graves of their lamented ones, should deliberately conclude that +it was believed the souls remained in the bodies in the tomb and +enjoyed the perfume of the flowers? An American traveller, writing +from Vienna on All Saints' Day, in 1855, describes the avenues of +the great cemetery filled with people hanging festoons of flowers +on the tombstones, and placing burning candles of wax on the +graves, and kneeling in devotion; it being their childish belief, +he says, that their prayers on this day have efficacy to release +their deceased relatives from purgatory, and that the dim taper +flickering on the sod lights the unbound soul to its heavenly +home. Of course these rites are not literal expressions of literal +beliefs, but are + +31 Andree, North America, p. 246. + +32 Republic, book v. ch. 15. + +33 R. Taylor, New Zealand, ch. 7. + +34 Meiners, Kritische Geschichte der Religionen, buch iii. absch. +1. + + +symbols of ideas, emblems of sentiments, figurative and inadequate +shadows of a theological doctrine, although, as is well known, +there is, among the most ignorant persons, scarcely any +deliberately apprehended distinction between image and entity, +material representation and spiritual verity. + +If a member of the Oneida tribe died when they were away from +home, they buried him with great solemnity, setting a mark over +the grave; and whenever they passed that way afterwards they +visited the spot, singing a mournful song and casting stones upon +it, thus giving symbolic expression to their feelings. It would be +absurd to suppose this song an incantation to secure the repose of +the buried brave, and the stones thrown to prevent his rising; yet +it would not be more incredible or more remote from the facts than +many a commonly current interpretation of barbarian usages. An +amusing instance of error well enforcing the need of extreme +caution in drawing inferences is afforded by the example of those +explorers who, finding an extensive cemetery where the aborigines +had buried all their children apart from the adults, concluded +they had discovered the remains of an ancient race of pigmies! 35 + +The influence of unspeculative affection, memory, and sentiment +goes far towards accounting for the funeral ritual of the +barbarians. But it is not sufficient. We must call in further aid; +and that aid we find in the arbitrary conceits, the poetic +associations, and the creative force of unregulated fancy and +imagination. The poetic faculty which, supplied with materials by +observation and speculation, constructed the complex mythologies +of Egypt and Greece, and which, turning on its own resources, +composed the Arabian tales of the genii and the modern literature +of pure fiction, is particularly active, fertile, and tyrannical, +though in a less continuous and systematic form, in the barbarian +mind. Acting by wild fits and starts, there is no end to the +extravagant conjectures and visions it bodies forth. Destitute of +philosophical definitions, totally unacquainted with critical +distinctions or analytic reflection, absurd notions, sober +convictions, dim dreams, and sharp perceptions run confusedly +together in the minds of savages. There is to them no clear and +permanent demarcation between rational thoughts and crazy fancies. +Now, no phenomenon can strike more deeply or work more powerfully +in human nature, stirring up the exploring activities of intellect +and imagination, than the event of death, with its bereaving +stroke and prophetic appeal. Accordingly, we should expect to find +among uncultivated nations, as we actually do, a vast medley of +fragmentary thoughts and pictures plausible, strange, lovely, or +terrible relating to the place and fate of the disembodied soul. +These conceptions would naturally take their shaping and coloring, +in some degree, from thescenery, circumstances, and experience +amidst which they were conceived and born. Sometimes these +figments were consciously entertained as wilful inventions, +distinctly contemplated as poetry. Sometimes they were +superstitiously credited in all their grossness with full assent +of soul. Sometimes all coexisted in vague bewilderment. These +lines of separation unquestionably existed: the difficulty is to +know where, in given instances, to draw them. A few examples will +serve at once to illustrate the + +35 Smithsonian Contributions, vol. ii. Squier's Aboriginal +Monuments, appendix, pp. 127-131. + + +operation of the principle now laid down, and to present still +further specimens of the barbarian notions of a future life. + +Some Indian tribes made offerings to the spirits of their departed +heroes by casting the boughs of various trees around the ash, +saying that the branches of this tree were eloquent with the +ghosts of their warrior sires, who came at evening in the chariot +of cloud to fire the young to deeds of war.36 There is an Indian +legend of a witch who wore a mantle composed of the scalps of +murdered women. Taking this off, she shook it, and all the scalps +uttered shrieks of laughter. Another describes a magician scudding +across a lake in a boat whose ribs were live rattlesnakes.37 An +exercise of mind virtually identical with that which gave these +strokes made the Philippine Islanders say that the souls of those +who die struck by lightning go up the beams of the rainbow to a +happy place, and animated Ali to declare that the pious, on coming +out of their sepulchres, shall find awaiting them white winged +camels with saddles of gold. The Ajetas suspended the bow and +arrows of a deceased Papuan above his grave, and conceived him as +emerging from beneath every night to go a hunting.38 The fisherman +on the coast of Lapland was interred in a boat, and a flint and +combustibles were given him to light him along the dark cavernous +passage he was to traverse. The Dyaks of Borneo believe that every +one whose head they can get possession of here will in the future +state be their servant: consequently, they make a business of +"head hunting," accumulating the ghastly visages of their victims +in their huts.39 The Caribs have a sort of sensual paradise for +the "brave and virtuous," where, it is promised, they shall enjoy +the sublimated experience of all their earthly satisfactions; but +the "degenerate and cowardly" are threatened with eternal +banishment beyond the mountains, where they shall be tasked and +driven as slaves by their enemies.40 The Hispaniolians locate +their elysium in a pleasant valley abounding with guava, delicious +fruits, cool shades, and murmuring rivulets, where they expect to +live again with their departed ancestors and friends.41 The +Patagonians say the stars are their translated countrymen, and the +milky way is a field where the departed Patagonians hunt +ostriches. Clouds are the feathers of the ostriches they kill.42 +The play is here seen of the same mythological imagination which, +in Italy, pictured a writhing giant beneath Mount Vesuvius, and, +in Greenland, looked on the Pleiades as a group of dogs +surrounding a white bear, and on the belt of Orion as a company of +Greenlanders placed there because they could not find the way to +their own country. Black Bird, the redoubtable chief of the O Ma +Haws, when dying, said to his people, "Bury me on yonder lofty +bluff on the banks of the Missouri, where I can see the men and +boats passing by on the river." 43 Accordingly, as soon as he +ceased + +36 Browne, Trees of America, p. 328. + +37 Schoolcraft, Hist. &c part i. pp. 32-34. + +38 Earl, The Papuans, p. 132. + +39 Earl, The Eastern Seas, ch. 8. + +40 Edwards, Hist. of the West Indies, book i. ch. 2. + +41 Ibid. ch. 3. + +42 Falkner, Patagonia, ch. 5. + +43 Catlin, North American Indians, vol. ii. p. 6. + + +to breathe, they set him there, on his favorite steed, and heaped +the earth around him. This does not imply any believed doctrine, +in our sense of the term, but is plainly a spontaneous +transference for the moment, by the poetic imagination, of the +sentiments of the living man to the buried body. + +The unhappy Africans who were snatched from their homes, enslaved +and cruelly tasked in the far West India islands, pined under +their fate with deadly homesickness. The intense longing moulded +their plastic belief, just as the sensation from some hot bricks +at the feet of a sleeping man shaped his dreams into a journey up +the side of Atna. They fancied that if they died they should +immediately live again in their fatherland. They committed suicide +in great numbers. At last, when other means had failed to check +this epidemic of self destruction, a cunning overseer brought them +ropes and every facility for hanging, and told them to hang +themselves as fast as they pleased, for their master had bought a +great plantation in Africa, and as soon as they got there they +would be set to work on it. Their helpless credulity took the +impression; and no more suicides occurred.44 + +The mutual formative influences exerted upon a people's notions +concerning the future state, by the imagination of their poets and +the peculiarities of their clime, are perhaps nowhere more +conspicuously exhibited than in the case of the Caledonians who at +an early period dwelt in North Britain. They had picturesque +traditions locating the habitation of ghosts in the air above +their fog draped mountains. They promised rewards for nothing but +valor, and threatened punishments for nothing but cowardice; and +even of these they speak obscurely. Nothing is said of an under +world. They supposed the ghosts at death floated upward naturally, +true children of the mist, and dwelt forever in the air, where +they spent an inane existence, indulging in sorrowful memories of +the past, and, in unreal imitation of their mortal occupations, +chasing boars of fog amid hills of cloud and valleys of shadow. +The authority for these views is Ossian, "whose genuine strains," +Dr. Good observes, "assume a higher importance as historical +records than they can claim when considered as fragments of +exquisite poetry." + +"A dark red stream comes down from the hill. Crugal sat upon the +beam; he that lately fell by the hand of Swaran striving in the +battle of heroes. His face is like the beam of the setting moon; +his robes are of the clouds of the hill; his eyes are like two +decaying flames; dark is the wound on his breast. The stars dim +twinkled through his form, and his voice was like the sound of a +distant stream. Dim and in tears he stood, and stretched his pale +hand over the hero. Faintly he raised his feeble voice, like the +gale of the reedy Lego. 'My ghost, O'Connal, is on my native +hills, but my corse is on the sands of Ullin. Thou shalt never +talk with Crugal nor find his lone steps on the heath. I am light +as the blast of Cromla, and I move like the shadow of mist. +Connal, son of Colgar, I see the dark cloud of death. It hovers +over the plains of Lena. The sons of green Erin shall fall. Remove +from the field of ghosts.' Like the darkened moon, he retired in +the midst of the whistling blast." + +We recognise here several leading traits in all the early +unspeculative faiths, the vapory form, the echoless motion, the +marks of former wounds, the feeble voice, the memory + +44 Meiners, Geschichte der Religionen, buch xiv. sect. 765. + + +of the past, the mournful aspect, and the prophetic words. But the +rhetorical imagery, the scenery, the location of the spirit world +in the lower clouds, are stamped by emphatic climatic +peculiarities, whose origination, easily traceable, throws light +on the growth of the whole mass of such notions everywhere. + +Two general sources have now been described of the barbarian +conceptions in relation to a future state. First, the natural +operation of an earnest recollection of the dead; sympathy, +regret, and reverence for them leading the thoughts and the heart +to grope after them, to brood over the possibilities of their +fate, and to express themselves in rites and emblems. Secondly, +the mythological or arbitrary creations of the imagination when it +is set strongly at work, as it must be by the solemn phenomena +associated with death. But beyond these two comprehensive +statements there is, directly related to the matter, and worthy of +separate illustration, a curious action of the mind, which has +been very extensively experienced and fertile of results. It is a +peculiar example of the unconscious impartation of objective +existence to mental ideas. With the death of the body the man does +not cease to live in the remembrance, imagination, and heart of +his surviving friends. By an unphilosophical confusion, this +internal image is credited as an external existence. The dead pass +from their customary haunts in our society to the imperishable +domain of ideas. This visionary world of memory and fantasy is +projected outward, located, furnished, and constitutes the future +state apprehended by the barbarian mind. Feuerbach says in his +subtle and able Thoughts on Death and Immortality, "The Realm of +Memory is the Land of Souls." Ossian, amid the midnight mountains, +thinking of departed warriors and listening to the tempest, fills +the gale with the impersonations, of his thoughts, and exclaims, +"I hear the steps of the dead in the dark eddying blast." + +The barbarian brain seems to have been generally impregnated with +the feeling that every thing else has a ghost as well as man. The +Gauls lent money in this world upon bills payable in the next. +They threw letters upon the funeral pile to be read by the soul of +the deceased.45 As the ghost was thought to retain the scars of +injuries inflicted upon the body, so, it appears, these letters +were thought, when destroyed, to leave impressions of what had +been written on them. The custom of burning or burying things with +the dead probably arose, in some cases at least, from the +supposition that every object has its mancs. The obolus for +Charon, the cake of honey for Cerberus, the shadows of these +articles would be borne and used by the shadow of the dead man. +Leonidas saying, "Bury me on my shield: I will enter even Hades as +a Lacedamonian," 46 must either have used the word Hades by +metonymy for the grave, or have imagined that a shadowy fac simile +of what was interred in the grave went into the grim kingdom of +Pluto. It was a custom with some Indian tribes, on the new made +grave of a chief, to slay his chosen horse; and when he fell they +supposed + +"That then, upon the dead man's plain, The rider grasp'd his steed +again." + +45 Pomponius Mela, De Orbis Situ, iii. 2. + +46 Translation of Greek Anthology, in Bohn's Library, p. 58. + + +The hunter chases the deer, each alike a shade. A Feejee once, in +presence of a missionary, took a weapon from the grave of a buried +companion, saying, "The ghost of the club has gone with him." The +Iroquois tell of a woman who was chased by a ghost. She heard his +faint war whoop, his spectre voice, and only escaped with her life +because his war club was but a shadow wielded by an arm of air. +The Slavonians sacrificed a warrior's horse at his tomb.47 Nothing +seemed to the Northman so noble as to enter Valhalla on horseback, +with a numerous retinue, in his richest apparel and finest armor. +It was firmly believed, Mallet says, that Odin himself had +declared that whatsoever was burned or buried with the dead +accompanied them to his palace.48 Before the Mohammedan era, on +the death of an Arab, the finest camel he had owned was tied to a +stake beside his grave, and left to expire of hunger over the body +of his master, in order that, in the region into which death had +introduced him, he should be supplied with his usual bearer.49 The +Chinese who surpass all other people in the offerings and worship +paid at the sepulchres of their ancestors make little paper +houses, fill them with images of furniture, utensils, domestics, +and all the appurtenances of the family economy, and then burn +them, thus passing them into the invisible state for the use of +the deceased whom they mourn and honor.50 It is a touching thought +with the Greenlanders, when a child dies, to bury a dog with him +as a guide to the land of souls; for, they say, the dog is able to +find his way anywhere.51 The shadow of the faithful servant guides +the shadow of the helpless child to heaven. In fancy, not without +a moved heart, one sees this spiritual Bernard dog bearing the +ghost child on his back, over the spectral Gothard of death, safe +into the sheltering hospice of the Greenland paradise. + +It is strange to notice the meeting of extremes in the rude +antithetical correspondence between Plato's doctrine of archetypal +ideas, the immaterial patterns of earthly things, and the belief +of savages in the ghosts of clubs, arrows, sandals, and +provisions. The disembodied soul of the philosopher, an eternal +idea, turns from the empty illusions of matter to nourish itself +with the substance of real truth. The spectre of the Mohawk +devours the spectre of the haunch of roast venison hung over his +grave. And why should not the two shades be conceived, if either? + +"Pig, bullock, goose, must have their goblins too, +Else ours would have to go without their dinners: +If that starvation doctrine were but true, +How hard the fate of gormandizing sinners!" + +The conception of ghosts has been still further introduced also +into the realm of mathematics in an amusing manner. Bishop +Berkeley, bantered on his idealism by Halley, retorted that he too +was an idealist; for his ultimate ratios terms only appearing with +the + +47 Wilkinson, Dalmatia and Montenegro, vol. i. ch. 1. + +48 Northern Antiquities, ch. 10. + +49 Lamartine, History of Turkey, book i. ch. 10. + +50 Kidd, China, sect. 3. + +51 Crantz, History of Greenland, book iii. ch. 6, sect. 47. + + +disappearance of the forms in whose relationship they consist were +but the ghosts of departed quantities! It may be added here that, +according to the teachings of physiological psychology, all +memories or recollected ideas are literally the ghosts of departed +sensations. + +We have thus seen that the conjuring force of fear, with its dread +apparitions, the surmising, half articulate struggles of +affection, the dreams of memory, the lights and groups of poetry, +the crude germs of metaphysical speculation, the deposits of the +inter action of human experience and phenomenal nature, now in +isolated fragments, again, huddled indiscriminately together +conspire to compose the barbarian notions of a future life. + +CHAPTER II. + +DRUIDIC DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +THAT strange body of men, commonly known as the Druids, who +constituted what may, with some correctness, be called the Celtic +priesthood, were the recognised religious teachers throughout +Gaul, Armorica, a small part of Germany on the southern border, +all Great Britain, and some neighboring islands. The notions in +regard to a future life put forth by them are stated only in a +very imperfect manner by the Greek and Roman authors in whose +surviving works we find allusions to the Druids or accounts of the +Celts. Several modern writers especially Borlase, in his +Antiquities of Cornwall1 have collected all these references from +Diodorus, Strabo, Procopius, Tacitus, Casar, Mela, Valerius +Maximus, and Marcellinus. It is therefore needless to cite the +passages here, the more so as, even with the aid of all the +analytic and constructive comments which can be fairly made upon +them, they afford us only a few general views, leaving all the +details in profound obscurity. The substance of what we learn from +these sources is this. First, that the Druids possessed a body of +science and speculation comprising the doctrine of immortality, +which they taught with clearness and authority. Secondly, that +they inculcated the belief in a future life in inseparable +connection with the great dogma of metempsychosis. Thirdly, that +the people held such cheerful and attractive views of the future +state, and held them with such earnestness, that they wept around +the newborn infant and smiled around the corpse; that they +encountered death without fear or reluctance. This reversal of +natural sentiments shows the tampering of a priesthood who had +motives. + +A somewhat more minute conception of the Druidic view of the +future life is furnished us by an old mythologic tale of Celtic +origin.2 Omitting the story, as irrelevant to our purpose, we +derive from it the following ideas. The soul, on being divested of +its earthly envelop, is borne aloft. The clouds are composed of +the souls of lately deceased men. They fly over the heads of +armies, inspiring courage or striking terror. Not yet freed from +terrestrial affections, they mingle in the passions and affairs of +men. Vainly they strive to soar above the atmosphere; an +impassable wall of sapphire resists their wings. In the moon, +millions of souls traverse tremendous plains of ice, losing all +perception but that of simple existence, forgetting the adventures +they have passed through and are about to recommence. During +eclipses, on long tubes of darkness they return to the earth, and, +revived by a beam of light from the all quickening sun, enter +newly formed bodies, and begin again the career of life. The disk +of the sun consists of an assemblage of pure souls swimming in an +ocean of bliss. Souls sullied with earthly impurities are to be +purged by repeated births and probations till the last stain is +removed, and they are all finally fitted to ascend to a succession +of spheres still higher than the sun, whence they can never sink +again to reside in the circle of the lower globes and grosser +atmosphere. + +1 Book ii. ch. 14. + +2 Davies, Celtic Researches, appendix, pp. 558-561. + + +These representations are neither Gothic nor Roman, but Celtic. + +But a far more adequate exposition of the Druidic doctrine of the +soul's destinies has been presented to us through the translation +of some of the preserved treasures of the old Bardic lore of +Wales. The Welsh bards for hundreds of years were the sole +surviving representatives of the Druids. Their poems numerous +manuscripts of which, with apparent authentication of their +genuineness, have been published and explained contain quite full +accounts of the tenets of Druidism, which was nowhere else so +thoroughly systematized and established as in ancient Britain.3 +The curious reader will find this whole subject copiously treated, +and all the materials furnished, in the "Myvyrian Archaology of +Wales," a work in two huge volumes, published at London at the +beginning of the present century. After the introduction and +triumph of Christianity in Britain, for several centuries the two +systems of thought and ritual mutually influenced each other, +corrupting and corrupted.4 A striking example in point is this. +The notion of a punitive and remedial transmigration belonged to +Druidism. Now, Taliesin, a famous Welsh bard of the sixth century, +locates this purifying metempsychosis in the Hell of Christianity, +whence the soul gradually rises again to felicity, the way for it +having been opened by Christ! Cautiously eliminating the Christian +admixtures, the following outline, which we epitomize from the +pioneer5 of modern scholars to the Welsh Bardic literature, +affords a pretty clear knowledge of that portion of the Druidic +theology relating to the future life. + +There are, says one of the Bardic triads, three circles of +existence. First, the Circle of Infinity, where of living or dead +there is nothing but God, and which none but God can traverse. +Secondly, the Circle of Metempsychosis, where all things that live +are derived from death. This circle has been traversed by man. +Thirdly, the Circle of Felicity, where all things spring from +life. This circle man shall hereafter traverse. All animated +beings originate in the lowest point of existence, and, by regular +gradations through an ascending series of transmigrations, rise to +the highest state of perfection possible for finite creatures. +Fate reigns in all the states below that of humanity, and they are +all necessarily evil. In the states above humanity, on the +contrary, unmixed good so prevails that all are necessarily good. +But in the middle state of humanity, good and evil are so balanced +that liberty results; and free will and consequent responsibility +are born. Beings who in their ascent have arrived at the state of +man, if, by purity, humility, love, and righteousness, they keep +the laws of the Creator, will, after death, rise into more +glorious spheres, and will continue to rise still higher, until +they reach the final destination of complete and endless +happiness. But if, while in the state of humanity, one perverts +his reason and will, and attaches himself to evil, he will, on +dying, fall into such a state of animal existence as corresponds +with the baseness of his soul. This baseness may be so great as to +precipitate him to the lowest point of being; but he shall climb +thence through a series of births best fitted to free him from his +evil propensities. Restored to the probationary state, he may fall +again; but, though this should occur again and again + +3 Sketch of British Bardism, prefixed to Owen's translation of the +Heroic Elegies of Llywarch Hen. + +4 Herbert, Essay on the Neo Druidic Heresy in Britannia. + +5 Poems, Lyric and Pastoral, by Edward Williams, vol. ii. notes, +pp. 194-256. + + +for a million of ages, the path to happiness still remains open, +and he shall at last infallibly arrive at his preordained +felicity, and fall nevermore. In the states superior to humanity, +the soul recovers and retains the entire recollection of its +former lives. + +We will quote a few illustrative triads. There are three necessary +purposes of metempsychosis: to collect the materials and +properties of every nature; to collect the knowledge of every +thing; to collect power towards removing whatever is pernicious. +The knowledge of three things will subdue and destroy evil: +knowledge of its cause, its nature, and its operation. Three +things continually dwindle away: the Dark, the False, the Dead. +Three things continually increase: Light, Truth, Life. + +These will prevail, and finally absorb every thing else. The soul +is an inconceivably minute particle of the most refined matter, +endowed with indestructible life, at the dissolution of one body +passing, according to its merits, into a higher or lower stage of +existence, where it expands itself into that form which its +acquired propensities necessarily give it, or into that animal in +which such propensities naturally reside. The ultimate states of +happiness are ceaselessly undergoing the most delightful +renovations, without which, indeed, no finite being could endure +the tedium of eternity. These are not, like the death of the lower +states, accompanied by a suspension of memory and of conscious +identity. All the innumerable modes of existence, after being +cleansed from every evil, will forever remain as beautiful +varieties in the creation, and will be equally esteemed, equally +happy, equally fathered by the Creator. The successive occupation +of these modes of existence by the celestial inhabitants of the +Circle of Felicity will be one of the ways of varying what would +otherwise be the intolerable monotony of eternity. The creation is +yet in its infancy. The progressive operation of the providence of +God will bring every being up from the great Deep to the point of +liberty, and will at last secure three things for them: namely, +what is most beneficial, what is most desired, and what is most +beautiful. There are three stabilities of existence: what cannot +be otherwise, what should not be otherwise, what cannot be +imagined better; and in these all shall end, in the Circle of +Felicity. + +Such is a hasty synopsis of what here concerns us in the theology +of the Druids. In its ground germs it was, it seems to us, +unquestionably imported into Celtic thought and Cymrian song from +that prolific and immemorial Hindu mind which bore Brahmanism and +Buddhism as its fruit. Its ethical tone, intellectual elevation, +and glorious climax are not unworthy that free hierarchy of +minstrel priests whose teachings were proclaimed, as their +assemblies were held, "in the face of the sun and in the eye of +the light," and whose thrilling motto was, "THE TRUTH AGAINST THE +WORLD." + +The latest publication on the subject of old Welsh literature is +"Taliesin; or, The Bards and Druids of Britain." The author, D. W. +Nash, is obviously familiar with his theme, and he throws much +light on many points of it. His ridicule of the arbitrary tenets +and absurdities which Davies, Pughe, and others have taught in all +good faith as Druidic lore and practice is richly deserved. But, +despite the learning and acumen displayed in his able and valuable +volume, we must think Mr. Nash goes wholly against the record in +denying the doctrine of metempsychosis to the Druidic system, and +goes clearly beyond the record in charging Edward Williams and +others with forgery and fraud in their representations of ancient +Bardic doctrines.6 In support of such grave charges direct evidence +is needed; only suspicious circumstances are adduced. The non +existence of public documents is perfectly reconcilable with +the existence of reliable oral accounts preserved by the initiated +few, one of whom Williams, with seeming sincerity, claimed to be. + +6 Taliesin, ch. iv. + + +CHAPTER III. + +SCANDINAVIAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +MANY considerations combine to make it seem likely that at an +early period a migration took place from Southern Asia to Northern +Europe, which constituted the commencement of what afterwards grew +to be the great Gothic family. The correspondence of many of the +leading doctrines and symbols of the Scandinavian mythology with +well known Persian and Buddhist notions notions of a purely +fanciful and arbitrary character is too peculiar, apparently, to +admit of any other explanation.1 But the germs of thought and +imagination transplanted thus from the warm and gorgeous climes of +the East to the snowy mountains of Norway and the howling ridges +of Iceland, obtained a fresh development, with numerous +modifications and strange additions, from the new life, climate, +scenery, and customs to which they were there exposed. The +temptation to predatory habits and strife, the necessity for an +intense though fitful activity arising from their geographical +situation, the fierce spirit nourished in them by their actual +life, the tremendous phenomena of the Arctic world around them, +all these influences break out to our view in the poetry, and are +reflected by their results in the religion, of the Northmen. + +From the flame world, Muspelheim, in the south, in which Surtur, +the dread fire king, sits enthroned, flowed down streams of heat. +From the mist world, Niflheim, in the north, in whose central +caldron, Hvergelmir, dwells the gloomy dragon Nidhogg, rose floods +of cold vapor. The fire and mist meeting in the yawning abyss, +Ginungagap, after various stages of transition, formed the earth. +There were then three principal races of beings: men, whose +dwelling was Midgard; Jotuns, who occupied Utgard; and the Asir, +whose home was Asgard. The Jotuns, or demons, seem to have been +originally personifications of darkness, cold, and storm, the +disturbing forces of nature, whatever is hostile to fruitful life +and peace. They were frost giants ranged in the outer wastes +around the habitable fields of men. The Asir, or gods, on the +other hand, appear to have been personifications of light, and +law, and benignant power, the orderly energies of the universe. +Between the Jotuns and the Asir there is an implacable contest.2 +The rainbow, Bifrost, is a bridge leading from earth up to the +skyey dwelling place of the Asir; and their sentinel, Heimdall, +whose senses are so acute that he can hear the grass spring in the +meadows and the wool grow on the backs of the sheep, keeps +incessant watch upon it. Their chief deity, the father Zeus of the +Northern pantheon, was Odin, the god of war, who wakened the +spirit of battle by flinging his spear over the heads of the +people, its inaudible hiss from heaven being as the song of Ate +let loose on earth. Next in rank was Thor, the personification of +the exploding tempest. The crashing echoes of the thunder are his +chariot wheels rattling through the cloudy halls of Thrudheim. +Whenever the lightning strikes a cliff or an iceberg, then Thor +has flung his hammer, Mjolnir, at Joton's head. + +1 Vans Kennedy, Ancient and Hindu Mythology, pp. 452, 463-464. + +2 Thorpe, Northern Mythology, vol. ii. + + +Balder was the god of innocence and gentleness, fairest, +kindest, purest of beings. Light emanated from him, and +all things loved him. After Christianity was established in the +North, Jesus was called the White Christ, or the new Balder. The +appearance of Balder amidst the frenzied and bloody divinities of +the Norse creed is beautiful as the dew cool moon hanging calmly +over the lurid storm of Vesuvius. He was entitled the "Band in the +Wreath of the Gods," because with his fate that of all the rest +was bound up. His death, ominously foretold from eldest antiquity, +would be the signal for the ruin of the universe. Asa Loki was the +Momus Satan or Devil Buffoon of the Scandinavian mythology, the +half amusing, half horrible embodiment of wit, treachery, and +evil; now residing with the gods in heaven, now accompanying Thor +on his frequent adventures, now visiting and plotting with his own +kith and kin in frosty Jotunheim, beyond the earth environing sea, +or in livid Helheim deep beneath the domain of breathing +humanity.3 + +With a Jotun woman, Angerbode, or Messenger of Evil, Loki begets +three fell children. The first is Fenris, a savage wolf, so large +that nothing but space can hold him. The second is Jormungandur, +who, with his tail in his mouth, fills the circuit of the ocean. +He is described by Sir Walter Scott as + +"That great sea snake, tremendous curl'd, Whose monstrous circle +girds the world." + +The third is Hela, the grim goddess of death, whose ferocious +aspect is half of a pale blue and half of a ghastly white, and +whose empire, stretching below the earth through Niflheim, is full +of freezing vapors and discomfortable sights. Her residence is the +spacious under world; her court yard, faintness; her threshold, +precipice; her door, abyss; her hall, pain; her table, hunger; her +knife, starvation; her man servant, delay; her handmaid, slowness; +her bed, sickness; her pillow, anguish; and her canopy, curse. +Still lower than her house is an abode yet more fearful and +loathsome. In Nastrond, or strand of corpses, stands a hall, the +conception of which is prodigiously awful and enormously +disgusting. It is plaited of serpents' backs, wattled together +like wicker work, whose heads turn inwards, vomiting poison. In +the lake of venom thus deposited within these immense wriggling +walls of snakes the worst of the damned wade and swim. + +High up in the sky is Odin's hall, the magnificent Valhalla, or +temple of the slain. The columns supporting its ceiling are +spears. It is roofed with shields, and the ornaments on its +benches are coats of mail. The Valkyrs are Odin's battle maids, +choosers of heroes for his banquet rooms. With helmets on their +heads, in bloody harness, mounted on shadowy steeds, surrounded by +meteoric lightnings, and wielding flaming swords, they hover over +the conflict and point the way to Valhalla to the warriors who +fall. The valiant souls thus received to Odin's presence are +called Einheriar, or the elect. The Valkyrs, as white clad virgins +with flowing ringlets, wait on them in the capacity of cup +bearers. Each morning, at the crowing + +3 Oehlenschlager, Gods of the North. This celebrated and brilliant +poem, with the copious notes in Frye's translation, affords the +English reader a full conception of the Norse pantheon and its +salient adventures. + + +of a huge gold combed cock, the well armed Einheriar rush through +Valhalla's five hundred and forty doors into a great court yard, +and pass the day in merciless fighting. However pierced and hewn +in pieces in these fearful encounters, at evening every wound is +healed, and they return into the hall whole, and are seated, +according to their exploits, at a luxurious feast. The +perennial boar Sehrimnir, deliciously cooked by Andrimnir, though +devoured every night, is whole again every morning and ready to be +served anew. The two highest joys these terrible berserkers and +vikings knew on earth composed their experience in heaven: namely, +a battle by day and a feast by night. It is a vulgar error, long +prevalent, that the Valhalla heroes drink out of the skulls of +their enemies. This notion, though often refuted, still lingers in +the popular mind. It arose from the false translation of a phrase +in the death song of Ragnar Lodbrok, the famous sea king, "Soon +shall we drink from the curved trees of the head," which, as a +figure for the usual drinking horns, was erroneously rendered by +Olaus Wormius, "Soon shall we drink from the hollow cups of +skulls." It is not the heads of men, but the horns of beasts, from +which the Einheriar quaff Heidrun's mead.4 + +No women being ever mentioned as gaining admission to Valhalla or +joining in the joys of the Einheriar, some writers have affirmed +that, according to the Scandinavian faith, women had no immortal +souls, or, at all events, were excluded from heaven. The charge is +as baseless in this instance as when brought against +Mohammedanism. Valhalla was the exclusive abode of the most daring +champions; but Valhalla was not the whole of heaven. Vingolf, the +Hall of Friends, stood beside the Hall of the Slain, and was the +assembling place of the goddesses.5 There, in the palace of Freya, +the souls of noble women were received after death. The elder Edda +says that Thor guided Roska, a swift footed peasant girl who had +attended him as a servant on various excursions, to Freya's bower, +where she was welcomed, and where she remained forever. The virgin +goddess Gefjone, the Northern Diana, also had a residence in +heaven, and all who died maidens repaired thither.6 The presence +of virgin throngs with Gefjone, and the society of noble matrons +in Vingolf, shed a tender gleam across the carnage and carousal of +Valhalla. More is said of the latter the former is scarcely +visible to us now because the only record we have of the Norse +faith is that contained in the fragmentary strains of ferocious +Skalds, who sang chiefly to warriors, and the staple matter of +whose songs was feats of martial prowess or entertaining +mythological stories. Furthermore, there is above the heaven of +the Asir a yet higher heaven, the abode of the far removed and +inscrutable being, the rarely named Omnipotent One, the true All +Father, who is at last to come forth above the ruins of the +universe to judge and sentence all creatures and to rebuild a +better world. In this highest region towers the imperishable gold +roofed hall, Gimle, brighter than the sun. There is no hint +anywhere in the Skaldic strains that good women are repulsed from +this dwelling. + +According to the rude morality of the people and the time, the +contrasted conditions of admission to the upper paradise or +condemnation to the infernal realm were the admired + +4 Pigott, Manual of Scandinavian Mythology, p. 65. + +5 Keyser, Religion of the Northmen, trans. by Pennock, p. 149. + +6 Pigott, p. 245. + + +virtues of strength, open handed frankness, reckless audacity, or +the hated vices of feebleness, cowardice, deceit, humility. Those +who have won fame by puissant feats and who die in battle are +snatched by the Valkyrs from the sod to Valhalla. To die in arms +is to be chosen of Odin, + +"In whose hall of gold The steel clad ghosts their wonted orgies +hold. Some taunting jest begets the war of words: In clamorous +fray they grasp their gleamy swords, And, as upon the earth, with +fierce delight By turns renew the banquet and the fight." + +All, on the contrary, who, after lives of ignoble labor or +despicable ease, die of sickness, sink from their beds to the +dismal house of Hela. In this gigantic vaulted cavern the air +smells like a newly stirred grave; damp fogs rise, hollow sighs +are heard, the only light comes from funeral tapers held by +skeletons; the hideous queen, whom Thor eulogizes as the Scourger +of Cowards, sits on a throne of skulls, and sways a sceptre, made +of a dead man's bone bleached in the moonlight, over a countless +multitude of shivering ghosts.7 But the Norse moralists plunge to +a yet darker doom those guilty of perjury, murder, or adultery. In +Nastrond's grisly hail, which is shaped of serpents' spines, and +through whose loop holes drops of poison drip, where no sunlight +ever reaches, they welter in a venom sea and are gnawed by the +dragon Nidhogg.8 In a word, what to the crude moral sense of the +martial Goth seemed piety, virtue, led to heaven; what seemed +blasphemy, baseness, led to hell. + +The long war between good and evil, light and darkness, order and +discord, the Asir and the Jotuns, was at last to reach a fatal +crisis and end in one universal battle, called Ragnarokur, or the +"Twilight of the Gods," whose result would be the total +destruction of the present creation. Portentous inklings of this +dread encounter were abroad among all beings. A shuddering +anticipation of it sat in a lowering frown of shadow on the brows +of the deities. In preparation for Ragnarokur, both parties +anxiously secured all the allies they could. Odin therefore +joyously welcomes every valiant warrior to Valhalla, as a recruit +for his hosts on that day when Fenris shall break loose. When +Hakon Jarl fell, the Valkyrs shouted, "Now does the force of the +gods grow stronger when they have brought Hakon to their home." A +Skald makes Odin say, on the death of King Eirilc Blood Axe, as an +excuse for permitting such a hero to be slain, "Our lot is +uncertain: the gray wolf gazes on the host of the gods;" that is, +we shall need help at Ragnarokur. But as all the brave and +magnanimous champions received to Valhalla were enlisted on the +side of the Asir, so all the miserable cowards, invalids, and +wretches doomed to Hela's house would fight for the Jotuns. From +day to day the opposed armies, above and below, increase in +numbers. Some grow impatient, some tremble. When Balder dies, and +the ship Nagelfra is completed, the hour of infinite suspense will +strike. Nagelfra is a vessel for the conveyance of the hosts of +frost giants to the battle. It is to be built of dead men's nails: +therefore no one should die with unpaired nails, for if he does he + +7 Pigott, pp. 137, 138. + +8 The Voluspa, strophes 34, 35. + + +furnishes materials for the construction of that ship which men +and gods wish to have finished as late as possible.9 + +At length Loki treacherously compasses the murder of Balder. The +frightful foreboding which at once flies through all hearts finds +voice in the dark "Raven Song" of Odin. Having chanted this +obscure wail in heaven, he mounts his horse and rides down the +bridge to Helheim. With resistless incantations he raises from the +grave, where she has been interred for ages, wrapt in snows, wet +with the rains and the dews, an aged vala or prophetess, and +forces her to answer his questions. With appalling replies he +returns home, galloping up the sky. And now the crack of doom is +at hand. Heimdall hurries up and down the bridge Bifrost, blowing +his horn till its rousing blasts echo through the universe. The +wolf Skoll, from whose pursuit the frightened sun has fled round +the heavens since the first dawn, overtakes and devours his bright +prey. Nagelfra, with the Jotun hosts on board, sails swiftly from +Utgard. Loki advances at the head of the troops of Hela. Fenris +snaps his chain and rushes forth with jaws so extended that the +upper touches the firmament, while the under rests on the earth; +and he would open them wider if there were room. Jormungandur +writhes his entire length around Midgard, and, lifting his head, +blows venom over air and sea. Suddenly, in the south, heaven +cleaves asunder, and through the breach the sons of Muspel, the +flame genii, ride out on horseback with Surtur at their head, his +sword outflashing the sun. Now Odin leads forward the Asir and the +Einheriar, and on the predestined plain of Vigrid the strife +commences. Heimdall and Loki mutually slay each other. Thor kills +Jormungandur; but as the monster expires he belches a flood of +venom, under which the matchless thunder god staggers and falls +dead. Fenris swallows Odin, but is instantly rent in twain by +Vidar, the strong silent one, Odin's dumb son, who well avenges +his father on the wolf by splitting the jaws that devoured him. +Then Surtur slings fire abroad, and the reek rises around all +things. Iggdrasill, the great Ash Tree of Existence, totters, but +stands. All below perishes. Finally, the unnamable Mighty One +appears, to judge the good and the bad. The former hie from fading +Valhalla to eternal Gimle, where all joy is to be theirs forever; +the latter are stormed down from Hela to Nastrond, there, "under +curdling mists, in a snaky marsh whose waves freeze black and thaw +in blood, to be scared forever, for punishment, with terrors ever +new." All strife vanishes in endless peace. By the power of All +Father, a new earth, green and fair, shoots up from the sea, to be +inhabited by a new race of men free from sorrow. The foul, spotted +dragon Nidhogg flies over the plains, bearing corpses and Death +itself away upon his wings, and sinks out of sight.10 + +It has generally been asserted, in consonance with the foregoing +view, that the Scandinavians believed that the good and the bad, +respectively in Gimle and Nastrond, would experience everlasting +rewards and punishments. But Blackwell, the recent editor of +Percy's translation of Mallet's Northern Antiquities as published +in Bohn's Antiquarian Library, argues with great force against the +correctness of the assertion.11 The point is + +9 Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, s. 775, note. + +10 Keyser, Religion of the Northmen, part i. ch. vi. + +11 Pp. 497-503. + + +dubious; but it is of no great importance, since we know that the +spirit and large outlines of their faith have been reliably set +forth. That faith, rising from the impetuous blood and rude mind +of the martial race of the North, gathering wonderful +embellishments from the glowing imagination of the Skalds, +reacting, doubly nourished the fierce valor and fervid fancy from +which it sprang. It drove the dragon prows of the Vikings +marauding over the seas. It rolled the Goths' conquering squadrons +across the nations, from the shores of Finland and Skager Rack to +the foot of the Pyrenees and the gates of Rome. The very ferocity +with which it blazed consumed itself, and the conquest of the +flickering faith by Christianity was easy. During the dominion of +this religion, the earnest sincerity with which its disciples +received it appears alike from the fearful enterprises it prompted +them to, the iron hardihood and immeasurable contempt of death it +inspired in them, and the superstitious observances which, with +pains and expenses, they scrupulously kept. They buried, with the +dead, gold, useful implements, ornaments, that they might descend, +furnished and shining, to the halls of Hela. With a chieftain they +buried a pompous horse and splendid armor, that he might ride like +a warrior into Valhalla. The true Scandinavian, by age or sickness +deprived of dying in battle, ran himself through, or flung himself +from a precipice, in this manner to make amends for not expiring +in armed strife, if haply thus he might snatch a late seat among +the Einheriar. With the same motive the dying sea king had himself +laid on his ship, alone, and launched away, with out stretched +sails, with a slow fire in the hold, which, when he was fairly out +at sea, should flame up and, as Carlyle says, "worthily bury the +old hero at once in the sky and in the ocean." Surely then, if +ever, "the kingdom of heaven suffered violence, and the violent +took it by force." + +CHAPTER IV. + +ETRUSCAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +ALTHOUGH the living form and written annals of Etruria perished +thousands of years ago, and although but slight references to her +affairs have come down to us in the documents of contemporary +nations, yet, through a comparatively recent acquisition of facts, +we have quite a distinct and satisfactory knowledge of her +condition and experience when her power was palmiest. We follow +the ancient Etruscans from the cradle to the tomb, perceiving +their various national costumes, peculiar physiognomies, names and +relationships, houses, furniture, ranks, avocations, games, dying +scenes, burial processions, and funeral festivals. And, further +than this, we follow their souls into the world to come, behold +them in the hands of good or evil spirits, brought to judgment and +then awarded their deserts of bliss or woe. This knowledge has +been derived from their sepulchres, which still resist the +corroding hand of Time when nearly every thing else Etruscan has +mingled with the ground.1 They hewed their tombs in the living +rock of cliffs and hills, or reared them of massive masonry. They +painted or carved the walls with descriptive and symbolic scenes, +and crowded their interiors with sarcophagi, cinerary urns, vases, +goblets, mirrors, and a thousand other articles covered with +paintings and sculptures rich in information of their authors. +From a study of these things, lately disinterred in immense +quantities, has been constructed, for the most part, our present +acquaintance with this ancient people. Strange that, when the +whole scene of life has passed away, a sepulchral world should +survive and open itself to reveal the past and instruct the +future! We seem to see, rising from her tombs, and moving solemnly +among the mounds where all she knew or cared for has for so many +ages been inurned, the ghost of a mighty people. With dejected air +she leans on a ruined temple and muses; and her shadowy tears fall +silently over what was and is not. + +The Etruscans were accustomed to bury their deceased outside their +walls; and sometimes the city of the living was thus surrounded by +a far reaching city of the dead. At this day the decaying fronts +of the houses of the departed, for miles upon miles along the +road, admonish the living traveller. These stone hewn sepulchres +crowd nearly every hill and glen. Whole acres of them are also +found upon the plains, covered by several feet of earth, where +every spring the plough passes over them, and every autumn the +harvest waves; but the dust beneath reposes well, and knows +nothing of this. + +"Time buries graves. How strange! a buried grave! Death cannot +from more death its own dead empire save." + +The houses of the dead were built in imitation of the houses of +the living, only on a smaller scale; and the interior arrangements +were so closely copied that it is said the resemblance held in all +but the light of day and the sound and motion of life. The images + +1 Mrs. Gray, Sepulchres of Etruria. + + +painted or etched on the urns and sarcophagi that fill the +sepulchres were portraits of the deceased, accurate likenesses, +varying with age, sex, features, and expression. These personal +portraits were taken and laid up here, doubtless, to preserve +their remembrance when the original had crumbled to ashes. What a +touching voice is this from antiquity, telling us that our poor, +fond human nature was ever the same! The heart longed to be kept +still in remembrance when the mortal frame was gone. But how vain +the wish beyond the vanishing circle of hearts that returned its +love! For, as we wander through those sepulchres now, thousands of +faces thus preserved look down upon us with a mute plea, when +every vestige of their names and characters is forever lost, and +their very dust scattered long ago. + +Along the sides of the burial chamber were ranged massive stone +shelves, or sometimes benches, or tables, upon which the dead were +laid in a reclining posture, to sleep their long sleep. It often +happens that on these rocky biers lie the helmet, breastplate, +greaves, signet ring, and weapons, or, if it be a female, the +necklace, ear rings, bracelet, and other ornaments, each in its +relative place, when the body they once encased or adorned has not +left a single fragment behind. An antiquary once, digging for +discoveries, chanced to break through the ceiling of a tomb. He +looked in; and there, to quote his own words, "I beheld a warrior +stretched on a couch of rock, and in a few minutes I saw him +vanish under my eyes; for, as the air entered the cemetery, the +armor, thoroughly oxydized, crumbled away into most minute +particles, and in a short time scarcely a trace of what I had seen +was left on the couch. It is impossible to express the effect this +sight produced upon me." + +An important element in the religion of Etruria was the doctrine +of Genii, a system of household deities who watched over the +fortunes of individuals and families, and who are continually +shown on the engravings in the sepulchres as guiding, or actively +interested in, all the incidents that happen to those under their +care. It was supposed that every person had two genii allotted to +him, one inciting him to good deeds, the other to bad, and both +accompanying him after death to the judgment to give in their +testimony and turn the scales of his fate. This belief, sincerely +held, would obviously wield a powerful influence over their +feelings in the conduct of life. + +The doctrine concerning the gods that prevailed in this ancient +nation is learned partly from the classic authors, partly from +sepulchral monumental remains. It was somewhat allied to that of +Egypt, but much more to that of Rome, who indeed derived a +considerable portion of her mythology from this source. As in +other pagan countries, a multitude of deities were worshipped +here, each having his peculiar office, form of representation, and +cycle of traditions. It would be useless to specify all.2 The +goddess of Fate was pictured with wings, showing her swiftness, +and with a hammer and nail, to typify that her decrees were +unalterably fixed. The name of the supreme god was Tinia. He was +the central power of the world of divinities, and was always +represented, like Jupiter Tonans, with a thunderbolt in his hand. +There were twelve great "consenting gods," composing the council +of Tinia, and called "The Senators of Heaven." They were pitiless +beings, dwelling in the inmost recesses + +2 Muller, Die Etrusker, buch iii. kap. iv. sects. 7-14. + + +of heaven, whose names it was not lawful to pronounce. Yet they +were not deemed eternal, but were supposed to rise and fall +together. There was another class, called "The Shrouded Gods," +still more awful, potent, and mysterious, ruling all things, and +much like the inscrutable Necessity that filled the dark +background of the old Greek religion. Last, but most feared and +most prominent in the Etruscan mind, were the rulers of the lower +regions, Mantus and Mania, the king and queen of the under world. +Mantus was figured as an old man, wearing a crown, with wings at +his shoulders, and a torch reversed in his hand. Mania was a +fearful personage, frequently propitiated with human sacrifices. +Macrobius says boys were offered up at her annual festival for a +long time, till the heads of onions and poppies were substituted.3 +Intimately connected with these divinities was Charun, their chief +minister, the conductor of souls into the realm of the future, +whose dread image, hideous as the imagination could conceive, is +constantly introduced in the sepulchral pictures, and who with his +attendant demons well illustrates the terrible character of the +superstition which first created, then deified, and then trembled +before him. Who can become acquainted with such horrors as these +without drawing a freer breath, and feeling a deeper gratitude to +God, as he remembers how, for many centuries now, the religion of +love has been redeeming man from subterranean darkness, hatred, +and fright, to the happiness and peace of good will and trust in +the sweet, sunlit air of day! + +That a belief in a future existence formed a prominent and +controlling feature in the creed of the Etruscans4 is abundantly +shown by the contents of their tombs. They would never have +produced and preserved paintings, tracings, types, of such a +character and in such quantities, had not the doctrines they +shadow forth possessed a ruling hold upon their hopes and fears. +The symbolic representations connected with this subject may be +arranged in several classes. First, there is an innumerable +variety of death bed scenes, many of them of the most touching and +pathetic character, such as witnesses say can scarcely be looked +upon without tears, others of the most appalling nature, showing +perfect abandonment to fright, screams, sobbing, and despair. The +last hour is described under all circumstances, coming to all +sorts of persons, prince, priest, peasant, man, mother, and child. +Patriarchs are dying surrounded by groups in every posture of +grief; friends are waving a mournful farewell to their weeping +lovers; wives are torn from the embrace of their husbands; some +seem resigned and willingly going, others reluctant and driven in +terror. + +The next series of engravings contain descriptions and emblems of +the departure of the soul from this world, and of its passage into +the next. There are various symbols of this mysterious transition: +one is a snake with a boy riding upon its back, its amphibious +nature plainly typifying the twofold existence allotted to man. +The soul is also often shown muffled in a veil and travelling +garb, seated upon a horse, and followed by a slave carrying a +large sack of provisions, an emblem of the long and dreary journey +about to be taken. Horses are depicted harnessed to cars in which +disembodied spirits are seated, a token of the swift ride + +3 Saturnal. lib. i. cap. 7. + +4 Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, ch. xii. + + +of the dead to their doom. Sometimes the soul is gently invited, +or led, by a good spirit, sometimes beaten, or dragged away, by +the squalid and savage Charun, the horrible death king, or one of +his ministers; sometimes a good and an evil spirit are seen +contending for the soul; sometimes the soul is seen, on its knees, +beseeching the aid of its good genius and grasping at his +departing wing, as, with averted face, he is retiring; and +sometimes the good and the evil spirits are leading it away +together, to abide the sentence of the tribunal of Mantus. Whole +companies of souls are also set forth marching in procession, +under the guidance of a winged genius, to their subterranean +abode. + +Finally, there is a class of representations depicting the +ultimate fate of souls after judgment has been passed. Some are +shown seated at banquet, in full enjoyment, according to their +ideas of bliss. Some are shown undergoing punishment, beaten with +hammers, stabbed and torn by black demons. There are no proofs +that the Etruscans believed in the translation of any soul to the +abode of the gods above the sky, no signs of any path rising to +the supernal heaven; but they clearly expected just discriminations +to be made in the under world. Into that realm many gates are shown +leading, some of them peaceful, inviting, surrounded by apparent +emblems of deliverance, rest, and blessedness; others yawning, +terrific, engirt by the heads of gnashing beasts and furies +threatening their victim. + +"Shown is the progress of the guilty soul +From earth's worn threshold to the throne of doom; +Here the black genius to the dismal goal +Drags the wan spectre from the unsheltering tomb, +While from the side it never more may warn +The better angel, sorrowing, flees forlorn. +There (closed the eighth) seven yawning gates reveal +The sevenfold anguish that awaits the lost. +Closed the eighth gate, for there the happy dwell. +No glimpse of joy beyond makes horror less." + +In these lines, from Bulwer's learned and ornate epic of King +Arthur, the dire severity of the Etruscan doctrine of a future +life is well indicated, with the local imagery of some parts of +it, and the impenetrable obscurity which enwraps the great sequel. + +CHAPTER V. + +EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +IN attempting to understand the conceptions of the ancient +inhabitants of Egypt on the subject of a future life, we are first +met by the inquiry why they took such great pains to preserve the +bodies of their dead. It has been supposed that no common motive +could have animated them to such lavish expenditure of money, +time, and labor as the process of embalming required. It has been +taken for granted that only some recondite theological +consideration could explain this phenomenon. Accordingly, it is +now the popular belief that the Egyptians were so scrupulous in +embalming their dead and storing them in repositories of eternal +stone, because they believed that the departed souls would at some +future time come back and revivify their former bodies, if these +were kept from decay. This hypothesis seems to us as false as it +is gratuitous. In the first place, there is no evidence of it +whatever, neither written testimony nor circumstantial hint. +Herodotus tells us, "The Egyptians say the soul, on the +dissolution of the body, always enters into some other animal then +born, and, having passed in rotation through the various +terrestrial, aquatic, and arial beings, again enters the body of a +man then born."1 There is no assertion that, at the end of the +three thousand years occupied by this circuit, the soul will re +enter its former body. The plain inference, on the contrary, is +that it will be born in a new body, as at each preceding step in +the series of its transmigrations. Secondly, the mutilation of the +body in embalming forbids the belief in its restoration to life. +The brain was extracted, and the skull stuffed with cotton. The +entrails were taken out, and sometimes, according to Porphyry2 and +Plutarch,3 thrown into the Nile; sometimes, as modern examinations +have revealed, bound up in four packages and either replaced in +the cavity of the stomach or laid in four vases beside the mummy. +It is absurd to attribute, without clear cause, to an enlightened +people the belief that these stacks of brainless, eviscerated +mummies, dried and shrunken in ovens, coated with pitch, bound up +in a hundredfold bandages, would ever revive, and, inhabited by +the same souls that fled them thirty centuries before, again walk +the streets of Thebes! Besides, a third consideration demands +notice. By the theory of metempsychosis universally acknowledged +to have been held by the Egyptians it is taught that souls at +death, either immediately, or after a temporary sojourn in hell or +heaven has struck the balance of their merits, are born in fresh +bodies; never that they return into their old ones. But the point +is set beyond controversy by the discovery of inscriptions, +accompanying pictures of scenes illustrating the felicity of +blessed souls in heaven, to this effect: "Their bodies shall +repose in their tombs forever; they live in the celestial regions +eternally, enjoying the presence of the Supreme God." 4 A writer +on this subject says, "A people who believed in the transmigration + +1 Herod. lib. ii. cap. 123. + +2 De Abstinentia, lib. iv. cap. 10. + +3 Banquet of the Seven Wise Men. + +4 Champollion, Descr. de l'Egypte, Antiq. tom ii. p. 132. Stuart's +Trans. of Greppo's Essay, p. 262. + + +of souls would naturally take extraordinary pains to preserve the +body from putrefaction, in the hope of the soul again joining the +body it had quitted." The remark is intrinsically untrue, because +the doctrine of transmigration coexists in reconciled belief with +the observed law of birth, infancy, and growth, not with the +miracle of transition into reviving corpses. The notion is +likewise historically refuted by the fact that the believers of +that doctrine in the thronged East have never preserved the body, +but at once buried or burned it. The whole Egyptian theology is +much more closely allied to the Hindu, which excluded, than to the +Persian, which emphasized, the resurrection of the body. + +Another theory which has been devised to explain the purpose of +Egyptian embalming, is that "it was to unite the soul permanently +to its body, and keep the vital principle from perishing or +transmigrating; the body and soul ran together through the journey +of the dead and its dread ordeal." 5 This arbitrary guess is +incredible. The preservation of the body does not appear in any +way not even to the rawest fancy to detain or unite the soul with +it; for the thought is unavoidable that it is precisely the +absence of the soul which constitutes death. Again: such an +explanation of the motive for embalming cannot be correct, because +in the hieroglyphic representations of the passage to the judgment +the separate soul is often depicted as hovering over the body, 6 +or as kneeling before the judges, or as pursuing its adventures +through the various realms of the creation. "When the body is +represented," Champollion says, "it is as an aid to the spectator, +and not as teaching a bodily resurrection. Sharpe's opinion that +the picture of a bird poised over the mouth of a mummy, with the +emblems of breath and life in its claws, implies the doctrine of a +general physical resurrection, is an inferential leap of the most +startling character. What proof is there that the symbol denotes +this? Hundreds of paintings in the tombs show souls undergoing +their respective allotments in the other world while their bodily +mummies are quiet in the sepulchres of the present. In his +treatise on "Isis and Osiris," Plutarch writes, "The Egyptians +believe that while the bodies of eminent men are buried in the +earth their souls are stars shining in heaven." It is equally +nonsensical in itself and unwarranted by evidence to imagine that, +in the Egyptian faith, embalming either retained the soul in the +body or preserved the body for a future return of the soul. Who +can believe that it was for either of those purposes that they +embalmed the multitudes of animals whose mummies the explorer is +still turning up? They preserved cats, hawks, bugs, crocodiles, +monkeys, bulls, with as great pains as they did men.7 When the +Canary Islands were first visited, it was found that their +inhabitants had a custom of carefully embalming the dead. The same +was the case among the Peruvians, whose vast cemeteries remain to +this day crowded with mummies. But the expectation of a return of +the souls into these preserved bodies is not to be ascribed to +those peoples. Herodotus informs us that "the Ethiopians, having +dried the bodies of their dead, coat them with white plaster, +which they paint with colors to the likeness of the deceased and +encase in a transparent substance. The dead, thus kept from being +offensive, and yet plainly visible, are retained a + +5 Bonomi and Arundel on Egyptian Antiq., p. 46. + +6 Pl. xxxiii. in Lepsius' Todtenb. der. Agypter. + +7 Pettigrew, Hist of Egyptian Mummies, ch. xii. + + +whole year in the houses of their nearest relatives. Afterwards +they are carried out and placed upright in the tombs around the +city." 8 It has been argued, because the Egyptians expended so +much in preparing lasting tombs and in adorning their walls with +varied embellishments, that they must have thought the soul +remained in the body, a conscious occupant of the dwelling place +provided for it.9 As well might it be argued that, because the +ancient savage tribes on the coast of South America, who obtained +their support by fishing, buried fish hooks and bait with their +dead, they supposed the dead bodies occupied themselves in their +graves by fishing! The adornment of the tomb, so lavish and varied +with the Egyptians, was a gratification of the spontaneous +workings of fancy and affection, and needs no far fetched +explanation. Every nation has its funeral customs and its rites of +sepulture, many of which would be as difficult of explanation as +those of Egypt. The Scandinavian sea king was sometimes buried, in +his ship, in a grave dug on some headland overlooking the ocean. +The Scythians buried their dead in rolls of gold, sometimes +weighing forty or fifty solid pounds. Diodorus the Sicilian says, +"The Egyptians, laying the embalmed bodies of their ancestors in +noble monuments, see the true visages and expressions of those who +died ages before them. So they take almost as great pleasure in +viewing their bodily proportions and the lineaments of their faces +as if they were still living among them." 10 That instinct which +leads us to obtain portraits of those we love, and makes us +unwilling to part even with their lifeless bodies, was the cause +of embalming. The bodies thus prepared, we know from the testimony +of ancient authors, were kept in the houses of their children or +kindred, until a new generation, "who knew not Joseph," removed +them. Then nothing could be more natural than that the priesthood +should take advantage of the custom, so associated with sacred +sentiments, and throw theological sanctions over it, shroud it in +mystery, and secure a monopoly of the power and profit arising +from it. It is not improbable, too, as has been suggested, that +hygienic considerations, expressing themselves in political laws +and priestly precepts, may at first have had an influence in +establishing the habit of embalming, to prevent the pestilences +apt to arise in such a climate from the decay of animal +substances. + +There is great diversity of opinion among Egyptologists on this +point. One thinks that embalming was supposed to keep the soul in +the body until after the funeral judgment and interment, but that, +when the corpse was laid in its final receptacle, the soul +proceeded to accompany the sun in its daily and nocturnal circuit, +or to transmigrate through various animals and deities. Another +imagines that the process of embalming was believed to secure the +repose of the soul in the other world, exempt from +transmigrations, so long as the body was kept from decay.11 +Perhaps the different notions on this subject attributed by modern +authors to the Egyptians may all have prevailed among them at +different times or among distinct sects. But it seems most likely, +as we have said, that embalming first arose from physical and +sentimental considerations naturally operating, rather than from +any + +8 Lib. iii. cap. 24. + +9 Kenrick, Ancient Egypt, vol. i. ch. xxi. sect. iii. + +10 Lib. i. cap. 7. + +11 Library of Entertaining Knowledge, vol. ii. ch. iii. + + +theological doctrine carefully devised; although, after the +priesthood appropriated the business, it is altogether probable +that they interwove it with an artificial and elaborate system of +sacerdotal dogmas, in which was the hiding of the national power. + +The second question that arises is, What was the significance of +the funeral ceremonies celebrated by the Egyptians over their +dead? When the body had been embalmed, it was presented before a +tribunal of forty two judges sitting in state on the eastern +borders of the lake Acherusia. They made strict inquiry into the +conduct and character of the deceased. Any one might make +complaint against him, or testify in his behalf. If it was found +that he had been wicked, had died in debt, or was otherwise +unworthy, he was deprived of honorable burial and ignominiously +thrown into a ditch. This was called Tartar, from the wailings the +sentence produced among his relatives. But if he was found to have +led an upright life, and to have been a good man, the honors of a +regular interment were decreed him. The cemetery a large plain +environed with trees and lined with canals lay on the western side +of the lake, and was named Elisout, or rest. It was reached by a +boat, the funeral barge, in which no one could cross without an +order from the judges and the payment of a small fee. In these and +other particulars some of the scenes supposed to be awaiting the +soul in the other world were dramatically shadowed forth. Each +rite was a symbol of a reality existing, in solemn correspondence, +in the invisible state. What the priests did over the body on +earth the judicial deities did over the soul in Amenthe. It seems +plain that the Greeks derived many of their notions concerning the +fate and state of the dead from Egypt. Hades corresponds with +Amenthe; Pluto, with the subterranean Osiris; Mercury +psychopompos, with Anubis, "the usher of souls;" Aacus, Minos, and +Rhadamanthos, with the three assistant gods who help in weighing +the soul and present the result to Osiris; Tartarus, to the ditch +Tartar; Charon's ghost boat over the Styx, to the barge conveying +the mummy to the tomb; Cerberus, to Oms; Acheron, to Acherusia; +the Elysian Fields, to Elisout.12 Kenrick thinks the Greeks may +have developed these views for themselves, without indebtedness to +Egypt. But the notions were in existence among the Egyptians at +least twelve hundred years before they can be traced among the +Greeks.13 And they are too arbitrary and systematic to have been +independently constructed by two nations. Besides, Herodotus +positively affirms that they were derived from Egypt. Several +other ancient authors also state this; and nearly every modern +writer on the subject agrees in it. + +The triumphs of modern investigation into the antiquities of +Egypt, unlocking the hieroglyphics and lifting the curtain from +the secrets of ages, have unveiled to us a far more full and +satisfactory view of the Egyptian doctrine of the future life than +can be constructed from the narrow glimpses afforded by the +accounts of the old Greek authorities. Three sources of knowledge +have been laid open to us. First, the papyrus rolls, one of which +was placed in the bosom of every mummy. This roll, covered with +hieroglyphics, is called the funeral ritual, or book of the dead. +It served as a passport through the burial rites. It contained the +names of the deceased and his parents, a series of prayers he was +to recite + +12 Spineto on Egyptian Antiq, Lectures IV., V. + +13 Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, 2d +Series, vol. i. ch. 12. + + +before the various divinities he would meet on his journey, and +representations of some of the adventures awaiting him in the +unseen state.14 Secondly, the ornamental cases in which the +mummies are enclosed are painted all over with scenes setting +forth the realities and events to which the soul of the dead +occupant has passed in the other life.15 Thirdly, the various +fates of souls are sculptured and painted on the walls in the +tombs, in characters which have been deciphered during the present +century:16 + +"Those mystic, stony volumes on the walls long writ, Whose sense +is late reveal'd to searching modern wit." + +Combining the information thus obtained, we learn that, according +to the Egyptian representation, the soul is led by the god Thoth +into Amenthe, the infernal world, the entrance to which lies in +the extreme west, on the farther side of the sea, where the sun +goes down under the earth. It was in accordance with this +supposition that Herod caused to be engraved, on a magnificent +monument erected to his deceased wife, the line, "Zeus, this +blooming woman sent beyond the ocean." 17 At the entrance sits a +wide throated monster, over whose head is the inscription, "This +is the devourer of many who go into Amenthe, the lacerator of the +heart of him who comes with sins to the house of justice." The +soul next kneels before the forty two assessors of Osiris, with +deprecating asseverations and intercessions. It then comes to the +final trial in the terrible Hall of the two Truths, the approving +and the condemning; or, as it is differently named, the Hall of +the double Justice, the rewarding and the punishing. Here the +three divinities Horns, Anubis, and Thoth proceed to weigh the +soul in the balance. In one scale an image of Thmei, the goddess +of Truth, is placed; in the other, a heart shaped vase, +symbolizing the heart of the deceased with all the actions of +his earthly life. Then happy is he "Who, weighed 'gainst Truth, +down dips the awful scale." + +Thoth notes the result on a tablet, and the deceased advances with +it to the foot of the throne on which sits Osiris, lord of the +dead, king of Amenthe. He pronounces the decisive sentence, and +his assistants see that it is at once executed. The condemned soul +is either scourged back to the earth straightway, to live again in +the form of a vile animal, as some of the emblems appear to +denote; or plunged into the tortures of a horrid hell of fire and +devils below, as numerous engravings set forth; or driven into the +atmosphere, to be vexed and tossed by tempests, violently whirled +in blasts and clouds, till its sins are expiated, and another +probation granted through a renewed existence in human form. + +We have two accounts of the Egyptian divisions of the universe. +According to the first view, they conceived the creation to +consist of three grand departments. First came the earth, or zone +of trial, where men live on probation. Next was the atmosphere, or +zone of temporal + +14 Das Todtenbuch der Agypter, edited with an introduction by Dr. +Lepsius. + +15 Ch. ix. of Pettigrew's History of Egyptian Mummies. + +16 Champollion's Letter, dated Thebes, May 16, 1829. An abstract +of this letter may be found in Stuart's trans. of Greppo's Essay +on Champollion's Hieroglyphic System, appendix, note N. + +17 Basnage, Hist. of the Jews, lib. ii. ch. 12, sect. 19. + + +punishment, where souls are afflicted for their sins. The ruler of +this girdle of storms was Pooh, the overseer of souls in penance. +Such a notion is found in some of the later Greek philosophers, +and in the writings of the Alexandrian Jews, who undoubtedly drew +it from the priestly science of Egypt. Every one will recollect +how Paul speaks of "the prince of the power off the air." And +Shakspeare makes the timid Claudio shrink from the verge of death +with horror, lest his soul should, through ages, + +"Be imprison'd in the viewless winds, And blown with restless +violence round about The pendent world." + +After their purgation in this region, all the souls live again on +earth by transmigration.18 The third realm was in the serene blue +sky among the stars, the zone of blessedness, where the accepted +dwell in immortal peace and joy. Eusebius says, "The Egyptians +represented the universe by two circles, one within the other, and +a serpent with the head of a hawk twining his folds around them," +thus forming three spheres, earth, firmament, divinity. + +But the representation most frequent and imposing is that which +pictures the creation simply as having the earth in the centre, +and the sun with his attendants as circulating around it in the +brightness of the superior, and the darkness of the infernal, +firmament. Souls at death pass down through the west into Amenthe, +and are tried. If condemned, they are either sent back to the +earth, or confined in the nether space for punishment. If +justified, they join the blissful company of the Sun God, and rise +with him through the east to journey along his celestial course. +The upper hemisphere is divided into twelve equal parts, +corresponding with the twelve hours of the day. At the gate of +each of these golden segments a sentinel god is stationed, to whom +the newly arriving soul must give its credentials to secure a +passage. In like manner, the lower hemisphere is cut into the same +number of gloomy sections, corresponding with the twelve hours of +the night. Daily the chief divinity, in robes of light, traverses +the beaming zones of the blessed, where they hunt and fish, or +plough and sow, reap and gather, in the Fields of the Sun on the +banks of the heavenly Nile. Nightly, arrayed in deep black from +head to foot, he traverses the dismal zones of the damned, where +they undergo appropriate retributions. Thus the future destiny of +man was sublimely associated with the march of the sun through the +upper and lower hemispheres.19 Astronomy was a part of the +Egyptian's theology. He regarded the stars not figuratively, but +literally, as spirits and pure genii; the great planets as +deities. The calendar was a religious chart, each month, week, +day, hour, being the special charge and stand point of a god.20 + +There was much poetic beauty and ethical power in these doctrines +and symbols. The necessity of virtue, the dread ordeals of the +grave, the certainty of retribution, the mystic circuits of +transmigration, a glorious immortality, the paths of planets and +gods and souls through creation, all were impressively enounced, +dramatically shown. + +18 Liber Metempsychosis Veterum Agyptiorum, edited and translated +into Latin from the funeral papyri by H. Brugsch. + +19 L'Univers, Egypte Ancienne, par Champollion Figeac, pp. 123 +145. + +20 Agyptische Glaubenslehre von Dr. Ed. Roth, ss. 171, 174. + + +"The Egyptain soul sail'd o'er the skyey sea +In ark of crystal, mann'd by beamy gods, +To drag the deeps of space and net the stars, +Where, in their nebulous shoals, they shore the void +And through old Night's Typhonian blindness shine. +Then, solarized, he press'd towards the sun, +And, in the heavenly Hades, hall of God, +Had final welcome of the firmament." + +This solemn linking of the fate of man with the astronomic +universe, this grand blending of the deepest of moral doctrines +with the most august of physical sciences, plainly betrays the +brain and hand of that hereditary hierarchy whose wisdom was the +wonder of the ancient world. Osburn thinks the localization of +Amenthe in the west may have arisen in the following way. Some +superstitious Egyptians, travelling westwards, at twilight, on the +great marshes haunted by the strange gray white ibis, saw troops +of these silent, solemn, ghostlike birds, motionless or slow +stalking, and conceived them to be souls waiting for the funeral +rites to be paid, that they might sink with the setting sun to +their destined abode.21 + +That such a system of belief was too complex and elaborate to have +been a popular development is evident. But that it was really held +by the people there is no room to doubt. Parts of it were publicly +enacted on festival days by multitudes numbering more than a +hundred thousand. Parts of it were dimly shadowed out in the +secret recesses of temples, surrounded by the most astonishing +accompaniments that unrivalled learning, skill, wealth, and power +could contrive. Its authority commanded the allegiance, its charm +fascinated the imagination, of the people. Its force built the +pyramids, and enshrined whole generations of Egypt's embalmed +population in richly adorned sepulchres of everlasting rock. Its +substance of esoteric knowledge and faith, in its form of exoteric +imposture and exhibition, gave it vitality and endurance long. In +the vortex of change and decay it sank at last. And now it is only +after its secrets have been buried for thirty centuries that the +exploring genius of modern times has brought its hidden +hieroglyphics to light, and taught us what were the doctrines +originally contained in the altar lore of those priestly schools +which once dotted the plains of the Delta and studded the banks of +eldest Nile, where now, disfigured and gigantic, the solemn + +"Old Syhinxes lift their countenances bland Athwart the river sea +and sea of sand." + +21 Monumental History of Egypt, vol. i. ch. 8. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +BRAHMANIC AND BUDDHIST DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +IN the Hindu views of the fate of the human soul, metaphysical +subtlety and imaginative vastness, intellect and fancy, slavish +tradition and audacious speculation, besotted ritualism and +heaven storming spirituality, are mingled together on a scale of +grandeur and intensity wholly without a parallel elsewhere in the +literature or faith of the world. Brahmanism, with its hundred +million adherents holding sway over India, and Buddhism, with +its four hundred million disciples scattered over a dozen +nations, from Java to Japan, and from the Ceylonese to the +Samoyedes, practically considered, in reference to their actually +received dogmas and aims pertaining to a future life, agree +sufficiently to warrant us in giving them a general examination +together. The chief difference between them will be explained in +the sequel. + +The most ancient Hindu doctrine of the future fate of man, as +given in the Vedas, was simple, rude, and very unlike the forms in +which it has since prevailed. Professor Wilson says, in the +introduction to his translation of the Rig Veda, that the +references to this subject in the primeval Sanscrit scriptures are +sparse and incomplete. But no one has so thoroughly elucidated +this obscure question as Roth of Tubingen, in his masterly paper +on the Morality of the Vedas, of which there is a translation, by +Professor Whitney, in the Journal of the American Oriental +Society.1 The results of his researches may be stated in few +words. + +When a man dies, the earth is invoked to wrap his body up, as a +mother wraps her child in her garment, and to lie lightly on him. +He himself is addressed thus: "Go forth, go forth on the ancient +paths which our fathers in old times have trodden: the two rulers +in bliss, Yama and Varuna, shalt thou behold." Varuna judges all. +He thrusts the wicked down into darkness; and not a hint or clew +further of their doom is furnished. They were supposed either to +be annihilated, as Professor Roth thinks the Vedas imply, or else +to live as demons, in sin, blackness, and woe. The good go up to +heaven and are glorified with a shining spiritual body like that +of the gods. Yama, the first man, originator of the human race on +earth, is the beginner and head of renewed humanity in another +world, and is termed the Assembler of Men. It is a poetic and +grand conception that the first one who died, leading the way, +should be the patriarch and monarch of all who follow. The old +Vedic hymns imply that the departed good are in a state of exalted +felicity, but scarcely picture forth any particulars. The +following passage, versified with strict fidelity to the original, +is as full and explicit as any: + +Where glory never fading is, where is the world of heavenly light, +The world of immortality, the everlasting, set me there! +Where Yama reigns, Vivasvat's son, in the inmost sphere of heaven +bright. +Where those abounding waters flow, oh, make me but immortal there! +Where there is freedom unrestrain'd, where the triple vault of +heaven's in sight, +Where worlds of brightest glory are, oh, make me but immortal +there! +Where pleasures and enjoyments are, where bliss and raptures ne'er +take flight, +Where all desires are satisfied, oh, make me but immortal there! + +1 Vol iii. pp. 342-346. + + +But this form of doctrine long ago passed from the Hindu +remembrance, lost in the multiplying developments and +specifications of a mystical philosophy, and a teeming +superstition nourished by an unbounded imagination. + +Both Brahmans and Buddhists conceive of the creation on the most +enormous scale. Mount Meru rises from the centre of the earth to +the height of about two millions of miles. On its summit is the +city of Brahma, covering a space of fourteen thousand leagues, and +surrounded by the stately cities of the regents of the spheres. +Between Meru and the wall of stone forming the extreme +circumference of the earth are seven concentric circles of rocks. +Between these rocky bracelets are continents and seas. In some of +the seas wallow single fishes thousands of miles in every +dimension. The celestial spaces are occupied by a large number of +heavens, called "dewa lokas," increasing in the glory and bliss of +their prerogatives. The worlds below the earth are hells, called +"naraka." The description of twenty eight of these, given in the +Vishnu Purana,2 makes the reader "sup full of horrors." The +Buddhist "Books of Ceylon" 3 tell of twenty six heavens placed in +regular order above one another in the sky, crowded with all +imaginable delights. They also depict, in the abyss underneath the +earth, eight great hells, each containing sixteen smaller ones, +the whole one hundred and thirty six composing one gigantic hell. +The eight chief hells are situated over one another, each +partially enclosing and overlapping that next beneath; and the +sufferings inflicted on their unfortunate occupants are of the +most terrific character. But these poor hints at the local +apparatus of reward and punishment afford no conception whatever +of the extent of their mythological scheme of the universe. + +They call each complete solar system a sakwala, and say that, if a +wall were erected around the space occupied by a million millions +of sakwalas, reaching to the highest heaven, and the entire space +were filled with mustard seeds, a god might take these seeds, and, +looking towards any one of the cardinal points, throw a single +seed towards each sakwala until all the seeds were gone, and still +there would be more sakwalas, in the same direction, to which no +seed had been thrown, without considering those in the other three +quarters of the heavens. In comparison with this Eastern vision of +the infinitude of worlds, the wildest Western dreamer over the +vistas opened by the telescope may hide his diminished head! Their +other conceptions are of the same crushing magnitude, Thus, when +the demons, on a certain occasion, assailed the gods, Siva using +the Himalaya range for his bow, Vasuke for the string, Vishnu for +his arrow, the earth for his chariot with the sun and moon for its +wheels and the Vedas for its horses, the starry canopy for his +banner with the tree of Paradise for its staff, Brahma for his +charioteer, and the mysterious monosyllable Om for his whip +reduced them all to ashes.4 + +The five hundred million Brahmanic and Buddhist believers hold +that all the gods, men, demons, and various grades of animal life +occupying this immeasurable array of worlds compose one cosmic +family. The totality of animated beings, from a detestable gnat to + +2 Wilson's trans. pp. 207-209. + +3 Upham's trans. vol. iii. pp. 8, 66, 159. + +4 Vans Kennedy, Ancient and Hindu Mythology, p. 429. + + +thundering Indra, from the meanest worm to the supreme Buddha, +constitute one fraternal race, by the unavoidable effects of the +law of retribution constantly interchanging their residences in a +succession of rising and sinking existences, ranging through all +the earths, heavens, and hells of the universe, bound by the +terrible links of merit and demerit in the phantasmagoric dungeon +of births and deaths. The Vishnu Purana declares, "The universe, +this whole egg of Brahma, is everywhere swarming with living +creatures, all of whom are captives in the chains of acts." 5 + +The one prime postulate of these Oriental faiths the ground +principle, never to be questioned any more than the central and +stationary position of the earth in the Ptolemaic system is that +all beings below the Infinite One are confined in the circle of +existence, the whirl of births and deaths, by the consequences of +their virtues and vices. When a man dies, if he has an excess of +good desert, he is born, as a superior being, in one of the +heavens. According to the nature and degree of his merit, his +heavenly existence is prolonged, or perhaps repeated many times in +succession; or, if his next birth occurs on earth, it is under +happy circumstances, as a sage or a king. But when he expires, +should there, on the other hand, be an overbalance of ill desert, +he is born as a demon in one of the hells, or may in repeated +lives run the circuit of the hells; or, if he at once returns to +the earth, it is as a beggar, a leprous outcast, a wretched +cripple, or in the guise of a rat, a snake, or a louse. + +"The illustrious souls of great and virtuous men +In godlike beings shall revive again; +But base and vicious spirits wind their way +In scorpions, vultures, sharks, and beasts of prey. +The fair, the gay, the witty, and the brave, +The fool, the coward, courtier, tyrant, slave, +Each one in a congenial form, shall find +A proper dwelling for his wandering mind." + +A specific evil is never cancelled by being counterbalanced by a +greater good. The fruit of that evil must be experienced, and also +of that greater good, by appropriate births in the hells and +heavens, or in the higher and lower grades of earthly existence. +The two courses of action must be run through independently. This +is what is meant by the phrases, so often met with in Oriental +works, "eating the fruits of former acts," "bound in the chains of +deeds." Merit or demerit can be balanced or neutralized only by +the full fruition of its own natural and necessary consequences.6 +The law of merit and of demerit is fate. It works irresistibly, +through all changes and recurrences, from the beginning to the +end. The cessation of virtue or of vice does not put an end to its +effects until its full force is exhausted; as an arrow continues +in flight until all its imparted power is spent. A man faultlessly +and scrupulously good through his present life may be guilty of +some foul crime committed a hundred lives before and not yet +expiated. Accordingly, he may now suffer for it, or his next birth +may take place in a hell. On the contrary, he may be credited with +some great merit acquired thousands of + +5 P. 286. + +6 Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. iv. p. 87. + + +generations ago, whose fruit he has not eaten, and which may bring +him good fortune in spite of present sins, or on the rolling and +many colored wheel of metempsychosis may secure for him next a +celestial birthplace. In short periods, it will be seen, there is +moral confusion, but, in the long run, exact compensation. + +The exuberant prodigiousness of the Hindu imagination is +strikingly manifest in its descriptions of the rewards of virtue +in the heavens and of the punishments of sin in the hells. Visions +pass before us of beautiful groves full of fragrance and music, +abounding in delicious fruits, and birds of gorgeous plumage, +crystal streams embedded with pearls, unruffled lakes where the +lotus blooms, palaces of gems, crowds of friends and lovers, +endless revelations of truth, boundless graspings of power, all +that can stir and enchant intellect, will, fancy, and heart. In +some of the heavens the residents have no bodily form, but enjoy +purely spiritual pleasures. In others they are self resplendent, +and traverse the ether. They are many miles in height, one being +described whose crown was four miles high and who wore on his +person sixty wagon loads of jewels. The ordinary lifetime of the +inhabitants of the dewa loka named Wasawartti equals nine billions +two hundred and sixteen millions of our years. They breathe only +once in sixteen hours. + +The reverse of this picture is still more vigorously drawn, highly +colored, and diversified in contents. The walls of the Hindu hell +are over a hundred miles thick; and so dazzling is their +brightness that it bursts the eyes which look at them anywhere +within a distance of four hundred leagues.7 The poor creatures +here, wrapped in shrouds of fire, writhe and yell in frenzy of +pain. The very revelry and ecstasy of terror and anguish fill the +whole region. The skins of some wretches are taken off from head +to foot, and then scalding vinegar is poured over them. A glutton +is punished thus: experiencing an insatiable hunger in a body as +large as three mountains, he is tantalized with a mouth no larger +than the eye of a needle.8 The infernal tormentors, throwing their +victims down, take a flexible flame in each hand, and with these +lash them alternately right and left. One demon, Rahu, is seventy +six thousand eight hundred miles tall: the palm of his hand +measures fifty thousand acres; and when he is enraged he rushes up +the sky and swallows the sun or the moon, thus causing an eclipse! +In the Asiatic Journal for 1840 is an article on "The Chinese +Judges of the Dead," which describes a series of twenty four +paintings of hell found in a Buddhist temple. Devils in human +shapes are depicted pulling out the tongues of slanderers with +redhot wires, pouring molten lead down the throats of liars, with +burning prongs tossing souls upon mountains planted with hooks of +iron reeking with the blood of those who have gone before, +screwing the damned between planks, pounding them in husking +mortars, grinding them in rice mills, while other fiends, in the +shape of dogs, lap up their oozing gore. But the hardest +sensibility must by this time cry, Hold! + +With the turmoil and pain of entanglement in the vortex of births, +and all the repulsive exposures of finite life, the Hindus +contrast the idea of an infinite rest and bliss, an endless + +7 Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 26. + +8 Coleman, Mythology of the Hindus, p. 198. + + +exemption from evil and struggle, an immense receptivity of +reposing power and quietistic contemplation. In consequence of +their endlessly varied, constantly recurring, intensely earnest +speculations and musings over this contrast of finite restlessness +and pain with infinite peace and blessedness, a contrast which +constitutes the preaching of their priests, saturates their sacred +books, fills their thoughts, and broods over all their life, the +Orientals are pervaded with a profound horror of individual +existence, and with a profound desire for absorption into the +Infinite Being. A few quotations from their own authors will +illustrate this: + +"A sentient being in the repetition of birth and death is like a +worm in the midst of a nest of ants, like a lizard in the hollow +of a bamboo that is burning at both ends."9 "Emancipation from all +existence is the fulness of felicity."10 "The being who is still +subject to birth may now sport in the beautiful gardens of heaven, +now be cut to pieces in hell; now be Maha Brahma, now a degraded +outcast; now sip nectar, now drink blood; now repose on a couch +with gods, now be dragged through a thicket of thorns; now reside +in a mansion of gold, now be exposed on a mountain of lava; now +sit on the throne of the gods, now be impaled amidst hungry dogs; +now be a king glittering with countless gems, now a mendicant +taking a skull from door to door to beg alms; now eat ambrosia as +the monarch of a dewa loka, now writhe and die as a bat in the +shrivelling flame."11 "The Supreme Soul and the human soul do not +differ, and pleasure or pain ascribable to the latter arises from +its imprisonment in the body. The water of the Ganges is the same +whether it run in the river's bed or be shut up in a decanter; but +a drop of wine added to the water in the decanter imparts its +flavor to the whole, whereas it would be lost in the river. The +Supreme Soul, therefore, is beyond accident; but the human soul is +afflicted by sense and passion. Happiness is only obtained in +reunion with the Supreme Soul, when the dispersed individualities +combine again with it, as the drops of water with the parent +stream. Hence the slave should remember that he is separated from +God by the body alone, and exclaim, perpetually, 'Blessed be the +moment when I shall lift the veil from off that face! the veil of +the face of my Beloved is the dust of my body.'"12 "A pious man +was once born on earth, who, in his various transmigrations, had +met eight hundred and twenty five thousand Buddhas. He remembered +his former states, but could not enumerate how many times he had +been a king, a beggar, a beast, an occupant of hell. He uttered +these words: 'A hundred thousand years of the highest happiness on +earth are not equal to the happiness of one day in the dewa lokas; +and a hundred thousand years of the deepest misery on earth are +not equal to the misery of one day in hell; but the misery of hell +is reckoned by millions of centuries. Oh, how shall I escape, and +obtain eternal bliss?'" 13 + +9 Eastern Monachism, p. 247. + +10 Vishnu Purana, p. 568. + +11 Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 454. + +12 Asiatic Researches, vol. xvii. p. 298. + +13 Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. iv. p. 114. + + +The literary products of the Eastern mind wonderfully abound with +painful descriptions of the compromises, uncleannesses, and +afflictions inseparably connected with existence. Volumes would be +required to furnish an adequate representation of the vivid and +inexhaustible amplification with which they set forth the direful +disgusts and loathsome terrors associated with the series of ideas +expressed by the words conception, birth, life, death, hell, and +regeneration. The fifth chapter in the sixth book of the Vishnu +Purana affords a good specimen of these details; but, to +appreciate them fully, one must peruse dispersed passages in a +hundred miscellaneous works: + +"As long as man lives, he is immersed in afflictions, like the +seed of the cotton amidst the down. . . . Where could man, +scorched by the fires of the sun of this world, look for felicity, +were it not for the shade afforded by the tree of emancipation? . +. . Travelling the path of the world for many thousands of births, +man attains only the weariness of bewilderment, and is smothered +by the dust of imagination. When that dust is washed away by the +bland water of real knowledge, then the weariness is removed. Then +the internal man is at peace, and obtains supreme felicity."14 + +The result of these views is the awakening of an unquenchable +desire to "break from the fetters of existence," to be "delivered +from the whirlpool of transmigration." Both Brahmanism and +Buddhism are in essence nothing else than methods of securing +release from the chain of incarnated lives, and attaining to +identification with the Infinite. There is a text in the +Apocalypse which may be strikingly applied to this exemption from +further metempsychosis: "Him that overcometh I will make a pillar +in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out forever." The +testimony of all who have investigated the subject agrees with the +following assertion by Professor Wilson: "The common end of every +system studied by the Hindus is the ascertainment of the means by +which perpetual exemption from the necessity of repeated births +may be won."15 In comparison with this aim, every thing else is +utterly insignificant. Prahlada, on being offered by Vishnu any +boon he might ask, exclaimed, "Wealth, virtue, love, are as +nothing; for even liberation is in his reach whose faith is firm +in thee." And Vishnu replied, "Thou shalt, therefore, obtain +freedom from existence."16 All true Orientals, however favored or +persecuted by earthly fortune, still cry night and day upwards +into the infinite, with outstretched arms and yearning voice, + +"O Lord, our separate lives destroy! Merge in thy gold our souls' +alloy: Pain is our own, and Thou art Joy!" + +According to the system of Brahmanism, the creation is regularly +called into being and again destroyed at the beginning and end of +certain stupendous epochs called kalpas. Four thousand three +hundred and twenty million years make a day of Brahma. At the end +of this day the lower worlds are consumed by fire; and Brahma +sleeps on the abyss for a night as long + +14 Vishnu Parana, p. 650. + +15 Sankhya Karika, preface, p. 3. + +16 Vishnu Purana, p. 144. + + +as his day. During this night the saints, who in high Jana loka +have survived the dissolution of the lower portions of the +universe, contemplate the slumbering deity until he wakes and +restores the mutilated creation. Three hundred and sixty of these +days and nights compose a year of Brahma; a hundred such years +measure his whole life. Then a complete destruction of all things +takes place, every thing merging into the Absolute One, until he +shall rouse himself renewedly to manifest his energies.17 Although +created beings who have not obtained emancipation are destroyed in +their individual forms at the periods of the general dissolution, +yet, being affected by the good or evil acts of former existence, +they are never exempted from their consequences, and when Brahma +creates the world anew they are the progeny of his will, in the +fourfold condition of gods, men, animals, and inanimate things.18 +And Buddhism embodies virtually the same doctrine, declaring "the +whole universe of sakwalas to be subject alternately to +destruction and renovation, in a series of revolutions to which +neither beginning nor end can be discovered." + +What is the Brahmanic method of salvation, or secret of +emancipation? Rightly apprehended in the depth and purity of the +real doctrine, it is this. There is in reality but ONE SOUL: every +thing else is error, illusion, misery. Whoever acquires the +knowledge of this truth by personal perception is thereby +liberated. He has won the absolute perfection of the unlimited +Godhead, and shall never be born again. "Whosoever views the +Supreme Soul as manifold, dies death after death." God is +formless, but seems to assume form; as moonlight, impinging upon +various objects, appears crooked or straight.19 Bharata says to +the king of Sauriva, "The great end of all is not union of self +with the Supreme Soul, because one substance cannot become +another. The true wisdom, the genuine aim of all, is to know that +Soul is one, uniform, perfect, exempt from birth, omnipresent, +undecaying, made of true knowledge, dissociated with +unrealities."20 "It is ignorance alone which enables Maya to +impress the mind with a sense of individuality; for as soon as +that is dispelled it is known that severalty exists not, and that +there is nothing but one undivided Whole." 21 The Brahmanic +scriptures say, "The Eternal Deity consists of true knowledge." +"Brahma that is Supreme is produced of reflection."22 The logic +runs thus. There is only One Soul, the absolute God. All beside is +empty deception. That One Soul consists of true knowledge. Whoever +attains to true knowledge, therefore, is absolute God, forever +freed from the sphere of semblances. + +The foregoing exposition is philosophical and scriptural +Brahmanism. But there are numerous schismatic sects which hold +opinions diverging from it in regard to the nature and destiny of +the human soul. They may be considered in two classes. First, +there are some who defend the idea of the personal immortality of +the soul. The Siva Gnana Potham "establishes the doctrine of the +soul's eternal existence as an individual being." 23 The Saiva +school + +17 Vishnu Purana, p. 25. Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 33, note. + +18 Vishnu Parana, pp. 39, 116. + +19 Colebrooke, Essays, vol. i. p. 359. + +20 Vishnu Purana, p. 252. + +21 Vans Kennedy, Ancient and Hindu Mythology, p. 201. + +22 Vishnu Purana, pp. 546, 642. + +23 Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. ii. p. 141. + + +teach that when, at the close of every great period, all other +developed existences are rendered back to their primordial state, +souls are excepted. These, once developed and delivered from the +thraldom of their merit and demerit, will ever remain intimately +united with Deity and clothed in the resplendent wisdom.24 +Secondly, there are others and probably at the present time they +include a large majority of the Brahmans who believe in the real +being both of the Supreme Soul and of separate finite souls, +conceiving the latter to be individualized parts of the former and +their true destiny to consist in securing absorption into it. The +relation of the soul to God, they maintain, is not that of ruled +and ruler, but that of part and whole. "As gold is one substance +still, however diversified as bracelets, tiaras, ear rings, or +other things, so Vishnu is one and the same, although modified in +the forms of gods, animals, and men. As the drops of water raised +from the earth by the wind sink into the earth again when the wind +subsides, so the variety of gods, men, and animals, which have +been detached by the agitation of the qualities, are reunited, +when the disturbance ceases, with the Eternal." 25 "The whole +obtains its destruction in God, like bubbles in water." The +Madhava sect believe that there is a personal All Soul distinct +from the human soul. Their proofs are detailed in one of the Maha +Upanishads.26 These two groups of sects, however, agree perfectly +with the ancient orthodox Brahmans in accepting the fundamental +dogma of a judicial metempsychosis, wherein each one is fastened +by his acts and compelled to experience the uttermost consequences +of his merit or demerit. They all coincide in one common +aspiration as regards the highest end, namely, emancipation from +the necessity of repeated births. The difference between the three +is, that the one class of dissenters expect the fruition of that +deliverance to be a finite personal immortality in heaven; the +other interpret it as an unwalled absorption in the Over Soul, +like a breath in the air; while the more orthodox believers regard +it as the entire identity of the soul with the Infinite One. + +Against the opinion that there is only one Soul for all bodies, as +one string supports all the gems of a necklace, some Hindu +philosophers argue that the plurality of souls is proved by the +consideration that, if there were but one soul, then when any one +was born, or died, or was lame, or deaf, or occupied, or idle, all +would at once be born, die, be lame, deaf, occupied, or idle. But +Professor Wilson says, "This doctrine of the multitudinous +existence or individual incorporation of Soul clearly contradicts +the Vedas. They affirm one only existent soul to be distributed in +all beings. It is beheld collectively or dispersedly, like the +reflection of the moon in still or troubled water. Soul, eternal, +omnipresent, undisturbed, pure, one, is multiplied by the power of +delusion, not of its own nature."27 + +All the Brahmanic sects unite in thinking that liberation from the +net of births is to be obtained and the goal of their wishes to be +reached by one means only; and that is knowledge, real wisdom, an +adequate sight of the truth. Without this knowledge there is no +possible emancipation; but there are three ways of seeking the +needed knowledge. + +24 Ibid. vol. iv. p. 15. + +25 Vishnu Purana, p. 287. + +26 Weber, Akademische Vorlesungen uber Indische +Literaturgeschichte, s. 160. + +27 Sankbya Karika, p. 70. + + +Some strive, by direct intellectual abstraction and effort, by +metaphysical speculation, to grasp the true principles of being. +Others try, by voluntary penance, self abnegation, and pain, to +accumulate such a degree of merit, or to bring the soul into such +a state of preparedness, as will compel the truth to reveal +itself. And still others devote themselves to the worship of some +chosen deity, by ritual acts and fervid contemplation, to obtain +by his favor the needed wisdom. A few quotations may serve to +illustrate the Brahmanic attempts at winning this one thing +needful, the knowledge which yields exemption from all incarnate +lives. + +The Sankhya philosophy is a regular system of metaphysics, to be +studied as one would study algebra. It presents to its disciples +an exhaustive statement of the forms of being in twenty five +categories, and declares, "He who knows the twenty five +principles, whatever order of life he may have entered, and +whether he wear braided hair, a top knot only, or be shaven, he is +liberated." "This discriminative wisdom releases forever from +worldly bondage."28 "The virtuous is born again in heaven, the +wicked is born again in hell; the fool wanders in error, the wise +man is set free." "By ignorance is bondage, by knowledge is +deliverance." "When Nature finds that soul has discovered that it +is to her the distress of migration is owing, she is put to shame +by the detection, and will suffer herself to be seen no more."29 +"Through knowledge the sage is absorbed into Supreme Spirit."30 +"The Supreme Spirit attracts to itself him who meditates upon it, +as the loadstone attracts the iron."31 "He who seeks to obtain a +knowledge of the Soul is gifted with it, the Soul rendering itself +conspicuous to him." "Man, having known that Nature which is +without a beginning or an end, is delivered from the grasp of +death." "Souls are absorbed in the Supreme Soul as the reflection +of the sun in water returns to him on the removal of the water."32 + +The thought underlying the last statement is that there is only +one Soul, every individual consciousness being but an illusory +semblance, and that the knowledge of this fact constitutes the +all coveted emancipation. As one diffusive breath passing through +the perforations of a flute is distinguished as the several notes +of the scale, so the Supreme Spirit is single, though, in +consequence of acts, it seems manifold. As every placid lakelet +holds an unreal image of the one real moon sailing above, so each +human soul is but a deceptive reflection of the one veritable +Soul, or God. It may be worth while to observe that Plotinus, as +is well known, taught the doctrine of the absolute identity of +each soul with the entire and indistinguishable entity of God: + +"Though God extends beyond creation's rim, Yet every being holds +the whole of him." + +It belongs to an unextended substance, an immateriality, to be +everywhere by totality, not by portions. If God be omnipresent, he +cannot be so dividedly, a part of him here and a part + +28 Ibid. pp. 1, 16. + +29 Ibid. pp. 48, 142, 174. + +30 Vishnu Purana, p. 57. + +31 Ibid. p. 651. + +32 Rammohun Roy, Translations from the Veda, 2d ed., London, 1832, +pp. 69, 39, 10. + + +of him there; but the whole of him must be in every particle of +matter, in every point of space, in all infinitude. + +The Brahmanic religion is a philosophy; and it keeps an +incomparably strong hold on the minds of its devotees. Its most +vital and comprehensive principle is expressed in the following +sentence: "The soul itself is not susceptible of pain, or decay, +or death; the site of these things is nature; but nature is +unconscious; the consciousness that pain exists is restricted to +the soul, although the soul is not the actual seat of pain." This +is the reason why every Hindu yearns so deeply to be freed from +the meshes of nature, why he so anxiously follows the light of +faith and penance, or the clew of speculation, through all mazes +of mystery. It is that he may at last gaze on the central TRUTH, +and through that sight seize the fruition of the supreme and +eternal good of man in the unity of his selfhood with the +Infinite, and so be born no more and experience no more trouble. +It is very striking to contrast with this profound and gorgeous +dream of the East, whatever form it assumes, the more practical +and definite thought of the West, as expressed in these lines of +Tennyson's "In Memoriam:" + +"That each, who seems a separate whole, +Should move his rounds, and, fusing all +The skirts of self again, should fall +Remerging in the general Soul, +Is faith as vague as all unsweet: +Eternal form shall still divide +The eternal soul from all beside, +And I shall know him when we meet." + +But is it not still more significant to notice that, in the lines +which immediately succeed, the love inspired and deep musing +genius of the English thinker can find ultimate repose only by +recurring to the very faith of the Hindu theosophist? + +"And we shall sit at endless feast, +Enjoying each the other's good: +What vaster dream can hit the mood +Of Love on earth! He seeks at least +Upon the last and sharpest height, +Before the spirits fade away, +Some landing place, to clasp and say, +Farewell! We lose ourselves in light!" + +We turn now to the Buddhist doctrine of a future life as +distinguished from the Brahmanic. The "Four Sublime Truths" of +Buddhism, as they are called, are these: first, that there is +sorrow; secondly, that every living person necessarily feels it; +thirdly, that it is desirable to be freed from it; fourthly, that +the only deliverance from it is by that pure knowledge which +destroys all cleaving to existence. A Buddha is a being who, in +consequence of having reached the Buddhaship, which implies the +possession of infinite goodness, infinite power, and infinite +wisdom, is able to teach men that true knowledge which secures +emancipation. + +The Buddhaship that is, the possession of Supreme Godhead is open +to every one, though few ever acquire it. Most wonderful and +tremendous is the process of its attainment. Upon a time, some +being, perhaps then incarnate as a mosquito alighting on a muddy +leaf in some swamp, pauses for a while to muse. Looking up through +infinite stellar systems, with hungry love and boundless ambition, +to the throne and sceptre of absolute immensity, he vows within +himself, "I will become a Buddha." The total influences of his +past, the forces of destiny, conspiring with his purpose, +omnipotence is in that resolution. Nothing shall ever turn him +aside from it. He might soon acquire for himself deliverance from +the dreadful vortex of births; but, determined to achieve the +power of delivering others from their miseries as sentient beings, +he voluntarily throws himself into the stream of successive +existences, and with divine patience and fortitude undergoes every +thing. + +From that moment, no matter in what form he is successively born, +whether as a disgusting bug, a white elephant, a monarch, or a +god, he is a Bodhisat, that is, a candidate pressing towards the +Buddhaship. He at once begins practising the ten primary virtues, +called paramitas, necessary for the securing of his aim. The +period required for the full exercise of one of these virtues is a +bhumi. Its duration is thus illustrated. Were a Bodhisat once in a +thousand births to shed a single drop of blood, he would in the +space of a bhumi shed more blood than there is water in a thousand +oceans. On account of his merit he might always be born amidst the +pleasures of the heavens; but since he could there make no +progress towards his goal, he prefers being born in the world of +men. During his gradual advance, there is no good he does not +perform, no hardship he does not undertake, no evil he does not +willingly suffer; and all for the benefit of others, to obtain the +means of emancipating those whom he sees fastened by ignorance in +the afflictive circle of acts. Wherever born, acting, or +suffering, his eye is still turned towards that EMPTY THRONE, at +the apex of the universe, from which the last Buddha has vaulted +into Nirwana. The Buddhists have many scriptures, especially one, +called the "Book of the Five Hundred and Fifty Births," detailing +the marvellous adventures of the Bodhisat during his numerous +transmigrations, wherein he exhibits for each species of being to +which he belongs a model character and life. + +At length the momentous day dawns when the unweariable Bodhisat +enters on his well earned Buddhaship. From that time, during the +rest of his life, he goes about preaching discourses, teaching +every prepared creature he meets the method of securing eternal +deliverance. Leaving behind in these discourses a body of wisdom +sufficient to guide to salvation all who will give attentive ear +and heart, the Buddha then his sublime work of disinterested love +being completed receives the fruition of his toil, the super +essential prize of the universe, the Infinite Good. In a word, he +dies, and enters Nirwana. There is no more evil of any sort for +him at all forever. The final fading echo of sorrow has ceased in +the silence of perfect blessedness; the last undulation of the +wave of change has rolled upon the shore of immutability. + +The only historic Buddha is Sakya Muni, or Gotama, who was born at +Kapila about six centuries before Christ. His teachings contain +many principles in common with those of the Brahmans. But he +revolted against their insufferable conceit and cruelty. He +protested against their claim that no one could obtain +emancipation until after being born as a Brahman and passing +through the various rites and degrees of their order. In the +face of the most powerful and arrogant priesthood in the world, +he preached the perfect equality of all mankind, and the consequent +abolition of castes. Whoever acquires a total detachment of +affection from all existence is thereby released from birth and +misery; and the means of acquiring that detachment are freely +offered to all in his doctrine. + +Thus did Gotama preach. He took the monopoly of religion out of the +hands of a caste, and proclaimed emancipation to every creature +that breathes. He established his system in the valley of the +Ganges near the middle of the sixth century before Christ. It soon +overran the whole country, and held sway until about eight hundred +years after Christ, when an awful persecution and slaughter on the +part of the uprising Brahmans drove it out of the land with sword +and fire. "The colossal figure which for fourteen centuries had +bestridden the Indian continent vanished suddenly, like a rainbow +at sunset."33 + +Gotama's philosophy, in its ontological profundity, is of a +subtlety and vastness that would rack the brain of a Fichte or a +Schelling; but, popularly stated, so far as our present purpose +demands, it is this. Existence is the one all inclusive evil; +cessation of existence, or Nirwana, is the infinite good. The +cause of existence is ignorance, which leads one to cleave to +existing objects; and this cleaving leads to reproduction. If one +would escape from the chain of existence, he must destroy the +cause of his confinement in it, that is, evil desire, or the +cleaving to existing objects. The method of salvation in Gotama's +system is to vanquish and annihilate all desire for existing +things. How is this to be done? By acquiring an intense perception +of the miseries of existence, on the one hand, and an intense +perception, on the other hand, of the contrasted desirableness of +the state of emancipation, or Nirwana. Accordingly, the discourses +of Gotama, and the sacred books of the Buddhists, are filled with +vivid accounts of every thing disgusting and horrible connected +with existence, and with vivid descriptions, consciously faltering +with inadequacy, of every thing supremely fascinating in +connection with Nirwana. "The three reflections on the impermanency, +suffering, and unreality of the body are three gates leading to +the city of Nirwana." The constant claim is, that whosoever by +adequate moral discipline and philosophical contemplation attains +to a certain degree of wisdom, a certain degree of intellectual +insight, instead of any longer cleaving to existence, will shudder +at the thought of it, and, instead of shrinking from death, will +be ravished with unfathomable ecstasy by the prospect of Nirwana. +Then, when he dies, he is free from all liability to a return. + +When Gotama, early in life, had accidentally seen in succession a +wretchedly decrepit old man, a loathsomely diseased man, and a +decomposing dead man, then the three worlds of passion, matter, +and spirit seemed to him like a house on fire, and he longed to be +extricated from the dizzy whirl of existence, and to reach the +still haven of Nirwana. Finding ere long that he had now, as the +reward of his incalculable endurances through untold aons past, +become Buddha, he said to himself, "You have borne the misery of +the whole round of transmigrations, and have arrived at infinite +wisdom, which is the highway to Nirwana, the + +33 Major Cunningham, Bbilsa Topes, or Buddhist Monuments of +Central India, p. 168. + + +city of peace. On that road you are the guide of all beings. Begin +your work and pursue it with fidelity." From that time until the +day of his death he preached "the three laws of mortality, misery, +and mutability." Every morning he looked through the world to see +who should be caught that day in the net of truth, and took his +measures accordingly to preach in the hearing of men the truths by +which alone they could climb into Nirwana. When he was expiring, +invisible gods, with huge and splendid bodies, came and stood, as +thick as they could be packed, for a hundred and twenty miles +around the banyan tree under which he awaited Nirwana, to gaze on +him who had broken the circle of transmigration.34 + +The system of Gotama distinguishes seven grades of being: six +subject to repeated death and birth; one the condition of the +rahats and the Buddhaship exempt therefrom. "Who wins this has +reached the shore of the stormy ocean of vicissitudes, and is in +safety forever." Baur says, "The aim of Buddhism is that all may +obtain unity with the original empty Space, so as to unpeople the +worlds."35 This end it seeks by purification from all modes of +cleaving to existing objects, and by contemplative discrimination, +but never by the fanatical and austere methods of Brahmanism. +Edward Upham, in his History of Buddhism, declares this earth to +be the only ford to Nirwana. Others also make the same +representation: + +"For all that live and breathe have once been men, And in +succession will be such again." + +But the Buddhist authors do not always adhere to this statement. +We sometimes read of men's entering the paths to Nirwana in some +of the heavens, likewise of their entering the final fruition +through a decease in a dewa loka. Still, it is the common view +that emancipation from all existence can be secured only by a +human being on earth. The last birth must be in that form. The +emblem of Buddha, engraved on most of his monuments, is a wheel, +denoting that he has finished and escaped from the circle of +existences. Henceforth he is named Tathagata, he who has gone. + +Let us notice a little more minutely what the Buddhists say of +Nirwana; for herein to them hides all the power of their +philosophy and lies the absorbing charm of their religion. + +"The state that is peaceful, free from body, from passion, and +from fear, where birth or death is not, that is Nirwana." "Nirwana +puts an end to coming and going, and there is no other happiness." +"It is a calm wherein no wind blows." "There is no difference in +Nirwana." "It is the annihilation of all the principles of +existence." "Nirwana is the completion and opposite shore of +existence, free from decay, tranquil, knowing no restraint, and of +great blessedness." "Nirwana is unmixed satisfaction, entirely +free from sorrow." "The wind cannot be squeezed in the hand, nor +can its color be told. Yet the wind is. Even so Nirwana is, but +its properties cannot be told." "Nirwana, like space, is +causeless, does not live nor die, and has no locality. It is the +abode of those liberated from existence." "Nirwana is not, except +to the being who attains it."36 + +34 Life of Gotama in Journal of the American Oriental Society, +vol. iii. + +35 Symbolik and Mythologie, th. ii. abth. 2, s. 407. + +36 For these quotations, and others similar, see Hardy's valuable +work, "Eastern Monachism," chap. xxii., on "Nirwana, its Paths and +Fruition." + + +Some scholars maintain that the Buddhist Nirwana is nothing but +the atheistic Annihilation. The subject is confessedly a most +difficult one. But it seems to us that the opinion just stated is +the very antithesis of the true interpretation of Nirwana. In the +first place, it should be remembered that there are various sects +of Buddhists. Now, the word Nirwana may be used in different +senses by different schools.37 A few persons a small party, +represented perhaps by able writers may believe in annihilation in +our sense of the term, just as has happened in Christendom, while +the common doctrine of the people is the opposite of that. In the +second place, with the Oriental horror of individuated existence, +and a highly poetical style of writing, nothing could be more +natural, in depicting their ideas of the most desirable state of +being, than that they should carry their metaphors expressive of +repose, freedom from action and emotion, to a pitch conveying to +our cold and literal thought the conceptions of blank +unconsciousness and absolute nothingness. + +Colebrooke says, "Nirwana is not annihilation, but unceasing +apathy. The notion of it as a happy state seems derived from the +experience of ecstasies; or else the pleasant, refreshed feeling +with which one wakes from profound repose is referred to the +period of actual sleep."38 A Buddhist author speculates thus: +"That the soul feels not during profound trance, is not for want +of sensibility, but for want of sensible objects." Wilson, +Hodgson, and Vans Kennedy three able thinkers, as well as +scholars, in this field agree that Nirwana is not annihilation as +we understand that word. Mr. Hodgson believes that the Buddhists +expect to be "conscious in Nirwana of the eternal bliss of rest, +as they are in this world of the ceaseless pain of activity." +Forbes also argues against the nihilistic explanation of the +Buddhist doctrine of futurity, and says he is compelled to +conclude that Nirwana denotes imperishable being in a blissful +quietude.39 Many additional authorities in favor of this view +might be adduced, enough to balance, at least, the names on the +other side. Koeppen, in his very fresh, vigorous, and lucid work, +just published, entitled "The Religion of Buddha, and its Origin," +says, "Nirwana is the blessed Nothing. Buddhism is the Gospel of +Annihilation." But he forgets that the motto on the title page of +his volume is the following sentence quoted from Sakya Muni +himself: "To those who know the concatenation of causes and +effects, there is neither being nor nothing." To them Nirwana is. +Considering it, then, as an open question, unsettled by any +authoritative assertion, we will weigh the probabilities of the +case. + +No definition of Nirwana is more frequent than the one given by +the Kalpa Sutra,40 namely, "cessation from action and freedom from +desire." But this, like many of the other representations, such, +for instance, as the exclusion of succession, very plainly is not +a denial of all being, but only of our present modes of +experience. The dying Gotama is said to have "passed through the +several states, one after another, until he arrived at the state +where there is no pain. He then continued to enter the other +higher states, and from the highest entered Nirwana." Can literal +annihilation, the naked emptiness of nonentity, be better than + +37 Burnouf, Introduction a l'Histoire du Buddhisme Indien, +Appendice No. I., Du mot Nirvana. + +38 Colebrooke, Essays, vol. i. p. 353. + +39 Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. ii. chap. ix. + +40 Tanslation by Dr. Stevenson, p. 23. + + +the highest state of being? It can be so only when we view Nothing +on the positive side as identical with All, make annihilating +deprivation equivalent to universal bestowment, regard negation as +affirmation, and, in the last synthesis of contradictions, see the +abysmal Vacuum as a Plenum of fruition. As Oken says, "The ideal +zero is absolute unity; not a singularity, as the number one, but +an indivisibility, a numberlessness, a homogeneity, a +translucency, a pure identity. It is neither great nor small, +quiescent nor moved; but it is, and it is not, all this."41 + +Furthermore, if some of the Buddhist representations would lead us +to believe that Nirwana is utter nothingness, others apparently +imply the opposite. "The discourses of Buddha are a charm to cure +the poison of evil desire; a succession of fruit bearing trees +placed here and there to enable the traveller to cross the desert +of existence; a power by which every sorrow may be appeased; a +door of entrance to the eternal city of Nirwana." "The mind of the +rahat" (one who has obtained assurance of emancipation and is only +waiting for it to arrive) "knows no disturbance, because it is +filled with the pleasure of Nirwana." "The sight of Nirwana +bestows perfect happiness." "The rahat is emancipated from +existence in Nirwana, as the lotus is separated from the mud out +of which it springs." "Fire may be produced by rubbing together +two sticks, though previously it had no locality: it is the same +with Nirawna." "Nirwana is free from danger, peaceful, refreshing, +happy. When a man who has been broiled before a huge fire is +released, and goes quickly into some open space, he feels the most +agreeable sensation. All the evils of existence are that fire, and +Nirwana is that open space." These passages indicate the cessation +in Nirwana of all sufferings, perhaps of all present modes of +existence, but not the total end of being. It may be said that +these are but figurative expressions. The reply is, so are the +contrasted statements metaphors, and it is probable that the +expressions which denote the survival of pure being in Nirwana are +closer approximations to the intent of their authors than those +which hint at an unconscious vacancy. If Nirwana in its original +meaning was an utter and infinite blank, then, "out of that very +Nothing," as Max Muller says, "human nature made a new paradise." + +There is a scheme of doctrine held by some Buddhist philosophers +which may be thus stated. There are five constituent elements of +sentient existence. They are called khandas, and are as follows: +the organized body, sensation, perception, discrimination, and +consciousness. Death is the dissolution and entire destruction of +these khandas, and apart from them there is no synthetical unit, +soul, or personality. Yet in a certain sense death is not the +absolute annihilation of a human existence, because it leaves a +potentiality inherent in that existence. There is no identical ego +to survive and be born again; but karma that is, the sum of a +man's action, his entire merit and demerit produces at his death a +new being, and so on in continued series until Nirwana is +attained. Thus the succession of being is kept up with transmitted +responsibility, as a flame is transferred from one wick to +another. It is evident enough, as is justly claimed by Hardy and +others, that the limitation of existence to the five khandas, +excluding the idea of any independent individuality, makes death + +41 Elements of Physiophilosophy, Tulk's trans. p. 9. + + +annihilation, and renders the very conception of a future life for +those now living an absurdity. But we are convinced that this view +is the speculative peculiarity of a sect, and by no means the +common belief of the Buddhist populace or the teaching of Gotama +himself. This appears at the outset from the fact that Gotama is +represented as having lived through millions of existences, in +different states and worlds, with preserved identity and memory. +The history of his concatenated advance towards the Buddhaship is +the supporting basis and the saturating spirit of documentary +Buddhism. And the same idea pervades the whole range of narratives +relating to the repeated births and deaths of the innumerable +Buddhist heroes and saints who, after so many residences on earth, +in the hells, in the dewalokas, have at last reached emancipation. +They recollect their adventures; they recount copious portions of +their experience stretching through many lives. + +Again: the arguments cited from Buddha seem aimed to prove, not +that there is absolutely no self in man, but that the five khandas +are not the self, that the real self is something distinct from +all that is exposed to misery and change, something deep, +wondrous, divine, infinite. For instance, the report of a debate +on this subject between Buddha and Sachaka closes with these +words: "Thus was Sachaka forced to confess that the five khandas +are impermanent, connected with sorrow, unreal, not the self.42 +These terms appear to imply the reality of a self, only that it is +not to be confounded with the apprehensible elements of existence. +Besides, the attainment of Nirwana is held up as a prize to be +laboriously sought by personal effort. To secure it is a positive +triumph quite distinct from the fated dissolution of the khandas +in death. Now, if there be in man no personal entity, what is it +that with so much joy attains Nirwana? The genuine Buddhist +notion, as seems most probable, is that the conscious essence of +the rahat, when the exterior elements of existence fall from +around him, passes by a transcendent climax and discrete leap +beyond the outermost limits of appreciable being, and becomes that +INFINITE which knows no changes and is susceptible of no +definitions. In the Ka gyur collection of Tibetan sacred books, +comprising a hundred volumes, and now belonging to the Cabinet of +Manuscripts in the Royal Library of Paris, there are two volumes +exclusively occupied by a treatise on Nirwana. It is a significant +fact that the title of these volumes is "Nirwana, or Deliverance +from Pain." If Nirwana be simply annihilation, why is it not so +stated? Why should recourse be had to a phrase partially +descriptive of one feature, instead of comprehensively announcing +or implying the whole case? + +Still further: it deserves notice that, according to the unanimous +affirmation of Buddhist authors, if any Buddhist were offered the +alternative of an existence as king of a dewa loka, keeping his +personality for a hundred million years in the uninterrupted +enjoyment of perfect happiness, or of translation into Nirwana, he +would spurn the former as defilement, and would with unutterable +avidity choose the latter. We must therefore suppose that by +Nirwana he understands, not naked destruction, but some mysterious +good, too vast for logical comprehension, too obscure to +Occidental thought to find expression in Occidental language. + +42 Hardy, Manual, p. 427. + + +At the moment when Gotama entered upon the Buddhaship, like +a vessel overflowing with honey, his mind overflowed with the +nectar of oral instruction, and he uttered these stanzas: + +"Through many different births I have run, vainly seeking The +architect of the desire resembling house. Painful are repeated +births. O house builder! I have seen thee. Again a house thou +canst not build for me. I have broken thy rafters and ridge pole; +I have arrived at the extinction of evil desire; My mind is gone +to Nirwana." + +Hardy, who stoutly maintains that the genuine doctrine of Buddha's +philosophy is that there is no transmigrating individuality in +man, but that the karma creates a new person on the dissolution of +the former one, confesses the difficulties of this dogma to be so +great that "it is almost universally repudiated." M. Obry +published at Paris, in 1856, a small volume entirely devoted to +this subject, under the title of "The Indian Nirwana, or the +Enfranchisement of the Soul after Death." His conclusion, after a +careful and candid discussion, is, that Nirwana had different +meanings to the minds of the ancient Aryan priests, the orthodox +Brahmans, the Sankhya Brahmans, and the Buddhists, but had not to +any of them, excepting possibly a few atheists, the sense of +strict annihilation. He thinks that Burnouf and Barthelemy Saint +Hilaire themselves would have accepted this view if they had paid +particular attention to the definite inquiry, instead of merely +touching upon it in the course of their more comprehensive +studies. + +What Spinoza declares in the following sentence "God is one, +simple, infinite; his modes of being are diverse, complex, +finite" strongly resembles what the Buddhists say of Nirwana and +the contrasted vicissitudes of existence, and may perhaps throw +light on their meaning. The supposition of immaterial, unlimited, +absolutely unalterable being the scholastic ens sine qualitate +answers to the descriptions of it much more satisfactorily than +the idea of unqualified nothingness does. "Nirwana is real; all +else is phenomenal." The Sankhyas, who do not hold to the +nonentity nor to the annihilation of the soul, but to its eternal +identification with the Infinite One, use nevertheless nearly the +same phrases in describing it that the Buddhists do. For example, +they say, "The soul is neither a production nor productive, +neither matter nor form"43 The Vishnu Purana says, "The mundane +egg, containing the whole creation, was surrounded by seven +envelops, water, air, fire, ether, egotism, intelligence, and +finally the indiscrete principle"44 Is not this Indiscrete +Principle of the Brahmans the same as the Nirwana of the +Buddhists? The latter explicitly claim that "man is capable of +enlarging his faculties to infinity." + +43 Sankhya Karika, pp. 16-18. + +44 Vishnu Purana, p. 19. + + +Nagasena says to the king of Sagal, "Neither does Nirwana exist +previously to its reception, nor is that which was not, brought +into existence: still, to the being who attains it, there is +Nirwana." According to this statement, taken in connection with +the hundreds similar to it, Nirwana seems to be a simple mental +perception, most difficult of acquirement, and, when acquired, +assimilating the whole conscious being perfectly to itself. The +Asangkrata Sutra, as translated by Mr. Hardy, says, "From the +joyful exclamations of those who have seen Nirwana, its character +may be known by those who have not made the same attainment." The +superficial thinker, carelessly scanning the recorded sayings of +Gotama and his expositors in relation to Nirwana, is aware only of +a confused mass of metaphysical hieroglyphs and poetical +metaphors; but the Buddhist sages avow that whoso, by concentrated +study and training of his faculties, pursues the inquiry with +adequate perseverance, will at last elicit and behold the real +meaning of Nirwana, the achieved insight and revelation forming +the widest horizon of rapturous truth ever contemplated by the +human mind. The memorable remark of Sir William Hamilton, that +"capacity of thought is not to be constituted into the measure of +existence," should show the error of those who so unjustifiably +affirm that, since Nirwana is said to be neither corporeal nor +incorporeal, nor at all describable, it is therefore absolutely +nothing. A like remark is also to be addressed to those who draw +the same unwarrantable conclusion of the nothingness of Nirwana +from the fact that it has no locality, or from the fact that it is +sometimes said to exclude consciousness. Plato, in the Timaus, +stigmatizes as a vulgar error the notion that what is not in any +place is a nonentity. Many a weighty philosopher has followed him +in this opinion. The denial of place is by no means necessarily +the denial of being. So, too, with consciousness. It is +conceivable that there is a being superior to all the modes of +consciousness now known to us. We are, indeed, unable to define +this, yet it may be. The profoundest analysis shows that +consciousness consists of co ordinated changes.45 "Consciousness +is a succession of changes combined and arranged in special ways." +Now, in contrast to the Occidental thinker, who covets alternation +because in his cold climate action is the means of enjoyment, the +Hindu, in the languid East, where repose is the condition of +enjoyment, conceives the highest blessedness to consist in +exemption from every disturbance, in an unruffled unity excluding +all changes. Therefore, while in some of its forms his dream of +Nirwana admits not consciousness, still, it is not inconsistent +with a homogeneous state of being, which he, in his metaphysical +and theosophie soarings, apprehends as the grandest and most +ecstatic of all. + +The etymological force of the word Nirwana is extinction, as when +the sun has set, a fire has burned out, or a lamp is extinguished. +The fair laws of interpretation do not compel us, in cases like +this, to receive the severest literal significance of a word as +conveying the meaning which a popular doctrine holds in the minds +of its believers. There is almost always looseness, vagueness, +metaphor, accommodation. But take the term before us in its +strictest sense, and mark the result. When a fire is extinguished, +it is obvious that, while the flame has disappeared, the substance +of the flame, whatever it was, has not ceased to be, has not been + +45 Herbert Spencer, Principles of Psychology, ch. xxv. + + +actually annihilated. It has only ceased to be in a certain +visible form in which it existed before; but it still survives +under altered conditions. Now, to compare the putting out of a +lamp to the death of a man, extinction is not actual destruction, +but a transition of the flame into another state of being. That +other state, in the case of the soul, is Nirwana. + +There is a final consideration, possibly of some worth in dealing +with this obscure theme. We will approach it through a preliminary +query and quotation. That nothing can extend beyond its limits is +an identical proposition. How vast, then, must be the soul of man +in form or in power! + +"If souls be substances corporeal, Be they as big just as the body +is? Or shoot they out to the height ethereal? Doth it not seem the +impression of a seal Can be no larger than the wax? The soul with +that vast latitude must move Which measures the objects that it +doth descry. So must it be upstretch'd unto the sky And rub +against the stars." + +Cousin asserts that man is conscious of infinity, that "the +unconditional, the absolute, the infinite, is immediately known in +consciousness by difference, plurality, and relation." Now, does +not the consciousness of infinity imply the infinity of +consciousness? If not, we are compelled into the contradiction +that a certain entity or force reaches outside of its outermost +boundary. The Buddhist ideal is not self annihilation, but self +universalization. It is not the absorption of a drop into the sea, +but the dilatation of a drop to the sea. Each drop swells to the +whole ocean, each soul becomes the Boundless One, each rahat is +identified with the total Nirwana. The rivers of emancipated men +neither disembogue into the ocean of spirit nor evaporate into the +abyss of nonentity, but are blended with infinitude as an +ontological integer. Nirwana is unexposed and illimitable space. +Buddhism is perfect disinterestedness, absolute self surrender. It +is the gospel of everlasting emancipation for all. It cannot be +that a deliberate suicide of soul is the ideal holding the deepest +desire of four hundred millions of people. Nirwana is not +negation, but a pure positive without alternation or foil. + +Some light may be thrown on the subject by contemplating the +successive states through which the dying Gotama passed. Max +Muller describes them, after the Buddhist documents, thus: "He +enters into the first stage of meditation when he feels freedom +from sin, acquires a knowledge of the nature of all things, and +has no desire except that of Nirvana. But he still feels pleasure; +he even uses his reasoning and discriminating powers. The use of +these powers ceases in the second stage of meditation, when +nothing remains but a desire after Nirvana, and a general feeling +of satisfaction arising from his intellectual perfection. That +satisfaction, also, is extinguished in the third stage. +Indifference succeeds; yet there is still self consciousness, and +a certain amount of physical pleasure. In the fourth stage these +last remnants are destroyed; memory fades away, all pleasure and +pain are gone, and the doors of Nirvana now open before him. We +must soar still higher, and, though we may feel giddy + +and disgusted,46 we must sit out the tragedy till the curtain +falls. After the four stages of meditation are passed, the Buddha +(and every being is to become a Buddha) enters first into the +infinity of space, then into the infinity of intelligence, and +thence he passes into the third region, the realm of nothing. But +even here there is no rest. There is still something left, the +idea of the nothing in which he rejoices. That also must be +destroyed; and it is destroyed in the fourth and last region, +where there is not even the idea of a nothing left, and where +there is complete rest, undisturbed by nothing, or what is not +nothing."47 Analyze away all particulars until you reach an +uncolored boundlessness of pure immateriality, free from every +predicament; and that is Nirwana. This is one possible way of +conceiving the fate of the soul; and the speculative mind must +conceive it in every possible way. However closely the result +resembles the vulgar notion of annihilation, the difference in +method of approach and the difference to the contemplator's +feeling are immense. The Buddhist apprehends Nirwana as infinitude +in absolute and eternal equilibrium: the atheist finds Nirwana in +a coffin. That is thought of with rapture, this, with horror. + +It should be noticed, before we close this chapter, that some of +the Hindus give a spiritual interpretation to all the gross +physical details of their so highly colored and extravagant +mythology. One of their sacred books says, "Pleasure and pain are +states of the mind. Heaven is that which delights the mind, hell +is that which gives it pain. Hence vice is called hell, and virtue +is called heaven." Another author says, "The fire of the angry +mind produces the fire of hell, and consumes its possessor. A +wicked person causes his evil deeds to impinge upon himself, and +that is hell." The various sects of mystics, allied in faith and +feeling to the Sufis, which are quite numerous in the East, agree +in a deep metaphorical explanation of the vulgar notions +pertaining to Deity, judgment, heaven, and hell. + +In conclusion, the most remarkable fact in this whole field of +inquiry is the contrast of the Eastern horror of individuality and +longing for absorption with the Western clinging to personality +and abhorrence of dissolution.48 The true Orientalist, whether +Brahman, Buddhist, or Sufi, is in love with death. Through this +gate he expects to quit his frail and pitiable consciousness, +losing himself, with all evil, to be born anew and find himself, +with all good, in God. All sense, passion, care, and grief shall +cease with deliverance from the spectral semblances of this false +life. All pure contemplation, perfect repose, unsullied and +unrippled joy shall begin with entrance upon the true life beyond. +Thus thinking, he feels that death is the avenue to infinite +expansion, freedom, peace, bliss; and he longs for it with an +intensity not dreamed of by more frigid natures. He often compares +himself, in this world aspiring towards another, to an enamored +moth drawn towards the fire, and he exclaims, with a sigh and a +thrill, + +46 Not disgust, but wonder and awe, fathomless intellectual +emotion, at so unparalleled a phenomenon of our miraculous human +nature. + +47 Buddhism and Buddhist Pilgrims, p. 19. + +48 Burnouf, Le Bhagavata Purana, tome i. livre iii. ch. 28: +Acquisition de la Delivrance, ch. 31. + +Marche de l'ame individuelle. "Highest nature wills the capture; +'Light to light!' the instinct cries; And in agonizing rapture +falls the moth, and bravely dies. Think not what thou art, +Believer; think but what thou mayst become For the World is thy +deceiver, and the Light thy only home." 49 + +The Western mind approaches the subject of death negatively, +stripping off the attributes of finite being; the Eastern mind, +positively, putting on the attributes of infinite being. Negative +acts, denying function, are antipathetic, and lower the sense of +life; positive acts, affirming function, are sympathetic, and +raise the sense of life. Therefore the end to which those look, +annihilation, is dreaded; that to which these look, Nirwana, is +desired. To become nothing, is measureless horror; to become all, +is boundless ecstasy. + +49 Milnes, Palm Leaves. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +PERSIAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +THE name of Zoroaster is connected, either as author or as +reviser, with that remarkable system of rites and doctrines which +constituted the religion of the ancient Iranians, and which yet +finds adherents in the Ghebers of Persia and the Parsees of India. +Pliny, following the affirmation of Aristotle, asserts that he +flourished six thousand years before Plato. Moyle, Gibbon, Volney, +Rhode, concur in throwing him back into this vast antiquity. +Foucher, Holty, Heeren, Tychsen, Guizot, assign his birth to the +beginning of the seventh century before Christ. Hyde, Prideaux, Du +Perron, Kleuker, Herder, Klaproth, and others, bring him down to +about a hundred and fifty years later. Meanwhile, several weighty +names press the scale in favor of the hypothesis of two or three +Zoroasters, living at separate epochs. So the learned men differ, +and the genuine date in question cannot, at present at least, be +decided. It is comparatively certain that, if he was the author of +the work attributed to him, he must have flourished as early as +the sixth century before Christ. The probabilities seem, upon the +whole, that he lived four or five centuries earlier than that, +even, "in the pre historic time," as Spiegel says. However, the +settlement of the era of Zoroaster is not a necessary condition of +discovering the era when the religion commonly traced to him was +in full prevalence as the established faith of the Persian empire. +The latter may be conclusively fixed without clearing up the +former. And it is known, without disputation, that that religion +whether it was primarily Persian, Median, Assyrian, or Chaldean +was flourishing at Babylon in the maturity of its power in the +time of the Hebrew prophets Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Daniel, +twenty five hundred years ago. + +The celebrated work on the religion of the ancient Medes and +Persians by Dr. Hyde, published in 1700, must be followed with +much caution and be taken with many qualifications. The author was +biassed by unsound theories of the relation of the Hebrew theology +to the Persian, and was, of course, ignorant of the most +authoritative ancient documents afterwards brought to light. His +work, therefore, though learned and valuable, considering the time +when it was written, is vitiated by numerous mistakes and defects. +In 1762, Anquetil du Perron, returning to France from protracted +journeying and abode in the East, brought home, among the fruits +of his researches, manuscripts purporting to be parts of the old +Persian Bible composed or collected by Zoroaster. It was written +in a language hitherto unknown to European scholars, one of the +primitive dialects of Persia. This work, of which he soon +published a French version at Paris was entitled by him the "Zend +Avesta." It confirmed all that was previously known of the +Zoroastrian religion, and, by its allusions, statements, and +implications, threw great additional light upon the subject. + +A furious controversy, stimulated by personal rivalries and +national jealousy, immediately arose. Du Perron was denounced as +an impostor or an ignoramus, and his publication stigmatized as a +wretched forgery of his own, or a gross imposition palmed upon him +by some lying pundit. Sir William Jones and John Richardson, both +distinguished English Orientalists, and Meiners in Germany, were +the chief impugners of the document in hand. Richardson +obstinately went beyond his data, and did not live long enough to +retract; but Sir William, upon an increase of information, changed +his views, and regretted his first inconsiderate zeal and somewhat +mistaken championship. The ablest defender of Du Perron was +Kleuker, who translated the whole work from French into German, +adding many corrections, new arguments, and researches of great +ability. His work was printed at Riga, in seven quarto volumes, +from 1777 to 1783. The progress and results of the whole +discussion are well enough indicated in the various papers which +the subject drew forth in the volumes of the "Asiatic Researches" +and the numbers of the "Asiatic Journal." The conclusion was that, +while Du Perron had indeed betrayed partial ignorance and crudity, +and had committed some glaring errors, there was not the least +ground for doubt that his asserted discovery was in every +essential what it claimed to be. It is a sort of litany; a +collection of prayers and of sacred dialogues held between Ormuzd +and Zoroaster, from which the Persian system of theology may be +inferred and constructed with some approach to completeness. + +The assailants of the genuineness of the "Zend Avesta" were +effectually silenced when, some thirty years later, Professor +Rask, a well known Danish linguist, during his inquiries in the +East, found other copies of it, and gave to the world such +information and proofs as could not be suspected. He, discovering +the close affinities of the Zend with Sanscrit, led the way to the +most brilliant triumph yet achieved by comparative philology. +Portions of the work in the original character were published in +1829, under the supervision of Burnouf at Paris and of Olshausen +at Hamburg. The question of the genuineness of the dialect +exhibited in these specimens, once so freely mooted, has been +discussed, and definitively settled in the affirmative, by several +eminent scholars, among whom may be mentioned Bopp, whose +"Comparative Grammar of the Sanscrit, Zend, +Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, and German Languages" is an +astonishing monument of erudition and toil. It is the conviction +of Major Rawlinson that the Zoroastrian books of the Parsees were +imported to Bombay from Persia in their present state in the +seventh century of our era, but that they were written at least +twelve centuries earlier.1 + +But the two scholars whose opinions upon any subject within this +department of learning are now the most authoritative are +Professor Spiegel of Erlangen, and Professor Westergaard of +Copenhagen. Their investigations, still in progress, made with all +the aids furnished by their predecessors, and also with the +advantage of newly discovered materials and processes, are of +course to be relied on in preference to the earlier, and in some +respects necessarily cruder, researches. It appears that the +proper Zoroastrian Scriptures namely, the Yasna, the Vispered, the +Vendidad, the Yashts, the Nyaish, the Afrigans, the Gahs, the +Sirozah, and a few other fragments were composed in an ancient +Iranian dialect, which may as Professor + +W. D. Whitney suggests in his very lucid and able article in vol. +v. of the Journal of the American Oriental Society most fitly be +called the Avestan dialect. (No other book in this dialect, we +believe, is known to be in existence now.) It is difficult to say +when these + +1 Wilson, Parsi Religion Unfolded, p. 405. + + +documents were written; but in view of all the relevant +information now possessed, including that drawn from the +deciphered cuneiform inscriptions, the most probable date is about +a thousand years before Christ. Professor R. Roth of Tubingen +whose authority herein as an original investigator is perhaps +hardly second to any other man's says the books of the Zoroastrian +faith were written a considerable time before the rise of the +Achamenian dynasty. He is convinced that the whole substantial +contents of the Zend Avesta are many centuries older than the +Christian era.2 Professor Muller of Oxford also holds the same +opinion.3 And even those who set the date of the literary record a +few centuries later, as Spiegel does, freely admit the great +antiquity of the doctrines and usages then first committed to +manuscript. In the fourth century before Christ, Alexander of +Macedon overran the Persian empire. With the new rule new +influences prevailed, and the old national faith and ritual fell +into decay and neglect. Early in the third century of the +Christian era, Ardeshir overthrew the Parthian dominion in Persia +and established the Sassanian dynasty. One of his first acts was, +stimulated doubtless by the surviving Magi and the old piety of +the people, to reinaugurate the ancient religion. A fresh zeal of +loyalty broke out, and all the prestige and vigor of the long +suppressed worship were restored. The Zoroastrian Scriptures were +now sought for, whether in manuscript or in the memories of the +priests. It would seem that only remnants were found. The +collection, such as it was, was in the Avestan dialect, which had +grown partially obsolete and unintelligible. The authorities +accordingly had a translation of it made in the speech of the +time, Pehlevi. This translation most of which has reached us +written in with the original, sentence after sentence forms the +real Zend language, often confounded by the literary public with +Avestan. The translation of the Avestan books, probably made under +these circumstances as early as A. D. 350, is called the +Huzvaresch. In regard to some of these particulars there are +questions still under investigation, but upon which it is not +worth our while to pause here. For example, Spiegel thinks the +Zend identical with the Pehlevi of the fourth century; Westergaard +believes it entirely distinct from Pehlevi, and in truth only a +disguised mode of writing Parsee, the oldest form of the modern +Persian language. + +The source from which the fullest and clearest knowledge of the +Zoroastrian faith, as it is now held by the Parsees, is drawn, is +the Desatir and the Bundehesh. The former work is the unique +vestige of an extinct dialect called the Mahabadian, accompanied +by a Persian translation and commentary. It is impossible to +ascertain the century when the Mahabadian text was written; but +the translation into Persian was, most probably, made in the +seventh century of the Christian era.4 Spiegel, in 1847, says +there can be no doubt of the spuriousness of the Desatir; but he +gives no reasons for the statement, and we do not know that it is +based on any other arguments than those which, advanced by De +Sacy, were refuted by Von Hammer. The Bundehesh is in the Pehlevi +or Zend language, and was written, it is + +2 Ueber die Heiligen Schriften der Arier. Jahrbucher fur Deutsche +Theologie, 1857, band ii. ss. 146, 147. + +3 Essay on the Veda and the Zend Avesta, p. 24. See also Bunsen's +Christianity and Mankind, vol. iii. p. 114. + +4 Baron von Hammer, in Heidelberger Jabrbucher der Literatur, +1823. Id. in Journal Asiatique, Juillet, 1833. Dabistan, +Preliminary Discourse, pp. xix. lxv. + + +thought, about the seventh century, but was derived, it is +claimed, from a more ancient work.5 The book entitled "Revelations +of Ardai Viraf" exists in Pehlevi probably of the fourth century, +according to Troyer,6 and is believed to have been originally +written in the Avestan tongue, though this is extremely doubtful. +It gives a detailed narrative of the scenery of heaven and hell, +as seen by Ardai Viraf during a visit of a week which his soul +leaving his body for that length of time paid to those regions. +Many later and enlarged versions of this have appeared. One of +them, dating from the sixteenth century, was translated into +English by T. A. Pope and published in 1816. Sanscrit translations +of several of the before named writings are also in existence. And +several other comparatively recent works, scarcely needing mention +here, although considered as somewhat authoritative by the modern +followers of Zoroaster, are to be found in Guzeratee, the present +dialect of the Indian Parsees. A full exposition of the +Zoroastrian religion, with satisfactory proofs of its antiquity +and documentary genuineness, is presented in the Preliminary +Discourse and Notes to the Dabistan. This curious and entertaining +work, a fund of strange and valuable lore, is an historico +critical view of the principal religions of the world, especially +of the Oriental sects, schools, and manners. It was composed in +Persian, apparently by Mohsan Fani, about the year 1645. An +English translation, with elaborate explanatory matter, by David +Shea and Anthony Troyer, was published at London and at Paris in +1843.7 + +In these records there are obscurities, incongruities, and chasms, +as might naturally be anticipated, admitting them to be strictly +what they would pass for. These faults may be accounted for in +several ways. First, in a rude stage of philosophical culture, +incompleteness of theory, inconsistent conceptions in different +parts of a system, are not unusual, but are rather to be expected, +and are slow to become troublesome to its adherents. Secondly, +distinct contemporary thinkers or sects may give expression to +their various views in literary productions of the same date and +possessing a balanced authority. Or, thirdly, the heterogeneous +conceptions in some particulars met with in these scriptures may +be a result of the fact that the collection contains writings of +distinct ages, when the same problems had been differently +approached and had given birth to opposing or divergent +speculations. The later works of course cannot have the authority +of the earlier in deciding questions of ancient belief: they are +to be taken rather as commentaries, interpreting and carrying out +in detail many points that lie only in obscure hints and allusions +in the primary documents. But it is a significant fact that, in +the generic germs of doctrine and custom, in the essential +outlines of substance, in rhetorical imagery, in practical morals, +the statements of all these books are alike: they only vary in +subordinate matters and in degrees of fulness. + +The charge has repeatedly been urged that the materials of the +more recent of the Parsee Scriptures the Desatir and the +Bundehesh were drawn from Christian and Mohammedan sources. No +evidence of value for sustaining such assertions has been adduced. +Under the circumstances, scarcely any motive for such an +imposition appears. In view of the whole case, + +5 Dabistan, vol. i. p. 226, note. + +6 Ibid. p. 185, note. + +7 Reviewed in Asiatic Journal, 1844, pp. 582-595. + + +the reverse supposition is rather to be credited. In the first +place, we have ample evidence for the existence of the general +Zoroastrian system long anterior to the rise of Christianity. The +testimony of the classic authors to say nothing of the known +antiquity of the language in which the system is preserved is +demonstrative on this point. Secondly, the striking agreement in +regard to fundamental doctrines, pervading spirit, and ritual +forms between the accounts in the classics and those in the +Avestan books, and of both these with the later writings and +traditional practice of the Parsees, furnishes powerful +presumption that the religion was a connected development, +possessing the same essential features from the time of its +national establishment. Thirdly, we have unquestionable proofs +that, during the period from the Babylonish captivity to the +advent of Christ, the Jews borrowed and adapted a great deal from +the Persian theology, but no proof that the Persians took any +thing from the Jewish theology. This is abundantly confessed by +such scholars as Gesenius, Rosenmuller, Stuart, Lucke, De Wette, +Neander; and it will hardly be challenged by any one who has +investigated the subject. But the Jewish theology being thus +impregnated with germs from the Persian faith, and being in a +sense the historic mother of Christian theology, it is far more +reasonable, in seeking the origin of dogmas common to Parsees and +Christians, to trace them through the Pharisees to Zoroaster, than +to imagine them suddenly foisted upon the former by forgery on the +part of the latter at a late period. Fourthly, it is notorious +that Mohammed, in forming his religion, made wholesale draughts +upon previously existing faiths, that their adherents might more +readily accept his teachings, finding them largely in unison with +their own. It is altogether more likely, aside from historic +evidence which we possess, that he drew from the tenets and +imagery of the Ghebers, than that they, when subdued by his armies +and persecuted by his rule from their native land, introduced new +doctrines from the Koran into the ancestral creed which they so +revered that neither exile nor death could make them abjure it. +For, driven by those fierce proselytes, the victorious Arabs, to +the mountains of Kirman and to the Indian coast, they clung with +unconquerable tenacity to their religion, still scrupulously +practising its rites, proudly mindful of the time when every +village, from the shore of the Caspian Sea to the outlet of the +Persian Gulf, had its splendid fire temple, + +"And Iran like a sunflower turn'd Where'er the eye of Mithra +burn'd." + +We therefore see no reason for believing that important Christian +or Mohammedan ideas have been interpolated into the old +Zoroastrian religion. The influence has been in the other +direction. Relying then, though with caution, on what Dr. Edward +Roth says, that "the certainty of our possessing a correct +knowledge of the leading ancient doctrines of the Persians is now +beyond all question," we will try to exhibit so much of the system +as is necessary for appreciating its doctrine of a future life. + +In the deep background of the Magian theology looms, in mysterious +obscurity, the belief in an infinite First Principle, Zeruana +Akerana. According to most of the scholars who have investigated +it, the meaning of this term is "Time without Bounds," or absolute +duration. But Bohlen says it signifies the "Untreated Whole;" and +Schlegel thinksit denotes the "Indivisible One." The conception +seems to have been to the people mostly an unapplied abstraction, +too vast and remote to become prominent in their speculation or +influential in their faith. Spiegel, indeed, thinks the conception +was derived from Babylon, and added to the system at a later +period than the other doctrines. The beginning of vital theology, +the source of actual ethics to the Zoroastrians, was in the idea +of the two antagonist powers, Ormuzd and Ahriman, the first +emanations of Zeruana, who divide between them in unresting strife +the empire of the universe. The former is the Principle of Good, +the perfection of intelligence, beneficence, and light, the source +of all reflected excellence. The latter is the Principle of Evil, +the contriver of misery and death, the king of darkness, the +instigator of all wrong. With sublime beauty the ancient Persian +said, "Light is the body of Ormuzd; Darkness is the body of +Ahriman." There has been much dispute whether the Persian theology +grew out of the idea of an essential and eternal dualism, or was +based on the conception of a partial and temporary battle; in +other words, whether Ahriman was originally and necessarily evil, +or fell from a divine estate. + +In the fragmentary documents which have reached us, the whole +subject lies in confusion. It is scarcely possible to unravel the +tangled mesh. Sometimes it seems to be taught that Ahriman was at +first good, an angel of light who, through envy of his great +compeer, sank from his primal purity, darkened into hatred, and +became the rancorous enemy of truth and love. At other times he +appears to be considered as the pure primordial essence of evil. +The various views may have prevailed in different ages or in +different schools. Upon the whole, however, we hold the opinion +that the real Zoroastrian idea of Ahriman was moral and free, not +physical and fatal. The whole basis of the universe was good; evil +was an after perversion, a foreign interpolation, a battling +mixture. First, the perfect Zeruana was once all in all: Ahriman, +as well as Ormuzd, proceeded from him; and the inference that he +was pure would seem to belong to the idea of his origin. Secondly, +so far as the account of Satan given in the book of Job perhaps +the earliest appearance of the Persian notion in Jewish +literature warrants any inference or supposition at all, it would +lead to the image of one who was originally a prince in heaven, +and who must have fallen thence to become the builder and +potentate of hell. Thirdly, that matter is not an essential core +of evil, the utter antagonist of spirit, and that Ahriman is not +evil by an intrinsic necessity, will appear from the two +conceptions lying at the base and crown of the Persian system: +that the creation, as it first came from the hands of Ormuzd, was +perfectly good; and that finally the purified material world shall +exist again unstained by a breath of evil, Ahriman himself +becoming like Ormuzd. He is not, then, aboriginal and +indestructible evil in substance. The conflict between Ormuzd and +him is the temporary ethical struggle of light and darkness, not +the internecine ontological war of spirit and matter. Roth says, +"Ahriman was originally good: his fall was a determination of his +will, not an inherent necessity of his nature." 8 Whatever other +conceptions may be found, whatever inconsistencies or +contradictions to this may appear, still, we believe the genuine +Zoroastrian view was such as we have now stated. The opposite +doctrine arose from the more abstruse lucubrations of a more +modern time, and is Manichaan, not Zoroastrian. + +8 Zoroastrische Glaubenslehre, ss. 397, 398. + + +Ormuzd created a resplendent and happy world. Ahriman instantly +made deformity, impurity, and gloom, in opposition to it. All +beauty, virtue, harmony, truth, blessedness, were the work of the +former. All ugliness, vice, discord, falsehood, wretchedness, +belonged to the latter. They grappled and mixed in a million +hostile shapes. This universal battle is the ground of ethics, the +clarion call to marshal out the hostile hosts of good and ill; and +all other war is but a result and a symbol of it. The strife thus +indicated between a Deity and a Devil, both subordinate to the +unmoved ETERNAL, was the Persian solution of the problem of evil, +their answer to the staggering question, why pleasure and pain, +benevolence and malignity, are so conflictingly mingled in the +works of nature and in the soul of man. In the long struggle that +ensued, Ormuzd created multitudes of co operant angels to assail +his foe, stocking the clean empire of Light with celestial allies +of his holy banner, who hang from heaven in great numbers, ready +at the prayer of the righteous man to hie to his aid and work him +a thousandfold good. Ahriman, likewise, created an equal number of +assistant demons, peopling the filthy domain of Darkness with +counterbalancing swarms of infernal followers of his pirate flag, +who lurk at the summit of hell, watching to snatch every +opportunity to ply their vocation of sin and ruin. There are such +hosts of these invisible antagonists sown abroad, and incessantly +active, that every star is crowded and all space teems with them. +Each man has a good and a bad angel, a ferver and a dev, who are +endeavoring in every manner to acquire control over his conduct +and possession of his soul. + +The Persians curiously personified the source of organic life in +the world under the emblem of a primeval bull. In this symbolic +beast were packed the seeds and germs of all the creatures +afterwards to people the earth. Ahriman, to ruin the creation of +which this animal was the life medium, sought to kill him. He set +upon him two of his devs, who are called "adepts of death." They +stung him in the breast, and plagued him until he died of rage. +But, as he was dying, from his right shoulder sprang the +androgynal Kaiomorts, who was the stock root of humanity. His body +was made from fire, air, water, and earth, to which Ormuzd added +an immortal soul, and bathed him with an elixir which rendered him +fair and glittering as a youth of fifteen, and would have +preserved him so perennially had it not been for the assaults of +the Evil One.9 Ahriman, the enemy of all life, determined to slay +him, and at last accomplished his object; but, as Kaiomorts fell, +from his seed, through the power of Ormuzd, originated Meschia and +Meschiane, male and female, the first human pair, from whom all +our race have descended. They would never have died,10 but +Ahriman, in the guise of a serpent, seduced them, and they sinned +and fell. This account is partly drawn from that later treatise, +the Bundehesh, whose mythological cosmogony reminds us of the +Scandinavian Ymer. But we conceive it to be strictly reliable as a +representation of the Zoroastrian faith in its essential +doctrines; for the earlier documents, the Yasna, the Yeshts, and +the Vendidad, contain the same things in obscure and undeveloped +expressions. They, too, make repeated mention of the mysterious +bull, and of Kaiomorts.11 They invariably represent death as +resulting + +9 Kleuker, Zend Avesta, band i. anhang 1, s. 263. + +10 Ibid. band i. s. 27. + +11 Yasna, 24th IIa. + + +from the hostility of Ahriman. The earliest Avestan account of the +earthly condition of men describes them as living in a garden +which Yima or Jemschid had enclosed at the command of Ormuzd.12 +During the golden age of his reign they were free from heat and +cold, sickness and death. "In the garden which Yima made they led +a most beautiful life, and they bore none of the marks which +Ahriman has since made upon men." But Ahriman's envy and hatred +knew no rest until he and his devs had, by their wiles, broken +into this paradise, betrayed Yima and his people into falsehood, +and so, by introducing corruption into their hearts, put an end to +their glorious earthly immortality. This view is set forth in the +opening fargards of the Vendidad; and it has been clearly +illustrated in an elaborate contribution upon the "Old Iranian +Mythology" by Professor Westergaard.13 Death, like all other +evils, was an after effect, thrust into the purely good creation +of Ormuzd by the cunning malice of Ahriman. The Vendidad, at its +commencement, recounts the various products of Ormuzd's beneficent +power, and adds, after each particular, "Thereupon Ahriman, who is +full of death, made an opposition to the same." + +According to the Zoroastrian modes of thought, what would have +been the fate of man had Ahriman not existed or not interfered? +Plainly, mankind would have lived on forever in innocence and joy. +They would have been blessed with all placid delights, exempt from +hate, sickness, pain, and every other ill; and, when the earth was +full of them, Ormuzd would have taken his sinless subjects to his +own realm of light on high. But when they forsook the true service +of Ormuzd, falling into deceit and defilement, they became +subjects of Ahriman; and he would inflict on them, as the +creatures of his hated rival, all the calamities in his power, +dissolve the masterly workmanship of their bodies in death, and +then take their souls as prisoners into his own dark abode. "Had +Meschia continued to bring meet praises, it would have happened +that when the time of man, created pure, had come, his soul, +created pure and immortal, would immediately have gone to the seat +of bliss."14 "Heaven was destined for man upon condition that he +was humble of heart, obedient to the law, and pure in thought, +word, and deed." But "by believing the lies of Ahriman they became +sinners, and their souls must remain in his nether kingdom until +the resurrection of their bodies."15 Ahriman's triumph thus +culminates in the death of man and that banishment of the +disembodied soul into hell which takes the place of its +originally intended reception into heaven. + +The law of Ormuzd, revealed through Zoroaster, furnishes to all +who faithfully observe it in purity of thought, speech, and +action, "when body and soul have separated, attainment of paradise +in the next world,"16 while the neglecters of it "will pass into +the dwelling of the devs,"17 "after death will have no part in +paradise, but will occupy the place of darkness + +12 Die Sage von Dschemschid. Von Professor R. Roth. In Zeitschrift +der Deutschen Morgeulandischen Gesellschaft, band iv. ss. 417-431. + +13 Weber, Indische Studien, band iii. 8. 411. + +14 Yesht LXXXVII. Kleuker, band ii. sect. 211. + +15 Bundehesh, ch. xv. + +16 Avesta die Heiligen Schriften der Parsen. Von Dr. F. Spiegel, +band i. s, 171. + +17 Ibid. s. 158. + + +destined for the wicked."18 The third day after death, the soul +advances upon "the way created by Ormuzd for good and bad," to be +examined as to its conduct. The pure soul passes up from this +evanescent world, over the bridge Chinevad, to the world of +Ormuzd, and joins the angels. The sinful soul is bound and led +over the way made for the godless, and finds its place at the +bottom of gloomy hell.19 An Avestan fragment 20 and the Viraf +Nameh give the same account, only with more picturesque fulness. +On the soaring bridge the soul meets Rashne rast, the angel of +justice, who tries those that present themselves before him. If +the merits prevail, a figure of dazzling substance, radiating +glory and fragrance, advances and accosts the justified soul, +saying, "I am thy good angel: I was pure at the first, but thy +good deeds have made me purer;" and the happy one is straightway +led to Paradise. But when the vices outweigh the virtues, a dark +and frightful image, featured with ugliness and exhaling a noisome +smell, meets the condemned soul, and cries, "I am thy evil spirit: +bad myself, thy crimes have made me worse." Then the culprit +staggers on his uncertain foothold, is hurled from the dizzy +causeway, and precipitated into the gulf which yawns horribly +below. A sufficient reason for believing these last details no +late and foreign interpolation, is that the Vendidad itself +contains all that is essential in them, Garotman, the heaven of +Ormuzd, open to the pure, Dutsakh, the abode of devs, ready for +the wicked, Chinevad, the bridge of ordeal, upon which all must +enter.21 + +Some authors have claimed that the ancient disciples of Zoroaster +believed in a purifying, intermediate state for the dead. Passages +stating such a doctrine are found in the Yeshts, Sades, and in +later Parsee works. But whether the translations we now possess of +these passages are accurate, and whether the passages themselves +are authoritative to establish the ancient prevalence of such a +belief, we have not yet the means for deciding. There was a yearly +solemnity, called the "Festival for the Dead," still observed by +the Parsees, held at the season when it was thought that that +portion of the sinful departed who had ended their penance were +raised from Dutsakh to earth, from earth to Garotman. Du Perron +says that this took place only during the last five days of the +year, when the souls of all the deceased sinners who were +undergoing punishment had permission to leave their confinement +and visit their relatives; after which, those not yet purified +were to return, but those for whom a sufficient atonement had been +made were to proceed to Paradise. For proof that this doctrine was +held, reference is made to the following passage, with others: +"During these five days Ormuzd empties hell. The imprisoned souls +shall be freed from Ahriman's plagues when they pay penance and +are ashamed of their sins; and they shall receive a heavenly +nature; the meritorious deeds of themselves and of their families +cause this liberation: all the rest must return to Dutsakh."22 +Rhode thinks this was a part of the old Persian faith, and the +source of + +18 Ibid. s. 127. + +19 Ibid. ss. 248-252. Vendidad, Fargard XIX. + +20 Kleuker, band i. ss. xxxi. xxxv. + +21 Spiegel, Vendidad, ss. 207, 229, 233, 250. + +22 Kleuker, band ii. s. 173. + + +the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory.23 But, whether so or +not, it is certain that the Zoroastrians regarded the whole +residence of the departed souls in hell as temporary. + +The duration of the present order of the world was fixed at twelve +thousand years, divided into four equal epochs. In the first three +thousand years, Ormuzd creates and reigns triumphantly over his +empire. Through the next cycle, Ahriman is constructing and +carrying on his hostile works. The third epoch is occupied with a +drawn battle between the upper and lower kings and their +adherents. During the fourth period, Ahriman is to be victorious, +and a state of things inconceivably dreadful is to prevail. The +brightness of all clear things will be shrouded, the happiness of +all joyful creatures be destroyed, innocence disappear, religion +be scoffed from the world, and crime, horror, and war be rampant. +Famine will spread, pests and plagues stalk over the earth, and +showers of black rain fall. But at last Ormuzd will rise in his +might and put an end to these awful scenes. He will send on earth +a savior. Sosiosch, to deliver mankind, to wind up the final +period of time, and to bring the arch enemy to judgment. At the +sound of the voice of Sosiosch the dead will come forth. Good, +bad, indifferent, all alike will rise, each in his order. +Kaiomorts, the original single ancestor of men, will be the +firstling. Next, Meschia and Meschiane, the primal parent pair, +will appear. And then the whole multitudinous family of mankind +will throng up. The genii of the elements will render up the +sacred materials intrusted to them, and rebuild the decomposed +bodies. Each soul will recognise, and hasten to reoccupy, its old +tenement of flesh, now renewed, improved, immortalized. Former +acquaintances will then know each other. "Behold, my father! my +mother! my brother! my wife! they shall exclaim." 24 + +In this exposition we have following the guidance of Du Perron, +Foucher, Kleuker, J. G. Muller, and other early scholars in this +field attributed the doctrine of a general and bodily resurrection +of the dead to the ancient Zoroastrians. The subsequent researches +of Burnouf, Roth, and others, have shown that several, at least, +of the passages which Anquetil supposed to teach such a doctrine +were erroneously translated by him, and do not really contain it. +And recently the ground has been often assumed that the doctrine +of the resurrection does not belong to the Avesta, but is a more +modern dogma, derived by the Parsees from the Jews or the +Christians, and only forced upon the old text by misinterpretation +through the Pehlevi version and the Parsee commentary. A question +of so grave importance demands careful examination. In the absence +of that reliable translation of the entire original documents, and +that thorough elaboration of all the extant materials, which we +are awaiting from the hands of Professor Spiegel, whose second +volume has long been due, and Professor Westergaard, whose second +and third volumes are eagerly looked for, we must make the best +use of the resources actually available, and then leave the point +in such plausible light as existing testimony and fair reasoning +can throw upon it. In the first place, it should be observed that, +admitting the doctrine to be nowhere mentioned in the Avesta, +still, it does not follow that the belief was not prevalent when +the + +23 Rhode, Heilige Sage des Zendvolks, s. 410. + +24 Bundehesh, ch. xxxi. + + +Avesta was written. We know that the Christians of the first two +centuries believed a great many things of which there is no +statement in the New Testament. Spiegel holds that the doctrine in +debate is not in the Avesta, the text of which in its present form +he thinks was written after the time of Alexander.25 But he +confesses that the resurrection theory was in existence long +before that time.26 Now, if the Avesta, committed to writing three +hundred years before Christ, at a time when the doctrine of the +resurrection is known to have been believed, contains no reference +to it, the same relation of facts may just as well have existed if +we date the record seven centuries earlier. We possess only a +small and broken portion of the original Zoroastrian Scriptures; +as Roth says, "songs, invocations, prayers, snatches of +traditions, parts of a code, the shattered fragments of a once +stately building." If we could recover the complete documents in +their earliest condition, it might appear that the now lost parts +contained the doctrine of the general resurrection fully formed. +We have many explicit references to many ancient Zoroastrian books +no longer in existence. For example, the Parsees have a very early +account that the Avesta at first consisted of twenty one Nosks. Of +these but one has been preserved complete, and small parts of +three or four others. The rest are utterly wanting. The fifth +Nosk, whereof not any portion remains to us, was called the Do az +ah Hamast. It contained thirty two chapters, treating, among other +things, "of the upper and nether world, of the resurrection, of +the bridge Chinevad, and of the fate after death." 27 If this +evidence be true, and we know of no reason for not crediting it, +it is perfectly decisive. But, at all events, the absence from the +extant parts of the Zend Avesta of the doctrine under examination +would be no proof that that doctrine was not received when those +documents were penned. + +Secondly, we have the unequivocal assertion of Theopompus, in the +fourth century before Christ, that the Magi taught the doctrine of +a general resurrection.28 "At the appointed epoch Ahriman shall be +subdued," and "men shall live again and shall be immortal." And +Diogenes adds, "Eudemus of Rhodes affirms the same things." +Aristotle calls Ormuzd Zeus, and Ahriman Haides, the Greek names +respectively of the lord of the starry Olympians above, and the +monarch of the Stygian ghosts beneath. Another form also in which +the early Greek authors betray their acquaintance with the Persian +conception of a conflict between Ormuzd and Ahriman is in the +idea expressed by Xenophon in his Cyropadia, in the dialogue +between Araspes and Cyrus of two souls in man, one a brilliant +efflux of good, the other a dusky emanation of evil, each bearing +the likeness of its parent.29 Since we know from Theopompus that +certain conceptions, illustrated in the Bundehesh and not +contained in the fragmentary Avestan books which have reached us, +were actually received Zoroastrian + +25 Studien uber das Zend Avesta, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen +Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, 1855, band ix. s. 192. + +26 Spiegel, Avesta, band i. s. 16. + +27 Dabistan, vol. i. pp. 272-274. + +28 Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers, Introduction, +sect. vi. Plutarch, concerning Isis and Osiris. + +29 Lib. vi. cap. i. sect. 41. + + +tenets four centuries before Christ, we are strongly supported in +giving credence to the doctrinal statements of that book as +affording, in spite of its lateness, a correct epitome of the old +Persian theology. + +Thirdly, we are still further warranted in admitting the antiquity +of the Zoroastrian system as including the resurrection theory, +when we consider the internal harmony and organic connection of +parts in it; how the doctrines all fit together, and imply each +other, and could scarcely have existed apart. Men were the +creatures of Ormuzd. They should have lived immortally under his +favor and in his realm. But Ahriman, by treachery, obtained +possession of a large portion of them. Now, when, at the end of +the fourth period into which the world course was divided by the +Magian theory, as Theopompus testifies, Ormuzd overcomes this +arch adversary, will he not rescue his own unfortunate creatures +from the realm of darkness in which they have been imprisoned? +When a king storms an enemy's castle, he delivers from the +dungeons his own soldiers who were taken captives in a former +defeat. The expectation of a great prophet, Sosiosch, to come and +vanquish Ahriman and his swarms, unquestionably appears in the +Avesta itself.30 With this notion, in inseparable union, the +Parsee tradition, running continuously back, as is claimed, to a +very remote time, joins the doctrine of a general resurrection; a +doctrine literally stated in the Vendidad,31 and in many other +places in the Avesta,32 where it has not yet been shown to be an +interpolation, but only supposed so by very questionable +constructive inferences. The consent of intrinsic adjustment and +of historic evidence would, therefore, lead to the conclusion that +this was an old Zoroastrian dogma. In disproof of this conclusion +we believe there is no direct positive evidence whatever, and no +inferential argument cogent enough to produce conviction. + +There are sufficient reasons for the belief that the doctrine of a +resurrection was quite early adopted from the Persians by the +Jews, not borrowed at a much later time from the Jews by the +Parsees. The conception of Ahriman, the evil serpent, bearing +death, (die Schlange Angramainyus der voll Tod ist,) is +interwrought from the first throughout the Zoroastrian scheme. In +the Hebrew records, on the contrary, such an idea appears but +incidentally, briefly, rarely, and only in the later books. The +account of the introduction of sin and death by the serpent in the +garden of Eden dates from a time subsequent to the commencement of +the Captivity. Von Bohlen, in his Introduction to the Book of +Genesis, says the narrative was drawn from the Zend Avesta. +Rosenmuller, in his commentary on the passage, says the narrator +had in view the Zoroastrian notions of the serpent Ahriman and his +deeds. Dr. Martin Haug an acute and learned writer, whose opinion +is entitled to great weight, as he is the freshest scholar +acquainted with this whole field in the light of all that others +have done thinks it certain that Zoroaster lived in a remote +antiquity, from fifteen hundred to two thousand years before +Christ. He says that Judaism after the exile and, through Judaism, +Christianity afterwards received an important influence from +Zoroastrianism, + +30 Spiegel, Avesta, band i. ss. 16, 244. + +31 Fargard XVIII, Spiegel's Uebersetzung, s. 236. + +32 Kleuker, band ii. ss. 123, 124, 164. + + +an influence which, in regard to the doctrine of angels, Satan, +and the resurrection of the dead, cannot be mistaken.33 The Hebrew +theology had no demonology, no Satan, until after the residence at +Babylon. This is admitted. Well, is not the resurrection a pendant +to the doctrine of Satan? Without the idea of a Satan there would +be no idea of a retributive banishment of souls into hell, and of +course no occasion for a vindicating restoration of them thence to +their former or a superior state. + +On this point the theory of Rawlinson is very important. He +argues, with various proofs, that the Dualistic doctrine was a +heresy which broke out very early among the primitive Aryans, who +then were the single ancestry of the subsequent Iranians and +Indians. This heresy was forcibly suppressed. Its adherents, +driven out of India, went to Persia, and, after severe conflicts +and final admixture with the Magians, there established their +faith.34 The sole passage in the Old Testament teaching the +resurrection is in the so called Book of Daniel, a book full of +Chaldean and Persian allusions, written less than two centuries +before Christ, long after we know it was a received Zoroastrian +tenet, and long after the Hebrews had been exposed to the whole +tide and atmosphere of the triumphant Persian power. The +unchangeable tenacity of the Medes and Persians is a proverb. How +often the Hebrew people lapsed into idolatry, accepting Pagan +gods, doctrines, and ritual, is notorious. And, in particular, how +completely subject they were to Persian influence appears clearly +in large parts of the Biblical history, especially in the Books of +Esther and Ezekiel. The origin of the term Beelzebub, too, in the +New Testament, is plain. To say that the Persians derived the +doctrine of the resurrection from the Jews seems to us as +arbitrary as it would be to affirm that they also borrowed from +them the custom, mentioned by Ezekiel, of weeping for Tammuz in +the gates of the temple. + +In view of the whole case as it stands, until further researches +either strengthen it or put a different aspect upon it, we feel +forced to think that the doctrine of a general resurrection was a +component element in the ancient Avestan religion. A further +question of considerable interest arises as to the nature of this +resurrection, whether it was conceived as physical or as +spiritual. We have no data to furnish a determinate answer. +Plutarch quotes from Theopompus the opinion of the Magi, that +when, at the subdual of Ahriman, men are restored to life, "they +will need no nourishment and cast no shadow." It would appear, +then, that they must be spirits. The inference is not reliable; +for the idea may be that all causes of decay will be removed, so +that no food will be necessary to supply the wasting processes +which no longer exist; and that the entire creation will be so +full of light that a shadow will be impossible. It might be +thought that the familiar Persian conception of angels, both good +and evil, fervers and devs, and the reception of departed souls +into their company, with Ormuzd in Garotman, or with Ahriman in +Dutsakh, would exclude the belief in a future bodily resurrection. +But Christians and Mohammedans at this day believe in immaterial +angels and devils, and in the immediate entrance of disembodied +souls upon reward or + +33 Die Lehre Zoroasters nach den alten Liedern des Zendavesta. +Zeitschrift der Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, band ix. ss. 286, +683-692. + +34 Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i. pp. 426-431. + + +punishment in their society, and still believe in their final +return to the earth, and in a restoration to them of their former +tabernacles of flesh. Discordant, incoherent, as the two beliefs +may be, if their coexistence is a fact with cultivated and +reasonable people now, much more was it possible with an +undisciplined and credulous populace three thousand years in the +past. Again, it has been argued that the indignity with which the +ancient Persians treated the dead body, refusing to bury it or to +burn it, lest the earth or the fire should be polluted, is +incompatible with the supposition that they expected a +resurrection of the flesh. In the first place, it is difficult to +reason safely to any dogmatic conclusions from the funeral customs +of a people. These usages are so much a matter of capricious +priestly ritual, ancestral tradition, unreasoning instinct, blind +or morbid superstition, that any consistent doctrinal construction +is not fairly to be put upon them. Secondly, the Zoroastrians did +not express scorn or loathing for the corpse by their manner of +disposing of it. The greatest pains were taken to keep it from +disgusting decay, by placing it in "the driest, purest, openest +place," upon a summit where fresh winds blew, and where certain +beasts and birds, accounted most sacred, might eat the corruptible +portion: then the clean bones were carefully buried. The dead body +had yielded to the hostile working of Ahriman, and become his +possession. The priests bore it out on a bed or a carpet, and +exposed it to the light of the sun. The demon was thus exorcised; +and the body became further purified in being eaten by the sacred +animals, and no putrescence was left to contaminate earth, water, +or fire.35 Furthermore, it is to be noticed that the modern +Parsees dispose of their dead in exactly the same manner depicted +in the earliest accounts; yet they zealously hold to a literal +resurrection of the body. If the giving of the flesh to the dog +and the vulture in their case exists with this belief, it may have +done so with their ancestors before Nebuchadnezzar swept the Jews +to Babylon. Finally, it is quite reasonable to conclude that the +old Persian doctrine of a resurrection did include the physical +body, when we recollect that in the Zoroastrian scheme of thought +there is no hostility to matter or to earthly life, but all is +regarded as pure and good except so far as the serpent Ahriman has +introduced evil. The expulsion of this evil with his ultimate +overthrow, the restoration of all as it was at first, in purity, +gladness, and eternal life, would be the obvious and consistent +carrying out of the system. Hatred of earthly life, contempt for +the flesh, the notion of an essential and irreconcilable warfare +of soul against body, are Brahmanic and Manichaan, not +Zoroastrian. Still, the ground plan and style of thought may not +have been consistently adhered to. The expectation that the very +same body would be restored was known to the Jews a century or two +before Christ. One of the martyrs whose history is told in the +Second Book of Maccabees, in the agonies of death plucked out his +own bowels, and called on the Lord to restore them to him again at +the resurrection. Considering the notion of a resurrection of the +body as a sensuous burden on the idea of a resurrection of the +soul, it may have been a later development originating with the +Jews. But it seems to us decidedly more probable that the Magi +held it as a part of their creed before they came in contact with +the children of Israel. Such an opinion may be modestly held until +further information is + +35 Spiegel, Avesta, ss. 82, 104, 109, 111, 122. + + +afforded 36 or some new and fatal objection brought. + +After this resurrection a thorough separation will be made of the +good from the bad. "Father shall be divided from child, sister +from brother, friend from friend. The innocent one shall weep over +the guilty one, the guilty one shall weep for himself. Of two +sisters one shall be pure, one corrupt: they shall be treated +according to their deeds." 37 Those who have not, in the +intermediate state, fully expiated their sins, will, in sight of +the whole creation, be remanded to the pit of punishment. But the +author of evil shall not exult over them forever. Their prison +house will soon be thrown open. The pangs of three terrible days +and nights, equal to the agonies of nine thousand years, will +purify all, even the worst of the demons. The anguished cry of the +damned, as they writhe in the lurid caldron of torture, rising to +heaven, will find pity in the soul of Ormuzd, and he will release +them from their sufferings. A blazing star, the comet Gurtzscher, +will fall upon the earth. In the heat of its conflagration, great +and small mountains will melt and flow together as liquid metal. +Through this glowing flood all human kind must pass. To the +righteous it will prove as a pleasant bath, of the temperature of +milk; but on the wicked the flame will inflict terrific pain. +Ahriman will run up and down Chinevad in the perplexities of +anguish and despair. The earth wide stream of fire, flowing on, +will cleanse every spot and every thing. Even the loathsome realm +of darkness and torment shall be burnished and made a part of the +all inclusive Paradise. Ahriman himself, reclaimed to virtue, +replenished with primal light, abjuring the memories of his +envious ways, and furling thenceforth the sable standard of his +rebellion, shall become a ministering spirit of the Most High, +and, together with Ormuzd, chant the praises of Time without +Bounds. All darkness, falsehood, suffering, shall flee utterly +away, and the whole universe be filled by the illumination of good +spirits blessed with fruitions of eternal delight. In regard to +the fate of man, + +Such are the parables Zartushi address'd To Iran's faith, in the +ancient Zend Avest. + +36 Windischmann has now (1863) fully proved this, in his +Zoroastrische Studien. Spiegel frankly avows it: Avesta, band +iii., einleitung, s. lxxv. + +37 Rhode, Heilige Sage des Zendvolks, s. 467. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HEBREW DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +ON the one extreme, a large majority of Christian scholars have +asserted that the doctrine of a retributive immortality is clearly +taught throughout the Old Testament. Able writers, like Bishop +Warburton, have maintained, on the other extreme, that it says +nothing whatever about a future life, but rather implies the total +and eternal end of men in death. But the most judicious, +trustworthy critics hold an intermediate position, and affirm that +the Hebrew Scriptures show a general belief in the separate +existence of the spirit, not indeed as experiencing rewards and +punishments, but as surviving in the common silence and gloom of +the under world, a desolate empire of darkness yawning beneath all +graves and peopled with dream like ghosts.1 + +A number of important passages have been cited from different +parts of the Old Testament by the advocates of the view first +mentioned above. It will be well for us to notice these and their +misuse before proceeding farther. + +The translation of Enoch has been regarded as a revelation of the +immortality of man. It is singular that Dr. Priestley should +suggest, as the probable fact, so sheer and baseless a hypothesis +as he does in his notes upon the Book of Genesis. He says, "Enoch +was probably a prophet authorized to announce the reality of +another life after this; and he might be removed into it without +dying, as an evidence of the truth of his doctrine." The gross +materialism of this supposition, and the failure of God's design +which it implies, are a sufficient refutation of it. And, besides +the utter unlikelihood of the thought, it is entirely destitute of +support in the premises. One of the most curious of the many +strange things to be found in Warburton's argument for the Divine +Legation of Moses an argument marked, as is well known, by +profound erudition, and, in many respects, by consummate ability +is the use he makes of this account to prove that Moses believed +the doctrine of immortality, but purposely obscured the fact from +which it might be drawn by the people, in order that it might not +interfere with his doctrine of the temporal special providence of +Jehovah over the Jewish nation. Such a course is inconsistent with +sound morality, much more with the character of an inspired +prophet of God. + +The only history we have of Enoch is in the fifth chapter of the +Book of Genesis. The substance of it is as follows: "And Enoch +walked with God during his appointed years; and then he was not, +for God took him." The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, +following the example of those Rabbins who, several centuries +before his time, began to give mystical interpretations of the +Scriptures, infers from this statement that Enoch was borne into +heaven without tasting death. But it is not certainly known who +the author of that epistle was; and, whoever he was, his opinion, +of course, can have no authority upon a subject of criticism like + +1 Boettcher, De Inferis Rebusque post mortem futuris ex Hebraorum +et Gracoram Opinionibus. + +this. Replying to the supposititious argument furnished by this +passage, we say, Take the account as it reads, and it neither +asserts nor implies the idea commonly held concerning it. It says +nothing about translation or immortality; nor can any thing of the +kind be legitimately deduced from it. Its plain meaning is no more +nor less than this: Enoch lived three hundred and sixty five +years, fearing God and keeping his commandments, and then he died. +Many of the Rabbins, fond as they are of finding in the Pentateuch +the doctrine of future blessedness for the good, interpret this +narrative as only signifying an immature death; for Enoch, it will +be recollected, reached but about half the average age of the +others whose names are mentioned in the chapter. Had this +occurrence been intended as the revelation of a truth, it would +have been fully and clearly stated; otherwise it could not answer +any purpose. As Le Clerc observes, "If the writer believed so +important a fact as that Enoch was immortal, it is wonderful that +he relates it as secretly and obscurely as if he wished to hide +it." But, finally, even admitting that the account is to be +regarded as teaching literally that God took Enoch, it by no means +proves a revelation of the doctrine of general immortality. It +does not show that anybody else would ever be translated or would +in any way enter upon a future state of existence. It is not put +forth as a revelation; it says nothing whatever concerning a +revelation. It seems to mean either that Enoch suddenly died, or +that he disappeared, nobody knew whither. But, if it really means +that God took him into heaven, it is more natural to think that +that was done as a special favor than as a sign of what awaited +others. No general cause is stated, no consequence deduced, no +principle laid down, no reflection added. How, then, can it be +said that the doctrine of a future life for man is revealed by it +or implicated in it? + +The removal of Elijah in a chariot of fire, of which we read in +the second chapter of the Second Book of Kings, is usually +supposed to have served as a miraculous proof of the fact that the +faithful servants of Jehovah were to be rewarded with a life in +the heavens. The author of this book is not known, and can hardly +be guessed at with any degree of plausibility. It was +unquestionably written, or rather compiled, a long time probably +several hundred years after the prophets whose wonderful +adventures it recounts had passed away. The internal evidence is +sufficient, both in quality and quantity, to demonstrate that the +book is for the most part a collection of traditions. This +characteristic applies with particular force to the ascension of +Elijah. But grant the literal truth of the account: it will not +prove the point in support of which it is advanced, because it +does not purport to have been done as a revelation of the doctrine +in question, nor did it in any way answer the purpose of such a +revelation. So far from this, in fact, it does not seem even to +have suggested the bare idea of another state of existence in a +single instance. For when Elisha returned without Elijah, and told +the sons of the prophets at Jericho that his master had gone up in +a chariot of fire, which event they knew beforehand was going to +happen, they, instead of asking the particulars or exulting over +the revelation of a life in heaven, calmly said to him, "Behold, +there be with thy servants fifty sons of strength: let them go, we +pray thee, and seek for Elijah, lest peradventure a whirlwind, the +blast of the Lord, hath caught him up and cast him upon one of the +mountains or into one of the valleys. And he said, Ye shall not +send. But when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send." +This is all that is told us. Had it occurred as is stated, it +would not so easily have passed from notice, but mighty +inferences, never to be forgotten, would have been drawn from it +at once. The story as it stands reminds one of the closing scene +in the career of Romulus, speaking of whom the historians say, "In +the thirty seventh year of his reign, while he was reviewing an +army, a tempest arose, in the midst of which he was suddenly +snatched from the eyes of men. Hence some thought he was killed by +the senators, others, that he was borne aloft to the gods."2 If +the ascension of Elijah to heaven in a chariot of fire did really +take place, and if the books held by the Jews as inspired and +sacred contained a history of it at the time of our Savior, it is +certainly singular that neither he nor any of the apostles allude +to it in connection with the subject of a future life. + +The miracles performed by Elijah and by Elisha in restoring the +dead children to life related in the seventeenth chapter of the +First Book of Kings and in the fourth chapter of the Second Book +are often cited in proof of the position that the doctrine of +immortality is revealed in the Old Testament. The narration of +these events is found in a record of unknown authorship. The mode +in which the miracles were effected, if they were miracles, the +prophet measuring himself upon the child, his eyes upon his eyes, +his mouth upon his mouth, his hands upon his hands, and in one +case the child sneezing seven times, looks dubious. The two +accounts so closely resemble each other as to cast still greater +suspicion upon both. In addition to these considerations, and even +fully granting the reality of the miracles, they do not touch the +real controversy, namely, whether the Hebrew Scriptures contain +the revealed doctrine of a conscious immortality or of a future +retribution. The prophet said, "O Lord my God, let this child's +soul, I pray thee, come into his inward parts again." "And the +Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came +into him again, and he revived." Now, the most this can show is +that the child's soul was then existing in a separate state. It +does not prove that the soul was immortal, nor that it was +experiencing retribution, nor even that it was conscious. And we +do not deny that the ancient Jews believed that the spirits of the +dead retained a nerveless, shadowy being in the solemn vaults of +the under world. The Hebrew word rendered soul in the text is +susceptible of three meanings: first, the shade, which, upon the +dissolution of the body, is gathered to its fathers in the great +subterranean congregation; second, the breath of a person, used as +synonymous with his life; third, a part of the vital breath of +God, which the Hebrews regarded as the source of the life of all +creatures, and the withdrawing of which they supposed was the +cause of death. It is clear that neither of these meanings can +prove any thing in regard to the real point at issue, that is, +concerning a future life of rewards and punishments. + +One of the strongest arguments brought to support the proposition +which we are combating at least, so considered by nearly all the +Rabbins, and by not a few modern critics is the account of the +vivification of the dead recorded in the thirty seventh chapter of +the Book of Ezekiel. The prophet "was carried in the spirit of +Jehovah" that is, mentally, in a prophetic ecstasy into a valley +full of dry bones. "The bones came together, the flesh + +2 Livy, i. 16; Dion. Hal. ii. 56. + + +grew on them, the breath came into them, and they lived and stood +on their feet, an exceeding great army." It should first be +observed that this account is not given as an actual occurrence, +but, after the manner of Ezekiel, as a prophetic vision meant to +symbolize something. Now, of what was it intended as the symbol? a +doctrine, or a coming event? a general truth to enlighten and +guide uncertain men, or an approaching deliverance to console and +encourage the desponding Jews? It is fair to let the prophet be +his own interpreter, without aid from the glosses of prejudiced +theorizers. It must be borne in mind that at this time the prophet +and his countrymen were bearing the grievous burden of bondage in +a foreign nation. "And Jehovah said to me, Son of man, these bones +denote the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are +dried, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off." This plainly +denotes their present suffering in the Babylonish captivity, and +their despair of being delivered from it. "Therefore prophesy, and +say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will open your +graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people, +and bring you into the land of Israel." That is, I will rescue you +from your slavery and restore you to freedom in your own land. The +dry bones and their subsequent vivification, therefore, clearly +symbolize the misery of the Israelites and their speedy +restoration to happiness. Death is frequently used in a figurative +sense to denote misery, and life to signify happiness. But those +who maintain that the doctrine of the resurrection is taught as a +revealed truth in the Hebrew Scriptures are not willing to let +this passage pass so easily. Mr. Barnes says, "The illustration +proves that the doctrine was one with which the people were +familiar." Jerome states the argument more fully, thus: "A +similitude drawn from the resurrection, to foreshadow the +restoration of the people of Israel, would never have been +employed unless the resurrection itself were believed to be a fact +of future occurrence; for no one thinks of confirming what is +uncertain by what has no existence." + +It is not difficult to reply to these objections with convincing +force. First, the vision was not used as proof or confirmation, +but as symbol and prophecy. Secondly, the use of any thing as an +illustration does by no means imply that it is commonly believed +as a fact. For instance, we are told in the ninth chapter of the +Book of Judges that Jotham related an allegory to the people as an +illustration of their conduct in choosing a king, saying, "The +trees once on a time went forth to anoint a king over them; and +they said to the olive tree, Come thou and reign over us;" and so +on. Does it follow that at that time it was a common belief that +the trees actually went forth occasionally to choose them a king? +Thirdly, if a given thing is generally believed as a fact, a +person who uses it expressly as a symbol, of course does not +thereby give his sanction to it as a fact. And if a belief in the +resurrection of the dead was generally entertained at the time of +the prophet, its origin is not implied, and it does not follow +that it was a doctrine of revelation, or even a true doctrine. +Finally, there is one consideration which shows conclusively that +this vision was never intended to typify the resurrection; namely, +that it has nothing corresponding to the most essential part of +that doctrine. When the bones have come together and are covered +with flesh, God does not call up the departed spirits of these +bodies from Sheol, does not bring back the vanished lives to +animate their former tabernacles, now miraculously renewed. No: he +but breathes on them with his vivifying breath, and straightway +they live and move. This is not a resurrection, but a new +creation. The common idea of a bodily restoration implies and, +that any just retribution be compatible with it, it necessarily +implies the vivification of the dead frame, not by the +introduction of new life, but by the reinstalment of the very same +life or spirit, the identical consciousness that before animated +it. Such is not represented as being the case in Ezekiel's vision +of the valley of dry bones. That vision had no reference to the +future state. + +In this connection, the revelation made by the angel in his +prophecy, recorded in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Daniel, +concerning the things which should happen in the Messianic times, +must not be passed without notice. It reads as follows: "And many +of the sleepers of the dust of the ground shall awake, those to +life everlasting, and these to shame, to contempt everlasting. And +they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, +and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever +and ever." No one can deny that a judgment, in which reward and +punishment shall be distributed according to merit, is here +clearly foretold. The meaning of the text, taken with the +connection, is, that when the Messiah appears and establishes his +kingdom the righteous shall enjoy a bodily resurrection upon the +earth to honor and happiness, but the wicked shall be left below +in darkness and death.3 This seems to imply, fairly enough, that +until the advent of the Messiah none of the dead existed +consciously in a state of retribution. The doctrine of the +passage, as is well known, was held by some of the Jews at the +beginning of the Christian era, and, less distinctly, for about +two centuries previous. Before that time no traces of it can be +found in their history. Now, had a doctrine of such intense +interest and of such vast importance as this been a matter of +revelation, it seems hardly possible that it should have been +confined to one brief and solitary text, that it should have +flashed up for a single moment so brilliantly, and then vanished +for three or four centuries in utter darkness. Furthermore, nearly +one half of the Book of Daniel is written in the Chaldee tongue, +and the other half in the Hebrew, indicating that it had two +authors, who wrote their respective portions at different periods. +Its critical and minute details of events are history rather than +prophecy. The greater part of the book was undoubtedly written as +late as about a hundred and sixty years before Christ, long after +the awful simplicity and solitude of the original Hebrew theology +had been marred and corrupted by an intermixture of the doctrines +of those heathen nations with whom the Jews had been often brought +in contact. Such being the facts in the case, the text is +evidently without force to prove a divine revelation of the +doctrine it teaches. + +In the twenty second chapter of the Gospel by Matthew, Jesus says +to the Sadducees, "But as touching the resurrection of the dead, +have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I +am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? +God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." The passage to +which reference is made is written in the third chapter of the +Book of Exodus. In order to ascertain the force of the Savior's +argument, the extent of meaning it had in his mind, and the amount +of knowledge attributed by it to Moses, it will be necessary to +determine first the definite purpose he had + +3 Wood, The Last Things, p. 45. + + +in view in his reply to the Sadducees, and how he proposed to +accomplish it. We shall find that the use he made of the text does +not imply that Moses had the slightest idea of any sort of future +life for man, much less of an immortal life of blessedness for the +good and of suffering for the bad. We should suppose, beforehand, +that such would be the case, since upon examining the declaration +cited, with its context, we find it to be simply a statement made +by Jehovah explaining who he was, that he was the ancient national +guardian of the Jews, the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. +This does not seem to contain the most distant allusion to the +immortality of man, or to have suggested any such thought to the +mind of Moses. It should be distinctly understood from the outset +that Jesus did not quote this passage from the Pentateuch as +proving any thing of itself, or as enabling him to prove any thing +by it directly, but as being of acknowledged authority to the +Sadducees themselves, to form the basis of a process of reasoning. +The purpose he had in view, plainly, was to convince the Sadducees +either of the possibility or of the actuality of the resurrection +of the dead: its possibility, if we assume that by resurrection he +meant the Jewish doctrine of a material restoration, the reunion +of soul and body; its actuality, if we suppose he meant the +conscious immortality of the soul separate from the body. If the +resurrection was physical, Christ demonstrates to the Sadducees +its possibility, by refuting the false notion upon which they +based their denial of it. They said, The resurrection of the body +is impossible, because the principle of life, the consciousness, +has utterly perished, and the body cannot live alone. He replied, +It is possible, because the soul has an existence separate from +the body, and, consequently, may be reunited to it. You admit that +Jehovah said, after they were dead, I am the God of Abraham, +Isaac, and Jacob: but he is the God of the living, and not of the +dead, for all live unto him. You must confess this. The soul, +then, survives the body, and a resurrection is possible. It will +be seen that this implies nothing concerning the nature or +duration of the separate existence, but merely the fact of it. +But, if Christ meant by the resurrection of the dead as we think +he did the introduction of the disembodied and conscious soul into +a state of eternal blessedness, the Sadducees denied its reality +by maintaining that no such thing as a soul existed after bodily +dissolution. He then proved to them its reality in the following +manner. You believe for Moses, to whose authority you implicitly +bow, relates it that God said, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, +and Jacob," and this, long after they died. But evidently he +cannot be said to be the God of that which does not exist: +therefore their souls must have been still alive. And if Jehovah +was emphatically their God, their friend, of course he will show +them his loving kindness. They are, then, in a conscious state of +blessedness. The Savior does not imply that God said so much in +substance, nor that Moses intended to teach, or even knew, any +thing like it, but that, by adding to the passage cited a premise +of his own, which his hearers granted to be true, he could deduce +so much from it by a train of new and unanswerable reasoning. His +opponents were compelled to admit the legitimacy of his argument, +and, impressed by its surpassing beauty and force, were silenced, +if not convinced. The credit of this cogent proof of human +immortality, namely, that God's love for man is a pledge and +warrant of his eternal blessedness a proof whose originality and +significance set it far beyond all parallel is due to the dim +gropings of no Hebrew prophet, but to the inspired insight of the +great Founder of Christianity. + +The various passages yet unnoticed which purport to have been +uttered by Jehovah or at his command, and which are urged to show +that the reality of a retributive life after death is a revealed +doctrine of the Old Testament, will be found, upon critical +examination, either to owe their entire relevant force to +mistranslation, or to be fairly refuted by the reasonings already +advanced. Professor Stuart admits that he finds only one +consideration to show that Moses had any idea of a future +retribution; and that is, that the Egyptians expressly believed +it; and he is not able to comprehend how Moses, who dwelt so long +among them, should be ignorant of it.4 The reasoning is obviously +inconsequential. It is not certain that the Egyptians held this +doctrine in the time of Moses: it may have prevailed among them +before or after, and not during, that period. If they believed it +at that time, it may have been an esoteric doctrine, with which he +did not become acquainted. If they believed it, and he knew it, he +might have classed it with other heathen doctrines, and supposed +it false. And, even if he himself believed it, he might possibly +not have inculcated it upon the Israelites; and the question is, +what he did actually teach, not what he knew. + +The opinions of the Jews at the time of the Savior have no bearing +upon the point in hand, because they were acquired at a later +period than that of the writing of the records we are now +considering. They were formed, and gradually grew in consistency +and favor, either by the natural progress of thought among the +Jews themselves, or, more probably, by a blending of the +intimations of the Hebrew Scriptures with Gentile speculations, +the doctrines of the Egyptians, Hindus, and Persians. We leave +this portion of the subject, then, with the following proposition. +In the canonic books of the Old Dispensation there is not a single +genuine text, claiming to come from God, which teaches explicitly +any doctrine whatever of a life beyond the grave. That doctrine as +it existed among the Jews was no part of their pure religion, but +was a part of their philosophy. It did not, as they held it, imply +any thing like our present idea of the immortality of the soul +reaping in the spiritual world what it has sowed in the physical. +It simply declared the existence of human ghosts amidst unbroken +gloom and stillness in the cavernous depths of the earth, without +reward, without punishment, without employment, scarcely +with consciousness, as will immediately appear. + +We proceed to the second general division of the subject. What +does the Old Testament, apart from the revelation claimed to be +contained in it, and regarding only those portions of it which are +confessedly a collection of the poetry, history, and philosophy of +the Hebrews, intimate concerning a future state of existence? +Examining these writings with an unbiased mind, we discover that +in different portions of them there are large variations and +opposition of opinion. In some books we trace an undoubting belief +in certain rude notions of the future condition of souls; in other +books we encounter unqualified denials of every such thought. "Man +lieth down and riseth not," sighs the despairing Job. "The dead +cannot praise God, neither any that go down into darkness," wails +the repining Psalmist. "All go to one place," + +4 Exegetical Essays, (Andover, 1830,) p. 108. + + +and "the dead know not any thing," asserts the disbelieving +Preacher. These inconsistencies we shall not stop to point out and +comment upon. They are immaterial to our present purpose, which is +to bring together, in their general agreement, the sum and +substance of the Hebrew ideas on this subject. + +The separate existence of the soul is necessarily implied by the +distinction the Hebrews made between the grave, or sepulchre, and +the under world, or abode of shades. The Hebrew words bor and +keber mean simply the narrow place in which the dead body is +buried; while Sheol represents an immense cavern in the interior +of the earth where the ghosts of the deceased are assembled. When +the patriarch was told that his son Joseph was slain by wild +beasts, he cried aloud, in bitter sorrow, "I will go down to Sheol +unto my son, mourning." + +He did not expect to meet Joseph in the grave; for he supposed his +body torn in pieces and scattered in the wilderness, not laid in +the family tomb. The dead are said to be "gathered to their +people," or to "sleep with their fathers," and this whether they +are interred in the same place or in a remote region. It is +written, "Abraham gave up the ghost, and was gathered unto his +people," notwithstanding his body was laid in a cave in the field +of Machpelah, close by Hebron, while his people were buried in +Chaldea and Mesopotamia. "Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and +was gathered unto his people;" and then we read, as if it were +done afterwards, "His sons, Jacob and Esau, buried him." These +instances might be multiplied. They prove that "to be gathered +unto one's fathers" means to descend into Sheol and join there the +hosts of the departed. A belief in the separate existence of the +soul is also involved in the belief in necromancy, or divination, +the prevalence of which is shown by the stern laws against those +who engaged in its unhallowed rites, and by the history of the +witch of Endor. She, it is said, by magical spells evoked the +shade of old Samuel from below. It must have been the spirit of +the prophet that was supposed to rise; for his body was buried at +Ramah, more than sixty miles from Endor. The faith of the Hebrews +in the separate existence of the soul is shown, furthermore, by +the fact that the language they employed expresses, in every +instance, the distinction of body and spirit. They had particular +words appropriated to each. "As thy soul liveth," is a Hebrew +oath. "With my spirit within me will I seek thee early." "I, +Daniel, was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body:" the +figure here represents the soul in the body as a sword in a +sheath. "Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the under world, +as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth;" that is, +the soul, expelled from its case of clay by the murderer's weapon, +flees into Sheol and leaves its exuvioe at the entrance. "Thy +voice shall be as that of a spirit out of the ground:" the word +"Lhere used signifies the shade evoked by a necromancer from the +region of death, which was imagined to speak in a feeble whisper. + +The term rephaim is used to denote the manes of the departed. The +etymology of the word, as well as its use, makes it mean the weak, +the relaxed. "I am counted as them that go down into the under +world; I am as a man that hath no strength." This faint, powerless +condition accords with the idea that they were destitute of flesh, +blood, and animal life, mere umbroe. These ghosts are described as +being nearly as destitute of sensation as they are of strength. +They are called "the inhabitants of the land of stillness." They +exist in an inactive, partially torpid state, with a dreamy +consciousness of past and present, neither suffering nor enjoying, +and seldom moving. Herder says of the Hebrews, "The sad and +mournful images of their ghostly realm disturbed them, and were +too much for their self possession." Respecting these images, he +adds, "Their voluntary force and energy were destroyed. They were +feeble as a shade, without distinction of members, as a nerveless +breath. They wandered and flitted in the dark nether world." This +"wandering and flitting," however, is rather the spirit of +Herder's poetry than of that of the Hebrews; for the whole tenor +and drift of the representations in the Old Testament show that +the state of disembodied souls is deep quietude. Freed from +bondage, pain, toil, and care, they repose in silence. The ghost +summoned from beneath by the witch of Endor said, "Why hast thou +disquieted me to bring me up?" It was, indeed, in a dismal abode +that they took their long quiet; but then it was in a place "where +the wicked ceased from troubling and the weary were at rest." + +Those passages which attribute active employments to the dwellers +in the under world are specimens of poetic license, as the context +always shows. When Job says, "Before Jehovah the shades beneath +tremble," he likewise declares, "The pillars of heaven tremble and +are confounded at his rebuke." When Isaiah breaks forth in that +stirring lyric to the King of Babylon, + +"The under world is in commotion on account of thee, To meet thee +at thy coming; It stirreth up before thee the shades, all the +mighty of the earth; It arouseth from their thrones all the kings +of the nations; They all accost thee, and say, Art thou too become +weak as we?" + +he also exclaims, in the same connection, + +"Even the cypress trees exult over thee, And the cedars of +Lebanon, saying, Since thou art fallen, No man cometh up to cut us +down." + +The activity thus vividly described is evidently a mere figure of +speech: so is it in the other instances which picture the rephaim +as employed and in motion. "Why," complainingly sighed the +afflicted patriarch, "why died I not at my birth? For now should I +lie down and be quiet; I should slumber; I should then be at +rest." And the wise man says, in his preaching, "There is no work, +nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol." What has already +been said is sufficient to establish the fact that the Hebrews had +an idea that the souls of men left their bodies at death and +existed as dim shadows, in a state of undisturbed repose, in the +bowels of the earth. + +Sheol is directly derived from a Hebrew word, signifying, first, +to dig or excavate. It means, therefore, a cavity, or empty +subterranean place. Its derivation is usually connected, however, +with the secondary meaning of the Hebrew word referred to, namely, +to ask, to desire, from the notion of demanding, since rapacious +Orcus lays claim unsparingly to all; or, as others have fancifully +construed it, the object of universal inquiry, the unknown mansion +concerning which all are anxiously inquisitive. The place is +conceived on an immense scale, shrouded in accompaniments of +gloomy grandeur and peculiar awe: an enormous cavern in the earth, +filled with night; a stupendous hollow kingdom, to which are +poetically attributed valleys and gates, and in which are +congregated the slumberous and shadowy hosts of the rephaim, never +able to go out of it again forever. Its awful stillness is +unbroken by noise. Its thick darkness is uncheered by light. It +stretches far down under the ground. It is wonderfully deep. In +language that reminds one of Milton's description of hell, where +was + +"No light, but rather darkness visible," + +Job describes it as "the land of darkness, like the blackness of +death shade, where is no order, and where the light is as +darkness." The following passages, selected almost at random, will +show the ideas entertained of the place, and confirm and +illustrate the foregoing statements. "But he considers not that in +the valleys of Sheol are her guests." "Now shall I go down into +the gates of Sheol." "The ground slave asunder, and the earth +opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all +their men, and all their goods: they and all that appertained to +them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed upon them." +Its depth is contrasted with the height of the sky. "Though they +dig into Sheol, thence shall mine hand take them; though they +climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down." It is the +destination of all; for, though the Hebrews believed in a world of +glory above the solid ceiling of the dome of day, where Jehovah +and the angels dwelt, there was no promise, hope, or hint that any +man could ever go there. The dirge like burden of their poetry was +literally these words: "What man is he that liveth and shall not +see death? Shall he deliver his spirit from the hand of Sheol?" +The old Hebrew graves were crypts, wide, deep holes, like the +habitations of the troglodytes. In these subterranean caves they +laid the dead down; and so the Grave became the mother of Sheol, a +rendezvous of the fathers, a realm of the dead, full of eternal +ghost life. + +This under world is dreary and altogether undesirable, save as an +escape from extreme anguish. But it is not a place of retribution. +Jahn says, "That, in the belief of the ancient Hebrews, there were +different situations in Sheol for the good and the bad, cannot be +proved."5 The sudden termination of the present life is the +judgment the Old Testament threatens upon sinners; its happy +prolongation is the reward it promises to the righteous. Texts +that prove this might be quoted in numbers from almost every page. +"The wicked shall be turned into Sheol, and all the nations that +forget God," not to be punished there, but as a punishment. It is +true, the good and the bad alike pass into that gloomy land; but +the former go down tranquilly in a good old age and full of days, +as a shock of corn fully ripe cometh in its season, while the +latter are suddenly hurried there by an untimely and miserable +fate. The man that loves the Lord shall have length of days; the +unjust, though for a moment he flourishes, yet the wind bloweth, +and where is he? + +We shall perhaps gain a more clear and adequate knowledge of the +ideas the Hebrews had of the soul and of its fate, by marking the +different meanings of the words they used to + +5 Biblical Archeology, sect. 314. + + +denote it. Neshamah, primarily meaning breath or airy effluence, +next expresses the Spirit of God as imparting life and force, +wisdom and love; also the spirit of man as its emanation, +creation, or sustained object. The citation of a few texts in +which the word occurs will set this in a full light. "The Lord God +formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his +nostrils the spirit of existence, and man became a conscious +being." "It is the divine spirit of man, even the inspiration of +the Almighty, that giveth him understanding." "The Spirit of God +made me, and his breath gave me life." + +Ruah signifies, originally, a breathing or blowing. Two other +meanings are directly connected with this. First, the vital +spirit, the principle of life as manifested in the breath of the +mouth and nostrils. "And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two +and two of all flesh in whose nostrils was the breath of life." +Second, the wind, the motions of the air, which the Hebrews +supposed caused by the breath of God. "By the blast of thine anger +the waters were gathered on an heap." "The channels of waters were +seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered, O Lord, at +the blast of the breath of thy nostrils." So they regarded the +thunder as his voice. "The voice of Jehovah cutteth out the fiery +lightnings," and "shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh." This word is +also frequently placed for the rational spirit of man, the seat of +intellect and feeling. It is likewise sometimes representative of +the character and disposition of men, whether good or bad. Hosea +speaks of "a spirit of vile lust." In the Second Book of +Chronicles we read, "There came out a spirit, and stood before +Jehovah, and said, I will entice King Ahab to his destruction. I +will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his +prophets." Belshazzar says to Daniel, "I know that the spirit of +the holy gods is in thee." Finally, it is applied to Jehovah, +signifying the divine spirit, or power, by which all animate +creatures live, the universe is filled with motion, all +extraordinary gifts of skill, genius, strength, or virtue are +bestowed, and men incited to forsake evil and walk in the paths of +truth and piety. "Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created, +and thou renewest the face of the earth; thou takest away their +breath, they die and return to their dust." "Jehovah will be a +spirit of justice in them that sit to administer judgment." It +seems to be implied that the life of man, having emanated from the +spirit, is to be again absorbed in it, when it is said, "Then +shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall +return unto God who gave it." + +Nephesh is but partially a synonym for the word whose +significations we have just considered. The different senses it +bears are strangely interchanged and confounded in King James's +version. Its first meaning is breath, the breathing of a living +being. Next it means the vital spirit, the indwelling life of the +body. "If any mischief follow, thou shalt take life for life." The +most adequate rendering of it would be, in a great majority of +instances, by the term life. "In jeopardy of his life [not soul] +hath Adonijah spoken this." It sometimes represents the +intelligent soul or mind, the subject of knowledge and desire. "My +soul knoweth right well.". Also the heart, is often used more +frequently perhaps than any other term as meaning the vital +principle, and the seat of consciousness, intellect, will, and +affection. Jehovah said to Solomon, in answer to his prayer, "Lo, +I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart." The later +Jews speculated much, with many cabalistic refinements, on these +different words. They said many persons were supplied with a +Nephesh without a Ruah, much more without a Neshamah. They +declared that the Nephesh (Psyche) was the soul of the body, the +Ruah (Pneuma) the soul of the Nephesh, and the Neshamah (Nous) the +soul of the Ruah. Some of the Rabbins assert that the destination +of the Nephesh, when the body dies, is Sheol; of the Ruah, the +air; and of the Neshamah, heaven. 6 + +The Hebrews used all those words in speaking of brutes, to denote +their sensitive existence, that they did in reference to men. They +held that life was in every instance an emission, or breath, from +the Spirit of God. But they do not intimate of brutes, as they do +of men, that they have surviving shades. The author of the Book of +Ecclesiastes, however, bluntly declares that "all have one breath, +and all go to one place, so that a man hath no pre eminence above +a beast." As far as the words used to express existence, soul, or +mind, legitimate any inference, it would seem to be, either that +the essential life is poured out at death as so much air, or else +that it is received again by God, in both cases implying +naturally, though not of philosophic necessity, the close of +conscious, individual existence. But the examination we have made +of their real opinions shows that, however obviously this +conclusion might flow from their pneumatology, it was not the +expectation they cherished. They believed there was a dismal +empire in the earth where the rephaim, or ghosts of the dead, +reposed forever in a state of semi sleep. + +"It is a land of shadows: yea, the land +Itself is but a shadow, and the race +That dwell therein are voices, forms of forms. +And echoes of themselves." + +That the Hebrews, during the time covered by their sacred records, +had no conception of a retributive life beyond the present, knew +nothing of a blessed immortality, is shown by two conclusive +arguments, in addition to the positive demonstration afforded by +the views which, as we have seen, they did actually hold in regard +to the future lot of man. First, they were puzzled, they were +troubled and distressed, by the moral phenomena of the present +life, the misfortunes of the righteous, the prosperity of the +wicked. Read the Book of Ecclesiastes, the Book of Job, some of +the Psalms. Had they been acquainted with future reward and +punishment, they could easily have solved these problems to their +satisfaction. Secondly, they regarded life as the one blessing, +death as the one evil. Something of sadness, we may suppose, was +in the wise man's tones when he said, "A living dog is better than +a dead lion." Obey Jehovah's laws, that thy days may be long in +the land he giveth thee; the wicked shall not live out half his +days: such is the burden of the Old Testament. It was reserved for +a later age to see life and immortality brought to light, and for +the disciples of a clearer faith to feel that death is gain. + +There are many passages in the Hebrew Scriptures generally +supposed and really appearing, upon a slight examination, not +afterwards to teach doctrines different from those here stated. We +will give two examples in a condensed form. "Thou wilt not leave + +6 Tractatus de Anima a R. Moscheh Korduero. In Kabbala Denudata. +tom. i. pars ii. + + +my soul in Sheol: . . . at thy right hand are pleasures for +evermore." This text, properly translated and explained, means, +Thou wilt not leave me to misfortune and untimely death: . . . in +thy royal favor is prosperity and length of days. "I know that my +Redeemer liveth:. . . in my flesh I shall see God." The genuine +meaning of this triumphant exclamation of faith is, I know that +God is the Vindicator of the upright, and that he will yet justify +me before I die. A particular examination of the remaining +passages of this character with which erroneous conceptions are +generally connected would show, first, that in nearly every case +these passages are not accurately translated; secondly, that they +may be satisfactorily interpreted as referring merely to this +life, and cannot by a sound exegesis be explained otherwise; +thirdly, that the meaning usually ascribed to them is inconsistent +with the whole general tenor, and with numberless positive and +explicit statements, of the books in which they are found; +fourthly, that if there are, as there dubiously seem to be in some +of the Psalms, texts implying the ascent of souls after death to a +heavenly life, for example, "Thou shalt guide me with thy +countenance, and afterward receive me to glory," they were the +product of a late period, and reflect a faith not native to the +Hebrews, but first known to them after their intercourse with the +Persians. + +Christians reject the allegorizing of the Jews, and yet +traditionally accept, on their authority, doctrines which can be +deduced from their Scriptures in no other way than by the absurd +hypothesis of a double or mystic sense. For example, scores of +Christian authors have taught the dogma of a general resurrection +of the dead, deducing it from such passages as God's sentence upon +Adam: "From the dust wast thou taken, and unto the dust shalt thou +return;" as Joel's patriotic picture of the Jews victorious in +battle, and of the vanquished heathen gathered in the valley of +Jehoshaphat to witness their installation as rulers of the earth; +and as the declaration of the God of battles: "I am he that kills +and that makes alive, that wounds and that heals." And they +maintain that the doctrine of immortality is inculcated in such +texts as these: when Moses asks to see God, and the reply is, "No +man can see me and live;" when Bathsheba bows and says, "Let my +lord King David live forever;" and when the sacred poet praises +God, saying, "Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes +from tears, and my feet from falling." Such interpretations of +Scripture are lamentable in the extreme; their context shows them +to be absurd. The meaning is forced into the words, not derived +from them. + +Such as we have now seen were the ancient Hebrew ideas of the +future state. To those who received them the life to come was +cheerless, offering no attraction save that of peace to the weary +sufferer. On the other hand, it had no terror save the natural +revulsion of the human heart from everlasting darkness, silence, +and dreams. In view of deliverance from so dreary a fate, by +translation through Jesus Christ to the splendors of the world +above the firmament, there are many exultations in the Epistles of +Paul, and in other portions of the New Testament. + +The Hebrew views of the soul and its destiny, as discerned through +the intimations of their Scriptures are very nearly what, from a +fair consideration of the case, we should suppose they would be, +agreeing in the main with the natural speculations of other early +nations upon the same subject. These opinions underwent but little +alteration until a century or a century and a half before the dawn +of the Christian era. + +This is shown by the phraseology of the Septuagint version of +the Pentateuch, and by the allusions in the so called +Apocryphal books. In these, so far as there are any relevant +statements or implications, they are of the same character as +those which we have explained from the more ancient writings. This +is true, with the notable exceptions of the Wisdom of Solomon and +the Second Maccabees, neither of which documents can be dated +earlier than a hundred and twenty years before Christ. The former +contains the doctrine of transmigration. The author says, "Being +wise, I came into a body undefiled."7 But, with the exception of +this and one other passage, there is little or nothing in the book +which is definite on the subject of a future life. It is difficult +to tell what the author's real faith was: his words seem rather +rhetorical than dogmatic. He says, "To be allied unto wisdom is +immortality;" but other expressions would appear to show that by +immortality he means merely a deathless posthumous fame, "leaving +an eternal memorial of himself to all who shall come after him." +Again he declares, "The spirit when it is gone forth returneth +not; neither the soul received up cometh again." And here we find, +too, the famous text, "God created man to be immortal, and made +him to be an image of his own eternity. Nevertheless, through envy +of the devil came death into the world, and they that hold of his +side do find it."8 Upon the whole, it is pretty clear that the +writer believed in a future life; but the details are too +partially and obscurely shadowed to be drawn forth. We may, +however, hazard a conjecture on the passage last quoted, +especially with the help of the light cast upon it from its +evident Persian origin. What is it, expressed by the term "death," +which is found by the adherents of the devil distinctively? +"Death" cannot here be a metaphor for an inward state of sin and +woe, because it is contrasted with the plainly literal phrases, +"created to be immortal," "an image of God's eternity." It cannot +signify simply physical dissolution, because this is found as well +by God's servants as by the devil's. Its genuine meaning is, most +probably, a descent into the black kingdom of sadness and silence +under the earth, while the souls of the good were "received up." + +The Second Book of Maccabees with emphasis repeatedly asserts +future retribution and a bodily resurrection. In the seventh +chapter a full account is given of seven brothers and their mother +who suffered martyrdom, firmly sustained by faith in a glorious +reward for their heroic fidelity, to be reaped at the +resurrection. One of them says to the tyrant by whose order he was +tortured, "As for thee, thou shalt have no resurrection to life." +Nicanor, bleeding from many horrible wounds, "plucked out his +bowels and cast them upon the throng, and, calling upon the Lord +of life and spirit to restore him those again, [at the day of +resurrection,] he thus died."9 Other passages in this book to the +same effect it is needless to quote. The details lying latent in +those we have quoted will soon be illuminated and filled out when +we come to treat of the opinions of the Pharisees. 10 + +7 Cap. viii. 20. + +8 Cap. ii. 23, 24. + +9 Cap. xiv. 46. + +10 See a very able discussion of the relation between the ideas +concerning immortality, resurrection, judgment, and retribution, +contained in the Old Testament Apocrypha, and those in the New +Testament, by Frisch, inserted in Eichhorn's Allgemeine Bibliothek +der Biblischen Literatur, band iv. stuck iv. + + +There lived in Alexandria a very learned Jew named Philo, the +author of voluminous writings, a zealous Israelite, but deeply +imbued both with the doctrines and the spirit of Plato. He was +born about twenty years before Christ, and survived him about +thirty years. The weight of his character, the force of his +talents, the fascinating adaptation of his peculiar philosophical +speculations and of his bold and subtle allegorical expositions of +Scripture to the mind of his age and of the succeeding centuries, +together with the eminent literary position and renown early +secured for him by a concurrence of causes, have combined to make +him exert according to the expressed convictions of the best +judges, such as Lucke and Norton a greater influence on the +history of Christian opinions than any single man, with the +exception of the Apostle Paul, since the days of Christ. It is +important, and will be interesting, to see some explanation of his +views on the subject of a future life. A synopsis of them must +suffice. + +Philo was a Platonic Alexandrian Jew, not a Zoroastrian +Palestinian Pharisee. It was a current saying among the Christian +Fathers, "Vel Plato Philonizat, vel Philo Platonizat." He has +little to say of the Messiah, nothing to say of the Messianic +eschatology. We speak of him in this connection because he was a +Jew, flourishing at the commencement of the Christian epoch, and +contributing much, by his cabalistic interpretations, to lead +Christians to imagine that the Old Testament contained the +doctrine of a spiritual immortality connected with a system of +rewards and punishments. + +Three principal points include the substance of Philo's faith on +the subject in hand. He rejected the notion of a resurrection of +the body and held to the natural immortality of the soul. He +entertained the most profound and spiritual conceptions of the +intrinsically deadly nature and wretched fruits of all sin, and of +the self contained welfare and self rewarding results of every +element of virtue, in themselves, independent of time and place +and regardless of external bestowments of woe or joy. He also +believed at the same time in contrasted localities above and +below, appointed as the residences of the disembodied souls of +good and of wicked men. We will quote miscellaneously various +passages from him in proof and illustration of these statements: + +"Man's bodily form is made from the ground, the soul from no +created thing, but from the Father of all; so that, although man +was mortal as to his body, he was immortal as to his mind."11 +"Complete virtue is the tree of immortal life."12 "Vices and +crimes, rushing in through the gate of sensual pleasure, changed a +happy and immortal life for a wretched and mortal one."13 +Referring to the allegory of the garden of Eden, he says, "The +death threatened for eating the fruit was not natural, the +separation of soul and body, but penal, the sinking of the soul in +the body."14 "Death is twofold, one of man, one of the soul. The +death of man is the separation of the soul from the body; the +death of the soul is the corruption of virtue + +11 Mangey's edition of Philo's works, vol. i. p. 32. + +12 Ibid. p. 38. + +13 Ibid. p. 37. + +14 Ibid. p. 65. + + +and the assumption of vice."15 "To me, death with the pious is +preferable to life with the impious. For those so dying, deathless +life delivers; but those so living, eternal death seizes."16 He +writes of three kinds of life, "one of which neither ascends nor +cares to ascend, groping in the secret recesses of Hades and +rejoicing in the most lifeless life."17 Commenting on the promise +of the Lord to Abram, that he should be buried in a good old age, +Philo observes that "A polished, purified soul does not die, but +emigrates: it is of an inextinguishable and deathless race, and +goes to heaven, escaping the dissolution and corruption which +death seems to introduce."18 "A vile life is the true Hades, +despicable and obnoxious to every sort of execration." 19 +"Different regions are set apart for different things, heaven for +the good, the confines of the earth for the bad."20 He thinks the +ladder seen by Jacob in his dream "is a figure of the air, which, +reaching from earth to heaven, is the house of unembodied souls, +the image of a populous city having for citizens immortal souls, +some of whom descend into mortal bodies, but soon return aloft, +calling the body a sepulchre from which they hasten, and, on light +wings seeking the lofty ether, pass eternity in sublime +contemplations."21 "The wise inherit the Olympic and heavenly +region to dwell in, always studying to go above; the bad, the +innermost parts of Hades, always laboring to die."22 He literally +accredits the account, in the sixteenth chapter of Numbers, of the +swallowing of Korah and his company, saying, "The earth opened and +took them alive into Hades."23 "Ignorant men regard death as the +end of punishments, whereas in the Divine judgment it is scarcely +the beginning of them."24 He describes the meritorious man as +"fleeing to God and receiving the most intimate honor of a firm +place in heaven; but the reprobate man is dragged below, down to +the very lowest place, to Tartarus itself and profound +darkness."25 "He who is not firmly held by evil may by repentance +return to virtue, as to the native land from which he has +wandered. But he who suffers from incurable vice must endure its +dire penalties, banished into the place of the impious until the +whole of eternity."26 + +Such, then, was the substance of Philo's opinions on the theme +before us, as indeed many more passages, which we have omitted as +superfluous, might be cited from him to show. Man was made +originally a mortal body and an immortal soul. He should have been +happy and pure while in the body, and on leaving it have soared up +to the realm of light and bliss on high, to join the angels. +"Abraham, leaving his mortal part, was added to the people of God, + +15 Ibid. p. 65. + +16 Ibid. p. 233. + +17 Ibid. p. 479. + +18 Ibid. p. 513. + +19 Ibid. p. 527. + +20 Ibid. p. 555. + +21 Ibid. p. 641, 642. + +22 Ibid. p. 643. + +23 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 178. + +24 Ibid. p. 419. + +25 Mangey's edition of Philo's Works, vol. ii. p. 433. + +26 Ibid. vol. i. p. 139. + + +enjoying immortality and made similar to the angels. For the +angels are the army of God, bodiless and happy souls."27 But, +through the power of evil, all who yield to sin and vice lose that +estate of bright and blessed immortality, and become discordant, +wretched, despicable, and, after the dissolution of the body, are +thrust down to gloom and manifold just retribution in Hades. He +believed in the pre existence, and in a limited transmigration, of +souls. Here he leaves the subject, saying nothing of a +resurrection or final restoration, and not speculating as to any +other of the details. 28 + +We pass on to speak of the Jewish sects at the time of Christ. +There were three of these, cardinally differing from each other in +their theories of the future fate of man. First, there were the +skeptical, materialistic Sadducees, wealthy, proud, few. They +openly denied the existence of any disembodied souls, avowing that +men utterly perished in the grave. "The cloud faileth and passeth +away: so he that goeth down to the grave doth not return."29 We +read in the Acts of the Apostles, "The Sadducees say there is no +resurrection, neither angel nor spirit." At the same time they +accepted the Pentateuch, only rejecting or explaining away those +portions of it which relate to the separate existence of souls and +to their subterranean abode. They strove to confound their +opponents, the advocates of a future life, by such perplexing +questions as the one they addressed to Jesus, asking, in the case +of a woman who had had seven successive husbands, which one of +them should be her husband in the resurrection. All that we can +gather concerning the Sadducees from the New Testament is amply +confirmed by Josephus, who explicitly declares, "Their doctrine is +that souls die with the bodies." + +The second sect was the ascetical and philosophical Essenes, of +whom the various information given by Philo in his celebrated +paper on the Therapeuta agrees with the account in Josephus and +with the scattered gleams in other sources. The doctrine of the +Essenes on the subject of our present inquiry was much like that +of Philo himself; and in some particulars it remarkably resembles +that of many Christians. They rejected the notion of the +resurrection of the body, and maintained the inherent immortality +of the soul. They said that "the souls of men, coming out of the +most subtle and pure air, are bound up in their bodies as in so +many prisons; but, being freed at death, they do rejoice, and are +borne aloft where a state of happy life forever is decreed for the +virtuous; but the vicious are assigned to eternal punishment in a +dark, cold place." 30 Such sentiments appear to have inspired the +heroic Eleazar, whose speech to his followers is reported by +Josephus, when they were besieged at Masada, urging them to rush +on the foe, "for death is better than life, is the only true life, +leading the soul to infinite freedom and joy above."31 + +27 Ibid. p. 164. + +28 See, in the Analekten of Keil and Tzschirner, band i stuck +ii., an article by Dr. Schreiter, entitled Philo's Ideen uber +Unsterblichkeit, Auferstehung, und Vergeltung. + +29 Lightfoot in Matt. xxii. 23. + +30 Josephus, De Bell. lib. ii. cap. 8. + +31 Ibid. lib. vii. cap. 8. + + +But by far the most numerous and powerful of the Jewish sects at +that time, and ever since, were the eclectic, traditional, +formalist Pharisees: eclectic, inasmuch as their faith was formed +by a partial combination of various systems; traditional, since +they allowed a more imperative sway to the authority of the +Fathers, and to oral legends and precepts, than to the plain +letter of Scripture; formalist, for they neglected the weightier +spiritual matters of the law in a scrupulous tithing of mint, +cumin, and anise seed, a pretentious wearing of broad +phylacteries, an uttering of long prayers in the streets, and the +various other hypocritical priestly paraphernalia of a severe +mechanical ritual. + +From Josephus we learn that the Pharisees believed that the souls +of the faithful that is, of all who punctiliously observed the law +of Moses and the traditions of the elders would live again by +transmigration into new bodies; but that the souls of all others, +on leaving their bodies, were doomed to a place of confinement +beneath, where they must abide forever. These are his words: "The +Pharisees believe that souls have an immortal strength in them, +and that in the under world they will experience rewards or +punishments according as they have lived well or ill in this life. +The righteous shall have power to live again, but sinners shall be +detained in an everlasting prison."32 Again, he writes, "The +Pharisees say that all souls are incorruptible, but that only the +souls of good men are removed into other bodies."33 The fragment +entitled "Concerning Hades," formerly attributed to Josephus, is +now acknowledged on all sides to be a gross forgery. The Greek +culture and philosophical tincture with which he was imbued led +him to reject the doctrine of a bodily resurrection; and this is +probably the reason why he makes no allusion to that doctrine in +his account of the Pharisees. That such a doctrine was held among +them is plain from passages in the New Testament, passages which +also shed light upon the statement actually made by Josephus. +Jesus says to Martha, "Thy brother shall rise again." She replies, +"I know that he shall rise in the resurrection, at the last day." +Some of the Pharisees, furthermore, did not confine the privilege +or penalty of transmigration, and of the resurrection, to the +righteous. They once asked Jesus, "Who did sin, this man or his +parents, that he was born blind?" Plainly, he could not have been +born blind for his own sins unless he had known a previous life. +Paul, too, says of them, in his speech at Casarea, "They +themselves also allow that there shall be a resurrection of the +dead, both of the just and of the unjust." This, however, is very +probably an exception to their prevailing belief. Their religious +intolerance, theocratic pride, hereditary national vanity, and +sectarian formalism, often led them to despise and overlook the +Gentile world, haughtily restricting the boon of a renewed life to +the legal children of Abraham. + +But the grand source now open to us of knowledge concerning the +prevailing opinions of the Jews on our present subject at and +subsequent to the time of Christ is the Talmud. This is a +collection of the traditions of the oral law, (Mischna,) with the +copious precepts and comments (Gemara) of the most learned and +authoritative Rabbins. It is a wonderful monument of myths and +fancies, profound speculations and ridiculous puerilities, antique + +32 Antiq. lib. xviii. cap. 1.33 De Bell. lib. ii. cap. 8. + + +legends and cabalistic subtleties, crowned and loaded with the +national peculiarities. The Jews reverence it extravagantly, +saying, "The Bible is salt, the Mischna pepper, the Gemara balmy +spice." Rabbi Solomon ben Joseph sings, in our poet's version, + +"The Kabbala and Talmud hoar Than all the Prophets prize I more; +For water is all Bible lore, But Mischna is pure wine." + +The rambling character and barbarous dialect of this work have +joined with various other causes to withhold from it far too much +of the attention of Christian critics. Saving by old Lightfoot and +Pocock, scarcely a contribution has ever been offered us in +English from this important field. The Germans have done far +better; and numerous huge volumes, the costly fruits of their +toils, are standing on neglected shelves. The eschatological views +derived from this source are authentically Jewish, however closely +they may resemble some portion of the popular Christian +conceptions upon the same subject. The correspondences between +some Jewish and some Christian theological dogmas betoken the +influx of an adulterated Judaism into a nascent Christianity, not +the reflex of a pure Christianity upon a receptive Judaism. It is +important to show this; and it appears from several +considerations. In the first place, it is demonstrable, it is +unquestioned, that at least the germs and outlines of the dogmas +referred to were in actual existence among the Pharisees before +the conflict between Christianity and Judaism arose.Secondly, in +the Rabbinical writings these dogmas are most fundamental, vital, +and pervading, in relation to the whole system; but in the +Christian they seem subordinate and incidental, have every +appearance of being ingrafts, not outgrowths. Thirdly, in the +apostolic age Judaism was a consolidated, petrified system, +defended from outward influence on all sides by an invulnerable +bigotry, a haughty exclusiveness; while Christianity was in a +young and vigorous, an assimilating and formative, state. +Fourthly, the overweening sectarian vanity and scorn of the Jews, +despising, hating, and fearing the Christians, would not permit +them to adopt peculiarities of belief from the latter; but the +Christians were undeniably Jews in almost every thing except in +asserting the Messiahship of Jesus: they claimed to be the genuine +Jews, children of the law and realizers of the promise. The Jewish +dogmas, therefore, descended to them as a natural lineal +inheritance. Finally, in the Acts of the Apostles, the letters of +Paul, and the progress of the Ebionites, (which sect included +nearly all the Christians of the first century,) we can trace step +by step the actual workings, in reliable history, of the process +that we affirm, namely, the assimilation of Jewish elements into +the popular Christianity. + +CHAPTER IX. + +RABBINICAL DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +THE starting point in the Talmud on this subject is with the +effects of sin upon the human race. Man was made radiant, pure, +immortal, in the image of God. By sin he was obscured, defiled, +burdened with mortal decay and judgment. In this representation +that misery and death were an after doom brought into the world by +sin, the Rabbinical authorities strikingly agree. The testimony is +irresistible. We need not quote confirmations of this statement, +as every scholar in this department will accept it at once. But as +to what is meant precisely by the term "death," as used in such a +connection, there is no little obscurity and diversity of opinion. +In all probability, some of the Pharisaical fathers perhaps the +majority of them conceived that, if Adam had not sinned, he and +his posterity would have been physically immortal, and would +either have lived forever on the earth, or have been successively +transferred to the home of Jehovah over the firmament. They call +the devil, who is the chief accuser in the heavenly court of +justice, the angel of death, by the name of "Sammael." Rabbi +Reuben says, "When Sammael saw Adam sin, he immediately sought to +slay him, and went to the heavenly council and clamored for +justice against him, pleading thus: 'God made this decree, "In the +day thou eatest of the tree thou shalt surely die." Therefore give +him to me, for he is mine, and I will kill him; to this end was I +created; and give me power over all his descendants.' When the +celestial Sanhedrim perceived that his petition was just, they +decreed that it should be granted."1 A great many expressions of +kindred tenor might easily be adduced, leaving it hardly possible +to doubt as indeed we are not aware that any one does doubt that +many of the Jews literally held that sin was the sole cause of +bodily dissolution. But, on the other hand, there were as +certainly others who did not entertain that idea, but understood +and explained the terms in which it was sometimes conveyed in a +different, a partially figurative, sense. Rabbi Samuel ben David +writes, "Although the first Adam had not sinned, yet death would +have been; for death was created on the first day." The reference +here is, as Rabbi Berechias explains, to the account in Genesis +where we read that "darkness was upon the face of the deep," "by +which is to be understood the angel of death, who has darkened the +face of man."2 The Talmudists generally believed also in the pre +existence of souls in heaven, and in a spiritual body investing +and fitting the soul for heaven, as the present carnal body +invests and fits it for the earth. Schoettgen has collected +numerous illustrations in point, of which the following may serve +as specimens.3 "When the first Adam had not sinned, he was every +way an angel of the Lord, perfect and spotless, and it was decreed +that he should live forever like one of the celestial ministers." +"The soul cannot ascend into Paradise except it be first invested +with a + +1 Schoettgen, Dissertatio de Hierosolyma Coelesti, cap. iii. sect. +9. + +2 Schoettgen, Hora Biblica et Talmudica, in Rom. v. 12, et in +Johan. iii. 19. + +3 Ibid. in 2 Cor. v. 2. + + +clothing adapted to that world, as the present is for this world." +These notions do not harmonize with the thought that man was +originally destined for a physical eternity on this globe. All +this difficulty disappears, we think, and the true metaphorical +force often intended in the word "death" comes to view, through +the following conception, occupying the minds of a portion of the +Jewish Rabbins, as we are led to believe by the clews furnished in +the close connection between the Pharisaic and the Zoroastrian +eschatology, by similar hints in various parts of the New +Testament, and by some quite explicit declarations in the Talmud +itself, which we shall soon cite in a different connection. God at +first intended that man should live for a time in pure blessedness +on the earth, and then without pain should undergo a glorious +change making him a perfect peer of the angels, and be translated +to their lofty abode in his own presence; but, when he sinned, God +gave him over to manifold suffering, and on the destruction of his +body adjudged his naked soul to descend to a doleful imprisonment +below the grave. The immortality meant for man was a timely ascent +to heaven in a paradisal clothing, without dying. The doom brought +on him by sin was the alteration of that desirable change of +bodies and ascension to the supernal splendors, for a permanent +disembodiment and a dreaded descent to the subterranean glooms. It +is a Talmudical as much as it is a Pauline idea, that the +triumphant power of the Messiah would restore what the unfortunate +fall of Adam forfeited. Now, if we can show as we think we can, +and as we shall try to do in a later part of this article that the +later Jews expected the Messianic resurrection to be the prelude +to an ascent into heaven, and not the beginning of a gross earthly +immortality, it will powerfully confirm the theory which we have +just indicated. "When," says one of the old Rabbins, "the dead in +Israelitish earth are restored alive," their bodies will be "as +the body of the first Adam before he sinned, and they shall all +fly into the air like birds."4 + +At all events, whether the general Rabbinical belief was in the +primitive destination of man to a heavenly or to an earthly +immortality, whether the "death" decreed upon him in consequence +of sin was the dissolution of the body or the wretchedness of the +soul, they all agree that the banishment of souls into the realm +of blackness under the grave was a part of the penalty of sin. +Some of them maintained, as we think, that, had there been no sin, +souls would have passed to heaven in glorified bodies; others of +them maintained, as we think, that, had there been no sin, they +would have lived eternally upon earth in their present bodies; but +all of them agreed, it is undisputed, that in consequence of sin +souls were condemned to the under world. No man would have seen +the dismal realm of the sepulchre had there not been sin. The +earliest Hebrew conception was that all souls went down to a +common abode, to spend eternity in dark slumber or nerveless +groping. This view was first modified soon after the Persian +captivity, by the expectation that there would be discrimination +at the resurrection which the Jews had learned to look for, when +the just should rise but the wicked should be left. + +The next alteration of their notions on this subject was the +subdivision of the underworld into Paradise and Gehenna, a +conception known among them probably as early as a century before +Christ, and very prominent with them in the apostolic age. "When +Rabbi + +4 Schoettgen, in 1 Cor. xv. 44. + + +Jochanan was dying, his disciples asked him, 'Light of Israel, +main pillar of the right, thou strong hammer, why dost thou weep?' +He answered, 'Two paths open before me, the one leading to bliss, +the other to torments; and I know not which of them will be my +doom.'"5 "Paradise is separated from hell by a distance no greater +than the width of a thread."6 So, in Christ's parable of Dives and +Lazarus, Abraham's bosom and hell are two divisions. "There are +three doors into Gehenna: one in the wilderness, where Korah and +his company were swallowed; one in the sea, where Jonah descended +when he 'cried out of the belly of hell;' one in Jerusalem, for +the Lord says, 'My furnace is in Jerusalem.'"7 "The under world is +divided into palaces, each of which is so large that it would take +a man three hundred years to roam over it. There are distinct +apartments where the hell punishments are inflicted. One place is +so dark that its name is 'Night of Horrors."8 "In Paradise there +are certain mansions for the pious from the Gentile peoples, and +for those mundane kings who have done kindness to the +Israelites."9 "The fire of Gehenna was kindled on the evening of +the first Sabbath, and shall never be extinguished."10 The +Egyptians, Persians, Hindus, and Greeks, with all of whom the Jews +held relations of intercourse, had, in their popular +representations of the under world of the dead, regions of peace +and honor for the good, and regions of fire for the bad. The idea +may have been adopted from them by the Jews, or it may have been +at last developed among themselves, first by the imaginative +poetical, afterwards by the literally believing, transference +below of historical and local imagery and associations, such as +those connected with the ingulfing of Sodom and Gomorrah in fire +and sulphur, and with the loathed fires in the valley of Hinnom. + +Many of the Rabbins believed in the transmigration or revolution +of souls, an immemorial doctrine of the Fast, and developed it +into the most ludicrous and marvellous details.11 But, with the +exception of those who adopted this Indian doctrine, the Rabbins +supposed all departed souls to be in the under world, some in the +division of Paradise, others in that of hell. Here they fancied +these souls to be longingly awaiting the advent of the Messiah. +"Messiah and the patriarchs weep together in Paradise over the +delay of the time of the kingdom."12 In this quotation the Messiah +is represented as being in the under world, for the Jews expected +that he would be a man, very likely some one who had already +lived. For a delegation was once sent to ask Jesus, "Art thou +Elias? art thou the Messiah? art thou that prophet?" Light is thus +thrown upon the Rabbinical saying that "it was doubted whether the +Messiah would come from the living, or the dead."13 Borrowing some +Persian modes of thinking, and adding them to their own inordinate +national pride, the Rabbins soon began + +5 Talmud, tract. Berachoth. + +6 Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, th. ii. cap. v. s. 315. + +7 Lightfoot, in Matt. v. 22. + +8 Schroder, Satzungen and Gebrauche des Talmudisch Rabbinischen +Judenthums, s. 408. + +9 Schoettgen, in Johan. xiv. 2. + +10 Nov. Test. ex Talmude, etc. illustratum a J. G. Menschen, p. +125. + +11 Basnage, Hist. of Jews, lib. iv. cap. 30. Also, Traditions of +the Rabbins, in Blackwood for April, 1833. + +12 Eisenmenger, th. ii. s. 304. + +13 Lightfoot, in Matt. ii. 16. + + +to fancy that the observance or non observance of the Pharisaic +ritual, and kindred particulars, must exert a great effect in +determining the destination of souls and their condition in the +under world. Observe the following quotations from the Talmud. +"Abraham sits at the gate of hell to see that no Israelite +enters." "Circumcision is so agreeable to God, that he swore to +Abraham that no one who was circumcised should descend into +hell."14 "What does Abraham to those circumcised who have sinned +too much? He takes the foreskins from Gentile boys who died +without circumcision, and places them on those Jews who were +circumcised but have become godless, and then kicks them into +hell."15 Hell here denotes that division in the under world where +the condemned are punished. The younger Buxtorf, in a preface to +his father's "Synagoga Judaica," gives numerous specimens of +Jewish representations of "the efficacy of circumcision being so +great that no one who has undergone it shall go down into hell." +Children can help their deceased parents out of hell by their good +deeds, prayers, and offerings.16 "Beyond all doubt," says Gfrorer, +"the ancient Jewish synagogue inculcated the doctrine of +supererogatory good works, the merit of which went to benefit the +departed souls."17 Here all souls were, in the under world, either +in that part of it called Paradise, or in that named Gehenna, +according to certain conditions. But in whichever place they were, +and under whatever circumstances, they were all tarrying in +expectation of the advent of the Messiah. + +How deeply rooted, how eagerly cherished, the Jewish belief in the +approaching appearance of the Messiah was, and what a splendid +group of ideas and imaginations they clustered around his reign, +are well known facts. He was to be a descendant of royal David, an +inspired prophet, priest, and king, was to subdue the whole earth +beneath his Jewish sceptre and establish from Jerusalem a +theocratic empire of unexampled glory, holiness, and delight. In +so much the consent was general and earnest; though in regard to +many further details there would seem to have been an incongruous +diversity of opinions. They supposed the coming of the Messiah +would be preceded by ten frightful woes,18 also by the appearance +of the prophet Elias as a forerunner.19 There are a few passages +in the Rabbinical writings which, unless they were forged and +interpolated by Christians at a late period, show that there were +in the Jewish mind anticipations of the personal descent of the +Messiah into the under world.20 "After this the Messiah, the son +of David, came to the gates of the underworld. But when the bound, +who are in Gehenna, saw the light of the Messiah, they began +rejoicing to receive him, saying, 'He shall lead us up from this +darkness.'" "The captives shall + +14 Schroder, s. 332. + +15 Eisenmenger, th. ii. kap. vi. s. 340. + +16 Ibid. s. 358. + +17 Geschichte des Urchristenthums, zweit. abth. s. 186. Maimonides +also asserts the doctrine of supererogatory works: see p. 237 of +H. H. Bernard's Selections from the Yad Hachazakah of Maimonides. + +18 Surenhusius, Mischna, pars tertia, p. 308. + +19 Lightfoot, in Matt. xvii. 10. + +20 For a general view of the Jewish eschatology, see Gfrorer, +Geschichte des Urchristenthums, kap. x.; Eisenmenger, Entdecktes +Judenthum, th. ii. kap. xv. xvii. + + +ascend from the under world, Schechinah at their head."21 Gfrorer +derives the origin of the doctrine that Christ rescued souls out +of the under world, from a Jewish notion, preserved in the +Talmud,22 that the just patriarchs sometimes did it.23 Bertholdt +adduces Talmudical declarations to show that through the Messiah +"God would hereafter liberate the Israelites from the under world, +on account of the merit of circumcision"24 Schoettgen quotes this +statement from the Sohar: "Messia shall die, and shall remain in +the state of death a time, and shall rise."25 The so called Fourth +Book of Ezra says, in the seventh chapter, "My son, the Christ, +shall die: then follow the resurrection and the judgment." +Although it is clear, from various other sources, as well as from +the account in John xii. 34, that there was a prevalent +expectation among the Jews that "the Messiah would abide forever," +it also seems quite certain that there were at the same time at +least obscure presentiments, based on prophecies and traditions, +that he must die, that an important part of his mission was +connected with his death. This appears from such passages as we +have cited above, found in early Rabbinical writers, who would +certainly be very unlikely to borrow and adapt a new idea of such +a character from the Christians; and from the manner in which +Jesus assumes his death to be a part of the Messianic fate and +interprets the Scriptures as necessarily pointing to that effect. +He charges his disciples with being "fools and blind" in not so +understanding the doctrine; thus seeming to imply that it was +plainly known to some. But this question the origin of the idea of +a suffering, atoning, dying Messiah is confessedly a very nice and +obscure one. The evidence, the silence, the inferences, the +presumptions and doubts on the subject are such, that some of the +most thorough and impartial students say they are unable to decide +either way. + +However the foregoing question be decided, it is admitted by all +that the Jews earnestly looked for a resurrection of the dead as +an accompaniment of the Messiah's coming. Whether Christ was to go +down into the under world, or to sit enthroned on Mount Zion, in +either case the dead should come up and live again on earth at the +blast of his summoning trumpet. Rabbi Jeremiah commanded, "When +you bury me, put shoes on my feet, and give me a staff in my hand, +and lay me on one side, that when the Messiah comes I may be +ready."26 Most of the Rabbins made this resurrection partial. +"Whoever denies the resurrection of the dead shall have no part in +it, for the very reason that he denies it."27 "Rabbi Abbu says, "A +day of rain is greater than the resurrection of the dead; because +the rain is for all, while the resurrection is only for the +just."28 "Sodom and Gomorrah shall not rise in the resurrection of +the dead."29 Rabbi Chebbo says, "The patriarchs so vehemently +desired to be buried in + +21 Schoettgen, De Messia, lib. vi. cap. v. sect. 1. + +22 Eisenmenger, th. ii. ss. 343, 364. + +23 Geschichte Urchrist. kap. viii. s. 184. + +24 Christologia Judaorum Jesu Apostolorumque Atate, sect. 34, (De +Descensu Messia ad Inferos.) + +25 De Messia, lib. vi. cap. v. sect. 2. + +26 Lightfoot, in Matt. xxvii. 52. + +27 Witsius, Dissertatio de Seculo, etc. sect. 9. + +28 Nov. Test. Illustratum, etc. a Meuschen, p. 62. + +29 Schoettgen, in Johan. vi. 39. + + +the land of Israel, because those who are dead in that land shall +be the first to revive and shall devour his years, [the years of +the Messiah.] But for those just who are interred beyond the holy +land, it is to be understood that God will make a passage in the +earth, through which they will be rolled until they reach the land +of Israel."30 Rabbi Jochanan says, "Moses died out of the holy +land, in order to show that in the same way that God will raise up +Moses, so he will raise all those who observe his law." The +national bigotry of the Jews reaches a pitch of extravagance in +some of their views that is amusing. For instance, they declare +that "one Israelitish soul is dearer and more important to God +than all the souls of a whole nation of the Gentiles!" Again, they +say, "When God judges the Israelites, he will stand, and make the +judgment brief and mild; when he judges the Gentiles, he will sit, +and make it long and severe!" They affirm that the resurrection +will be effected by means of a dew; and they quote to that effect +this verse from Canticles: "I sleep, but my heart waketh; my head +is filled with dew, and my locks with drops of the night." Some +assert that "the resurrection will be immediately caused by God, +who never gives to any one the three keys of birth, rain, and the +resurrection of the dead." Others say that the power to raise and +judge the dead will be delegated to the Messiah, and even go so +far as to assert that the trumpet whose formidable blasts will +then shake the universe is to be one of the horns of that ram +which Abraham offered up instead of his son Isaac! Some confine +the resurrection to faithful Jews, some extend it to the whole +Jewish nation, some think all the righteous of the earth will have +part in it, and some stretch its pale around all mankind alike.31 +They seem to agree that the reprobate would either be left in the +wretched regions of Sheol when the just arose, or else be thrust +back after the judgment, to remain there forever. It was believed +that the righteous after their resurrection would never die again, +but ascend to heaven. The Jews after a time, when the increase of +geographical knowledge had annihilated from the earth their old +Eden whence the sinful Adam was expelled, changed its location +into the sky. Thither, as the later fables ran, Elijah was borne +in his chariot of fire by the horses thereof. Rabbi Pinchas says, +"Carefulness leads us to innocence, innocence to purity, purity to +sanctity, sanctity to humility, humility to fear of sins, fear of +sins to piety, piety to the holy spirit, the holy spirit to the +resurrection of the dead, the resurrection of the dead to the +prophet Elias."32 The writings of the early Christian Fathers +contain many allusions to this blessed habitation of saints above +the clouds. It is illustrated in the following quaint Rabbinical +narrative. Rabbi Jehosha ben Levi once besought the angel of death +to take him up, ere he died, to catch a glimpse of Paradise. +Standing on the wall, he suddenly snatched the angel's sword and +sprang over, swearing by Almighty God that he would not come out. +Death was not allowed to enter Paradise, and the son of Levi did +not restore his sword until he had promised to be more gentle +towards the dying.33 The righteous were never to return to the +dust, but "at the end + +30 Schoettgen, De Messia, lib. vi. cap. vi. sect. 27. + +31 See an able dissertation on Jewish Notions of the Resurrection +of the Dead, prefixed to Humphrey's Translation of Athenagoras on +the Resurrection. + +32 Surenhusius, Mischna, pars tertia, p. 309. + +33 Schroder, s. 419. + + +of the thousand years," the duration of the Messiah's earthly +reign, "when the Lord is lifted up, God shall fit wings to the +just, like the wings of eagles."34 In a word, the Messiah and his +redeemed ones would ascend into heaven to the right hand of God. +So Paul, who said, "I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee," +declares that when the dead have risen "we shall be caught up in +the clouds to be forever with the Lord." + +We forbear to notice a thousand curious details of speculation and +fancy in which individual Rabbins indulged; for instance, their +common notion concerning the bone luz, the single bone which, +withstanding dissolution, shall form the nucleus of the +resurrection body. It was a prevalent belief with them that the +resurrection would take place in the valley of Jehoshaphat, in +proof of which they quote this text from Joel: "Let the heathen be +wakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I +sit to judge the nations around." To this day, wherever scattered +abroad, faithful Jews cling to the expectation of the Messiah's +coming, and associate with his day the resurrection of the dead.35 +The statement in the Song of Solomon, "The king is held in the +galleries," means, says a Rabbinical book, "that the Messiah is +detained in Paradise, fettered by a woman's hair!" Every day, +throughout the world, every consistent Israelite repeats the words +of Moses Maimonides, the peerless Rabbi, of whom it is a proverb +that "from Moses to Moses there arose not a Moses:" "I believe +with a perfect faith that the Messiah will come, and though he +delays, nevertheless, I will always expect him till he come." Then +shall glory cover the living, and the risen, children of Israel, +and confusion fall on their Gentile foes. In almost every inch of +the beautiful valley of Jehoshaphat a Jew has been buried. All +over the slopes of the hill sides around lie the thick clustering +sepulchral slabs, showing how eagerly the chosen people seek to +sleep in the very spot where the first rising of the dead shall +be. Entranced and mute, + +"In old Jehoshaphat's valley, they +Of Israel think the assembled world +Will stand upon that awful day, +When the Ark's light, aloft unfurl'd, +Among the opening clouds shall shine, +Divinity's own radiant shrine." + +Any one familiar with the Persian theology36 will at once notice a +striking resemblance between many of its dogmas and those, first, +of Pharisaism, secondly, of the popular Christianity. Some +examination of this subject properly belongs here. There is, then, +as is well known, a circle or group of ideas, particularly +pertaining to eschatology, which appear in the later Jewish +writings, and remarkably correspond to those held by the Parsees, +the followers of Zoroaster. The same notions also reappear in the +early Christianity as popularly understood. We will specify some +of these correspondences. The doctrine of angels, received by the +Jews, their names, offices, rank, and destiny, was borrowed and +formed + +34 Schoettgen, de Messia, lib. vi. cap. vi. sect. 23; cap. vii. +ss. 3, 4. + +35 John Allen, Modern Judaism, ch. vi. and xv. + +36 See Abriss der Religion Zoroasters nach den Zendbuchern, von +Abbe Foucher, in Kleuker's Zend Avesta, band i. zweit anhang, ss. +328-342. + + +by them during and just after the Babylonish captivity, and is +much like that which they found among their enslavers.37 The +guardian angels appointed over nations, spoken of by Daniel, are +Persian. The angels called in the Apocalypse "the seven spirits of +God sent forth into all the earth," in Zechariah "the seven eyes +of God which run to and fro through all the earth," are the +Amschaspands of the Persian faith. The wars of the angels are +described as minutely by the old Persians as by Milton. The Zend +Avesta pictures Ahriman pregnant with Death, (die alte +hollenschlange, todschwangere Ahriman,) as Milton describes the +womb of Sin bearing that fatal monster. The Gahs, or second order +of angels, the Persians supposed,38 were employed in preparing +clothing and laying it up in heaven to clothe the righteous after +the resurrection, a fancy frequent among the Rabbins and +repeatedly alluded to in the New Testament. With both the Persians +and the Jews, all our race both sexes sprang from one original +man. With both, the first pair were seduced and ruined by means of +fruit which the devil gave to them. With both, there was a belief +in demoniacal possessions, devils or bad spirits entering human +bodies. With both, there was the expectation of a great +Deliverer, the Persian Sosiosch, the Jewish Messiah, whose coming +would be preceded by fearful woes, who would triumph over all +evil, raise the dead, judge the world, separate the righteous and +the wicked, purge the earth with fire, and install a reign of +glorious blessedness.39 "The conception of an under world," says +Dr. Roth, "was known centuries before Zoroaster; but probably he +was the first to add to the old belief the idea that the under +world was a place of purification, wherein souls were purged from +all traces of sin."40 Of this belief in a subterranean purgatory +there are numerous unmistakable evidences and examples in the +Rabbinical writings.41 + +These notions and others the Pharisees early adopted, and wrought +into the texture of what they called the "Oral Law," that body of +verbally transmitted legends, precepts, and dogmas, afterwards +written out and collected in the Mischna, to which Christ +repeatedly alluded with such severity, saying, "Ye by your +traditions make the commandments of God of none effect." To some +doctrines of kindred character and origin with these Paul refers +when he warns his readers against "the worshipping of angels," +"endless genealogies," "philosophy falsely so called," and various +besetting heresies of the time. But others were so woven and +assimilated into the substance of the popular Judaism of the age, +as inculcated by the Rabbins, that Paul himself held them, the +lingering vestiges of his earnest Pharisaic education and +organized experience. They naturally found their way into the +Apostolic Church, principally composed of Ebionites, Christians +who had been Jews; and from it they were never separated, but have +come to us in seeming orthodox garb, and are generally + +37 Schroder, p. 385. + +38 Yacna, Ha 411. Kleuker, zweit. auf. s. 198. + +39 Die Heiligen Schriften der Parsen, von Dr. F. Spiegel, kap. ii. +ss. 32-37. Studien and Kritiken, 1885, band i., "Ist die Lehre von +der Anferstehung des Leibes nicht ein alt Persische Lehre?" F. +Nork, Mythen der Alten Perser als Quellen Christlicher +Glaubenslehren und Ritualien. + +40 Die Zoroastrischen Glaubenslehre, von Dr. Eduard Roth. s. 450. + +41 See, In tom. i. Kabbala Denudata, Synopsis Dogmatum Libri Sohar +pp. 108, 109, 113. + + +retained now. Still, they were errors. They are incredible to the +thinking minds of to day. It is best to get rid of them by the +truth, that they are pagan growths introduced into Christianity, +but to be discriminated from it. By removing these antiquated and +incredible excrescences from the real religion of Christ, we shall +save the essential faith from the suspicion which their +association with it, their fancied identity with it, invites and +provokes. + +The correspondences between the Persian and the Pharisaic faith, +in regard to doctrines, are of too arbitrary and peculiar a +character to allow us for a moment to suppose them to have been an +independent product spontaneously developed in the two nations; +though even in that case the doctrines in question have no +sanction of authority, not being Mosaic nor Prophetic, but only +Rabbinical. One must have received from the other. Which was the +bestower and which the recipient is quite plain.42 There is not a +whit of evidence to show, but, on the contrary, ample presumption +to disprove, that a certain cycle of notions were known among the +Jews previous to a period of most intimate and constant +intercourse between them and the Persians. But before that period +those notions were an integral part of the Persian theology. Even +Prideaux admits that the first Zoroaster lived and Magianism +flourished at least a thousand years before Christ. And the dogmas +we refer to are fundamental features of the religion. These dogmas +of the Persians, not derived from the Old Testament nor known +among the Jews before the captivity, soon after that time began to +show themselves in their literature, and before the opening of the +New Testament were prominent elements of the Pharisaic belief. The +inference is unavoidable that the confluence of Persian thought +and feeling with Hebrew thought and feeling, joined with the +materials and flowing in the channels of the subsequent experience +of the Jews, formed a mingled deposit about the age of Christ, +which deposit was Pharisaism. Again: the doctrines common to +Zoroastrianism and Pharisaism in the former seem to be prime +sources, in the latter to be late products. In the former, they +compose an organic, complete, inseparable system; in the latter, +they are disconnected, mixed piecemeal, and, to a considerable +extent, historically traceable to an origin beyond the native, +national mind. It is a significant fact that the abnormal symbolic +beasts described by several of the Jewish prophets, and in the +Apocalypse, were borrowed from Persian art. Sculptures +representing these have been brought to light by the recent +researches at Persepolis. Finally, all early ecclesiastical +history incontestably shows that Persian dogmas exerted on the +Christianity of the first centuries an enormous influence, a +pervasive and perverting power unspent yet, and which it is one of +the highest tasks of honest and laborious Christian students in +the present day to explain, define, and separate. What was that +Manichaanism which nearly filled Christendom for a hundred years, +what was it, in great part, but an influx of tradition, +speculation, imagination, and sentiment, from Persia? The Gnostic +Christians even had a scripture called "Zoroaster's Apocalypse."43 +"The wise men from the east," who knelt before the infant Christ, +"and opened their treasures, and gave him gifts, gold, +frankincense, and myrrh," were Persian Magi. We may imaginatively +regard that sacred scene as an emblematical figure of the far +different tributes which + +42 Lucke, Einleitung in die Offenbarung des Johannes, kap. 2, +sect. 8. + +43 Kleuker, Zend Avesta, band ii. anhang i. s. 12. + + +a little later came from their country to his religion, the +unfortunate contributions that permeated and corrupted so much of +the form in which it thenceforth appeared and spread. In the pure +gospel's pristine day, ere it had hardened into theological dogmas +or become encumbered with speculations and comments, from the lips +of God's Anointed Son repeatedly fell the earnest warning, "Beware +of the leaven of the Pharisees." There is far more need to have +this warning intelligently heeded now, coming with redoubled +emphasis from the Master's own mouth, "Beware of the leaven of the +Pharisees." For, as the gospel is now generally set forth and +received, that leaven has leavened well nigh the whole lump of it. + +CHAPTER X. + +GREEK AND ROMAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +THE disembodied soul, as conceived by the Greeks, and after them +by the Romans, is material, but of so thin a contexture that it +cannot be felt with the hands. It is exhaled with the dying +breath, or issues through a warrior's wounds. The sword passes +through its uninjured form as through the air. It is to the body +what a dream is to waking action. Retaining the shape, lineaments, +and motion the man had in life, it is immediately recognised upon +appearing. It quits the body with much reluctance, leaving that +warm and vigorous investiture for a chill and forceless existence. +It glides along without noise and very swiftly, like a shadow. It +is unable to enter the lower kingdom and be at peace until its +deserted body has been buried with sacred rites: meanwhile, naked +and sad, it flits restlessly about the gates, uttering doleful +moans. + +The early Greek authors describe the creation as a stupendous +hollow globe cut in the centre by the plane of the earth. The +upper hemisphere is lighted by beneficent luminaries; the lower +hemisphere is filled with unvarying blackness. The top of the +higher sphere is Heaven, the bright dwelling of the Olympian gods; +its bottom is the surface of the earth, the home of living men. +The top of the lower sphere is Hades, the abode of the ghosts of +the dead; its bottom is Tartarus, the prison of the Titans, +rebellious giants vanquished by Zeus. Earth lies half way from the +cope of Heaven to the floor of Tartarus. This distance is so great +that, according to Hesiod, it would take an anvil nine days to +fall from the centre to the nadir. Some of the ancients seem to +have surmised the sphericity of the earth, and to have thought +that Hades was simply its dark side, the dead being our antipodes. +In the Odyssey, Ulysses reaches Hades by sailing across the ocean +stream and passing the eternal night land of the Cimmerians, +whereupon he comes to the edge of Acheron, the moat of Pluto's +sombre house. Virgil also says, "One pole of the earth to us +always points aloft; but the other is seen by black Styx and the +infernal ghosts, where either dead night forever reigns or else +Aurora returns thither from us and brings them back the day."1 But +the prevalent notion evidently was that Hades was an immense +hollow region not far under the surface of the ground, and that it +was to be reached by descent through some cavern, like that at +Avernus. + +This subterranean place is the destination of all alike, rapacious +Orcus sparing no one, good or bad. It is wrapped in obscurity, as +the etymology of its name implies, a place where one cannot see. + +"No sun e'er gilds the gloomy horrors there; No cheerful gales +refresh the stagnant air." + +The dead are disconsolate in this dismal realm, and the living +shrink from entering it, except as a refuge from intolerable +afflictions. The shade of the princeliest hero dwelling there the + +1 Georg. lib. i. II. 242-250. + + +swift footed Achilles says, "I would wish, being on earth, to +serve for hire another man of poor estate, rather than rule over +all the dead." Souls carry there their physical peculiarities, the +fresh and ghastly likenesses of the wounds which have despatched +them thither, so that they are known at sight. Companies of +fellow countrymen, knots of friends, are together there, +preserving their remembrance ofearthly fortunes and beloved +relatives left behind, and eagerly questioning each newly arriving +soul for tidings from above. When the soul of Achilles is told of +the glorious deeds of Neoptolemus, "he goes away taking mighty +steps through the meadow of asphodel in joyfulness, because he had +heard that his son was very illustrious."2 Sophocles makes the +dying Antigone say, "Departing, I strongly cherish the hope that I +shall be fondly welcomed by my father, and by my mother, and by my +brother."3 It is important to notice that, according to the early +and popular view, this Hades, the "dark dwelling of the joyless +images of deceased mortals," is the destination of universal +humanity. In opposition to its dolorous gloom and repulsive +inanity are vividly pictured the glad light of day, the glory and +happiness of life. "Not worth so much to me as my life," says the +incomparable son of Peleus, "are all the treasures which populous +Troy possessed, nor all which the stony threshold of Phoebus +Apollo contains in rocky Pytho. Oxen, and fat sheep, and trophies, +and horses with golden manes, may be acquired by effort; but the +breath of man to return again is not to be obtained by plunder nor +by purchase, when once it has passed the barrier of his teeth." + +It is not probable that all the ornamental details associated by +the poets with the fate and state of the dead as they are set +forth, for instance, by Virgil in the sixth book of the Aneid were +ever credited as literal truth. But there is no reason to doubt +that the essential features of this mythological scenery were +accepted in the vulgar belief. For instance, that the popular mind +honestly held that, in some vague sense or other, the ghost, on +leaving the body, flitted down to the dull banks of Acheron and +offered a shadowy obolus to Charon, the slovenly old ferryman, for +a passage in his boat, seems attested not only by a thousand +averments to that effect in the current literature of the time, +but also by the invariable custom of placing an obolus in the dead +man's mouth for that purpose when he was buried. + +The Greeks did not view the banishment of souls in Hades as a +punishment for sin, or the result of any broken law in the plan of +things. It was to them merely the fulfilment of the inevitable +fate of creatures who must die, in the order of nature, like +successive growths of flowers, and whose souls were too feeble to +rank with gods and climb into Olympus. That man should cease from +his substantial life on the bright earth and subside into sunless +Hades, a vapid form, with nerveless limbs and faint voice, a +ghostly vision bemoaning his existence with idle lamentation, or +busying himself with the misty mockeries of his former pursuits, +was melancholy enough; but it was his natural destiny, and not an +avenging judgment. + +But that powerful instinct in man which desires to see villany +punished and goodness rewarded could not fail, among so cultivated +a people as the Greeks, to develop a doctrine of future +compensation for the contrasted deserts of souls. The earliest +trace of the idea of + +2 Odyssey, lib. xi. II. 538, 539. + +3 Antigone, II. 872-874. + + +retribution which we find carried forward into the invisible world +is the punishment of the Titans, those monsters who tried by +piling up mountains to storm the heavenly abodes, and to wrest the +Thunderer's bolts from his hand. This germ is slowly expanded; and +next we read of a few specified criminals, who had been +excessively impious, personally offending Zeus, condemned by his +direct indignation to a severe expiation in Tartarus. The insulted +deity wreaks his vengeance on the tired Sisyphus, the mocked +Tantalus, the gnawed Tityus, and others. Afterwards we meet the +statement that condign retribution is always inflicted for the two +flagrant sins of perjury and blasphemy. Finally, we discern a +general prevalence of the belief that punishment is decreed, not +by vindictive caprice, but on the grounds of universal morality, +all souls being obliged in Hades to pass before Rhadamanthus, +Minos, or Aacus, three upright judges, to be dealt with, according +to their merits, with impartial accuracy. The distribution of +poetic justice in Hades at last became, in many authors, so +melodramatic as to furnish a fair subject for burlesque. Some +ludicrous examples of this may be seen in Lucian's Dialogues of +the Dead. A fine instance of it is also furnished in the Emperor +Julian's Symposium. The gods prepare for the Roman emperors a +banquet, in the air, below the moon. The good emperors are +admitted to the table with honors; but the bad ones are hurled +headlong down into Tartarus, amidst the derisive shouts of the +spectators. + +As the notion that the wrath of the gods would pursue their +enemies in the future state gave rise to a belief in the +punishments of Tartarus, so the notion that the distinguishing +kindness of the gods would follow their favorites gave rise to the +myth of Elysium. The Elysian Fields were earliest portrayed lying +on the western margin of the earth, stretching from the verge of +Oceanus, where the sun set at eve. They were fringed with +perpetual green, perfumed with the fragrance of flowers, and +eternally fanned by refreshing breezes. They were represented +merely as the select abode of a small number of living men, who +were either the mortal relatives or the special favorites of the +gods, and who were transported thither without tasting death, +there to pass an immortality which was described, with great +inconsistency, sometimes as purely happy, sometimes as joyless and +wearisome. To all except a few chosen ones this region was utterly +inaccessible. Homer says, "But for you, O Menelaus, it is not +decreed by the gods to die; but the immortals will send you to the +Elysian plain, because you are the son in law of Zeus."4 Had the +inheritance of this clime been proclaimed as the reward of heroic +merit, had it been really believed attainable by virtue, it would +have been held up as a prize to be striven for. The whole account, +as it was at first, bears the impress of imaginative fiction as +legibly upon its front as the story of the dragon watched garden +of Hesperus's daughters, whose trees bore golden apples, or the +story of the enchanted isle in the Arabian tales. + +The early location of Elysium, and the conditions of admission to +it, were gradually changed; and at length it reappeared, in the +under world, as the abode of the just. On one side of the +primitive Hades Tartarus had now been drawn up to admit the +condemned into its penal tortures, and on the other side Elysium +was lowered down to reward the justified by receiving them into +its peaceful and perennial happiness; while, between the two, +Erebus + +4 Odyssey, lib. iv. II. 555-570. + + +remained as an intermediate state of negation and gloom for +unsentenced shades. The highly colored descriptions of this +subterranean heaven, frequently found thenceforth, it is to be +supposed were rarely accepted as solid verities. They were +scarcely ever used, to our knowledge, as motives in life, +incitement in difficulties, consolation in sorrow. They were +mostly set forth in poems, works even professedly fictitious. They +were often denied and ridiculed in speeches and writings received +with public applause. Still, they unquestionably exerted some +influence on the common modes of thought and feeling, had a +shadowy seat in the popular imagination and heart, helped men to +conceive of a blessed life hereafter and to long for it, and took +away something of the artificial horror with which, under the +power of rooted superstition, their departing ghosts hailed the +dusky limits of futurity: + +"Umbra Non tacitas Erebi sedes, Ditisque profundi Pallida regna +petunt." + +First, then, from a study of the Greek mythology we find all the +dead a dull populace of ghosts fluttering through the neutral +melancholy of Hades without discrimination. And finally we discern +in the world of the dead a sad middle region, with a Paradise on +the right and a Hell on the left, the whole presided over by three +incorruptible judges, who appoint the new corners their places in +accordance with their deserts. + +The question now arises, What did the Greeks think in relation to +the ascent of human souls into heaven among the gods? Did they +except none from the remediless doom of Hades? Was there no path +for the wisest and best souls to climb starry Olympus? To dispose +of this inquiry fairly, four distinct considerations must be +examined. First, Ulysses sees in the infernal regions the image of +Herakles shooting the shadows of the Stymphalian birds, while his +soul is said to be rejoicing with fair legged Hebe at the banquets +of the immortal gods in the skies. To explain this, we must +remember that Herakles was the son of Alcmene, a mortal woman, and +of Zeus, the king of the gods. Accordingly, in the flames on Mount +Oeta, the surviving ghost which he derived from his mother +descends to Hades, but the purified soul inherited from his father +has the proper nature and rank of a deity, and is received into +the Olympian synod.5 Of course no blessed life in heaven for the +generality of men is here implied. Herakles, being a son and +favorite of Zeus, has a corresponding destiny exceptional from +that of other men. + +Secondly, another double representation, somewhat similar, but +having an entirely different interpretation, occurs in the case of +Orion, the handsome Hyrian hunter whom Artemis loved. At one time +he is described, like the spectre of the North American Indian, +chasing over the Stygian plain the disembodied animals he had in +his lifetime killed on the mountains: + +"Swift through the gloom a giant hunter flies: A ponderous brazen +mace, with direful sway, Aloft he whirls to crush the savage prey; + +5 Ovid, Met. lib. ix. II. 245-272. + + +Grim beasts in trains, that by his truncheon fell, Now, phantom +forms, shoot o'er the lawn of hell." + +In the common belief this, without doubt, was received as actual +fact. But at another time Orion is deified and shown as one of the +grandest constellations of the sky, + +"A belted giant, who, with arm uplift, Threatening the throne of +Zeus, forever stands, Sublimely impious." + +This, obviously, is merely a poetic symbol, a beautiful artifice +employed by the poets to perpetuate a legend by associating it +with the imperishable hieroglyphs of the galaxy. It is not +credible that men imagined that group of stars only outlined in +such shape by the help of arbitrary fancy to be literally the +translated hunter himself. The meaning simply was that he was +immortalized through the eternal linking of his name and form with +a stellar cluster which would always shine upon men. "The +reverence and gratitude of a weak world for the heroes and +benefactors they could not comprehend, named them divinities, whom +they did star together to an idolatrous immortality which +nationalized the heavens" with the shining shapes of the great and +brave. These types of poetry, symbols lent to infant science, were +never meant to indicate a literal translation and metamorphosis of +human souls, but were honors paid to the memories of illustrious +men, emblems and pledged securities of their unfading fame. With +what glorious characters, with what forms of deathless beauty, +defiant of decay, the sky was written over! Go out this evening +beneath the old rolling dome, when the starry scroll is outspread, +and you may still read the reveries of the marvelling minds of the +antique world, as fresh in their magic loveliness as when the +bards and seers of Olympus and the Agean first stamped them in +heaven. There "the great snake binds in his bright coil half the +mighty host." There is Arion with his harp and the charmed +dolphin. The fair Andromeda, still chained to her eternal rock, +looks mournfully towards the delivering hero whose conquering hand +bears aloft the petrific visage of Medusa. Far off in the north +the gigantic Bootes is seen driving towards the Centaur and the +Scorpion. And yonder, smiling benignantly upon the crews of many a +home bound ship, are revealed the twin brothers, joined in the +embrace of an undying friendship. + +Thirdly, it is asserted by several Latin authors, in general +terms, that the ghost goes to Hades but the soul ascends to +heaven; and it has been inferred most erroneously that this +statement contains the doctrine of an abode for men after death on +high with the gods. Ovid expresses the real thought in full, +thus: + +"Terra tegit carnem; tumulum circumvolat umbra; Orcus habet manes; +spiritus astra petit." + +"The earth conceals the flesh; the shade flits round the tomb; the +under world receives the image; the spirit seeks the stars." Those +conversant with the opinions then prevalent will scarcely doubt +that these words were meant to express the return of the composite +man to the primordial elements of which he was made. The +particulars of the dissolving individual are absorbed in the +general elements of the universe. Earth goes back to earth, ghost +to the realm of ghosts, breath to the air, fiery essence of soul +to the lofty ether in whose pure radiance the stars burn. +Euripides expressly says that when man dies each part goes whence +it came, "the body to the ground, the spirit to the ether."6 +Therefore the often misunderstood phrase of the Roman writers, +"the soul seeks the stars," merely denotes the impersonal mingling +after death of the divine portion of man's being with the parent +Divinity, who was supposed indeed to pervade all things, but more +especially to reside beyond the empyrean. + +Fourthly: what shall be said of the apotheosis of their celebrated +heroes and emperors by the Greeks and Romans, whereby these were +elevated to the dignity of deities, and seats were assigned them +in heaven? What was the meaning of this ceremony? It does not +signify that a celestial immortality awaits all good men; because +it appears as a thing attainable by very few, is only allotted by +vote of the Senate. Neither was it supposed actually to confer on +its recipients equality of attributes with the great gods, making +them peers of Zeus and Apollo. The homage received as gods by +Alexander and others during their lives, the deification of Julius +Casar during the most learned and skeptical age of Rome, with +other obvious considerations, render such a supposition +inadmissible. In view of all the direct evidence and collateral +probabilities, we conclude that the genuine import of an ancient +apotheosis was this: that the soul of the deceased person so +honored was admitted, in deference to his transcendent merits, or +as a special favor on the part of the gods, into heaven, into the +divine society. He was really a human soul still, but was called a +god because, instead of descending, like the multitude of human +souls, to Hades, he was taken into the abode and company of the +gods above the sky. This interpretation derives support from the +remarkable declaration of Aristotle, that "of two friends one must +be unwilling that the other should attain apotheosis, because in +such case they must be forever separated."7 One would be in +Olympus, the other in Hades. The belief that any, even a favored +few, could ever obtain this blessing, was of quite limited +development, and probably sprang from the esoteric recesses of the +Mysteries. To call a human soul a god is not so bold a speech as +it may seem. Plotinus says. "Whoever has wisdom and true virtue in +soul itself differs but little from superior beings, in this alone +being inferior to them, that he is in body. Such an one, dying, +may therefore properly say, with Empedocles, 'Farewell! a god +immortal now am I.'" + +The expiring Vespasian exclaimed, "I shall soon be a god."8 Mure +says that the doctrine of apotheosis belonged to the Graco +Pelasgic race through all their history.9 Seneca severely +satirizes the ceremony, and the popular belief which upheld it, in +an elaborate lampoon called Apocolocyntosis, or the reception of +Claudius among the pumpkins. The broad travesty of + +6 The Suppliants, l. 533. + +7 Nicomachean Ethics, lib. viii. cap. 7. + +8 Suetonius, cap. xxiii. + +9 Hist. Greek Literature, vol. i. ch. 2, sect. 5. + + +Deification exhibited in Pumpkinification obviously measures the +distance from the honest credulity of one class and period to the +keen infidelity of another. + +One of the most important passages in Greek literature, in +whatever aspect viewed, is composed of the writings of the great +Theban lyrist. Let us see what representation is there made of the +fate of man in the unseen world. The ethical perception, profound +feeling, and searching mind of Pindar could not allow him to +remain satisfied with the undiscriminating views of the future +state prevalent in his time. Upon such a man the problem of death +must weigh as a conscious burden, and his reflections would +naturally lead him to improved conclusions. Accordingly, we find +him representing the Blessed Isles not as the haven of a few +favorites of the gods, but as the reward of virtue; and the +punishments of the wicked, too, are not dependent on fickle +inclinations, but are decreed by immutable right. He does not +describe the common multitude of the dead, leading a dark sad +existence, like phantoms in a dream: his references to death and +Hades seem cheerful in comparison with those of many other ancient +Greek authors. Dionysius the Rhetorician, speaking of his +Threnes, dirges sung at funerals, says, "Simonides lamented the +dead pathetically, Pindar magnificently." + +His conceptions of the life to come were inseparably connected +with certain definite locations. He believed Hades to be the +destination of all our mortal race, but conceived it subdivided +into a Tartarus for the impious and an Elysium for the righteous. +He thought that the starry firmament was the solid floor of a +world of splendor, bliss, and immortality, inhabited by the gods, +but fatally inaccessible to man. When he thinks of this place, it +is with a sigh, a sigh that man's aspirations towards it are vain +and his attempts to reach it irreverent. This latter thought he +enforces by an earnest allusion to the myth of Bellerophon, who, +daring to soar to the cerulean seat of the gods on the winged +steed Pegasus, was punished for his arrogance by being hurled down +headlong. These assertions are to be sustained by citations of his +own words. The references made are to Donaldson's edition. + +In the second Pythian Ode10 Pindar repeats, and would appear to +endorse, the old monitory legend of Ixion, who for his outrageous +crimes was bound to an ever revolving wheel in Hades and made to +utter warnings against such offences as his own. In the first +Pythian we read, "Hundred headed Typhon, enemy of the gods, lies +in dreadful Tartarus."11 Among the preserved fragments of Pindar +the one numbered two hundred and twenty three reads thus: "The +bottom of Tartarus shall press thee down with solid necessities." +The following is from the first Isthmian Ode: "He who, laying up +private wealth, laughs at the poor, does not consider that he +shall close up his life for Hades without honor."12 The latter +part of the tenth Nemean Ode recounts, with every appearance of +devout belief, the history of Castor and Pollux, the god begotten +twins, who, reversing conditions with each other on successive +days and nights, spent their interchangeable immortality each +alternately in heaven and in Hades. The astronomical +interpretation of this account may be correct; but its +applicability to the wondering faith of the earlier poets is +extremely doubtful. + +10 L. 39. + +11 LI. 15, 16. + +12 L. 68. + + +The seventh Isthmian contains this remarkable sentence: "Unequal +is the fate of man: he can think of great things, but is too +ephemeral a creature to reach the brazen floored seat of the +gods."13 A similar sentiment is expressed in the sixth Nemean: +"Men are a mere nothing; while to the gods the brazen heaven +remains a firm abode forever."14 The one hundred and second +fragment is supposed to be a part of the dirge composed by Pindar +on the death of the grandfather of Pericles. It runs in this way: +"Whoso by good fortune has seen the things in the hollow under the +earth knows indeed the end of life: he also knows the beginning +vouchsafed by Zeus." It refers to initiation in the Eleusinian +Mysteries, and means that the initiate understands the life which +follows death. It is well known that a clear doctrine of future +retribution was inculcated in the Mysteries long before it found +general publication. The ninety fifth fragment is all that remains +to us of a dirge which appears, from the allusion in the first +line, to have been sung at a funeral service performed at +midnight, or at least after sunset. "While it is night here with +us, to those below shines the might of the sun; and the red rosied +meadows of their suburbs are filled with the frankincense tree, +and with golden fruits. Some delight themselves there with steeds +and exercises, others with games, others with lyres; and among +them all fair blossoming fortune blooms, and a fragrance is +distilled through the lovely region, and they constantly mingle +all kinds of offerings with the far shining fire on the altars of +the gods." This evidently is a picture of the happy scenes in the +fields that stretch around the City of the Blessed in the under +world, and is introduced as a comfort to the mourners over the +dead body. + +The ensuing passage the most important one on our subject is from +the second Olympic Ode.15 "An honorable, virtuous man may rest +assured as to his future fate. The souls of the lawless, departing +from this life, suffer punishment. One beneath the earth, +pronouncing sentence by a hateful necessity imposed upon him, +declares the doom for offences committed in this realm of Zeus. +But the good lead a life without a tear, among those honored by +the gods for having always delighted in virtue: the others endure +a life too dreadful to look upon. Whoever has had resolution +thrice in both worlds to stand firm, and to keep his soul pure +from evil, has found the path of Zeus to the tower of Kronos, +where the airs of the ocean breathe around the Isle of the +Blessed, and where some from resplendent trees, others from the +water glitter golden flowers, with garlandsofwhich they wreathe +their wrists and brows in the righteous assemblies of +Rhadamanthus, whom father Kronos has as his willing assistant." +The "path of Zeus," in the above quotation, means the path which +Zeus takes when he goes to visit his father Kronos, whom he +originally dethroned and banished, but with whom he is now +reconciled, and who has become the ruler of the departed spirits +of the just, in a peaceful and joyous region. + +The following passage constitutes the ninety eighth fragment. "To +those who descend from a fruitless and ill starred life Persephone +[the Queen of the Dead] will grant a compensation for their former +misfortune, after eight years [the judicial period of atonement +and lustration for great crimes] granting them their lives again. +Then, illustrious kings, strong, + +13 Ll. 42-44. + +14 Ll. 4-6. + +15 Ll. 55-78. + + +swift, wise, they shall become the mightiest leaders; and +afterwards they shall be invoked by men as sacred heroes." In this +piece, as in the preceding one where reference is made to the +thrice living man, is contained the doctrine, early brought from +the East, that souls may repeatedly return from the dead and in +new bodies lead new lives. One other fragment, the ninety sixth, +added to the foregoing, will make up all the important genuine +passages in Pindar relating to the future life. "By a beneficent +allotment, all travel to an end freeing from toil. The body indeed +is subject to the power of death; but the eternal image is left +alive, and this alone is allied to the gods. When we are asleep, +it shows in many dreams the approaching judgment concerning +happiness and misery." When our physical limbs are stretched in +insensible repose, the inward spirit, rallying its sleepless and +prophetic powers, foretells the balancing awards of another world. + +We must not wholly confound with the mythological schemes of the +vulgar creed the belief of the nobler philosophers, many of whom, +as is well known, cherished an exalted faith in the survival of +the conscious soul and in a just retribution. "Strike!" one of +them said, with the dauntless courage of an immortal, to a tyrant +who had threatened to have him brayed in a mortar: "strike! you +may crush the shell of Anaxarchus: you cannot touch his life." +Than all the maze of fabulous fancies and physical rites in which +the dreams of the poets and the guesses of the people were +entangled, how much more + +"Just was the prescience of the eternal goalThat gleamed, 'mid +Cyprian shades, on Zeno's soul, Or shone to Plato in the lonely +cave, God in all space, and life in every grave!" + +An account of the Greek views on the subject of a future life +which should omit the doctrine of Plato would be defective indeed. +The influence of this sublime autocrat in the realms of intellect +has transcended calculation. However coldly his thoughts may have +been regarded by his contemporary countrymen, they soon obtained +cosmopolitan audience, and surviving the ravages of time and +ignorance, overleaping the bars of rival schools and sects, +appreciated and diffused by the loftiest spirits of succeeding +ages, closely blended with their own speculations by many +Christian theologians have held an almost unparalleled dominion +over the minds of millions of men for more than fifty generations. + +In the various dialogues of Plato, written at different periods of +his life, there are numerous variations and inconsistencies of +doctrine. There are also many mythical passages obviously intended +as symbolic statements, poetic drapery, by no means to be handled +or looked at as the severe outlines of dialectic truth. +Furthermore, in these works there are a vast number of opinions +and expressions introduced by the interlocutors, who often belong +to antagonistic schools of philosophy, and for which, of course, +Plato is not to be held responsible. Making allowance for these +facts, and resolutely grappling with the many other difficulties +of the task, we shall now attempt to exhibit what we consider were +the real teachings of Plato in relation to the fate of the soul. +This exposition, sketchy as it is, and open to question as it may +be in some particulars, is the carefully weighed result of +earnest, patient, and repeated study of all the relevant passages. + +In the first place, it is plain that Plato had a firm religious +and philosophical faith in the immortality of the soul, which was +continually attracting his thoughts, making it a favorite theme +with him and exerting no faint influence on his life. This faith +rested both on ancient traditions, to which he frequently refers +with invariable reverence, and on metaphysical reasonings, which +he over and over presents in forms of conscientious elaboration. +There are two tests of his sincerity of faith: first, that he +always treats the subject with profound seriousness; secondly, +that he always uses it as a practical motive. "I do not think," +said Socrates, "that any one who should now hear us, even though +he were a comic poet, would say that I am talking idly."16 Again, +referring to Homer's description of the judgments in Hades, he +says, "I, therefore, Callicles, am persuaded by these accounts, +and consider how I may exhibit my soul before the judge in the +most healthy condition."17 "To a base man no man nor god is a +friend on earth while living, nor under it when dead," say the +souls of their ancestors to the living; "but live honorably, and +when your destined fate brings you below you shall come to us as +friends to friends."18 "We are plants, not of earth, but of +heaven."19 We start, then, with the affirmation that Plato +honestly and cordially believed in a future life. + +Secondly, his ethical and spiritual beliefs, like those of nearly +all the ancients, were closely interwoven with physical theories +and local relations. The world to him consisted of two parts, the +celestial region of ideas, and the mundane region of material +phenomena, corresponding pretty well, as Lewes suggests, to our +modern conception of heaven and earth. Near the close of the +Phado, Socrates says that the earth is not of the kind and +magnitude usually supposed. "We dwell in a decayed and corroded, +muddy and filthy region in the sediment and hollows of the earth, +and imagine that we inhabit its upper parts; just as if one +dwelling in the bottom of the sea should think that he dwelt on +the sea, and, beholding the sun through the water, should imagine +that the sea was the heavens. So, if we could fly up to the summit +of the air as fishes emerging from the sea to behold what is on +the earth here and emerge hence, we should know that the true +earth is there. The people there dwell with the gods, and see +things as they really are; and what the sea is to us the air is to +them, and what the air is to us the ether is to them." Again, in +the tenth book of the Republic, eleventh chapter, the soul is +metaphorically said in the sea of this corporeal life to get +stones and shell fish attached to it, and, fed on earth, to be +rendered to a great extent earthy, stony, and savage, like the +marine Glaucus, some parts of whose body were broken off and +others worn away by the waves, while such quantities of shells, +sea weed, and stones had grown to him that he more resembled a +beast than a man. In keeping with the whole tenor of the Platonic +teaching, this is a fine illustration of the fallen state of man +in his vile environment of flesh here below. The soul, in its +earthly sojourn, embodied here, is as much mutilated and degraded +from its equipped and pure condition in its lofty natal home, the +archetypal world of Truth above the base Babel of material +existence, as Glaucus was on + +16 Phado, 40. + +17 Gorgias, 173. + +18 Menexenus, 19. + +19 Timaus, 71. + + +descending from his human life on the sunny shore to his encrusted +shape and blind prowling in the monstrous deep. + +At another time Plato contrasts the situation of the soul on earth +with its situation in heaven by the famous comparison of the dark +cave. He supposes men, unable to look upwards, dwelling in a +cavern which has an opening towards the light extending lengthwise +through the top of the cavern. A great many images, carrying +various objects and talking aloud, pass and repass along the edge +of the opening. Their shadows fall on the side of the cave below, +in front of the dwellers there; also the echoes of their talk +sound back from the wall. Now, the men, never having been or +looked out of the cave, would suppose these shadows to be the real +beings, these echoes the real voices. As respects this figure, +says Plato, we must compare ourselves with such persons. The +visible region around us is the cave, the sun is the light, and +the soul's ascent into the region of mind is the ascent out of the +cave and the contemplation of things above.20 + +Still again, Plato describes the ethereal paths and motions of the +gods, who, in their chariots, which are the planets and stars, +ride through the universe, accompanied by all pure souls, "the +family of true science, contemplating things as they really are." +"Reaching the summit, they proceed outside, and, standing on the +back of heaven, its revolution carries them round, and they behold +that supercelestial region which no poet here can ever sing of as +it deserves." In this archetypal world all souls of men have +dwelt, though "few have memory enough left," "after their fall +hither," "to call to mind former things from the present." "Now, +of justice and temperance, and whatever else souls deem precious, +there are here but faint resemblances, dull images; but beauty was +then splendid to look on when we, in company with the gods, beheld +that blissful spectacle, and were initiated into that most blessed +of all mysteries, which we celebrated when we were unaffected by +the evils that awaited us in time to come, and when we beheld, in +the pure light, perfect and calm visions, being ourselves pure and +as yet unmasked with this shell of a body to which we are now +fettered."21 + +To suppose all this employed by Plato as mere fancy and metaphor +is to commit an egregious error. In studying an ancient author, we +must forsake the modern stand point of analysis, and envelop +ourselves in the ancient atmosphere of thought, where poetry and +science were as indistinguishably blended in the personal beliefs +as oxygen and nitrogen are in the common air. We have not a doubt +that Plato means to teach, literally, that the soul was always +immortal, and that in its anterior states of existence, in the +realm of ideas on high, it was in the midst of those essential +realities whose shifting shadows alone it can behold in its lapsed +condition and bodily imprisonment here. That he closely +intertwisted ethical with physical theories, spiritual destinies +with insphering localities, the fortunes of men with the +revolutions of the earth and stars, is a fact which one can hardly +read the Timaus and fail to see; a fact which continually +reappears. It is strikingly shown in his idea of the consummation +of all things at regular epochs determined by the recurrence of a +grand + +20 Republic, lib. vii. cap. 1 4. + +21 Phadrus, 56-58, 63, 64. + + +revolution of the universe, a period vulgarly known under the name +of the "Platonic Year."22 The second point, therefore, in the +present explanation of Plato's doctrine of another life, is the +conception that there is in the empyrean a glorious world of +incorruptible truth, beauty, and goodness, the place of the gods, +the native haunt of souls; and that human souls, having yielded to +base attractions and sunk into bodies, are but banished sojourners +in this phenomenal world of evanescent shadows and illusions, +where they are "stung with resistless longings for the skies, and +only solaced by the vague and broken reminiscences of their former +state." + +Thirdly, Plato taught that after death an unerring judgment and +compensation await all souls. Every soul bears in itself the plain +evidence of its quality and deeds, its vices and virtues; and in +the unseen state it will meet inevitable awards on its merits. "To +go to Hades with a soul full of crimes is the worst of all +evils."23 "When a man dies, he possesses in the other world a +destiny suited to the life which he has led in this."24 In the +second book of the Republic he says, "We shall in Hades suffer the +punishment of our misdeeds here;" and he argues at much length the +absolute impossibility of in any way escaping this. The fact of a +full reward for all wisdom and justice, a full retribution for all +folly and vice, is asserted unequivocally in scores of passages, +most of them expressly connecting the former with the notion of an +ascent to the bright region of truth and intellect, the latter +with a descent to the black penal realm of Hades. Let the citation +of a single further example suffice. "Some souls, being sentenced, +go to places of punishment beneath the earth; others are borne +upward to some region in heaven."25 He proves the genuineness of +his faith in this doctrine by continually urging it, in the most +earnest, unaffected manner, as an animating motive in the +formation of character and the conduct of life, saying, "He who +neglects his soul will pass lamely through existence, and again +pass into Hades, aimless and unserviceable."26 + +The fourth and last step in this exposition is to show the +particular form in which Plato held his doctrine of future +retribution, the way in which he supposed the consequences of +present good and evil would appear hereafter. He received the +Oriental theory of transmigration. Souls are born over and over. +The banishment of the wicked to Tartarus is provisional, a +preparation for their return to incarnate life. The residence of +the good in heaven is contingent, and will be lost the moment they +yield to carelessness or material solicitations. The circumstances +under which they are reborn, the happiness or misery of their +renewed existence, depend on their character and conduct in their +previous career; and thus a poetic justice is secured. At the +close of the Timaus, Plato describes the whole animal kingdom as +consisting of degraded human souls, from "the tribe of birds, +which were light minded souls, to the tribe of oysters, which have +received the most remote habitations as a punishment of their +extreme ignorance." "After this manner, then, both formerly and + +22 Statesman, 14, 15. + +23 Gorgias, 165. + +24 Republic, lib. vi. cap. i. + +25 Phadrus, 61. + +26 Timaus, 18. + + +now, animals transmigrate, experiencing their changes through the +loss or acquisition of intellect and folly." The general doctrine +of metempsychosis is stated and implied very frequently in many of +the Platonic dialogues. Some recent writers have tried to explain +these representations as figures of speech, not intended to +portray the literal facts, but merely to hint their moral +equivalents. Such persons seem to us to hold Plato's pages in the +full glare of the nineteenth century and read them in the +philosophic spirit of Bacon and Comte, instead of holding them in +the old shades of the Academy and pondering them in the marvelling +spirit of Pythagoras and Empedocles. + +We are led by the following considerations to think that Plato +really meant to accredit the transmigration of souls literally. +First, he often makes use of the current poetic imagery of Hades, +and of ancient traditions, avowedly in a loose metaphorical way, +as moral helps, calling them "fables." But the metempsychosis he +sets forth, without any such qualification or guard, with so much +earnestness and frequency, as a promise and a warning, that we are +forced, in the absence of any indication to the contrary, to +suppose that he meant the statements as sober fact and not as +mythical drapery. As with a parable, of course we need not +interpret all the ornamental details literally; but we must accept +the central idea. And in the present case the fundamental thought +is that of repeated births of the soul, each birth trailing +retributive effects from the foregone. For example, the last four +chapters of the tenth book of the Republic contain the account of +Erus, a Pamphylian, who, after lying dead on the battle field ten +days, revived, and told what he had seen in the other state. Plato +in the outset explicitly names this recital an "apologue." It +recounts a multitude of moral and physical particulars. These +details may fairly enough be considered in some degreeas mythical +drapery, or as the usual traditional painting; but the essential +conception running through the account, for the sake of which it +is told, we are not at liberty to explain away as empty metaphor. +Now, that essential conception is precisely this: that souls after +death are adjudged to Hades or to heaven as a recompense for their +sin or virtue, and that, after an appropriate sojourn in those +places, they are born again, the former ascending, squalid and +scarred, from beneath the earth, the latter descending, pure, from +the sky. In perfect consonance with this conclusion is the moral +drawn by Plato from the whole narrative. He simply says, "If the +company will be persuaded by me, considering the soul to be +immortal and able to bear all evil and good, we shall always +persevere in the road which leads upwards." + +Secondly, the conception of the metempsychosis is thoroughly +coherent with Plato's whole philosophy. If he was in earnest about +any doctrine, it was the doctrine that all knowledge is +reminiscence. The following declarations are his. "Soul is older +than body." "Souls are continually born over again from Hades into +this life." "To search and learn is simply to revive the images of +what the soul saw in its pre existent state of being in the world +of realities."27 Why should we hesitate to attribute a sincere +belief in the metempsychosis to the acknowledged author of the +doctrine that the soul lived in another world before appearing +here, and that its knowledge is but reminiscence? If born from the +other world + +27 Menexenus, 15. + + +once, we may be many times; and then all that is wanted to +complete the dogma of transmigration is the idea of a presiding +justice. Had not Plato that idea? + +Thirdly, the doctrine of a judicial metempsychosis was most +profoundly rooted in the popular faith, as a strict verity, +throughout the great East, ages before the time of Plato, and was +familiarly known throughout Greece in his time. It had been +imported thither by Musaus and Orpheus at an early period, was +afterwards widely recommended and established by the Pythagoreans, +and was unquestionably held by many of Plato's contemporaries. He +refers once to those "who strongly believe that murderers who have +gone to Hades will be obliged to come back and end their next +lives by suffering the same fate which they had before inflicted +on others."28 It is also a remarkable fact that he states the +conditions of transmigration, and the means of securing exemption +from it, in the same way that the Hindus have from immemorial +time: "The soul which has beheld the essence of truth remains free +from harm until the next revolution; and if it can preserve the +vision of the truth it shall always remain free from harm," that +is, be exempt from birth; but "when it fails to behold the field +of truth it falls to the earth and is implanted in a body."29 This +statement and several others in the context corresponds precisely +with Hindu theology, which proclaims that the soul, upon attaining +real wisdom, that is, upon penetrating beneath illusions and +gazing on reality, is freed from the painful necessity of repeated +births. Now, since the Hindus and the Pythagoreans held the +doctrine as a severe truth, and Plato states it in the identical +forms which they employed, and never implies that he is merely +poetizing, we naturally conclude that he, too, veritably +inculcates it as fact. + +Finally, we are the more confirmed in this supposition when we +find that his lineal disciples and most competent expounders, such +as Proclus, and nearly all his later commentators, such as Ritter, +have so understood him. The great chorus of his interpreters, from +Plotinus to Leroux, with scarcely a dissentient voice, approve the +opinion pronounced by the learned German historian of philosophy, +that "the conception of the metempsychosis is so closely +interwoven both with his physical system and with his ethical as +to justify the conviction that Plato looked upon it as legitimate +and valid, and not as a merely figurative exposition of the soul's +life after death." To sum up the whole in one sentence: Plato +taught with grave earnestness the immortality of the soul, subject +to a discriminating retribution, which opened for its temporary +residences three local regions, heaven, earth, and Hades, and +which sometimes led it through different grades of embodied being. +"O thou youth who thinkest that thou art neglected by the gods, +the person who has become more wicked departs to the more wicked +souls; but he who has become better departs to the better souls, +both in life and in all deaths."30 + +Whether Aristotle taught or denied the immortality of the soul has +been the subject of innumerable debates from his own time until +now. It is certainly a most ominous fact that his great name has +been cited as authority for rejecting the doctrine of a future +life by so many + +28 The Laws, b. ix. ch. 10. + +29 Phadrus, 60-62. + +30 The Laws, lib. x. cap. 13. + + +of his keenest followers; for this has been true of weighty +representatives of every generation of his disciples. Antagonistic +advocates have collected from his works a large number of varying +statements, endeavoring to distinguish between the literal and the +figurative, the esoteric and the popular. It is not worth our +while here, either for their intrinsic interest or for their +historic importance, to quote the passages and examine the +arguments. All that is required for our purpose may be expressed +in the language of Ritter, who has carefully investigated the +whole subject: "No passage in his extant works is decisive; but, +from the general context of his doctrine, it is clear that he had +no conception of the immortality of any individual rational +entity."31 + +It would take a whole volume instead of a chapter to set forth the +multifarious contrasting tenets of individual Greek philosophers, +from the age of Pherecydes to that of Iamblichus, in relation to a +future life. Not a few held, with Empedocles, that human life is a +penal state, the doom of such immortal souls as for guilt have +been disgraced and expelled from heaven. "Man is a fallen god +condemned to wander on the earth, sky aspiring but sense clouded." +Purged by a sufficient penance, he returns to his former godlike +existence. "When, leaving this body, thou comest to the free +ether, thou shalt be no longer a mortal, but an undying god." +Notions of this sort fairly represent no small proportion of the +speculations upon the fate of the soul which often reappear +throughout the course of Greek literature. Another class of +philosophers are represented by such names as Marcus Antoninus, +who, comparing death to disembarkation at the close of a voyage, +says, "If you land upon another life, it will not be empty of +gods: if you land in nonentity, you will have done with pleasures, +pains, and drudgery."32 And again he writes, "If souls survive, +how has ethereal space made room for them all from eternity? How +has the earth found room for all the bodies buried in it? The +solution of the latter problem will solve the former. The corpse +turns to dust and makes space for another: so the spirit, let +loose into the air, after a while dissolves, and is either renewed +into another soul or absorbed into the universe. Thus room is made +for succession."33 These passages, it will be observed, leave the +survival of the soul at all entirely hypothetical, and, even +supposing it to survive, allow it but a temporary duration. Such +was the common view of the great sect of the Stoics. They all +agreed that there was no real immortality for the soul; but they +differed greatly as to the time of its dissolution. In the words +of Cicero, "Diu mansuros aiunt animos; semper, negant:" they say +souls endure for a long time, but not forever. Cleanthes taught +that the intensity of existence after death would depend on the +strength or weakness of the particular soul. Chrysippus held that +only the souls of the wise and good would survive at all.34 +Panatius said the soul always died with the body, because it was +born with it, which he proved by the resemblances of children's +souls to those of their parents.35 Seneca has a great many +contradictory passages on this subject + +31 Hist. Anc. Phil. p. iii. b. ix. ch. 4. + +32 Meditations, lib. iii. cap. 3. + +33 Ibid. lib. iv. cap. 21. + +34 Plutarch, Plac. Phil. iv. 7. + +35 Tusc. Quast. lib. i. cap. 32. + + +in his works; but his preponderant authority, upon the whole, is +that the soul and the body perish together.36 At one time he says, +"The day thou fearest as the last is the birthday of eternity." +"As an infant in the womb is preparing to dwell in this world, so +ought we to consider our present life as a preparation for the +life to come."37 At another time he says, with stunning bluntness, +"There is nothing after death, and death itself is nothing." + +Post mortem nihil est, ipsaque mors nihil. 38 + +Besides the mystics, like Plotinus, who affirmed the strict +eternity of the soul, and the Stoics, like Poseidonius, who +believed that the soul, having had a beginning, must have an end, +although it might endure for a long period after leaving the body, +there were among the Greeks and Romans two other classes of +believers in a future life, namely, the ignorant body of the +people, who credited, more or less fully, the common fables +concerning Hades; and an educated body of select minds, who, while +casting off the popular superstitions, yet clung tenaciously to +the great fact of immortality in some form or other, without +attempting to define the precise mode of it. + +There was among the illiterate populace, both Greek and Roman, +even from the age of Eumolpus to that of Augustus, a good deal of +firm faith in a future life, according to the gross scheme and +particulars preserved to us still in the classic mythology. A +thousand current allusions and statements in the general +literature of those times prove the actual existence of a common +and literal belief in Hades with all its accompaniments. This was +far from being, in the average apprehension, a mere myth. Plato +says, "Many, of their own accord, have wished to descend into +Hades, induced by the hope of there seeing and being with those +they have loved."39 He also says, "When a man is about to die, the +stories of future punishment which he had formerly ridiculed +trouble him with fears of their truth."40 And that frightful +accounts of hell really swayed and terrified the people, even so +late as the time of the Roman republic, appears from the earnest +and elaborate arguments employed by various writers to refute +them. + +The same thing is shown by the religious ritual enacted at +funerals and festivals, the forms of public and private worship +observed till after the conversion of Constantine. The cake of +rice and honey borne in the dead hand for Cerberus, the periodical +offerings to the ghosts of the departed, as at the festivals +called Feralia and Parentalia,41 the pictures of the scenery of +the under world, hung in the temples, of which there was a famous +one by Polygnotus,42 all imply a literal crediting of the vulgar +doctrine. Altars were set up on the spots where Tiberius and Caius +Gracchus were murdered, and services were there performed in honor +of their manes. Festus, an old Roman lexicographer who lived in +the second or third century, tells us there was in the Comitium a +stone covered pit which was supposed to be the + +36 Christoph Meiners, Vermischte Philosophische Schriften. +Commentarius quo Stoicorum Sententia; de Animorum post mortem +Statu satis illustrantur. + +37 Epist. 102. + +38 Troades, 1. 397. + +39 Phado, 34. + +40 Republic, lib. i. cap. 5. + +41 Ovid, Fasti, lib. ii. II. 530-580. + +42 Pausanias, lib. x. cap. 28. + + +mouth of Orcus, and was opened three days in the year for souls to +rise out into the upper world.43 Apuleius describes, in his +treatise on "the god of Socrates," the Roman conceptions of the +departed spirits of men. They called all disembodied human souls +"lemures." Those of good men were "lares," those of bad men +"larva." And when it was uncertain whether the specified soul was +a lar or a larva, it was named "manes." The lares were mild +household gods to their posterity. The larva were wandering, +frightful shapes, harmless to the pious, but destructive to the +reprobate.44 + +The belief in necromancy is well known to have prevailed +extensively among the Greeks and Romans. Aristophanes represents +the coward, Pisander, going to a necromancer and asking to "see +his own soul, which had long departed, leaving him a man with +breath alone."45 In Latin literature no popular terror is more +frequently alluded to or exemplified than the dread of seeing +ghosts. Every one will recall the story of the phantom that +appeared in the tent of Brutus before the battle of Philippi. It +pervades the "Haunted House" of Plautus. Callimachus wrote the +following couplet as an epitaph on the celebrated misanthrope: + +"Timon, hat'st thou the world or Hades worse? Speak clear! Hades, +O fool, because there are more of us here!" 46 + +Pythagoras is said once to have explained an earthquake as being +caused by a synod of ghosts assembled under ground! It is one of +the best of the numerous jokes attributed to the great Samian; a +good nut for the spirit rappers to crack. There is an epigram by +Diogenes Laertius, on one Lycon, who died of the gout: + +"He who before could not so much as walk alone, The whole long +road to Hades travell'd in one night!" + +Philostratus declares that the shade of Apollonius appeared to a +skeptical disciple of his and said, "The soul is immortal."47 It +is unquestionable that the superstitious fables about the under +world and ghosts had a powerful hold, for a very long period, upon +the Greek and Roman imagination, and were widely accepted as +facts. + +At the same time, there were many persons of more advanced culture +to whom such coarse and fanciful representations had become +incredible, but who still held loyally to the simple idea of the +survival of the soul. They cherished a strong expectation of +another life, although they rejected the revolting form and +drapery in which the doctrine was usually set forth. Xenophon puts +the following speech into the mouth of the expiring Cyrus: "I was +never able, my children, to persuade myself that the soul, as long +as it was in a mortal body, lived, but when it was removed from +this, that it died; neither could I believe that the soul ceased +to think when separated from the unthinking and senseless body; +but it seemed to me most probable that when pure and free from any +union with the body, then it became most + +43 De Significatione Verborum, verbum "Manalis." + +44 Lessing, Wie die Alten den Tod gebildet. + +45 Ayes, I. 1485. + +46 Epigram IV. + +47 Vita Apollonii, lib. viii. cap. 31. + + +wise."48 Every one has read of the young man whose faith and +curiosity were so excited by Plato's writings that he committed +suicide to test the fact of futurity. Callimachus tells the story +neatly: + +"Cleombrotus, the Ambracian, having said, 'Farewell, O sun!' +leap'd from a lofty wall into the world Of ghosts. No deadly ill +had chanced to him at all; But he had read in Plato's book upon +the soul." 49 + +The falling of Cato on his sword at Utica, after carefully +perusing the Phado, is equally familiar. + +In the case of Cicero, too, notwithstanding his fluctuations of +feeling and the obvious contradictions of sentiment in some of his +letters and his more deliberate essays, it is, upon the whole, +plain enough that, while he always regarded the vulgar notions as +puerile falsehoods, the hope of a glorious life to come was +powerful in him. This may be stated as the result of a patient +investigation and balancing of all that he says on the subject, +and of the circumstances under which he says it. To cite and +criticize the passages here would occupy too much space to too +little profit. + +At the siege of Jerusalem, Titus made a speech to his soldiers, in +the course of it saying to them, "Those souls which are severed +from their fleshly bodies by the sword in battle, are received by +the pure ether and joined to that company which are placed among +the stars."50 The beautiful story of Cupid and Psyche, that +loveliest of all the myths concerning the immortality of the soul, +was a creation by no means foreign to the prevalent ideas and +feelings of the time when it was written. The "Dissertations" of +Maximus Tyrius abound with sentences like the following. "This +very thing which the multitude call death is the birth of a new +life, and the beginning of immortality."51 "When Pherecydes lay +sick, conscious of spiritual energy, he cared not for bodily +disease, his soul standing erect and looking for release from its +cumbersome vestment. So a man in chains, seeing the walls of his +prison crumbling, waits for deliverance, that from the darkness in +which he has been buried he may soar to the ethereal regions and +be filled with glorious light."52 + +The conception of man as a member of the cosmic family of gods and +genii was known to all the classic philosophers, and was cherished +by the larger portion of them. Pindar affirms one origin for gods +and men. Plato makes wise souls accompany the gods in their +excursions about the sky. Cicero argues that heaven, and not +Hades, is the destination of the soul at death, because the soul, +being lighter than the earthly elements surrounding it here, would +rise aloft through the natural force of gravitation.53 Plutarch +says, "Demons are the spies and scouts of the gods, wandering and +circuiting around on their commands." Disembodied souls + +48 Cyropadia, lib. viii. cap. 7. + +49 Epigram XXIV. + +50 Josephus, De Bell. lib. vi. cap. 1. + +51 Diss. XXV. + +52 Diss. XLI. + +53 Tusc. Quest. lib i. cap. 17. + + +and demons were the same. The prevalence of such ideas as these +produced in the Greek and Roman imagination a profound sense of +invisible beings, a sense which was further intensified by the +popular personifications of all natural forces, as in fountains +and trees, full of lapsing naiads and rustling dryads. An +illustrative fact is furnished by an effect of the tradition that +Thetis, snatching the body of Achilles from the funeral pile, +conveyed him to Leuke, an island in the Black Sea. The mariners +sailing by often fancied they saw his mighty shade flitting along +the shore in the dusk of evening.54 But a passage in Hesiod yields +a more adequate illustration: "When the mortal remains of those +who flourished during the golden age were hidden beneath the +earth, their souls became beneficent demons, still hovering over +the world they once inhabited, and still watching, clothed in thin +air and gliding rapidly through every region of the earth, as +guardians over the affairs of men."55 + +But there were always some who denied the common doctrine of a +future life and scoffed at its physical features. Through the +absurd extravagances of poets and augurs, and through the growth +of critical thought, this unbelief went on increasing from the +days of Anaxagoras, when it was death to call the sun a ball of +fire, to the days of Catiline, when Julius Casar could be chosen +Pontifex Maximus, almost before the Senate had ceased to +reverberate his voice openly asserting that death was the utter +end of man. Plutarch dilates upon the wide skepticism of the +Greeks as to the infernal world, at the close of his essay on the +maxim, "Live concealed." The portentous growth of irreverent +unbelief, the immense change of feeling from awe to ribaldry, is +made obvious by a glance from the known gravity of Hesiod's +"Descent of Theseus and Pirithous into Hades," to Lucian's +"Kataplous," which represents the cobbler Mycillus leaping from +the banks of the Styx, swimming after Charon's boat, climbing into +it upon the shoulders of the tyrant Megapenthes and tormenting him +the whole way. Pliny, in his Natural History, affirms that death +is an everlasting sleep.56 The whole great sect of the Epicureans +united in supporting that belief by the combined force of ridicule +and argument. Their views are the most fully and ably defended by +the consummate Lucretius, in his masterly poem on the "Nature of +Things." Horace,57 Juvenal,58 Persius,59 concur in scouting at the +tales which once, when recited on the stage, had made vast +audiences perceptibly tremble.60 And Cicero asks, "What old woman +is so insane as to fear these things?"61 + +There were two classes of persons who sought differently to free +mankind from the terrors which had invested the whole prospect of +death and another world. The first were the materialists, who +endeavored to prove that death was to man the absolute end of +every thing. Secondly, there were the later Platonists, who +maintained that this world is the only Hades, that heaven is our +home, that all death is ascent to better life. "To remain on high +with the gods is life; to descend into this world is death, a +descent into Orcus," they said. The following couplet, of an +unknown date, is translated from the Greek Anthology: + +"Diogenes, whose tub stood by the road, Now, being dead, has the +stars for his abode." + +54 Muller, Greek Literature, ch. vi. + +55 Works and Days, lib. i. II. 120-125. + +56 Lib. ii. cap. 7. + +57 Lib. i. epist. 16. + +58 Sat. II. + +59 Sat. II. + +60 Tusc. Quest. lib. i. cap. 16. + +61 Ibid. cap. 21. + + +Macrobius writes, in his commentary on the "Dream of Scipio," +"Here, on earth, is the cavern of Dis, the infernal region. The +river of oblivion is the wandering of the mind forgetting the +majesty of its former life and thinking a residence in the body +the only life. Phlegethon is the fires of wrath and desire. +Acheron is retributive sadness. Cocytus is wailing tears. Styx is +the whirlpool of hatreds. The vulture eternally tearing the liver +is the torment of an evil conscience."62 + +To the ancient Greek in general, death was a sad doom. When he +lost a friend, he sighed a melancholy farewell after him to the +faded shore of ghosts. Summoned himself, he departed with a +lingering look at the sun, and a tearful adieu to the bright day +and the green earth. To the Roman, death was a grim reality. To +meet it himself he girded up his loins with artificial firmness. +But at its ravages among his friends he wailed in anguished +abandonment. To his dying vision there was indeed a future; but +shapes of distrust and shadow stood upon its disconsolate borders; +and, when the prospect had no horror, he still shrank from its +poppied gloom. + +62 Lib. i. cap. 9, 10. + + +CHAPTER XI. + +MOHAMMEDAN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +ISLAM has been a mighty power in the earth since the middle of the +seventh century. A more energetic and trenchant faith than it was +for eight hundred years has not appeared among men. Finally +expelled from its startling encampments in Spain and the +Archipelago, it still rules with tenacious hold over Turkey, a +part of Tartary, Palestine, Persia, Arabia, and large portions of +Africa. At this moment, as to adherence and influence, it is +subordinate only to the two foremost religious systems in the +world, Buddhism and Christianity. The dogmatic structure of Islam +as a theology and its practical power as an experimental religion +offer a problem of the gravest interest. But we must hasten on to +give an exposition of merely those elements in it which are +connected with its doctrine of a future life. + +It is a matter of entire notoriety that there is but the least +amount of originality in the tenets of the Mohammedan faith. The +blending together of those tenets was distinctive, the unifying +soul breathed into them was a new creation, and the great aim to +which the whole was subordinated was peculiar; but the component +doctrines themselves, with slight exception, existed before as +avowed principles in the various systems of belief and practice +that prevailed around. Mohammed adopted many of the notions and +customs of the pagan Arabs, the central dogma of the Jews as to +the unity of God, most of the traditions of the Hebrew Scriptures, +innumerable fanciful conceits of the Rabbins,1 whole doctrines of +the Magians with their details, some views of the Gnostics, and +extensive portions of a corrupted Christianity, grouping them +together with many modifications of his own, and such additions as +his genius afforded and his exigencies required. The motley +strangely results in a compact and systematic working faith. + +The Islamites are divided into two great sects, the Sunnees and +the Sheeahs. The Arabs, Tartars, and Turks are Sunnees, are +dominant in numbers and authority, are strict literalists, and are +commonly considered the orthodox believers. The Persians are +Sheeahs, are inferior in point of numbers, are somewhat freer in +certain interpretations, placing a mass of tradition, like the +Jewish Mischna, on a level with the Koran,2 and are usually +regarded as heretical. To apply our own ecclesiastical phraseology +to them, the latter are the Moslem Protestants, the former the +Moslem Catholics. Yet in relation to almost every thing which +should seem at all fundamental or vital they agree in their +teachings. Their differences in general are upon trivial opinions, +or especially upon ritual particulars. For instance, the Sheeahs +send all the Sunnees to hell because in their ablutions they wash +from the elbow to the finger tips; the Sunnees return the +compliment to their rival sectarists because they wash from the +finger tips to the elbow. Within these two grand denominations of +Sheeah and + +1 Rabbi Abraham Geiger, Prize Essay upon the question, proposed by +the University of Bonn, "Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthum +aufgenommen?" + +2 Merrick, Translation of the Sheeah Traditions of Mohammed in the +Hyat ul Kuloob, note x. + + +Sunnee are found a multitude of petty sects, separated from each +other on various questions of speculative faith and ceremonial +practice. Some take the Koran alone, and that in its plain literal +sense, as their authority. Others read the Koran in the +explanatory light of a vast collection of parables, proverbs, +legends, purporting to be from Mohammed. There is no less than a +score of mystic allegorizing sects3 who reduce almost every thing +in the Koran to symbol, or spiritual signification, and some of +whom as the Sufis are the most rapt and imaginative of all the +enthusiastic devotees in the world. + +A cardinal point in the Mohammedan faith is the asserted existence +of angels, celestial and infernal. Eblis is Satan. He was an angel +of lofty rank; but when God created Adam and bade all the angels +worship him, Eblis refused, saying, "I was created of fire, he of +clay: I am more excellent and will not bow to him."4 Upon this God +condemned Eblis and expelled him from Paradise. He then became the +unappeasable foe and seducing destroyer of men. He is the father +of those swarms of jins, or evil spirits, who crowd all hearts and +space with temptations and pave the ten thousand paths to hell +with lures for men. + +The next consideration preliminary to a clear exhibition of our +special subject, is the doctrine of predestination, the +unflinching fatalism which pervades and crowns this religion. The +breath of this appalling faith is saturated with fatality, and its +very name of Islam means "Submission." In heaven the prophet saw a +prodigious wax tablet, called the "Preserved Table," on which were +written the decrees of all events between the morning of creation +and the day of judgment. The burning core of Mohammed's preaching +was the proclamation of the one true God whose volition bears the +irresistible destiny of the universe; and inseparably associated +with this was an intense hatred of idolatry, fanned by the wings +of God's wrath and producing a fanatic sense of a divine +commission to avenge him on his insulters and vindicate for him +his rightful worship from every nation. There is an apparent +conflict between the Mohammedan representations of God's absolute +predestination of all things, and the abundant exhortations to all +men to accept the true faith and bring forth good works, and thus +make sure of an acceptable account in the day of judgment. The +former make God's irreversible will all in all. The latter seem to +place alternative conditions before men, and to imply in them a +power of choice. But this is a contradiction inseparable from the +discussion of God's infinite sovereignty and man's individual +freedom. The inconsistency is as gross in Augustine and Calvinism +as it is in the Arabian lawgiver and the creed of the Sunnees. The +Koran, instead of solving the difficulty, boldly cuts it, and does +that in exactly the same way as the thorough Calvinist. God has +respectively elected and reprobated all the destined inhabitants +of heaven and hell, unalterably, independently of their choice or +action. At the same time, reception of the true faith, and a life +conformed to it, are virtually necessary for salvation, because it +is decreed that all the elect shall profess and obey the true +faith. Their obedient reception of it proves them to be elected. +On the other hand, it is foreordained that none of the reprobate +shall become disciples and followers of the Prophet. Their +rejection of + +3 Churchill, Mount Lebanon, vol. i. ch. xv. + +4 Sale's Translation of the Koran, ch. vii. + + +him, their wicked misbelief, is the evidence of their original +reprobation. As the Koran itself expresses it, salvation is for +"all who are willing to be warned; but they shall not be warned +unless God please:"5 "all who shall be willing to walk uprightly; +but they shall not be willing unless God willeth."6 + +But such fine drawn distinctions are easily lost from sight or +spurned in the eager affray of affairs and the imminent straits of +the soul. While in dogma and theory the profession of an orthodox +belief, together with scrupulous prayer, fasting, alms, and the +pilgrimage to Mecca, or the absence of these things, simply +denotes the foregone determinations of God in regard to the given +individuals, in practice and feeling the contrasted beliefs and +courses of conduct are held to obtain heaven and hell. And we +find, accordingly, that Mohammed spoke as if God's primeval +ordination had fixed all things forever, whenever he wished to +awaken in his followers reckless valor and implicit submission. +"Whole armies cannot slay him who is fated to die in his bed." On +the contrary, when he sought to win converts, to move his hearers +by threatenings and persuasions, he spoke as if every thing +pertaining to human weal and woe, present and future, rested on +conditions within the choice of men. Say, "'There is but one God, +and Mohammed is his prophet,' and heaven shall be your portion; +but cling to your delusive errors, and you shall be companions of +the infernal fire." Practically speaking, the essence of +propagandist Islam was a sentiment like this. All men who do not +follow Mohammed are accursed misbelievers. We are God's chosen +avengers, the commissioned instruments for reducing his foes to +submission. Engaged in that work, the hilts of all our scimitars +are in his hand. He snatches his servant martyr from the battle +field to heaven. Thus the weapons of the unbelievers send their +slain to paradise, while the weapons of the believers send their +slain to hell. Up, then, with the crescent banner, and, dripping +with idolatrous gore, let it gleam over mountain and plain till +our sickles have reaped the earth! "The sword is the key of heaven +and the key of hell. A drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah, a +night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting +and prayer. Whoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven. In the +day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion and +odoriferous as musk."7 An infuriated zeal against idolaters and +unbelievers inflamed the Moslem heart, a fierce martial enthusiasm +filled the Moslem soul, and tangible visions of paradise and hell +floated, illuminate, throughtheMoslem imagination. And so from the +Persian Gulf to the Caucasus, from Sierra Leone to the Pyrenees, +the polity of Mohammed overran the nations, with the Koran in its +left hand, the exterminating blade in its right, one thunder shout +still breaking from its awful lips: "Profess Islam, and live, with +the clear prospect of eternal bliss beyond life; reject it, and +die, with the full certainty of eternal anguish beyond death." +When the crusading Christians and the Saracenic hosts met in +battle, the conflict was the very frenzy of fanaticism. "There the +question of salvation or damnation lay on the ground between the +marshalled armies, to be fought for and carried by the stronger." +Christ and Allah encountered, and the endless fate of their +opposed + +5 Koran, ch. lxxiv. + +6 Ibid. ch. lxxxi. + +7 Gibbon, Decline and Fall of Rome, ch. 1. + + +followers hung on the swift turning issue. "Never have the +appalling ideas of the invisible world so much and so distinctly +mingled with the fury of mortal strife as in this instance. To the +eyes of Turk and Arab the smoke of the infernal pit appeared to +break up from the ground in the rear of the infidel lines. As the +squadrons of the faithful moved on to the charge, that pit yawned +to receive the miscreant host; and in chasing the foe the +prophet's champions believed they were driving their antagonists +down the very slopes of perdition. When at length steel clashed +upon steel and the yell of death shook the air, the strife was not +so much between arm and arm as between spirit and spirit, and each +deadly thrust was felt to pierce the life at once of the body and +of the soul."8 + +That terrible superstition prevails almost universally among the +Mussulmans, designated the "Beating in the Sepulchre," or the +examination and torture of the body in the grave. As soon as a +corpse is interred, two black and livid angels, called the +Examiners, whose names are Munkeer and Nakeer, appear, and order +the dead person to sit up and answer certain questions as to his +faith. If he give satisfactory replies, they suffer him to rest in +peace, refreshed by airs from paradise; but if he prove to have +been an unbeliever or heretic, they beat him on the temples with +iron maces till he roars aloud with pain and terror. They then +press the earth on the body, which remains gnawed and stung by +dragons and scorpions until the last day. Some sects give a +figurative explanation of these circumstances. The utter denial of +the whole representation is a schismatic peculiarity of the sect +of Motozallites. But all true believers, both Sunnee and Sheeah, +devoutly accept it literally. The commentators declare that it is +implied in the following verse of the Koran itself: "How, +therefore, will it be with them when they die and the angels shall +strike their faces and their backs?" 9 + +The intermediate state of souls from the time of death until the +resurrection has been the subject of extensive speculation and +argument with the Islamites. The souls of the prophets, it is +thought, are admitted directly to heaven. The souls of martyrs, +according to a tradition received from Mohammed, rest in heaven in +the crops of green birds who eat of the fruits and drink of the +rivers there. As to the location of the souls of the common crowd +of the faithful, the conclusions are various. Some maintain that +they and the souls of the impious alike sleep in the dust until +the end, when Israfil's blasts will stir them into life to be +judged. But the general and orthodox impression is that they tarry +in one of the heavens, enjoying a preparatory blessedness. The +souls of the wicked, it is commonly held, after being refused a +place in the tomb and also being repulsed from heaven, are carried +down to the lower abyss, and thrown into a dungeon under a green +rock, or into the jaw of Eblis, there to be treated with +foretastes of their final doom until summoned to the judgment.10 + +A very prominent doctrine in the Moslem creed is that of the +resurrection of the body. This is a central feature in the +orthodox faith. It is expounded in all the emphatic details of its +gross literality by their authoritative doctors, and is dwelt upon +with unwearied reiteration by the Koran. True, some minor +heretical sects give it a spiritual interpretation; but the great + +8 Taylor, Hist. of Fanaticism, sect. vii. + +9 Ch. xlvii. + +10 Sale, Preliminary Discourse, sect. iv. + + +body of believers accept it unhesitatingly in its most physical +shape. The intrinsic unnaturalness and improbability of the dogma +were evidently felt by Mohammed and his expositors; and all the +more they strove to bolster it up and enforce its reception by +vehement affirmations and elaborate illustrations. In the second +chapter of the Koran it is related that, in order to remove the +skepticism of Abraham as to the resurrection, God wrought the +miracle of restoring four birds which had been cut in pieces and +scattered. In chapter seventh, God says, "We bring rain upon a +withered country and cause the fruits to spring forth. Thus will +we bring the dead from their graves." The prophet frequently +rebukes those who reject this belief. "What aileth them, that they +believe not the resurrection?"11 "Is not He who created man able +to quicken the dead?"12 "The scoffers say, 'Shall we be raised to +life, and our forefathers too, after we have become dust and +bones? This is nothing but sorcery.'"13 First, Israfil will blow +the blast of consternation. After an interval, he will blow the +blast of examination, at which all creatures will die and the +material universe will melt in horror. Thirdly, he will blow the +blast of resurrection. Upon that instant, the assembled souls of +mankind will issue from his trumpet, like a swarm of bees, and +fill the atmosphere, seeking to be reunited to their former +bodies, which will then be restored, even to their very hairs. + +The day of judgment immediately follows. This is the dreadful day +for which all other days were made; and it will come with +blackness and consternation to unbelievers and evil doers, but +with peace and delight to the faithful. The total race of man will +be gathered in one place. Mohammed will first advance in front, to +the right hand, as intercessor for the professors of Islam. The +preceding prophets will appear with their followers. Gabriel will +hold suspended a balance so stupendous that one scale will cover +paradise, the other hell. "Hath the news of the overwhelming day +of judgment reached thee?"14 "Whoever hath wrought either good or +evil of the weight of an ant shall in that day behold the same."15 +An infallible scrutiny shall search and weigh every man's deeds, +and exact justice shall be done, and no foreign help can avail any +one. "One soul shall not be able to obtain any thing in behalf of +another soul."16 "Every man of them on that day shall have +business enough of his own to employ his thoughts."17 In all the +Mohammedan representations of this great trial and of the +principles which determine its decisions, no reference is made to +the doctrine of predestination, but all turns on strict equity. +Reckoning a reception or rejection of the true faith as a crowning +merit or demerit, the only question is, Do his good works +outweigh, by so much as a hair, his evil works? If so, he goes to +the right; if not, he must take the left. The solitary trace of +fatalism or rather favoritism is this: that no idolater, once in +hell, can ever possibly be released, while no Islamite, however +wicked, can be damned eternally. The punishment of unbelievers is +everlasting, that of believers limited. The opposite of this +opinion is a great heresy with the generality of the Moslems. Some +say the judgment will require but the twinkling of an eye; others +that it will occupy fifty thousand years, during which time the +sun will be drawn from its sheath and burn insufferably, and the +wicked will stand looking up, their feet shod with shoes of fire, +and their skulls boiling like pots. At last, + +11 Ch. lxxxiv. + +12 Ch. lxxv. + +13 Ch. xxxvii., lvi. + +14 Koran, ch. lxxxviii. + +15 Ibid. ch. xcix. + +16 Ibid. ch. lxxxii. + +17 Ibid. ch. lxxx. + + +when sentence has been passed on them, all souls are forced to try +the passage of al Sirat, a bridge thinner than a hair, sharper +than a razor, and hotter than flame, spanning in one frail arch +the immeasurable distance, directly over hell, from earth to +paradise. Some affect a metaphorical solution of this air severing +causeway, and take it merely as a symbol of the true Sirat, or +bridge of this world, namely, the true faith and obedience; but +every orthodox Mussulman firmly holds it as a physical fact to be +surmounted in the last day.18 Mohammed leading the way, the +faithful and righteous will traverse it with ease and as quickly +as a flash of lightning. The thin edge broadens beneath their +steps, the surrounding support of convoying angels' wings hides +the fire lake below from their sight, and they are swiftly +enveloped in paradise. But as the infidel with his evil deeds +essays to cross, thorns entangle his steps, the lurid glare +beneath blinds him, and he soon topples over and whirls into the +blazing abyss. In Dr. Frothingham's fine translation from +Ruckert, + +"When the wicked o'er it goes, stands the bridge all sparkling; +And his mind bewilder'd grows, and his eye swims darkling. +Wakening, giddying, then comes in, with a deadly fright, Memory of +all his sin, rushing on his sight. But when forward steps the +just, he is safe e'en here: Round him gathers holy trust, and +drives back his fear. Each good deed's a mist, that wide, golden +borders gets; And for him the bridge, each side, shines with +parapets." + +Between hell and paradise is an impassable wall, al Araf, +separating the tormented from the happy, and covered with those +souls whose good works exactly counterpoise their evil works, and +who are, consequently, fitted for neither place. The prophet and +his expounders have much to say of this narrow intermediate +abode.19 Its lukewarm denizens are contemptuously spoken of. It is +said that Araf seems hell to the blessed but paradise to the +damned; for does not every thing depend on the point of view? + +The Mohammedan descriptions of the doom of the wicked, the +torments of hell, are constantly repeated and are copious and +vivid. Reference to chapter and verse would be superfluous, since +almost every page of the Koran abounds in such tints and tones as +the following. "The unbelievers shall be companions of hell fire +forever." "Those who disbelieve we will surely cast to be broiled +in hell fire: so often as their skins shall be well burned we will +give them other skins in exchange, that they may taste the sharper +torment." "I will fill hell entirely full of genii and men." "They +shall be dragged on their faces into hell, and it shall be said +unto them, 'Taste ye that torment of hell fire which ye rejected +as a falsehood.'" "The unbelievers shall be driven into hell by +troops." "They shall be taken by the forelocks and the feet and +flung into hell, where they shall drink scalding water." "Their +only entertainment shall be boiling water, and they shall be fuel +for hell." "The smoke of hell shall cast forth sparks as big as +towers, resembling yellow camels in color." "They who believe not +shall + +18 W. C. Taylor, Mohammedanism and its Sects. + +19 Koran, ch. viii. Sale, Preliminary Discourse, p. 125. + + +have garments of fire fitted on them, and they shall be beaten +with maces of red hot iron." "The true believers, lying on +couches, shall look down upon the infidels in hell and laugh them +to scorn." + +There is a tradition that a door shall be shown the damned opening +into paradise, but when they approach it, it shall be suddenly +shut, and the believers within will laugh. Pitiless and horrible +as these expressions from the Koran are, they are merciful +compared with the pictures in the later traditions, of women +suspended by their hair, their brains boiling, suspended by their +tongues, molten copper poured down their throats, bound hands and +feet and devoured piecemeal by scorpions, hung up by their heels +in flaming furnaces and their flesh cut off on all sides with +scissors of fire. 20 Their popular teachings divide hell into +seven stories, sunk one under another. The first and mildest is +for the wicked among the true believers. The second is assigned to +the Jews. The third is the special apartment of the Christians. +They fourth is allotted to the Sabians, the fifth to the Magians, +and the sixth to the most abandoned idolaters; but the seventh the +deepest and worst belongs to the hypocrites of all religions. The +first hell shall finally be emptied and destroyed, on the release +of the wretched believers there; but all the other hells will +retain their victims eternally. + +If the visions of hell which filled the fancies of the faithful +were material and glowing, equally so were their conceptions of +paradise. On this world of the blessed were lavished all the +charms so fascinating to the Oriental luxuriousness of sensual +languor, and which the poetic Oriental imagination knew so well +how to depict. As soon as the righteous have passed Sirat, they +obtain the first taste of their approaching felicity by a +refreshing draught from "Mohammed's Pond." This is a square lake, +a month's journey in circuit, its water whiter than milk or silver +and more fragrant than to be comparable to any thing known by +mortals. As many cups are set around it as there are stars in the +firmament; and whoever drinks from it will never thirst more. Then +comes paradise, an ecstatic dream of pleasure, filled with +sparkling streams, honeyed fountains, shady groves, precious +stones, all flowers and fruits, blooming youths, circulating +goblets, black eyed houris, incense, brilliant birds, delightsome +music, unbroken peace.21 A Sheeah tradition makes the prophet +promise to Ali twelve palaces in paradise, built of gold and +silver bricks laid in a cement of musk and amber. The pebbles +around them are diamonds and rubies, the earth saffron, its +hillocks camphor. Rivers of honey, wine, milk, and water flow +through the court of each palace, their banks adorned with various +resplendent trees, interspersed with bowers consisting each of one +hollow transparent pearl. In each of these bowers is an emerald +throne, with a houri upon it arrayed in seventy green robes and +seventy yellow robes of so fine a texture, and she herself so +transparent, that the marrow of her ankle, notwithstanding robes, +flesh, and bone, is as distinctly visible as a flame in a glass +vessel. Each houri has seventy locks of hair, every one under the +care of a maid, who perfumes it with a censer which God has made +to smoke with incense without the presence of fire; and no mortal +has ever breathed such fragrance as is there exhaled. 22 + +20 Hyat ul Kuloob, ch. x. p. 206. + +21 Koran, ch. lv. ch. lvi. + +22 Hyat ul Kuloob, ch. xvi. p. 286. + + +Such a doctrine of the future life as that here set forth, it is +plain, was strikingly adapted to win and work fervidly on the +minds of the imaginative, voluptuous, indolent, passionate races +of the Orient. It possesses a nucleus of just and natural moral +conviction and sentiment, around which is grouped a composite of a +score of superstitions afloat before the rise of Islam, set off +with the arbitrary drapery of a poetic fancy, colored by the +peculiar idiosyncrasies of Mohammed, emphasized to suit his +special ends, and all inflamed with a vindictive and propagandist +animus. Any word further in explanation of the origin, or in +refutation of the soundness, of this system of belief once so +imminently aggressive and still so widely established would seem +to be superfluous. + +CHAPTER XII. + +EXPLANATORY SURVEY OF THE FIELD AND ITS MYTHS. + +SURVEYING the thought of mankind upon the subject of a future +life, as thus far examined, one can hardly fail to be struck by +the multitudinous variety of opinions and pictures it presents. +Whence and how arose this heterogeneous mass of notions? + +In consequence of the endowments with which God has created man, +the doctrine of a future life arises as a normal fact in the +development of his experience. But the forms and accompaniments of +the doctrine, the immense diversity of dress and colors it appears +in, are subject to all the laws and accidents that mould and +clothe the products within any other department of thought and +literature. We must refer the ethnic conceptions of a future state +to the same sources to which other portions of poetry and +philosophy are referred, namely, to the action of sentiment, +fancy, and reason, first; then to the further action, reaction, +and interaction of the pictures, dogmas, and reasonings of +authoritative poets, priests, and philosophers on one side, and of +the feeling, faith, and thought of credulous multitudes and docile +pupils on the other. In the light of these great centres of +intellectual activity, parents of intellectual products, there is +nothing pertaining to the subject before us, however curious, +which may not be intelligibly explained, seen naturally to spring +out of certain conditions of man's mind and experience as related +with the life of society and the phenomena of the world. + +So far as the views of the future life set forth in the religions +of the ancient nations constitute systematically developed and +arranged schemes of doctrine and symbol, the origin of them +therefore needs no further explanation than is furnished by a +contemplation of the regulated exercise of the speculative and +imaginative faculties. But so far as those representations contain +unique, grotesque, isolated particulars, their production is +accounted for by this general law: In the early stages of human +culture, when the natural sensibilities are intensely preponderant +in power, and the critical judgment is in abeyance, whatever +strongly moves the soul causes a poetical secretion on the part of +the imagination.1 Thus the rainbow is personified; a waterfall is +supposed to be haunted by spiritual beings; a volcano with fiery +crater is seen as a Cyclops with one flaming eye in the centre of +his forehead. This law holds not only in relation to impressive +objects or appearances in nature, but also in relation to +occurrences, traditions, usages. In this way innumerable myths +arise, explanatory or amplifying thoughts secreted by the +stimulated imagination and then narrated as events. Sometimes +these tales are given and received in good faith for truth, as +Grote abundantly proves in his volume on Legendary Greece; +sometimes they are clearly the gleeful play of the fancy, as when +it is said that the hated infant Herakles having been put to +Hera's breast as she lay asleep in heaven, she, upon waking, +thrust him away, and the lacteal fluid, streaming athwart the +firmament, originated the Milky Way! To apply this law to our +special subject: + +1 Chambers's Papers for the People, vol. i.: The Myth, p. 1. + + +What would be likely to work more powerfully on the minds of a +crude, sensitive people, in an early stage of the world, with no +elaborate discipline of religious thought, than the facts and +phenomena of death? Plainly, around this centre there must be +deposited a vast quantity of ideas and fantasies. The task is to +discriminate them, trace their individual origin, and classify +them. + +One of the most interesting and difficult questions connected with +the subject before us is this: What, in any given time and place, +were the limits of the popular belief? How much of the current +representations in relation to another life were held as strict +verity? What portions were regarded as fable or symbolism? It is +obvious enough that among the civilized nations of antiquity the +distinctions of literal statement, allegory, historic report, +embellished legend, satire, poetic creation, philosophical +hypothesis, religious myth, were more or less generally known. For +example, when Aschylus makes one of his characters say, "Yonder +comes a herald: so Dust, Clay's thirsty sister, tells me," the +personification, unquestionably, was as purposed and conscious as +it is when a poet in the nineteenth century says, "Thirst dived +from the brazen glare of the sky and clutched me by the throat." +So, too, when Homer describes the bag of Aolus, the winds, in +possession of the sailors on board Ulysses' ship, the half +humorous allegory cannot be mistaken for religious faith. It is +equally obvious that these distinctions were not always carefully +observed, but were often confounded. Therefore, in respect to the +faith of primitive times, it is impossible to draw any broad, +fixed lines and say conclusively that all on this side was +consciously considered as fanciful play or emblem, all on that +side as earnest fact. Each particular in each case must be +examined by itself and be decided on its own merits by the light +and weight of the moral probabilities. For example, if there was +any historic basis for the myth of Herakles dragging Cerberus out +of Hades, it was that this hero forcibly entered the Mysteries and +dragged out to light the enactor of the part of the three headed +dog. The aged North man, committing martial suicide rather than +die in his peaceful bed, undoubtedly accepted the ensanguined +picture of Valhalla as a truth. Virgil, dismissing Aneas from the +Tartarean realm through "the ivory gate by which false dreams and +fictitious visions are wont to issue," plainly wrought as a poet +on imaginative materials. + +It should be recollected that most of the early peoples had no +rigid formularies of faith like the Christian creeds. The writings +preserved to us are often rather fragments of individual +speculations and hopes than rehearsals of public dogmas. Plato is +far from revealing the contemporaneous belief of Greece in the +sense in which Thomas Aquinas reveals the contemporaneous belief +of Christendom. In Egypt, Persia, Rome, among every cultured +people, there were different classes of minds, the philosophers, +the priests, the poets, the warriors, the common multitude, whose +modes of thinking were in contrast, whose methods of interpreting +their ancestral traditions and the phenomena of human destiny were +widely apart, whose respective beliefs had far different +boundaries. The openly skeptical Euripides and Lucian are to be +borne in mind as well as the apparently credulous Hesiod and +Homer. Of course the Fables of Asop were not literally credited. +Neither, as a general thing, were the Metamorphoses of Ovid. With +the ancients, while there was a general national cast of faith, +there were likewise varieties of individual and sectarian belief +and unbelief, skepticism and credulity, solemn reason and +recreative fancy. + +The people of Lystra, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, +actually thought Barnabas and Paul were Zeus and Hermes, and +brought oxen and garlands to offer them the sacrifices appropriate +to those deities. Peisistratus obtained rule over Athens by +dressing a stately woman, by the name of Phye, as Athene, and +passing off her commands as those of the tutelary goddess. +Herodotus ridicules the people for unsuspiciously accepting her.2 +The incredibleness of a doctrine is no obstacle to a popular +belief in it. Whosoever thinks of the earnest reception of the +dogma of transubstantiation the conversion of a wheaten wafer into +the infinite God by nearly three quarters of Christendom at this +moment, must permit the paradox to pass unchallenged. Doubtless +the closing eye of many an expiring Greek reflected the pitiless +old oarsman plying his frost cold boat across the Stygian ferry, +and his failing ear caught the rush of the Phlegethonian surge. It +is equally certain that, at the same time, many another laughed at +these things as childish fictions, fitted only to scare "the baby +of a girl." + +Stricken memory, yearning emotion, kindled fancy, a sensitive and +timorous observation of natural phenomena, rustling leaves, +wavering shadows, apparent effects of unknown causes, each is a +superstitious mother of beliefs. The Sonora Indians say that +departed souls dwell among the caves and rocks of the cliffs, and +that the echoes often heard there are their voices. Ruskin +suggests that the cause of the Greeks surrounding the lower world +residence of Persephone with poplar groves was that "the +frailness, fragility, and inconstancy of the leafage of the +poplar tree resembled the fancied ghost people." We can very +easily imagine how, in the breeze at the entrance to some +subterranean descent, + +"A ghostly rank Of poplars, like a halted train of shades, +Trembled." + +The operations of fierce passions, hate, fright, and rage, in a +brain boiling with blood and fire, make pictures which the savage +afterwards holds in remembrance as facts. He does not by +reflection consciously distinguish the internal acts and sights of +the mind from objective verities. Barbarians as travellers and +psychologists have repeatedly observed usually pay great attention +to the vagaries of madmen, the doings and utterances of the +insane. These persons are regarded as possessed by higher beings. +Their words are oracles: the horrible shapes, the grotesque +scenes, which their disordered and inflamed faculties conjure up, +are eagerly caught at, and such accounts of them as they are able +to make out are treasured up as revelations. This fact is of no +slight importance as an element in the hinting basis of the +beliefs of uncultivated tribes. Many a vision of delirium, many a +raving medley of insanity, has been accepted as truth.3 Another +phenomenon, closely allied to the former, has wrought in a similar +manner and still more widely. It has been a common superstition +with barbarous nations in every part of the world, from Timbuctoo +to Siberia, to suppose that dreams are real + +2 Lib. i. cap. 60. + +3 De Boismont, Rational History of Hallucinations, ch. 15: +Of Hallucinations considered in a Psychological, Historical, +and Religious Point of View. + + +adventures which the soul passes through, flying abroad while the +body lies, a dormant shell, wrapped in slumber. The power of this +influence in nourishing a copious credulity may easily be +imagined. + +The origin of many notions touching a future state, found in +literature, is to be traced to those rambling thoughts and poetic +reveries with which even the most philosophical minds, in certain +moods, indulge themselves. For example, Sir Isaac Newton "doubts +whether there be not superior intelligencies who, subject to the +Supreme, oversee and control the revolutions of the heavenly +bodies." And Goethe, filled with sorrow by the death of Wieland, +musing on the fate of his departed friend, solemnly surmised that +he had become the soul of a world in some far realm of space. The +same mental exercises which supply the barbarian superstitions +reappear in disciplined minds, on a higher plane and in more +refined forms. Culture and science do not deliver us from all +illusion and secure us sober views conformed to fact. Still, what +we think amid the solid realities of waking life, fancy in her +sleep disjointedly reverberates from hollow fields of dream. The +metaphysician or theologian, instead of resting contented with +mere snatches and glimpses, sets himself deliberately to reason +out a complete theory. In these elaborate efforts many an opinion +and metaphor, plausible or absurd, sweet or direful, is born and +takes its place. There is in the human mind a natural passion for +congruity and completeness, a passion extremely fertile in +complementary products. For example, the early Jewish notion of +literally sitting down at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, +in the resurrection, was gradually developed by accretion of +assisting particulars into all the details of a consummate +banquet, at which Leviathan was to be the fish, Behemoth the +roast, and so on.4 In the construction of doctrines or of +discourses, one thought suggests, one premise or conclusion +necessitates, another. This genetic application is sometimes +plainly to be seen even in parts of incoherent schemes. For +instance, the conception that man has returned into this life from +anterior experiences of it is met by the opposing fact that he +does not remember any preceding career. The explanatory idea is at +once hit upon of a fountain of oblivion a river Lethe from which +the disembodied soul drinks ere it reappears. Once establish in +the popular imagination the conception of the Olympian synod of +gods, and a thousand dramatic tales of action and adventure, +appropriate to the characters of the divine personages, will +inevitably follow. + +The interest, cunning, and authority of priesthoods are another +source of prevailing opinions concerning a life to come. Many +nations, early and late, have been quite under the spiritual +direction of priests, and have believed almost every thing they +said. Numerous motives conspire to make the priest concoct +fictions and exert his power to gain credence for them. He must +have an alluringly colored elysium to reward his obedient +disciples. When his teachings are rejected and his authority +mocked, his class isolation and incensed pride find a natural +satisfaction in threatening the reprobate aliens that a rain of +fire will one day wash them down the smoking gulfs of sulphur. The +Maronites, a sect of Catholic Christians in Syria, purchase of +their priests a few yards of land in heaven, to secure a residence +there when + +4 Corrodi, Gesch. des Chiliasmns, th. i. abschn. 15: Gastmahl des +Leviathan. + +they die.5 The Siamese Buddhists accumulate silver and bury it in +secret, to supply the needs of the soul during its wandering in +the separate state. "This foolish opinion robs the state of +immense sums. The lords and rich men erect pyramids over these +treasures, and for their greater security place them in charge of +the talapoins!"6 When, for some reason or other, either as a +matter of neatness and convenience, or as a preventive of mutual +clawing, or for some to us unimaginable end, the authoritative +Skald wished to induce the Northmen to keep their nails close cut, +he devised the awful myth of the ship Nagelfra, and made his raw +minded people swallow it as truth. The same process was followed +unquestionably in a thousand other cases, in different particulars +of thought and aim, in different parts of the world. + +In a bird's eye survey of the broad field we have traversed, one +cannot help noticing the marked influence of the present scenery +and habits, history and associations, of a people in deciding the +character of their anticipations of the future. The Esquimaux +paradise is surrounded by great pots full of boiled walrus meat. +The Turk's heaven is a gorgeously idealized pleasure garden or +celestial harem. As the apparition of a man wanders into the next +state, a shadow of his present state floats over into the future +with him. The Hereafter is the image flung by the Now. Heaven and +hell are the upward and downward echoes of the earth. Like the +spectre of the Brocken on the Hartz Mountains, our ideas of +another life are a reflection of our present experience thrown in +colossal on the cloud curtains of futurity. Charles Lamb, pushing +this elucidating observation much further, says, "The shapings of +our heavens are the modifications of our constitutions." A tribe +of savages has been described who hoped to go after death to their +forefathers in an under ground elysium whose glory consisted in +eternal drunkenness, that being their highest conception of bliss +and glory. What can be more piteous than the contemplation of +those barbarians whose existence here is so wretched that even +their imagination and faith have lost all rebound, and who +conceive of the land of souls only as poorer and harder than this, +expecting to be tasked and beaten there by stronger spirits, and +to have nothing to eat? The relation of master and servant, the +tyranny of class, is reflected over into the other life in those +aristocratic notions which break out frequently in the history of +our subject. The Pharisees some of them, at least excluded the +rabble from the resurrection. The Peruvians confined their heaven +to the nobility. The New Zealanders said the souls of the Atuas, +the nobles, were immortal, but the Cookees perished entirely. +Meiners declares that the Russians, even so late as the times of +Peter the Great, believed that only the Czar and the boyars could +reach heaven. It was almost a universal custom among savage +nations when a chieftain died to slay his wives and servants, that +their ghosts might accompany his to paradise, to wait on him there +as here. Even among the Greeks, as Bulwer has well remarked, "the +Hades of the ancients was not for the many; and the dwellers of +Elysium are chiefly confined to the oligarchy of earth." + +The coarse and selfish assumption on the part of man of +superiority over woman, based on his brawniness and tyranny, has +sometimes appeared in the form of an assertion that + +5 Churchill, Mt. Lebanon, vol. iii. ch. 7. + +6 Pallegoix, Description du Royaume de Siam, ch. xx. p. 113. + + +women have no souls, or at least cannot attain to the highest +heaven possible for man. The former statement has been vulgarly +attributed to the Moslem creed, but with utter falsity. A pious +and aged female disciple once asked Mohammed concerning her future +condition in heaven. The prophet replied, "There will not be any +old women in heaven." She wept and bewailed her fate, but was +comforted upon the gracious assurance from the prophet's lips, +"They will all be young again when there." The Buddhists relate +that Gotama once directed queen Prajapati, his foster mother, to +prove by a miracle the error of those who supposed it impossible +for a woman to attain Nirwana. She immediately made as many +repetitions of her own form as filled the skies of all the +sakwalas, and, after performing various wonders, died and rose +into Nirwana, leading after her five hundred virtuous princesses.7 + +How spontaneously the idiosyncrasies of men in the present are +flung across the abysm into the future state is exhibited +amusingly, and with a rough pathos, in an old tradition of a +dialogue between Saint Patrick and Ossian. The bard contrasts the +apostle's pitiful psalms with his own magnificent songs, and says +that the virtuous Fingal is enjoying the rewards of his valor in +the aerial existence. The saint rejoins, No matter for Fingal's +worth; being a pagan, assuredly he roasts in hell. In hot wrath +the honest Caledonian poet cries, "If the children of Morni and +the tribes of the clan Ovi were alive, we would force brave Fingal +out of hell, or the same habitation should be our own."8 + +Many of the most affecting facts and problems in human experience +and destiny have found expression, hypothetic solution, in +striking myths preserved in the popular traditions of nations. The +mutual resemblances in these legends in some cases, though among +far separated peoples, are very significant and impressive. They +denote that, moved by similar motives and exercised on the same +soliciting themes, human desire and thought naturally find vent in +similar theories, stories, and emblems. The imagination of man, as +Gfrorer says, runs in ruts which not itself but nature has beaten. + +The instinctive shrinking from death felt by man would, sooner or +later, quite naturally suggest the idea that death was not an +original feature in the divine plan of the world, but a +retributive additional discord. Benignant nature meant her +children should live on in happy contentment here forever; but sin +and Satan came in, and death was the vengeance that followed their +doings. The Persians fully developed this speculation. The Hebrews +either also originated it, or borrowed it from the Persians; and +afterwards the Christians adopted it. Traces of the same +conception appear among the remotest and rudest nations. The +Caribbeans have a myth to the effect that the whole race of men +were doomed to be mortal because Carus, the first man, offended +the great god Tiri. The Cherokees ascribe to the Great Spirit the +intention of making men immortal on earth; but, they say, the sun +when he passed over told them there was not room enough, and that +people had better die! They also say that the Creator attempted to +make the first man and woman out of two stones, but failed, and +afterwards fashioned them of clay; and therefore it is that they +are perishable.9 The + +7 Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 314. + +8 Logan, Scottish Gael, ch. xiv. + +9 Squier, Serpent Symbol, p. 67, note c. + + +Indians of the Oronoco declare that the Great Spirit dwelt for a +while, at first, among men. As he was leaving them, he turned +around in his canoe and said, "Ye shall never die, but shall shed +your skins." An old woman would not believe what he said; he +therefore recalled his promise and vowed that they should die. + +The thought of more than one death that the composite man is +simplified by a series of separating deaths has repeatedly found +place. The New Testament speaks of "the second death;" but that is +a metaphorical phrase, descriptive, as there employed, of +condemnation and suffering. It is a thought of Plato that the +Deity put intellect in soul, and soul in a material envelope. +Following this hint, Plutarch says, in his essay on the Face in +the Moon, that the earth furnishes the body, the moon the soul, +the sun the mind. The first death we die, he continues, makes us +two from three; the second makes us one from two. The Feejees tell +how one of their warriors, seeing the spectre of a recently +deceased enemy of his, threw his war club at it and killed it. +They believed the spirit itself was thus destroyed. There is +something pathetic in this accumulation of dissolution upon +dissolution, this pursuit of death after death. We seem to hear, +in this thin succession of the ghosts of ghosts, the fainter +growing echoes of the body fade away. + +Many narratives reveal the fond hovering of the human mind over +the problem of avoiding death altogether. The Hebrew Scriptures +have made us familiar with the translation of Enoch and the +ascension of Elijah without tasting death. The Hindus tell of +Divadassa, who, as a reward for his exceeding virtue and piety, +was permitted to ascend to heaven alive.10 They also say that the +good Trisanku, having pleased a god, was elevated in his living +body to heaven.11 The Buddhists of Ceylon preserve a legend of the +elevation of one of the royal descendants of Maha Sammata to the +superior heavens without undergoing death.12 There are Buddhist +traditions, furthermore, of four other persons who were taken up +to Indra's heaven in their bodies without tasting death, namely, +the musician Gattila, and the kings Sadhina, Nirni, and +Mandhatu.13 A beautiful myth of the translation of Cyrus is found +in Firdousi's Shah Nameh: + +"Ky Khosru bow'd himself before his God: In the bright water he +wash'd his head and his limbs; And he spake to himself the Zend +Avesta's prayers; And he turn'd to the friends of his life and +exclaim'd, 'Fare ye well, fare ye well for evermore! When to +morrow's sun lifts its blazing banner, And the sea is gold, and +the land is purple, This world and I shall be parted forever. Ye +will never see me again, save in Memory's dreams.'When the sun +uplifted his head from the mountain, The king had vanish'd from +the eyes of his nobles. They roam'd around in vain attempts to +find him; + +10 Vans Kennedy, Ancient and Hindu Mythology, p. 431. + +11 Vishnu Purana, p. 371. + +12 Upham, Sacred Books of Ceylon, vol. i. Introduction, p. 17. + +13 Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 25, note. + + +And every one, as he came back to the place, Bade a long farewell +to the king of the world. Never hath any one seen such a marvel +No, though he live long in the world That a man should go alive +into the presence of God." + +There is a Greek story that Empedocles, "after a sacred festival, +was drawn up to heaven in a splendor of celestial effulgence."14 +Philostratus relates a tradition of the Cretans, affirming that, +Apollonius having entered a temple to worship, a sound was heard +as of a chorus of virgins singing, "Come from the earth; come into +heaven; come." And he was taken up, never having been seen +afterwards. Here may be cited also the exquisite fable of +Endymion. Zeus promised to grant what he should request. He begged +for immortality, eternal sleep, and never fading youth. +Accordingly, in all his surpassing beauty he slumbers on the +summit of Latmus, where every night the enamored moon stoops to +kiss his spotless forehead. One of the most remarkable fragments +in the traditions of the American aborigines is that concerning +the final departure of Tarenyawagon, a mythic chief of +supernatural knowledge and power, who instructed and united the +Iroquois. He sprang across vast chasms between the cliffs, and +shot over the lakes with incredible speed, in a spotless white +canoe. At last the Master of Breath summoned him. Suddenly the sky +was filled with melody. While all eyes were turned up, +Tarenyawagon was seen, seated in his snow white canoe, in mid air, +rising with every burst of the heavenly music, till he vanished +beyond the summer clouds, and all was still.15 + +Another mythological method of avoidingdeath is by bathing in some +immortal fountain. The Greeks tell of Glaucus, who by chance +discovered and plunged in a spring of this charmed virtue, but was +so chagrined at being unable to point it out to others that he +flung himself into the ocean. He could not die, and so became a +marine deity, and was annually seen off the headlands sporting +with whales. The search for the "Fountain of Youth" by the +Spaniards who landed in Florida is well known. How with a vain +eagerness did Ponce de Leon, the battered old warrior, seek after +the magic wave beneath which he should sink to emerge free from +scars and stains, as fresh and fair as when first he donned the +knightly harness! Khizer, the Wandering Jew of the East, +accompanied Iskander Zulkarnain (the Oriental name for Alexander +the Great) in his celebrated expedition to find the fountain of +life.16 Zulkarnain, coming to a place where there were three +hundred and sixty fountains, despatched three hundred and sixty +men, ordering each man to select one of the fountains in which to +wash a dry salted fish wherewith he was furnished. The instant +Khizer's fish touched the water of the fountain which he had +chosen, it sprang away, alive. Khizer leaped in after it and +drank. Therefore he cannot die till the last trump sounds. +Meanwhile, clad in a green garb, he roams through the world, a +personified spring of the year. + +14 Lewes, Biographical History of Philosophy, vol. i. p. 135, (1st +Eng. edit.) + +15 Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, ch. ix. + +16 Adventures of Hatim Tai, p. 125. + + +The same influences which have caused death to be interpreted as a +punitive after piece in the creation, and which have invented +cases wherein it was set aside, have also fabricated tales of +returns from its shrouded realm. The Thracian lover's harp, +"drawing iron tears down Pluto's cheek," won his mistress half way +to the upper light, and would have wholly redeemed her had he not +in impatience looked back. The grim king of Hades, yielding to +passionate entreaties, relented so far as to let the hapless +Protesilaus return to his mourning Laodameia for three hours. At +the swift end of this poor period he died again; and this time she +died with him. Erus, who was killed in battle, and Timarchus, +whose soul was rapt from him in the cave of Trophonius, both +returned, as we read in Plato and Plutarch, to relate with +circumstantial detail what they saw in the other world. Alcestis, +who so nobly died to save her husband's life, was brought back +from the region of the dead, by the interposition of Herakles, to +spend happy years with her grateful Admetus. The cunning Sisyphus, +who was so notorious for his treachery, by a shrewd plot obtained +leave, after his death, to visit the earth again. Safely up in the +light, he vowed he would stay; but old Hermes psychopompus +forcibly dragged him down. + +When Columbus landed at San Salvador, the natives thought he had +descended from the sun, and by signs inquired if he had not. The +Hawaiians took Captain Cook for the god Lono, who was once their +king but was afterwards deified, and who had prophesied, as he was +dying, that he should in after times return. Te Wharewara, a New +Zealand youth, relates a long account of the return of his aunt +from the other world, with a minute description of her adventures +and observations there.17 Schoolcraft gives a picturesque +narrative of a journey made by a Wyandot brave to and from the +land of souls.18 + +There is a group of strangely pleasing myths, closely allied to +the two preceding classes, showing how the popular heart and +imagination glorify their heroes, and, fondly believing them too +godlike to die, fancy them only removed to some secret place, +where they still live, and whence in the time of need they will +come again to rescue or to bless their people. Greece dreamed that +her swift footed Achilles was yet alive in the White Island. +Denmark long saw king Holger lingering on the old warrior cairns +of his country. Portugal trusted that her beauteous prince +Sebastian had escaped from the fatal field to the East, and would +one day return to claim his usurped realm.19 So, too, of Roderick +the Goth, who fell in disastrous battle with the Arabs, the +Visiogothic traditions and faith of the people long insisted that +he would reappear. The Swiss herdsmen believe the founders of +their confederacy still sleep in a cavern on the shores of +Lucerne. When Switzerland is in peril, the Three Tells, slumbering +there in their antique garb, will wake to save her. Sweetly and +often, the ancient British lays allude to the puissant Arthur +borne away to the mystic vales of Avalon, and yet to be hailed in +his native kingdom, Excalibur once more gleaming in his hand. The +strains of the Troubadours swell and ring as they tell of +Charlemagne sleeping beneath + +17 Shortland, Traditions of the New Zealanders, p. 128. + +18 History, &c. of Indian Tribes, part ii. p. 235. + +19 There is a fanatic sect of Sebastianists in Brazil now. See +"Brazil and the Brazilians," by Kidier and Fletcher, pp. 519-521. + + +the Untersberg, biding his appointed time to rise, resume his +unrivalled sceptre, and glorify the Frank race. And what grand and +weird ballads picture great Barbarossa seated in the vaults of +Kyffhauser, his beard grown through the stone table in front of +him, tarrying till he may come forth, with his minstrels and +knights around him, in the crisis hour of Germany's fortunes! The +Indians of Pecos, in New Mexico, still anxiously expect the return +of Montezuma; while in San Domingo, on the Rio Grande, a sentinel +every morning ascends to the top of the highest house, at sunrise, +and looks out eastward for the coming of the great chief.20 The +peasants of Brittany maintain as a recent traveller testifies that +Napoleon is still alive in concealment somewhere, and will one day +be heard of or seen in pomp and victory. One other dead man there +has been who was expected to return. the hated Nero, the popular +horror of whom shows itself in the shuddering belief expressed in +the Apocalypse and in the Sibylline Oracles that he was still +alive and would reappear.21 + +Alian, in his Various History, recounts the following singular +circumstances concerning the Meropes who inhabited the valley of +Anostan.22 It would seem to prove that no possible conceit of +speculation pertaining to our subject has been unthought of. A +river of grief and a river of pleasure, he says, lapsed through +the valley, their banks covered with trees. If one ate of the +fruit growing on the trees beside the former stream, he burst into +a flood of tears and wept till he died. But if he partook of that +hanging on the shore of the latter, his bliss was so great that he +forgot all desires; and, strangest of all, he returned over the +track of life to youth and infancy, and then gently expired. He +turned + +"Into his yesterdays, and wander'd back To distant childhood, and +went out to God By the gate of birth, not death." + +Mohammed, during his night journey, saw, in the lower heaven, +Adam, the father of mankind, a majestic old man, with all his +posterity who were destined for paradise on one side, and all who +were destined for hell on the other. When he looked on the right +he smiled and rejoiced, but as often as he looked on the left he +mourned and wept. How finely this reveals the stupendous pathos +there is in the theological conception of a Federal Head of +humanity! + +The idea of a great terminal crisis is met with so often in +reviewing the history of human efforts to grasp and solve the +problem of the world's destiny, that we must consider it a normal +concomitant of such theorizings. The mind reels and loses itself +in trying to conceive of the everlasting continuance of the +present order, or of any one fixed course of things, but finds +relief in the notion of a revolution, an end, and a fresh start. +The Mexican Cataclysm or universal crash, the close of the Hindu +Calpa, the Persian Resurrection, the Stoic Conflagration, the +Scandinavian Ragnarokur, the Christian Day of Judgment, all embody +this one thought. The Drama of Humanity is played out, the curtain +falls, and when it rises again + +20 Abbe Domenech's Seven Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of +North America; Vol. I. ch. viii. + +21 Stuart, Commentary on the Apocalypse: Excursus upon ch. xiii. +v. 18. + +22 Lib. iii. cap. 18. + + +all is commenced afresh. The clock of creation runs down and has +to be wound up anew. The Brahmans are now expecting the tenth +avatar of Vishnu. The Parsees look for Sosiosch to come, to +consummate the triumph of good, and to raise the dead upon a +renewed earth. The Buddhists await the birth of Maitri Buddha, who +is tarrying in the dewa loka Tusita until the time of his advent +upon earth. The Jews are praying for the appearance of the +Messiah. And many Christians affirm that the second advent of +Jesus draws nigh. + +One more fact, even in a hasty survey of some of the most peculiar +opinions current in bygone times as to a future life, can scarcely +fail to attract notice. It is the so constant linking of the +soul's fate with the skyey spaces and the stars, in fond +explorings and astrologic dreams. Nowhere are the kingly greatness +and the immortal aspiring of man more finely shown. The loadstone +of his destiny and the prophetic gravitation of his thoughts are +upward, into the eternal bosom of heaven's infinite hospitality. + +"Ye stars, which are the poetry of heaven! +If in your bright leaves we would read the fate +Of men and empires, 'tis to be forgiven, +That, in our aspirations to be great, +Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state +And claim a kindred with you; for ye are +A beauty and a mystery, and create +In us such love and reverence from afar +That fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star." + +What an immeasurable contrast between the dying Cherokee, who +would leap into heaven with a war whoop on his tongue and a string +of scalps in his hand, and the dying Christian, who sublimely +murmurs, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!" What a sweep +of thought, from the poor woman whose pious notion of heaven was +that it was a place where she could sit all day in a clean white +apron and sing psalms, to the far seeing and sympathetic natural +philosopher whose loving faith embraces all ranks of creatures and +who conceives of paradise as a spiritual concert of the combined +worlds with all their inhabitants in presence of their Creator! +Yet from the explanatory considerations which have been set forth +we can understand the derivation of the multifarious swarm of +notions afloat in the world, as the fifteen hundred varieties of +apple now known have all been derived from the solitary white +crab. Differences of fancy and opinion among men are as natural as +fancies and opinions are. The mind of a people grows from the +earth of its deposited history, but breathes in the air of its +living literature.23 By his philosophic learning and poetic +sympathy the cosmopolitan scholar wins the last victory of mind +over matter, frees himself from local conditions and temporal +tinges, and, under the light of universal truth, traces, through +the causal influences of soil and clime and history, and the +colored threads of great individualities, the formation of +peculiar national creeds. Through sense the barbarian mind feeds +on the raw pabulum furnished by the immediate phenomena of the +world and of its own life. Through culture the civilized mind +feeds on the elaborated substance of literature, + +23 Schouw, Earth, Plants, and Man, ch. xxx. + + +science, and art. Plants eat inorganic, animals eat organized, +material. The ignorant man lives on sensations obtained directly +from nature; the educated man lives also on sensations obtained +from the symbols of other people's sensations. The illiterate +savage hunts for his mental living in the wild forest of +consciousness; the erudite philosopher lives also on the psychical +stores of foregone men. + +NOTE. To the ten instances, stated on pages 210, 211, of +remarkable men who after their death were popularly imagined to be +still alive, and destined to appear again, an eleventh may be +added. The Indians of Pecos, in New Mexico, anxiously expect the +return of Montezuma. In San Domingo, on the Rio Grande, a sentinel +every morning ascends to the roof of the highest house at sunrise +and looks out eastward for the coming of the great chief. See the +Abbe Domenech's "Seven Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of +North America," vol. ii. ch. viii. + +PART THIRD. + + +NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS CONCERNING AFUTURE LIFE. + + +CHAPTER I. + +PETER'S DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +IN entering upon an investigation of the thoughts of the New +Testament writers concerning the fate of man after his bodily +dissolution, we may commence by glancing at the various allusions +contained in the record to opinions on this subject prevalent at +the time of the Savior or immediately afterwards, but which formed +no part of his religion, or were mixed with mistakes. + +There are several incidents recorded in the Gospels which show +that a belief in the transmigration of the soul was received among +the Jews. As Jesus was passing near Siloam with his disciples, he +saw a man who had been blind from his birth; and the disciples +said to him, "Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that +he was born blind?" The drift of this question is, Did the parents +of this man commit some great crime, for which they were punished +by having their child born blind, or did he come into the world +under this calamity in expiation of the iniquities of a previous +life? Jesus denies the doctrine involved in this interrogation, at +least, as far as his reply touches it at all; for he rarely enters +into any discussion or refutation of incidental errors. He says, +Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents as the cause of his +blindness; but the regular workings of the laws of God are made +manifest in him: moreover, it is a providential occasion offered +me that I should show the divinity of my mission by giving him +sight. + +When Herod heard of the miracles and the fame of Jesus, he said, +This is John the Baptist, whom I beheaded: he is risen from the +dead; and therefore mighty works are wrought by him. This brief +statement plainly shows that the belief in the reappearance of a +departed spirit, in bodily form, to run another career, was extant +in Judea at that period. The Evangelists relate another +circumstance to the same effect. Jesus asked his disciples who the +people thought he was. And they replied, Some think that thou art +John the Baptist, some Elias, and some Jeremiah or some other of +the old prophets, a forerunner of the Messiah. Then Jesus asked, +But who think ye that I am? And Simon Peter said, Thou art the +promised Messiah himself. There was a prophetic tradition among +the Jews, drawn from the words of Malachi, that before the Messiah +was revealed Elias would appear and proclaim his coming. + +Therefore, when the disciples of Christ recognised him as the +great Anointed, they were troubled about this prophecy, and said +to their Master, Why do the Scribes say that Elias must first +come? He replies to them, in substance, It is even so: the +prophet's words shall not fail: they are already fulfilled. But +you must interpret the prophecy aright. It does not mean that the +ancient prophet himself, in physical form, shall come upon earth, +but that one with his office, in his spirit and power, shall go +before me. If ye are able to understand the true import of the +promise, it has been realized. John the Baptist is the Elias which +was to come. The New Testament, therefore, has allusions to the +doctrine of transmigration, but gives it no warrant. + +The Jewish expectations in regard to the Messiah, the nature of +his kingdom, and the events which they supposed would attend his +coming or transpire during his reign, were the source and +foundation of the phraseology of a great many passages in the +Christian Scriptures and of the sense of not a few. The national +ideas and hopes of the Jews at that time were singularly intense +and extensive. Their influence over the immediate disciples of +Jesus and the authors of the New Testament is often very evident +in the interpretations they put upon his teachings, and in their +own words. Still, their intellectual and spiritual obtuseness to +the true drift of their Master's thoughts was not so great, their +mistakes are neither so numerous nor so gross, as it is frequently +supposed they were. This is proved by the fact that when they use +the language of the Messianic expectations of the Jews in their +writings they often do it, not in the material, but in a spiritual +sense. When they first came under the instruction of Jesus, they +were fully imbued with the common notions of their nation and age. +By his influence their ideas were slowly and with great difficulty +spiritualized and made to approach his own in some degree. But it +is unquestionably true that they never not even after his death +arrived at a clear appreciation of the full sublimity, the pure +spirituality, the ultimate significance, of his mission and his +words. Still, they did cast off and rise above the grossly carnal +expectations of their countrymen. Partially instructed in the +spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom, and partially biassed by +their Jewish prepossessions, they interpreted a part of his +language figuratively, according to his real meaning, and a part +of it literally, according to their own notions. The result of +this was several doctrines neither taught by Christ nor held by +the Jews, but formed by conjoining and elaborating a portion of +the conceptions of both. These doctrines are to be found in the +New Testament; but it should be distinctly understood that the +religion of Christ is not responsible for them, is to be separated +from them. + +The fundamental and pervading aim of that epistle of Peter the +genuineness of which is unquestioned and the same is true in a +great degree of his speeches recorded in the Acts of the Apostles +is to exhort the Christians to whom it is written to purify +themselves by faith, love, and good works; to stand firmly amidst +all their tribulations, supported by the expectations and prepared +to meet the conditions of a glorious life in heaven at the close +of this life. Eschatology, the doctrine of the Last Things, with +its practical inferences, all inseparably interwoven with the +mission of Christ, forms the basis and scope of the whole +document. + +Peter believed that when Christ had been put to death his spirit, +surviving, descended into the separate state of departed souls. +Having cited from the sixteenth Psalm the declaration, "Thou wilt +not leave my soul in the under world," he says it was a prophecy +concerning Christ, which was fulfilled in his resurrection. "The +soul of this Jesus was not left in the under world, but God hath +raised him up, whereof we all are witnesses." When it is written +that his soul was not left in the subterranean abode of +disembodied spirits, of course the inference cannot be avoided +that it was supposed to have been there for a time. + +In the next place, we are warranted by several considerations in +asserting that Peter believed that down there, in the gloomy realm +of shades, were gathered and detained the souls of all the dead +generations. We attribute this view to Peter from the combined +force of the following reasons: because such was, notoriously, the +belief of his ancestral and contemporary countrymen; because he +speaks of the resurrection of Jesus as if it were a wonderful +prophecy or unparalleled miracle, a signal and most significant +exception to the universal law; because he says expressly of David +that "he is not yet ascended into the heavens," and if David was +still retained below, undoubtedly all were; because the same +doctrine is plainly inculcated by other of the New Testament +writers; and, finally, because Peter himself, in another part of +this epistle, declares, in unequivocal terms, that the soul of +Christ went and preached to the souls confined in the under +world, for such is the perspicuous meaning of the famous text, +"being put to death in the body, but kept alive in the soul, in +which also he went and preached [went as a herald] to the spirits +in prison." The meaning we have attributed to this celebrated +passage is the simple and consistent explanation of the words and +the context, and is what must have been conveyed to those familiar +with the received opinions of that time. Accordingly, we find +that, with the exception of Augustine, it was so understood and +interpreted by the whole body of the Fathers.1 It is likewise so +held now by an immense majority of the most authoritative modern +commentators. Rosenmuller says, in his commentary on this text, +"That by the spirits in prison is meant souls of men separated +from their bodies and detained as in custody in the under world, +which the Greeks call Hades, the Hebrews Sheol, can hardly be +doubted," (vix dubitari posse videtur.) Such has ever been and +still is the common conclusion of nearly all the best critical +theologians, as volumes of citations might easily be made to show. +The reasons which led Augustine to give a different exposition of +the text before us are such as should make, in this case, even his +great name have little or no weight. He firmly held, as revealed +and unquestionable truth,2 the whole doctrine which we maintain is +implied in the present passage; but he was so perplexed by certain +difficult queries3 as to locality and method and circumstance, +addressed to him with reference to this text, that he, waveringly, +and at last, gave it an allegorical interpretation. His exegesis +is not only arbitrary and opposed to the catholic doctrine of the +Church; it is also so far fetched and forced as to be destitute of + +1 See, for example, Clem. Alex. Stromata, lib. vi.; Cyprian, Test. +adv. Judaos, lib. ii. cap. 27, Lactantius, Divin. Instit. lib. +vii. cap. 20. + +2 Epist. XCIX. + +3 Ibid. + + +plausibility. He says the spirits in prison may be the souls of +men confined in their bodies here in this life, to preach to whom +Christ came from heaven. But the careful reader will observe that +Peter speaks as if the spirits were collected and kept in one +common custody, refers to the spirits of a generation long ago +departed to the dead, and represents the preaching as taking place +in the interval between Christ's death and his resurrection. A +glance from the eighteenth to the twenty second verse inclusive +shows indisputably that the order of events narrated by the +apostle is this: First, Christ was put to death in the flesh, +suffering for sins, the just for the unjust; secondly, he was +quickened in the spirit; thirdly, he went and preached to the +spirits in prison; fourthly, he rose from the dead; fifthly, he +ascended into heaven. How is it possible for any one to doubt that +the text under consideration teaches his subterranean mission +during the period of his bodily burial? + +In the exposition of the Apostles' Creed put forth by the Church +of England under Edward VI., this text in Peter was referred to as +an authoritative proof of the article on Christ's descent into the +under world; and when, some years later, thatreference was +stricken out, notoriously it was not because the Episcopal rulers +were convinced of a mistake, but because they had become afraid of +the associated Romish doctrine of purgatory. + +If Peter believed as he undoubtedly did that Christ after his +crucifixion descended to the place of departed spirits, what did +he suppose was the object of that descent? Calvin's theory was +that he went into hell in order that he might there suffer +vicariously the accumulated agonies due to the LOST, thus +placating the just wrath of the Father and purchasing the release +of the elect. A sufficient refutation of that dogma, as to its +philosophical basis, is found in its immorality, its forensic +technicality. As a mode of explaining the Scriptures, it is +refuted by the fact that it is nowhere plainly stated in the New +Testament, but is arbitrarily constructed by forced and indirect +inferences from various obscure texts, which texts can be +perfectly explained without involving it at all. For what purpose, +then, was it thought that Jesus went to the imprisoned souls of +the under world? The most natural supposition the conception most +in harmony with the character and details of the rest of the +scheme and with the prevailing thought of the time would be that +he went there to rescue the captives from their sepulchral +bondage, to conquer death and the devil in their own domain, open +the doors, break the chains, proclaim good tidings of coming +redemption to the spirits in prison, and, rising thence, to ascend +to heaven, preparing the way for them to follow with him at his +expected return. This, indeed, is the doctrine of the Judaizing +apostles, the unbroken catholic doctrine of the Church. Paul +writes to the Colossians, and to the Ephesians, that, when Christ +"had spoiled the principalities and powers" of the world of the +dead, "he ascended up on high, leading a multitude of captives." +Peter himself declares, a little farther on in his epistle, "that +the glad tidings were preached to the dead, that, though they had +been persecuted and condemned in the flesh by the will of men, +they might be blessed in the spirit by the will of God."4 Christ +fulfilled the law of + +4 See Rosenmuller's explanation in hoc loco. + + +death,5 descending to the place of separate spirits, that he might +declare deliverance to the quick and the dead by coming +triumphantly back and going into heaven, an evident token of the +removal of the penalty of sin which hitherto had fatally doomed +all men to the under world.6 + +Let us see if this will not enable us to explain Peter's language +satisfactorily. Death, with the lower residence succeeding it, let +it be remembered, was, according to the Jewish and apostolic +belief, the fruit of sin, the judgment pronounced on sin. But +Christ, Peter says, was sinless. "He was a lamb without blemish +and without spot." "He did no sin, neither was guile found in his +mouth." Therefore he was not exposed to death and the under world +on his own account. Consequently, when it is written that "he bore +our sins in his own body on the tree," that "he suffered for sins, +the just for the unjust," in order to give the words their clear, +full meaning it is not necessary to attribute to them the sense of +a vicarious sacrifice offered to quench the anger of God or to +furnish compensation for a broken commandment; but this sense, +namely, that although in his sinlessness he was exempt from death, +yet he "suffered for us," he voluntarily died, thus undergoing for +our sakes that which was to others the penalty of their sin. The +object of his dying was not to conciliate the alienated Father or +to adjust the unbalanced law: it was to descend into the realm of +the dead, heralding God's pardon to the captives, and to return +and rise into heaven, opening and showing to his disciples the way +thither. For, owing to his moral sinlessness, or to his delegated +omnipotence, if he were once in the abode of the dead, he must +return: nothing could keep him there. Epiphanius describes the +devil complaining, after Christ had burst through his nets and +dungeons, "Miserable me! what shall I do? I did not know God was +concealed in that body. The son of Mary has deceived me. I +imagined he was a mere man."7 In an apocryphal writing of very +early date, which shows some of the opinions abroad at that time, +one of the chief devils, after Christ had appeared in hell, +cleaving its grisly prisons from top to bottom and releasing the +captives, is represented upbraiding Satan in these terms: "O +prince of all evil, author of death, why didst thou crucify and +bring down to our regions a person righteous and sinless? Thereby +thou hast lost all the sinners of the world."8 Again, in an +ancient treatise on the Apostles' Creed, we read as follows: "In +the bait of Christ's flesh was secretly inserted the hook of his +divinity. This the devil knew not, but, supposing he must stay +when he was + +5 See King's History of the Apostles' Creed, 3d ed., pp. 234-239. +"The purpose of Christ's descent was to undergo the laws of death, +pass through the whole experience of man, conquer the devil, break +the fetters of the captives, and fix a time for their +resurrection." To the same effect, old Hilary, Bishop of +Poictiers, in his commentary on Psalm cxxxviii., says, "It is a +law of human necessity that, the body being buried, the soul +should descend ad interos." + +6 Ambrose, De Fide, etc., lib. iv. cap. 1, declares that "no one +ascended to heaven until Christ, by the pledge of his +resurrection, solved the chains of the under world and translated +the souls of the pious." Also Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, in his +fourth catechetical lecture, sect. 11, affirms "that Christ +descended into the under world to deliver those who, from Adam +downwards, had been imprisoned there." + +7 In Assumptionem Christi. + +8 Evan. Nicodemi, cap. xviii. + + +devoured, greedily swallowed the corpse, and the bolts of the +nether world were wrenched asunder, and the ensnared dragon +himself dragged from the abyss."9 Peter himself explicitly +declares, "It was not possible that he should be held by death." +Theodoret says, "Whoever denies the resurrection of Christ rejects +his death."10 If he died, he must needs rise again. And his +resurrection would demonstrate the forgiveness of sins, the +opening of heaven to men, showing that the bond which had bound in +despair the captives in the regions of death for so many voiceless +ages was at last broken. Accordingly, "God, having loosed the +chains of the under world, raised him up and set him at his own +right hand."11 + +And now the question, narrowed down to the smallest compass, is +this: What is the precise, real signification of the sacrificial +and other connected terms employed by Peter, those phrases which +now, by the intense associations of a long time, convey so strong +a Calvinistic sense to most readers? Peter says, "Ye know that ye +were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ." If there were +not so much indeterminateness of thought, so much unthinking +reception of traditional, confused impressions of Scripture texts, +it would be superfluous to observe that by the word blood here, +and in all parallel passages, is meant simply and literally death: +the mere blood, the mere shedding of the blood, of Christ, of +course, could have no virtue, no moral efficacy, of any sort. When +the infuriated Jews cried, "His blood be on us, and on our +children!" they meant, Let the responsibility of his death rest on +us. When the English historian says, "Sidney gave his blood for +the cause of civil liberty," the meaning is, he died for it. So, +no one will deny, whenever the New Testament speaks in any way of +redemption by the blood of the crucified Son of Man, the +unquestionable meaning is, redemption by his death. What, then, +does the phrase "redemption by the death of Christ" mean? Let it +be noted here let it be particularly noticed that the New +Testament nowhere in explicit terms explains the meaning of this +and the kindred phrases: it simply uses the phrases without +interpreting them. They are rhetorical figures of speech, +necessarily, upon whatever theological system we regard them. No +sinner is literally washed from his transgressions and guilt in +the blood of the slaughtered Lamb. These expressions, then, are +poetic images, meant to convey a truth in the language of +association and feeling, the traditionary language of imagination. +The determination of their precise significance is wholly a matter +of fallible human construction and inference, and not a matter of +inspired statement or divine revelation. This is so, beyond a +question, because, we repeat, they are figures of speech, having +no direct explanation in the records where they occur. The +Calvinistic view of the atonement was a theory devised to explain +this scriptural language. It was devised without sufficient +consideration of the peculiar notions and spirit, the peculiar +grade of culture, and the time, from which that language sprang. +We freely admit the inadequacy of the Unitarian + +9 Ruffinus, Expos. in Symb. Apost. + +10 Comm. in 2 Tim. ii. 19. + +11 By a mistake and a false reading, the common version has "the +pains of death," instead of "the chains of the under world." The +sense requires the latter. Besides, numerous manuscripts read +[non ASCII characters]. See, furthermore, Rosenmuller's thorough +criticism in loc. Likewise see Robinson's New Testament Greek +Lexicon, in [NAC]. + + +doctrine of the atonement to explain the figures of speech in +which the apostles declare their doctrine. But, since the +Calvinistic scheme was devised by human thought to explain the New +Testament language, any scheme which explains that language as +well has equal Scripture claims to credence; any which better +explains it, with sharper, broader meaning and fewer difficulties, +has superior claims to be received. + +We are now prepared to state what we believe was the meaning +originally associated with, and meant to be conveyed by, the +phrases equivalent to "redemption by the death of Christ." In +consequence of sin, the souls of all mankind, after leaving the +body, were shut up in the oblivious gloom of the under world. +Christ alone, by virtue of his perfect holiness, was not subject +to any part of this fate. But, in fulfilment of the Father's +gracious designs, he willingly submitted, upon leaving the body, +to go among the dead, that he might declare the good tidings to +them, and burst the bars of darkness, and return to life, and rise +into heaven as a pledge of the future translation of the faithful +to that celestial world, instead of their banishment into the +dismal bondage below, as hitherto. The death of Christ, then, was +the redemption of sinners, in that his death implied his ascent, +"because it was not possible that he should be holden of death;" +and his ascension visibly demonstrated the truth that God had +forgiven men their sins and would receive their souls to his own +abode on high. + +Three very strong confirmations of the correctness of this +interpretation are afforded in the declarations of Peter. First, +he never even hints, in the faintest manner, that the death of +Christ was to have any effect on God, any power to change his +feeling or his government. It was not to make a purchasing +expiation for sins and thus to reconcile God to us; but it was, by +a revelation of the Father's freely pardoning love, to give us +penitence, purification, confidence, and a regenerating piety, and +so to reconcile us to God. He says in one place, in emphatic +words, that the express purpose of Christ's death was simply "that +he might lead us to God." In the same strain, in another place, he +defines the object of Christ's death to be "that we, being +delivered from sins, should live unto righteousness." It is plain +that in literal reality he refers our marvellous salvation to the +voluntary goodness of God, and not to any vicarious ransom paid in +the sacrifice of Christ, when he says, "The God of all grace hath +called us unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ." The death of +Christ was not, then, to appease the fierce justice of God by +rectifying the claims of his inexorable law, but it was to call +out and establish in men all moral virtues by the power of faith +in the sure gift of eternal life sealed to them through the +ascension of the Savior. + +For, secondly, the practical inferences drawn by Peter from the +death of Christ, and the exhortations founded upon it, are +inconsistent with the prevailing theory of the atonement. Upon +that view the apostle would have said, "Christ has paid the debt +and secured a seat in heaven for you, elected ones: therefore +believe in the sufficiency of his offerings, and exult." But not +so. He calls on us in this wise: "Forasmuch as Christ hath +suffered for us, arm yourselves with the same mind." "Christ +suffered for you, leaving an example that ye should follow his +steps." The whole burden of his practical argument based on the +mission of Christ is, the obligation of a religious spirit and of +pure morals. He does not speak, as many modern sectarists have +spoken, of the "filthy rags of righteousness;" but he says, "Live +no longer in sins," "have a meek and quiet spirit, which is in +the sight of God of great price," "be ye holy in all manner of +conversation," "purify your souls by obedience to the truth," +"be ye a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices," "have +a good conscience," "avoid evil and do good," "above all, have +fervent love, for love will cover a multitude of sins." No candid +person can peruse the epistle and not see that the great moral +deduced in it from the mission of Christ is this: Since heaven +is offered you, strive by personal virtue to be prepared for it +at the judgment which shall soon come. The disciple is not told +to trust in the merits of Jesus; but he is urged to "abstain +from evil," and "sanctify the Lord God in his heart," and +"love the brethren," and "obey the laws," and "do well," +"girding up the loins of his mind in sobriety and hope." +This is not Calvinism. + +The third fortification of this exposition is furnished by the +following fact. According to our view, the death of Christ is +emphasized, not on account of any importance in itself, but as the +necessary condition preliminary to his resurrection, the +humiliating prelude to his glorious ascent into heaven. The really +essential, significant thing is not his suffering, vicarious +death, but his triumphing, typical ascension. Now, the plain, +repeated statements of Peter strikingly coincide with this +representation. He says, "God raised Christ up from the dead, and +gave him glory, [that is, received him into heaven,] that your +faith and hope might be in God." Again he writes, "Blessed be God, +who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a +lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead unto +an incorruptible inheritance in heaven." Still again, he declares +that "the figure of baptism, signifying thereby the answer of a +good conscience toward God, saves us by the resurrection of Jesus +Christ, who is gone into heaven." According to the commonly +received doctrine, instead of these last words the apostle ought +to have said, "saves us by the death of him who suffered in +expiation of our sins." He does not say so. Finally, in the +intrepid speech that Peter made before the Jewish council, +referring to their wicked crucifixion of Jesus, he says, "Him hath +God raised up to his own right hand, to be a Leader and a Savior, +to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." How plainly +remission of sins is here predicated, not through Christ's +ignominious suffering, but through his heavenly exaltation! That +exaltation showed in dramatic proof that by God's grace the +dominion of the lower world was about to be broken and an access +to the celestial world to be vouchsafed. + +If Christ bought off our merited punishment and earned our +acceptance, then salvation can no more be "reckoned of grace, but +of debt." But the whole New Testament doctrine is, "that sinners +are justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ +Jesus." "The redemption that is in Christ"! Take these words +literally, and they yield no intelligible meaning. The sense +intended to be conveyed or suggested by them depends on +interpretation; and here disagreement arises. The Calvinist says +they mean the redemption undertaken, achieved, by Christ. We say +they mean the redemption proclaimed, brought to light, by Christ. +The latter explanation is as close to the language as the former. +Neither is unequivocally established by the statement itself. We +ought therefore to adopt the one which is at once most rational +and plausible in itself, and most in harmony with the peculiar +opinions and culture of the person by whom, and of the time when, +the document was written. All these considerations, historical, +philosophical, and moral, undeniably favor our interpretation, +leaving nothing to support the other save the popular theological +belief of modern Protestant Christendom, a belief which is the +gradual product of a few great, mistaken teachers like Augustine +and Calvin. + +We do not find the slightest difficulty in explaining sharply and +broadly, with all its niceties of phraseology, each one of the +texts urged in behalf of the prevalent doctrine of the atonement, +without involving the essential features of that doctrine. Three +demonstrable assertions of fact afford us all the requisite +materials. First, it was a prevalent belief with the Jews, that, +since death was the penalty of sin, the suffering of death was in +itself expiatory of the sins of the dying man.12 Lightfoot says, +"It is a common and most known doctrine of the Talmudists, that +repentance and ritual sacrifice expiate some sins, death the rest. +Death wipes off all unexpiated sins."13 Tholuck says, "It was a +Jewish opinion that the death of the just atoned for the +people."14 He quotes from the Talmud an explicit assertion to that +effect, and refers to several learned authorities for further +citations and confirmations. + +Secondly, the apostles conceived Christ to be sinless, and +consequently not on his own account exposed to death and subject +to Hades. If, then, death was an atonement for sins, and he was +sinless, his voluntary death was expiatory for the sins of the +world; not in an arbitrary and unheard of way, according to the +Calvinistic scheme, but in the common way, according to a +Pharisaic notion. And thirdly, it was partly a Jewish expectation +concerning the Messiah that he would,15 and partly an apostolic +conviction concerning Christ that he did, break the bolts of the +old Hadean prison and open the way for human ascent to heaven. As +Jerome says, "Before Christ Abraham was in hell, after Christ the +crucified thief was in paradise;"16 for "until the advent of +Christ all alike went down into the under world, heaven being shut +until Christ threw aside the flaming sword that turned every +way."17 + +These three thoughts that death is the expiatory penalty of sin, +that Christ was himself sinless, that he died as God's envoy to +release the prisoners of gloom and be their pioneer to bliss leave +nothing to be desired in explaining the sacrificial terms and +kindred phrases employed by the apostles in reference to his +mission. + +Without question, Peter, like his companions, looked for the +speedy return of Christ from heaven to judge all, and to save the +worthy. Indications of this belief are numerously afforded in his +words. "The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober +and watch unto prayer." "You shall give account to him that is +ready to judge the quick and the dead." Here the common idea of +that time namely, that the resurrection of the captives of the + +12 Witsius, Dissertatio de Seculo hoc et futuro, sect. 8. + +13 Lightfoot on Matt. xii. 32. + +14 Comm. on John i. 29. + +15 "God shall liberate the Israelites from the under world." +Bertholdt's Christologia Judaorum, sect. xxxiv., (De descensu +Messia ad Inferos,) note 2. "The captives shall ascend from the +under world, Shechinah at their head." Schoettgen de Messia, lib. +vi. cap. 5, sect. 1. + +16 See his Letter to Heliodorus, Epiat. XXXV., Benedict. ed. + +17 Comm. in Eccles. cap. iii. 21, et cap. ix. + + +under world would occur at the return of Christ is undoubtedly +implied. "Salvation is now ready to be revealed in the last time." +"That your faith may be found unto praise and honor and glory at +the appearing of Jesus Christ." "Be sober, and hope to the end for +the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of +Jesus Christ." "Be ye examples to the flock, and when the chief +Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive an unfading crown of +glory." "God shall send Jesus Christ, . . . whom the heavens must +receive until the times of the restitution of all things." It is +evident that the author of these passages expected the second +coming of the Lord Jesus to consummate the affairs of his kingdom. + +If the apostle had formed definite conclusions as to the final +fate of unbelieving, wicked, reprobate men, he has not stated +them. He undeniably implies certain general facts upon the +subject, but leaves all the details in obscurity. He adjures his +readers with exceeding earnestness he over and over again adjures +them to forsake every manner of sinful life, to strive for every +kind of righteous conversation, that by faith and goodness they +may receive the salvation of their souls. He must have supposed an +opposite fate in some sort to impend over those who did otherwise, +rejecting Christ, "revelling in lasciviousness and idolatry." +Everywhere he makes the distinction between the faithful and the +wicked prominent, and presents the idea that Christ shall come to +judge them both, and shall reward the former with gladness, +crowns, and glory; while it is just as clearly implied as if he +had said it that the latter shall be condemned and punished. When +a judge sits in trial on the good and the bad, and accepts those, +plainly the inference is that he rejects these, unless the +contrary be stated. What their doom is in its nature, what in its +duration, is neither declared, nor inferrible from what is +declared. All that the writer says on this point is substantially +repeated or contained in the fourth chapter of his epistle, from +verses 12 to 19. A slight explanatory paraphrase of it will make +the position clear so far as it can be made clear. "Christian +believers, in the fiery trials which are to try you, stand firm, +even rejoicing that you are fellow sufferers with Christ, a pledge +that when his glory is revealed you shall partake of it with him. +See to it that you are free from crime, free from sins for which +you ought to suffer; then, if persecuted and slain for your +Christian profession and virtues, falter not. The terrible time +preceding the second advent of your Master is at hand. The +sufferings of that time will begin with the Christian household; +but how much more dreadful will be the sufferings of the close of +that time among the disobedient that spurn the gospel of God! If +the righteous shall with great difficulty be snatched from the +perils and woes encompassing that time, surely it will happen very +much worse with ungodly sinners. Therefore let all who suffer in +obedience to God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well +doing." + +The souls of men were confined in the under world for sin. Christ +came to turn men from sin and despair to holiness and a +reconciling faith in God. He went to the dead to declare to them +the good tidings of pardon and approaching deliverance through the +free grace of God. He rose into heaven to demonstrate and visibly +exhibit the redemption of men from the under world doom of +sinners. He was soon to return to the earth to complete the +unfinished work of his commissioned kingdom. His accepted ones +should then be taken to glory and reward. The rejected ones +should Their fate is left in gloom, without a definite clew. + +CHAPTER II. + +DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. + +THE Epistle to the Hebrews was written by some person who was +originally a Jew, afterwards a zealous Christian. He was +unquestionably a man of remarkable talent and eloquence and of +lofty religious views and feelings. He lived in the time of the +immediate followers of Jesus, and apparently was acquainted with +them. The individual authorship it is now impossible to determine +with certainty. Many of the most learned, unprejudiced, and able +critics have ascribed it to Apollos, an Alexandrian Jew, a compeer +of Paul and a fellow citizen of Philo. This opinion is more +probable than any other. Indeed, so numerous are the resemblances +of thoughts and words in the writings of Philo to those in this +epistle, that even the wild conjecture has been hazarded that +Philo himself at last became a Christian and wrote to his Hebrew +countrymen the essay which has since commonly passed for Paul's. +No one can examine the hundreds of illustrations of the epistle +gathered from Philo by Carpzov, in his learned but ill reasoned +work, without being greatly impressed. The supposition which has +repeatedly been accepted and urged, that this composition was +first written in Hebrew, and afterwards translated into Greek by +another person, is absurd, in view of the masterly skill and +eloquence, critical niceties, and felicities in the use of +language, displayed in it. We could easily fill a paragraph with +the names of those eminent in the Church such as Tertullian, +Hippolytus, Erasmus, Luther, Le Clerc, and Neander who have +concluded that, whoever the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews +was, he was not Paul. The list of those names would reach from the +Egyptian Origen, whose candor and erudition were without parallel +in his age, to the German Bleek, whose masterly and exhaustive +work is a monument of united talent and toil, leaving little to be +desired. It is not within our present aim to argue this point: we +will therefore simply refer the reader to the thorough and +unanswerable discussion and settlement of it by Norton.1 + +The general object of the composition is, by showing the +superiority of the Christian system to the Hebrew, to arm the +converts from Judaism to whom it is addressed against the +temptations to desert the fulfilling faith of Christ and to return +to the emblematic faith of their fathers. This aim gives a +pervading cast and color to the entire treatment to the reasoning +and especially to the chosen imagery of the epistle. Omitting, for +the most part, whatever is not essentially interwoven with the +subject of death, the resurrection, and future existence, and with +the mission of Christ in relation to those subjects, we advance to +the consideration of the views which the epistle presents or +implies concerning those points. It is to be premised that we are +forced to construct from fragments and hints the theological +fabric that stood in the mind of the writer. The suggestion also +is quite obvious that, since the letter is addressed solely to the +Hebrews and describes Christianity as the completion of + +1 Christian Examiner, vols. for 1827 29. + + +Judaism, an acquaintance with the characteristic Hebrew opinions +and hopes at that time may be indispensable for a full +comprehension of its contents. + +The view of the intrinsic nature and rank of Christ on which the +epistle rests seems very plainly to be that great Logos doctrine +which floated in the philosophy of the apostolic age and is so +fully developed in the Gospel of John: "The Logos of God, alive, +energetic, irresistibly piercing, to whose eyes all things are +bare and open;" "first begotten of God;" "faithful to Him that +made him;" inferior to God, superior to all beside; "by whom God +made the worlds;" whose seat is at the right hand of God, the +angels looking up to him, and "the world to come put in subjection +to him." The author, thus assuming the immensely super human rank +and the pre existence of Christ, teaches that, by the good will of +God, he descended to the world in the form of a man, to save them +that were without faith and in fear, them that were lost through +sin. God "bringeth in the first begotten into the world." "When he +cometh into the world he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou +wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared for me." "Jesus was +made a little while inferior to the angels." "Forasmuch, then, as +the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself +likewise partook of the same;" that is, in order to pass through +an experience like that of those whom he wished to deliver, he +assumed their nature. "He taketh not hold of angels, but he taketh +hold of the seed of Abraham:" in other words, he aimed not to +assist angels, but men. These passages, taken in connection with +the whole scope and drift of the document in which they are found, +declare that Jesus was a spirit in heaven, but came to the earth, +taking upon him a mortal frame of flesh and blood. + +Why he did this is the question that naturally arises next. We do +not see how it is possible for any person to read the epistle +through intelligently, in the light of an adequate knowledge of +contemporary Hebrew opinions, and not perceive that the author's +answer to that inquiry is, that Christ assumed the guise and fate +of humanity in order to die; and died in order to rise from the +dead; and rose from the dead in order to ascend to heaven; and +ascended to heaven in order to reveal the grace of God opening the +way for the celestial exaltation and blessedness of the souls of +faithful men. We will commence the proof and illustration of these +statements by bringing together some of the principal passages in +the epistle which involve the objects of the mission of Christ, +and then stating the thought that chiefly underlies and explains +them. + +"We see Jesus who was made a little while inferior to the angels, +in order that by the kindness of God he might taste death for +every man through the suffering of death crowned with glory and +honor." With the best critics, we have altered the arrangement of +the clauses in the foregoing verse, to make the sense clearer. The +exact meaning is, that the exaltation of Christ to heaven after +his death authenticated his mission, showed that his death had a +divine meaning for men; that is, showed that they also should rise +to heaven. "When he had by himself made a purification of our +sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." "For +this cause he is the Mediator of the new covenant, that, his death +having occurred, (for the redemption of the transgressions under +the first covenant,) they which are called might enter upon +possession of the promised eternal inheritance." The force of this +last passage, with its context, turns on the double sense of the +Greek word for covenant, which likewise means a will. Several +statements in the epistle show the author's belief that the +subjects of the old dispensation had the promise of immortal life +in heaven, but had never realized the thing itself.2 Now, he +maintains the purpose of the new dispensation to be the actual +revelation and bestowment of the reality which anciently was only +promised and typically foreshadowed; and in the passage before us +he figures Christ the author of the Christian covenant as the +maker of a will by which believers are appointed heirs of a +heavenly immortality. He then following the analogy of +testamentary legacies and legatees describes those heirs as +"entering on possession of that eternal inheritance" "by the death +of the Testator." He was led to employ precisely this language by +two obvious reasons: first, for the sake of that paronomasia of +which he was evidently fond; secondly, by the fact that it really +was the death of Christ, with the succeeding resurrection and +ascension, which demonstrated both the reality of the thing +promised in the will and the authority of the Testator to bestow +it. + +All the expressions thus far cited, and kindred ones scattered +through the work, convey a clear and consistent meaning, with +sharp outlines and coherent details, if we suppose their author +entertained the following general theory; and otherwise they +cannot be satisfactorily explained. A dreadful fear of death, +introduced by sin, was tyrannizing over men. In consequence of +conscious alienation from God through transgressions, they +shuddered at death. The writer does not say what there was in +death that made it so feared; but we know that the prevailing +Hebrew conception was, that death led the naked soul into the +silent, dark, and dreary region of the under world, a doleful +fate, from which they shrank with sadness at the best, guilt +converting that natural melancholy into dread foreboding. In the +absence of any evidence or presumption whatever to the contrary, +we are authorized, nay, rather forced, to conclude that such a +conception is implied in the passages we are considering. Now, the +mission of Jesus was to deliver men from that fear and bondage, by +assuring them that God would forgive sin and annul its +consequence. Instead of banishing their disembodied spirits into +the sepulchral Sheol, he would take them to himself into the glory +above the firmament. This aim Christ accomplished by literally +exemplifying the truths it implies; that is, by personally +assuming the lot of man, dying, rising from among the spirits of +the dead, and ascending beyond the veil into heaven. By his death +and victorious ascent "he purged our sins," "redeemed +transgressions," "overthrew him that has the power of death," in +the sense that he thereby, as the writer thought, swept away the +supposed train of evils caused by sin, namely, all the +concomitants of a banishment after death into the cheerless +subterranean empire. + +It will be well now to notice more fully, in the author's scheme, +the idea that Christ did locally ascend into the heavens, "into +the presence of God," "where he ever liveth," and + +2 xi. 13, 16, et al. See chap. x. 36, + +where to receive the promise most plainly means to obtain the thing +promised, as it does several times in the epistle. + +So Paul, in his speech at Antioch, (Acts xiii. 32, 33,) says, +"We declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which +was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us +their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again" that by +this ascent he for the first time opened the way for others to +ascend to him where he is, avoiding the doom of Hades. + +"We have a great High Priest, who has passed through the +heavens, Jesus, the Son of God." "Christ is not entered into the +most holy place, made with hands, the figure of the true, but into +heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." +Indeed, that Jesus, in a material and local sense, rose to heaven, +is a conception fundamental to the epistle and prominent on all +its face. It is much more necessary for us to show that the author +believed that the men who had previously died had not risen +thither, but that it was the Savior's mission to open the way for +their ascension. + +It is extremely significant, in the outset, that Jesus is called +"the first leader and the bringer to the end of our faith;" for +the words in this clause which the common version renders "author" +and "finisher"3 mean, from their literal force and the latent +figure they contain, "a guide who runs through the course to the +goal so as to win and receive the prize, bringing us after him to +the same consummation." Still more striking is the passage we +shall next adduce. Having enumerated a long list of the choicest +worthies of the Old Testament, the writer adds, "These all, having +obtained testimony through faith, did not realize the promise,4 +God having provided a better thing for us, that they without us +should not be perfected," should not be brought to the end, the +end of human destiny, that is, exaltation to heaven. Undoubtedly +the author here means to say that the faithful servants of God +under the Mosaic dispensation were reserved in the under world +until the ascension of the Messiah. Augustine so explains the text +in hand, declaring that Christ was the first that ever rose from +the under world.5 The same exposition is given by Origen,6 and +indeed by nearly every one of the Fathers who has undertaken to +give a critical interpretation of the passage. This doctrine +itself was held by Catholic Christendom for a thousand years; is +now held by the Roman, Greek, and English Churches; but is, for +the most part, rejected or forgotten by the dissenting sects, from +two causes. It has so generally sunk out of sight among us, first, +from ignorance, ignorance of the ancient learning and opinions on +which it rested and of which it was the necessary completion; +secondly, from rationalistic speculations, which, leading men to +discredit the truth of the doctrine, led them arbitrarily to deny +its existence in the Scripture, making them perversely force the +texts that state it and wilfully blink the texts that hint it. +Whether this be a proper and sound method of proceeding in +critical investigations any one may judge. To us it seems equally +unmanly and immoral. We know of but one justifiable course, and +that is, with patience, with earnestness, and with all possible +aids, to labor to discern the real and full meaning of the words +according to the understanding and intention of the author. We do +so elsewhere, regardless of consequences. No other method, in the +case of the Scriptures, is exempt from guilt. + +The meaning (namely, to bring to the end) which we have above +attributed to the word [NAC](translated in the common version to +make perfect) is the first meaning and the + +3 Robinson's Lexicon, first edition, under [NAC]; also see Philo, +cited there. + +4 Ch. x. 36. + +5 Epist. CLXIV. sect. ix., ed. Benedictina. + +6 De Principiis, lib. ii. cap. 2. + + +etymological force of the word. That we do not refine upon it +over nicely in the present instance, the following examples from +various parts of the epistle unimpeachably witness. "For it was +proper that God, in bringing many sons unto glory, should make him +who was the first leader of their salvation perfect [reach the +end] through sufferings;" that is, should raise him to heaven +after he had passed through death, that he, having himself arrived +at the glorious heavenly goal of human destiny, might bring others +to it. "Christ, being made perfect," (brought through all the +intermediate steps to the end,) "became the cause of eternal +salvation to all them that obey him; called of God an high +priest." The context, and the after assertion of the writer that +the priesthood of Jesus is exercised in heaven, show that the word +"perfected," as employed here, signifies exalted to the right hand +of God. "Perfection" (bringing unto the end) "was not by the +Levitical priesthood." "The law perfected nothing, but it was the +additional introduction of a better hope by which we draw near +unto God." "The law maketh men high priests which have infirmity, +which are not suffered to continue, by reason of death; but the +word of the oath after the law maketh the Son perfect for +evermore," bringeth him to the end, namely, an everlasting +priesthood in the heavens. That Christian believers are not under +the first covenant, whereby, through sin, men commencing with the +blood of Abel, the first death were doomed to the lower world, but +are under the second covenant, whereby, through the gracious +purpose of God, taking effect in the blood of Christ, the first +resurrection, they are already by faith, in imagination, +translated to heaven, this is plainly what the author teaches in +the following words: "Ye are not come to the palpable mount that +burneth with fire, and to blackness and tempest, where so terrible +was the sight that Moses exceedingly trembled, but ye are come to +Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable +company of angels, and to God, and to the spirits of the perfected +just, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the +lustral blood which speaks better things than that of Abel." The +connection here demonstrates that the souls of the righteous are +called "perfected," as having arrived at the goal of their destiny +in heaven. Again, the author, when speaking of the sure and +steadfast hope of eternal life, distinguishes Jesus as a +[non-ASCII characters], one who runs before as a scout or leader: +"the Forerunner, who for us has entered within the veil," that is, +has passed beyond the firmament into the presence of God. The Jews +called the outward or lowermost heaven the veil.7 But the most +conclusive consideration upon the opinion we are arguing for and +it must be entirely convincing is to be drawn from the first half +of the ninth chapter. To appreciate it, it is requisite to +remember that the Rabbins with whose notions our author was +familiar and some of which he adopts in his reasoning were +accustomed to compare the Jewish temple and city with the temple +and city of Jehovah above the sky, considering the former as +miniature types of the latter. This mode of thought was originally +learned by philosophical Rabbins from the Platonic doctrine of +ideas, without doubt, and was entertained figuratively, +spiritually; but in the unreflecting, popular mind the Hebraic +views to which it gave rise were soon grossly materialized and +located. They also derived the same conception from God's command +to Moses when he was about to build the tabernacle: + +7 Schoettgen, Hora Hebraica et Talmudica in 2 Cor. xii. 2. + + +"See thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee +in the mount." They refined upon these words with many conceits. +They compared the three divisions of the temple to the three +heavens: the outer Court of the Gentiles corresponded with the +first heaven, the Court of the Israelites with the second heaven, +and the Holy of Holies represented the third heaven or the very +abode of God. Josephus writes, "The temple has three compartments: +the first two for men, the third for God, because heaven is +inaccessible to men."8 Now, our author says, referring to this +triple symbolic arrangement of the temple, "The priests went +always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service, but +into the second went the high priest alone, once every year, not +without blood; this, which was a figure for the time then present, +signifying that the way into the holiest of all9 was not yet laid +open; but Christ being come, an high priest of the future good +things, by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, +having obtained eternal deliverance." The points of the comparison +here instituted are these: On the great annual day of atonement, +after the death of the victim, the Hebrew high priest went into +the adytum of the earthly temple, but none could follow; Jesus, +the Christian high priest, went after his own death into the +adytum of the heavenly temple, and enabled the faithful to enter +there after him. Imagery like the fore going, which implies a +Sanctum Sanctorum above, the glorious prototype of that below, is +frequent in the Talmud.10 To remove all uncertainty from the +exposition thus presented, if any doubt linger, it is only +necessary to cite one more passage from the epistle. "We have, +therefore, brethren, by the blood of Jesus, leading into the +holiest, a free road, a new and blessed road, which he hath +inaugurated for us through the veil, that is to say, through his +flesh." As there was no entrance for the priest into the holiest +of the temple save by the removal of the veil, so Christ could not +enter heaven except by the removal of his body. The blood of Jesus +here, as in most cases in the New Testament, means the death of +Jesus, involving his ascension. Chrysostom, commenting on these +verses, says, in explanation of the word [non-ASCII characters], +"Christ laid out the road and was the first to go over it. +The first way was of death, leading [ad inferos] to the under +world; the other is of life," leading to heaven. + +The interpretation we have given of these passages reconciles +and blends that part of the known contemporary opinions which +applies to them, and explains and justifies the natural force +of the imagery and words employed. + +Its accuracy seems to us unquestionable by any candid person who is +competently acquainted with the subject. The substance of it is, +that Jesus came from God to the earth as a man, laid down his life +that he might rise from the dead into heaven again, into the real +Sanctum Sanctorum of the universe, thereby proving that faithful +believers also shall rise thither, being thus delivered, after the +pattern of his evident deliverance, from the imprisonment of the +realm of death below. + +We now proceed to quote and unfold five distinct passages, not yet +brought forward, from the epistle, each of which proves that we +are not mistaken in attributing to the writer + +8 Antiq. lib. iii. cap. 6, sect. 4; ibid. cap. 7, sect. 7. + +9 Philo declares, "The whole universe is one temple of God, in +which the holiest of all is heaven." De Monarchia, p. 222, ed. +Mangey. + +10 Schoettgen, Dissertatio de Hierosolyma Coelesti, cap. 2, sect. +9. + + +of it the above stated general theory. In the first verse which we +shall adduce it is certain that the word "death" includes the +entrance of the soul into the subterranean kingdom of ghosts. It +is written of Christ that, "in the days of his flesh, when he had +earnestly prayed to Him that was able to do it, to save him from +death, he was heard," and was advanced to be a high priest in the +heavens, "was made higher than the heavens." Now, obviously, God +did not rescue Christ from dying, but he raised him, [non-ASCII +characters], from the world of the dead. + +So Chrysostom declares, referring to this very text, "Not to be +retained in the region of the dead, but to be delivered from it, +is virtually not to die."11 Moreover, the phrase above translated +"to save him from death" may be translated, with equal propriety, +"to bring him back safe from death." + +The Greek verb [non-ASCII characters], to save, is often so used +to denote the safe restoration of a warrior from an incursion into +an enemy's domain. The same use made here by our author of the term +"death" we have also found made by Philo Judaus. "The wise," Philo +says, "inherit the Olympic and heavenly region to dwell in, always +studying to go above; the bad inherit the innermost parts of the +under world, always laboring to die."12 The antithesis between +going above and dying, and the mention of the under world in +connection with the latter, prove that to die here means, or at +least includes, going below after death. + +The Septuagint version of the Old Testament twice translates Sheol +by the word "death."13 The Hebrew word for death, maveth, is +repeatedly used for the abode of the dead.14 And the nail of the +interpretation we are urging is clenched by this sentence from +Origen: "The under world, in which souls are detained by death, +is called death."15 Bretschneider cites nearly a dozen passages +from the New Testament where, in his judgment, death is used to +denote Hades. + +Again: we read that Christ took human nature upon him "in order +that by means of [his own] death he might render him that has the +power of death that is, the devil idle, and deliver those who +through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." +It is apparent at once that the mere death of Christ, so far from +ending the sway of Death, would be giving the grim monster a new +victory, incomparably the most important he had ever achieved. +Therefore, the only way to make adequate sense of the passage is +to join with the Savior's death what followed it, namely, his +resurrection and ascension. It was the Hebrew belief that sin, +introduced by the fraud of the devil, was the cause of death, and +the doomer of the disembodied spirits of men to the lower caverns +of darkness and rest. They personified Death as king, tyrannizing +over mankind; and, unless in severe affliction, they dreaded the +hour when they must lie down under his sceptre and sink into his +voiceless kingdom of shadows. Christ broke the power of Satan, +closed his busy reign, rescued the captive souls, and relieved the +timorous hearts of the faithful, by rising triumphantly from + +11 Homil. Epist. ad Heb. in hoc loc. + +12 Quod a Deo mitt. Somn., p. 643, ed. Mangey. + +13 2 Sam. xxii. 6; Prov. xxiii. 14. + +14 Ps. ix. 13. Prov. vii, 27. + +15 Comm. in Epist. ad Rom., lib. vi. cap. 6, sect. 6.: "Inferni +locus in quo anima detinebantur a morte mors appellatur." + + +the long bound dominion of the grave, and ascending in a new path +of light, pioneering the saints to immortal glory. + +In another part of the epistle, the writer, having previously +explained that as the high priest after the death of the expiatory +goat entered the typical holy place in the temple, so Christ after +his own death entered the true holy place in the heavens, goes on +to guard against the analogy being forced any further to deny the +necessity of Christ's service being repeated, as the priest's was +annually repeated, saying, "For then he must have died many times +since the foundation of the world; but, on the contrary, [it +suffices that] once, at the close of the ages, through the +sacrifice of himself he hath appeared [in heaven] for the +abrogation of sin."16 The rendering and explanation we give of +this language are those adopted by the most distinguished +commentators, and must be justified by any one who examines the +proper punctuation of the clauses and studies the context. The +simple idea is, that, by the sacrifice of his body through death, +Christ rose and showed himself in the presence of God. The author +adds that this was done "unto the annulling of sin." It is with +reference to these last words principally that we have cited the +passage. What do they mean? In what sense can the passing of +Christ's soul into heaven after death be said to have done away +with sin? In the first place, the open manifestation of Christ's +disenthralled and risen soul in the supernal presence of God did +not in any sense abrogate sin itself, literally considered, +because all kinds of sin that ever were upon the earth among men +before have been ever since, and are now. In the second place, +that miraculous event did not annul and remove human guilt, the +consciousness of sin and responsibility for it, because, in fact, +men feel the sting and load of guilt now as badly as ever; and the +very epistle before us, as well as the whole New Testament, +addresses Christians as being exposed to constant and varied +danger of incurring guilt and woe. But, in the third place, the +ascension of Jesus did show very plainly to the apostles and first +Christians that what they supposed to be the great outward penalty +of sin was annulled; that it was no longer a necessity for the +spirit to descend to the lower world after death; that fatal doom, +entailed on the generations of humanity by sin, was now abrogated +for all who were worthy. Such, we have not a doubt, is the true +meaning of the declaration under review. + +This exposition is powerfully confirmed by the two succeeding +verses, which we will next pass to examine. "As it is appointed +for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ, +having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a +second time, without sin, for salvation unto those expecting him." +Man dies once, and then passes into that state of separate +existence in the under world which is the legal judgment for sin. +Christ, taking upon himself, with the nature of man, the burden of +man's lot and doom, died once, and then rose from the dead by the +gracious power of the Father, bearing away the outward penalty of +sin. He will come again into the world, uninvolved, the next time, +with any of the accompaniments or consequences of sin, to save +them that look for him, and victoriously lead them into heaven +with him. In this instance, as all through the writings of the +apostles, + +16 Griesbach in loc.; and Rosenmuller. + + +sin, death, and the under world are three segments of a circle, +each necessarily implying the others. The same remark is to be +made of the contrasted terms righteousness, grace, immortal life +above the sky; 17 the former being traced from the sinful and +fallen Adam, the latter from the righteous and risen Christ. + +The author says, "If the blood of bulls and goats sanctifies unto +the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of +Christ, who having18 an eternal spirit offered himself faultless +to God, cleanse your consciousness!" The argument, fully +expressed, is, if the blood of perishable brutes cleanses the +body, the blood of the immortal Christ cleanses the soul. The +implied inference is, that as the former fitted the outward man +for the ritual privileges of the temple, so the latter fitted the +inward man for the spiritual privileges of heaven. This appears +clearly from what follows in the next chapter, where the writer +says, in effect, that "it is not possible for the blood of bulls +and of goats to take away sins, however often it is offered, but +that Christ, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever +sat down at the right hand of God." The reason given for the +efficacy of Christ's offering is that he sat down at the right +hand of God. When the chosen animals were sacrificed for sins, +they utterly perished, and there was an end. But when Christ was +offered, his soul survived and rose into heaven, an evident sign +that the penalty of sin, whereby men were doomed to the under +world after death, was abolished. This perfectly explains the +language; and nothing else, it seems to us, can perfectly explain +it. + +That Christ would speedily reappear from heaven in triumph, to +judge his foes and save his disciples, was a fundamental article +in the primitive Church scheme of the last things. There are +unmistakable evidences of such a belief in our author. "For yet a +little while, and the coming one will come, and will not delay." +"Provoke one another unto love and good works, . . . so much the +more as ye see the day drawing near." There is another reference +to this approaching advent, which, though obscure, affords +important testimony. Jesus, when he had ascended, "sat down at the +right hand of God, henceforward waiting till his enemies be made +his footstool." That is to say, he is tarrying in heaven for the +appointed time to arrive when he shall come into the world again +to consummate the full and final purposes of his mission. We may +leave this division of the subject established beyond all +question, by citing a text which explicitly states the idea in so +many words: "Unto them that look for him he shall appear the +second time." That expectation of the speedy second coming of the +Messiah which haunted the early Christians, therefore, +unquestionably occupied the mind of the composer of the Epistle to +the Hebrews. + +If the writer of this epistolary essay had a firm and detailed +opinion as to the exact fate to be allotted to wicked and +persistent unbelievers, his allusions to that opinion are too few +and vague for us to determine precisely what it was. We will +briefly quote the substance of what he says upon the subject, and +add a word in regard to the inferences it does, or it does not, +warrant. "If under the Mosaic dispensation every transgression +received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so +great a salvation, first proclaimed by the + +17 Neander, Planting and Training of the Church, Ryland's trans. +p. 298. + +18 [Non-ASCII characters] is often used in the sense of with, +or possessing. See Wahl's New Testament Lexicon. + + +Lord?" "As the Israelites that were led out of Egypt by Moses, on +account of their unbelief and provocations, were not permitted to +enter the promised land, but perished in the wilderness, so let us +fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any +of you should seem to come short of it." Christ "became the cause +of eternal salvation to all them that obey him." "He hath brought +unto the end forever them that are sanctified." It will be +observed that these last specifications are partial, and that +nothing is said of the fate of those not included under them. "It +is impossible for those who were once enlightened, . . . if they +shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance. . . . But, +beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, even things that +accompany salvation." "We are not of them who draw back unto the +destruction, but of them who believe unto the preservation, of the +soul." "If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of +the truth, there is no longer left a sacrifice for sins, but a +certain fearful looking for of judgment, and of fiery indignation +to devour the adversaries." "It is a fearful thing to fall into +the hands of the living God." "If they escaped not who refused him +that spoke on earth, [Moses,] much more we shall not escape if we +turn away from him that speaks from heaven," (Christ.) In view of +the foregoing passages, which represent the entire teaching of the +epistle in relation to the ultimate destination of sinners, we +must assert as follows. First, the author gives no hint of the +doctrine of literal torments in a local hell. Secondly, he is +still further from favoring nay, he unequivocally denies the +doctrine of unconditional, universal salvation. Thirdly, he either +expected that the reprobate would be absolutely destroyed at the +second coming of Christ, which does not seem to be declared; or +that they would be exiled forever from the kingdom of glory into +the sad and slumberous under world, which is not clearly implied; +or that they would be punished according to their evil, and then, +restored to Divine favor, be exalted into heaven with the original +elect, which is not written in the record; or, lastly, that they +would be disposed of in some way unknown to him, which he does not +avow. He makes no allusion to such a terrific conception as is +expressed by our modern use of the word hell: he emphatically +predicates conditionality of salvation, he threatens sinners in +general terms with severe judgment. Further than this he has +neglected to state his faith. If it reached any further, he has +preferred to leave the statement of it in vague and impressive +gloom. + +Let us stop a moment and epitomize the steps we have taken. Jesus, +the Son of God, was a spirit in heaven. He came upon the earth in +the guise of humanity to undergo its whole experience and to be +its redeemer. He died, passed through the vanquished kingdom of +the grave, and rose into heaven again, to exemplify to men that +through the grace of God a way was opened to escape the under +world, the great external penalty of sin, and reach a better +country, even a heavenly. From his seat at God's right hand, he +should ere long descend to complete God's designs in his mission, +judge his enemies and lead his accepted followers to heaven. The +all important thought running through the length and breadth of +the treatise is the ascension of Christ from the midst of the dead +[non-ASCII characters]into the celestial presence, as the pledge of +our ascent. "Among the things of which we are speaking, this is the +capital consideration, [non-ASCII characters] the most essential +point, "that we have such a high priest, who hath sat down at the +right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." Neander +says, though apparently without perceiving the extent of its +ulterior significance, "The conception of the resurrection in +relation to the whole Christian system lies at the basis of this +epistle." + +A brief sketch and exposition of the scope of the epistle in +general will cast light and confirmation upon the interpretation +we have given of its doctrine of a future life in particular. The +one comprehensive design of the writer, it is perfectly clear, is +to prove to the Christian converts from the Hebrews the +superiority of Christianity to Judaism, and thus to arm them +against apostasy from the new covenant to the ancient one. He +begins by showing that Christ, the bringer of the gospel, is +greater than the angels, by whom the law was given,19 and +consequently that his word is to be reverenced still more than +theirs.20 Next he argues that Jesus, the Christian Mediator, as +the Son of God, is crowned with more authority and is worthy of +more glory than Moses, the Jewish mediator, as the servant of God; +and that as Moses led his people towards the rest of Canaan, so +Christ leads his people towards the far better rest of heaven. He +then advances to demonstrate the superiority of Christ to the +Levitical priesthood. This he establishes by pointing out the +facts that the Levitical priest had a transient honor, being after +the law of a carnal commandment, his offerings referring to the +flesh, while Christ has an unchangeable priesthood, being after +the power of an endless life, his offering referring to the soul; +that the Levitical priest once a year went into the symbolic holy +place in the temple, unable to admit others, but Jesus rose into +the real holy place itself above, opening a way for all faithful +disciples to follow; and that the Hebrew temple and ceremonies +were but the small type and shadow of the grand archetypal temple +in heaven, where Christ is the immortal High Priest, fulfilling in +the presence of God the completed reality of what Judaism merely +miniatured, an emblematic pattern that could make nothing perfect. +"By him therefore let us continually offer to God the sacrifice of +praise." The author intersperses, and closes with, exhortations to +steadfast faith, pure morals, and fervent piety. + +There is one point in this epistle which deserves, in its +essential connection with the doctrine of the future life, a +separate treatment. It is the subject of the Atonement. The +correspondence between the sacrifices in the Hebrew ritual and the +sufferings and death of Christ would, from the nature of the case, +irresistibly suggest the sacrificial terms and metaphors which our +author uses in a large part of his argument. Moreover, his precise +aim in writing compelled him to make these resemblances as +prominent, as significant, and as effective as possible. Griesbach +says well, in his learned and able essay, "When it was impossible +for the Jews, lately brought to the Christian faith, to tear away +the attractive associations of their ancestral religion, which +were twined among the very roots of their minds, and they were +consequently in danger of falling away from Christ, the most +ingenious author of this epistle met the case by a masterly +expedient. He instituted a careful comparison, showing the +superiority of Christianity to Judaism even in regard to the very +point where the latter seemed so much more glorious, namely, in +priesthoods, temples, + +19 Heb. i. 4 14, ii. 2; Acts vii. 53; Gal. iii. + +20 Heb. ii. 1 3. + + +altars, victims, lustrations, and kindred things."21 That these +comparisons are sometimes used by the writer analogically, +figuratively, imaginatively, for the sake of practical +illustration and impression, not literally as logical expressions +and proofs of a dogmatic theory of atonement, is made sufficiently +plain by the following quotations. "The bodies of those beasts +whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest for +sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he +might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered without +the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, +bearing his reproach." Every one will at once perceive that these +sentences are not critical statements of theological truths, but +are imaginative expressions of practical lessons, spiritual +exhortations. Again, we read, "It was necessary that the patterns +of the heavenly things should be purified with sacrificed animals, +but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than +these." Certainly it is only by an exercise of the imagination, +for spiritual impression, not for philosophical argument, that +heaven can be said to be defiled by the sins of men on earth so as +to need cleansing by the lustral blood of Christ. The writer also +appeals to his readers in these terms: "To do good and to +communicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well +pleased." The purely practical aim and rhetorical method with +which the sacrificial language is employed here are evident +enough. We believe it is used in the same way wherever it occurs +in the epistle. + +The considerations which have convinced us, and which we think +ought to convince every unprejudiced mind, that the Calvinistic +scheme of a substitutional expiation for sin, a placation of +Divine wrath by the offering of Divine blood, was not in the mind +of the author, and does not inform his expressions when they are +rightly understood, may be briefly presented. First, the notion +that the suffering of Christ in itself ransomed lost souls, bought +the withheld grace and pardon of God for us, is confessedly +foreign and repulsive to the instinctive moral sense and to +natural reason, but is supposed to rest on the authority of +revelation. Secondly, that doctrine is nowhere specifically stated +in the epistle, but is assumed, or inferred, to explain language +which to a superficial look seems to imply it, perhaps even seems +to be inexplicable without it;22 but in reality such a view is +inconsistent with that language when it is accurately studied. For +example, notice the following passage: "When Christ cometh into +the world," he is represented as saying, "I come to do thy will, O +God." "By the which will," the writer continues, "we are +sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus." That is, +the death of Christ, involving his resurrection and ascension into +heaven, fulfils and exemplifies the gracious purpose of God, not +purchases for us an otherwise impossible benignity. The above +cited explicit declaration is irreconcilable + +21 Opuscula: De Imaginibus Judaicis in Epist. ad Hebraos. + +22 That these texts were not originally understood as implying any +vicarious efficacy in Christ's painful death, but as attributing a +typical power to his triumphant resurrection, his glorious return +from the world of the dead into heaven, appears very plainly in +the following instance, Theodoret, one of the earliest explanatory +writers on the New Testament, says, while expressly speaking of +Christ's death, the sufferings through which he was perfected, +"His resurrection certified a resurrection for us all." Comm. in +Epist. ad Heb. cap. 2, v. 10. + + +with the thought that Christ came into the world to die that he +might appease the flaming justice and anger of God, and by +vicarious agony buy the remission of human sins: it conveys the +idea, on the contrary, that God sent Christ to prove and +illustrate to men the free fulness of his forgiving love. Thirdly, +the idea, which we think was the idea of the author of the Epistle +to the Hebrews, that Christ, by his death, resurrection, and +ascent, demonstrated to the faith of men God's merciful removal of +the supposed outward penalty of sin, namely, the banishment of +souls after death to the under world, and led the way, as their +forerunner, into heaven, this idea, which is not shocking to the +moral sense nor plainly absurd to the moral reason, as the +Augustinian dogma is, not only yields a more sharply defined, +consistent, and satisfactory explanation of all the related +language of the epistle, but is also which cannot be said of the +other doctrine in harmony with the contemporary opinions of the +Hebrews, and would be the natural and almost inevitable +development from them and complement of them in the mind of a +Pharisee, who, convinced of the death and ascension of the sinless +Jesus, the appointed Messiah, had become a Christian. + +In support of the last assertion, which is the only one that needs +further proof, we submit the following considerations. In the +first place, every one familiar with the eschatology of the +Hebrews knows that at the time of Christ the belief prevailed that +the sin of Adam was the cause of death among men. In the second +place, it is equally well known that they believed the destination +of souls upon leaving the body to be the under world. Therefore +does it not follow by all the necessities of logic? they believed +that sin was the cause of the descent of disembodied spirits to +the dreary lower realm. In the third place, it is notorious and +undoubted that the Jews of that age expected that, when the +Messiah should appear, the dead of their nation, or at least a +portion of them, would be raised from the under world and be +reclothed with bodies, and would reign with him for a period on +earth and then ascend to heaven. Now, what could be more natural +than that a person holding this creed, who should be brought to +believe that Jesus was the true Messiah and after his death had +risen from among the dead into heaven, should immediately conclude +that this was a pledge or illustration of the abrogation of the +gloomy penalty of sin, the deliverance of souls from the +subterranean prison, and their admission to the presence of God +beyond the sky? We deem this an impregnable position. Every +relevant text that we consider in its light additionally fortifies +it by the striking manner in which such a conception fits, fills, +and explains the words. To justify these interpretations, and to +sustain particular features of the doctrine which they express, +almost any amount of evidence may be summoned from the writings +both of the most authoritative and of the simplest Fathers of the +Church, beginning with Justin Martyr,23 philosopher of Neapolis, +at the close of the apostolic age, and ending with John Hobart,24 +Bishop of New York, in the early part of the nineteenth century. +We refrain from adducing the throng of such authorities here, +because they will be more appropriately brought forward in future +chapters. + +23 Dial. cum Tryph. cap. v. et cap. lxxx.24 State of the Departed. + + +The intelligent reader will observe that the essential point of +difference distinguishing our exposition of the fundamental +doctrine of the composition in review, on the one hand, from the +Calvinistic interpretation of it, and, on the other hand, from the +Unitarian explanation of it, is this. Calvinism says that Christ, +by his death, his vicarious pains, appeased the wrath of God, +satisfied the claims of justice, and purchased the salvation of +souls from an agonizing and endless hell. Unitarianism says that +Christ, by his teachings, spirit, life, and miracles, revealed the +character of the Father, set an example for man, gave certainty to +great truths, and exerted moral influences to regenerate men, +redeem them from sin, and fit them for the blessed kingdom of +immortality. We understand the writer of the Epistle to the +Hebrews really to say in subtraction from what the Calvinist, in +addition to what the Unitarian, says that Christ, by his +resurrection from the tyrannous realm of death, and ascent into +the unbarred heaven, demonstrated the fact that God, in his +sovereign grace, in his free and wondrous love, would forgive +mankind their sins, remove the ancient penalty of transgression, +no more dooming their disembodied spirits to the noiseless and +everlasting gloom of the under world, but admitting them to his +own presence, above the firmamental floor, where the beams of his +chambers are laid, and where he reigneth forever, covered with +light as with a garment. + +CHAPTER III. + +DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE IN THE APOCALYPSE. + +BEFORE attempting to exhibit the doctrine of a future life +contained in the Apocalypse, we propose to give a brief account of +what is contained, relating to this subject, in the Epistle of +James, the Epistle of Jude, and the (so called) Second Epistle of +Peter. + +The references made by James to the group of points included under +the general theme of the Future Life are so few and indirect, or +vague, that it is impossible to construct any thing like a +complete doctrine from them, save by somewhat arbitrary and +uncertain suppositions. His purpose in writing, evidently, was +practical exhortation, not dogmatic instruction. His epistle +contains no expository outline of a system; but it has allusions +and hints which plainly imply some partial views belonging to a +system, while the other parts of it are left obscure. He says that +"evil desire brings forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, +brings forth death." But whether he intended this text as a moral +metaphor to convey a spiritual meaning, or as a literal statement +of a physical fact, or as a comprehensive enunciation including +both these ideas, there is nothing in the context positively to +determine. He offers not the faintest clew to his conception of +the purpose of the death and resurrection of Christ. He uses the +word for the Jewish hell but once, and then, undeniably, in a +figurative sense, saying that a "curbless and defiling tongue is +set on fire of Gehenna." He appears to adopt the common notion of +his contemporary countrymen in regard to demoniacal existences, +when he declares that "the devils believe there is one God, and +tremble," and when he exclaims, "Resist the devil, and he will +flee from you." He insists on the necessity of a faith that +evinces itself in good works and in all the virtues, as the means +of acceptance with God. He compares life to a vanishing vapor, +denounces terribly the wicked and dissolute rich men who wanton in +crimes and oppress the poor. Then he calls on the suffering +brethren to be patient under their afflictions "until the coming +of the Lord;" to abstain from oaths, be fervent in prayer, and +establish their hearts, "for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." +"Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: +behold, the Judge standeth before the door." Here the return of +Christ, to finish his work, sit in judgment, accept some, and +reject others, is clearly implied. And if James held this element +of the general scheme of eschatology held by the other apostles as +shown in their epistles, it is altogether probable that he also +embraced the rest of that scheme. There are no means of definitely +ascertaining whether he did or did not; though, according to a +very learned and acute theologian, another fundamental part of +that general system of doctrine is to be found in the last verse +of the epistle, where James says that "he who converts a sinner +from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death and hide a +multitude of sins." Bretschneider thinks that saving a soul from +death here means rescuing it from a descent into the under world, +the word death being often used in the New Testament as by the +Rabbins to denote the subterranean abode of the dead.1 This + +1 Bretschneider, Religiose Glaubenslehre, sect. 59. + + +interpretation may seem forced to an unlearned reader, who +examines the text for personal profit, but will not seem at all +improbable to one who, to learn its historic meaning, reads the +text in the lighted foreground of a mind over whose background +lies a fitly arranged knowledge of all the materials requisite for +an adequate criticism. For such a man was Bretschneider himself. + +The eschatological implications and references in the Epistle of +Jude are of pretty much the same character and extent as those +which we have just considered. A thorough study and analysis of +this brief document will show that it may be fairly divided into +three heads and be regarded as having three objects. First, the +writer exhorts his readers "to contend earnestly for the faith +once delivered to the saints," "to remember the words of Christ's +apostles," "to keep themselves in the love of God, looking for +eternal life." He desires to stir them up to diligence in efforts +to preserve their doctrinal purity and their personal virtue. +Secondly, he warns them of the fearful danger of depravity, pride, +and lasciviousness. This warning he enforces by several examples +of the terrible judgments of God on the rebellious and wicked in +other times. Among these instances is the case of the Cities of +the Plain, eternally destroyed by a storm of fire for their +uncleanness; also the example of the fallen angels, "who kept not +their first estate, but left their proper habitation, and are +reserved in everlasting chains and darkness unto the judgment of +the great day." The writer here adopts the doctrine of fallen +angels, and the connected views, as then commonly received among +the Jews. This doctrine is not of Christian origin, but was drawn +from Persian and other Oriental sources, as is abundantly shown, +with details, in almost every history of Jewish opinions, in +almost every Biblical commentary.2 In this connection Jude cites a +legend from an apocryphal book, called the "Ascension of Moses," +of which Origen gives an account.3 The substance of the tradition +is, that, at the decease of Moses, Michael and Satan contended +whether the body should be given over to death or be taken up to +heaven. The appositeness of this allusion is, that, while in this +strife the archangel dared not rail against Satan, yet the wicked +men whom Jude is denouncing do not hesitate to blaspheme the +angels and to speak evil of the things which they know not. "Woe +unto such ungodly men: gluttonous spots, dewless clouds, fruitless +trees plucked up and twice dead, they are ordained to +condemnation." Thirdly, the epistle announces the second coming of +Christ, in the last time, to establish his tribunal. The Prophecy +of Enoch an apocryphal book, recovered during the present century +is quoted as saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh, with ten thousand +of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict the +ungodly of their ungodly deeds."4 Jude, then, anticipated the +return of the Lord, at "the judgment of the great day," to judge +the world; considered the under world, or abode of the dead, not +as a region of fire, but a place of imprisoning gloom, wherein "to +defiled and blaspheming dreamers is reserved the blackness of +darkness forever;" + +2 E. g. Stuart's Dissertation on the Angelology of the Scriptures, +published in vol. i. of the Bibliotheca Sacra. + +3 De Principiis, lib. iii. cap 2. See, also, in Michaelis's +Introduction to the New Testament, sect. 4 of the chapter on Jude. + +4 Book of Enoch, translated by Dr. R. Laurence, cap. ii. + + +thought it imminently necessary for men to be diligent in striving +to secure their salvation, because "all sensual mockers, not +having the spirit, but walking after their own ungodly lusts," +would be lost. He probably expected that, when all free +contingencies were past and Christ had pronounced sentence, the +condemned would be doomed eternally into the black abyss, and the +accepted would rise into the immortal glory of heaven. He closes +his letter with these significant words, which plainly imply much +of what we have just been setting forth: "Everlasting honor and +power, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be unto God, who is able to +keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the face +of his glory with exceeding joy."5 + +The first chapter of the so called Second Epistle of Peter is not +occupied with theological propositions, but with historical, +ethical, and practical statements and exhortations. These are, +indeed, of such a character, and so expressed, that they clearly +presuppose certain opinions in the mind of the writer. First, he +evidently believed that a merciful and holy message had been sent +from God to men by Jesus Christ, whereby are given unto us +exceeding great and precious promises." The substance of these +promises was "a call to escape the corruption of the world, and +enter into glory and be partakers of the Divine nature." By +partaking of the Divine nature, we understand the writer to mean +entering the Divine abode and condition, ascending into the safe +and eternal joy of the celestial prerogatives. That the author +here denotes heaven by the term glory, as the other New Testament +writers frequently do, appears distinctly from the seventeenth and +eighteenth verses of the chapter, where, referring to the incident +at the baptism of Jesus, he declares, "There came a voice from the +excellent glory, saying, 'This is my beloved Son;' and this voice, +which came from heaven, we heard." Secondly, our author regarded +this glorious promise as contingent on the fulfilment of certain +conditions. It was to be realized by means of "faith, courage, +knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, kindness, and love." +"He that hath these things shall never fall," "but an entrance +shall be ministered unto him abundantly into the everlasting +kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." The writer +furnishes us no clew to his idea of the particular part performed +by Christ in our salvation. He says not a word concerning the +sufferings or death of the Savior; and the extremely scanty and +indefinite allusions made to the relation in which Christ was +supposed to stand between God and men, and the redemption and +reconciliation of men with God, do not enable us to draw any +dogmatic conclusions. He speaks of "false teachers, who shall +bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought +them." But whether by this last phrase he means to imply a ransom +of imprisoned souls from the under world by Christ's descent +thither and victory over its powers, or a purchased exemption of +sinners from their merited doom by the vicarious sufferings of +Christ's death, or a practical regenerative redemption of +disciples from their sins by the moral influences of his mission, +his teachings, example, and character, there is nothing in the +epistle clearly to decide; though, forming our judgment by the aid +of other sources of information, we should conclude in favor of +the first of these three conceptions as most probably expressing +the writer's thought. + +5 Griesbuch's reading of the 25th verse of Jude. + + +The second chapter of the epistle is almost an exact parallel with +the Epistle of Jude: in many verses it is the same, word for word. +It threatens "unclean, self willed, unjust, and blaspheming men," +that they shall "be reserved unto the day of judgment, to be +punished." It warns such persons by citing the example of the +rebellious "angels, who were thrust down into Tartarus, and +fastened in chains of darkness until the judgment." It speaks of +"cursed children, to whom is reserved the mist of darkness +forever." Herein, plainly enough, is betrayed the common notion of +the Jews of that time, the conception of a dismal under world, +containing the evil angels of the Persian theology, and where the +wicked were to be remanded after judgment and eternally +imprisoned. + +The third and last chapter is taken up with the doctrine of the +second coming of Christ. "Be mindful of the words of the prophets +and apostles, knowing this first, that in the last days there +shall be scoffers, who will say, 'Where is the promise of his +coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as +from the beginning.'" The writer meets this skeptical assertion +with denial, and points to the Deluge, "whereby the world that +then was, being overflowed with water, perished." His argument is, +the world was thus destroyed once, therefore it may be destroyed +again. He then goes on to assert positively relying for authority +on old traditions and current dogmas that "the heavens and the +earth which are now are kept by the word of God in store to be +destroyed by fire in the day of judgment, when the perdition of +ungodly men shall be sealed." "The delay of the Lord to fulfil his +promise is not from procrastination, but from his long suffering +who is not willing that any should perish." He waits "that all may +come to repentance." But his patience will end, and "the day of +God come as a thief in the night, when the heavens, being on fire, +shall pass away with a crash, and the elements melt with fervent +heat." There are two ways in which these declarations may be +explained, though in either case the events they refer to are to +occur in connection with the physical reappearance of Christ. +First, they may be taken in a highly figurative sense, as meaning +the moral overthrow of evil and the establishment of righteousness +in the world. Similar expressions were often used thus by the +ancient Hebrew prophets, who describe the triumphs of Israel and +the destruction of their enemies, the Edomites or the Assyrians, +by the interposition of Jehovah's arm, in such phrases as these. +"The mountains melt, the valleys cleave asunder like wax before a +fire, like waters poured over a precipice." "The heavens shall be +rolled up like a scroll, all their hosts shall melt away and fall +down; for Jehovah holdeth a great slaughter in the land of Edom: +her streams shall be turned into pitch, and her dust into +brimstone, and her whole land shall become burning pitch." The +suppression of Satan's power and the setting up of the Messiah's +kingdom might, according to the prophetic idiom, be expressed in +awful images of fire and woe, the destruction of the old, and the +creation of a new, heaven and earth. But, secondly, this +phraseology, as used by the writer of the epistle before us, may +have a literal significance, may have been intended to predict +strictly that the world shall be burned and purged by fire at the +second coming of the Lord. That such a catastrophe would take +place in the last day, or occurred periodically, was notoriously +the doctrine of the Persians and of the Stoics.6 For our own part, +we are convinced that the latter is the real meaning of the +writer. This seems to be shown alike by the connection of his +argument, by the prosaic literality of detail with which he +speaks, and by the earnest exhortations he immediately bases on +the declaration he has made. He reasons that, since the world was +destroyed once by water, it may be again by fire. The deluge he +certainly regarded as literal: was not, then, in his conception, +the fire, too, literal? He says, with calm, prosaic precision, +"The earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. +Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what +manner of persons ought ye to be in all holiness, looking for a +new heaven and a new earth, and striving that ye may be found by +him in peace, without spot, and blameless!" We do not suppose this +writer expected the annihilation of the physical creation, but +only that the fire would destroy all unransomed creatures from its +surface, and thoroughly purify its frame, and make it clean and +fit for a new race of sinless and immortal men. + +"Tears shall not break from their full source, +Nor Anguish stray from her Tartarean den, +The golden years maintain a course +Not undiversified, though smooth and even, +We not be mock'd with glimpse and shadow then, +Bright seraphs mix familiarly with men, +And earth and sky compose a universal heaven." + +We have now arrived at the threshold of the last book in the New +Testament, that book which, in the words of Lucke, "lies like a +Sphinx at the lofty outgate of the Bible." There are three modes +of interpreting the Apocalypse, each of which has had numerous and +distinguished advocates. First, it may be regarded as a congeries +of inspired prophecies, a scenic unfolding, with infallible +foresight, of the chief events of Christian history from the first +century till now, and onwards. This view the combined effect of +the facts in the case and of all the just considerations +appropriate to the subject compels us to reject. There is no +evidence to support it; the application of it is crowded with +egregious follies and absurdities. We thus simply state the result +of our best investigation and judgment, for there is no space here +to discuss it in detail. Secondly, the book may be taken as a +symbolic exhibition of the transitional crises, exposures, +struggles, and triumphs of the individual soul, a description of +personal experience, a picture of the inner life of the Christian +in a hostile world. The contents of it can be made to answer to +such a characterization only by the determined exercise of an +unrestrained fancy, or by the theory of a double sense, as the +Swedenborgians expound it. This method of interpreting the +Revelation is adopted, not by scholarly thinkers, who, by the +light of learning and common sense, seek to discern what the +writer meant to express, but by those persons who go to the +obscure document, with traditional superstition and lawless +imaginations, to see what lessons they can find there for their +experimental guidance and edification. We suppose that every +intelligent and informed student who has + +6 Cicero de Nat. Deorum, lib. ii. cap. 46. Also Ovid, Minucius +Felix, Seneca, and other authorities, as quoted by Rosenmuller on +2 Peter iii. 7. + + +examined the subject with candid independence holds it as an +exegetical axiom that the Apocalypse is neither a pure prophecy, +blazing full illumination from Patmos along the track of the +coming centuries, nor an exhaustive vision of the experience of +the faithful Christian disciple. We are thus brought to the third +and, as we think, the correct mode of considering this remarkable +work. It is an outburst from the commingled and seething mass of +opinions, persecutions, hopes, general experience, and expectation +of the time when it was written. This is the view which would +naturally arise in the mind of an impartial student from the +nature of the case, and from contemplating the fervid faith, +suffering, lowering elements, and thick coming events of the +apostolic age. It also strikingly corresponds with numerous +express statements and with the whole obvious spirit and plan of +the work; for its descriptions and appeals have the vivid colors, +the thrilling tones, the significantly detailed allusions to +experiences and opinions and anticipations notoriously existing at +the time, which belong to present or immediately impending scenes. +This way of considering the Apocalypse likewise enables one who is +acquainted with the early Jewish Christian doctrines, legends, and +hopes, to explain clearly a large number of passages in it whose +obscurity has puzzled many a commentator. We should be glad to +give various illustrations of this, if our limits did not confine +us strictly to the one class of texts belonging to the doctrine of +a future life. Furthermore, nearly all the most gifted critics, +such as Ewald, Bleek, Lucke, De Wette, those whose words on such +matters as these are weightiest, now agree in concluding that the +Revelation of John was a product springing out of the intense +Jewish Christian belief and experience of the age, and referring, +in its dramatic scenery and predictions, to occurrences supposed +to be then transpiring or very close at hand. Finally, this view +in regard to the Apocalypse is strongly confirmed by a comparison +of that production with the several other works similar to it in +character and nearly contemporaneous in origin. These apocryphal +productions were written or compiled according to the pretty +general agreement of the great scholars who have criticized them +somewhere between the beginning of the first century before, and +the middle of the second century after, Christ. We merely propose +here, in the briefest manner, to indicate the doctrine of a future +life contained in them, as an introduction to an exposition of +that contained in the New Testament Apocalypse. + +In the TESTAMENT OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS it is written that "the +under world shall be spoiled through the death of the Most +Exalted."7 Again, we read, "The Lord shall make battle against the +devil, and conquer him, and rescue from him the captive souls of +the righteous. The just shall rejoice in Jerusalem, where the Lord +shall reign himself, and every one that believes in him shall +reign in truth in the heavens."8 Farther on the writer says of the +Lord, after giving an account of his crucifixion, "He shall rise +up from the under world and ascend into heaven."9 These extracts +seem to imply the common doctrine of that time, that Christ +descended into the under world, freed the captive saints, and rose +into heaven, and would soon return to establish his throne in +Jerusalem, to reign there for a time with his accepted followers. + +7 See this book in Fabricii Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris +Testamenti, Test. Lev. sect. iv. + +8 Ibid. Test. Dan. sect. v. + +9 Ibid. Test. Benj. sect. ix. + + +The FOURTH BOOK OF EZRA contains scattered declarations and hints +of the same nature.10 It describes a vision of the Messiah, on +Mount Zion, distributing crowns to those confessors of his name +who had died in their fidelity.11 The world is said to be full of +sorrows and oppressions; and as the souls of the just ask when the +harvest shall come,12 for the good to be rewarded and the wicked +to be punished, they are told that the day of liberation is not +far distant, though terrible trials and scourges must yet precede +it. "My Son Jesus shall be revealed." "My Son the Christ shall +die; and then a new age shall come, the earth shall give up the +dead, sinners shall be plunged into the bottomless abyss, and +Paradise shall appear in all its glory."13 The "Son of God will +come and consume his enemies with fire; but the elect will be +protected and made happy."14 + +The ASCENSION OF ISAIAH is principally occupied with an account of +the rapture of the soul of that prophet through the seven heavens, +and of what he there saw and learned. It describes the descent of +Christ, the beloved Son of God, through all the heavens, to the +earth; his death; his resurrection after three days; his victory +over Satan and his angels, who dwell in the welkin or higher +region of the air; and his return to the right hand of God.15 It +predicts great apostasy and sin among the disciples of the +apostles, and much dissension respecting the nearness of the +second advent of Christ.16 It emphatically declares that "Christ +shall come with his angels, and shall drag Satan and his powers +into Gehenna. Then all the saints shall descend from heaven in +their heavenly clothing, and dwell in this world; while the saints +who had not died shall be similarly clothed, and after a time +leave their bodies here, that they may assume their station in +heaven. The general resurrection and judgment will follow, when +the ungodly will be devoured by fire."17 The author as Gesenius, +with almost all the rest of the critics, says was unquestionably a +Jewish Christian, and his principal design was to set forth the +speedy second coming of Christ, and the glorious triumph of the +saints that would follow with the condign punishment of the +wicked. + +The first book of the SIBYLLINE ORACLES contains a statement that +in the golden age the souls of all men passed peacefully into the +under world, to tarry there until the judgment; a prediction of a +future Messiah; and an account of his death, resurrection, and +ascension. The second book begins with a description of the +horrors that will precede the last time, threats against the +persecuting tyrants, and promises to the faithful, especially to +the martyrs, and closes with an account of the general judgment, +when Elijah shall come from heaven, consuming flames break out, +all souls be summoned to the tribunal of God at whose right hand +Christ will sit, the bodies of the dead be raised, the righteous +be purified, and the wicked be plunged into final ruin. + +The fundamental thought and aim of the apocryphal BOOK OF ENOCH +are the second coming of Christ to judge the world, the +encouragement of the Christians, and the warning + +10 See the abstract of it given in section vi. of Stuart's +Commentary on the Apocalypse. + +11 Cap. ii. 12 Cap. iv. 13 Cap. v., vii. 14 Cap. xiii., xvi. + +15 Ascensio Isaia Vatis, a Ricardo Laurence, cap. ix., x., xi. + +16 Ibid. cap. ii., iii. + +17 Ibid. cap. iv. 13-18. + + +of their oppressors by declarations of approaching deliverance to +those and vengeance to these. This is transparent at frequent +intervals through the whole book.18 "Ye righteous, wait with +patient hope: your cries have cried for judgment, and it shall +come, and the gates of heaven shall be opened to you." "Woe to +you, powerful oppressors, false witnesses! for you shall suddenly +perish." "The voices of slain saints accusing their murderers, the +oppressors of their brethren, reach to heaven with interceding +cries for swift justice."19 When that justice comes, "the horse +shall wade up to his breast, and the chariot shall sink to its +axle, in the blood of sinners."20 The author teaches that the +souls of men at death go into the under world, "a place deep and +dark, where all souls shall be collected;" "where they shall +remain in darkness till the day of judgment," the spirits of the +righteous being in peace and joy, separated from the tormented +spirits of the wicked, who have spurned the Messiah and persecuted +his disciples.21 A day of judgment is at hand. "Behold, he cometh, +with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment." Then the +righteous shall rise from the under world, be approved, become as +angels, and ascend to heaven. But the wicked shall not rise: they +remain imprisoned below forever.22 The angels descend to earth to +dwell with men, and the saints ascend to heaven to dwell with +angels.23 "From beginning to end, like the Apocalypse, the book is +filled," says Professor Stuart, (and the most careless reader must +remark it,) "with threats for the wicked persecutors and +consolations for the suffering pious." A great number of +remarkable correspondences between passages in this book and +passages in the Apocalypse solicit a notice which our present +single object will not allow us to give them here. An under world +divided into two parts, a happy for the good, a wretched for the +bad; temporary woes prevailing on the earth; the speedy advent of +Christ for a vindication of his power and his servants; the +resurrection of the dead; the final translation of the accepted +into heaven, and the hopeless dooming of the rejected into the +abyss, these are the features in the book before us which we are +now to remember. + +There is one other extant apocryphal book whose contents are +strictly appropriate to the subject we have in hand, namely, the +APOCALYPSE OF JOHN.24 It claims to be the work of the Apostle John +himself. It represents John as going to Mount Tabor after the +ascension of Christ, and there praying that it may be revealed to +him when the second coming of Christ will occur, and what will be +the consequences of it. In answer to his request, a long and +minute disclosure is made. The substance of it is, that, after +famines and woes, Antichrist will appear and reign three years. +Then Enoch and Elijah will come to expose him; but they will die, +and all men with them. The earth will be purified with fire, the +dead will rise, Christ + +18 Book of Enoch, translated into English by Dr. R. Laurence. See +particularly the following places: i. 1 5; lii. 7; liv. 12; lxi. +15; lxii. 14, 15; xciv.; xcv.; civ. + +19 Ibid. cap. ix. 9 11; xxii. 5 8; xlvii. 1-4. + +20 Ibid. cap. xcviii. 3. + +21 Ibid. cap. x. 6 9, 15, 16; xxii. 2 5, 11 13; cii. 6; ciii. 5. + +22 Ibid. cap. xxii. 14, 15; xlv. 2; xlvi. 4; 1. 1-4. + +23 cap. xxxviii. xl. + +24 See the abstract of it given in Lucke's Einleit. in die +Offenbar. Joh., cap. 2, sect. 17. + + +will descend in pomp, with myriads of angels, and the judgment +will follow. The spirits of Antichrist will be hurled into a gulf +of outer darkness, so deep that a heavy stone would not plunge to +the bottom in three years. Unbelievers, sinners, hypocrites, will +be cast into the under world; while true Christians are placed at +the right hand of Christ, all radiant with glory. The good and +accepted will then dwell in an earthly paradise, with angels, and +be free from all evils. + +In addition to these still extant Apocalypses, we have references +in the works of the Fathers to a great many others long since +perished; especially the Apocalypses of Adam, Abraham, Moses, +Elijah, Hystaspes, Paul, Peter, Thomas, Cerinthus, and Stephen. So +far as we have any clew, by preserved quotations or otherwise, to +the contents of these lost productions, they seem to have been +much occupied with the topics of the avenging and redeeming advent +of the Messiah, the final judgment of mankind, the supernal and +subterranean localities, the resurrection of the dead, the +inauguration of an earthly paradise, the condemnation of the +reprobate to the abyss beneath, the translation of the elect to +the Angelic realm on high. These works, all taken together, were +plainly the offspring of the mingled mass of glowing faiths, +sufferings, fears, and hopes, of the age they belonged to. An +acquaintance with them will help us to appreciate and explain many +things in our somewhat kindred New Testament Apocalypse, by +placing us partially in the circumstances and mental attitude of +the writer and of those for whom it was written. + +The Persian Jewish and Jewish Christian notions and +characteristics of the Book of Revelation are marked and +prevailing, as every prepared reader must perceive. The threefold +division of the universe into the upper world of the angels, the +middle world of men, and the under world of the dead; the keys of +the bottomless pit; the abode of Satan, the accuser, in heaven; +his revolt; the war in the sky between his seduced host and the +angelic army under Michael, and the thrusting down of the former; +the banquet of birds on the flesh of kings, mighty men, and +horses; the battle of Gog and Magog; the tarrying of souls under +the altar of God; the temple in heaven containing the ark of the +covenant, and the scene of a various ritual service; the twelve +gates of the celestial city bearing the names of the twelve tribes +of the children of Israel, and the twelve foundations of the walls +having the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb; the bodily +resurrection and general judgment, and the details of its sequel, +all these doctrines and specimens of imagery, with a hundred +others, carry us at once into the Zend Avesta, the Talmud, and the +Ebionitish documents of the earliest Christians, who mixed their +interpretations of the mission and teaching of Christ with the +poetic visions of Zoroaster and the cabalistic dogmatics of the +Pharisees. 25 + +It is astonishing that any intelligent person can peruse the +Apocalypse and still suppose that it is occupied with prophecies +of remote events, events to transpire successively in distant ages +and various lands. Immediateness, imminency, hazardous urgency, +swiftness, alarms, are written all over the book. A suspense, +frightfully thrilling, fills it, as if the world were holding its +breath in view of the universal crash that was coming with +electric velocity. + +25 See, e. g., Corrodi, Kritische Geschichte des Chiliasmus, band +ii. th. 3 7; Gfrorer, Geschichte Urchristenthums, abth. ii. kap. +8 10; Schottgen in Apoc. xii. 6 9; ibid. in 2 Cor. v. 2. + + +Four words compose the key to the Apocalypse: Rescue, Reward, +Overthrow, Vengeance. The followers of Christ are now persecuted +and slain by the tyrannical rulers of the earth. Let them be of +good cheer: they shall speedily be delivered. Their tyrants shall +be trampled down in "blood flowing up to the horse bridles," and +they shall reign in glory. "Here is the faith and the patience of +the saints," trusting that, if "true unto death, they shall have a +crown of life," and "shall not be hurt of the second death," but +shall soon rejoice over the triumphant establishment of the +Messiah's kingdom and the condign punishment of his enemies who +are now "making themselves drunk with the blood of the martyrs of +Jesus." The Beast, described in the thirteenth chapter, is +unquestionably Nero; and this fact shows the expected +immediateness of the events pictured in connection with the rise +and destruction of that monstrous despot.26 The truth of this +representation is sealed by the very first verses of the book, +indicating the nature of its contents and the period to which they +refer: "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, +to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass: +Blessed are they who hear the words of this prophecy and keep +them; for the time is at hand." + +This rescue and reward of the faithful, this overthrow and +punishment of the wicked, were to be effected by the agency of a +unique and sublime personage, who was expected very soon to +appear, with an army of angels from heaven, for this purpose. The +conception of the nature, rank, and offices of Jesus Christ which +existed in the mind of the writer of the Apocalypse is in some +respects but obscurely hinted in the words he employs; yet the +relationship of those words to other and fuller sources of +information in the contemporaneous notions of his countrymen is +such as to give us great help in arriving at his ideas. He +represents Christ as distinct from and subordinate to God. He +makes Christ say, "To him that overcometh I will give power over +the nations, even as I received of my Father." He characterizes +him as "the beginning of the creation of God," and describes him +as "mounted on a white horse, leading the heavenly armies to war, +and his name is called the Logos of God." These terms evidently +correspond to the phrases in the introduction to the Gospel of +John, and in the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, where are unfolded +some portions of that great doctrine, so prevalent among the early +Fathers, which was borrowed and adapted by them from the Persian +Honover, the Hebrew Wisdom, and the Platonic Logos.27 "In the +beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and all +things were made by him;... and the Logos was made flesh and dwelt +among us."28 "God of our fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made +all things by thy Logos."29 "Thine almighty Logos leaped down from +heaven from his royal throne, a fierce warrior, into the midst of +a land of destruction."30 "Plainly enough, the Apocalyptic view of +Christ is based on that profound Logos doctrine so copiously + +26 See the excursus by Stuart in his Commentary on the Apoc. xiii. +18, which conclusively shows that the Beast could be no other than +Nero. + +27 Lucke, Einleitung in das Evang. Joh. + +28 Evang. Joh. i. 1, 3, 14. + +29 Wisdom of Solomon, ix. 1, 2. + +30 Ibid. xviii. 15. + + +developed in the writings of Philo Judaus and so distinctly +endorsed in numerous passages of the New Testament. First, there +is the absolute God. Next, there is the Logos, the first begotten +Son and representative image of God, the instrumental cause of the +creation, the head of all created beings. This Logos, born into +our world as a man, is Christ. Around him are clustered all the +features and actions that compose the doctrine of the last things. +The vast work of redemption and judgment laid upon him has in part +been already executed, and in part remains yet to be done. + +We are first to inquire, then, into the significance of what the +writer of the Apocalypse supposes has already been effected by +Christ in his official relations between God and men, so far as +regards the general subject of a life beyond the grave. A few +brief and vague but comprehensive expressions include all that he +has written which furnishes us a guide to his thoughts on this +particular. He describes Jesus, when advanced to his native +supereminent dignity in heaven, as the "Logos, clothed in a +vesture dipped in blood," and also as "the Lamb that was slain," +to whom the celestial throng sing a new song, saying, "Thou hast +redeemed us unto God by thy blood." Christ, he says, "loved us, +and washed us from our sins in his own blood." He represents the +risen Savior as declaring, "I am he that liveth, and was dead, +and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of the +under world and of death." "Jesus Christ," again he writes, "is +the faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead." What, +now, is the real meaning of these pregnant phrases? What is the +complete doctrine to which fragmentary references are here made? +We are confident that it is this. Mankind, in consequence of sin, +were alienated from God, and banished, after death, to Hades, the +subterranean empire of shadows. Christ, leaving his exalted state +in heaven, was born into the world as a messenger, or "faithful +witness," of surprising grace to them from God, and died that he +might fulfil his mission as the agent of their redemption, by +descending into the great prison realm of the dead, and, exerting +his irresistible power, return thence to light and life, and +ascend into heaven as the forerunner and pledge of the deliverance +and ascension of others. Moses Stuart, commenting on the clause +"first begotten from the dead," says, "Christ was in fact the +first who enjoyed the privilege of a resurrection to eternal glory +and he was constituted the leader of all who should afterwards be +thus raised from the dead."31 All who had died, with the sole +exception of Christ, were yet in the under world. He, since his +triumphant subdual of its power and return to heaven, possessed +authority over it, and would ere long summon its hosts to +resurrection, as he declares: "I was dead, and, behold, I am alive +for ever more, and have the keys of the under world." The figure +is that of a conqueror, who, returning from a captured and subdued +city, bears the key of it with him, a trophy of his triumph and a +pledge of its submission. The text "Thou hast redeemed us unto God +by thy blood" is not received in an absolutely literal sense by +any theological sect whatever. The severest Calvinist does not +suppose that the physical blood shed on the cross is meant; but he +explains it as denoting the atoning efficacy of the vicarious +sufferings of Christ. But this interpretation is as forced and +constructive an exposition as the one we have given, and is not + +31 Stuart, Comm. in Apoc. i. 5. + + +warranted by the theological opinions of the apostolic age, which +do, on the contrary, support and necessitate the other. The direct +statement is, that men were redeemed unto God by the blood of +Christ. All agree that in the word "blood" is wrapped up a +figurative meaning. The Calvinistic dogma makes it denote the +satisfaction of the law of retributive justice by a substitutional +anguish. We maintain that a true historical exegesis, with far +less violence to the use of language, and consistently with known +contemporaneous ideas, makes it denote the death of Christ, and +the events which were supposed to have followed his death, namely, +his appearance among the dead, and his ascent to heaven, +preparatory to their ascent, when they should no longer be exiled +in Hades, but should dwell with God. Out of an abundance of +illustrative authorities we will cite a few. + +Augustine describes "the ancient saints" as being "in the under +world, in places most remote from the tortures of the impious, +waiting for Christ's blood and descent to deliver them."32 +Epiphanius says, "Christ was the first that rose from the under +world to heaven from the time of the creation."33 Lactantius +affirms, "Christ's descent into the under world and ascent into +heaven were necessary to give man the hope of a heavenly +immortality."34 Hilary of Poictiers says, "Christ went down into +Hades for two reasons: first, to fulfil the law imposed on mankind +that every soul on leaving the body shall descend into the under +world, and, secondly, to preach the Christian religion to the +dead."35 Chrysostom writes, "When the Son of God cometh, the earth +shall burst open, and all the men that ever were born, from Adam's +birth up to that day, shall rise up out of the earth."36 Irenaus +testifies, "I have heard from a certain presbyter, who heard it +from those who had seen the apostles and received their +instructions, that Christ descended into the under world, and +preached the gospel and his own advent to the souls there, and +remitted the sins of those who believed on him."37 Eusebius +records that, "after the ascension of Jesus, Thomas sent Thaddeus, +one of the Seventy, to Abgarus, King of Edessa. This disciple told +the king how that Jesus, having been crucified, descended into the +under world, and burst the bars which had never before been +broken, and rose again, and also raised with himself the dead that +had slept for ages; and how he descended alone, but ascended with +a great multitude to his Father; and how he was about to come +again to judge the living and the dead."38 Finally, we cite the +following undeniable statement from Daille's famous work on the +"Right Use of the Fathers:" "That heaven shall not be opened till +the second coming of Christ and the day of judgment, that during +this time the souls of all men, with a few exceptions, are shut up +in the under world, was held by Justin Martyr, Irenaus, +Tertullian, Augustine, Origen, Lactantius, Victorinus, Ambrose, +Chrysostom, Theodoret, OEcumenius, Aretas, Prudentius, +Theophylact, Bernard, + +32 De Civitate Dei, lib. xx. cap. 15. + +33 In Resurrectionem Christi. + +34 Divin. Instit. lib. iv. cap. 19, 20. + +35 Hilary in Ps. cxviii. et cxix. + +36 Homil. in Rom. viii. 25. + +37 Adv. Hares. lib. iv. sect. 45. + +38 Ecc. Hist. lib. i. cap. 13. + + +and many others, as is confessed by all. This doctrine is +literally held by the whole Greek Church at the present day. Nor +did any of the Latins expressly deny any part of it until the +Council of Florence, in the year of our Lord 1439."39 + +In view of these quotations, and of volumes of similar ones which +might be adduced, we submit to the candid reader that the meaning +most probably in the mind of the writer of the Apocalypse when he +wrote the words "redemption by the Blood of Christ" was this, the +rescue certified to men by the commissioned power and devoted +self sacrifice of Christ in dying, going down to the mighty +congregation of the dead, proclaiming good tidings, breaking the +hopeless bondage of death and Hades, and ascending as the pioneer +of a new way to God. If before his death all men were supposed to +go down to helpless confinement in the under world on account of +sin, but after his resurrection the promise of an ascension to +heaven was made to them through his gospel and exemplification, +then well might the grateful believers, fixing their hearts on his +willing martyrdom in their behalf, exclaim, "He loved us, and +washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings +and priests unto God." It is certainly far more natural, far more +reasonable, to suppose that the scriptural phrase "the blood of +Christ" means "the death of Christ," with its historical +consequences, than to imagine that it signifies a complicated and +mysterious scheme of sacerdotal or ethical expiation, especially +when that scheme is unrelated to contemporaneous opinion, +irreconcilable withmorality,and confessedly nowhere plainly stated +in Scripture, but a matter of late and laborious construction and +inference. We have not spoken of the strictly moral and subjective +mission and work of Christ, as conceived by the author of the +Apocalypse, his influences to cleanse the springs of character, +purify and inspire the heart, rectify and elevate the motives, +regenerate and sanctify the soul and the life, because all this is +plain and unquestioned. But he also believed in something +additional to this, an objective function: and what that was we +think is correctly explained above. + +We are next to inquire more immediately into the closing parts of +the doctrine of the last things. Christ has appeared, declared the +tidings of grace, died, visited the dead, risen victoriously, and +gone back to heaven, where he now tarries. But there remain many +things for him, as the eschatological King, yet to do. What are +they? and what details are connected with them? First of all, he +is soon to return from heaven, visiting the earth a second time. +The first chapter of the book begins by declaring that it is "a +revelation of things which must shortly come to pass," and +"blessed is he that readeth; for the time is at hand." The last +chapter is full of such repetitions as these: "things which must +shortly be done;" "Behold, I come quickly;" "The time is at hand;" +"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still, and he that is holy, +let him be holy still;" "Surely I come quickly;" "Even so, come, +Lord Jesus." Herder says, in his acute and eloquent work on the +Apocalypse, "There is but one voice in it, through all its +epistles, seals, trumpets, signs, and plagues, namely, THE LORD IS +COMING!" The souls of the martyrs, impatiently waiting, under the +altar, the completion of the great drama, cry, "How long, O Lord, +dost thou delay to avenge our blood?" and they are told that "they +shall + +39 Lib. ii. cap. 4, pp. 272, 273 of the English translation. + + +rest only for a little season." Tertullian writes, without a trace +of doubt, "Is not Christ quickly to come from heaven with a +quaking of the whole universe, with a shuddering of the world, +amidst the wailings of all men save the Christians?" The +Apocalyptic seer makes Christ say, "Behold, I come as a thief in +the night: blessed is he that watcheth." Accordingly, "a sentinel +gazed wherever a Christian prayed, and, though all the watchmen +died without the sight," the expectation lingered for centuries. +The Christians of the New Testament time to borrow the words of +one of the most competent of living scholars "carried forward to +the account of Christ in years to come the visions which his stay, +as they supposed, was too short to realize, and assigned to him a +quick return to finish what was yet unfulfilled. The suffering, +the scorn, the rejection of men, the crown of thorns, were over +and gone; the diadem, the clarion, the flash of glory, the troop +of angels, were ready to burst upon the world, and might be looked +for at midnight or at noon."40 + +Secondly, when Christ returned, he was to avenge the sufferings +and reward the fidelity of his followers, tread the heathen +tyrants in the wine press of his wrath, and crown the persecuted +saints with a participation in his glory. When "the time of his +wrath is come, he shall give reward to the prophets, and to the +saints, and to them that fear his name, and shall destroy them +that destroy the earth." "The kings, captains, mighty men, rich +men, bondmen, and freemen, shall cry to the mountains and rocks, +Fall on us, and hide us from the wrath of the Lamb." "To him that +overcometh, and doeth my works, I will give power over the +Gentiles;" "I will give him the morning star;" "I will grant him +to sit with me on my throne." Independently, moreover, of these +distinct texts, the whole book is pervaded with the thought that, +at the speedy second advent of the Messiah, all his enemies shall +be fearfully punished, his servants eminently compensated and +glorified.41 + +Thirdly, the writer of the Apocalypse expected in accordance with +that Jewish anticipation of an earthly Messianic kingdom which was +adopted with some modifications by the earliest Christians that +Jesus, on his return, having subdued his foes, would reign for a +season, in great glory, on the earth, surrounded by the saints. "A +door was opened in heaven," and the seer looked in, and saw a +vision of the redeemed around the throne, and heard them "singing +a new song unto the Lamb that was slain," in the course of which, +particularizing the favors obtained for them by him, they say, "We +shall reign upon the earth." Again, the writer says that "the +worshippers of the beast and of his image shall be tormented with +fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the +presence of the Lamb." Now, the lake of sulphurous fire into which +the reprobate were to be thrust was located, not in the sky, but +under the surface of the earth. The foregoing statement, +therefore, implies that Christ and his angels would be tarrying on +the earth when the final woe of the condemned was inflicted. But +we need not rely on indirect arguments. The writer explicitly +declares + +40 Martineau, Sermon, "The God of Revelation his own Interpreter." + +41 It seems to have been a Jewish expectation that when the +Messiah should appear he would thrust his enemies into Hades. In a +passage of the Talmud Satan is represented as seeing the Messiah +under the Throne of Glory: he falls on his face at the sight, +exclaiming, "This is the Messiah, who will precipitate me and all +the Gentiles into the under world." Bertholdt, Christologia, sect. +36. + + +that, in his vision of what was to take place, the Christian +martyrs, "those who were slain for the witness of Jesus, lived and +reigned with Christ a thousand years, while the rest of the dead +lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is +the first resurrection. Then Satan was loosed out of his prison, +and gathered the hosts of Gog and Magog to battle, and went up on +the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints +about, and fire came down out of heaven and devoured them." It +seems impossible to avoid seeing in this passage a plain statement +of the millennial reign of Christ on the earth with his risen +martyrs. + +Fourthly, at the termination of the period just referred to, the +author of the Apocalypse thought all the dead would be raised and +the tribunal of the general judgment held. As Lactantius says, +"All souls are detained in custody in the under world until the +last day; then the just shall rise and reign; afterwards there +will be another resurrection of the wicked."42 "The time of the +dead is come, that they should be judged." "And I saw the dead, +small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened, and +the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the +books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead +which were in it, and death and the under world delivered up the +dead which were in them, and they were judged, every man according +to his works." "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first +resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they +shall be priests of God and of Christ, and reign with him a +thousand years." This text, with its dark and tacit reference by +contrast to those who have no lot in the millennial kingdom, +brings us to the next step in our exposition. + +For, fifthly, after the general resurrection and judgment at the +close of the thousand years, the sentence of a hopeless doom to +hell is to be executed on the condemned. "Whosoever was not found +written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." "The +fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and +whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall +have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; +which is the second death." The "second death" is a term used by +Onkelos in his Targum,43 and sometimes in the Talmud, and by the +Rabbins generally. It denotes, as employed by them, the return of +the wicked into hell after their summons thence for judgment.44 In +the Apocalypse, its relative meaning is this. The martyrs, who +were slain for their allegiance to the gospel, died once, and +descended into the under world, the common realm of death. At the +coming of Christ they were to rise and join him, and to die no +more. This was the first resurrection. At the close of the +millennium, all the rest of the dead were to rise and be judged, +and the rejected portion of them were to be thrust back again +below. This was a second death for them, a fate from which the +righteous were exempt. There was a difference, greatly for the +worse in the latter, between their condition in the two deaths. In +the former they descended to the dark under world, the silent and +temporary abode of the universal dead; but in the latter they went +down "into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the devil and the +beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and +night for + +42 Divin. Instit. lib. vii. cap. 20, 21, 26. + +43 on Deut. xxxiii. 6. + +44 Gfrorer, Geschichte des Urchristenthums, kap. 10. s. 289. + + +ever and ever." For "Death and Hades, having delivered up the dead +which were in them, were cast into the lake of fire. This is the +second death." It is plain that here the common locality of +departed souls is personified as two demons, Death and Hades, and +the real thought meant to be conveyed is, that this region is to +be sunk beneath a "Tartarean drench," which shall henceforth roll +in burning billows over its victims there, "the smoke of their +torment ascending up for ever and ever." This awful imagery of a +lake of flaming sulphur, in which the damned were plunged, was of +comparatively late origin or adoption among the Jews, from whom +the Christians received it. The native Hebrew conception of the +state of the dead was that of the voiceless gloom and dismal +slumber of Sheol, whither all alike went. The notion of fiery +tortures inflicted there on the wicked was either conceived by the +Pharisees from the loathed horrors of the filth fire kept in the +vale of Hinnom, outside of Jerusalem, (which is the opinion of +most commentators,) or was imagined from the sea of burning +brimstone that showered from heaven and submerged Sodom and +Gomorrah in a vast fire pool, (which is maintained by +Bretschneider and others,) or was derived from the Egyptians, or +the Persians, or the Hindus, or the Greeks, all of whom had lakes +and rivers of fire in their theological hells, long before history +reveals the existence of such a belief among the Jews, (which is +the conclusion of many learned authors and critics.) + +We have now reached the last feature in the scheme of eschatology +shadowed forth in the Apocalypse, the most obscure and difficult +point of all, namely, the locality and the principal elements of +the final felicity of the saved. The difficulty of clearly +settling this question is twofold, arising, first, from the swift +and partial glimpses which are all that the writer yields us on +the subject, and, secondly, from the impossibility of deciding +with precision how much of his language is to be regarded as +figurative and how much as literal, where the poetic presentation +of symbol ends and where the direct statement of fact begins. A +large part of the book is certainly written in prophetic figures +and images, spiritual visions, never meant to be accepted in a +prosaic sense with severe detail. And yet, at the same time, all +these imaginative emblems were, unquestionably, intended to +foreshadow, in various kinds and degrees, doctrinal conceptions, +hopes, fears, threats, promises, historical realities, past, +present, or future. But to separate sharply the dress and the +substance, the superimposed symbols and the underlying realities, +is always an arduous, often an impossible, achievement. The writer +of the Apocalypse plainly believed that the souls of all, except +the martyrs, at death descended to the under world, and would +remain there till after the second coming of Christ. But whether +he thought that the martyrs were excepted, and would at death +immediately rise into heaven and there await the fulfilment of +time, is a disputed point. For our own part, we think it extremely +doubtful, and should rather decide in the negative. In the first +place, his expressions on this subject seem essentially +figurative. He describes the prayers of the saints as being poured +out from golden vials and burned as incense on a golden altar in +heaven before the throne of God. "Under that altar," he says, "I +saw the souls of them that were slain for the word of God." If the +souls of the martyrs, in his belief, were really admitted into +heaven, would he have conceived of them as huddled under the altar +and not walking at liberty? Does not the whole idea appear rather +like a rhetorical image than like a sober theological doctrine? +True, the scene is pictured in heaven; but then it is a picture, +and not a conclusion. With De Wette, we regard it, not as a +dogmatic, but as a poetical and prophetic, representation. And +in regard to the seer's vision of the innumerable company of the +redeemed in heaven, surrounding the throne and celebrating the +praises of God and the Lamb, surely it is obvious enough that +this, like the other affiliated visions, is a vision, by +inspired insight, in the present tense, of what is yet to +occur in the successive unfolding of the rapid scenes in the +great drama of Christ's redemptive work, a prophetic vision of +the future, not of what already is. We know that in Tertullian's +time the idea was entertained by some that Christian martyrs, as +a special allotment, should pass at once from their sufferings to +heaven, without going, as all others must, into the under world; +but the evidence preponderates with us, upon the whole, that no +such doctrine is really implied in the Apocalypse. In the +fourteenth chapter, the author describes the hundred and forty +four thousand who were redeemed from among men, as standing with +the Lamb on Mount Zion and hearing a voice from heaven singing a +new song, which no man, save the hundred and forty four thousand, +could learn. The probabilities are certainly strongest that this +great company of the selected "first fruits unto God and the +Lamb," now standing on the earth, had not yet been in heaven; for +they only learn the heavenly song which is sung before the throne +by hearing it chanted down from heaven in a voice like +multitudinous thunders. + +Finally, the most convincing proof that the writer did not suppose +that the martyrs entered heaven before the second advent of +Christ a proof which, taken by itself, would seem to leave no +doubt on the subject is this. In the famous scene detailed in the +twentieth chapter usually called by commentators the martyr scene +it is said that "the souls of them that were beheaded for the word +of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, lived and reigned +with Christ a thousand years. This is the first resurrection." +Now, is it not certain that if the writer supposed these souls had +never been in the under world, but in heaven, he could not have +designated their preliminary descent from above as "the first +resurrection," the first rising up? That phrase implies, we think, +that all the dead were below: the faithful and chosen ones were to +rise first to reign a while with Jesus, and after that the rest +should rise to be judged. After that judgment, which was expected +to be on earth in presence of the descended Lamb and his angels, +the lost were to be plunged, as we have already seen, into the +subterranean pit of torture, the unquenchable lake of fire. But +what was to become of the righteous and redeemed? Whether, by the +Apocalyptic representation, they were to remain forever on earth, +or to ascend into heaven, is a question which has been zealously +debated for over sixteen hundred years, and in some theological +circles is still warmly discussed. Were the angels who came down +to the earth with Christ to the judgment never to return to their +native seats? Were they permanently to transfer their deathless +citizenship from the sky to Judea? Were the constitution of human +nature and the essence of human society to be abrogated, and the +members of the human family to cease enlarging, lest they should +overflow the borders of the world? Was God himself literally to +desert his ancient abode, and, with the celestial city and all its +angelic hierarchy, float from the desolated firmament to Mount +Zion, there to set up the central eternity of his throne. We +cannot believe that such is the meaning, which the seer of the +Apocalypse wished to convey by his symbolic visions and pictures, +any more than we can believe that he means literally to say that +he saw "a woman in heaven clothed with the sun, and the moon under +her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars," or that +there were actually "armies in heaven, seated on white horses +and clothed in fine linen, white and clean, which is the +righteousness of saints." Our conviction is that he expected +the Savior would ascend with his angels and the redeemed +into heaven, the glorious habitation of God above the sky. He +speaks in one place of the "temple of God in heaven, into which no +man could enter until the seven plagues were fulfilled," and in +another place says that the "great multitude of the redeemed are +before the throne of God in heaven, and serve him day and night in +his temple;" and in still another place he describes two prophets, +messengers of God, who had been slain, as coming to life, "and +hearing a great voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up +hither;' and they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their +enemies beheld them." De Wette writes, "It is certain that an +abstract conception of heavenly blessedness with God duskily +hovers over the New Testament eschatology." We think this is true +of the Book of Revelation. + +It was a Persian Jewish idea that the original destination of man, +had he not sinned, was heaven. The apostles thought it was a part +of the mission of Christ to restore that lost privilege. We think +the writer of the Apocalypse shared in that belief. His allusions +to a new heaven and a new earth, and to the descent of a New +Jerusalem from heaven, and other related particulars, are symbols +neither novel nor violent to Jewish minds, but both familiar and +expressive, to denote a purifying glorification of the world, the +installation of a divine kingdom, and the brilliant reign of +universal righteousness and happiness among men, as if under the +very eyes of the Messiah and the very sceptre of God. The +Christians shall reign in Jerusalem, which shall be adorned with +indescribable splendors and shall be the centre of a world wide +dominion, the saved nations of the earth surrounding it and +"walking in the light of it, their kings bringing their glory and +honor into it." "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, +and there shall be no more death." That is, upon the whole, as we +understand the scattered hints relevant to the subject to imply, +when Christ returns to the Father with his chosen, he will leave a +regenerated earth, with Jerusalem for its golden and peerless +capital, peopled, and to be peopled, with rejoicing and immortal +men, who will keep the commandments, be exempt from ancient evils, +hold intimate communion with God and the Lamb, and, from +generation to generation, pass up to heaven through that swift and +painless change, alluded to by Paul, whereby it was intended at +the first that sinless man, his corruptible and mortal putting on +incorruption and immortality, should be fitted for the +companionship of angels in the pure radiance of the celestial +world, and should be translated thither without tasting the +bitterness of death, which was supposed to be the subterranean +banishment of the disembodied ghost. + +CHAPTER IV. + +PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +THE principal difficulty in arriving at the system of thought and +faith in the mind of Paul arises from the fragmentary character of +his extant writings. They are not complete treatises drawn out in +independent statements,butspecial letters full of latent +implications. They were written to meet particular emergencies, to +give advice, to convey or ask information and sympathy, to argue +or decide concerning various matters to a considerable extent of a +personal or local and temporal nature. Obviously their author +never suspected they would be the permanent and immensely +influential documents they have since become. They were not +composed as orderly developments or full presentations of a creed, +but rather as supplements to more adequate oral instruction +previously imparted. He says to the Thessalonians, "Brethren, +stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, +whether by word or by our epistle." Several of his letters also +perhaps many have been lost. He exhorts the Colossians to "read +likewise the epistle from Laodicea." In his present First Epistle +to the Corinthians he intimates that he had previously +corresponded with them, in the words, "I wrote to you in a +letter." There are good reasons, too, for supposing that he +transmitted other epistles of which we have now no account. Owing, +therefore, to the facts that his principal instructions were given +by word of mouth, and that his surviving writings set forth no +systematic array of doctrines, we have no choice left, if we +desire to know what his opinions concerning the future life were, +when deduced and arranged, but to exercise our learning and our +faculties upon the imperfect discussions and the significant hints +and clews in his extant epistles. Bringing these together, in the +light of contemporary Pharisaic and Christian conceptions and +opinions, we may construct a system from them which will represent +his theory; somewhat as the naturalist from a few fragmentary +bones describes the entire skeleton to which they belonged. As we +proceed to follow this process, we must particularly remember the +leading notions in the doctrinal belief of the Jews at that +period, and the fact that Paul himself was "brought up at the feet +of Gamaliel," "after the most straitest order of the sect, a +Pharisee." When on trial at Jerusalem, he cried, "Men and +brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope of +the resurrection of the dead I am called in question." We can +hardly suppose that he would entirely throw off the influence and +form of the Pharisaic dogmas and grasp Christianity in its pure +spirituality. It is most reasonable to expect what we shall find +actually the fact that he would mix the doctrinal and emotional +results of his Pharisaic training with the teachings of Christ, +thus forming a composite system considerably modified from any +then existing. Indeed, a great many obscure texts in Paul may be +made perspicuous by citations from the old Talmudists. Considering +the value and the importance of this means of illustrating the New +Testament, it is neglected by modern commentators in a very +remarkable manner. + +In common with his countrymen and the Gentiles, Paul undoubtedly +believed in a world of light and bliss situated over the sky, +where the Deity, surrounded by his angels, reigns in immortal +splendor. According to the Greeks, Zeus and the other gods, +with a few select heroes, there lived an imperishable life. +According to the Hebrews, there was "the house of Jehovah," "the +habitation of eternity," "the world of holy angels." The Old +Testament contains many sublime allusions to this place. Jacob in +his dream saw a ladder set up that reached unto heaven, and the +angels were ascending and descending upon it. Fixing his eyes upon +the summit, the patriarch exclaimed, not referring, as is commonly +supposed, to the ground on which he lay, but to the opening in the +sky through which the angels were passing and repassing, "Surely +this is the house of God and this the gate of heaven." Jehovah is +described as "riding over the heaven of heavens;" as "treading +upon the arch of the sky." The firmament is spoken of as the solid +floor of his abode, where "he layeth the beams of his chambers in +the waters," the "waters above," which the Book of Genesis says +were "divided from the waters beneath." Though this divine world +on high was in the early ages almost universally regarded as a +local reality, it was not conceived by Jews or Gentiles to be the +destined abode of human souls. It was thought to be exclusively +occupied by Jehovah and his angels, or by the gods and their +messengers. Only here and there were scattered a few dim +traditions, or poetic myths, of a prophet, a hero, a god descended +man, who, as a special favor, had been taken up to the supernal +mansions. The common destination of the disembodied spirits of men +was the dark,stupendous realms of the under world. As Augustine +observes, "Christ died after many; he rose before any: by dying he +suffered what many had suffered before; by rising he did what no +one had ever done before."1 These ideas of the celestial and the +infernal localities and of the fate of man were of course +entertained by Paul when he became a Christian. A few texts by way +of evidence of this fact will here suffice. "That at the name of +Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on +earth, and those under the earth." "He that descended first into +the lower parts of the earth is the same also that ascended up far +above all heavens." The untenableness of that explanation which +makes the descent into the lower parts of the earth refer to +Christ's descent to earth from his pre existent state in heaven +must be evident, as it seems to us, to every mind. Irenaus, +discussing this very text from Ephesians, exposes the absurdity +and stigmatizes the heresy of those who say that the infernal +world is this earth, ("qui dicunt inferos quidem esse hunc +mundum.")2 "I knew a man caught up to the third heaven, . . . +caught up into paradise." The threefold heaven of the Jews, here +alluded to, was, first, the region of the air, supposed to be +inhabited by evil spirits. Paul repeatedly expresses this idea, as +when he speaks of "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit +that worketh in the children of disobedience," and when he says, +"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against +principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the +darkness, against wicked spirits in heavenly places." The second +heaven comprised the region of the planetary bodies. The third lay +beyond the firmament, and was the actual residence of God and the +angelic hosts. These quotations, sustained as they are by the +well known previous opinions of the Jews, as well as by numerous +unequivocal texts in the writings of the other apostles and by +many additional ones in those + +1 Enarratio in Psalmum XC. + +2 Adv. Hares. lib. v. cap. 31. + + +of Paul, are conclusive evidence that he believed in the received +heaven above the blue ether and stellar dome, and in the received +Hadean abyss beneath the earth. In the absence of all evidence to +the contrary, every presumption justifies the supposition that he +also believed as we know all his orthodox contemporaries did that +that under world was the abode of all men after death, and that +that over world was solely the dwelling place of God and the +angels. Nay, we are not left to conjecture; for he expressly +declares of God that he "dwelleth in the light which no man can +approach unto." This conclusion will be abundantly established in +the course of the following exposition. + +With these preliminaries, we are prepared to see what was Paul's +doctrine of death and of salvation. There are two prevalent +theories on this subject, both of which we deem partly scriptural, +neither of them wholly so. On the one extreme, the consistent +disciple of Augustine the historic Calvinist attributes to the +apostle the belief that the sin of Adam was the sole cause of +literal death, that but for Adam's fall men would have lived on +the earth forever or else have been translated bodily to heaven +without any previous process of death. That such really was not +the view held by Paul we are convinced. Indeed, there is one +prominent feature in his faith which by itself proves that the +disengagement of the soul from the material frame did not seem to +him an abnormal event caused by the contingency of sin. We refer +to his doctrine of two bodies, the "outward man" and the "inward +man," the "earthly house" and the "heavenly house," the "natural +body" and the "spiritual body." Neander says this is "an express +assertion" of Paul's belief that man was not literally made mortal +by sin, but was naturally destined to emerge from the flesh into a +higher form of life.3 Paul thought that, in the original plan of +God, man was intended to drop his gross, corruptible body and put +on an incorruptible one, like the "glorious body" of the risen +Christ. He distinctly declares, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit +the kingdom of God." Therefore, we cannot interpret the word +"death" to mean merely the separation of the soul from its present +tabernacle, when he says, "By one man sin entered into the world, +and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men." On the other +extreme, the fully developed Pelagian the common Unitarian holds +that the word "death" is always used in the arguments of Paul in a +spiritual or figurative sense, merely meaning moral alienation +from God in guilt, misery, and despair. Undoubtedly it is used +thus in many instances, as when it is written, "I was alive +without the law once; but, when the commandment came, sin rose to +life, and I died." But in still more numerous cases it means +something more than the consciousness of sin and the resulting +wretchedness in the breast, and implies something external, +mechanical, visible, as it were. For example, "Since by man came +death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." Any one who +reads the context of this sentence may see that the terms "death" +and "resurrection" antithetically balance each other, and refer +not to an inward experience, but to an outward event, not to a +moral change, but to the physical descent and resurrection. It is +certain that here the words are not employed in a moral sense. The +phraseology Paul uses in stating the connection of the sin of Adam +with death, the connection of the resurrection of Christ with +immortal life, is too peculiar, emphatic, and extensive not to be +loaded with + +3 Planting and Training, Ryland's trans. p. 240. + + +a more general and vivid significance than the simple unhappiness +of a sense of guilt, the simple peace and joy of a reconciled +conscience. The advocates, then, of both theories the Calvinist +asserting that Paul supposed sin to be the only reason why we do +not live eternally in the world with our present organization, and +the Rationalist asserting that the apostle never employs the word +"death" except with a purely interior signification are alike +beset by insuperable difficulties, perplexed by passages which +defy their fair analysis and force them either to use a violent +interpretation or to confess their ignorance. + +We must therefore seek out some third view, which, rejecting the +errors, shall combine the truths and supply the defects of the two +former. We have now to present such a view, a theory of the +Pauline doctrine of the last things which obviously explains and +fills out all the related language of the epistles. We suppose he +unfolded it fully in his preaching, while in his supplementary and +personal letters he only alludes to such disconnected parts of it +as then rose upon his thoughts. A systematic development of it as +a whole, with copious allusions and labored defences, was not +needed then, as it might seem to us to have been. For the +fundamental notions on which it rested were the common belief of +the nation and age. Geology and astronomy had not disturbed the +credit of a definitely located Hades and heaven, nor had free +metaphysics sharpened the common mind to skeptical queries. The +view itself, as we conceive it occupied the mind of Paul, is this. +Death was a part of the creative plan for us from the first, +simply loosing the spirit from its corruptible body, clothing it +with an ethereal vehicle, and immediately translating it to +heaven. Sin marred this plan, alienated us from the Divine favor, +introduced all misery, physical and moral, and doomed the soul, +upon the fall of its earthly house, to descend into the slumberous +gloom of the under world. Thus death was changed from a pleasant +organic fulfilment and deliverance, spiritual investiture and +heavenly ascent, to a painful punishment condemning the naked +ghost to a residence below the grave. As Ewald says, through +Adam's sin "death acquired its significance as pain and +punishment."4 Herein is the explanation of the word "death" as +used by Paul in reference to the consequence of Adam's offence. +Christ came to reveal the free grace and gift of God in redeeming +us from our doom and restoring our heavenly destiny. This he +exemplified, in accordance with the Father's will, by dying, +descending into the dreary world of the dead, vanquishing the +forces there, rising thence, and ascending to the right hand of +the throne of heaven as our forerunner. On the very verge of the +theory just stated as Paul's, Neander hovers in his exposition of +the apostle's views, but fails to grasp its theological scope and +consequences. Krabbe declares that "death did not arise from the +native perishableness of the body, but from sin."5 This statement +Neander controverts, maintaining that "sin introduced no essential +change in the physical organization of man, but merely in the +manner in which his earthly existence terminates. Had it not been +for sin, death would have been only the form of a higher +development of life."6 Exactly so. With innocence, the soul at +death + +4 Sendschreiben des Apostels Paulus, s. 210. + +5 Die Lehre von oer Sunde und vom Tode, cap. xi, s. 192. + +6 Neander's Planting and Training, book vi. ch. 1. + + +would have ascended pleasantly, in a new body, to heaven; but sin +compelled it to descend painfully, without any body, to Hades. We +will cite a few of the principal texts from which this general +outline has been inferred and constructed. + +The substance of the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans +may be thus stated. As by the offence of one, sin entered into the +world, and the judgment of the law came upon all men in a sentence +of condemnation unto death, so by the righteousness of one, the +free gift of God came upon all men in a sentence of justification +unto life; that as sin, by Adam's offence, hath reigned unto +death, so grace, by Christ's righteousness, might reign unto +eternal life. Now, we maintain that the words "death" and "life" +cannot in the present instance be entirely explained, in a +spiritual sense, as signifying disturbance and woe in the breast, +or peace and bliss there, because the whole connected discourse is +not upon the internal contingent experience of individuals, but +upon the common necessity of the race, an objective sentence +passed upon humanity, followed by a public gift of reversal and +annulment. So, too, we deny that the words can be justly taken, in +their strictly literal sense, as meaning cessation or continuance +of physical existence on the earth, because, in the first place, +that would be inconsistent with the doctrine of a spiritual body +within the fleshly one and of a glorious inheritance reserved in +heaven, a doctrine by which Paul plainly shows that he recognised +a natural organic provision, irrespective of sin, for a change in +the form and locality of human existence. Secondly, we submit that +death and life here cannot mean departure from the body or +continuance in it, because that is a matter with which Christ's +mission did in no way interfere, but left exactly as it was +before; whereas, in the thing really meant by Paul, Christ is +represented as standing, at least partially, in the same relation +between life and men that Adam stands in between death and men. +The reply to the question, What is that relation? will at once +define the genuine signification of the terms "death" and "life" +in the instance under review. And thus it is to be answered. The +death brought on mankind by Adam was not only internal +wretchedness, but also the condemnation of the disembodied soul to +the under world; the life they were assured of by Christ was not +only internal blessedness, but also the deliverance of the soul +from its subterranean prison and its reception into heaven in a +"body celestial," according to its original destiny had sin not +befallen. This interpretation is explicitly put forth by Theodoret +in his comments on this same passage, (Rom. v. 15-18.) He says, +"There must be a correspondence between the disease and the +remedy. Adam's sin subjected him to the power of death and the +tyranny of the devil. In the same manner that Adam was compelled +to descend into the under world, we all are associates in his +fate. Thus, when Christ rose, the whole humankind partook in his +vivification."7 Origen also and who, after the apostles +themselves, knew their thoughts and their use of language better +than he? emphatically declares in exposition of the expression of +Paul, "the wages of sin is death" that "the + +7 Impatib., dialogue iii. pp. 132, 133, ed. Sirmondi. + + +under world in which souls are detained is called death."8 + +"As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." +These words cannot be explained, "As in Adam the necessity of +physical death came on all, so in Christ that necessity shall be +removed," because Christ's mission did not touch physical death, +which was still reigning as ever, before Paul's eyes. Neither can +the passage signify, "As through Adam wretchedness is the portion +of every heart of man, so through Christ blessedness shall be +given to every heart," because, while the language itself does not +hint that thought, the context demonstrates that the real +reference is not to an inward experience, but to an outward +event, not to the personal regeneration of the soul, but to a +general resurrection of the dead. The time referred to is the +second coming of Christ; and the force of the text must be this: +As by our bodily likeness to the first man and genetic connection +with him through sin we all die like him, that is, leave the body +and go into the under world, and remain there, so by our spiritual +likeness to the second man and redeeming connection with him +through the free grace of God we shall all rise thence like him, +revived and restored. Adam was the head of a condemned race, +doomed to Hades by the visible occurrence of death in lineal +descent from him; Christ is the head of a pardoned race, destined +for heaven in consonance with the plain token of his resurrection +and ascension. Again, the apostle writes, "In the twinkling of an +eye, at the last trump, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, +and we (who are then living) shall be changed; for this +corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality. +Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death +is swallowed up in victory?" O Death, where is thy sting? O Hades, +where is thy victory?'" The writer evidently exults in the thought +that, at the second coming of Christ, death shall lose its +retributive character and the under world be baffled of its +expected prisoners, because the living shall instantly experience +the change of bodies fitting them to ascend to heaven with the +returning and triumphant Lord. Paul also announces that "Jesus +Christ hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality +to light." The word "death" here cannot mean physical dissolution, +because Christ did not abolish that. It cannot denote personal sin +and unhappiness, because that would not correspond with and +sustain the obvious meaning of the contrasted member of the +sentence. Its adequate and consistent sense is this. God intended +that man should pass from a preliminary existence on earth to an +eternal life in heaven; but sin thwarted this glorious design and +altered our fate to a banishment into the cheerless under world. +But now, by the teachings and resurrection of Christ, we are +assured that God of his infinite goodness has determined freely to +forgive us and restore our original destination. Our descent and +abode below are abolished and our heavenly immortality made clear. +"We earnestly desire to be clothed upon with our house which is +from heaven, if so be that, being clothed, we shall not be found +naked. Not that we desire to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that +mortality may be swallowed up of life." + +8 Comm. in Epist. ad Rom. lib. vi. cap. 6, sect. 6. Also see +Jerome, Comm. in Ecc. iii. 21. Professor Mau, in his able treatise +"Von dem Tode dem Solde der Sunden, and der Aufhebung desselben +durch die Auferstehung Christi," cogently argues, against Krabbe, +that death as the punishment of sin is not bodily dissolution, but +wretchedness and condemnation to the under world, (amandatio +Orcum.) In Pelt's Theologische Mitarbeiten, 1838, heft ii. ss. +107-108. + + +In these remarkable words the apostle expresses several particulars +of what we have already presented as his general doctrine. He +states his conviction that, when his "earthly house of this +tabernacle" dissolves, there is a "divinely constructed, heavenly, +and eternal house" prepared for him. He expresses his desire at +the coming of the Lord not to be dead, but still living, and then +to be divested of his earthly body and invested with the heavenly +body, that thus, being fitted for translation to the incorruptible +kingdom of God, he might not be found a naked shadow or ghost in +the under world. Ruckert says, in his commentary, and the best +critics agree with him, "Paul herein desires to become immortal +without passing the gates of death." Language similar to the +foregoing in its peculiar phrases is found in the Jewish Cabbala. +The Zohar describes the ascent of the soul to heaven clothed with +splendor, and afterwards illustrates its meaning in these terms: +"As there is given to the soul a garment with which she is clothed +in order to establish her in this world, so there is given her a +garment of heavenly splendor in order to establish her in that +world."9 So in the "Ascension of Isaiah the Prophet" an apocryphal +book written by some Jewish Christian as early, without doubt, as +the close of the second century the following passages occur. +Speaking of what was revealed to him in heaven, the prophet says, +"There I saw all the saints, from Adam, without the clothing of +the flesh: I viewed them in their heavenly clothing like the +angels who stood there in great splendor." Again he says, "All the +saints from heaven in their heavenly clothing shall descend with +the Lord and dwell in this world, while the saints who have not +died shall be clothed like those who come from heaven. Then the +general resurrection will take place and they will ascend together +to heaven."10 Schoettgen, commenting on this text, (2 Cor. v. 2, ) +likewise quotes a large number of examples of like phraseology +from Rabbinical writers. The statements thus far made and proofs +offered will be amply illustrated and confirmed as we go on to +consider the chief component parts of the Pauline scheme of the +last things. For, having presented the general outline, it will be +useful, in treating so complex and difficult a theme, to analyze +it by details. + +We are met upon the threshold of our inquiry by the essential +question, What, according to Paul, was the mission of Christ? What +did he accomplish? A clear reply to this question comprises three +distinct propositions. First, the apostle plainly represents the +resurrection, and not the crucifixion, as the efficacious feature +in Christ's work of redemption. When we recollect the almost +universal prevalence of the opposite notion among existing sects, +it is astonishing how clear it is that Paul generally dwells upon +the dying of Christ solely as the necessary preliminary to his +rising. "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and +your faith also is vain: ye are yet in your sins." These words are +irreconcilable with that doctrine which connects our +"justification" with the atoning death, and not with the typical +resurrection, of Christ. "That Christ died for our sins, and that +he was buried, and that he rose again the third day." To place a +vicarious stress upon the first clause of this text is as +arbitrary as it would be to place it upon the second; but +naturally emphasize the third clause, + +9 Laurence, Ascensio Isaia Vatis, appendix, p. 168. + +10 Laurence, Ascensio Isaia atis, cap. 9, v. 7, 9; cap. 4. + + +and all is clear. The inferences and exhortations drawn from the +mission of Christ are not usually connected in any essential +manner with his painful death, but directly with his glorious +resurrection out from among the dead unto the heavenly +blessedness. "If we have been planted together in the likeness of +his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." +Sinking into the water, when "buried by baptism into the death of +Christ," was, to those initiated into the Christian religion, a +symbol of the descent of Christ among the dead; rising out of the +water was a symbol of the ascent of Christ into heaven. "If ye +then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, +where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." When Paul cries, +exultingly, "Thanks be to God, who through Christ giveth us the +victory over the sting of death and the strength of sin," Jerome +says, "We cannot and dare not interpret this victory otherwise +than by the resurrection of the Lord."11 Commenting on the text +"To this end Christ both died and lived again, that he might reign +both over the dead and the living," Theodoret says that Christ, +going through all these events, "promised a resurrection to us +all." Paul makes no appeal to us to believe in the death of +Christ, to believe in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, but he +unequivocally affirms, "If thou shalt believe in thine heart that +God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Paul +conceived that Christ died in order to rise again and convince men +that the Father would freely deliver them from the bondage of +death in the under world. All this took place on account of sin, +was only made requisite by sin, one of whose consequences was the +subterranean confinement of the soul, which otherwise, upon +deserting its clayey tent, would immediately have been clothed +with a spiritual body and have ascended to heaven. That is to say, +Christ "was delivered because of our offences and was raised again +because of our justification." In Romans viii. 10 the preposition +occurs twice in exactly the same construction as in the text +just quoted. In the latter case the authors of the common version +have rendered it "because of." They should have done so in the +other instance, in accordance with the natural force and +established usage of the word in this connection. The meaning is, +Our offences had been committed, therefore Christ was delivered +into Hades; our pardon had been decreed, therefore Christ was +raised into heaven. Such as we have now stated is the real +material which has been distorted and exaggerated into the +prevalent doctrine of the vicarious atonement, with all its dread +concomitants.12 The believers of that doctrine suppose themselves +obliged to accept it by the language of the epistles. But the view +above maintained as that of Paul solves every difficulty and gives +an intelligent and consistent meaning to all the phrases usually +thought to legitimate the Calvinistic scheme of redemption. While +we deny the correctness of the Calvinistic interpretation of those +passages in which occur such expressions as "Christ gave himself +for us," "died for our sins," we also affirm the inadequacy + +11 Comm. in Osee, lib. iii. cap. 13. + +12 Die Lehre von Christi Hollenfahrt nach der Heil. Schrift, der +altesten Kirche, den Christlichen Symbolen, und nach ihrer +unendlichen Wichtigkeit und vielumfassenden Bedeutung dargestellt, +von Joh. Ludwig Konig. The author presents in this work an +irresistible array of citations and authorities. In an appendix he +gives a list of a hundred authors on the theme of Christ's descent +into hell. + + +of the explanations of them proposed by Unitarians, and assert +that their genuine force is this. Christ died and rose that we +might be freed through faith from the great entailed consequence +of sin, the bondage of the under world; beholding, through his +ascension, our heavenly destination restored. "God made him, who +knew no sin, to be sin on our account, that we might become the +righteousness of God in him," might through faith in him be +assured of salvation. In other words, Christ, who was not exposed +to the evils brought on men by sin, did not think his divine +estate a thing eagerly to be retained, but descended to the estate +of man, underwent the penalties of sin as if he were himself a +sinner, and then rose to the right hand of God, by this token to +assure men of God's gracious determination to forgive them and +reinstate them in their forfeited primal privileges. "If we be +reconciled by his death, much more shall we be saved by his life." +That is, if Christ's coming from heaven as an ambassador from God +to die convinces us of God's pardoning good will towards us, much +more does his rising again into heaven, where he now lives, +deliver us from the fear of the under world condemnation and +assure us of the heavenly salvation. Except in the light and with +the aid of the theory we have been urging, a large number of texts +like the foregoing cannot, as we think, be interpreted without +constructive violence, and even with that violence cannot convey +their full point and power. + +Secondly, in Paul's doctrine of the redeeming work of Christ we +recognise something distinct from any subjective effect in +animating and purifying the hearts and lives of men. "Christ hath +redeemed us from the curse of the law." "In Christ we have +redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." +Nothing but the most desperate exegesis can make these and many +similar texts signify simply the purging of individual breasts +from their offences and guilt. Seeking the genuine meaning of +Paul, we are forced to agree with the overwhelming majority of the +critics and believers of all Christendom, from the very times of +the apostles till now, and declare that these passages refer to an +outward deliverance of men by Christ, the removal by him of a +common doom resting on the race in consequence of sin. What Paul +supposed that doom was, and how he thought it was removed, let us +try to see. It is necessary to premise that in Paul's writings the +phrase "the righteousness of God" is often used by metonymy to +mean God's mode of accounting sinners righteous, and is equivalent +to "the Christian method of salvation." "By the deeds of the law +no flesh shall be justified; but the righteousness of God without +the law is manifested, freely justifying them through the +redemption that is in Christ." How evidently in this verse "the +righteousness of God" denotes God's method of justifying the +guilty by a free pardon proclaimed through Christ! The apostle +employs the word "faith" in a kindred technical manner, sometimes +meaning by it "promise," sometimes the whole evangelic apparatus +used to establish faith or prove the realization of the promise. +"What if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith +of God without effect?" Evidently by "faith" is intended "promise" +or "purpose." "Is the law against the promises of God? God forbid! +But before faith came we were kept under the law, shut up unto the +faith which should afterwards be revealed." Here "faith" plainly +means the object of faith, the manifested fulfilment of the +promises: it means the gospel. Again, "Whereof he hath offered +faith to all, in that he hath raised him from the dead." "Hath +offered faith" here signifies, unquestionably, as the common +version well expresses it, "hath given assurance," or hath +exemplified the proof. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to +bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But +after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." +In this instance "faith" certainly means Christianity, in +contradistinction to Judaism, and "justification by faith" is +equivalent to "salvation by the grace of God, shown through the +mission of Christ." It is not so much internal and individual in +its reference as it is public and general. We believe that no man, +sacredly resolved to admit the truth, can study with a purposed +reference to this point all the passages in Paul's epistles where +the word "faith" occurs, without being convinced that for the most +part it is used in an objective sense, in contradistinction to the +law, as synonymous with the gospel, the new dispensation of grace. +Therefore "justification by faith" does not usually mean salvation +through personal belief, either in the merits of the Redeemer or +in any thing else, but it means salvation by the plan revealed in +the gospel, the free remission of sins by the forbearance of God. +In those instances where "faith" is used in a subjective sense for +personal belief, it is never described as the effectual cause of +salvation, but as the condition of personal assurance of +salvation. Grace has outwardly come to all; but only the believers +inwardly know it. This Pauline use of terms in technical senses +lies broadly on the face of the Epistles to the Romans and the +Galatians. New Testament lexicons and commentaries, by the best +scholars of every denomination, acknowledge it and illustrate it. +Mark now these texts. "And by him all that believe are justified +from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of +Moses." "To declare his righteousness, that he might be just and +the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." "What things were +gain to me [under Judaism] I counted loss in comparison with +Christ, that I may be found in him, not having mine own +righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is +of God through faith in Christ." "By the deeds of the law no man +can be justified," "but ye are saved through faith." We submit +that these passages, and many others in the epistles, find a +perfect explanation in the following outline of faith, commenced +in the mind of Paul while he was a Pharisee, completed when he was +a Christian. The righteousness of the law, the method of salvation +by keeping the law, is impossible. The sin of the first man broke +that whole plan and doomed all souls helplessly to the under +world. If a man now should keep every tittle of the law without +reservation, it would not release him from the bondage below and +secure for him an ascent to heaven. But what the law could not do +is done for us in Christ. Sin having destroyed the righteousness +of the law, that is, the fatal penalty of Hades having rendered +salvation by the law impossible, the righteousness of God, that +is, a new method of salvation, has been brought to light. God has +sent his Son to die, descend into the under world, rise again, and +return to heaven, to proclaim to men the glorious tidings of +justification by faith, that is, a dispensation of grace freely +annulling the great consequence of sin and inviting them to heaven +in the Redeemer's footsteps. Paul unequivocally declares that +Christ broke up the bondage of the under world by his irresistible +entrance and exit, in the following text: "When he had descended +first into the lower parts of the earth, he ascended up on high, +leading a multitude of captives." What can be plainer than that? +The same thought is also contained in another passage, a passage +which was the source of those tremendous pictures so frequent in +the cathedrals of the Middle Age, Christus spoliat Infernum: "God +hath forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of +ordinances that was against us, and took it away, nailing it to +Christ's cross; and, having spoiled principalities and powers, he +made a show of them, openly triumphing over them in Christ." The +entire theory which underlies the exposition we have just set +forth is stated in so many words in the passage we next cite. For +the word "righteousness" in order to make the meaning more +perspicuous we simply substitute "method of salvation," which is +unquestionably its signification here. "They [the Jews] being +ignorant of God's method of salvation, and going about to +establish their own method, have not submitted themselves unto +God's. For Christ is the end of the law for a way of salvation to +every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the method of +salvation which is of the law, that the man who doeth these things +shall be blessed in them. But the method of salvation which is of +faith ["faith" here means the gospel, Christianity] speaketh on +this wise: Say not in thy heart, 'Who shall ascend into heaven?' +that is, to bring Christ down; or, 'Who shall descend into the +under world?' that is, to bring up Christ again from among the +dead." This has been done already, once for all. "And if thou +shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the +dead, thou shalt be saved." The apostle avows that his "heart's +desire and his prayer unto God for Israel is, that they may be +saved;" and he asserts that they cannot be saved by the law of +Moses, but only by the gospel of Christ; that is, "faith;" that +is, "the dispensation of grace." + +Paul's conception of the foremost feature in Christ's mission is +precisely this. He came to deliver men from the stern law of +Judaism, which could not wipe away their transgressions nor save +them from Hades, and to establish them in the free grace of +Christianity, which justifies them from all past sin and seals +them for heaven. What could be a more explicit declaration of this +than the following? "When the fulness of the time was come, God +sent forth his Son to redeem them that were under the law." Herein +is the explanation of that perilous combat which Paul waged so +many years, and in which he proved victorious, the great battle +between the Gentile Christians and the Judaizing Christians; a +subject of altogether singular importance, without a minute +acquaintance with which a large part of the New Testament cannot +be understood. "Christ gave himself for our sins, that he might +deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of +God." Now, the Hebrew terms corresponding with the English terms +"present world" and "future world" were used by the Jews to denote +the Mosaic and the Messianic dispensations. We believe with +Schoettgen and other good authorities that such is the sense of +the phrase "present world" in the instance before us. Not only is +that interpretation sustained by the usus loquendi, it is also the +only defensible meaning; for the effect of the establishment of +the gospel was not to deliver men from the present world, though +it did deliver them from the hopeless bondage of Judaism, wherein +salvation was by Christians considered impossible. And that is +precisely the argument of the Epistle to the Galatians, in which +the text occurs. In a succeeding chapter, while speaking expressly +of the external forms of the Jewish law, Paul says, "By the cross +of Christ the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world;" +and he instantly adds, by way of explanation, "for in Christ Jesus +neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision." +Undeniably, "world" here means "Judaism;" as Rosenmuller phrases +it, Judaica vanitas. In another epistle, while expostulating with +his readers on the folly of subjecting themselves to observances +"in meat and drink, and new moons and sabbaths," after "the +handwriting of ordinances that was against them had been blotted +out, taken away, nailed to the cross," Paul remonstrates with them +in these words: "Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the +rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye +subject to ordinances?" We should suppose that no intelligent +person could question that this means, "Now that by the gospel of +Christ ye are emancipated from the technical requisitions of +Judaism, why are ye subject to its ordinances, as if ye were still +living under its rule?" as many of the best commentators agree in +saying, "tanquam viventes adhuc in Judaismo." From these +collective passages, and from others like them, we draw the +conclusion, in Paul's own words, that, "When we were children, we +were in bondage under the rudiments of the world," "the weak and +beggarly elements" of Judaism; but, now that "the fulness of the +time has come, and God has sent forth his Son to redeem us," we +are called "to receive the adoption of sons" and "become heirs of +God," inheritors of a heavenly destiny. + +We think that the intelligent and candid reader, who is familiar +with Paul's epistles, will recognise the following features in his +belief and teaching. First, all mankind alike were under sin and +condemnation. "Jews and Gentiles all are under sin." "All the +world is subject to the sentence of God." And we maintain that +that condemning sentence consisted, partly at least, in the +banishment of their disembodied souls to Hades. Secondly, "a +promise was given to Abraham," before the introduction of the +Mosaic dispensation, "that in his seed [that is, in Christ] all +the nations of the earth should be blessed." When Paul speaks, as +he does in numerous instances, of "the hope of eternal life which +God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began," "the +promise given before the foundation of the world," "the promise +made of God unto the fathers, that God would raise the dead," the +date referred to is not when the decree was formed in the eternal +counsels of God, previous to the origin of the earth, but when the +covenant was made with Abraham, before the establishment of the +Jewish dispensation. The thing promised plainly was, according to +Paul's idea, a redemption from Hades and an ascension to heaven; +for this is fully implied in his "expectation of the resurrection +of the dead" from the intermediate state, and their being "clothed +in celestial bodies." This promise made unto Abraham by God, to be +fulfilled by Christ, "the law, which was four hundred and thirty +years afterwards, could not disannul." That is, as any one may see +by the context, the law could not secure the inheritance of the +thing promised, but was only a temporary arrangement on account of +transgressions, "until the seed should come to whom the promise +was made." In other words, there was "no mode of salvation by the +law;" "the law could not give life;" for if it could it would have +"superseded the promise," made it without effect, whereas the +inviolable promise of God was, that in the one seed of Abraham +that is, in Christ alone should salvation be preached to all that +believed. "For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is +made useless, and the promise is made useless." In the mean time, +until Christ be come, all are shut up under sin. Thirdly, the +special "advantage of the Jews was, that unto them this promise of +God was committed," as the chosen covenant people. + +The Gentiles, groaning under the universal sentence of sin, +were ignorant of the sure promise of a common salvation yet +to be brought. While the Jews indulged in glowing and exclusive +expectations of the Messiah who was gloriously to redeem them, the +Gentiles were "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers +from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in +the world." Fourthly, in the fulness of time long after "the +Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen, had +preached the gospel beforehand unto Abraham, saying, In thy seed +shall all nations be blessed" "Christ redeemed us from the curse +of the law, being made a curse for us, that the blessing promised +to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles." It was the precise +mission of Christ to realize and exemplify and publish to the +whole world the fulfilment of that promise. The promise itself +was, that men should be released from the under world through the +imputation of righteousness by grace that is, through free +forgiveness and rise to heaven as accredited sons and heirs of +God. This aim and purpose of Christ's coming were effected in his +resurrection. But how did the Gentiles enter into belief and +participation of the glad tidings? Thus, according to Paul: The +death, descent, resurrection, and ascent of Jesus, and his +residence in heaven in a spiritual form, divested him of his +nationality.13 He was "then to be known no more after the flesh." +He was no longer an earthly Jew, addressing Jews, but a heavenly +spirit and son of God, a glorified likeness of the spirits of all +who were adopted as sons of God, appealing to them all as joint +heirs with himself of heaven. He has risen into universality, and +is accessible to the soul of every one that believeth. "In him +there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, +barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free." The experience resulting in a +heart raised into fellowship with him in heaven is the inward seal +assuring us that our faith is not vain. "Ye Gentiles, who formerly +were afar off, are now made nigh by the blood of Christ; for he +hath broken down the middle wall of partition between Jews and +Gentiles, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, namely, the +law of commandments in ordinances, in order to make in himself of +twain one new man. For through him we both have access by one +spirit unto the Father. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers +and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the +household of God." Circumcision was of the flesh; and the vain +hope of salvation by it was confined to the Jews. Grace was of the +spirit; and the revealed assurance of salvation by it was given to +the Gentiles too, when Christ died to the nationalizing flesh, +rose in the universalizing spirit, and from heaven impartially +exhibited himself, through the preaching of the gospel, to the +appropriating faith of all. + +The foregoing positions might be further substantiated by applying +the general theory they contain to the explication of scores of +individual texts which it fits and unfolds, and which, we think, +cannot upon any other view be interpreted without forced +constructions unwarranted by a thorough acquaintance with the mind +of Paul and with the mind of his age. But we must be content with +one or two such applications as specimens. The word "mystery" +often occurs in the letters of Paul. Its current meaning in his +time was "something concealed," something into which one must be +initiated in order to understand it. + +13 Martineau, Liverpool Controversy: Inconsistency of the Scheme +of Vicarious Redemption. + + +The Eleusinian Mysteries, for instance, were not necessarily any thing +intrinsically dark and hard to be comprehended, but things hidden +from public gaze and only to be known by initiation into them. +Paul uses the term in a similar way to denote the peculiar scheme +of grace, which "had been kept secret from the beginning of the +world," "hidden from ages and generations, but now made manifest." +No one denies that Paul means by "this mystery" the very heart and +essence of the gospel, precisely that which distinguishes it from +the law and makes it a universal method of salvation, a wondrous +system of grace. So much is irresistibly evident from the way and +the connection in which he uses the term. He writes thus in +explanation of the great mystery as it was dramatically revealed +through Christ: "Who was manifested in the flesh, [i. e. seen in +the body during his life on earth,] justified in the spirit, +[i. e. freed after death from the necessity of imprisonment in +Hades,] seen of angels, [i. e. in their fellowship after his +resurrection,] preached unto the Gentiles, [i. e. after the gift +of tongues on Pentecost day,] believed on in the world, [i. e. his +gospel widely accepted through the labors of his disciples,] +received up into glory, [i. e. taken into heaven to the presence +of God.]" "The revelation of the mystery" means, then, the visible +enactment and exhibition, through the resurrection of Christ, of +God's free forgiveness of men, redeeming them from the Hadean +gloom to the heavenly glory. The word "glory" in the New Testament +confessedly often signifies the illumination of heaven, the +defined abode of God and his angels. Robinson collects, in his +Lexicon, numerous examples wherein he says it means "that state +which is the portion of those who dwell with God in heaven." Now, +Paul repeatedly speaks of the calling of believers to glory as one +of the chief blessings and new prerogatives of the gospel. "Being +justified by faith, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." "Walk +worthy of God, who hath called you unto his glory." "We speak +wisdom to the initiates, the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, +which before the world [the Jewish dispensation] God ordained for +our glory." "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God: +behold, I show you a mystery: we shall all be changed in a moment, +and put on immortality." In the first chapter of the letter to the +Colossians, Paul speaks of "the hope which is laid up for you in +heaven, whereof ye have heard in the gospel;" also of "the +inheritance of the saints in light:" then he says, "God would now +make known among the Gentiles the mystery, which is, Christ among +you, the hope of glory." In the light of what has gone before, how +significant and how clear is this declaration! "All have sinned, +and failed to attain unto the glory of God; but now, through the +faith of Jesus Christ, [through the dispensation brought to light +by Christ,] the righteousness of God [God's method of salvation] +is unto all that believe." That is, by the law all were shut up in +Hades, but by grace they are now ransomed and to be received to +heaven. The same thought or scheme is contained in that remarkable +passage in the Epistle to the Galatians where Paul says the free +Isaac and the bond woman Hagar were an allegory, teaching that +there were two covenants, one by Abraham, the other by Moses. The +Mosaic covenant of the law "answers to the Jerusalem which is on +earth, and is in bondage with her children," and belongs only to +the Jews. The Abrahamic covenant of promise answers to "the +Jerusalem which is above, and is free, and is the mother of us +all." In the former, we were "begotten unto bondage." In the +latter, "Christ hath made us free." + +We will notice but one more text in passing: it is, of all the +proof texts of the doctrine of a substitutional expiation, the one +which has ever been regarded as the very Achilles. And yet it can +be made to support that doctrine only by the aid of arbitrary +assumptions and mistranslations, while by its very terms it +perfectly coincides with nay, expressly declares the theory which +we have been advocating as the genuine interpretation of Paul. The +usual commentators, in their treatment of this passage, have +exhibited a long continued series of perversions and sophisms, +affording a strong example of unconscious prejudice. The correct +Greek reading of the text is justly rendered thus: "Whom God set +forth, a mercy seat through the faith in his blood, to exhibit his +righteousness through the remission of former sins by the +forbearance of God." For rendering [non-ASCII characters] +"mercy seat," the usus loquendi and the internal harmony of meaning +are in our favor, and also the weight of many orthodox authorities, +such as Theodoret, Origen, Theophylact, OEcumenius, Erasmus, Luther, +and from Pelagius to Bushnell. Still, we are willing to admit the +rendering of it by "sin offering." That makes no important +difference in the result. Christ was a sin offering, in the +conception of Paul, in this sense: that when he was not himself +subject to death, which was the penalty of sin, he yet died in +order to show God's purpose of removing that penalty of sin +through his resurrection. For rendering [non-ASCII characters] +"through," no defence is needed: the only wonder is, how it ever +could have been here translated "for." Now, let two or three facts +be noticed. + +First, the New Testament phrase "the faith of Christ," "the faith of +Jesus," is very unfairly and unwarrantably made to mean an +internal affection towards Christ, a belief of men in him. Its +genuine meaning is the same as "the gospel of Christ," or the +religion of Christ, the system of grace which he brought.14 Who +can doubt that such is the meaning of the word in these instances? +"Contend for the faith once delivered to the saints;" "Greet them +that love us in the faith;" "Have not the faith of our Lord Jesus +Christ with respect of persons." So, in the text now under our +notice, "the faith which is in his blood" means the dispensation +of pardon and justification, the system of faith, which was +confirmed and exemplified to us in his death and resurrection. +Secondly, "the righteousness of God," which is here said to be +"pointed out" by Christ's death, denotes simply, in Professor +Stuart's words, "God's pardoning mercy," or "acquittal," or +"gratuitous justification," "in which sense," he says truly, "it +is almost always used in Paul's epistles."15 It signifies neither +more nor less than God's method of salvation by freely forgiving +sins and treating the sinner as if he were righteous, the method +of salvation now carried into effect and revealed in the gospel +brought by Christ, and dramatically enacted in his passion and +ascension. Furthermore, we ask attention to the fact that the +ordinary interpreter, hard pressed by his unscriptural creed, +interpolates a disjunctive conjunction in the opposing teeth of +Paul's plain statement. Paul says, as the common version has it, +God is "just, and [i. e. even] the justifier." The creed bound +commentators read it, + +14 Robinson has gathered a great number of instances in his +Lexicon, under the word "Faith," wherein it can only mean, as he +says, "the system of Christian doctrines, the gospel." + +15 Stuart's Romans i. 17, iii. 25, 26, &c. + + +"just and yet the justifier." We will now present the true meaning +of the whole passage, in our view of it, according to Paul's own +use of language. To establish a conviction of the correctness of +the exposition, we only ask the ingenuous reader carefully to +study the clauses of the Greek text and recollect the foregoing +data. "God has set Christ forth, to be to us a sure sign that we +have been forgiven and redeemed through the faith that was proved +by his triumphant return from death, the dispensation of grace +inaugurated by him. Herein God has exhibited his method of saving +sinners, which is by the free remission of their sins through his +kindness. Thus God is proved to be disposed to save, and to be +saving, by the system of grace shown through Jesus, him that +believeth." In consequence of sin, men were under sentence of +condemnation to the under world. In the fulness of time God +fulfilled his ancient promise to Abraham. He freely justified +men, that is, forgave them, redeemed them from their doom, and +would soon open the sky for their abode with him. This scheme of +redemption was carried out by Christ. That is to say, God +proclaimed it to men, and asked their belief in it, by "setting +forth Christ" to die, descend among the dead, rise thence, and +ascend into heaven, as an exemplifying certification of the truth +of the glad tidings. + +Thirdly, Paul teaches that one aim of Christ's mission was to +purify, animate, and exalt the moral characters of men, and +rectify their conduct, to produce a subjective sanctification in +them, and so prepare them for judgment and fit them for heaven. +The establishment of this proposition will conclude the present +part of our subject. He writes, "Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, gave +himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and +purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." "Let +every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." In +various ways he often represents the fact that believers have been +saved by grace through Christ as the very reason, the intensified +motive, why they should scrupulously keep every tittle of the +moral law and abstain even from the appearance of evil, walking +worthy of their high vocation. "The grace of God that bringeth +salvation to all men hath appeared, teaching us that, denying all +ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, +righteously, and godly in this present world." Bad men, "that obey +not the gospel of Christ," such characters as "thieves, +extortioners, drunkards, adulterers, shall not inherit the kingdom +of God." He proclaims, in unmistakable terms, "God will render to +every man according to his deeds, wrath and tribulation to the +evil doer, honor and peace to the well doer, whether Jew or +Gentile." The conclusion to be drawn from these and other like +declarations is unavoidable. It is that "every one, Jew and +Gentile, shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ and +receive according to the deeds done in the body; for there is no +respect of persons." And one part of Christ's mission was to exert +a hallowing moral influence on men, to make them righteous, that +they might pass the bar with acquittal. But the reader who +recollects the class of texts adduced a little while since will +remember that an opposite conclusion was as unequivocally drawn +from them. Then Paul said, "By faith ye are justified, without the +deeds of the law." Now he says, "For not the hearers of the law +are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified +in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus +Christ." Is there a contradiction, then, in Paul? Only in +appearance. Let us distinguish and explain. In the two quotations +above, the apostle is referring to two different things. + +First, he would say, By the faith of Christ, the free grace of God +declared in the gospel of Christ, ye are justified, gratuitously +delivered from that necessity of imprisonment in Hades which is +the penalty of sin doomed upon the whole race from Adam, and from +which no amount of personal virtue could avail to save men. +Secondly, when he exclaims, "Know ye not that the unrighteous +shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" his thought is of a +spiritual qualification of character, indispensable for positive +admission among the blest in heaven. That is to say, the impartial +penalty of primeval sin consigned all men to Hades. They could not +by their own efforts escape thence and win heaven. That fated +inability God has removed, and through Christ revealed its +removal; but, that one should actually obtain the offered and +possible prize of heaven, personal purity, faith, obedience, +holiness, are necessary. In Paul's conception of the scheme of +Christian salvation, then, there were two distinct parts: one, +what God had done for all; the other, what each man was to do for +himself. And the two great classes of seemingly hostile texts +filling his epistles, which have puzzled so many readers, become +clear and harmonious when we perceive and remember that by +"righteousness" and its kindred terms he sometimes means the +external and fulfilled method of redeeming men from the +transmitted necessity of bondage in the under world, and sometimes +means the internal and contingent qualifications for actually +realizing that redemption. In the former instance he refers to the +objective mode of salvation and the revelation of it in Christ. In +the latter, he refers to the subjective fitness for that salvation +and the certitude of it in the believer. So, too, the words +"death" and "life," in Paul's writings, are generally charged, by +a constructio proegnans, with a double sense, one spiritual, +individual, contingent, the other mechanical, common, absolute. +Death, in its full Pauline force, includes inward guilt, +condemnation, and misery, and outward descent into the under +world. Life, in its full Pauline force, includes inward rectitude, +peace, and joy, and outward ascent into the upper world. Holiness +is necessary, "for without it no one can see the Lord;" yet by +itself it can secure only inward life: it is ineffectual to win +heaven. Grace by itself merely exempts from the fatality of the +condemnation to Hades: it offers eternal life in heaven only upon +condition of "patient continuance in well doing" by "faith, +obedience to the truth, and sanctification of the spirit." But +God's free grace and man's diligent fidelity, combined, give the +full fruition of blessedness in the heart and of glory and +immortality in the sky. + +Such, as we have set forth in the foregoing three divisions, was +Paul's view of the mission of Christ and of the method of +salvation. It has been for centuries perverted and mutilated. The +toil now is by unprejudiced inspection to bring it forward in its +genuine completeness, as it stood in Paul's own mind and in the +minds of his contemporaries. The essential view, epitomized in a +single sentence, is this. The independent grace of God has +interfered, first, to save man from Hades, and secondly, to enable +him, by the co operation of his own virtue, to get to heaven. Here +are two separate means conjoined to effect the end, salvation. +Now, compare, in the light of this statement, the three great +theological theories of Christendom. The UNITARIAN, overlooking +the objective justification, or offered redemption from the death +realm to the sky home, which whether it be a truth or an error is +surely in the epistles, makes the subjective sanctification all in +all. The CALVINIST, in his theory, comparatively scorns the +subjective sanctification, which Paul insists on as a necessity +for entering the kingdom of God, and, having perverted the +objective justification from its real historic meaning, +exaggerates it into the all in all. The ROMAN CATHOLIC holds that +Christ simply removed the load of original sin and its entailed +doom, and left each person to stand or fall by his own merits, in +the helping communion of the Church. He also maintains that a part +of Christ's office was to exert an influence for the moral +improvement and consecration of human character. His error, as an +interpreter of Paul's thought, is, that he, like the Calvinist, +attributes to Christ's death a vicarious efficacy by suffering the +pangs of mankind's guilt to buy their ransom from the inexorable +justice of God; whereas the apostle really represents Christ's +redeeming mission as consisting simply in a dramatic +exemplification of the Father's spontaneous love and purpose to +pardon past offences, unbolt the gates of Hades, and receive the +worthy to heaven. Moreover, while Paul describes the heavenly +salvation as an undeserved gift from the grace of God, the +Catholic often seems to make it a prize to be earned, under the +Christian dispensation, by good works which may fairly challenge +that reward. However, we have little doubt that this apparent +opposition is rather in the practical mode of exhortation than in +any interior difference of dogma; for Paul himself makes personal +salvation hinge on personal conditions, the province of grace +being seen in the new extension to man of the opportunity and +invitation to secure his own acceptance. And so the Roman Catholic +exposition of Paul's doctrine is much more nearly correct than any +other interpretation now prevalent. We should expect, a priori, +that it would be, since that Church, containing two thirds of +Christendom, is the most intimately connected, by its scholars, +members, and traditions, with the apostolic age. + +A prominent feature in the belief of Paul, and one deserving +distinct notice as necessarily involving a considerable part of +the theory which we have attributed to him, is the supposition +that Christ was the first person, clothed with humanity and +experiencing death, admitted into heaven. Of all the hosts who had +lived and died, every soul had gone down into the dusky under +world. There they all were held in durance, waiting for the Great +Deliverer. In the splendors of the realm over the sky, God and his +angels dwelt alone. That we do not err in ascribing this belief to +Paul we might summon the whole body of the Fathers to testify in +almost unbroken phalanx, from Polycarp to St. Bernard. The Roman, +Greek, and English Churches still maintain the same dogma. But the +apostle's own plain words will be sufficient for our purpose. +"That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that +should rise from among the dead." "Now is Christ risen from among +the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept." "He is +the beginning, the first born from among the dead, that among all +he might have the pre eminence." "God raised Christ from among the +dead, and set him at his own right hand16 in the heavenly places, +far above every principality, and power, and might, and dominion." +The last words refer to different orders of spirits, supposed + +16 Griesbach argues at length, and shows unanswerably, that this +passage cannot bear a moral interpretation, but necessarily has a +physical and local sense. Griesbachii Opuscula Academica, ed. +Gabler, vol. ii. pp. 145-149. + + +by the Jews to people the aerial region below the heaven of God. +"God hath" (already in our anticipating faith) "raised us up +together with Christ and made us sit in heavenly places with him." +These testimonies are enough to show that Paul believed Jesus to +have been raised up to the abode of God, the first man ever +exalted thither, and that this was done as a pledge and +illustration of the same exaltation awaiting those who believe. +"If we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with +him." And the apostle teaches that we are not only connected with +Christ's resurrection by the outward order and sequence of events, +but also by an inward gift of the spirit. He says that to every +obedient believer is given an experimental "knowledge of the power +of the resurrection of Christ," which is the seal of God within +him, the pledge of his own celestial destination. "After that ye +believed, ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is +the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the +purchased possession." The office of this gift of the spirit is to +awaken in the believing Christian a vivid realization of the +things in store for him, and a perfect conviction that he shall +yet possess them in the unclouded presence of God, beyond the +canopy of azure and the stars. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, +nor the heart of man conceived, the things which God hath prepared +for them that love him. But he hath revealed them unto us; for we +have received his spirit, that we might know them." "The spirit +beareth witness with our spirit that we are children and heirs of +God, even joint heirs with Christ, that we may be glorified [i. e. +advanced into heaven] with him." + +We will leave this topic with a brief paraphrase of the celebrated +passage in the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. "Not +only do the generality of mankind groan in pain in this decaying +state, under the bondage of perishable elements, travailing for +emancipation from the flesh into the liberty of the heavenly glory +appointed for the sons and heirs of God, but even we, who have the +first fruits of the spirit, [i. e. the assurance springing from +the resurrection of Christ,] we too wait, painfully longing for +the adoption, that is, our redemption from the body." By longing +for the adoption, or filiation, is meant impatient desire to be +received into heaven as children to the enjoyment of the +privileges of their Father's house. "God predetermined that those +called should be conformed to the image of his Son, [i. e. should +pass through the same course with Christ and reach the heavenly +goal,] that he might be the first born among many brethren." To +the securing of this end, "whom he called, them he also justified, +[i. e. ransomed from Hades;17] and whom he justified, them he also +glorified," (i. e. advanced to the glory of heaven.) It is evident +that Paul looked for the speedy second coming of the Lord in the +clouds of heaven, with angels and power and glory. He expected +that at that time all enemies would be overthrown and punished, +the dead would be raised, the living would be changed, and all +that were Christ's would be translated to heaven.18 "The Lord +Jesus shall be revealed from + +17 That "justify" often means, in Paul's usage, to absolve from +Hades, we have concluded from a direct study of his doctrines and +language. We find that Bretschneider gives it the same definition +in his Lexicon of the New Testament. See [non ASCII characters] + +18 "Every one shall rise in his own division" of the great army of +the dead, "Christ, the first fruits; afterwards, they that are +Christ's, at his coming." + + +heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance +on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of Christ." "We +shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, at +the last trump." "We who are alive and remain until the coming of +the Lord shall not anticipate those that are asleep. For the Lord +himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of +the archangel, and with the trump of God;19 and the dead in Christ +shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught +up with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so we +shall always be with the Lord. Brethren, you need not that I +should specify the time to you; for yourselves are perfectly aware +that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." "The +time is short." "I pray God your whole spirit, soul, and body be +preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." "At +his appearing he shall judge the living and the dead." "The Lord +is at hand." The author of these sentences undeniably looked for +the great advent soon. Than Paul, indeed, no one more earnestly +believed (or did more to strengthen in others that belief) in that +speedy return of Christ, the anticipation of which thrilled all +early Christendom with hope and dread, and kept the disciples day +and night on the stretch and start of expectation to hear the +awful blast of the judgment trump and to see the glorious vision +of the Son of God descending amidst a convoy of angels. What +sublime emotions must have rushed through the apostle's soul when +he thought that he, as a survivor of death's reign on earth, might +behold the resurrection without himself entering the grave! Upon a +time when he should be perchance at home, or at Damascus, or, it +might be, at Jerusalem, the sun would become as blood, the moon as +sackcloth of hair, the last trump would swell the sky, and, + +"Lo! the nations of the dead, Which do outnumber all earth's +races, rise, And high in sumless myriads overhead Sweep past him +in a cloud, as 'twere the skirts Of the Eternal passing by." + +The resurrection which Paul thought would attend the second coming +of Christ was the rising of the summoned spirits of the deceased +from their rest in the under world. Most certainly it was not the +restoration of their decomposed bodies from their graves, although +that incredible surmise has been generally entertained. He says, +while answering the question, How are the dead raised up, and with +what body do they come? "That which thou sowest, thou sowest not +that body which shall be, but naked grain: God giveth it a body as +it hath pleased him." The comparison is, that so the naked soul is +sown in the under world, and God, when he raiseth it, giveth it a +fitting body. He does not hesitate to call the man "a fool" who +expects the restoration of the same body that was buried. His +whole argument is explicitly against that idea. "There are bodies +celestial, as well as bodies terrestrial: the first man was + +19 Rabbi Akiba says, in the Talmud, "God shall take and blow a +trumpet a thousand godlike yards in length, whose echo shall sound +from end to end of the world. At the first blast the earth shall +tremble. At the second, the dust shall part. At the third, the +bones shall come together. At the fourth, the members shall grow +warm. At the fifth, they shall be crowned with the head. At the +sixth, the soul shall re enter the body. And at the seventh, they +shall stand erect." Corrodi, Geschichte des Chiliasmus, band i. s. +355. + + +of the earth, earthy; the second man was the Lord from heaven; and +as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the +image of the heavenly; for flesh and blood cannot inherit the +kingdom of God." In view of these declarations, it is astonishing +that any one can suppose that Paul believed in the resurrection of +these present bodies and in their transference into heaven. "In +this tabernacle we groan, being burdened," and, "Who shall deliver +me from this body of death?" he cries. If ever there was a man +whose goading experience, keen intellectual energies, and moral +sensibilities, made him weary of this slow, gross body, and +passionately to long for a more corresponding, swift, and pure +investiture, it was Paul. And in his theory of "the glorious body +of Christ, according to which our vile body shall be changed," he +relieved his impatience and fed his desire. What his conception of +that body was, definitely, we cannot tell; but doubtless it was +the idea of a vehicle adapted to his mounting and ardent soul, and +in many particulars very unlike this present groaning load of +clay. The epistles of Paul contain no clear implication of the +notion of a millennium, a thousand years' reign of Christ with his +saints on the earth after his second advent. On the contrary, in +many places, particularly in the fourth chapter of the First +Epistle to the Thessalonians, (supposing that letter to be his,) +he says that the Lord and they that are his will directly pass +into heaven after the consummation of his descent from heaven and +their resurrection from the dead. But the declaration "He must +reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet," taken with its +context, is thought, by Bertholdt, Billroth, De Wette, and others, +to imply that Christ would establish a millennial kingdom on +earth, and reign in it engaged in vanquishing all hostile forces. +Against this exegesis we have to say, first, that, so far as that +goes, the vast preponderance of critical authorities is opposed to +it. Secondly, if this conquest were to be secured on earth, there +is nothing to show that it need occupy much time: one hour might +answer for it as well as a thousand years. There is nothing here +to show that Paul means just what the Rabbins taught. Thirdly, +even if Paul supposed a considerable period must elapse before +"all enemies" would be subdued, during which period Christ must +reign, it does not follow that he believed that reign would be on +earth: it might be in heaven. The "enemies" referred to are, in +part at least, the wicked spirits occupying the regions of the +upper air; for he specifies these "principalities, authorities, +and powers."20 And the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews +represents God as saying to Jesus, "Sit thou on my right hand, +until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Fourthly, it seems +certain that, if in the apostle's thought a thousand years were +interpolated between Christ's second coming and the delivering of +his mediatorial sceptre to God, he would have said so, at least +somewhere in his writings. He would naturally have dwelt upon it a +little, as the Chiliasts did so much. Instead of that, he +repeatedly contradicts it. Upon the whole, then, with Ruckert, we +cannot + +20 The apocryphal "Ascension of Isaiah," already spoken of, gives +a detailed description of the upper air as occupied by Satan and +his angels, among whom fighting and evil deeds rage; but Christ in +his ascent conquers and spoils them all, and shows himself a +victor ever brightening as he rises successively through the whole +seven heavens to the feet of God. Ascensio Vatis Isaia, cap. vi x. + + +see any reason for not supposing that, according to Paul, "the +end" was immediately to succeed "the coming," as [non-ASCII +characters] would properly indicate. + +The doctrine of a long earthly reign of Christ is not deduced +from this passage, by candid interpretation, because it must be +there, but foisted into it, by Rabbinical information, because +it may be there. + +Paul distinctly teaches that the believers who died before the +second coming of the Savior would remain in the under world until +that event, when they and the transformed living should ascend +"together with the Lord." All the relevant expressions in his +epistles, save two, are obviously in harmony with this conception +of a temporary subterranean sojourn, waiting for the appearance of +Jesus from heaven to usher in the resurrection. But in the fifth +chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians he writes, +"Abiding in the body we are absent from the Lord." It is usually +inferred, from these words and those which follow them, that the +apostle expected whenever he died to be instantly with Christ. +Certainly they do mean pretty nearly that; but they mean it in +connection with the second advent and the accompanying +circumstances and events; for Paul believed that many of the +disciples possibly himself would live until Christ's coming. All +through these two chapters (the fourth and fifth) it is obvious, +from the marked use of the terms "we" and "you," and from other +considerations, that "we" here refers solely to the writer, the +individual Paul. It is the plural of accommodation used by common +custom and consent. In the form of a slight paraphrase we may +unfold the genuine meaning of the passage in hand. "In this body I +am afflicted: not that I would merely be released from it, for +then I should be a naked spirit. But I earnestly desire, +unclothing myself of this earthly body, at the same time to clothe +myself with my heavenly body, that I may lose all my mortal part +and its woes in the full experience of heaven's eternal life. God +has determined that this result shall come to me sooner or later, +and has given me a pledge of it in the witnessing spirit. But it +cannot happen so long as I tarry in the flesh, the Lord delaying +his appearance. Having the infallible earnest of the spirit, I do +not dread the change, but desire to hasten it. Confident of +acceptance in that day at the judgment seat of Christ, before +which we must all then stand, I long for the crisis when, divested +of this body and invested with the immortal form wrought for me by +God, I shall be with the Lord. Still, knowing the terror which +shall environ the Lord at his coming to judgment, I plead with men +to be prepared." Whoever carefully examines the whole connected +passage, from iv. 6 to v. 16, will see, we think, that the above +paraphrase truly exposes its meaning. + +The other text alluded to as an apparent exception to the doctrine +of a residence in the lower land of ghosts intervening between +death and the ascension, occurs in the Epistle to the +Philippians: "I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to +depart and to be with Christ, which is far better; but that I +should abide in the flesh is more needful for you." There are +three possible ways of regarding this passage. First, we may +suppose that Paul, seeing the advent of the Lord postponed longer +and longer, changed his idea of the intermediate state of deceased +Christians, and thought they would spend that period of waiting in +heaven, not in Hades. Neander advocates this view. But there is +little to sustain it, and it is loaded with fatal difficulties. A +change of faith so important and so bright in its view as this +must have seemed under the circumstances would have been clearly +and fully stated. Attention would have been earnestly invited to +so great a favor and comfort; exultation and gratitude would have +been expressed over so unheard of a boon. Moreover, what had +occurred to effect the alleged new belief? The unexpected delay of +Christ's coming might make the apostle wish that his departed +friends were tarrying above the sky instead of beneath the +sepulchre; but it could furnish no ground to warrant a sudden +faith in that wish as a fulfilled fact. Besides, the truth is that +Paul never ceased, even to the last, to expect the speedy arrival +of the Lord and to regard the interval as a comparative trifle. In +this very epistle he says, "The Lord is at hand: be careful for +nothing." Secondly, we may imagine that he expected himself, as a +divinely chosen and specially favored servant, to go to Christ in +heaven as soon as he died, if that should happen before the Lord's +appearance, while the great multitude of believers would abide in +the under world until the general resurrection. The death he was +in peril of and is referring to was that of martyrdom for the +gospel at the hands of Nero. And many of the Fathers maintained +that in the case of every worthy Christian martyr there was an +exception to the general doom, and that he was permitted to enter +heaven at once. Still, to argue such a thought in the text before +us requires an hypothesis far fetched and unsupported by a single +clear declaration of the apostle himself. Thirdly, we may assume +and it seems to us by far the least encumbered and the most +plausible theory that attempts to meet the case that Paul believed +there would be vouchsafed to the faithful Christian during his +transient abode in the under world a more intimate and blessed +spiritual fellowship with his Master than he could experience +while in the flesh. "For I am persuaded that neither death +[separation from the body] nor depth [the under world] shall be +able to separate us from God's love, which he has manifested +through Christ." He may refer, therefore, by his hopes of being +straightway with Christ on leaving the body, to a spiritual +communion with him in the disembodied state below, and not to his +physical presence in the supernal realm, the latter not being +attainable previous to the resurrection. Indeed, a little farther +on in this same epistle, he plainly shows that he did not +anticipate being received to heaven until after the second coming +of Christ. He says, "We look for the Savior from heaven, who shall +change our vile body and fashion it like unto his own glorious +body." This change is the preliminary preparation to ascent to +heaven, which change he repeatedly represents as indispensable. + +What Paul believed would be the course and fate of things on earth +after the final consummation of Christ's mission is a matter of +inference from his brief and partial hints. The most probable and +consistent view which can be constructed from those hints is this. +He thought all mankind would become reconciled and obedient to +God, and that death, losing its punitive character, would become +what it was originally intended to be, the mere change of the +earthly for a heavenly body preparatory to a direct ascension. +"Then shall the Son himself be subject unto Him that put all +things under him, that God may be all in all." Then placid virtues +and innocent joys should fill the world, and human life be what it +was in Eden ere guilt forbade angelic visitants and converse with +heaven.21 "So when" without a + +21 Neander thinks Paul's idea was that "the perfected kingdom of +God would then blend itself harmoniously throughout his unbounded +dominions." We believe his apprehension is correct. This globe +would become a part of the general paradise, an ante room or a l +ower story to the Temple of the Universe. + + +previous descent into Hades, as the context proves "this mortal +shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the +saying which is written, 'Death shall be swallowed up in victory. +O Death, thou last enemy, where is thy sting? O Hades, thou gloomy +prison, where is thy victory?'" The exposition just offered is +confirmed by its striking adaptedness to the whole Pauline scheme. +It is also the interpretation given by the earliest Fathers, and +by the Church in general until now. This idea of men being changed +and rising into heaven without at all entering the disembodied +state below was evidently in the mind of Milton when he wrote the +following lines: + +"And from these corporeal nutriments, perhaps. Your bodies may at +last turn all to spirit, And, wing'd, ascend ethereal, may, at +choice, Here, or in heavenly paradise, dwell." + +It now remains to see what Paul thought was to be the final +portion of the hardened and persevering sinner. One class of +passages in his writings, if taken by themselves, would lead us to +believe that on that point he had no fixed convictions in regard +to particulars, but, thinking these beyond the present reach of +reason, contented himself with the general assurance that all such +persons would meet their just deserts, and there left the subject +in obscurity. "God will render to every man to the Jew first, and +also to the Greek according to his deeds." "Whatsoever a man +soweth, that shall he also reap." "So then every one of us shall +give an account of himself to God." "At the judgment seat of +Christ every one shall receive the things done in his body, +according to that he hath done, whether it be good or whether it +be bad." From these and a few kindred texts we might infer that +the author, aware that he "knew but in part," simply held the +belief without attempting to pry into special methods, details, +and results that at the time of the judgment all should have exact +justice. He may, however, have unfolded in his preaching minutia +of faith not explained in his letters. + +A second class of passages in the epistles of Paul would naturally +cause the common reader to conclude that he imagined that the +unregenerate those unfit for the presence of God were to be +annihilated when Christ, after his second coming, should return to +heaven with his saints. "Those who know not God and obey not the +gospel of Christ shall be punished with everlasting destruction +from the presence and glory of the Lord when he shall come." "The +end of the enemies of the cross of Christ is destruction." "The +vessels of wrath fitted for destruction." "As many as have sinned +without law shall perish without law." But it is to be observed +that the word here rendered "destruction" need not signify +annihilation. It often, even in Paul's epistles, plainly means +severe punishment, dreadful misery, moral ruin, and retribution. +For example, "foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in +destruction and perdition," "piercing them through with many +sorrows." It may or may not have that sense in the instances above +cited. Their meaning is intrinsically uncertain: we must bring +other passages and distinct considerations to aid our +interpretation. + +From a third selection of texts in Paul's epistles it is not +strange that some persons have deduced the doctrine of +unconditional, universal salvation. "As in Adam all die, even so +in Christ shall all be made alive." But the genuine explanation of +this sentence, we are constrained to believe, is as follows: "As, +following after the example of Adam, all souls descend below, so, +following after Christ, all shall be raised up," that is, at the +judgment, after which event some may be taken to heaven, others +banished again into Hades. "We trust in the living God, who is the +Savior of all men, especially of them that believe." This means +that all men have been saved now from the unconditional sentence +to Hades brought on them by the first sin, but not all know the +glad tidings: those who receive them into believing hearts are +already exulting over their deliverance and their hopes of heaven. +All are objectively saved from the unavoidable and universal +necessity of Hadean imprisonment; the obedient believers are also +subjectively saved from the contingent and personal risk of +incurring that doom. "God hath shut them all up together in +unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all." "All" here means +both Jews and Gentiles; and the reference is to the universal +annulment of the universal fatality, and the impartial offer of +heaven to every one who sanctifies the truth in his heart. In some +cases the word "all" is used with rhetorical looseness, not with +logical rigidness, and denotes merely all Christians. Ruckert +shows this well in his commentary on the fifteenth chapter of +First Corinthians. In other instances the universality, which is +indeed plainly there, applies to the removal from the race of the +inherited doom; while a conditionality is unquestionably implied +as to the actual salvation of each person. We say Paul does +constantly represent personal salvation as depending on +conditions, as beset by perils and to be earnestly striven for. +"Lest that by any means I myself should be a castaway." "Deliver +such an one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the +spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." "Wherefore we +labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of the +lord." "To them that are saved we are a savor of life unto life; +to them that perish, a savor of death unto death." "Charge them +that are rich that they be humble and do good, laying up in store +a good foundation, that they may lay hold on eternal life." It is +clear, from these and many similar passages of Paul, that he did +not believe in the unconditional salvation, the positive +mechanical salvation, of all individuals, but held personal +salvation to be a contingent problem, to be worked out, through +the permitting grace of God, by Christian faith, works, and +character. How plainly this is contained, too, in his doctrine of +"a resurrection of the just and the unjust," and of a day of +judgment, from whose august tribunal Christ is to pronounce +sentence according to each man's deeds! At the same time, the +undeniable fact deserves particular remembrance that he says, and +apparently knows, nothing whatever of a hell, in the present +acceptation of that term, a prison house of fiery tortures. He +assigns the realm of Satan and the evil spirits to the air, the +vexed region between earth and heaven, according to the demonology +of his age and country. 22 + +Finally, there is a fourth class of passages, from which we might +infer that the apostle's faith merely excluded the reprobate from +participating in the ascent with Christ, just as some of the +Pharisees excluded the Gentiles from their resurrection, and there +left the subject in darkness. + +22 A detailed and most curious account of this region, which he +calls Tartarus, is given by Angustine. De Gen. ad. lit. lib. iii. +cap. 14, 15, ed. Benedictina. + + +"They that are Christ's," "the dead in Christ, shall rise." +"No sensualist, extortioner, idolater, hath any inheritance +in the kingdom of Christ and of God." "There is laid up a crown of +righteousness, which the Lord shall give in that day to all them +that love his appearing." In all these, and in many other cases, +there is a marked omission of any reference to the ultimate +positive disposal of the wicked. Still, against the supposition of +his holding the doctrine that all except good Christians would be +left below eternally, we have his repeated explicit avowals. "I +have hope towards God that there shall be a resurrection both of +the just and the unjust." "We must all appear before the judgment +seat of Christ." These last statements, however, prove only that +Paul thought the bad as well as the good would be raised up and +judged: they are not inconsistent with the belief that the +condemned would afterwards either be annihilated, or remanded +everlastingly to the under world. This very belief, we think, is +contained in that remarkable passage where Paul writes to the +Philippians that he strives "if by any means he may attain unto +the resurrection." Now, the common resurrection of the dead for +judgment needed not to be striven for: it would occur to all +unconditionally. But there is another resurrection, or another +part remaining to complete the resurrection, namely, after the +judgment, a rising of the accepted to heaven. All shall rise from +Hades upon the earth to judgment. This Paul calls simply the +resurrection, [Non ASCII Characters] After the judgment, the +accepted shall rise to heaven. This Paul calls, with distinctive +emphasis, [Non ASCII Characters] the pre eminent or complete +resurrection, the prefix being used as an intensive. This is what +the apostle considers uncertain and labors to secure, "stretching +forward and pressing towards the goal for the prize of that call +upwards," [Non ASCII Characters] (that invitation to heaven,) +"which God has extended through Christ." Those who are condemned +at the judgment can have no part in this completion of the +resurrection, cannot enter the heavenly kingdom, but must be +"punished with everlasting destruction from the presence and glory +of the Lord," that is, as we suppose is signified, be thrust into +the under world for evermore. As unessential to our object, we +have omitted an exposition of the Pauline doctrine of the natural +rank and proper or delegated offices of Christ in the universe; +also an examination of the validity of the doubts and arguments +brought against the genuineness of the lesser epistles ascribed to +Paul. In close, we will sum up in brief array the leading +conceptions in his view of the last things. First, there is a +world of immortal light and bliss over the sky, the exclusive +abode of God and the angels from of old; and there is a dreary +world of darkness and repose under the earth, the abode of all +departed human spirits. Secondly, death was originally meant to +lead souls into heaven, clothed in new and divine bodies, +immediately on the fall of the present tabernacle; but sin broke +that plan and doomed souls to pass disembodied into Hades. +Thirdly, the Mosaic dispensation of law could not deliver men from +that sentence; but God had promised Abraham that through one of +his posterity they should be delivered. To fulfil that promise +Christ came. He illustrated God's unpurchased love and forgiveness +and determination to restore the original plan, as if men had +never sinned. Christ effected this aim, in conjunction with his +teachings, by dying, descending into Hades, as if the doom of a +sinful man were upon him also, subduing the powers of that prison +house, rising again, and ascending into heaven, the first one ever +admitted there from among the dead, thus exemplifying the +fulfilled "expectation of the creature that was groaning and +travailing in pain" to be born into the freedom of the heavenly +glory of the sons of God. Fourthly, "justification by faith," +therefore, means the redemption from Hades by acceptance of the +dispensation of free grace which is proclaimed in the gospel. +Fifthly, every sanctified believer receives a pledge or earnest of +the spirit sealing him as God's and assuring him of acceptance +with Christ and of advance to heaven. Sixthly, Christ is speedily +to come a second time, come in glory and power irresistible, to +consummate his mission, raise the dead, judge the world, establish +a new order of things, and return into heaven with his chosen +ones. Seventhly, the stubbornly wicked portion of mankind will be +returned eternally into the under world. Eighthly, after the +judgment the subterranean realm of death will be shut up, no more +souls going into it, but all men at their dissolution being +instantly invested with spiritual bodies and ascending to the +glories of the Lord. Finally, Jesus having put down all enemies +and restored the primeval paradise will yield up his mediatorial +throne, and God the Father be all in all. + +The preparatory rudiments of this system of the last things +existed in the belief of the age, and it was itself composed by +the union of a theoretic interpretation of the life of Christ and +of the connected phenomena succeeding his death, with the elements +of Pharasaic Judaism, all mingled in the crucible of the soul of +Paul and fused by the fires of his experience. It illustrates a +great number of puzzling passages in the New Testament, without +the necessity of recourse to the unnatural, incredible, +unwarranted dogmas associated with them by the unique, isolated +peculiarities of Calvinism. The interpretation given above, moreover, +has this strong confirmation of its accuracy, namely, that it is +arrived at from the stand point of the thought and life of the +Apostle Paul in the first century, not from the stand point of the +theology and experience of the educated Christian of the +nineteenth century. + +CHAPTER V. + +JOHN'S DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +WE are now to see if we can determine and explain what were the +views of the Apostle John upon the subject of death and life, +condemnation and salvation, the resurrection and immortality. To +understand his opinions on these points, it is obviously necessary +to examine his general system of theological thought. John is +regarded as the writer of the proem to the fourth Gospel, also of +three brief epistles. There are such widely spread doubts of his +being the author of the Apocalypse that it has seemed better to +examine that production separately, leaving each one free to +attribute its doctrine of the last things to whatever person known +or unknown he believes wrote the book. It is true that the +authorship of the fourth Gospel itself is powerfully disputed; but +an investigation of that question would lead us too far and detain +us too long from our real aim, which is not to discuss the +genuineness or the authority of the New Testament documents, but +to show their meaning in what they actually contain and imply +concerning a future life. It is necessary to premise that we think +it certain that John wrote with some reference to the sprouting +philosophy of his time, the Platonic and Oriental speculations so +early engrafted upon the stock of Christian doctrine. For the +peculiar theories which were matured and systematized in the +second and third centuries by the Gnostic sects were floating +about, in crude and fragmentary forms, at the close of the first +century, when the apostle wrote. They immediately awakened +dissension and alarm, cries of heresy and orthodoxy, in the +Church. Some modern writers deny the presence in the New Testament +of any allusion to such views; but the weight of evidence on the +other side internal, from similarity of phrase, and external, from +the testimony of early Fathers is, when accumulated and +appreciated, overwhelming. Among these Gnostic notions the most +distinctive and prominent was the belief that the world was +created and the Jewish dispensation given, not by the true and +infinite God, but by a subordinate and imperfect deity, the +absolute God remaining separate from all created things, unknown +and afar, in the sufficiency of his aboriginal pleroma or fulness. +The Gnostics also maintained that Creative Power, Reason, Life, +Truth, Love, and other kindred realities, were individual beings, +who had emanated from God, and who by their own efficiency +constructed, illuminated, and carried on the various provinces of +creation and races of existence. Many other opinions, fanciful, +absurd, or recondite, which they held, it is not necessary here to +state. The evangelist, without alluding perhaps to any particular +teachers or systems of these doctrines, but only to their general +scope, traverses by his declarations partially the same ground of +thought which they cover, stating dogmatically the positive facts +as he apprehended them. He agrees with some of the Gnostic +doctrines and differs from others, not setting himself to follow +or to oppose them indiscriminately, but to do either as the truth +seemed to him to require. + +There are two methods of seeking the meaning of the introduction +to the fourth Gospel where the Johannean doctrine of the Logos is +condensed. We may study it grammatically, or historically; +morally, or metaphysically; from the point of view of experimental +religious faith, or from that of contemporary speculative +philosophy. He who omits either of these ways of regarding the +subject must arrive at an interpretation essentially defective. +Both modes of investigation are indispensable for acquiring a full +comprehension of the expressions employed and the thoughts +intended. But to be fitted to understand the theme in its +historical aspect which, in this case, for purposes of criticism, +is by far the more important one must be intelligently acquainted +with the Hebrew personification of the Wisdom, also of the Word, +of God; with the Platonic conception of archetypal ideas; with the +Alexandrian Jewish doctrine of the Divine Logos; and with the +relevant Gnostic and Christian speculation and phraseology of the +first two centuries. Especially must the student be familiar with +Philo, who was an eminent Platonic Jewish philosopher and a +celebrated writer, flourishing previous to the composition of the +fourth Gospel, in which, indeed, there is scarcely a single +superhuman predicate of Christ which may not be paralleled with +striking closeness from his extant works. In all these fields are +found, in imperfect proportions and fragments, the materials which +are developed in John's belief of the Logos become flesh. To +present all these materials here would be somewhat out of place +and would require too much room. We shall, therefore, simply +state, as briefly and clearly as possible, the final conclusions +to which a thorough study has led us, drawing such illustrations +as we do advance almost entirely from Philo.1 + +1 The reader who wishes to see in smallest compass and most lucid +order the facts requisite for the formation of a judgment is +referred to Lucke's "Dissertation on the Logos," to Norton's +"Statement of Reasons," and to Neander's exposition of the +Johannean theology in his "Planting and Training of the Church." +Nearly every thing important, both external and internal, is +collected in these three sources taken together, and set forth +with great candor, power, and skill. Differing in their conclusions, +they supply pretty adequate means for the independent student to +conclude for himself. + + +In the first place, what view of the Father himself, the absolute +Deity, do these writings present? John conceives of God no one can +well collate the relevant texts in his works without perceiving +this as the one perfect and eternal Spirit, in himself invisible +to mortal eyes, the Personal Love, Life, Truth, Light, "in whom is +no darkness at all." This corresponds entirely with the purest and +highest idea the human mind can form of the one untreated infinite +God. The apostle, then, going back to the period anterior to the +material creation, and soaring to the contemplation of the sole +God, does not conceive of him as being utterly alone, but as +having a Son with him, an "only begotten Son," a beloved companion +"before the foundation of the world." "In the beginning was the +Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. He was +in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and +without him was nothing made that was made." The true explanation +of these words, according to their undeniable historical and their +unforced grammatical. There is an English translation of it, by +Professor G. R. Noyes, in the numbers of the Christian Examiner +for March and May, 1849, meaning, is as follows. Before the +material creation, when God was yet the sole being, his first +production, the Logos, was a Son, at once the image of himself and +the idea of the yet uncreated world. By him this personal Idea, +Son, or Logos all things were afterward created; or, more exactly, +through him, by means of him, all things became, that is, were +brought, from their being in a state of conception in the mind of +God, into actual existence in space and time. Thus Philo says, +"God is the most generic; second is the Logos of God."2 "The Logos +is the first begotten Son."3 "The Logos of God is above the whole +world, and is the most ancient and generic of all that had a +beginning."4 "Nothing intervenes between the Logos and God on whom +he rests."5 "This sensible world is the junior son of God; the +Senior is the Idea,"6 or Logos. "The shadow and seeming portrait +of God is his Logos, by which, as by an assumed instrument, he +made the world. As God is the original of the image here called +shadow, so this image becomes the original of other things."7 "The +intelligible world, or world of archetypal ideas, is the Logos of +the world creating God; as an intelligible or ideal city is the +thought of the architect reflecting to build a sensible city."8 +"Of the world, God is the cause by which, the four elements the +material from which, the Logos the instrument through which, the +goodness of the Creator the end for which, it was made."9 These +citations from Philo clearly show, in various stages of +development, that doctrine of the Logos which began first arguing +to the Divine Being from human analogies with separating the +conception of a plan in the mind of God from its execution in +fact; proceeded with personifying that plan, or sum of ideas, as a +mediating agent between motive and action, between impulse and +fulfilment; and ended with hypostatizing the arranging power of +the Divine thought as a separate being, his intellectual image or +Son, his first and perfect production. They unequivocally express +these thoughts: that God is the only being who was from eternity; +that the Logos was the first begotten, antemundane being, that he +was the likeness, image, immediate manifestation, of the Father; +that he was the medium of creation, the instrumental means in the +outward formation of the world. History shows us this doctrine +unfolded by minute steps, which it would be tedious to follow, +from the Book of Proverbs to Philo Judaus and John, from Plato to +Justin Martyr and Athanasius. But the rapid sketch just presented +may be sufficient now. + +When it is written, "and the Logos was God," the meaning is not +strictly literal. To guard against its being so considered, the +author tautologically repeats what he had said immediately before, +"the same was in the beginning with God." Upon the supposition +that the Logos is strictly identical with God, the verses make +utter nonsense. "In the beginning was God, and God was with God, +and God was God. God was in the beginning with God." But suppose +the Logos to mean an ante mundane but subordinate being, who was a +perfect image or likeness of God, and the sense is both clear and +satisfactory, and no violence is done either to historical data or +to grammatical demands. "And the Logos was God," that is, was the +mirror or facsimile of God. So, employing the same idiom, we are +accustomed to say + +2 Mangey's edition of Philo, vol. i. p. 82. + +3 Ibid. p. 308. + +4 Ibid. p. 121. + +5 Ibid. p. 560. + +6 Ibid. p. 277. + +7 Ibid. p. 106. + +8 Ibid. p. 5. + +9 Ibid. p. 162. + + +of an accurate representation of a person, It is the very man +himself! Or, without the use of this idiom, we may explain the +expression "the Logos was God" thus: He stands in the place of God +to the lower creation: practically considered, he is as God to us. +As Philo writes, "To the wise and perfect the Most High is God; +but to us, imperfect beings, the Logos God's interpreter is +God."10 + +The inward significance of the Logos doctrine, in all its degrees +and phases, circumstantially and essentially, from first to last, +is the revelation of God. God himself, in himself, is conceived as +absolutely withdrawn beyond the apprehension of men, in boundless +immensity and inaccessible secrecy. His own nature is hidden, as a +thought is hidden in the mind; but he has the power of revealing +it, as a thought is revealed by speaking it in a word. That +uttered word is the Logos, and is afterwards conceived as a +person, and as creative, then as building and glorifying the +world. All of God that is sent forth from passive concealment into +active manifestation is the Logos. "The term Logos comprehends," +Norton says, "all the attributes of God manifested in the creation +and government of the universe." The Logos is the hypostasis of +"the unfolded portion," "the revealing power," "the self showing +faculty," "the manifesting action," of God. The essential idea, +then, concerning the Logos is that he is the means through which +the hidden God comes to the cognizance of his creatures. In +harmony with this prevailing philosophy one who believed the Logos +to have been incarnated in Christ would suppose the purpose of his +incarnation to be the fuller revelation of God to men. And +Martineau says, "The view of revelation which is implicated in the +folds of the Logos doctrine that everywhere pervades the fourth +Gospel, is that it is the appearance to beings who have something +of a divine spirit within them, of a yet diviner without them, +leading them to the divinest of all, who embraces them both." This +is a fine statement of the practical religious aspect of John's +conception of the nature and office of the Savior. + +Since he regarded God as personal love, life, truth, and light, +and Christ, the embodied Logos, as his only begotten Son, an exact +image of him in manifestation, it follows that John regarded +Christ, next in rank below God, as personal love, life, truth, and +light; and the belief that he was the necessary medium of +communicating these Divine blessings to men would naturally +result. Accordingly, we find that John repeats, as falling from +the lips of Christ, all the declarations required by and +supporting such an hypothesis. "I am the way, the truth, and the +life." "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." But Philo, too, +had written before in precisely the same strain. Witness the +correspondences between the following quotations respectively from +John and Philo. "I am the bread which came down from heaven to +give life to the world."11 Whoso eateth my body and drinketh my +blood hath eternal life."12 "Behold, I rain bread upon you from +heaven: the heavenly food of the soul is the word of God, and the +Divine Logos, from whom all eternal instructions and wisdoms +flow."13 "The bread the Lord gave us to eat was his word."14 +"Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood, ye have no life + +10 Mangey's edition of Philo, vol. ii. p. 128. + +11 John vi. 33. 41. + +12 Ibid. 54. + +13 Quoted by G. Scheffer in his Treatise "De Usu +Philonis in Interpretatione Novi Testamenti," p. 82. + +14 lbid. p. 81. + + +in you."15 "He alone can become the heir of incorporeal and divine +things whose whole soul is filled with the salubrious Word."16 +"Every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him shall have +everlasting life."17 "He strains every nerve towards the highest +Divine Logos, who is the fountain of wisdom, in order that, +drawing from that spring, he may escape death and win everlasting +life."18 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if +any man eat of this bread he shall live forever."19 "Lifting up +his eyes to the ether, man receives manna, the Divine Logos, +heavenly and immortal nourishment for the right desiring soul."20 +"God is the perennial fountain of life; God is the fountain of the +most ancient Logos."21 "As the living Father hath sent me, and I +live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by +me."22 Does it not seem perfectly plain that John's doctrine of +the Christ is at bottom identical with Philo's doctrine of the +Logos? The difference of development in the two doctrines, so far +as there is a difference, is that the latter view is +philosophical, abstract; the former, practical, historical. Philo +describes the Logos ideally, filling the supersensible sphere, +mediating between the world and God; John presents him really, +incarnated as a man, effecting the redemption of our race. The +same dignity, the same offices, are predicated of him by both. +John declares, "In him [the Divine Logos] was life, and the life +was the light of men."23 Philo asserts, "Nothing is more luminous +and irradiating than the Divine Logos, by the participation of +whom other things expel darkness and gloom, earnestly desiring to +partake of living light."24 John speaks of Christ as "the only +begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father."25 Philo says, +"The Logos is the first begotten Son of God," "between whom and +God nothing intervenes."26 John writes, "The Son of man will give +you the food of everlasting life; for him hath God the Father +sealed."27 Philo writes, "The stamp of the seal of God is the +immortal Logos."28 We have this from John: "He was manifested to +take away our sins; and in him is no sin."29 And this from Philo: +"The Divine Logos is free from all sins, voluntary and +involuntary."30 + +The Johannean Christ is the Philonean Logos born into the world as +a man. "And the Logos was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of +grace and truth." The substance of what has thus far been +established may now be concisely stated. The essential thought, +whether the subject be metaphysically or practically considered, +is this. God is the eternal, infinite personality of love and +truth, life and light. The Logos is his first born Son, his exact +image, the reproduction of his being, the next lower personality +of love and truth, life and light, the instrument for creating and +ruling the world, the revelation of God, the medium of +communication between God and his works. Christ is that Logos come +upon the earth as a man to save the perishing, proving his pre +existence and superhuman nature by his miraculous knowledge and +works. That the belief expressed in the last sentence is correctly +attributed to John will + +15 John vi. 53. + +16 Philo, vol. i. p. 482. + +17 John vi. 40. + +18 Philo, vol. i. p. 560. + +19 John vi. 51. + +20 Philo, vol. i. p. 498. + +21 Ibid. pp. 575, 207. + +22 John vi. 57. + +23 John i. 4. + +24 Philo, vol. i. p. 121. + +25 John i. 18. + +26 Philo, vol. i. pp. 427, 560. + +27 John vi. 27. + +28 Philo, vol. ii. p. 606. + +29 1 John iii. 5. + +30 Philo, vol. i. p. 562. + + +be repeatedly substantiated before the close of this chapter: in +regard to the statements in the preceding sentences no further +proof is thought necessary. + +With the aid of a little repetition, we will now attempt to make a +step of progress. The tokens of energy, order, splendor, +beneficence, in the universe, are not, according to John, as we +have seen, the effects of angelic personages, emanating gods, +Gnostic aons, but are the workings of the self revealing power of +the one true and eternal God, this power being conceived by John, +according to the philosophy of his age, as a proper person, God's +instrument in creation. Reason, life, light, love, grace, +righteousness, kindred terms so thickly scattered over his pages, +are not to him, as they were to the Gnostics, separate beings, but +are the very working of the Logos, consubstantial manifestations +of God's nature and attributes. But mankind, fallen into folly and +vice, perversity and sin, lying in darkness, were ignorant that +these Divine qualities were in reality mediate exhibitions of God, +immediate exhibitions of the Logos. "The light was shining in +darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." Then, to reveal +to men the truth, to regenerate them and conjoin them through +himself with the Father in the experience of eternal life, the +hypostatized Logos left his transcendent glory in heaven and came +into the world in the person of Jesus. "No man hath seen God at +any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, +he hath revealed him." "I came down from heaven to do the will of +Him that sent me." This will is that all who see and believe on +the Son shall have everlasting life. "God so loved the world that +he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him +should not perish, but have everlasting life." "The bread of God +is He who cometh down from heaven and giveth life to the world." +The doctrine of the pre existence of souls, and of their being +born into the world in the flesh, was rife in Judea when this +Gospel was written, and is repeatedly alluded to in it.31 That +John applies this doctrine to Christ in the following and in other +instances is obvious. "Before Abraham was, I am." "I came forth +from the Father and am come into the world." "Father, glorify thou +me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." +"What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was +before?" As for ourselves, we do not see how it is possible for +any unprejudiced person, after studying the fourth Gospel +faithfully with the requisite helps, to doubt that the writer of +it believed that Jesus pre existed as the Divine Logos, and that +he became incarnate to reveal the Father and to bring men into the +experience of true eternal life. John declares this, in his first +epistle, in so many words, saying, "The living Logos, the eternal +life which was with the Father from the beginning, was manifested +unto us;" and, "God sent his only begotten Son into the world that +we might live through him." Whether the doctrine thus set forth +was really entertained and taught by Jesus himself, or whether it +is the interpretation put on his language by one whose mind was +full of the notions of the age, are distinct questions. With the +settlement of these questions we are not now concerned: such a +discussion would be more appropriate when examining the genuine +meaning of the words of Christ. All that is necessary here is the +suggestion that when we show the theological system of John it +does not necessarily follow that that is the true + +31 John i. 21; ix. 2. + + +teaching of Christ. Having adopted the Logos doctrine, it might +tinge and turn his thoughts and words when reporting from memory, +after the lapse of many years, the discourses of his Master. He +might unconsciously, under such an influence, represent literally +what was figuratively intended, and reflect from his own mind +lights and shades, associations and meanings, over all or much of +what he wrote. There are philosophical and literary peculiarities +which have forced many of the best critics to make this +distinction between the intended meaning of Christ's declarations +as he uttered them, and their received meaning as this evangelist +reported them. Norton says, "Whether St. John did or did not adopt +the Platonic conception of the Logos is a question not important +to be settled in order to determine our own judgment concerning +its truth."32 Lucke has written to the same effect, but more +fully: "We are allowed to distinguish the sense in which John +understood the words of Christ, from the original sense in which +Christ used them."33 + +It is to be observed that in all that has been brought forward, +thus far, there is not the faintest hint of the now current notion +of the Trinity. The idea put forth by John is not at all allied +with the idea that the infinite God himself assumed a human shape +to walk the earth and undergo mortal sufferings. It is simply said +that that manifested and revealing portion of the Divine +attributes which constituted the hypostatized Logos was incarnated +and displayed in a perfect, sinless sample of man, thus exhibiting +to the world a finite image of God. We will illustrate this +doctrine with reference to the inferences to be drawn from it in +regard to human nature. John repeatedly says, in effect, "God is +truth," "God is light," "God is love," "God is life." He likewise +says of the Savior, "In him was life, and the life was the light +of men," and reports him as saying of himself, "I am the truth," +"I am the life," "I am the light of the world." The fundamental +meaning of these declarations so numerous, striking, and varied in +the writings of John is, that all those qualities which the +consciousness of humanity has recognised as Divine are +consubstantial with the being of God; that all the reflections of +them in nature and man belong to the Logos, the eldest Son, the +first production, of God; and that in Jesus their personality, the +very Logos himself, was consciously embodied, to be brought nearer +to men, to be exemplified and recommended to them. Reason, power, +truth, light, love, blessedness, are not individual aons, members +of a hierarchy of deities, but are the revealing elements of the +one true God. The personality of the abstract and absolute fulness +of all these substantial qualities is God. The personality of the +discerpted portion of them shown in the universe is the Logos. +Now, that latter personality Christ was. Consequently, while he +was a man, he was not merely a man, but was also a supernatural +messenger from heaven, sent into the world to impersonate the +image of God under the condition of humanity, free from every +sinful defect and spot. Thus, being the manifesting representative +of the Father, he could say, "He that hath seen me hath +[virtually] seen the Father." Not that they were identical in +person, but that they were similar in nature and character, spirit +and design: both were eternal holiness, love, truth, and life. "I +and my Father are one thing," (in essence, not in personality.) +Nothing can be more + +32 Statement of Reasons, 1st ed. p. 239. + +33 Christian Examiner, May, 1849, p. 431. + + +unequivocally pronounced than the subordination of the Son to the +Father that the Father sent him, that he could do nothing without +the Father, that his Father was greater than he, that his +testimony was confirmed by the Father's in a hundred places by +John, both as author writing his own words and as interpreter +reporting Christ's. There is not a text in the record that implies +Christ's identity with God, but only his identity with the Logos. +The identity of the Logos with God is elementary, not personal. +From this view it follows that every man who possesses, knows, and +exhibits the elements of the Divine life, the characteristics of +God, is in that degree a son of God, Christ being pre eminently +the Son on account of his pre eminent likeness, his supernatural +divinity, as the incarnate Logos. + +That the apostle held and taught this conclusion appears, first, +from the fact, otherwise inexplicable, that he records the same +sublime statements concerning all good Christians, with no other +qualification than that of degree, that he does concerning Christ +himself. Was Jesus the Son of God? "To as many as received him he +gave power to become the sons of God." There is in Philo a passage +corresponding remarkably with this one from John: "Those who have +knowledge of the truth are properly called sons of God: he who is +still unfit to be named a son of God should endeavor to fashion +himself to the first born Logos of God."34 Was Jesus "from above," +while wicked men were "from beneath"? "They are not of the world, +even as I am not of the world." Was Jesus sent among men with a +special commission? "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so +have I also sent them into the world." Was Jesus the subject of a +peculiar glory, bestowed upon him by the Father? "The glory which +thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we +are one." Had Jesus an inspiration and a knowledge not vouchsafed +to the princes of this world? "Ye have an unction from the Holy +One, and ye know all things." Did Jesus perform miraculous works? +"He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." +In the light of the general principle laid down, that God is the +actual fulness of truth and love and light and blessedness; that +Christ, the Logos, is the manifested impersonation of them; and +that all men who receive him partake of their Divine substance and +enjoy their prerogative, the texts just cited, and numerous other +similar ones, are transparent. It is difficult to see how on any +other hypothesis they can be made to express an intelligible and +consistent meaning. + +Secondly, we are brought to the same conclusion by the synonymous +use and frequent interchange of different terms in the Johannean +writings. Not only it is said, "Whoever is born of God cannot +sin," but it is also written, "Every one that doeth righteousness +is born of God;" and again, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the +Christ is born of God." In other words, having a good character +and leading a just life, heartily receiving and obeying the +revelation made by Christ, are identical phrases. "He that hath +the Son hath life." "Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in +the doctrine of Christ hath not God." "This is the victory that +overcometh the world, even our faith" in the doctrine of Christ. +"He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him." "He +that keepeth the commandments dwelleth in God and God in him." "He +that confesseth that Jesus is the Son of God, God + +34 Philo, vol. i. p. 427. + + +dwelleth in him and he in God." "He that doeth good is of God." +"God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." +"The Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that +we may know the true God and eternal life." From these citations, +and from other passages which will readily occur, we gather the +following pregnant results. To "do the truth," "walk in the +truth," "walk in the light," "keep the commandments," "do +righteousness," "abide in the doctrine of Christ," "do the will of +God," "do good," "dwell in love," "abide in Christ," "abide in +God," "abide in life," all are expressions meaning precisely the +same thing. They all signify essentially the conscious possession +of goodness; in other words, the practical adoption of the life +and teachings of Jesus; or, in still other terms, the personal +assimilation of the spiritual realities of the Logos, which are +love, life, truth, light. Jesus having been sent into the world to +exemplify the characteristics and claims of the Father, and to +regenerate men from unbelief and sin to faith and righteousness, +those who were walking in darkness, believers of lies and doers of +unrighteousness, those who were abiding in alienation and death, +might by receiving and following him be restored to the favor of +God and pass from darkness and death into life and light. "This is +eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and +Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." + +The next chief point in the doctrine of John is his belief in an +evil being, the personality of wickedness, and the relation +between him and bad men. There have been, from the early +centuries, keen disputes on the question whether this apostle uses +the terms devil and evil one with literal belief or with +figurative accommodation. We have not a doubt that the former is +the true view. The popular denial of the existence of evil +spirits, with an arch demon over them, is the birth of a +philosophy much later than the apostolic age. The use of the term +"devil" merely as the poetic or ethical personification of the +seductive influences of the world is the fruit of theological +speculation neither originated nor adopted by the Jewish prophets +or by the Christian apostles. Whoso will remember the prevailing +faith of the Jews at that time, and the general state of +speculative opinion, and will recollect the education of John, and +notice the particular manner in which he alludes to the subject +throughout his epistles and in his reports of the discourses of +Jesus, we think will be convinced that the Johannean system +includes a belief in the actual existence of Satan according to +the current Pharisaic dogma of that age. It is not to be +disguised, either, that the investigations of the ablest critics +have led an overwhelming majority of them to this interpretation. +"I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the evil +one." "He that is begotten of God guardeth himself, and the evil +one toucheth him not." "He that committeth sin is of the devil, +for the devil sinneth from the beginning." "Whosoever is born of +God cannot sin. In this the children of God are manifest, and the +children of the devil." "Ye are of your father the devil, and his +lusts ye will do." There can be no doubt that these, and other +passages of a kindred and complementary nature, yield the +following view. Good men are allied to God, because their +characteristics are the same as his, truth, light, love, life, +righteousness. "As he is, so are we in this world." Bad men are +allied to the devil, because their characteristics are the same as +his, falsehood, darkness, hatred, death, sin. "Cain, who slew his +brother, was of the evil one." The facts, then, of the great moral +problem of the world, according to John, were these. God is the +infinite Father, whose nature and attributes comprehend all holy, +beautiful, desirable realities, and who would draw mankind to his +blessed embrace forever. The goodness, illumination, and joy of +holy souls reflect his holiness and display his reign. The devil +is the great spirit of wickedness, whose attributes comprehend all +evil, dark, fearful realities, and who entices mankind to sin. The +wickedness, gloom, and misery of corrupt souls reveal his likeness +and his kingdom. + +The former manifests himself in the glories of the world and in +the divine qualities of the soul. The latter manifests himself in +the whole history of temptation and sin and in the vicious +tendencies of the heart. Good men, those possessing pre eminently +the moral qualities of God, are his children, are born of him, +that is, are inspired and led by him. Bad men, those possessing in +a ruling degree the qualities of the devil, are his children, are +born of him, that is, are animated and governed by his spirit. + +Whether the evangelist gave to his own mind any philosophical +account of the origin and destiny of the devil or not is a +question concerning which his writings are not explicit enough for +us to determine. In the beginning he represents God as making, by +means of the Logos, all things that were made, and his light as +shining in darkness that comprehended it not. Now, he may have +conceived of matter as uncreated, eternally existing in formless +night, the ground of the devil's being, and may have limited the +work of creation to breaking up the sightless chaos, defining it +into orderly shapes, filling it with light and motion, and +peopling it with children of heaven. Such was the Persian faith, +familiar at that time to the Jews. Neander, with others, objects +to this view that it would destroy John's monotheism and make him +a dualist, a believer in two self existents, aboriginal and +everlasting antagonists. It only needs to be observed, in reply, +that John was not a philosopher of such thorough dialectic +training as to render it impossible for inconsistencies to coexist +in his thoughts. In fact, any one who will examine the beliefs of +even such men as Origen and Augustine will perceive that such an +objection is not valid. Some writers of ability and eminence have +tried to maintain that the Johannean conception of Satan was of +some exalted archangel who apostatized from the law of God and +fell from heaven into the abyss of night, sin, and woe. They could +have been led to such an hypothesis only by preconceived notions +and prejudices, because there is not in John's writings even the +obscurest intimation of such a doctrine. On the contrary, it is +written that the devil is a liar and the father of lies from the +beginning, the same phrase used to denote the primitive +companionship of God and his Logos anterior to the creation. The +devil is spoken of by John, with prominent consistency, as bearing +the same relation to darkness, falsehood, sin, and death that God +bears to light, truth, righteousness, and life, that is, as being +their original personality and source. Whether the belief itself +be true or not, be reconcilable with pure Christianity or not, in +our opinion John undoubtedly held the belief of the personality of +the source of wickedness, and supposed that the great body of +mankind had been seduced by him from the free service of heaven, +and had become infatuated in his bondage. + +Just here in the scheme of Christianity arises the necessity, +appears the profound significance in the apostolic belief, of that +disinterested interference of God through his revelation in Christ +which aimed to break the reigning power of sin and redeem lost +men from the tyranny of Satan. "For this purpose the Son of God +was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." + +That is to say, the revelation of the nature and will of God in +the works of the creation and in the human soul was not enough, +even when aided by the law of Moses, to preserve men in the +truth and the life. They had been seduced by the evil one into +sin, alienated from the Divine favor, and plunged in darkness +and death. A fuller, more powerful manifestation of the +character, claims, attractions of the Father was necessary to +recall the benighted wanderers from their lost state and restore +them to those right relations and to that conscious communion with +God in which alone true life consists. Then, and for that purpose, +Jesus Christ was commissioned to appear, a pre existent being of +most exalted rank, migrating from the super stellar sphere into +this world, to embody and mirror forth through the flesh those +characteristics which are the natural attributes of God the Father +and the essential conditions of heaven the home. In him the +glorious features of the Divinity were miniatured on a finite +scale and perfectly exhibited, "thus revealing," (as Neander says, +in his exposition of John's doctrine,) "for the first time, in a +comprehensible manner, what a being that God is whose holy +personality man was created to represent." So Philo says, "The +Logos is the image of God, and man is the image of the Logos."35 +Therefore, according to this view, man is the image of the image +of God. The dimmed, imperfect reflection of the Father, originally +shining in nature and the soul, would enable all who had not +suppressed it and lost the knowledge of it, to recognise at once +and adore the illuminated image of Him manifested and moving +before them in the person of the Son; the faint gleams of Divine +qualities yet left within their souls would spontaneously blend +with the full splendors irradiating the form of the inspired and +immaculate Christ. Thus they would enter into a new and +intensified communion with God, and experience an unparalleled +depth of peace and joy, an inspired assurance of eternal life. But +those who, by worldliness and wickedness, had obscured and +destroyed all their natural knowledge of God and their affinities +to him, being without the inward preparation and susceptibility +for the Divine which the Savior embodied and manifested, would not +be able to receive it, and thus would pass an infallible sentence +upon themselves. "When the Comforter is come, he will convict the +world of sin, because they believe not on me." "He that believeth +on the Son hath eternal life; but he that believeth not is +condemned already, in that he loveth darkness rather than light." +"Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error: he +that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not +us." "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" +The idea is, that such a denial must be caused by inward +depravity, could only spring from an evil character. + +In the ground thought just presented we may find the explanation +of the seemingly obscure and confused use of terms in the +following instances, and learn to understand more fully John's +idea of the effect of spiritual contact with Christ. "He that +doeth righteousness is born of God." "He that believeth Jesus to +be the Christ is born of God." "He that denieth the Son, the same +hath not the Father." "He that hath the Son hath life." These +passages all become perspicuous and concordant in view of John's +conception of the inward unity of + +35 Philo, vol. i. p. 106. + + +truth, or the universal oneness of the Divine life, in God, in +Christ, in all souls that partake of it. A character in harmony +with the character of God will, by virtue of its inherent light +and affinity, recognise the kindred attributes or characteristics +of God, wherever manifested. He who perceives and embraces the +Divinity in the character of Christ proves thereby that he was +prepared to receive it by kindred qualities residing in himself, +proves that he was distinctively of God. He who fails to perceive +the peculiar glory of Christ proves thereby that he was alienated +and blinded by sin and darkness, distinctively of the evil one. +Varying the expression to illustrate the thought, if the light and +warmth of a living love of God were in a soul, it would +necessarily, when brought into contact with the concentrated +radiance of Divinity incarnated and beaming in Christ, effect a +more fervent, conscious, and abiding union with the Father than +could be known before he was thus revealed. But if iniquities, +sinful lusts, possessing the soul, had made it hard and cold, even +the blaze of spotless virtues and miraculous endowments in the +manifesting Messiah would be the radiation of light upon darkness +insensible to it. Therefore, the presentation of the Divine +contents of the soul or character of Jesus to different persons +was an unerring test of their previous moral state: the good would +apprehend him with a thrill of unison, the bad would not. To have +the Son, to have the Father, to have the truth, to have eternal +life, all are the same thing: hence, where one is predicated or +denied all are predicated or denied. + +Continuing our investigation, we shall find the distinction drawn +of a sensual or perishing life and a spiritual or eternal life. +The term world (kosmos) is used by John apparently in two +different senses. First, it seems to signify all mankind, divided +sometimes into the unbelievers and the Christians. "Christ is the +propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the +sins of the whole world." "God sent not his Son to condemn the +world, but that the world through him might be saved." It is +undeniable that "world" here means not the earth, but the men on +the earth. Secondly, "world" in the dialect of John means all the +evil, all the vitiating power, of the material creation. "Now +shall the Prince of this world be cast out." It is not meant that +this is the devil's world, because John declares in the beginning +that God made it; but he means that all diabolic influence comes +from the darkness of matter fighting against the light of +Divinity, and by a figure he says "world," meaning the evils in +the world, meaning all the follies, vanities, sins, seductive +influences, of the dark and earthy, the temporal and sensual. In +this case the love of the world means almost precisely what is +expressed by the modern word worldliness. "Love not the world, +neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the +world, the love of the Father is not in him." + +In a vein strikingly similar, Philo writes, "It is impossible for +the love of the world and the love of God to coexist, as it is +impossible for light and darkness to coexist."36 "For all that is +in the world," says John, "the lust of the flesh, and the greed of +the eyes, and the pomp of living, is not of the Father, but is of +the world. And the world passes away, with the lust thereof: but +he that does the will of God abides forever." He who is taken up +and absorbed in the gauds and pleasures of time and sense has no +deep spring of religious experience: + +36 Philo, vol. ii. p. 649. + + +his enjoyments are of the decaying body; his heart and his thoughts +are set on things which soon fly away. But the earnest believer in +God pierces through all these superficial and transitory objects +and pursuits, and fastens his affections to imperishable verities: +he feels, far down in his soul, the living well of faith and +fruition, the cool fresh fountain of spiritual hope and joy, whose +stream of life flows unto eternity. The vain sensualist and hollow +worldling has no true life in him: his love reaches not beyond the +grave. The loyal servant of duty and devout worshipper of God has +a spirit of conscious superiority to death and oblivion: though +the sky fall, and the mountains melt, and the seas fade, he knows +he shall survive, because immaterial truth and love are deathless. +The whole thought contained in the texts we are considering is +embodied with singular force and beauty in the following passage +from one of the sacred books of the Hindus: "Who would have +immortal life must beware of outward things, and seek inward +truth, purity, and faith; for the treacherous and evanescent world +flies from its votaries, like the mirage, or devil car, which +moves so swiftly that one cannot ascend it." The mere negation of +real life or blessedness is predicated of the careless worldling; +positive death or miserable condemned unrest is predicated of the +bad hearted sinner. Both these classes of men, upon accepting +Christ, that is, upon owning the Divine characteristics incarnate +in him, enter upon a purified, exalted, and new experience. "He +that hates his brother is a murderer and abides in death." "We +know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the +brethren." This new experience is distinctively, emphatically, +life; it is spiritual peace, joy, trust, communion with God, and +therefore immortal. It brings with it its own sufficient evidence, +leaving its possessor free from misgiving doubts, conscious of his +eternity. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in +himself." "Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, +because he hath given us of his spirit." "That ye may know that ye +have eternal life." + +The objects of Christ's mission, so far as they refer to the +twofold purpose of revealing the Father by an impersonation of his +image, and giving new moral life to men by awakening within them a +conscious fellowship with Divine truth and goodness, have already +been unfolded. But this does not include the whole: all this might +have been accomplished by his appearance, authoritative teachings, +miracles, and return to heaven, without dying. Why, then, did he +die? What was the meaning or aim of his death and resurrection? +The apostle conceives that he came not only to reveal God and to +regenerate men, but also to be a "propitiation" for men's sins, to +redeem them from the penalty of their sins; and it was for this +end that he must suffer the doom of physical death. "Ye know that +he was manifested to take away our sins." It is the more difficult +to tell exactly what thoughts this language was intended by John +to convey, because his writings are so brief and miscellaneous, so +unsystematic and incomplete. He does not explain his own terms, +but writes as if addressing those who had previously received such +oral instruction as would make the obscurities clear, the hints +complete, and the fragments whole. We will first quote from John +all the important texts bearing on the point before us, and then +endeavor to discern and explain their sense. "If we walk in the +light as God is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, +cleanseth us from all sin." "He is the propitiation for our sins." +"Your sins are forgiven through his name." + +"The whole world is subject to the evil one." These texts, few and +vague as they are, comprise every thing directly said by John upon +the atonement and redemption: other relevant passages merely +repeat the same substance. Certainly these statements do not of +themselves teach any thing like the Augustinian doctrine of +expiatory sufferings to placate the Father's indignation at sin +and sinners, or to remove, by paying the awful debt of justice, +the insuperable bars to forgiveness. Nothing of that sort is +anywhere intimated in the Johannean documents, even in the +faintest manner. So far from saying that there was unwillingness +or inability in the Father to take the initiative for our ransom +and pardon, he expressly avows, "Herein is love, not that we loved +God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation +for our sins." Instead of exclaiming, with the majority of modern +theologians, "Believe in the atoning death, the substitutional +sufferings, of Christ, and your sins shall then all be washed +away, and you shall be saved," he explicitly says, "If we confess +our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." And +again: "Whosoever believeth in him" not in his death, but in him +"shall have eternal life." The allusions in John to the doctrine +of redemption and reconciliation do not mean, it is plain enough, +the buying off of the victims of eternal condemnation by the +vicarious pains of Jesus. What, then, do they mean? They are too +few, short, and obscure for us to decide this question +conclusively by their own light alone. We must get assistance from +abroad. + +The reader will remember that it was the Jewish belief, and the +retained belief of the converts to Christianity, at that time, +that men's souls, in consequence of sin, were doomed upon leaving +the body to descend into the under world. This was the objective +penalty of sin, inherited from Adam. Now, Christ in his +superangelic state in heaven was not involved in sin or in its +doom of death and subterranean banishment. Yet at the will of the +Father he became a man, went through our earthly experiences, died +like a sinner, and after death descended into the prison of +disembodied souls below, then rose again and ascended into heaven +to the Father, to show men that their sins were forgiven, the +penalty taken away, and the path opened for them too to rise to +eternal life in the celestial mansions with Christ "and be with +him where he is." Christ's death, then, cleanses men from sin, he +is a propitiation for their sins, in two ways. First, by his +resurrection from the power of death and his ascent to heaven he +showed men that God had removed the great penalty of sin: by his +death and ascension he was the medium of giving them this +knowledge. Secondly, the joy, gratitude, love to God, awakened in +them by such glorious tidings, would purify their natures, exalt +their souls into spiritual freedom and virtue, into a blessed and +Divine life. According to this view, Christ was a vicarious +sacrifice, not in the sense that he suffered instead of the +guilty, to purchase their redemption from the iron justice of God, +but in the sense that, when he was personally free from any need +to suffer, he died for the sake of others, to reveal to them the +mighty boon of God's free grace, assuring them of the wondrous +gift of a heavenly immortality. This representation perfectly +fills and explains the language, without violence or arbitrary +suppositions, does it in harmony with all the exegetical +considerations, historical and grammatical; which no other view +that we know of can do. + +There are several independent facts which lend strong confirmation +to the correctness of the exposition now given. We know that we +have not directly proved the justice of that exposition, only +constructively, inferentially, established it; not shown it to be +true, only made it appear plausible. But that plausibility becomes +an extreme probability nay, shall we not say certainty? when we +weigh the following testimonies for it. First, this precise +doctrine is unquestionably contained in other parts of the New +Testament. We have in preceding chapters demonstrated its +existence in Paul's epistles, in Peter's, in the Epistle to the +Hebrews, and in the Apocalypse. Therefore, since John's +phraseology is better explained by it than by any other +hypothesis, it is altogether likely that his real meaning was the +same. + +Secondly, the terms "light" and "darkness," so frequent in this +evangelist, were not originated by him, but adopted. They were +regarded by the Persian theology, by Plato, by Philo, by the +Gnostics, as having a physical basis as well as a spiritual +significance. In their conceptions, physical light, as well as +spiritual holiness, was an efflux or manifestation from the +supernal God; physical darkness, as well as spiritual depravity, +was an emanation or effect from the infernal Satan, or principle +of evil. Is it not so in the usage of John? He uses the terms, it +is true, prevailingly in a moral sense: still, there is much in +his statements that looks as if he supposed they had a physical +ground. If so, then how natural is this connection of thought! All +good comes from the dazzling world of God beyond the sky; all evil +comes from the nether world of his adversary, the prince of +darkness. That John believed in a local heaven on high, the +residence of God, is made certain by scores of texts too plain to +be evaded. Would he not, then, in all probability, believe in a +local hell? Believing, as he certainly did, in a devil, the author +and lord of darkness, falsehood, and death, would he not conceive +a kingdom for him? In the development of ideas reached at that +time, it is evident that the conception of God implied an upper +world, his resplendent abode, and that the conception of Satan +equally implied an under world, his gloomy realm. To the latter +human souls were doomed by sin. From the former Christ came, and +returned to it again, to show that the Father would forgive our +sins and take us there. + +Thirdly, John expected that Christ, after death, would return to +the Father in heaven. This appears from clear and reiterated +statements in his reports of the Savior's words. But after the +resurrection he tells us that Jesus had not yet ascended to the +Father, but was just on the point of going. "Touch me not, for I +am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say +unto them, I ascend unto my Father." Where, then, did he suppose +the soul of his crucified Master had been during the interval +between his death and his resurrection? Dormant in the body, dead +with the body, laid in the tomb? That is opposed to the doctrine +of uninterrupted life which pervades his writings. Besides, such a +belief was held only by the Sadducees, whom the New Testament +stigmatizes. To assume that such was John's conception of the fact +is an arbitrary supposition, without the least warrant from any +source whatever. If he imagined the soul of Jesus during that time +to have been neither in heaven nor in the sepulchre, is it not +pretty sure that he supposed it was in the under world, the common +receptacle of souls, where, according to the belief of that age, +every man went after death? + +Fourthly, it is to be observed, in favor of this general +interpretation, that the doctrine it unfolds is in harmony with +the contemporary opinions, a natural development from them, a +development which would be forced upon the mind of a Jewish +Christian accepting the resurrection of Christ as a fact. It was +the Jewish opinion that God dwelt with his holy angels in a world +of everlasting light above the firmament. It was the Jewish +opinion that the departed souls of men, on account of sin, were +confined beneath the earth in Satan's and death's dark and +slumberous cavern of shadows. It was the Jewish opinion that the +Messiah would raise the righteous dead and reign with them on +earth. Now, the first Christians clung to the Jewish creed and +expectations, with such modifications merely as the variation of +the actual Jesus and his deeds from the theoretical Messiah and +his anticipated achievements compelled. Then, when Christ having +been received as the bringer of glad tidings from the Father died, +and after three days rose from the dead and ascended to God, +promising his brethren that where he was they should come, must +they not have regarded it all as a dramatic exemplification of the +fact that the region of death was no longer a hopeless dungeon, +since one mighty enough to solve its chains and burst its gates +had returned from it? must they not have considered him as a +pledge that their sins were forgiven, their doom reversed, and +heaven attainable? + +John, in common with all the first Christians, evidently expected +that the second advent of the Lord would soon take place, to +consummate the objects he had left unfinished, to raise the dead +and judge them, justifying the worthy and condemning the unworthy. +There was a well known Jewish tradition that the appearance of +Antichrist would immediately precede the triumphant coming of the +Messiah. John says, "Even now are there many Antichrists: thereby +we know that it is the last hour."37 "Abide in him, that, when he +shall appear, we may not be ashamed before him at his coming." +"That we may have boldness in the day of judgment." The +evangelist's outlook for the return of the Savior is also shown at +the end of his Gospel. "Jesus said not unto him, 'He shall not +die;' but, 'If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to +thee?'" That the doctrine of a universal resurrection which the +Jews probably derived, through their communication with the +Persians, from the Zoroastrian system, and, with various +modifications, adopted is embodied in the following passage, who +can doubt? "The hour is coming when all that are in the graves +shall hear the voice of the Son of Man and shall come forth." That +a general resurrection would literally occur under the auspices of +Jesus was surely the meaning of the writer of those words. Whether +that thought was intended to be conveyed by Christ in the exact +terms he really used or not is a separate question, with which we +are not now concerned, our object being simply to set forth John's +views. Some commentators, seizing the letter and neglecting the +spirit, have inferred from various texts that John expected that +the resurrection would be limited to faithful Christians, just as +the more rigid of the Pharisees confined it to the righteous Jews. +"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye +have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood +hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." + +37 See the able and impartial discussion of John's belief on this +subject contained in Lucke's Commentary on the First Epistle of +John, i. 18-28. + + +To force this figure into a literal meaning is a mistake; for in +the preceding chapter it is expressly said that "They that have +done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; they +that have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation." Both +shall rise to be judged; but as we conceive the most probable +sense of the phrases the good shall be received to heaven, the bad +shall be remanded to the under world. "Has no life in him" of +course cannot mean is absolutely dead, annihilated, but means has +not faith and virtue, the elements of blessedness, the +qualifications for heaven. The particular figurative use of words +in these texts may be illustrated by parallel idioms from Philo, +who says, "Of the living some are dead; on the contrary, the dead +live. For those lost from the life of virtue are dead, though they +reach the extreme of old age; while the good, though they are +disjoined from the body, live immortally."38 Again he writes, +"Deathless life delivers the dying pious; but the dying impious +everlasting death seizes."39 And a great many passages plainly +show that one element of Philo's meaning, in such phrases as +these, is, that he believed that, upon their leaving the body, the +souls of the good would ascend to heaven, while the souls of the +bad would descend to Hades. These discriminated events he supposed +would follow death at once. His thorough Platonism had weaned him +from the Persian Pharisaic doctrine of a common intermediate state +detaining the dead below until the triumphant advent of a Redeemer +should usher in the great resurrection and final judgment.40 + +John declares salvation to be conditional. "The blood of Christ" +that is, his death and what followed "cleanses us from all sin, if +we walk in the light as he is in the light;" not otherwise. "He +that believeth not the Son shall not see eternal life, but the +wrath of God abideth on him." "If any man see his brother commit a +sin which is not unto death, he shall pray, and shall receive life +for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do +not say that he shall pray for it." "Beloved, now are we the sons +of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know +that when he [Christ] shall appear we shall be like him, for we +shall see him as he is. Every man that hath this hope in him +purifieth himself, even as he is pure." The heads of the doctrine +which seems to underlie these statements are as follow. Christ +shall come again. All the dead shall rise for judicial ordeal. +Those counted worthy shall be accepted, be transfigured into the +resemblance of the glorious Redeemer and enter into eternal +blessedness in heaven. The rest shall be doomed to the dark +kingdom of death in the under world, to remain there for aught +that is hinted to the contrary forever. From these premises two +practical inferences are drawn in exhortations. First, we should +earnestly strive to fit ourselves for acceptance by moral purity, +brotherly love, and pious faith. Secondly, we should seek pardon +for our sins by confession and prayer, and take heed lest by +aggravated sin we deprave our souls beyond recovery. There are +those who sin unto death, for whom it is hopeless to pray. Light, +truth, and the divine life of heaven can never receive them; +darkness, falsehood, and the deep realm of death irrevocably +swallow them. + +And now we may sum up in a few words the essential results of this +whole inquiry into the principles of John's theology, especially +as composing and shown in his doctrine of a + +38 Vol. i. p. 554. + +39 Ibid. p. 233. + +40 See vol. i. pp. 139, 416, 417, 555, 643, 648; vol. ii. pp. 178, +433. + + +future life. First, God is personal love, truth, light, holiness, +blessedness. These realities, as concentrated in their +incomprehensible absoluteness, are the elements of his infinite +being. Secondly, these spiritual substances, as diffused through +the worlds of the universe and experienced in the souls of moral +creatures, are the medium of God's revelation of himself, the +direct presence and working of his Logos. Thirdly, the persons who +prevailingly partake of these qualities are God's loyal subjects +and approved children, in peaceful communion with the Father, +through the Son, possessing eternal life. Fourthly, Satan is +personal hatred, falsehood, darkness, sin, misery. These +realities, in their abstract nature and source, are his being; in +their special manifestations they are his efflux and power. +Fifthly, the persons who partake rulingly of these qualities are +the devil's enslaved subjects and lineal children: in sinful +bondage to him, in depraved communion with him, they dwell in a +state of hostile banishment and unhappiness, which is moral death. +Sixthly, Christ was the Logos who, descending from his anterior +glory in heaven, and appearing in mortal flesh, embodied all the +Divine qualities in an unflawed model of humanity, gathered up and +exhibited all the spiritual characteristics of the Father in a +stainless and perfect soul supernaturally filled and illumined, +thus to bear into the world a more intelligible and effective +revelation of God the Father than nature or common humanity +yielded, to shine with regenerating radiance upon the deadly +darkness of those who were groping in lying sins, "that they might +have life and that they might have it more abundantly." Seventhly, +the fickle and perishing experience of unbelieving and wicked men, +the vagrant life of sensuality and worldliness, the shallow life +in vain and transitory things, gives place in the soul of a +Christian to a profoundly earnest, unchanging experience of truth +and love, a steady and everlasting life in Divine and everlasting +things. Eighthly, the experimental reception of the revealed grace +and verity by faith and discipleship in Jesus is accompanied by +internal convincing proofs and seals of their genuineness, +validity, and immortality. They awaken a new consciousness, a new +life, inherently Divine and self warranting. Ninthly, Christ, by +his incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension, was a +propitiation for our sins, a mercy seat pledging forgiveness; that +is, he was the medium of showing us that mercy of God which +annulled the penalty of sin, the descent of souls to the gloomy +under world, and opened the celestial domains for the ransomed +children of earth to join the sinless angels of heaven. Tenthly, +Christ was speedily to make a second advent. In that last day the +dead should come forth for judgment, the good be exalted to +unfading glory with the Father and the Son, and the bad be left in +the lower region of noiseless shadows and dreams. These ten points +of view, we believe, command all the principal features of the +theological landscape which occupied the mental vision of the +writer of the Gospel and epistles bearing the superscription, +John. + +CHAPTER VI. + +CHRIST'S TEACHINGS CONCERNING THE FUTURE LIFE. + +IN approaching the teachings of the Savior himself concerning the +future fate of man, we should throw off the weight of creeds and +prejudices, and, by the aid of all the appliances in our power, +endeavor to reach beneath the imagery and unessential particulars +of his instructions to learn their bare significance in truth. +This is made difficult by the singular perversions his religion +has undergone; by the loss of a complete knowledge of the +peculiarities of the Messianic age in the lapse of the ages since; +by the almost universal change in our associations, modes of +feeling and thought, and styles of speech; and by the gradual +accretion and hardening of false doctrines and sectarian biases +and wilfulness. As we examine the words of Christ to find their +real meaning, there are four prominent considerations to be +especially weighed and borne in mind. + +First, we must not forget the poetic Eastern style common to the +Jewish prophets; their symbolic enunciations in bold figures of +speech: "I am the door;" "I am the bread of life;" "I am the +vine;" "My sheep hear my voice;" "If these should hold their +peace, the stones would immediately cry out." This daring +emblematic language was natural to the Oriental nations; and the +Bible is full of it. Is the overthrow of a country foretold? It is +not said, "Babylon shall be destroyed," but "The sun shall be +darkened at his going forth, the moon shall be as blood, the stars +shall fall from heaven, and the earth shall stagger to and fro as +a drunken man." If we would truly understand Christ's +declarations, we must not overlook the characteristics of +figurative language. For "he spake to the multitude in parables, +and without a parable spake he not unto them;" and a parable, of +course, is not to be taken literally, but holds a latent sense and +purpose which are to be sought out. The greatest injustice is done +to the teachings of Christ when his words are studied as those of +a dry scholastic, a metaphysical moralist, not as those of a +profound poet, a master in the spiritual realm. + +Secondly, we must remember that we have but fragmentary reports of +a small part of the teachings of Christ. He was engaged in the +active prosecution of his mission probably about three years, at +the shortest over one year; while all the different words of his +recorded in the New Testament would not occupy more than five +hours. Only a little fraction of what he said has been transmitted +to us; and though this part may contain the essence of the whole, +yet it must naturally in some instances be obscure and difficult +of apprehension. We must therefore compare different passages with +each other, carefully probe them all, and explain, so far as +possible, those whose meaning is recondite by those whose meaning +is obvious. Some persons may be surprised to think that we have +but a small portion of the sayings of Jesus. The fact, however, is +unquestionable. And perhaps there is no more reason that we should +have a full report of his words than there is that we should have +a complete account of his doings; and the evangelist declares, +"There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if +they should every one be written, I suppose that even the world +itself could not contain the books." + +Thirdly, when examining the instructions of Jesus, we should +recollect that he adopted, and applied to himself and to his +kingdom, the common Jewish phraseology concerning the Messiah and +the events that were expected to attend his advent and reign. But +he did not take up these phrases in the perverted sense held in +the corrupt opinions and earthly hopes of the Jews: he used them +spiritually, in the sense which accorded with the true Messianic +dispensation as it was arranged in the forecasting providence of +God. No investigation of the New Testament should be unaccompanied +by an observance of the fundamental rule of interpretation, +namely, that the strident of a book, especially of an ancient, +obscure, and fragmentary book, should imbue himself as thoroughly +as he can with the knowledge and spirit of the opinions, events, +influences, circumstances, of the time when the document was +written, and of the persons who wrote it. The inquirer must be +equipped for his task by a mastery of the Rabbinism of Gamaliel, +at whose feet Paul was brought up; for the Jewish mind of that age +was filled, and its religious language directed, by this +Rabbinism. Guided by this principle, furnished with the necessary +information, in the helpful light of the best results of modern +critical scholarship, we shall be able to explain many dark texts, +and to satisfy ourselves, at least in a degree, as to the genuine +substance of Christ's declarations touching the future destinies +of men. + +Finally, he who studies the New Testament with patient +thoroughness and with honest sharpness will arrive at a +distinction most important to be made and to be kept in view, +namely, a distinction between the real meaning of Christ's words +in his own mind and the actual meaning understood in them by his +auditors and reporters.1 Here we approach a most delicate and +vital point, hitherto too little noticed, but destined yet to +become prominent and fruitful. A large number of religious phrases +were in common use among the Jews at the time of Jesus. He adopted +them, but infused into them a deeper, a correct meaning, as +Copernicus did into the old astronomic formulas. But the +bystanders who listened to his discourses, hearing the familiar +terms, seized the familiar meaning, and erroneously attributed it +to him. It is certain that the Savior was often misunderstood and +often not understood at all. When he declared himself the Messiah, +the people would have made him a king by force! Even the apostles +frequently grossly failed to appreciate his spirit and aims, +wrenched unwarrantable inferences from his words, and quarrelled +for the precedency in his coming kingdom and for seats at his +right hand. In numerous cases it is glaringly plain that his ideas +were far from their conceptions of them. We have no doubt the same +was true in many other instances where it is not so clear. He +repeatedly reproves them for folly and slowness because they did +not perceive the sense of his instructions. Perhaps there was a +slight impatience in his tones when he said, "How is it that ye do +not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that +ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the +Sadducees?" Jesus uttered in established phrases new and +profoundly spiritual thoughts. The apostles educated in, and full +of, as they evidently were, the dogmas, prejudices, and + +1 See this distinction affirmed by De Wette, in the preface to his +Commentatio de Morte Jesus Christi Expiatoria. See also Thurn, +Jesus und seine Apostel in Widerspruch in Ansehung der Lehre von +der Ewigcn Verdamnniss. In Scherer's Schriftforsch. sect. i. nr. +4. + + +hopes of their age and land would naturally, to some extent, +misapprehend his meaning. Then, after a tumultuous interval, +writing out his instructions from memory, how perfectly natural +that their own convictions and sentiments would have a powerful +influence in modifying and shaping the animus and the verbal +expressions in their reports! Under the circumstances, that we +should now possess the very equivalents of his words with strict +literalness, and conveying his very intentions perfectly +translated from the Aramaan into the Greek tongue, would imply the +most sustained and amazing of all miracles. There is nothing +whatever that indicates any such miraculous intervention. There is +nothing to discredit the fair presumption that the writers were +left to their own abilities, under the inspiration of an earnest +consecrating love and truthfulness. And we must, with due +limitations, distinguish between the original words and conscious +meaning of the sublime Master, illustrated by the emphasis and +discrimination of his looks, tones, and gestures, and the +apprehended meaning recorded long afterwards, shaped and colored +by passing through the minds and pens of the sometimes dissentient +and always imperfect disciples. He once declared to them, "I have +many things to say unto you, but ye are not able to bear them." +Admitting his infallibility, as we may, yet asserting their +fallibility, as we must, and accompanied, too, as his words now +are by many very obscuring circumstances, it is extremely +difficult to lay the hand on discriminated texts and say, +"[non ASCII characters]" + +The Messianic doctrine prevalent among the Jews in the time of +Jesus appears to have been built up little by little, by religious +faith, national pride, and priestly desire, out of literal +interpretations of figurative prophecy, and Cabalistic +interpretations of plain language, and Rabbinical traditions and +speculations, additionally corrupted in some particulars by +intercourse with the Persians. Under all this was a central +spiritual germ of a Divine promise and plan. A Messiah was really +to come. It was in answering the questions, what kind of a king he +was to be, and over what sort of a kingdom he was to reign, that +the errors crept in. The Messianic conceptions which have come +down to us through the Prophets, the Targums, incidental allusions +in the New Testament, the Talmud, and the few other traditions and +records yet in existence, are very diverse and sometimes +contradictory. They agreed in ardently looking for an earthly +sovereign in the Messiah, one who would rise up in the line of +David and by the power of Jehovah deliver his people, punish their +enemies, subdue the world to his sceptre, and reign with Divine +auspices of beneficence and splendor. They also expected that then +a portion of the dead would rise from the under world and assume +their bodies again, to participate in the triumphs and blessings +of his earthly kingdom. His personal reign in Judea was what they +usually meant by the phrases "the kingdom of heaven," "the kingdom +of God." The apostles cherished these ideas, and expressed them in +the terms common to their countrymen. But we cannot doubt that +Jesus employed this and kindred language in a purer and deeper +sense, which we must take pains to distinguish from the early and +lingering errors associated with it. + +Upon the threshold of our subject we meet with predictions of a +second coming of Christ from heaven, with power and glory, to sit +on his throne and judge the world. The portentous imagery in which +these prophecies are clothed is taken from the old prophets; and +to them + +we must turn to learn its usage and force. The Hebrews called any +signal manifestation of power especially any dreadful calamity a +coming of the Lord. It was a coming of Jehovah when his vengeance +strewed the ground with the corpses of Sennacherib's host; when +its storm swept Jerusalem as with fire, and bore Israel into +bondage; when its sword came down upon Idumea and was bathed in +blood upon Edom. "The day of the Lord" is another term of +precisely similar import. It occurs in the Old Testament about +fifteen times. In every instance it means some mighty +manifestation of God's power in calamity. These occasions are +pictured forth with the most astounding figures of speech. Isaiah +describes the approaching destruction of Babylon in these terms: +"The stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall give no +light; the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not shine, the +heavens shall shake, and the earth shall remove out of her place +and be as a frightened sheep that no man taketh up." The Jews +expected that the coming of the Messiah would be preceded by many +fearful woes, in the midst of which he would appear with peerless +pomp and might. The day of his coming they named emphatically the +day of the Lord. Jesus actually appeared, not, as they expected, a +warrior travelling in the greatness of his strength, with dyed +garments from Bozrah, staining his raiment with blood as he +trampled in the wine vat of vengeance, but the true Messiah, God's +foreordained and anointed Son, despised and rejected of men, +bringing good tidings, publishing peace. It must have been +impossible for the Jews to receive such a Messiah without +explanations. Those few who became converts apprehended his +Messianic language, at least to some extent, in the sense which +previously occupied their minds. He knew that often he was not +understood; and he frequently said to his followers, "Who hath +ears to hear, let him hear." His disciples once asked him, "What +shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" He +replied, substantially, "There shall be wars, famines, and +unheard of trials; and immediately after the sun shall be +darkened, the moon shall not give her light, the stars shall fall +from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Then +shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with +great power. And he shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and +all nations shall be gathered before him, and he shall separate +them one from another." That this language was understood by the +evangelists and the early Christians, in accordance with their +Pharisaic notions, as teaching literally a physical reappearance +of Christ on the earth, a resurrection, and a general judgment, we +fully believe. Those ideas were prevalent at the time, are +expressed in scores of places in the New Testament, and are the +direct strong assertion of the words themselves. But that such was +the meaning of Christ himself we much more than doubt. + +In the first place, in his own language in regard to his second +coming there is not the least hint of a resurrection of the dead: +the scene is confined to the living, and to the earth. Secondly, +the figures which he employs in this connection are the same as +those used by the Jewish prophets to denote great and signal +events on the earth, and may be so taken here without violence to +the idiom. Thirdly, he expressly fixed the date of the events he +referred to within that generation; and if, therefore, he spoke +literally, he was grossly in error, and his prophecies failed of +fulfilment, a conclusion which we cannot adopt. To suppose that he +partook in the false, mechanical dogmas of the carnal Jews would +be equally irreconcilable with the common idea of his Divine +inspiration, and with the profound penetration and spirituality +of his own mind. + +He certainly used much of the phraseology of his contemporary +countrymen, metaphorically, to convey his own purer thoughts. We +have no doubt he did so in regard to the descriptions of his +second coming. Let us state in a form of paraphrase what his real +instructions on this point seem to us to have been: "You cannot +believe that I am the Messiah, because I do not deliver you from +your oppressors and trample on the Gentiles. Your minds are +clouded with errors. The Father hath sent me to found the kingdom +of peace and righteousness, and hath given me all power to reward +and punish. By my word shall the nations of the earth be honored +and blessed, or be overwhelmed with fire; and every man must stand +before my judgment seat. The end of the world is at the doors. The +Mosaic dispensation is about to be closed in the fearful +tribulations of the day of the Lord, and my dispensation to be set +up. When you see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, know that the +day is at hand, and flee to the mountains; for not one stone shall +be left upon another. Then the power of God will be shown on my +behalf, and the sign of the Son of Man be seen in heaven. My +truths shall prevail, and shall be owned as the criteria of Divine +judgment. According to them, all the righteous shall be +distinguished as my subjects, and all the iniquitous shall be +separated from my kingdom. Some of those standing here shall not +taste death till all these things be fulfilled. Then it will be +seen that I am the Messiah, and that through the eternal +principles of truth which I have proclaimed I shall sit upon a +throne of glory, not literally, in person, as you thought, +blessing the Jews and cursing the Gentiles, but spiritually, in +the truth, dispensing joy to good men and woe to bad men, +according to their deserts." Such we believe to be the meaning of +Christ's own predictions of his second coming. He figuratively +identifies himself with his religion according to that idiom by +which it is written, "Moses hath in every city them that read him, +being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day." His figure of +himself as the universal judge is a bold personification; for he +elsewhere says, "He that believeth in me believeth not in me, but +in Him that sent me." And again, "He that rejecteth me, I judge +him not: the word that I have spoken, that shall judge him." His +coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory was +when, at the destruction of Jerusalem, the old age closed and the +new began, the obstacles to his religion were removed and his +throne established on the earth.2 The apostles undoubtedly +understood the doctrine differently; but that such was his own +thought we conclude, because he did sometimes undeniably use +figurative language in that way, and because the other meaning is +an error, not in harmony either with his character, his mind, or +his mission. + +This interpretation is so important that it may need to be +illustrated and confirmed by further instances: "When the Son of +Man sits on the throne of his glory, and all nations are gathered +before him, his angels shall sever the wicked from among the just, +and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be weeping +and gnashing of teeth." A few such picturesque phrases have led to +the general belief in a great world judgment at the end of the + +2 Norton, Statement of Reasons, Appendix. + + +appointed time, after which the condemned are to be thrown into +the tortures of an unquenchable world of flame. How arbitrary and +violent a conclusion this is, how unwarranted and gross a +perversion of the language of Christ it is, we may easily see. The +fact that the old prophets often described fearful misfortunes and +woes in images of clouds and flame and falling stars, and other +portentous symbols, and that this style was therefore familiar to +the Jews, would make it very natural for Jesus, in foretelling +such an event as the coming destruction of Jerusalem, in +conflagration and massacre, with the irretrievable subversion of +the old dispensation, to picture it forth in a similar way. Fire +was to the Jews a common emblem of calamity and devastation; and +judgments incomparably less momentous than those gathered about +the fall of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the self boasted +favorites of Jehovah were often described by the prophets in +appalling images of darkened planets, shaking heavens, clouds, +fire, and blackness. Joel, speaking of a "day of the Lord," when +there should be famine and drought, and a horrid army of +destroying insects, "before whom a fire devoureth, and behind them +a flame burneth," draws the scene in these terrific colors: "The +earth shall quake before them; the sun and moon shall be dark, and +the stars shall withdraw their shining; and the Lord shall utter +his voice before his terrible army of locusts, caterpillars, and +destroying worms:" Ezekiel represents God as saying, "The house of +Israel is to me become dross: therefore I will gather you into the +midst of Jerusalem: as they gather silver, brass, iron, tin, and +lead into the midst of the furnace to blow the fire upon it, so +will I gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and +ye shall be melted in the midst thereof." We read in Isaiah, "The +Assyrian shall flee, and his princes shall be afraid, saith the +Lord, whose fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem." Malachi +also says, "The day cometh that shall burn as a furnace, and all +that do wickedly shall be stubble, and shall be burned up root and +branch. They shall be trodden as ashes beneath the feet of the +righteous." The meaning of these passages, and of many other +similar ones, is, in every instance, some severe temporal +calamity, some dire example of Jehovah's retributions among the +nations of the earth. Their authors never dreamed of teaching that +there is a place of fire beyond the grave in which the wicked dead +shall be tormented, or that the natural creation is finally to be +devoured by flame. It is perfectly certain that not a single text +in the Old Testament was meant to teach any such doctrine as that. +The judgments shadowed forth in kindred metaphors by Christ are to +be understood in the light of this fact. Their meaning is, that +all unjust, cruel, false, impure men shall endure severe +punishments. This general thought is fearfully distinct; but every +thing beyond all details are left in utter obscurity. + +In the august scene of the King in judgment, when the sentence has +been pronounced on those at the left hand, "Depart from me, ye +cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his +angels," it is written, "and they shall go away into everlasting +punishment." It is obvious to remark that the imagery of a fiery +prison built for Satan and the fallen angels, and into which the +bad shall be finally doomed, is poetical language, or language of +accommodation to the current notions of the time. These startling +Oriental figures are used to wrap and convey the assertion that +the wicked shall be severely punished according to their deserts. +No literal reference seems to be made either to the particular +time, to the + +special place, or to the distinctive character, of the punishment; +but the mere fact is stated in a manner to fill the conscience +with awe and to stamp the practical lesson vividly on the memory. +But admitting the clauses apparently descriptive of the nature of +this retribution to be metaphorical, yet what shall we think of +its duration? Is it absolutely unending? There is nothing in the +record to enable a candid inquirer to answer that question +decisively. So far as the letter of Scripture is concerned, there +are no data to give an indubitable solution to the problem. It is +true the word "everlasting" is repeated; but, when impartially +weighed, it seems a sudden rhetorical expression, of indefinite +force, used to heighten the impressiveness of a sublime dramatic +representation, rather than a cautious philosophical term employed +to convey an abstract conception. There is no reason whatever for +supposing that Christ's mind was particularly directed to the +metaphysical idea of endlessness, or to the much more metaphysical +idea of timelessness. The presumptive evidence is that he spoke +popularly. Had he been charged to reveal a doctrine so tremendous, +so awful, so unutterably momentous in its practical relations, as +that of the endless close of all probation at death, is it +conceivable that he would merely have couched it in a few +figurative expressions and left it as a matter of obscure +inference and uncertainty? No: in that case, he would have +iterated and reiterated it, defined, guarded, illustrated it, and +have left no possibility of honest mistake or doubt of it. + +The Greek word [non-ASCII characters], and the same is true of the +corresponding Hebrew word, translated "everlasting" in the English +Bible, has not in its popular usage the rigid force of eternal +duration, but varies, is now applied to objects as evanescent as +man's earthly life, now to objects as lasting as eternity.3 +Its power in any given case is to be sought from the context and +the reason of the thing. + +Isaiah, having threatened the unrighteous nations that they +"should conceive chaff and bring forth stubble, that their own +breath should be fire to devour them, and that they should be +burnt like lime, like thorns cut up in the fire," makes the +terror smitten sinners and hypocrites cry, "Who among us can dwell +in devouring fire? Who among us can dwell in everlasting +burnings?" Yet his reference is solely to an outward, temporal +judgment in this world. The Greek adjective rendered "everlasting" +is etymologically, and by universal usage, a term of duration, but +indefinite, its extent of meaning depending on the subjects of +which it is predicated. Therefore, when Christ connects this word +with the punishment of the wicked, it is impossible to say with +any certainty, judging from the language itself, whether he +implies that those who die in their sins are hopelessly lost, +perfectly irredeemable forever, or not, though the probabilities +are very strongly in the latter direction. "Everlasting +punishment" may mean, in philosophical strictness, a punishment +absolutely eternal, or may be a popular expression denoting, with +general indefiniteness, a very long duration. Since in all Greek +literature, sacred and profane, [non-ASCII characters] is applied +to things that end, ten times as often as it is to things immortal, +no fair critic can assert positively that when it is connected +with future punishment it has the stringent meaning of +metaphysical endlessness. On the other hand, no one has any +critical + +3 See Christian Examiner for March, 1854, pp. 280-297. + + +right to say positively that in such cases it has not that +meaning. The Master has not explained his words on this point, but +has left them veiled. We can settle the question itself concerning +the limitedness or the unlimitedness of future punishment only on +other grounds than those of textual criticism, even on grounds of +enlightened reason postulating the cardinal principles of +Christianity and of ethics. Will not the unimpeded Spirit of +Christ lead all free minds and loving hearts to one conclusion? +But that conclusion is to be held modestly as a trusted inference, +not dogmatically as a received revelation. + +Another point in the Savior's teachings which it is of the utmost +importance to understand is the sense in which he used the Jewish +phrases "Resurrection of the Dead" and "Resurrection at the Last +Day." The Pharisees looked for a restoration of the righteous from +their graves to a bodily life. This event they supposed would take +place at the appearance of the Messiah; and the time of his coming +they called "the last day." So the Apostle John says, "Already are +there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time." +Now, Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, clothed in his functions, +though he interpreted those functions as carrying an interior and +moral, not an outward and physical, force. "This is the will of +Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth +on him should have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at +the last day." Again, when Martha told Jesus that "she knew her +brother Lazarus would rise again in the resurrection at the last +day," he replied, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that +believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and +whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." This +utterance is surely metaphorical; for belief in Jesus does not +prevent physical dissolution. The thoughts contained in the +various passages belonging to this subject, when drawn out, +compared, and stated in general terms, seem to us to be as +follows: "You suppose that in the last day your Messiah will +restore the dead to live again upon the earth. I am the Messiah, +and the last days have therefore arrived. I am commissioned by the +Father to bestow eternal life upon all who believe on me; but not +in the manner you have anticipated. The true resurrection is not +calling the body from the tomb, but opening the fountains of +eternal life in the soul. I am come to open the spiritual world to +your faith. He that believeth in me and keepeth my commandments +has passed from death unto life, become conscious that though +seemingly he passes into the grave, yet really he shall live with +God forever. The true resurrection is, to come into the experience +of the truth that 'God is not the God of the dead, but of the +living; for all live unto him.' Over the soul that is filled with +such an experience, death has no power. Verily, I say unto, you, +the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead, the ignorant and +guilty, buried in trespasses and sins, shall hear these truths +declared, and they that believe shall lay hold of the life thus +offered and be blessed. The Father hath given me authority to +execute judgment, that is, to lay down the principles by which men +shall be judged according to their deserts. All mankind shall be +judged in the spiritual state by the spirit and precepts of my +religion as veritably as if in their graves the generations of the +dead heard my voice and came forth, the good to blessedness, the +evil to misery. The judgment which is, as it were, committed unto +me, is not really committed unto me, but unto the truth which I +declare; for of mine own self I can do nothing." We believe this +paraphrase expresses the essential meaning of Christ's own +declarations concerning a resurrection and an associated judgment. +Coming to bring from the Father authenticated tidings of +immortality, and to reveal the laws of the Divine judgment, +he declared that those who believed and kept his words were +delivered from the terror of death, and, knowing that an endless +life of blessedness was awaiting them, immediately entered upon +its experience. He did not teach the doctrine of a bodily +restoration, but said, "In the resurrection," that is, in the +spiritual state succeeding death, "they neither marry nor are +given in marriage, but are as the angels of heaven." + +He did not teach the doctrine of a temporary sleep in the grave, +but said to the penitent thief on the cross, "This day shalt thou +be with me in Paradise:" instantly upon leaving the body their +souls would be together in the state of the blessed. + +It is often said that the words of Jesus in relation to the dead +hearing his voice and coming forth must be taken literally; for +the metaphor is of too extreme violence. But it is in keeping with +his usage. He says, "Let the dead bury their dead." It is far less +bold than "This is my body; this is my blood." It is not nearly so +strong as Paul's adjuration, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and rise +from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." It is not more +daringly imaginative than the assertion that "the heroes sleeping +in Marathon's gory bed stirred in their graves when Leonidas +fought at Thermopyla; or than Christ's own words, "If thou hadst +faith like a grain of mustard seed, thou couldst say to this +mountain, Be thou cast into yonder sea, and it should obey you." +So one might say, + +"Where'er the gospel comes, +It spreads diviner light; +It calls dead sinners from their tombs +And gives the blind their sight." + +And in the latter days, when it has done its work, and the +glorious measure of human redemption is full, liberty, +intelligence, and love shall stand hand in hand on the mountain +summits and raise up the long generations of the dead to behold +the completed fruits of their toils. In this figurative moral +sense Jesus probably spoke when he said, "Thou shalt be +recompensed at the resurrection of the just." He referred simply +to the rewards of the virtuous in the state beyond the grave. The +phraseology in which he clothed the thought he accommodatingly +adopted from the current speech of the Pharisees. They +unquestionably meant by it the group of notions contained in their +dogma of the destined physical restoration of the dead from their +sepulchres at the advent of the Messiah. And it seems perfectly +plain to us, on an impartial study of the record, that the +evangelist, in reporting his words, took the Pharisaic dogma, and +not merely the Christian truth, with them. But that Jesus himself +modified and spiritualized the meaning of the phrase when he +employed it, even as he did the other contemporaneous language +descriptive of the Messianic offices and times, we conclude for +two reasons. First, he certainly did often use language in that +spiritual way, dressing in bold metaphors moral thoughts of +inspired insight and truth. Secondly, the moral doctrine is the +only one that is true, or that is in keeping with his penetrative +thought. The notion of a physical resurrection is an error +borrowed most likely from the Persians by the Pharisees, and not +belonging to the essential elements of Christianity. The notion +being prevalent at the time in Judea, and being usually expressed +in certain appropriated phrases, when Christ used those phrases in +a true spiritual sense the apostles would naturally apprehend from +them the carnal meaning which already filled their minds in common +with the minds of their countrymen. + +The word Hades, translated in the English New Testament by the +word "hell," a word of nearly the same etymological force, but now +conveying a quite different meaning, occurs in the discourses of +Jesus only three several times. The other instances of its use are +repetitions or parallels. First, "And thou, Capernaum, which art +exalted to heaven, shalt be brought down to the under world;" that +is, the great and proud city shall become powerless, a heap of +ruins. Second, "Upon this rock I will found my Church, and the +gates of the under world shall not prevail against it;" that is, +the powers of darkness, the opposition of the wicked, the strength +of evil, shall not destroy my religion; in spite of them it shall +assert its organization and overcome all obstacles. + +The remaining example of the Savior's use of this word is in the +parable of Dives and Lazarus. The rich man is described, after +death, as suffering in the under world. Seeing the beggar afar off +in Abraham's bosom, he cries, "Father Abraham, pity me, and send +Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool +my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame." Well known fancies +and opinions are here wrought up in scenic form to convey certain +moral impressions. It will be noticed that the implied division of +the under world into two parts, with a gulf between them, +corresponds to the common Gentile notion of an Elysian region of +delightful meadows for the good and a Tartarean region of +blackness and fire for the bad, both included in one subterranean +kingdom, but divided by an interval. 4 + +The dramatic details of the account Lazarus being borne into bliss +by angels, Dives asking to have a messenger sent from bale to warn +his surviving brothers rest on opinions afloat among the Jews of +that age, derived from the Persian theology. Zoroaster prays, +"When I shall die, let Aban and Bahman carry me to the bosom of +joy."5 And it was a common belief among the Persians that souls +were at seasons permitted to leave purgatory and visit their +relatives on earth.6 It is evident that the narrative before us is +not a history to be literally construed, but a parable to be +carefully analyzed. The imagery and the particulars are to be laid +aside, and the central thoughts to be drawn forth. Take the words +literally, that the rich man's immaterial soul, writhing in +flames, wished the tip of a finger dipped in water to cool his +tongue, and they are ridiculous. Take them figuratively, as a type +of unknown spiritual anguish, and they are awful. Besides, had +Christ intended to teach the doctrine of a local burning hell, he +surely would have enunciated it in plain words, with solemn +iteration and explanatory amplifications, instead of merely +insinuating it incidentally, in metaphorical + +4 See copious illustrations by Rosenmuller, in Luc. cap. xvi. 22, +23. +"Hic locus est partes ubi se via findit in ambas: +Dextera, qua Ditis magni sub moenia tendit; +Hac iter Elysium nobis: at lava malorum +Exercet poenas, et ad impia Tartara mittit." + +5 Rhode, Heilige Sage des Zendvolks, s. 408. + +6 Ibid. s. 410. + + +terms, in a professed parable. The sense of the parable is, that +the formal distinctions of this world will have no influence in +the allotments of the future state, but will often be reversed +there; that a righteous Providence, knowing every thing here, +rules hereafter, and will dispense compensating justice to all; +that men should not wait for a herald to rise from the dead to +warn them, but should heed the instructions they already have, and +so live in the life that now is, as to avoid a miserable +condemnation, and secure a blessed acceptance, in the life that is +to come. By inculcating these truths in a striking manner, through +the aid of a parable based on the familiar poetical conceptions of +the future world and its scenery, Christ no more endorses those +conceptions than by using the Messianic phrases of the Jews he +approves the false carnal views which they joined with that +language. To interpret the parable literally, then, and suppose it +meant to teach the actual existence of a located hell of fire for +sinners after death, is to disregard the proprieties of criticism. + +"Gehenna," or the equivalent phrase, "Gehenna of fire," +unfortunately translated into our tongue by the word "hell," is to +be found in the teachings of Christ in only five independent +instances, each of which, after tracing the original Jewish usage +of the term, we will briefly examine. Gehenna, or the Vale of +Hinnom, is derived from two Hebrew words, the first meaning a +vale, the second being the name of its owner. The place thus +called was the eastern part of the beautiful valley that forms the +southern boundary of Jerusalem. Here Moloch, the horrid idol god +worshipped by the Ammonites, and by the Israelites during their +idolatrous lapses, was set up. This monstrous idol had the head of +an ox and the body of a man. It was hollow; and, being filled with +fire, children were laid in its arms and devoured alive by the +heat. This explains the terrific denunciations uttered by the +prophets against those who made their children pass through the +fire to Moloch. The spot was sometimes entitled Tophet, a place of +abhorrence; its name being derived, as some think, from a word +meaning to vomit with loathing, or, as others suppose, from a word +signifying drum, because drums were beaten to drown the shrieks of +the burning children. After these horrible rites were abolished by +Josiah, the place became an utter abomination. All filth, the +offal of the city, the carcasses of beasts, the bodies of executed +criminals, were cast indiscriminately into Gehenna. Fires were +kept constantly burning to prevent the infection of the atmosphere +from the putrifying mass. Worms were to be seen preying on the +relics. The primary meaning, then, of Gehenna, is a valley outside +of Jerusalem, a place of corruption and fire, only to be thought +of with execration and shuddering. + +Now, it was not only in keeping with Oriental rhetoric, but also +natural in itself, that figures of speech should be taken from +these obvious and dreadful facts to symbolize any dire evil. For +example, how naturally might a Jew, speaking of some foul wretch, +and standing, perhaps, within sight of the place, exclaim, "He +deserves to be hurled into the fires of Gehenna!" So the term +would gradually become an accepted emblem of abominable +punishment. Such was the fact; and this gives a perspicuous +meaning to the word without supposing it to imply a fiery prison +house of anguish in the future world. Isaiah threatens the King of +Assyria with ruin in these terms: "Tophet is ordained of old, and +prepared for the king: it is made deep and large; the pile thereof +is fire and much wood; the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of +brimstone, doth kindle it." The prophet thus portrays, with the +dread imagery of Gehenna, approaching disaster and overthrow. A +thorough study of the Old Testament shows that the Jews, during +the period which it covers, did not believe in future rewards and +punishments, but expected that all souls without discrimination +would pass their shadowy dream lives in the silence of Sheol. + +Between the termination of the Old Testament history and the +commencement of the New, various forms of the doctrine of future +retribution had been introduced or developed among the Jews. But +during this period few, if any, decisive instances can be found in +which the image of penal fire is connected with the future state. +On the contrary, "darkness," "gloom," "blackness," "profound and +perpetual night," are the terms employed to characterize the abode +and fate of the wicked. + +Josephus says that, in the faith of the Pharisees, "the worst +criminals were banished to the darkest part of the under world." +Philo represents the depraved and condemned as "groping in the +lowest and darkest part of the creation. The word Gehenna is +rarely found in the literature of this time, and when it is it +commonly seems to be used either simply to denote the detestable +Vale of Hinnom, or else plainly as a general symbol of calamity +and horror, as in the elder prophets. + +But in some of the Targums, or Chaldee paraphrases of the Hebrew +Scriptures, especially in the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, we +meet repeated applications of the word Gehenna to signify a +punishment by fire in the future state.7 This is a fact about +which there can be no question. And to the documents showing such +a usage of the word, the best scholars are pretty well agreed in +assigning a date as early as the days of Christ. The evidence +afforded by these Targums, together with the marked application of +the term by Jesus himself, and the similar general use of it +immediately after both by Christians and Jews, render it not +improbable that Gehenna was known to the contemporaries of the +Savior as the metaphorical name of hell, a region of fire, in the +under world, where the reprobate were supposed to be punished +after death. But admitting that, before Christ began to teach, the +Jews had modified their early conception of the under world as the +silent and sombre abode of all the dead in common, and had divided +it into two parts, one where the wicked suffer, called Gehenna, +one where the righteous rest, called Paradise, still, that +modification having been borrowed, as is historically evident, +from the Gentiles, or, if developed among themselves, at all +events unconnected with revelation, of course Christianity is not +involved with the truth or falsity of it, is not responsible for +it. It does not necessarily follow that Jesus gave precisely the +same meaning to the word Gehenna that his contemporaries or +successors did. He may have used it in a modified emblematic +sense, as he did many other current terms. In studying his +language, we should especially free our minds both from the +tyranny of pre Christian notions and dogmas and from the +associations and influences of modern creeds, and seek to +interpret it in the light of his own instructions and in the +spirit of his own mind. + +We will now examine the cases in which Christ uses the term +Gehenna, and ask what it means. + +First: "Whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou vile wretch! +shall be in danger of the fiery Gehenna." Interpret this +literally, and it teaches that whosoever calls his brother a + +7 Gesenius, Hebrew Thesaurus, Ge Hinnom. + + +wicked apostate is in danger of being thrown into the filthy +flames in the Vale of Hinnom. But no one supposes that such was +its meaning. Jesus would say, as we understand him, "I am not come +to destroy, but to fulfil, the law; to show how at the culmination +of the old dispensation a higher and stricter one opens. I say +unto you, that, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the +Pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. The conditions +of acceptance under the new order are far more profound and +difficult than under the old. That said, Whosoever commits murder +shall be exposed to legal punishment from the public tribunal. +This says, An invisible inward punishment, as much to be dreaded +as the judgments of the Sanhedrim, shall be inflicted upon those +who harbor the secret passions that lead to crime; whosoever, out +of an angry heart, insults his brother, shall be exposed to +spiritual retributions typified by the horrors of yon flaming +valley. They of old time took cognizance of outward crimes by +outward penalties. I take cognizance of inward sins by inward +returns more sure and more fearful." + +Second: "If thy right eye be a source of temptation to thee, pluck +it out and fling it away; for it is better for thee that one of +thy members perish than that thy whole body should be cast into +Gehenna." Give these words a literal interpretation, and they +mean, "If your eyes or your hands are the occasions of crime, if +they tempt you to commit offences which will expose you to public +execution, to the ignominy and torture heaped upon felons put to a +shameful death and then flung among the burning filth of Gehenna, +pluck them out, cut them off betimes, and save yourself from such +a frightful end; for it is better to live even thus maimed than, +having a whole body, to be put to a violent death." No one can +suppose that Jesus meant to convey such an idea as that when he +uttered these words. We must, then, attribute a deeper, an +exclusively moral, significance to the passage. It means, "If you +have some bosom sin, to deny and root out which is like tearing +out an eye or cutting off a hand, pause not, but overcome and +destroy it immediately, at whatever cost of effort and suffering; +for it is better to endure the pain of fighting and smothering a +bad passion than to submit to it and allow it to rule until it +acquires complete control over you, pervades your whole nature +with its miserable unrest, and brings you at last into a state of +woe of which Gehenna and its dreadful associations are a fit +emblem." A verse spoken, according to Mark, in immediate +connection with the present passage, confirms the figurative sense +we have attributed to it: "Whosoever shall cause one of these +little ones that believe in me to fall, it were better for him +that a millstone were hanged around his neck and he were plunged +into the midst of the sea;" that is, in literal terms, a man had +better meet a great calamity, even the loss of life, than commit a +foul crime and thus bring the woe of guilt upon his soul. + +The phrase, "their worm dieth not, and their fire is not +quenched," is a part of the imagery naturally suggested by the +scene in the Valley of Hinnom, and was used to give greater +vividness and force to the moral impression of the discourse. By +an interpretation resulting either from prejudice or ignorance, it +is generally held to teach the doctrine of literal fire torments +enduring forever. It is a direct quotation from a passage in +Isaiah which signifies that, in a glorious age to come, Jehovah +will cause his worshippers to go forth from new moon to new moon +and look upon the carcasses of the wicked, and see them devoured +by fire which shall not be quenched and gnawed by worms which +shall not die, until the last relics of them are destroyed. + +Third: "Fear not them that kill the body but are not able to kill +the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and +body in Gehenna." A similar use of figurative language, in a still +bolder manner, is found in Isaiah. Intending to say nothing more +than that Assyria should be overthrown and crushed, the prophet +bursts out, "Under the glory of the King of Assyria Jehovah shall +kindle a burning like the burning of a fire; and it shall burn and +devour his thorns and his briers in one day, and shall consume the +glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and +body." Reading the whole passage in Matthew with a single eye, its +meaning will be apparent. We may paraphrase it thus. Jesus says to +his disciples, "You are now going forth to preach the gospel. My +religion and its destinies are intrusted to your hands. As you go +from place to place, be on your guard; for they will persecute +you, and scourge you, and deliver you up to death. But fear them +not. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master; and +if they have done so unto me, how much more shall they unto you! +Do not, through fear of hostile men, who can only kill your bodies +and are not able in any wise to injure your souls, shrink from +danger and prove recreant to the momentous duties imposed upon +you; but be inspired to proclaim the principles of the heavenly +kingdom with earnestness and courage, in the face of all perils, +by fearing God, him who is able to plunge both your souls and your +bodies in abomination and agony, him who, if you prove unfaithful +and become slothful servants or wicked traitors, will leave your +bodies to a violent death and after that your souls to bitter +shame and anguish. Fear not the temporal, physical power of your +enemies, to be turned from your work by it; but rather fear the +eternal, spiritual power of your God, to be made faithful by it." + +Fourth: "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye +compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and, when he is made, +ye make him twofold more a child of Gehenna than yourselves." That +is, "Ye make him twice as bad as yourselves in hypocrisy, bigotry, +extortion, impurity, and malice, a subject of double guilt and of +double retribution." + +Finally, Jesus exclaims to the children of those who killed the +prophets, "Serpents, brood of vipers! how can ye escape the +condemnation of Gehenna?" That is to say, "Venomous creatures, bad +men! you deserve the fate of the worst criminals; you are worthy +of the polluted fires of Gehenna; your vices will surely be +followed by condign punishment: how can such depravity escape the +severest retributions?" + +These five are all the distinct instances in which Jesus uses the +word Gehenna. It is plain that he always uses the word +metaphorically. We therefore conclude that Christianity, correctly +understood, never implies that eternal fire awaits sinners in the +future world, but that moral retributions, according to their +deeds, are the portion of all men here and hereafter. There is no +more reason to suppose that essential Christianity contains the +doctrine of a fiery infernal world than there is to suppose that +it really means to declare that God is a glowing mass of flame, +when it says, "Our God is a consuming fire." We must remember the +metaphorical character of much scriptural language. Wickedness is +a fire, in that it preys upon men and draws down the displeasure +of the Almighty, and consumes them. + +As Isaiah writes, "Wickedness burneth as the fire, the anger of +Jehovah darkens the land, and the people shall be the food of the +fire." And James declares to proud extortioners, "The rust of your +cankered gold and silver shall eat your flesh as it were fire." + +When Jesus says, "It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and +Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city" which will not +listen to the preaching of my kingdom, but drives my disciples +away, he uses a familiar figure to signify that Sodom and Gomorrah +would at such a call have repented in sackcloth and ashes. The +guilt of Chorazin and Bethsaida was, therefore, more hardened than +theirs, and should receive a severer punishment; or, making +allowance for the natural exaggeration of this kind of language, +he means, That city whose iniquities and scornful unbelief lead it +to reject my kingdom when it is proffered shall be brought to +judgment and be overwhelmed with avenging calamities. Two parallel +illustrations of this image are given us by the old prophets. +Isaiah says, "Babylon shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and +Gomorrah." And Jeremiah complains, "The punishment of Jerusalem is +greater than the punishment of Sodom." It is certainly remarkable +that such passages should ever have been thought to teach the +doctrine of a final, universal judgment day breaking on the world +in fire. + +The subject of our Lord's teachings in regard to the punishment of +the wicked is included in two classes of texts, and may be summed +up in a few words. One class of texts relate to the visible +establishment of Christianity as the true religion, the Divine +law, at the destruction of the Jewish power, and to the frightful +woes which should then fall upon the murderers of Christ, the +bitter enemies of his cause. All these things were to come upon +that generation, were to happen before some of them then standing +there tasted death. The other class of texts and they are by far +the more numerous signify that the kingdom of Truth is now +revealed and set up; that all men are bound to accept and obey it +with reverence and love, and thus become its blessed subjects, the +happy and immortal children of God; that those who spurn its +offers, break its laws, and violate its pure spirit shall be +punished, inevitably and fearfully, by moral retributions +proportioned to the degrees of their guilt. Christ does not teach +that the good are immortal and that the bad shall be annihilated, +but that all alike, both the just and the unjust, enter the +spiritual world. He does not teach that the bad shall be eternally +miserable, cut off from all possibility of amendment, but simply +that they shall be justly judged. He makes no definitive reference +to duration, but leaves us at liberty, peering into the gloom as +best we can, to suppose, if we think it most reasonable, that the +conditions of our spiritual nature are the same in the future as +now, and therefore that the wicked may go on in evil hereafter, +or, if they will, all turn to righteousness, and the universe +finally become as one sea of holiness and as one flood of praise. + +Another portion of Christ's doctrine of the future life hinges on +the phrase "the kingdom of heaven." Much is implied in this term +and its accompaniments, and may be drawn out by answering the +questions, What is heaven? Who are citizens of, and who are aliens +from, the kingdom of God? Let us first examine the subordinate +meanings and shades of meaning with which the Savior sometimes +uses these phrases. + +"Ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and +descending upon the Son of Man." No confirmation of the literal +sense of this that is afforded by any incident found in the +Gospels. There is every reason for supposing that he meant by it, +"There shall be open manifestations of supernatural power and +favor bestowed upon me by God, evident signs of direct +communications between us." His Divine works and instructions +justified the statement. The word "heaven" as here used, then, +does not mean any particular place, but means the approving +presence of God. The instincts and natural language of man prompt +us to consider objects of reverence as above us. We kneel below +them. The splendor, mystery, infinity, of the starry regions help +on the delusion. But surely no one possessing clear spiritual +perceptions will think the literal facts in the case must +correspond to this, that God must dwell in a place overhead called +heaven. He is an Omnipresence. + +"Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you for my +sake: rejoice, for great is your reward in heaven." This passage +probably means, "In the midst of tribulation be exceeding glad; +because you shall be abundantly rewarded in a future state for all +your present sufferings in my cause." In that case, heaven +signifies the spiritual world, and does not involve reference to +any precisely located spot. Or it may mean, "Be not disheartened +by insults and persecutions met in the cause of God; for you shall +be greatly blessed in your inward life: the approval of +conscience, the immortal love and pity of God, shall be yours: the +more you are hated and abused by men unjustly, the closer and +sweeter shall be your communion with God." In that case, heaven +signifies fellowship with the Father, and is independent of any +particular time or place. + +"Our Father, who art in heaven." Jesus was not the author of this +sentence. It was a part of the Rabbinical synagogue service, and +was based upon the Hebrew conception of God as having his abode in +an especial sense over the firmament. The Savior uses it as the +language of accommodation, as is evident from his conversation +with the woman of Samaria; for he told her that no exclusive spot +was an acceptable place of worship, since "God is a Spirit; and +they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." No +one who comprehends the meaning of the words can suppose that the +Infinite Spirit occupies a confined local habitation, and that men +must literally journey there to be with him after death. Wherever +they may be now, they are away from him or with him, according to +their characters. After death they are more banished from him or +more immediately with him, instantly, wherever they are, according +to the spirit they are of. + +"Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, but in heaven." In +other words, Be not absorbed in efforts to accumulate hoards of +gold and silver, and to get houses and lands, which will soon pass +away; but rather labor to acquire heavenly treasures, wisdom, +love, purity, and faith, which will never pass from your +possession nor cease from your enjoyment. + +"I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place +for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where +I am there ye may be also." To understand this text, we must +carefully study the whole four chapters of the connection in which +it stands. They abound in bold symbols. An instance of this is +seen where Jesus, having washed his disciples' feet, says to them, +"Ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him. +Therefore said he, Ye are not all clean." The actual meaning of +the passage before us may be illustrated by a short paraphrase of +it with the context: "Let not your hearts be troubled by the +thought that I must die and be removed from you; for there are +other states of being besides this earthly life. When they crucify +me, as I have said to you before, I shall not perish, but shall +pass into a higher state of existence with my Father. Whither I go +ye know, and the way ye know: my Father is the end, and the truths +that I have declared point out the way. If ye loved me, ye would +rejoice because I say that I go to the Father. And if I go to him, +if, when they have put me to death, I pass into an unseen state of +blessedness and glory (as I prophesy unto you that I shall,) I +will reveal myself unto you again, and tell you. I go before you +as a pioneer, and will surely come back and confirm, with +irresistible evidence, the reality of what I have already told +you. Therefore, trouble not your hearts, but be of good cheer." + +"There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner +that repenteth." The sentiment of this Divine declaration simply +implies that all good beings sympathize with every triumph of +goodness; that the living chain of mutual interest runs through +the spiritual universe, making one family of those on earth and +those in the invisible state. + +"Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." "Cling not +to me, detain me not, for I have not yet left the world forever, +to be in the spiritual state with my Father; and ere I do this I +must seek my disciples, to convince them of my resurrection and to +give them my parting commission and blessing." He used the common +language, for it was the only language which she whom he addressed +would understand; and although, literally interpreted, it conveyed +the idea of a local heaven on high, yet at the same time it +conveyed, and in the only way intelligible to her, all the truth +that was important, namely, that when he disappeared he would +still be living, and be, furthermore, with God. + +When Christ finally went from his disciples, he seemed to them to +rise and vanish towards the clouds. This would confirm their +previous material conceptions, and the old forms of speech would +be handed down, strengthened by these phenomena, misunderstood in +themselves and exaggerated in their importance. We generally speak +now of God's "throne," of "heaven," as situated far away in the +blue ether; we point upward to the world of bliss, and say, There +the celestial hosannas roll; there the happy ones, the unforgotten +ones of our love, wait to welcome us. These forms of speech are +entirely natural; they are harmless; they aid in giving +definiteness to our thoughts and feelings, and it is well to +continue their use; it would be difficult to express our thoughts +without them. However, we must understand that they are not +strictly and exclusively true. God is everywhere; and wherever he +is there is heaven to the spirits that are like him and, +consequently, see him and enjoy his ineffable blessedness. + +Jesus sometimes uses the phrase "kingdom of heaven" as synonymous +with the Divine will, the spiritual principles or laws which he +was inspired to proclaim. Many of his parables were spoken to +illustrate the diffusive power and the incomparable value of the +truth he taught, as when he said, "The kingdom of heaven is like a +grain of mustard seed, which becomes a great tree;" it is "like +unto leaven, which a woman put in two measures of meal until the +whole was leavened;" it is "like a treasure hid in a field," or +"like a goodly pearl of great price, which, a man finding, he goes +and sells all that he has and buys it." In these examples "the +kingdom of heaven" is plainly a personification of the revealed +will of God, the true law of salvation and eternal life. In answer +to the question why he spoke so many things to the people in +parables, Jesus said to his disciples, "Because it is given unto +you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; but unto them +it is not given;" that is, You are prepared to understand the +hitherto concealed truths of God's government, if set forth +plainly; but they are not prepared. + +Here as also in the parables of the vineyard let out to +husbandmen, and of the man who sowed good seed in his field, and +in a few other cases "the kingdom of heaven" means God's +government, his mode of dealing with men, his method of +establishing his truths in the hearts of men. "The kingdom of +heaven" sometimes signifies personal purity and peace, freedom +from sensual solicitations. "There be eunuchs which have made +themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is +able to receive it, let him receive it." + +Christ frequently uses the term "kingdom of heaven" in a somewhat +restricted, traditional sense, based in form but not in spirit +upon the Jewish expectations of the Messiah's kingdom. "Be ye sure +of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you;" "I must +preach the kingdom of God to other cities also;" "Repent, for the +kingdom of heaven is at hand." Christ was charged to bear to men a +new revelation from God of his government and laws, that he might +reign over them as a monarch over conscious and loyal subjects. +"Many shall come from the East and the West, and shall sit down +with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the +children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness." +The sense of these texts is as follows. "God is now offering unto +you, through me, a spiritual dispensation, a new kingdom; but, +unless you faithfully heed it and fulfil its conditions, you shall +be rejected from it and lose the Divine favor. Although, by your +position as the chosen people, and in the line of revelation, you +are its natural heirs, yet, unless you rule your spirits and lives +by its commands, you shall see the despised Gentiles enjoying all +the privileges your faith allows to the revered patriarchs of your +nation, while yourselves are shut out from them and overwhelmed +with shame and anguish. Your pride of descent, haughtiness of +spirit, and reliance upon dead rites unfit you for the true +kingdom of God, the inward reign of humility and righteousness; +and the very publicans and harlots, repenting and humbling +themselves, shall go into it before you." + +To be welcomed under this Messianic dispensation, to become a +citizen of this spiritual kingdom of God, the Savior declares that +there are certain indispensable conditions. A man must repent and +forsake his sins. This was the burden of John's preaching, that +the candidate for the kingdom of heaven must first be baptized +with water unto repentance, as a sign that he abjures and is +cleansed from all his old errors and iniquities. Then he must be +baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire, that is, must learn +the positive principles of the coming kingdom, and apply them to +his own character, to purge away every corrupt thing. He must be +born again, born of water and of the Spirit: in other words, he +must be brought out from his impurity and wickedness into a new +and Divine life of holiness, awakened to a conscious experience of +purity, truth, and love, the great prime elements in the reign of +God. He must be guileless and lowly. "Whosoever will not receive +the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter +therein." + +The kingdom of heaven, the better dispensation which Christ came +to establish, is the humility of contrite hearts, the innocence of +little children, the purity of undefiled consciences, the fruit of +good works, the truth of universal laws, the love of God, and the +conscious experience of an indestructible, blessed being. Those +who enter into these qualities in faith, in feeling, and in action +are full citizens of that eternal kingdom; all others are aliens +from it. + +Heaven, then, according to Christ's use of the word, is not +distinctively a world situated somewhere in immensity, but a +purely spiritual experience, having nothing to do with any special +time or place. It is a state of the soul, or a state of society, +under the rule of truth, governed by God's will, either in this +life or in a future. He said to the young ruler who had walked +faithfully in the law, and whose good traits drew forth his love, +"Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." It is evident that +this does not mean a bounded place of abode, but a true state of +character, a virtuous mode of life "My kingdom is not of this +world." "Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." That +is, "My kingdom is the realm of truth, the dominion of God's will, +and all true men are my subjects." Evidently this is not a +material but a moral reign and therefore unlimited by seasons or +places. Wherever purity, truth, love, obedience, prevail, there is +God, and that is heaven. It is not necessary to depart into some +distant sphere to meet the Infinite Holy One and dwell with him. +He is on the very dust we tread, he is the very centre of our +souls and breath of our lives, if we are only in a state that is +fitted to recognise and enjoy him. "He that hath sent me is with +me: the Father hath not left me alone, for I always do those +things which please him." It is a fair inference from such +statements as this that to do with conscious adoration and love +those things that please God is to be with him, without regard to +time or place; and that is heaven. "I speak that which I have seen +with my Father," God, "and ye do that which ye have seen with your +father, the devil." No one will suppose that Jesus meant to tell +the wicked men whom he was addressing that they committed their +iniquities in consequence of lessons learned in a previous state +of existence with an arch fiend, the parent of all evil. His +meaning, then, was, I bring forth in words and deeds the things +which I have learned in my secret soul from inspired communion +with infinite goodness and perfection; you bring forth the things +which you have learned from communion with the source of sin and +woe, that is, foul propensities, cruel passions, and evil +thoughts. + +"I come forth from the Father and am come into the world; again I +leave the world and go unto the Father." "I go unto Him that sent +me." Since it is declared that God is an Omnipresent Spirit, and +that those who obey and love him see him and are with him +everywhere, these striking words must bear one of the two +following interpretations. First, they may imply in general that +man is created and sent into this state of being by the Father, +and that after the termination of the present life the soul is +admitted to a closer union with the Parent Spirit. This gives a +natural meaning to the language which represents dying as going to +the Father. Not that it is necessary to travel to reach God, but +that the spiritual verity is most adequately expressed under such +a metaphor. But, secondly, and more probably, the phraseology +under consideration may be meant as an assertion of the Divine +origin and authority of the special mission of Christ. "Neither +came I of myself, but He sent me;" "The words that I speak unto +you I speak not of myself;" "As the Father hath taught me, I speak +these things." These passages do not necessarily teach the pre +existence of Christ and his descent from heaven in the flesh. That +is a carnal interpretation which does great violence to the +genuine nature of the claims put forth by our Savior. They may +merely declare the supernatural commission of the Son of God, his +direct inspiration and authority. He did not voluntarily assume +his great work, but was Divinely ordered on that service. Compare +the following text: "The baptism of John, whence was it, from +Heaven, or of men?" That is to say, was it of human or of Divine +origin and authority? So when it is said that the Son of Man +descended from heaven, or was sent by the Father, the meaning in +Christ's mind probably was that he was raised up, did his works, +spoke his words, by the inspiration and with the sanction of God. +The accuracy of this interpretation is seen by the following +citation from the Savior's own words, when he is speaking in his +prayer at the last supper of sending his disciples out to preach +the gospel: "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I +also sent them into the world." The reference, evidently, is to a +Divine choice and sealing, not to a descent upon the earth from +another sphere. + +That the author of the Fourth Gospel believed that Christ +descended from heaven literally we have not the shadow of a doubt. +He repeatedly speaks of him as the great super angelic Logos, the +first born Son and perfect image of God, the instrumental cause of +the creation. His mind was filled with the same views, the same +lofty Logos theory that is so abundantly set forth in the writings +of Philo Judaus. He reports and describes the Savior in conformity +with such a theological postulate. Possessed with the foregone +conclusion that Jesus was the Divine Logos, descended from the +celestial abode, and born into the world as a man, in endeavoring +to write out from memory, years after they were uttered, the +Savior's words, it is probable that he unconsciously +misapprehended and tinged them according to his theory. The +Delphic apothegm, "Know thyself," was said to have descended from +heaven: + +"E coelo descendit [non ASCII characters]." + +By a familiar Jewish idiom, "to ascend into heaven" meant to learn +the will of God.8 And whatever bore the direct sancion of God was +said to descend from heaven. When in these figurative terms Jesus +asserted his Divine commission, it seems that some understood him +literally, and concluded perhaps in consequence of his miracles, +joined with their own speculations that he was the Logos +incarnated. That such a conclusion was an unwarranted inference +from metaphorical language and from a foregone pagan dogma appears +from his own explanatory and justifying words spoken to the Jews. +For when they accused him of making himself God, he replies, "If +in your law they are called gods to whom the word of God came, +charge ye him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the +world with blasphemy, because he says he is the Son of God?" +Christ's language in the Fourth Gospel + +8 Schoettgen, in John iii. 13. + + +may be fairly explained without implying his actual pre existence +or superhuman nature. But it does not seem to us that John's +possibly can be. His miracles, according to the common idea of +them, did not prove him to be the coequal fac simile, but merely +proved him to be the delegated envoy, of God. + +We may sum up the consideration of this point in a few words. +Christ did not essentially mean by the term "heaven" the world of +light and glory located by the Hebrews, and by some other nations, +just above the visible firmament. His meaning, when he spoke of +the kingdom of God or heaven, was always, in some form, either the +reign of justice, purity, and love, or the invisible world of +spirits. If that world, heaven, be in fact, and were in his +conception, a sphere located in space, he never alluded to its +position, but left it perfectly in the dark, keeping his +instructions scrupulously free from any such commitment. He said, +"I go to Him that sent me;" "I will come again and receive you +unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." The references +to locality are vague and mysterious. The nature of his words, and +their scantiness, are as if he had said, We shall live hereafter; +we shall be with the Father; we shall be together. All the rest is +mystery, even to me: it is not important to be known, and the +Father hath concealed it. Such, almost, are his very words. "A +little while, and ye shall not see me; again, a little while, and +ye shall see me, because I go to the Father." "Father, I will that +they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am." Whether +heaven be technically a material abode or a spiritual state it is +of little importance to us to know; and the teachings of Jesus +seem to have nothing to do with it. The important things for us to +know are that there is a heaven, and how we may prepare for it; +and on these points the revelation is explicit. To suppose the +Savior ignorant of some things is not inconsistent with his +endowments; for he himself avowed his ignorance, saying, "Of that +day knoweth no man; no, not even the angels which are in heaven, +neither the Son, but the Father." And it adds an awful solemnity, +an indescribably exciting interest, to his departure from the +world, to conceive him hovering on the verge of the same mystery +which has enveloped every passing mortal, hovering there with +chastened wonder and curiosity, inspired with an absolute trust +that in that fathomless obscurity the Father would be with him, +and would unveil new realms of life, and would enable him to come +back and assure his disciples. He certainly did not reveal the +details of the future state: whether he was acquainted with them +himself or not we cannot tell. + +We next advance to the most important portion of the words of +Christ regarding the life and destiny of the soul, those parts of +his doctrine which are most of a personal, experimental character, +sounding the fountains of consciousness, piercing to the dividing +asunder of our being. It is often said that Jesus everywhere takes +for granted the fact of immortality, that it underlies and +permeates all he does and says. We should know at once that such a +being must be immortal; such a life could never be lived by an +ephemeral creature; of all possible proofs of immortality he is +himself the sublimest. This is true, but not the whole truth. The +resistless assurance, the Divine inspiration, the sublime repose, +with which he enunciates the various thoughts connected with the +theme of endless existence, are indeed marvellous. But he not only +authoritatively assumes the truth of a future life: he speaks +directly of it in many ways, often returns to it, continually +hovers about it, reasons for it, exhorts upon it, makes most of +his instructions hinge upon it, shows that it is a favorite +subject of his communion. We may put the justice of these +statements in a clear light by bringing together and explaining +some of his scattered utterances. + +His express language teaches that man in this world is a twofold +being, leading a twofold life, physical and spiritual, the one +temporal, the other eternal, the one apt unduly to absorb his +affections, the other really deserving his profoundest care. This +separation of the body and the soul, and survival of the latter, +is brought to light in various striking forms and with various +piercing applications. In view of the dangers that beset his +disciples on their mission, he exhorted and warned them thus: +"Fear not them which have power to kill the body and afterwards +have no more that they can do; but rather fear Him who can kill +both soul and body;" "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; +and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it;" that +is, whosoever, for the sake of saving the life of his body, +shrinks from the duties of this dangerous time, shall lose the +highest welfare of the soul; but whosoever loveth his lower life +in the body less than he loves the virtues of a consecrated spirit +shall win the true blessedness of his soul. Both of these passages +show that the soul has a life and interest separate from the +material tabernacle. With what pathos and convincing power was the +same faith expressed in his ejaculation from the cross, "Father, +into thy hands I commend my spirit!" an expression of trust which, +under such circumstances of desertion, horror, and agony, could +only have been prompted by that inspiration of God which he always +claimed to have. + +Christ once reasoned with the Sadducees "as touching the dead, +that they rise;" in other words, that the souls of men upon the +decease of the body pass into another and an unending state of +existence: "Neither can they die any more; for they are equal with +the angels, and are children of God, being children of the +resurrection." His argument was, that "God is the God of the +living, not of the dead;" that is, the spiritual nature of man +involves such a relationship with God as pledges his attributes to +its perpetuity. The thought which supports this reasoning +penetrates far into the soul and grasps the moral relations +between man and God. It is most interesting viewed as the +unqualified affirmation by Jesus of the doctrine of a future life +which shall be deathless. + +But the Savior usually stood in a more imposing attitude and spoke +in a more commanding tone than are indicated in the foregoing +sentences. The prevailing stand point from which he spoke was that +of an oracle giving responses from the inner shrine of the +Divinity. The words and sentiments he uttered were not his, but +the Father's; and he uttered them in the clear tones of knowledge +and authority, not in the whispering accents of speculation or +surmise. How these entrancing tidings came to him he knew not: +they were no creations of his; they rose spontaneously within him, +bearing the miraculous sign and seal of God, a recommendation he +could no more question or resist than he could deny his own +existence. He was set apart as a messenger to men. The tide of +inspiration welled up till it filled every nerve and crevice of +his being with conscious life and with an overmastering +recognition of its living relations with the Omnipresent and +Everlasting Life. Straightway he knew that the Father was in +him and he in the Father, and that he was commissioned to +reveal the mind of the Father to the world. + +He knew, by the direct knowledge of inspiration and consciousness, +that he should live forever. Before his keen, full, spiritual +vitality the thought of death fled away, the thought of +annihilation could not come. So far removed was his soul from the +perception of interior sleep and decay, so broad and powerful was +his consciousness of indestructible life, that he saw quite +through the crumbling husks of time and sense to the crystal sea +of spirit and thought. So absorbing was his sense of eternal life +in himself that he even constructed an argument from his personal +feeling to prove the immortality of others, saying to his +disciples, "Because I live, ye shall live also;" "Ye believe in +God, believe also in me." Ye believe what God declares, for he +cannot be mistaken; believe what I declare for his inspiration +makes me infallible when I say there are many spheres of life for +us when this is ended. + +It was from the fulness of this experience that Jesus addressed +his hearers. He spoke not so much as one who had faith that +immortal life would hereafter be revealed and certified, but +rather as one already in the insight and possession of it, as one +whose foot already trod the eternal floor and whose vision pierced +the immense horizon. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that +heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting +life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from +death unto life." Being himself brought to this immovable +assurance of immortal life by the special inspiration of God, it +was his aim to bring others to the same blessed knowledge. His +efforts to effect this form a most constant feature in his +teachings. His own definition of his mission was, "I am come that +they might have life, and that they might have it more +abundantly." We see by the persistent drift of his words that he +strove to lead others to the same spiritual point he stood at, +that they might see the same prospect he saw, feel the same +certitude he felt, enjoy the same communion with God and sense of +immortality he enjoyed. "As the Father raiseth up the dead and +quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will;" "For as +the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given the Son to have +life in himself;" "Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may +glorify thee; as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he +might give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him: and +this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true +God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." In other words, the +mission of Christ was to awaken in men the experience of immortal +life; and that would be produced by imparting to them reproducing +in them the experience of his own soul. Let us notice what steps +he took to secure this end. + +He begins by demanding the unreserved credence of men to what he +says, claiming to say it with express authority from God, and +giving miraculous credentials. "Whatsoever I speak, therefore, as +the Father said to me, so I speak." This claim to inspired +knowledge he advances so emphatically that it cannot be +overlooked. He then announces, as an unquestionable truth, the +supreme claim of man's spiritual interests upon his attention and +labor, alike from their inherent superiority and their enduring +subsistence. "For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole +world and lose his own soul?" "Thou fool, this night thy soul +shall be required of thee: then whose shall be those things thou +hast gathered?" "Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for +that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." + +The inspiration which dictated these instructions evidently +based them upon the profoundest spiritual philosophy, upon the +truth that man lives at once in a sphere of material objects which +is comparatively unimportant because he will soon leave it, and in +a sphere of moral realities which is all important because he will +live in it forever. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by +every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." The body, +existing in the sphere of material relations, is supported by +material bread; but the soul, existing in the sphere of spiritual +relations, is supported by truth, the nourishing breath of God's +love. We are in the eternal world, then, at present. Its laws and +influences penetrate and rule us; its ethereal tides lave and bear +us on; our experience and destiny in it are decided every moment +by our characters. If we are pure in heart, have vital faith and +force, we shall see God and have new revelations made to us. Such +are among the fundamental principles of Christianity. + +There is another class of texts, based upon a highly figurative +style of speech, striking Oriental idioms, the explanation of +which will cast further light upon the branch of the subject +immediately before us. "As the living Father hath sent me, and I +live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by +me;" that is, As the blessed Father hath inspired me with the +knowledge of him, and I am blessed with the consciousness of his +immortal love, so he that believes and assimilates these truths as +I proclaim them, he shall experience the same blessedness through +my instruction. The words. "I am the bread of life" are explained +by the words "I am the truth." The declaration "Whoso eateth my +flesh hath eternal life" is illustrated by the declaration +"Whosoever heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath +everlasting life." There is no difficulty in understanding what +Jesus meant when he said, "I have meat to eat ye know not of: my +meat is to do the will of Him that sent me." Why should we not +with the same ease, upon the same principles, interpret his +kindred expression, "This is the bread which cometh down from +heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die"? The idea to be +conveyed by all this phraseology is, that whosoever understands, +accepts, assimilates, and brings out in earnest experience, the +truths Christ taught, would realize the life of Christ, feel the +same assurance of Divine favor and eternal blessedness. "He that +eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in +him;" that is, we have the same character, are fed by the same +nutriment, rest in the same experience. Fortunately, we are not +left to guess at the accuracy of this exegesis: it is demonstrated +from the lips of the Master himself. When he knew that the +disciples murmured at what he had said about eating his flesh, and +called it a hard saying, he said to them, "It is the spirit that +quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak +unto you, they are spirit and they are life. But there are some of +you that believe not." Any man who heartily believed what Christ +said that he was Divinely authorized to declare, and did declare, +the pervading goodness of the Father and the immortal blessedness +of the souls of his children, by the very terms was delivered from +the bondage of fear and commenced the consciousness of eternal +life. Of course, we are not to suppose that faith in Christ +obtains immortality itself for the believer: it only rectifies and +lights up the conditions of it, and awakens the consciousness of +it. "I am the resurrection and the life: whosoever liveth and +believeth in me shall never die." We suppose this means, he shall +know that he is never to perish: it cannot refer to physical +dissolution, for the believer dies equally with the unbeliever; it +cannot refer to immortal existence in itself, for the unbeliever +is as immortal as the believer: it must refer to the blessed +nature of that immortality and to the personal assurance of it, +because these Christ does impart to the disciple, while the +unregenerate unbeliever in his doctrine, of course, has them not. +Coming from God to reveal his infinite love, exemplifying the +Divine elements of an immortal nature in his whole career, coming +back from the grave to show its sceptre broken and to point the +way to heaven, well may Christ proclaim, "Whosoever believes in +me" knows he "shall never perish." + +Among the Savior's parables is an impressive one, which we cannot +help thinking perhaps fancifully was intended to illustrate the +dealings of Providence in ordering the earthly destiny of +humanity. "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed +into the ground and the seed should grow up; but when the fruit is +ripe he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come." Men +are seed sown in this world to ripen and be harvested in another. +The figure, taken on the scale of the human race and the whole +earth, is sublime. Whether such an image were originally suggested +by the parable or not, the conception is consistent with Christian +doctrine. The pious Sterling prays, + +"Give thou the life which we require, That, rooted fast in thee, +From thee to thee we may aspire, And earth thy garden be." + +The symbol shockingly perverted from its original beautiful +meaning by the mistaken belief that we sleep in our graves until a +distant resurrection day is often applied to burial grounds. Let +its appropriate significance be restored. Life is the field, death +the reaper, another sphere of being the immediate garner. An +enlightened Christian, instead of entitling a graveyard the garden +of the dead, and looking for its long buried forms to spring from +its cold embrace, will hear the angel saying again, "They are not +here: they are risen." The line which written on Klopstock's tomb +is a melancholy error, engraved on his cradle would have been an +inspiring truth: "Seed sown by God to ripen for the harvest." + +Several fragmentary speeches, which we have not yet noticed, of +the most tremendous and even exhaustive import, are reported as +having fallen from the lips of Christ at different times. These +sentences, rapid and incomplete as they are in the form in which +they have reached us, do yet give us glimpses of the most +momentous character into the profoundest thoughts of his mind. +They are sufficient to enable us to generalize their fundamental +principles, and construct the outlines, if we may so speak, of his +theology, his inspired conception of God, the universe, and man, +and the resulting duties and destiny of man. We will briefly bring +together and interpret these passages, and deduce the system which +they seem to presuppose and rest upon. + +Jesus told the woman of Samaria that God was to be worshipped +acceptably neither in that mountain nor at Jerusalem exclusively, +but anywhere, if it were worthily done. "God is a Spirit; and they +that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." This +passage, with others, teaches the spirituality and omnipresence of +God. Christ conceived of God as an infinite Spirit. Again, +comforting his friends in view of his approaching departure, he +said, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I +would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Here he +plainly figures the universe as a house containing many +apartments, all pervaded and ruled by the Father's presence. He +was about taking leave of this earth to proceed to another part of +the creation, and he promised to come back to his followers and +assure them there was another abode prepared for them. Christ +conceived of the universe, with its innumerable divisions, as the +house of God. Furthermore, he regarded truth or the essential laws +and right tendencies of things and the will of God as identical. +He said he came into the world to do the will of Him that sent +him; that is, as he at another time expressed it, he came into the +world to bear witness unto the truth. Thus he prayed, "Father, +sanctify them through the truth: thy word is truth." Christ +conceived of pure truth as the will of God. Finally, he taught +that all who obey the truth, or do the will of God, thereby +constitute one family of brethren, one family of the accepted +children of God, in all worlds forever. "He that doeth the truth +cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they +are wrought in God;" "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same +is my brother, and my sister, and mother;" "Ye shall know the +truth, and the truth shall make you free. Whosoever committeth sin +is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house +forever; but the son abideth forever. If the Son, therefore, make +you free, ye shall be free indeed." That is to say, truth gives a +good man the freedom of the universe, makes him know himself an +heir, immortally and everywhere at home; sin gives the wicked man +over to bondage, makes him feel afraid of being an outcast, loads +him with hardships as a servant. Whoever will believe the +revelations of Christ, and assimilate his experience, shall lose +the wretched burdens of unbelief and fear and be no longer a +servant, but be made free indeed, being adopted as a son. + +The whole conception, then, is this: The universe is one vast +house, comprising many subordinate mansions. All the moral beings +that dwell in it compose one immortal family. God is the universal +Father. His will the truth is the law of the household. Whoever +obeys it is a worthy son and has the Father's approbation; whoever +disobeys it is alienated and degraded into the condition of a +servant. We may roam from room to room, but can never get lost +outside the walls beyond the reach of the Paternal arms. Death is +variety of scenery and progress of life: + +"We bow our heads At going out, we think, and enter straight +Another golden chamber of the King's, Larger than this we leave, +and lovelier." + +Who can comprehend the idea, in its overwhelming magnificence and +in its touching beauty, its sweeping amplitude embracing all +mysteries, its delicate fitness meeting all wants, without being +impressed and stirred by it, even to the regeneration of his soul? +If there is any thing calculated to make man feel and live like a +child of God, it would surely seem to be this conception. Its +unrivalled simplicity and verisimilitude compel the assent of the +mind to its reality. It is the most adequate and sublime view of +things that ever entered the reason of man. It is worthy the +inspiration of God, worthy the preaching of the Son of God. All +the artificial and arbitrary schemes of fanciful theologians are +as ridiculous and impertinent before it as the offensive flaring +of torches in the face of one who sees the steady and solemn +splendors of the sun. To live in the harmony of the truth of +things, in the conscious love of God and enjoyment of immortality, +blessed children, everywhere at home in the hospitable mansions of +the everlasting Father, this is the experience to which Christ +calls his followers; and any eschatology inconsistent with such a +conception is not his. + +There are two general methods of interpretation respectively +applied to the words of Christ, the literal, or mechanical, and +the spiritual, or vital. The former leads to a belief in his +second visible advent with an army of angels from heaven, a bodily +resurrection of the dead, a universal judgment, the burning up of +the world, eternal tortures of the wicked in an abyss of infernal +fire, a heaven located on the arch of the Hebrew firmament. The +latter gives us a group of the profoundest moral truths clustered +about the illuminating and emphasizing mission of Christ, sealed +with Divine sanctions, truths of universal obligation and of all +redeeming power. The former method is still adopted by the great +body of Christendom, who are landed by it in a system of doctrines +well nigh identical with those of the Pharisees, against which +Christ so emphatically warned his followers, a system of +traditional dogmas not having the slightest support in philosophy, +nor the least contact with the realities of experience, nor the +faintest color of inherent or historical probability. In this age +they are absolutely incredible to unhampered and studious minds. +On the other hand, the latter method is pursued by the growing +body of rational Christians, and it guides them to a consistent +array of indestructible moral truths, simple, fundamental, and +exhaustive, an array of spiritual principles commanding universal +and implicit homage, robed in their own brightness, accredited by +their own fitness, armed with the loveliness and terror of their +own rewarding and avenging divinity, flashing in mutual lights and +sounding in consonant echoes alike from the law of nature and from +the soul of man, as the Son of God, with miraculous voice, speaks +between. + +CHAPTER VII. + +RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. + +OF all the single events that ever were supposed to have occurred +in the world, perhaps the most august in its moral associations +and the most stupendous in its lineal effects, both on the outward +fortunes and on the inward experience of mankind, is the +resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If, therefore, there +is one theme in all the range of thought worthy of candid +consideration, it is this. There are two ways of examining it. We +may, as unquestioning Christians, inquire how the New Testament +writers represent it, what premises they assume, what statements +they make, and what inferences they draw. Thus, without +perversion, without mixture of our own notions, we should +construct the Scripture doctrine of the resurrection of the +Savior. Again as critical scholars and philosophical thinkers, we +may study that doctrine in all its parts, scrutinize it in all its +bearings, trace, as far as possible, the steps and processes of +its formation, discriminate as well as we can, by all fair tests, +whether it be entirely correct, or wholly erroneous, or partly +true and partly false. Both of these methods of investigation are +necessary to a full understanding of the subject. Both are +obligatory upon the earnest inquirer. Whoso would bravely face his +beliefs and intelligently comprehend them, with their grounds and +their issues, with a devout desire for the pure truth, whatsoever +it may be, putting his trust in the God who made him, will never +shrink from either of these courses of examination. Whoso does +shrink from these inquiries is either a moral coward, afraid of +the results of an honest search after that truth of things which +expresses the will of the Creator, or a spiritual sluggard, +frightened by a call to mental effort and torpidly clinging to +ease of mind. And whoso, accepting the personal challenge of +criticism, carries on the investigation with prejudice and +passion, holding errors because he thinks them safe and useful, +and rejecting realities because he fancies them dangerous and +evil, is an intellectual traitor, disloyal to the sacred laws by +which God hedges the holy fields and rules the responsible +subjects of the realm of truth. We shall combine the two modes of +inquiry, first singly asking what the Scriptures declare, then +critically seeking what the facts will warrant, it being +unimportant to us whether these lines exactly coincide or diverge +somewhat, the truth itself being all. We now pass to an +examination of Christ's resurrection from five points of view: +first, as a fact; second, as a fulfilment of prophecy; third, as a +pledge; fourth, as a symbol; and fifth, as a theory. + +The writers of the New Testament speak of the resurrection of +Christ, in the first place, as a fact. "Jesus whom ye slew and +hanged on a tree, him hath God raised up." It could not have been +viewed by them in the light of a theory or a legend, nor, indeed, +as any thing else than a marvellous but literal fact. This appears +from their minute accounts of the scenes at the sepulchre and of +the disappearance of his body. Their declarations of this are most +unequivocal, emphatic, iterated, "The Lord is risen indeed." All +that was most important in their faith they based upon it, all +that was most precious to them in this life they staked upon it. +"Else why stand we in jeopardy every hour?" They held it before +their inner vision as a guiding star through the night of their +sufferings and dangers, and freely poured out their blood upon the +cruel shrines of martyrdom in testimony that it was a fact. +That they believed he literally rose from the grave in visible +form also appears, and still more forcibly, from their descriptions +of his frequent manifestations to them. These show that in their +faith he assumed at his resurrection the same body in which he had +lived before, which was crucified and buried. All attempts, whether +by Swedenborgians or others, to explain this Scripture language as +signifying that he rose in an immaterial body, are futile.1 He +appeared to their senses and was recognised by his identical +bodily form. He partook of physical food with them. "They gave him +a piece of broiled fish and of an honey comb; and he ate before +them." The marks in his hands and side were felt by the +incredulous Thomas, and convinced him. He said to them, "Handle +me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me +have." To a candid mind there can hardly be a question that the +gospel records describe the resurrection of Christ as a literal +fact, that his soul reanimated the deceased body, and that in it +he showed himself to his disciples. Yet that there are a few texts +implying the immateriality of his resurrection body that there are +two accounts of it in the gospels we cannot deny. + +We advance to see what is the historical evidence for the fact of +the resurrection of Christ. This argument, of course, turns +chiefly on one point, namely, the competency of the witnesses, and +the validity of their testimony.2 We will present the usually +exhibited scheme of proof as strongly as we can.3 In the first +place, those who testified to the resurrection were numerous +enough, so far as mere numbers go, to establish the fact beyond +question. Paul declares there were above five hundred who from +their personal knowledge could affirm of the Lord's resurrection. +But particularly there were the eleven apostles, the two Marys, +Cleopas, and the disciples from whom Joseph and Matthias the +candidates for Judas Iscariot's apostleship were selected, +consisting probably of most of the seventy. If the evidence of any +number of men ought to convince us of the alleged event, then, +under the existing circumstances, that of twelve ought. Important +matters of history are often unhesitatingly received on the +authority of a single historian. If the occurrences at the time +were sufficient to demonstrate to a reasonable mind the reality of +the resurrection, then the unanimous testimony of twelve men to +those occurrences should convince us. The oaths of a thousand +would be no stronger. + +These men possessed sufficient abilities to be trusted, good +powers of judgment, and varied experience. The selection of them +by Him who "knew what was in man," the boldness and efficiency of +their lives, the fruits of their labors everywhere, amply prove +their + +1 The opposite view is ably argued by Bush in his valuable +treatise on the Resurrection. + +2 Sherlock, Trial of the Witnesses. + +3 Ditton, Demonstration of the Resurrection of Christ. For a +sternly faithful estimate of the cogency of this argument, it must +be remembered that all the data, every fact and postulate in each +step of the reasoning, rest on the historical authority of the +four Gospels, documents whose authorship and date are lost in +obscurity. Even of "orthodox" theologians few, with any claims to +scholarship, now hold that these Gospels, as they stand, were +written by the persons whose names they bear. They wander and +waver in a thick fog. See Milman's "History of Christianity," vol. +i. ch. ii. appendix ii. + + +general intelligence and energy. And they had, too, the most +abundant opportunities of knowledge in regard to the facts to +which they bore witness. They were present in the places, at the +times, when and where the events occurred. Every motive would +conspire to make them scrutinize the subject and the attendant +circumstances. And it seems they did examine; for at first some +doubted, but afterwards believed. They had been close companions +of Jesus for more than a year at the least. They had studied his +every feature, look, gesture. They must have been able to +recognise him, or to detect an impostor, if the absurd idea of an +attempted imposition can be entertained. They saw him many times, +near at hand, in the broad light. Not only did they see him, but +they handled his wounded limbs and listened to his wondrous voice. +If these means of knowing the truth were not enough to make their +evidence valid, then no opportunities could be sufficient. + +Whoso allows its full force to the argument thus far will admit +that the testimony of the witnesses to the resurrection is +conclusive, unless he suspects that by some cause they were either +incapacitated to weigh evidence fairly, or were led wilfully to +stifle the truth and publish a falsehood. Very few persons have +ever been inclined to make this charge, that the apostles were +either wild enthusiasts of fancy, or crafty calculators of fraud; +and no one has ever been able to support the position even with +moderate plausibility. Granting, in the first place, +hypothetically, that the disciples were ever so great enthusiasts +in their general character and conduct, still, they could not have +been at all so in relation to the resurrection, because, before it +occurred, they had no belief, expectations, nor thoughts about it. +By their own frank confessions, they did not understand Christ's +predictions, nor the ancient supposed prophecies of that event. +And without a strong faith, a burning hopeful desire, or something +of the kind, for it to spring from, and rest on, and be nourished +by, evidently no enthusiasm could exist. Accordingly, we find that +previous to the third day after Christ's death they said nothing, +thought nothing, about a resurrection; but from that time, as by +an inspiration from heaven, they were roused to both words and +deeds. The sudden astonishing change here alluded to is to be +accounted for only by supposing that in the mean time they had +been brought to a belief that the resurrection had occurred. But, +secondly, it is to be noticed that these witnesses were not +enthusiasts on other subjects. No one could be the subject of such +an overweening enthusiasm as the hypothesis supposes, without +betraying it in his conduct, without being overmastered and led by +it as an insane man is by his mania. The very opposite of all this +was actually the case with the apostles. The Gospels are +unpretending, dispassionate narratives, without rhapsody, +adulation, or vanity. Their whole conduct disproves the charge of +fanaticism. Their appeals were addressed more to reason than to +feeling; their deeds were more courageous than rash. They avoided +tumult, insult, and danger whenever they could honorably do so; +but, when duty called, their noble intrepidity shrank not. They +were firm as the trunks of oaks to meet the agony and horror of a +violent death when it came; yet they rather shunned than sought to +wear the glorious crown from beneath whose crimson circlet drops +of bloody sweat must drip from a martyr's brows. The number of the +witnesses for the resurrection, the abilities they possessed, +their opportunities for knowing the facts, prove the impossibility +of their being duped, unless we suppose them to have been blind +fanatics. This we have just shown they were not. Would it not, +moreover, be most marvellous if they were such heated fanatics, +all of them, so many men? + +But there is one further foothold for the disbeliever in the +historic resurrection of Christ. He may say, "I confess the +witnesses were capable of knowing, and undoubtedly did know, the +truth; but, for some reason, they suppressed it, and proclaimed a +deception." As to this charge, we not only deny the actuality, but +even the possibility, of its truth. The narratives of the +evangelists contain the strongest evidences of their honesty. The +many little unaccountable circumstances they recount, which are so +many difficulties in the way of critical belief, the real and the +apparent inconsistencies, none of these would have been permitted +by fraudulent authors. They are the most natural things in the +world, supposing their writers unsuspiciously honest. They also +frankly confess their own and each others' errors, ignorance, +prejudices, and faults. Would they have done this save from +simple hearted truthfulness? Would a designing knave voluntarily +reveal to a suspicious scrutiny actions and traits naturally +subversive of confidence in him? The conduct of the disciples +under the circumstances, through all the scenes of their after +lives, proves their undivided and earnest honesty. The cause they +had espoused was, if we deny its truth, to the last degree +repulsive in itself and in its concomitants, and they were +surrounded with allurements to desert it. Yet how unyielding, +wonderful, was their disinterested devotedness to it, without +exception! Not one, overcome by terror or bowed by strong anguish, +shrank from his self imposed task and cried out, "I confess!" No; +but when they, and their first followers who knew what they knew, +were laid upon racks and torn, when they were mangled and devoured +alive by wild beasts, when they were manacled fast amidst the +flames till their souls rode forth into heaven in chariots of +fire, amidst all this, not one of them ever acknowledged fraud or +renounced his belief in the resurrection of Jesus. Were they not +honest? Others have died in support of theories and opinions with +which their convictions and passions had become interwoven: they +died rather than deny facts which were within the cognizance of +their senses. Could any man, however firm and dauntless, under the +circumstances, go through the trials they bore, without a feeling +of truth and of God to support him? + +These remarks are particularly forcible in connection with the +career of Paul. Endowed with brilliant talents, learned, living at +the time and place, he must have been able to form a reliable +opinion. And yet, while all the motives that commonly actuate men +loudmouthed consistency, fame, wealth, pride, pleasure, the rooted +force of inveterate prejudices all were beckoning to him from the +temples and palaces of the Pharisaic establishment, he spurned the +glowing visions of his ambition and dashed to earth the bright +dreams of his youth. He ranged himself among the Christians, the +feeble, despised, persecuted Christians; and, after having suffered +every thing humanity could bear, having preached the resurrection +everywhere with unflinching power, he was at last crucified, or +beheaded, by Nero; and there, expiring among the seven hills of +Rome, he gave the resistless testimony of his death to the +resurrection of Jesus, gasping, as it were, with his last breath, +"It is true." Granting the honesty of these men, we could not have +any greater proof of it than we have now. + +But dishonesty in this matter was not merely untrue; it was also +impossible. If fraud is admitted, a conspiracy must have been +formed among the witnesses. But that a conspiracy of such a +character should have been entered into by such men is in itself +incredible, in the outset. And then, if it had been entered into, +it must infallibly have broken through, been found out, or been +betrayed, in the course of the disasters, perils, terrible trials, +to which it and its fabricators were afterwards exposed. Prove +that a body of from twelve to five hundred men could form a plan +to palm off a gross falsehood upon the world, and could then +adhere to it unfalteringly through the severest disappointments, +dangers, sufferings, differences of opinion, dissension of feeling +and action, without retiring from the undertaking, letting out the +secret, or betraying each other in a single instance in the course +of years, prove this, and you prove that men may do and dare, deny +and suffer, not only without motives, but in direct opposition to +their duty, interest, desire, prejudice, and passion. The +disciples could not have pretended the resurrection from +sensitiveness to the probable charge that they had been miserably +deceived; for they did not understand their Master to predict any +such event, nor had they the slightest expectation of it. They +could not have pretended it for the sake of establishing and +giving authority to the good precepts and doctrines Jesus taught; +because such a course would have been in the plainest antagonism +to all those principles themselves, and because, too, they must +have known both the utter wickedness and the desperate hazards and +forlornness of such an attempt to give a fictitious sanction to +moral truths. In such an enterprise there was before them not the +faintest probability of even the slightest success. Every selfish +motive would tend to deter them; for poverty, hatred, disgrace, +stripes, imprisonment, contempt, and death stared in their faces +from the first step that way. Dishonesty, deliberate fraud, then, +in this matter, was not merely untrue, but was impossible. The +conclusion from the whole view is, therefore, the conviction that +the evidence of the witnesses for the resurrection of Jesus is +worthy of credence. + +There are three considerations, further, worthy of notice in +estimating the strength of the historic argument for the +resurrection. First, the conduct of the Savior himself in relation +to the subject. The charge of unbalanced enthusiasm is +inconsistent with the whole character and life of Jesus; but +suppose on this point he was an enthusiast, and really believed +that three days after his death he would rise again. In that case, +would not his mind have dwelt upon the wonderful anticipated +phenomenon? Would not his whole soul have been wrapped up in it, +and his speech have been almost incessantly about it? Yet he spoke +of it only three or four times, and then with obscurity. Again: +suppose he was an impostor. An impostor would hardly have risked +his reputation voluntarily on what he knew could never take place. +Had he done so, his only reliance must have been upon the +credulous enthusiasm of his followers. He would then have made it +the chief topic, would have striven strenuously to make it a +living and intense hope, an immovable, all controlling faith, +concentrating on it their desires and expectations, heart and +soul. But he really did not do this at all. He did not even make +them understand what his vaticinations of the resurrection meant. +And when they saw his untenanted body hanging on the cross, they +slunk away in confusion and despair. Admit, again, that Christ was +enthusiast, or impostor, or both: these qualities exist not in the +grave. Here was their end. They could neither raise him from the +dead nor move him from the tomb. No considerations in any way +connected with Christ himself, therefore, can account for the +occurrences that succeeded his death. + +Secondly, if the resurrection did not take place, what became of +the Savior's body? We have already given reasons why the disciples +could not have falsely pretended the resurrection. It is also +impossible that they obtained, or surreptitiously disposed of, the +dead and interred body; because it was in a tomb of rock securely +sealed against them, and watched by a guard which they could +neither bribe nor overpower; because they were too much +disheartened and alarmed to try to get it; because they could not +possibly want it, since they expected a temporal Messiah, and had +no hope of a resurrection like that which they soon began +proclaiming to the world. And as for the story told by the watch, +or rather by the chief priests and Pharisees, it has not +consistency enough to hold together. Its foolish unlikelihood has +always been transparent. It is unreasonable to suppose that fresh +guards would slumber at a post where the penalty of slumbering was +death. And, if one or two did sleep, it is absurd to think all +would do so. Besides, if they slept, how knew they what transpired +in the mean time? Could they have dreamed it? Dreams are not taken +in legal depositions; and, furthermore, it would be an astounding, +gratuitous miracle if they all dreamed the same thing at the same +time. + +Finally, a powerful collateral argument in proof of the +resurrection of Christ is furnished by the conduct of the Jews. It +might seem that if the guards told the chief priests, scribes, and +Pharisees, of the miracles which occurred at the sepulchre, they +must immediately have believed and proclaimed their belief in the +Messiahship and resurrection of the crucified Savior. But they had +previously remained invulnerable to as cogent proof as this would +afford. They had acknowledged the miracles wrought by him when he +was alive, but attributed them even his works of beneficence to +demoniacal power. They said, "He casteth out devils by the power +of Beelzebub, the prince of devils." So they acted in the present +case, and, notwithstanding the peerless miracle related by the +sentinels, still persisted in their alienation from the Christian +faith. Their intensely cherished preconceptions respecting the +Messiah, their persecution and crucifixion of Jesus, the glaring +inconsistency of his teachings and experience with most that they +expected, these things compelled their incredulity to every proof +of the Messiahship of the contemned and murdered Nazarene. For, if +they admitted the facts on which such proof was based, they would +misinterpret them and deny the inferences justly drawn from them. +This was plainly the case. It may be affirmed that the Jews +believed the resurrection, because they took no fair measures to +disprove it, but threatened those who declared it. Since they had +every inducement to demonstrate its falsity, and might, it seems, +have done so had it been false, and yet never made the feeblest +effort to unmask the alleged fraud, we must suspect that they were +themselves secretly convinced of its truth, but dared not let it +be known, for fear it would prevail, become mighty in the earth, +and push them from their seats. In the rage and blindness of their +prejudices, they cried, "His blood be on us and on our children!" +And from that generation to our own, their history has afforded a +living proof of the historic truth of the gospel, and of the +stability of its chief corner stone, the resurrection of Christ. +The triumphal progress of Christianity from conquering to +conquering, together with the baffled plans and complete +subjection of the Jews, show that their providential preparatory +mission has been fulfilled. If God is in history, guiding the +moral drift of human affairs, then the dazzling success of the +proclamation of the risen Redeemer is the Divine seal upon the +truth of his mission and the reality of his apotheosis. Planting +himself on this ground, surrounding himself with these evidences, +the reverential Christian will at least for a long time to come +cling firmly to the accepted fact of the resurrection of Christ, +regardless of whatever misgivings and perplexities may trouble the +mind of the iconoclastic and critical truth seeker. + +The Christian Scriptures, assuming the resurrection of Christ as a +fact, describe it as a fulfilment of prophecy. Luke reports from +the risen Savior the words, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe +all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have +suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" "Thus it is +written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from +the dead the third day." Peter declares that the patriarch David +before "spake of the resurrection of Christ." And Paul also +affirms, "That the promise which was made unto the fathers, God +hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath +raised up Jesus again." One can scarcely hesitate in deciding the +meaning of these words as they were used by the apostles. The +unanimous opinion and interpretation of the Christians of the +first centuries, and of all the Church Fathers, leave no shadow of +a doubt that it was believed that the resurrection of Jesus was +repeatedly foretold in the Old Testament, expected by the +prophets, and fulfilled in the event as a seal of the inspired +prophecy. Furthermore, Jesus himself repeatedly prophesied his own +resurrection from the dead, though his disciples did not +understand his meaning until the event put a clear comment on the +words. He charged those who saw his transfiguration on the mount, +"Tell it to no man until the Son of Man be risen again from the +dead." The chief priests told Pilate that they remembered that +Jesus said, while he was yet alive, "After three days I will rise +again." Standing in the temple at Jerusalem, Jesus said once, +"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." +"When, therefore, he was risen from the dead, his disciples +remembered that he had said this unto them;" and then they +understood that "he had spoken of the temple of his body." It is +perfectly plain that the New Testament represents the resurrection +of Christ as the fulfilment of prophecies, those prophecies having +been so expounded by him. + +There are few problems presented to the candid Christian scholar +of to day more perplexing than the one involved in the subject of +these prophecies. Paul declares to King Agrippa, "I say none other +things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should +come: that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first +that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the +Gentiles." It is vain to attempt to disguise the fact that the +ingenuous student cannot find these prophecies in the Old +Testament as we now have it. He will search it through in vain, +unless his eyes create what they see. Let any man endeavor to +discover a passage in the Hebrew Scriptures which, taken with its +context, can fairly bear such a sense. There is not a shadow of +valid evidence of any kind to support the merely traditional +notions on this subject. The only way of discerning predictions of +a death, descent, and ascent, of the Messiah, in the law and the +prophets, is by the application of Cabalistic methods of +interpretation, theories of occult types, double senses, methods +which now are not tolerable to intelligent men. That Rabbinical +interpretation which made the story of Ishmael and Isaac, the two +children borne to Abraham by Hagar and Sarah, an allegory +referring to the two covenants of Judaism and Christianity, could +easily extract any desired meaning from any given text. Bearing in +mind the prevalence of this kind of exegesis among the Jews, and +remembering also that they possessed in the times of Jesus a vast +body of oral law, to which they attributed as great authority as +to the written, there are two possible ways of honestly meeting +the difficulty before us. + +First: in God's counsels it was determined that a Messiah should +afterwards arise among the Jews. The revealed hope of this stirred +the prophets and the popular heart. It became variously and +vaguely hinted in their writings, still more variously and +copiously unfolded in their traditions. The conception of him +gradually took form; and they began to look for a warrior prophet, +a national deliverer, a theocratic king. Jesus, being the true +Messiah, though a very different personage from the one meant by +the writers and understood by the people, yet being the Messiah +foreordained by God, applied these Messianic passages to himself, +and explained them according to his experience and fate. This will +satisfactorily clear up the application of some texts. And others +may be truly explained as poetical illustrations, rhetorical +accommodations, as when he applies to Judas, at the Last Supper, +the words of the Psalm, "He that eateth with me lifteth up his +heel against me;" and when he refers to Jonah's tarry in the +whale's belly as a symbol of his own destined stay beneath the +grave for a similar length of time. Or, secondly, we may conclude +that the prophecies under consideration, referred to in the New +Testament, were not derived from any sacred documents now in our +possession, but either from perished writings, or from oral +sources, which we know were abundant then. Justin Martyr says +there was formerly a passage in Jeremiah to this effect: "The Lord +remembered the dead who were sleeping in the earth, and went down +to them to preach salvation to them." 4 There were floating in the +Jewish mind, at the time of Christ, at least some fragmentary +traditions, vague expectations, that the Messiah was to die, +descend to Sheol, rescue some of the captives, and triumphantly +ascend. It is true, this statement is denied by some; but the +weight of critical authorities seems to us to preponderate in its +favor, and the intrinsic historical probabilities leave hardly a +doubt of it in our own minds.5 Now, three alternatives are offered +us. Either Jesus interpreted Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets, +on the Rabbinical ground of a double sense, with mystic +applications; or he accepted the prophecies referred to, from oral +traditions held by his countrymen; or the apostles misunderstood, +and in consequence partially misreported, him. All we can +positively say is that these precise predictions are plainly not +in the Jewish Scriptures, undoubtedly were in the oral law, and +were certainly received by the apostles as authoritative. + +Continuing our inquiry into the apostolic view of the resurrection +of Christ, we shall perceive that it is most prominently set forth +as the certificate of our redemption from the + +4 Dial. cum Tryph. sect. lxxii. + +5 Discussed, with full list of references, in Strauss's Life of +Jesus, part iii. cap. i. sect. +112. + + +kingdom of death to the same glorious destiny which awaited him +upon his ascension into heaven. The apostles regarded his +resurrection as a supernatural seal set on his mission, warranting +his claims as an inspired deliverer and teacher. Thereby, they +thought, God openly sanctioned and confirmed his promises. +Thereby, they considered, was shown to men God's blessed grace, +freely forgiving their sins, and securing to them, by this pledge, +a deliverance from the doom of sin as he had risen from it, and an +acceptance to a heavenly immortality as he had ascended to it. The +resurrection of Christ, then, and not his death, was to them the +point of vital interest, the hinge on which all hung. Does not the +record plainly show this to an impartial reader? Wherever the +apostles preach, whenever they write, they appeal not to the death +of a veiled Deity, but to the resurrection of an appointed +messenger; not to a vicarious atonement or purchase effected by +the mortal sufferings of Jesus, but to the confirmation of the +good tidings he brought, afforded by the Father's raising him from +the dead. "Whereof he hath given assurance unto all, in that he +hath raised him from the dead," Paul proclaimed on Mars Hill. In +the discourses of the apostles recorded in the Book of Acts, we +find that, when they preached the new religion to new audiences, +the great doctrine in all cases set forth as fundamental and +absorbing is the resurrection; not an atoning death, but a +justifying resurrection. "He died for our sins, and rose for our +justification." Some of the Athenians thought Paul "a setter forth +of two strange gods, Jesus and Resurrection." And when they desire +to characterize Christ, the distinguishing culminating phrase +which they invariably select shows on what their minds rested as +of chief import: they describe him as the one "whom God hath +raised from the dead." "If we believe that Jesus died and rose +again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with +him." "That ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of God's +power toward us who believe, according to the working of his +mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from +the dead and set him at his own right hand in heaven." It is plain +here that the dying of Christ is regarded merely as preliminary to +his rising, and that his resurrection and entrance into heaven are +received as an assurance that faithful disciples, too, shall +obtain admission into the heavenly kingdom. + +The Calvinistic doctrine is that the unutterable vicarious agonies +of the death of Christ placated the wrath of God, satisfied his +justice, and ransomed the souls of the elect from the tortures of +hell, and that his resurrection was simply his victorious return +from a penal conflict with the powers of Satan. The Unitarian +doctrine is that the violent death of Christ was an expression of +self sacrificing love, to exert a moral power on the hearts of +men, and that his resurrection was a miraculous proof of the +authority and truth of his teachings, a demonstration of human +immortality. We maintain that neither of these views fully +contains the true representation of the New Testament. The +artificial horrors of the former cannot be forced into nor wrung +out of the written words; while the natural simplicity and +meagerness of the latter cannot be made to fill up the written +words with adequate significance. There is a medium doctrine, +based on the conceptions prevalent at the time the Christian +system was constructed and written; a doctrine which equally +avoids the credulous excess of the Calvinistic interpretation and +the skeptical poverty of the Unitarian; a doctrine which fully +explains all the relevant language of the New Testament without +violence; a doctrine which, for our own part, we feel sure +accurately represents the ideas meant to be conveyed by the +Scripture authors. We will state it, and then quote, for its +illustration and for their own explanation, the principal texts +relating to the resurrection of Jesus. + +On account of sin, which had alienated man from God and unfitted +him for heaven, he was condemned after death to descend as a +disembodied soul into the dark kingdom of the grave, the under +world. In that cheerless realm of helpless shades and stillness +all departed human spirits were prisoners, and must be, until the +advent of the Messiah, when they, or a part of them, should rise. +This was the Jewish belief. Now, the apostles were Jews, who had +the ideas of their countrymen, to which, upon becoming Christians, +they added the new conceptions formed in their minds by the +teachings, character, deeds, death, resurrection, of Christ, mixed +with their own meditations and experience. Accepting, with these +previous notions, the resurrection of Christ as a fact and a +fulfilment of prophecy, they immediately supposed that his +triumphant exit from the prison of the dead and return to heaven +were the prefiguration of the similar deliverance of others and +their entrance into heaven. They considered him as "the first born +from the dead," "the first fruits of the dead." They emphatically +characterize his return to life as a "resurrection out from among +the dead," "[non-ASCII characters], plainly implying that the rest +of the dead still remained below.6 They received his experience in +this respect as the revealing type of that which was awaiting his +followers. So far as relates to the separate existence of the +soul, the restoration of the widow's son by Elijah, or the +resurrection of Lazarus, logically implies all that is implied in +the mere resurrection of Christ. But certain notions of +localities, of a redemptive ascent, and an opening of heaven for +the redeemed spirits of men to ascend thither, were associated +exclusively with the last. When, through the will of God, Christ +rose, "then first humanity triumphant passed the crystal ports of +light, and seized eternal youth!" Their view was not that Christ +effected all this by means of his own; but that the free grace of +God decreed it, and that Christ came to carry the plan into +execution. "God, for his great love to us, even when we were dead +in sins, has quickened us together with Christ." This was effected +as in dramatic show: Christ died, which was suffering the fate of +a sinner; he went in spirit to the subterranean abode of spirits, +which was bearing the penalty of sin; he rose again, which was +showing the penalty of sin removed by Divine forgiveness; he +ascended into heaven, which was revealing the way for our ascent +thrown open. Such is the general scope of thought in close and +vital connection with which the doctrine of the resurrection of +Christ stands. We shall spare enlarging on those parts of it which +have been sufficiently proved and illustrated in preceding +chapters, and confine our attention as much as may be to those +portions which have direct relations with the resurrection of +Christ. It is our object, then, to show what we think will plainly +appear in the light of the above general statement that, to the +New Testament writers, the resurrection, and not the death, of +Christ is the fact of central moment, is the assuring seal of our +forgiveness, reconciliation, and heavenly adoption. + +6 Wood, The Last Things, pp. 31-44. + + +They saw two antithetical starting points in the history of +mankind: a career of ruin, beginning with condemned Adam in the +garden of Eden at the foot of the forbidden tree, dragging a +fleshly race down into Sheol; a career of remedy, beginning with +victorious Christ in the garden of Joseph at the mouth of the rent +sepulchre, guiding a spiritual race up into heaven. + +The Savior himself is reported as saying, "I lay down my life that +I may take it again:" the dying was not for the sake of +substitutional suffering, but for the sake of a resurrection. +"Except a corn of wheat die, it abideth alone; but, if it die, it +bringeth forth much fruit." "A woman when she is in travail hath +sorrow; but as soon as she is delivered of the child she +remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into +the world." The context here shows the Savior's meaning to be that +the woe of his death would soon be lost in the weal of his +resurrection. The death was merely the necessary antecedent to the +significant resurrection. "Blessed be the God and Father of our +Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath +begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus +Christ from the dead unto an inheritance, incorruptible, +undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you +who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation +ready to be revealed." "Him hath God raised on high by his right +hand, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." How +clear it is here that not the vicarious death of Christ buys off +sinners, but his resurrection shows sins to be freely forgiven, +the penalty remitted! "Remember that Jesus Christ was raised from +the dead, according to my gospel: therefore I endure all things +for the elect's sake, that they may obtain the salvation which is +in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." "Be it known unto you, +therefore, men, brethren, that through Him whom God raised again +is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." The passage in the +Epistle to the Hebrews, ninth chapter, from the twenty third verse +to the twenty seventh, most emphatically connects the annulling of +sin through the sacrifice of Christ with his ascended appearance +in heaven. "Jesus who was delivered for our offences and was +raised again for our justification:" that is, Jesus died because +he had entered the condition of sinful humanity, the penalty of +which was death; he was raised to show that God had forgiven us +our sins and would receive us to heaven instead of banishing us to +the under world. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord +Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him +from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Belief in the resurrection of +Christ is here undeniably made the great condition of salvation. +No text can be found in which belief in the death, or blood, or +atoning merits, of Christ is made that condition. And yet nine +tenths of Christendom by their creeds are to day proclaiming, +"Believe in the vicarious sufferings of Christ, and thou shalt be +saved; believe not in them, and thou shalt be damned!" "God hath +both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us." "If Christ be +not raised, your faith is vain: ye are yet in your sins." This +text cannot be explained upon the common Calvinistic or Unitarian +theories. Whether Christ was risen or not made no difference in +their justification before God if his death had atoned for them, +made no difference in their moral condition, which was as it was; +but if Christ had not risen, then they were mistaken in supposing +that heaven had been opened for them: they were yet held in the +necessity of descending to the under world, the penalty of their +sins. The careful reader will observe that, in many places in the +Scriptures where a burden and stress of importance seem laid upon +the death of Christ, there immediately follows a reference to his +resurrection, showing that the dying is only referred to as the +preparatory step to the rising, the resurrection being the +essential thing. "The Apostle Paul scarcely speaks of the death of +the Savior except in connection with his resurrection," Bleek +says, in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. "It is +Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again and is now at +the right hand of God." + +"If we believe that Jesus died and rose again." "To this end +Christ both died, and rose and lived again." "He died for them and +rose again." We confidently avow, therefore, that the Christian +Scriptures concentrate the most essential significance and value +of the mission of Jesus in his resurrection, describing it as the +Divine seal of his claims, the visible proof and pledge of our +redemption, by God's freely forgiving grace, from the fatal +bondage of death's sepulchral domain to the blessed splendors of +heaven's immortal life. + +There remain a class of passages to be particularly noticed, in +which an extraordinary emphasis seems to be laid on Christ's +sufferings, Christ's blood, Christ's death, three phrases that +mean virtually the same thing and are used interchangeably. The +peculiar prominence given to the idea of the sacrifice of Christ +in the instances now referred to is such as might lead one to +suppose that some mysterious efficacy was meant to be attributed +to it. But we think an accurate examination of the subject will +show that these texts are really in full harmony with the view we +have been maintaining. Admitting that the resurrection of Christ +was the sole circumstance of ultimate meaning and importance, +still, his violent and painful death would naturally be spoken of +as often and strongly as it is, for two reasons. First, the chief +ground of wonder and claim for gratitude to him was that he should +have left his pre existent state of undisturbed bliss and glory, +and submitted to such humiliation and anguish for others, for +sinners. Secondly, it was the prerequisite to his resurrection, +the same, in effect, with it, since the former must lead to the +latter; for, as the foremost apostle said, "It was not possible +that he should be holden in death." + +The apostolical writers do not speak of salvation by the blood of +Christ any more plainly than they do of salvation by the name of +Christ, salvation by grace, and salvation by faith. If at one time +they identify him with the sacrificial "lamb," at another time +they as distinctively identify him with the "high priest offering +himself," and again with "the great Shepherd of the sheep," and +again with "the mediator of the new covenant," and again with "the +second Adam." These are all figures of speech, and, taken +superficially, they determine nothing as to doctrine. The +propriety and the genuine character and force of the metaphor are +in each case to be carefully sought with the lights of learning +and under the guidance of a docile candor. The thoughts that, in +consequence of transmitted sin, all departed souls of men were +confined in the under world that Christ, to carry out and +revealingly exemplify the free grace of the Father, came into the +world, died a cruel death, descended to the prison world of the +dead, declared there the glad tidings, rose thence and ascended +into heaven, the forerunner of the ransomed hosts to follow, these +thoughts enable us to explain, in a natural, forcible, and +satisfactory manner, the peculiar phraseology of the New Testament +in regard to the death of Christ, without having recourse to the +arbitrary conceptions and mystical horror usually associated with +it now. + +For instance, consider the passage in the second chapter of the +Epistle to the Ephesians, from the eleventh verse to the +nineteenth. The writer here says that "the Gentiles, who formerly +were far off, strangers from the covenants of promise, are now +made nigh by the blood of Christ." This language he clearly +explains as meaning that through the death and resurrection of +Christ "the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles was +broken down" and a universal religion inaugurated, free from all +invidious distinctions and carnal ordinances. In his bodily death +and spiritual ascension the Jewish ritual law was abolished and +the world wide moral law alone installed. From his spirit, rising +into heaven, all national peculiarities fell away, and through him +Jews and Gentiles both had access, by communion with his ascended +and cosmopolitan soul, unto the Father. A careful study of all the +passages in the New Testament which speak of Christ as delivering +men from the wrath of God will lead, it seems to us, almost every +unprejudiced person to agree with one of the ablest German +critics, who says that "the technical phrase 'wrath of God' here +means, historically, banishment of souls into the under world, and +that the fact of Christ's triumph and ascent was a precious pledge +showing to the Christians that they too should ascend to eternal +life in heaven."7 The doctrine of the descent of Christ among the +dead and of his redemptive mission there has of late wellnigh +faded from notice; but if any one wishes to see the evidence of +its universal reception and unparalleled importance in the +Christian Church for fifteen hundred years, presented in +overwhelming quantity and irresistible array, let him read the +learned work devoted to this subject recently published in +Germany.8 He can hardly peruse this work and follow up its +references without seeing that, almost without an exception, from +the days of Peter and Paul to those of Martin Luther, it has been +held that "the death and resurrection of Christ are the two poles +between which," as Guder says, "his descent into the under world +lies." The phrase "blood of Christ" is often used in Scripture in +a pregnant sense, including the force of meaning that would be +expressed by his death, descent, resurrection, and ascension, with +all their concomitants. As a specimen of innumerable passages of +like import which might be cited, we will quote a single +expression from Epiphanius, showing that the orthodox teachers in +the fourth century attributed redeeming efficacy to Christ's +resurrection rather than to his death." As the pelican restores +its dead offspring by dropping its own blood upon their wounds, so +our Lord Jesus Christ dropped his blood upon Adam, Eve, and all +the dead, and gave them life by his burial and resurrection." 9 + +It was a part of the Mosaic ritual, laid down in the sixteenth +chapter of Leviticus, that on the great annual day of expiation +there should be two goats chosen by lot, one for the Lord and one +for Azazel. The former the high priest was to slay, and with his +blood sprinkle + +7 Bretschneider, Religiose Glaubenslehre, sect. 59: Christus der +Erloser vom Tode. + +8 Guder, Die Lehre von der Erscheinung Jesu Christi unter den +Todten: In ihrem Zusammenhange mit der Lehre von den Letzten +Dingen. + +9 Physiol., cap. 8: De Pelecano. + + +the mercy seat. The latter, when the high priest's hands had been +laid on his head and all the iniquities of the children of Israel +confessed over him, was to be sent into the wilderness and loosed. +The former goat is called "a sin offering for the people." The +latter is called "a scape goat to make an atonement with the +Lord." The blood of the sin offering could not have been supposed +to be a substitute purchasing the pardon of men's offences, +because there is no hint of any such idea in the record, and +because it was offered to reconcile "houses," "tabernacles," +"altars," as well as to reconcile men. It had simply a ceremonial +significance. Such rites were common in many of the early +religions. They were not the efficient cause of pardon, but were +the formal condition of reconciliation. And then, in regard to the +scapegoat, it was not sacrificed as an expiation for sinners; it +merely symbolically carried off the sins already freely forgiven. +All these forms and phrases were inwrought with the whole national +life and religious language of the Jews. Now, when Jesus appeared, +a messenger from God, to redeem men from their sins and to promise +them pardon and heaven, and when he died a martyr's death in the +fulfilment of his mission, how perfectly natural that this +sacrificial imagery these figures of blood, propitiation, +sprinkling the mercy seat should be applied to him, and to his +work and fate! The burden of sins forgiven by God's grace in the +old covenant the scape goat emblematically bore away, and the +people went free. So if the words must be supposed to have an +objective and not merely a moral sense when the Baptist cried, +"Behold the Lamb of God, that beareth off the sin of the world," +his meaning was that Jesus was to bear off the penalty of sin that +is, the Hadean doom which God's free grace had annulled and open +heaven to the ranks of reconciled souls. There is not the least +shadow of proof that the sacrifices in the Mosaic ritual were +Divinely ordained as types pre figuring the great sacrifice of +Christ. There is no such pretence in the record, no such tradition +among the people, not the slightest foundation whatever of any +sort to warrant that arbitrary presumption. All such applications +of them are rhetorical; and their historical force and moral +meaning are clearly explicable on the views which we have +presented in the foregoing pages, but are most violently strained +and twisted by the Calvinistic theory to meet the severe +exigencies of a theoretical dogma. + +If any one, granting that the central efficacy of the mission of +Christ, dogmatically and objectively considered, lay in his +descent into Hades and in his resurrection, maintains that still +certain passages in the New Testament do ascribe an expiatory +effect directly to his death as such, we reply that this +interpretation is quite likely to be correct. And we can easily +trace the conception to its origin beyond the pale of revelation. +It was an idea prevalent among the Jews in the time of the +apostles, and before, that death was an atonement for all sins, +and that the death of the righteous atoned for the sins of +others.10 Now, the apostles might adopt this view and apply it +pre eminently to the case of Christ. This is the very explanation +given by Origen.11 De Wette quotes the following sentence, and +many others of the same purport, + +10 Gfrorer, Gesehichte des Urchristenthums, abth. ii. pp. 187 +190. + +11 Mosheim, Commentaries on Christianity in the First Three +Centuries, Eng. trans., vol. ii. pp. 162-163. + +from the Talmud: "The death of the just is the redemption of +sinners."12 The blood of any righteous man was a little atonement; +that of Christ was a vast one. The former all Protestants call a +heathen error. So they should the latter, because it sprung from +the same source and is the same in principle. If, then, there are +any scriptural texts which imply that the mere death of Christ had +a vicarious, expiatory efficacy, they are, so far forth, the +reflection of heathen and Jewish errors yet lingering in the minds +of the writers, and not the inspired revelation of an isolated, +arbitrary after expedient contrived in the secret counsels of God +and wonderfully interpolated into the providential history of the +world. But, if there are any such passages, they are few and +unimportant. The great mass of the scriptural language on this +subject is fairly and fully explained by the historical theory +whose outlines we have sketched. The root of the matter is the +resurrection of Christ out from among the dead and his ascent into +heaven. + +It has not been our purpose in this chapter, or in the preceding +chapters, to present the history of the Christian doctrine of the +atonement, either in its intrinsic significance or in its +relations to subjective religious experience. We have only sought +to explain it, according to the original understanding of it, in +its objective relations to the fate of men in the future life. The +importance of the subject, its difficulty, and the profound +prejudices connected with it, are so great as not only to excuse, +but even to require, much explanatory repetition to make the truth +clear and to recommend it, in many lights, with various methods, +and by accumulated authorities. Those who wish to see the whole +subject of the atonement treated with consummate fulness and +ability, leaving nothing to be desired from the historical point +of view, have only to read the masterly work of Baur.13 + +In leaving this part of our subject here, we would submit the +following considerations to the candid judgment of the reader. +Admitting the truth of the common doctrine of the atonement, why +did Christ die? It does not appear how there could be any +particular efficacy in mere death. The expiation of sin which he +had undertaken required only a certain amount of suffering. It did +not as far as we can see on the theory of satisfaction by an +equivalent substituted suffering require death. It seems as if +local and physical ideas must have been associated with the +thought of his death. And we find the author of the Epistle to the +Hebrews thus replying to the question, Why did Christ die? "That +through death he might destroy him that hath the power of death, +that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death +were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Now, plainly, this +end was accomplished by his resurrection bursting asunder the +bonds of Hades and showing that it was no longer the hopeless +prison of the dead. The justice of this explanation appears from +the logical necessity of the series of ideas, the internal +coherence and harmony of thought. It has been ably shown that +substantially this view is the accurate interpretation of the New +Testament doctrine by + +12 Comm. de Morte Christi Expiatoria, cap. iii.: Qua Judaorum +Recentiorum Christologia de Passione ac Morte Messia docet. + +13 Die Christliche Lehre von der Versohnung in ihrer +Geschichtlichen Entwicklung von der Alteaten Zeit bis auf die +Neueste. + +Steinbart,14 Schott,15 Bretschneider,16 Klaiber,17 and others. The +gradual deviations from this early view can be historically +traced, step by step, through the refining speculations of +theologians. First, in ecclesiastical history, after the New +Testament times, it is thought the devil has a right over all +souls in consequence of sin. Christ is a ransom offered to the +devil to offset his claim. Sometimes this is represented as a fair +bargain, sometimes as a deception practised on the devil, +sometimes as a battle waged with him. Next, it is conceived that +the devil has no right over human souls, that it is God who has +doomed them to the infernal prison and holds them there for their +sin. Accordingly, the sacrifice of Christ for their ransom is +offered not to the tyrannical devil but to the offended God. +Finally, in the progress of culture, the satisfaction theory +appears; and now the suffering of Christ is neither to buy souls +from the devil nor to appease God and soften his anger into +forgiveness; but it is to meet the inexorable exigencies of the +abstract law of infinite justice and deliver sinners by bearing +for them the penalty of sin. The whole course of thought, once +commenced, is natural, inevitable; but the starting point is from +an error, and the pausing places are at false goals. + +The view which we have asserted to be the scriptural view +prevailed as the orthodox doctrine of the Church throughout the +first three centuries, as Bahr has proved in his valuable treatise +on the subject.18 He shows that during that period Christ's death +was regarded as a revelation of God's love, a victory over the +devil, (through his resurrection,) a means of obtaining salvation +for men, but not as a punitive sacrifice, not as a vindication of +God's justice, not as a vicarious satisfaction of the law.19 If +the leading theologians of Christendom, such as Anselm, Calvin, +and Grotius, have so thoroughly repudiated the original Christian +and patristic doctrine of the atonement, and built another +doctrine upon their own uninspired speculations, why should our +modern sects defer so slavishly to them, and, instead of freely +investigating the subject for themselves from the first sources of +Scripture and spiritual philosophy, timidly cling to the results +reached by these biassed, morbid, and over sharp thinkers? In +proportion as scholarly, unfettered minds engage in such a +criticism, we believe the exposition given in the foregoing pages +will be recognised as scriptural. Without involving this whole +theory, how can any one explain the unquestionable fact that +during the first four centuries the entire orthodox Church +believed that Christ at his resurrection from the under world +delivered Adam from his imprisonment there?20 All acknowledge that +the phrase "redemption by the blood of Christ" is a metaphor. The +only question is, what meaning was it intended to convey? We +maintain its meaning to be that + +14 System der Reinen Philosophie, oder Gluckseligkeitslehre des +Christenthums, u.s.f. + +15 Epitome Theologia Christiana Dogmatica. + +16 Die Lehren von Adam's Fall, der Erbsunde, und dem Opfer +Christi. + +17 Studien der Evang. Geietlichkeit Wurtemburgs, viii. 1, 2. +Doederlein, Morus, Knapp, Schwarze, and Reinhard affirm that the +death of Christ was not the price of our pardon, but the +confirming declaration of free pardon from God. Hagenbach, +Dogmengeschichte, sect. 297, note 5. + +18 Die Lehre der Kirche vom Tode Jesu in den Ersten Drei +Jahrhunderteu. + +19 Die Lehre der Kirche vom Tode Jesu in den Ersten Drei +Jahrhunderten, ss. 176-180. + +20 Augustine, Epist. ad Evodium 99. Op. Imp. vi. 22, 30. Epist. +164. Dante makes Adam say he had been 4302 years in Limbo when +Christ, at his descent, rescued him. Paradise, canto xxvi. + + +through all the events and forces associated with the death of +Christ, including his descent to Hades and his resurrection, men +are delivered from the doom of the under world. The common +theology explains it as teaching that there was an expiatory +efficacy in the unmerited sufferings of Christ. The system known +as Unitarianism says it denotes merely the exertion of a saving +spiritual power on the hearts of men. The first interpretation +charges the figure of speech with a dramatic revelation of the +love of God freely rescuing men from their inherited fate. The +second seems to make it a tank of gore, where Divine vengeance +legally laps to appease its otherwise insatiable appetite. The +third fills it with a regenerative moral influence to be +distributed upon the characters of believers. The two former also +include the last; but it excludes them. Now, as it seems to us, +the first is the form of mistake in which the early Church, +including the apostles, embodied the true significance of the +mission of Christ. Owing to the circle of ideas in which they +lived, this was the only possible form in which the disciples of +Jesus could receive the new doctrine of a blessed immortality +brought to light by Christianity.21 The second is the form of +false theory in which a few scholastic brains elaborated the cruel +results of their diseased metaphysical speculations. The third is +the dry, meager, inadequate statement of the most essential truth +in the case. + +There is one more point of view in which the New Testament holds +up the resurrection of Christ. It is regarded as a summons to a +moral and spiritual resurrection within the breast of the +believer. As the great Forerunner had ascended to a spiritual and +immortal life in the heavens, so his followers should be inspired +with such a realizing sense of heavenly things, with such Divine +faith and fellowship, as would lift them above the world, with all +its evanescent cares, and fix their hearts with God. This high +communion with Christ, and intense assurance of a destined speedy +inheritance with him, should render the disciple insensible to the +clamorous distractions of earth, invulnerable to the open and +secret assaults of sin, as if in the body he were already dead, +and only alive in the spirit to the obligations of holiness, the +attractions of piety, and the promises of heaven. "When we were +dead in trespasses and sins, God loved us, and hath quickened us +together with Christ, and hath raised us up together and made us +sit together in heavenly places." "If ye, then, be risen with +Christ, set your affection on things above, not on earthly things; +for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." This +moral symbolic application of the resurrection is most beautiful +and effective. Christ has risen, immaculate and immortal, into the +pure and holy heaven: then live virtuously and piously, that you +may be found worthy to be received unto him. "He that hath this +hope purifieth himself, even as He is pure." Paul enforces this +thought through the striking figure that, since "we are freed from +the law through the death of Christ, we should be married to his +risen spirit and bring forth fruit unto God." And again, when he +speaks in these words, "Christ in you the hope of glory," we +suppose he refers to the spiritual image of the risen Redeemer +formed in the disciples' imagination and heart, the prefiguring +and witnessing pledge of their ascension also to heaven. The same +practical use is made of the doctrine through the rite and sign of +baptism. "Ye are buried with Christ in + +21 Bretschneider forcibly illustrates this in his Handbuch der +Dogmatik der Evang. Luther. Kirche, sects. 156-158, band ii. + + +baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through faith in the +working of God, who hath raised him from the dead." "Wherefore, if +ye be dead with Christ, why are ye subject to worldly ordinances? +and if ye be risen with him, seek those things which are above." +When the disciple sunk beneath the baptizing waters, he was +typically dead and buried, as Jesus was in the tomb; when he rose +from the waters into the air again, he figuratively represented +Christ rising from the dead into heaven. Henceforth, therefore, he +was to consider himself as dead to all worldly sins and lusts, +alive to all heavenly virtues and aspirations. "Therefore," the +apostle says, "we are buried with Christ by baptism unto death, +that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we should +walk in newness of life." "In that Christ died, he died unto sin +once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon +ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto +God." "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: +old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." +This was strictly true to the immediate disciples of Jesus. When +he died, their hearts died within them; they shrank away in +hopeless confusion and gloom. When he returned to life and +ascended to heaven, in feeling and imagination they went with him. +Every moral power and motive started into new life and energy. + +"The day when from the dead Our Lord arose, then everywhere, Out +of their darkness and despair, Triumphant over fears and foes, The +souls of his disciples rose." + +An unheard of assurance of the Father's love and of their eternal +inheritance flooded their being with its regenerating, uplifting +power. To their absorbing anticipations the mighty consummation of +all was at hand. In reflective imagination it was already past, +and they, dead to the world, only lived to God. The material world +and the lust thereof had sunk beneath them and vanished. They were +moving in the universe of imperishable realities unseen by the +fleshly eye. To their faith already was unrolled over them that +new firmament in whose spanless welkin no cloudy tempests ever +gather and break, and the serene lights never fade nor go down. +This experience of a spiritual exaltation above the sins and +degrading turmoils of passion, above the perishing baubles of the +earth, into the religious principles which are independent and +assured, peace, and bliss, and eternity, is attainable by all who +with the earnestness of their souls assimilate the moral truths of +Christianity, pressing in pious trust after the steps of the risen +Master. And this, after all, is the vital essence of the doctrine +of the resurrection as it makes practical appeal to us. This will +stand, though gnawing time and hostile criticism should assail and +shake all the rest. It is something not to be mechanically wrought +upon us from without, but to be done within by our own voluntary +effort and prayer, by God's help. To rise from sloth, unbelief, +sin, from moral death, to earnestness, faith, beneficence, to +eternal life in the breast, is a real and most sublime +resurrection, the indispensable preparation for that other and +final one which shall raise us from the sepulchre to the sky. +When, on Easter morning, Christian disciples throughout the world +hear the joyous cry, "Christ is risen," and their own +hearts instinctively respond, with an unquenchable persuasion that +he is now alive somewhere in the heights of the universe, "Christ +is risen indeed," they should endeavor in spirit to rise too, rise +from the deadly bondage and corruption of vice and indifference. +While the earth remains, and men survive, and the evils which +alienate them from God and his blessedness retain any sway over +them, so oft as that hallowed day comes round, this is the +kindling message of Divine authority ever fresh, and of +transcendent import never old, that it bears through all the +borders of Christendom to every responsible soul: "Awake from your +sleep, arise from your death, lift up your eyes to heaven, and the +risen Redeemer will give you the light of immortal life!" Have +this awakening and deathless experience in the soul, and you will +be troubled by no doubts about an everlasting life succeeding the +close of the world. But so long as this spiritual resurrection in +the breast is unknown, you can have no knowledge of eternal life, +no experimental faith in a future entrance from the grave into +heaven, no, not though millions of resurrections had crowded the +interstellar space with ascending shapes. Rise, then, from your +moral graves, and already, by faith and imagination, sit in +heavenly places with Christ Jesus. + +Before leaving this subject, it belongs to us to look at it as a +theory; that is, to consider with critical scrutiny the +conclusions which are supposed to flow from its central fact. We +must regard it from three distinct points of view, seeking its +meaning in sound logic, its force in past history, its value in +present experience. First, then, we are to inquire what really is +the logical significance of the resurrection of Christ. The +looseness and confusion of thought prevailing in relation to this +point are amazing. It seems as if mankind were contented with +investigations careless, reasonings incoherent, and inferences +arbitrary, in proportion to the momentousness of the matter in +hand. In regard to little details of sensible fact and daily +business their observation is sharp, their analysis careful, their +reflection patient; but when they approach the great problems of +morality, God, immortality, they shrink from commensurate efforts +to master those mighty questions with stern honesty, and remain +satisfied with fanciful methods and vague results. The +resurrection of Christ is generally regarded as a direct +demonstration of the immortality of man, an argument of +irrefragable validity. But this is an astonishing mistake. The +argument was not so constructed by Paul. He did not seek directly +to prove the immortality of the soul, but the resurrection of the +dead. He took for granted the Pharisaic doctrine that all souls on +leaving their bodies descended to Sheol, where they darkly +survived, waiting to be summoned forth at the arrival of the +Messianic epoch. Assuming the further premise that Christ after +death went down among these imprisoned souls, and then rose thence +again, Paul infers, by a logical process strictly valid and +irresistible to one holding those premises, that the general +doctrine of a resurrection from the dead is true, and that by this +visible pledge we may expect it soon, since the Messiah, who is to +usher in its execution, has already come and finished the +preliminary stages of his work. The apostle's own words plainly +show this to be his meaning. "If there be no resurrection of the +dead, then is Christ not risen. But now is Christ risen from the +dead, become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man +came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. Every +man shall be made alive in his own order: Christ the first fruits; +then they that are Christ's, at his coming; then the last remnant, +when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God." The notions +of a universal imprisonment of souls in the intermediate state, +and of a universal raising of them thence at an appointed time, +having faded from a deep and vivid belief into a cold traditional +dogma, ridiculed by many, cared for at all by few, realizingly +held by almost none, Paul's argument has been perverted and +misinterpreted, until it is now commonly supposed to mean this: +Christ has risen from the dead: therefore the soul of man is +immortal. Whereas the argument really existed in his mind in the +reverse form, thus: The souls of men are immortal and are +hereafter to be raised up: therefore Christ has risen as an +example and illustration thereof. It is singular to notice that he +has himself clearly stated the argument in this form three times +within the space of four consecutive verses, as follows: "If there +be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:" "God +raised Christ not up, if so be that the dead rise not." "For if +the dead rise not, then is Christ not raised." The fact of the +resurrection of Christ, taken in connection with the related +notions previously held in the mind of Paul, formed the complement +of an irresistible argument to prove the impending resurrection of +the dead, But if it be now perceived that those other notions were +Pharisaic errors, the argument, as he employed it, falls to the +ground. + +Taken by itself and analyzed by a severe logic, the resurrection +of Christ proves nothing conclusively in regard to our +immortality. If it did of itself prove any thing, the direct +logical inference from it would be that henceforth all men, three +days after death, would rise bodily from the dead, appear for a +season on earth as before, and then ascend visibly into the sky. +If at the present time a man who had been put to death and +entombed three days should openly come forth alive, considered as +an isolated fact, what would it prove? It would merely prove that +a wonderful event had occurred. It would show that either by some +mysterious means he had escaped death, or else that by some +apparently preternatural agency he had been restored to life from +the dead. Taken by itself, it could not prove whether the +occurrence was caused by a demoniacal or by a Divine power, or by +some occult force of nature developed by a peculiar combination of +conditions. The strange event would stand clear to our senses; but +all beyond that would be but an hypothesis of our own, and liable +to mistake. Consequently, we say, the resurrection, taken by +itself, proves no doctrine. But we may so suppose the case that +such an event would, from its relation to something else, acquire +logical meaning. For instance, if Christ had taught that he had +supernatural knowledge of truth, a Divine commission to reveal a +future life, and said that, after he should have been dead and +buried three days, God would restore him to life to authenticate +his words, and if, then, so stupendous a miracle occurred in +accordance with his prediction, it would prove that his claims and +doctrine were true, because God is no accomplice in deception. +Such was the case with Jesus as narrated; and thus his +resurrection appears, not as having doctrinal significance and +demonstrative validity in itself, but as a miraculous +authentication of his mission. That is to say, the Christian's +faith in immortality rests not directly on the resurrection of +Christ, but on his teachings, which were confirmed and sealed by +his resurrection. It is true that, even in this modified form, +some persons of dialectical minds will deny all validity to the +argument. What necessary connection is there, they will ask, +between the exhibition of mechanico chemical wonders, physical +feats, however abnormal and inexplicable, and the possession of +infallibility of intellectual insight and moral utterance? If a +man should say, God is falsehood and hatred, and in evidence of +his declaration should make a whole cemetery disembogue its dead +alive, or cause the sun suddenly to sink from its station at noon +and return again, would his wonderful performance prove his +horrible doctrine? Why, or how, then, would a similar feat prove +the opposite doctrine? Plainly, there is not, on rigid logical +principles, any connecting tie or evidencing coherence between a +physical miracle and a moral doctrine.22 We admit the correctness +of this, on philosophical grounds. But the validity of a miracle +as proof of a doctrine rests on the spontaneous assumption that no +man can work a miracle unless God specially delegate him the +power: thereby God becomes the voucher of his envoy. And when a +person claiming to be a messenger from God appears, saying, "The +Father hath commanded me to declare that in the many mansions of +his house there is a blessed life for men after the close of this +life," and when he promises that, in confirmation of his claim, +God will restore him to life after he shall have been three days +dead, and when he returns accordingly triumphant from the +sepulchre, the argument will be unquestioningly received as valid +by the instinctive common sense of all who are convinced of the +facts. + +We next pass from the meaning of the resurrection in logic to its +force and working in history. When Jesus hung on the cross, and +the scornful shouts of the multitude murmured in his ears, the +disciples had fled away, disappointed, terror stricken, +despairing. His star seemed set in a hopeless night of shame and +defeat. The new religion appeared a failure. But in three days +affairs had taken a new aspect. He that was crucified had risen, +and the scattered disciples rallied from every quarter, and, +animated by faith and zeal, went forth to convert the world. As an +organic centre of thought and belief, as a fervid and enduring +incitement to action, in the apostolic times and all through the +early centuries, the received fact of the resurrection of Christ +wielded an incomparable influence and produced incalculable +results. Christianity indeed rose upon it, and, to a great extent, +flourished through it. The principal effect which the gospel has +had in bringing life and immortality to light throughout a large +part of the world is to be referred to the proclaimed resurrection +of Christ. For without the latter the former would not have been. +Its historical value has therefore been immense. More than nine +tenths of the dormant common faith of Christendom in a future life +now outwardly reposes on it from tradition and custom. The great +majority of Christians grow up, by education and habit, without +any sharp conscientious investigation of their own, to an +undisturbed belief in immortality, a belief passively resting on +the demonstration of the doctrine supposed to have been furnished +by the resurrection of Christ in Judea two thousand years ago. The +historical power of that fact has therefore been inexpressibly +important; and its vast and happy consequences as food and basis +of faith still remain. But this historic force is no longer what +it once was as a living and present cause. It now operates mostly +through traditional reception as an established doctrine to be +taken + +22 J. Blanco White, Letter on Miracles, in appendix to Martineau's +Rationale of Religious Inquiry. + + +for granted, without fresh individual inquiry. Education and +custom use it as an unexamined but trusted foundation to build on +by common assumptions. And so the historic impetus is not yet +spent. But it certainly has diminished; and it will diminish more. +When faced with dauntless eyes and approached by skeptical +methods, it of course cannot have the silencing, all sufficient +authority, now that it is buried in the dim remoteness of nineteen +centuries and surrounded by obscuring accompaniments, that it had +when its light blazed close at hand. The historical force of the +alleged resurrection of Christ must evidently, other things being +equal, lessen to an unprejudiced inquirer in some proportion to +the lengthening distance of the event from him in time, and the +growing difficulties of ignorance, perplexity, doubt, manifold +uncertainty, deficiency, infidel suggestions, and naturalistic +possibilities, intervening between it and him. The shock of faith +given by the miracle is dissipated in coming through such an abyss +of time. The farther off and the longer ago it was, the more +chances for error and the more circumstances of obscurity there +are, and so much the worth and force of the historical belief in +it will naturally become fainter, till they will finally fade +away. An honest student may bow humbly before the august front of +Christian history and join with the millions around in +acknowledging the fact of the resurrection of Christ. But we +maintain that the essential fact in this historic act is not the +visible resuscitation of the dead body, but the celestial +reception of the deathless spirit. So Paul evidently thought; for +he had never seen Christ in the flesh, yet he places himself, as a +witness to the resurrection of Christ, in the same rank with those +who had seen him on his reappearance in the body: "Last of all he +was seen of me also." Paul had only seen him in vision as a +glorified spirit of heaven. + +We know that our belief in the fleshly resurrection of Jesus rests +on education and habit, on cherished associations of reverence and +attachment, rather than on sifted testimony and convincing proof. +It is plain, too, that if a person takes the attitude, not of +piety and receptive trust, but of skeptical antagonism, it is +impossible, as the facts within our reach are to day, to convince +him of the asserted reality in question. An unprejudiced mind +competently taught and trained for the inquiry, but whose attitude +towards the declared fact is that of distrust, a mind which will +admit nothing but what is conclusively proved, cannot be driven +from its position by all the extant material of evidence. +Education, associations, hopes, affections, leaning that way, he +may be convinced; but leaning the other way, or poised in +indifference on a severe logical ground, he will honestly remain +in his unbelief despite of all the arguments that can be +presented. In the first place, he will say, "The only history we +have of the resurrection is in the New Testament; and the +testimony of witnesses in their own cause is always suspicious; +and it is wholly impossible now really to prove who wrote those +documents, or precisely when and how they originated: besides +that, the obvious discrepancies in the accounts, and the utterly +uncritical credulity and unscientific modes of investigation which +satisfied the writers, destroy their value as witnesses in any +severe court of reason." And in reply, although we may claim that +there is sufficient evidence to satisfy an humble Christian, +previously inclined to such a faith, that the New Testament +documents were written by the persons whose names they bear, and +that their accounts are true, yet we cannot pretend that there is +sufficient evidence effectually to convince a critical inquirer +that there is no possibility of ungenuineness and unauthenticity. +In the second place, such a person will say, "Many fabulous +miracles have been eagerly credited by contemporaries of their +professed authors, and handed down to the credulity of after +times; many actual events, honestly, interpreted as miracles, +without fraud in any party concerned, have been so accepted and +testified to. + +Roman Catholic Christendom claims to this day the performance of +miracles within the Church; while all Protestant Christendom +scouts them as ridiculous tales: and this may be one of them. How +can we demonstrate that it does not fall within the same class on +the laws of evidence?" And although our own moral beliefs and +sympathies may force upon us the most profound conviction to the +contrary, it is plainly out of our power to disprove the +possibility of this hypothesis being true. In the third place, he +will say, "Of all who testify to the resurrection, there is +nothing in the record admitting its entire reliableness as an +ingenuous statement of the facts as apprehended by the authors to +show that any one of them knew that Jesus was actually dead, or +that any one of them made any real search into that point. He may +have revived from a long insensibility, wandered forth in his +grave clothes, mingled afterwards with his disciples, and at last +have died from his wounds and exhaustion, in solitude, as he was +used to spend seasons in lonely prayer by night. Then, with +perfectly good faith, his disciples, involving no collusion or +deceit anywhere, may have put a miraculous interpretation upon it +all, such additional particulars as his visible ascension into the +sky being a later mythical accretion." This view may well seem +offensive, even shocking, to the pious believer; but it is plainly +possible. It is intrinsically more easily conceivable than the +accredited miracle. It is impossible positively to refute it: the +available data do not exist. Upon the whole, then, we conclude +that the time is coming when the basis of faith in immortality, in +order to stand the tests of independent scrutiny, must be +historically as well as logically shifted from a blind dependence +on the miraculous resurrection of Christ to a wise reliance on +insight into the supernatural capacity and destiny of man, on the +deductions of moral reason and the prophecies of religious trust. + +Finally, we pause a moment, in closing this discussion, to weigh +the practical value of the resurrection of Christ as acknowledged +in the experience of the present time. How does that event, +admitted as a fact, rest in the average personal experience of +Christians now? We shall provoke no intelligent contradiction when +we say that it certainly does not often rest on laborious research +and rigorous testing of evidence. We surely risk nothing in saying +that with the multitude of believers it rests on a docile +reception of tradition, an unquestioning conformity to the +established doctrine. And that reception and conformity in the +present instance depend, we shall find by going a step further +back, upon a deep a priori faith in God and immortality. When Paul +reasons that, if the dead are not to rise, Christ is not risen, +but that the dead are to rise, and therefore Christ is risen, his +argument reposes on a spontaneous practical method of moral +assumption, not on a judicial process of logical proof. So is it +with Christians now. The intense moral conviction that God is +good, and that there is another life, and that it would be +supremely worthy of God to send a messenger to teach that doctrine +and to rise from the dead in proof of it, it is this earnest +previous faith that gives plausibility, vitality, and power to the +preserved tradition of the actual event. If we trace the case home +to the last resort, as it really lies in the experience developed +in us by Christianity, we shall find that a deep faith in God is +the basis of our belief, first in general immortality, and +secondly in the special resurrection of Christ as related thereto. +But, by a confusion, or a want, of thought, the former is +mistakenly supposed to rest directly and solely on the latter. The +doctrinal inferences built up around the resurrection of Christ +fall within the province of faith, resting on moral grounds, not +within that of knowledge, resting on logical grounds. For example: +what direct proof is there that Christ, when he vanished from the +disciples, went to the presence of God in heaven, to die no more? +It was only seen that he disappeared: all beyond that except as it +rests on belief in the previous words of Christ himself is an +inference of faith, a faith kindled in the soul by God and not +created by the miracle of the resurrection. + +That imagination, tradition, feeling, and faith, have much more to +do with the inferences commonly drawn from the resurrection of +Christ than any strict investigation of its logical contents has, +appears clearly enough from the universal neglect to draw any +inferences from, or to attribute any didactic importance to, the +other resurrections recorded in the New Testament. We refer +especially to the resurrection narrated in the twenty seventh +chapter of Matthew, "the most stupendous miracle ever wrought upon +earth," it has been termed; and yet hardly any one ever deigns to +notice it. Thus the evangelist writes: "And the graves were +opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came +out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy +city, and appeared unto many." Nothing is inferred from this +alleged event but the power of God. Yet logically what separates +it from the resurrection of Christ? In Greece there was the +accredited account of the resurrection of Er, in Persia that of +Viraf, in Judea that of Lazarus, in other nations those of other +persons. None of these ever produced great results. Yet the +resurrection of one individual from the dead logically contains +all that that of any other individual can. Why, then, has that of +Christ alone made such a change in the faith of the world? +Because, through a combination of causes, it has appealed to the +imagination and heart of the world and stirred their believing +activity, because the thought was here connected with a person, a +history, a moral force, and a providential interposition, fit for +the grandest deductions and equal to the mightiest effects. It is +not accurate philosophical criticism that has done this, but +humble love and faith. + +In the experience of earnest Christians, a personal belief in the +resurrection of Christ, vividly conceived in the imagination and +taken home to the heart, is chiefly effective in its spiritual, +not in its argumentative, results. It stirs up the powers and +awakens the yearnings of the soul, opens heaven to the gaze, +locates there, as it were visibly, a glorious ideal, and thus +helps one to enter upon an inward realization of the immortal +world. The one essential thing is not that Jesus appeared alive in +the flesh after his physical death, the revealer of superhuman +power and possessor of infallibility, but that he divinely lives +now, the forerunner and type of our immortality. + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ESSENTIAL CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF DEATH AND LIFE. + +LET US first notice the uncommon amount of meaning which Christ +and the apostolic writers usually put into the words "death," +"life," and other kindred terms. These words are scarcely ever +used in their merely literal sense, but are charged with a vivid +fulness of significance not to be fathomed without especial +attention. "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." +Obviously this means more than simple life; because those who +neglect the laws of virtue may live. It signifies, distinctively, +true life, the experience of inward peace and of Divine favor. +"Whosoever hateth his brother hath not eternal life abiding in +him, but abideth in death;" that is to say, a soul rankling with +bad passions is "in the gall of bitterness and the bond of +iniquity," but, when converted from hatred to love, it passes from +wretchedness to blessedness. "Let the dead bury their dead." No +one reading this passage with its context can fail to perceive +that it means, substantially, "Let those who are absorbed in the +affairs of this world, and indifferent to the revelation I have +brought from heaven, attend to the interment of the dead; but +delay not thou, who art kindled with a lively interest in the +truth, to proclaim the kingdom of God." When the returning +prodigal had been joyfully received, the father said, in reply to +the murmurs of the elder son, "Thy brother was dead and is alive +again;" he was lost in sin and misery, he is found in penitence +and happiness. Paul writes to the Romans, "Without the law sin was +dead, and I was alive; but when the law was made known, sin came +to life, and I died." In other words, when a man is ignorant of +the moral law, immoral conduct does not prevent him from feeling +innocent and being at peace; but when a knowledge of the law shows +the wickedness of that conduct, he becomes conscious of guilt, and +is unhappy. For instance, to state the thought a little +differently, to a child knowing nothing of the law, the law, or +its purposed violation, sin, does not exist, is dead: he therefore +enjoys peace of conscience; but when he becomes aware of the law +and its authority, if he then break it, sin is generated and +immediately stings, and spiritual happiness dies. + +These passages are sufficient to show that Christianity uses the +words "death" and "life" in a spiritual sense, penetrating to the +hidden realities of the soul. To speak thus of the guilty, +unbelieving man as dead, and only of the virtuous, believing man +as truly alive, may seem at first a startling use of figurative +language. It will not appear so when we notice its appropriateness +to the case, or remember the imaginative nature of Oriental speech +and recollect how often we employ the same terms in the same way +at the present time. We will give a few examples of a similar use +of language outside of the Scriptures. That which threatens or +produces death is sometimes, by a figure, identified with death. +Orpheus, in the Argonautika, speaks of "a terrible serpent whose +yawning jaw is full of death." So Paul says he was "in deaths +oft." Ovid says, "The priests poured out a dog's hot life on the +altar of Hecate at the crossing of two roads." The Pythagoreans, +when one of their number became impious and abandoned, were +accustomed to consider him dead, and to erect a tomb to him, on +which his name and his age at the time of his moral decease were +engraved. The Roman law regarded an excommunicated citizen as +civilis mortuus, legally dead. Fenelon writes, "God has kindled a +flame at the bottom of every heart, which should always burn as a +lamp for him who hath lighted it; and all other life is as death." +Chaucer says, in one of his Canterbury Tales, referring to a man +enslaved by dissolute habits, + +"But certes, he that haunteth swiche delices Is ded while that he +liveth in tho' vices." + +And in a recent poem the following lines occur: + +"From his great eyes The light has fled: When faith departs, when +honor dies, The man is dead." + +To be subjected to the lower impulses of our nature by degraded +habits of vice and criminality is wretchedness and death. The true +life of man consists, the Great Teacher declared, "not in the +abundance of the things which he possesseth, but rather in his +being rich toward God," in conscious purity of heart, energy of +faith, and union with the Holy Spirit. "He that lives in sensual +pleasure is dead while he lives," Paul asserts; but he that lives +in spiritual righteousness has already risen from the dead. To sum +up the whole in a single sentence, the service and the fruits of +sin form an experience which Christianity calls death, because it +is a state of insensibility to the elements and results of true +life, in the adequate sense of that term, meaning the serene +activity and religious joy of the soul. + +The second particular in the essential doctrine of Christianity +concerning the states of human experience which it entitles death +and life is their inherent, enduring nature, their independence on +the objects and changes of this world. The gospel teaches that the +elements of our being and experience are transferred from the life +that now is into the life that is to come, or, rather, that we +exist continuously forever, uninterrupted by the event of physical +dissolution. "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give +him," Jesus declares, "shall never thirst; but the water that I +shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into +everlasting life." John affirms, "The world passeth away, and the +lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." +Paul writes to the Christians at Rome, "In that Christ died, he +died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. +Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but +alive unto God." Numerous additional texts of kindred import might +be cited. They announce the immortality of man, the unending +continuance of the Christian consciousness, unless forfeited by +voluntary defection. They show that sin and woe are not +arbitrarily bounded by the limits of time and sense in the grave, +and that nothing can ever exhaust or destroy the satisfaction of +true life, faith in the love of God: it abides, blessed and +eternal, in the uninterrupted blessedness and eternity of its +Object. The revelation and offer of all this to the acceptance of +men, its conditions, claims, and alternative sanctions, were first +divinely made known and planted in the heart of the world, as the +Scriptures assert, by Jesus Christ, who promulgated them by his +preaching, illustrated them by his example, proved them by his +works, attested them by his blood, and crowned them by his +resurrection. + +And now there is opened for all of us, through him, that is to +say, through belief and obedience of what he taught and +exemplified, an access unto the Father, an assurance of his +forgiveness of us and of our reconciliation with him. We thus +enter upon the experience of that true life which is "joy and +peace in believing," and which remains indestructible through all +the vanishing vagrancy of sin, misery, and the world. "This is +eternal life, that they might know thee, the only true God, and +Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent:" that is, imperishable life is +to be obtained by union with God in faith and love, through a +hearty acceptance of the instructions of Christ. + +The two points thus far considered are, first, that the sinful, +unbelieving, wretched man abides in virtual death, while the +righteous, happy believer in the gospel has the experience of +genuine life; and, secondly, that these essential elements of +human character and experience survive all events of time and +place in everlasting continuance. + +The next consideration prominent in the Christian doctrine of +death and life is the distinction continually made between the +body and the soul. Man is regarded under a twofold aspect, as +flesh and spirit, the one a temporal accompaniment and dependent +medium, the other an immortal being in itself. The distinction is +a fundamental one, and runs through nearly all philosophy and +religion in their reference to man. In the Christian Scriptures it +is not sharply drawn, with logical precision, nor always +accurately maintained, but is loosely defined, with waving +outlines, is often employed carelessly, and sometimes, if strictly +taken, inconsistently. Let us first note a few examples of the +distinction itself in the instructions of the Savior and of the +different New Testament writers. + +"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born +of the spirit is spirit." "Fear not them which kill the body but +are not able to kill the soul." "Though our outward man perish, +yet the inward man is renewed." "He that soweth to his flesh shall +reap corruption; he that soweth to the spirit shall reap life +everlasting." "Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in +the spirit." "Knowing that I must shortly put off this +tabernacle." "The body without the spirit is dead." It would be +useless to accumulate examples. It is plain that these authors +distinguish the body and the soul as two things conjoined for a +season, the latter of which will continue to live when the other +has mixed with the dust. The facts and phenomena of our being from +which this distinction springs are so numerous and so influential, +so profound and so obvious, that it is impossible they should +escape the knowledge of any thinking person. Indeed, the +distinction has found a recognition everywhere among men, from the +ignorant savage, whose instincts and imagination shadow forth a +dim world in which the impalpable images of the departed dwell, to +the philosopher of piercing intellect and universal culture, + +"Whose lore detects beneath our crumbling clay A soul, exiled, and +journeying back to day." + +"Labor not for the meat which perisheth," Jesus exhorts his +followers, "but labor for the meat which endureth unto everlasting +life." The body and the luxury that pampers it shall perish, but +the spirit and the love that feeds it shall abide forever. + +We now pass to examine some metaphorical terms often erroneously +interpreted as conveying merely their literal force. Every one +familiar with the language of the New Testament must remember how +repeatedly the body and the soul, or the flesh and the spirit, are +set in direct opposition to each other, sin being referred to the +former, righteousness to the latter. "I know that in my flesh +there is no good thing; but with my mind I delight in the law of +God." "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit +lusteth against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the +other." All this language and it is extensively used in the +epistles is quite generally understood in a fixed, literal sense; +whereas it was employed by its authors in a fluctuating, +figurative sense, as the critical student can hardly help +perceiving. We will state the real substance of Christian teaching +and phraseology on this point in two general formulas, and then +proceed to illustrate them. First, both the body and the soul may +be corrupt, lawless, empty of Divine belief, full of restlessness +and suffering, in a state of moral death; or both may be pure, +obedient, acceptable in the sight of God, full of faith, peace, +and joy, in a state of genuine life. Secondly, whatever tends in +any way to the former result to make man guilty, feeble, and +wretched, to deaden his spiritual sensibilities, to keep him from +union with God and from immortal reliances is variously +personified as "the Flesh," "Sin," "Death," "Mammon," "the World," +"the Law of the Members," "the Law of Sin and Death;" whatever, on +the contrary, tends in any way to the latter result to purify man, +to intensify his moral powers, to exalt and quicken his +consciousness in the assurance of the favor of God and of eternal +being is personified as "the Spirit," "Life," "Righteousness," +"the Law of God," "the Law of the Inward Man," "Christ," "the Law +of the Spirit of Life in Christ." Under the first class of terms +are included all the temptations and agencies by which man is led +to sin, and the results of misery they effect; under the second +class are included all the aspirations and influences by which he +is led to righteousness, and the results of happiness they insure. +For example, it is written, in the Epistle to the Galatians, that +"the manifest works of the flesh are excessive sensuality, +idolatry, hatred, emulations, quarrels, heresies, murders, and +such like." Certainly some of these evils are more closely +connected with the mind than with the body. The term "flesh" is +obviously used in a sense coextensive with the tendencies and +means by which we are exposed to guilt and degradation. These +personifications, it will therefore be seen, are employed with +general rhetorical looseness, not with definite logical exactness. + +It is self evident that the mind is the actual agent and author of +all sins and virtues, and that the body in itself is unconscious, +irresponsible, incapable of guilt. "Every sin that man doeth is +without the body." In illustration of this point Chrysostom says, +"If a tyrant or robber were to seize some royal mansion, it would +not be the fault of the house." And how greatly they err who think +that any of the New Testament writers mean to represent the flesh +as necessarily sinful and the spirit as always pure, the following +cases to the contrary from Paul, whose speech seems most to lean +that way, will abundantly show. "Glorify God in your body and in +your spirit, which are his." "Know ye not that your body is the +temple of the Holy Ghost?" "Yield not your members as instruments +of unrighteousness unto sin, but as instruments of righteousness +unto God." "That the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our +mortal flesh." "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, +acceptable unto God." It is clear that the author of these +sentences did not regard the body, or literal flesh, as +necessarily unholy, but as capable of being used by the man +himself in fulfilling the will of God. Texts that appear to +contradict this must be held as figures, or as impassioned +rhetorical exclamations. We also read of "the lusts of the mind," +the "fleshly mind," "filthiness of the spirit," "seducing +spirits," "corrupt minds," "mind and conscience defiled," +"reprobate mind," showing plainly that the spirit was sometimes +regarded as guilty and morally dead. The apostle writes, "I pray +that your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved +blameless." The scriptural declarations now cited teach explicitly +that both the body and the soul may be subjected to the perfect +law of God, or that both may abide in rebellion and wickedness, +the latter state being called, metaphorically, "walking after the +flesh," the former "walking after the spirit," that being sin and +death, this being righteousness and life. + +An explanation of the origin of these metaphors will cast further +light upon the subject. The use of a portion of them arose from +the fact that many of the most easily besetting and pernicious +vices, conditions and allurements of sin, defilements and clogs of +the spirit, come through the body, which, while it is itself +evidently fated to perish, does by its earthly solicitations +entice, contaminate, and debase the soul that by itself is invited +to better things and seems destined to immortality. Not that these +evils originate in the body, of course, all the doings of a man +spring from the spirit of man which is in him, but that the body +is the occasion and the aggravating medium of their manifestation. +This thought is not contradicted, it is only omitted, in the words +of Peter: "I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from +fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." For such language +would be spontaneously suggested by the fact that to be in bondage +to the baser nature is hostile alike to spiritual dignity and +peace, and to physical health and strength. The principles of the +moral nature are at war with the passions of the animal nature; +the goading vices of the mind are at war with the organic +harmonies of the body; and on the issues of these conflicts hang +all the interests of life and death, in every sense the words can +be made to bear. + +Another reason for the use of these figures of speech, +undoubtedly, was the philosophy of the ineradicable hostility of +matter and spirit, the doctrine, so prevalent in the East from the +earliest times, that matter is wholly corrupt and evil, the +essential root and source of all vileness. An old, unknown Greek +poet embodies the very soul of this faith in a few verses which we +find in the Anthology. Literally rendered, they run thus: + +"The body is the torment, hell, fate, load, tyrant, +Dreadful pest, and punishing trial, of the soul +Which, when it quits the body, flies, as from the bonds +Of death, to immortal God." + +It was this idea that produced the wild asceticism prevalent in +the Christian Church during the Middle Age and previously, the +fearful macerations, scourgings, crucifixions of the flesh. It +should be understood that, though some of the phraseology of the +Scriptures is tinged by the influence of this doctrine, the +doctrine itself is foreign to Christianity. Christ came eating and +drinking, not abjuring nature, but adopting its teachings, viewing +it as a Divine work through which the providence of God is +displayed and his glory gleams. He was no more of a Pharisee than +nature is. As corn grows on the Sabbath, so it may be plucked and +eaten on the Sabbath. The apostles never recommend self inflicted +torments. The ascetic expressions found in their letters grew +directly out of the perils besetting them and their expectation of +the speedy end of the world. Christianity, rightly understood, +renders even the body of a good man sacred and precious, through +the indwelling of the Infinite. "We have this treasure in earthen +vessels," and the poor, dying tenement of flesh is hallowed as +"A vase of earth, a trembling clod, Constrain'd to hold the breath +of God." + +The chief secret, however, of the origin of the peculiar phrases +under consideration consisted in their striking fitness to the +nature and facts of the case, their adaptedness to express these +facts in a bold and vivid manner. The revelation of the +transcendent claims of holiness, of the pardoning love of God, of +the splendid boon of immortality, made by Christ and enforced by +the miraculous sanctions and the kindling motives presented in his +example, thrilled the souls of the first converts, shamed them of +their degrading sins, opened before their imaginations a vision +that paled the glories of the world, and regenerated them, +stirring up the depths of their religious sensibilities, and +flooding their whole being with a warmth, an energy, a +spirituality, that made their previous experience seem a gross +carnal slumber, a virtual death. "And you hath he quickened, who +were dead in trespasses and sins." They were animated and raised +to a new, pure, glad life, through the feeling of the hopes and +the practice of the virtues of the gospel of Christ. Unto those +who "were formerly in the flesh, the servants of sin, bringing +forth fruit unto death," but now obeying the new form of doctrine +delivered unto them, with renewed hearts and changed conduct, it +is written, "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; +but the spirit is life because of righteousness;" that is, If +Christian truth reign in you, the body may still be tormented, or +powerless, owing to your previous bad habits; but the soul will be +redeemed from its abandonment to error and vice, and be assured of +pardon and immortal life by the witnessing spirit of God. + +The apostle likewise says unto them, "If the Spirit of God dwell +in you, it shall also quicken your mortal bodies." This remarkable +expression was meant to convey a thought which the observation of +common facts approves and explains. If the love of the pure +principles of the gospel was established in them, their bodies, +debilitated and deadened by former abandonment to their lusts, +should be freed and reanimated by its influence. The body to a +great extent reflects the permanent mind and life of a man. It is +an aphorism of Solomon that "a sound heart is the life of the +flesh." And Plotinus declares, "Temperance and justice are the +saviors of the body so far as they are received by it." Deficiency +of thought and knowledge, laziness of spirit, animality of habits, +betray themselves plainly enough in the state and expression of +the physical frame: they render it coarse, dim, and insensible; +the person verges towards the condition of a clod; spiritual +things are clouded, the beacon fire of his destiny wanes, the +possibilities of Christian faith lessen, "the external and the +insensate creep in on his organized clay," he feels the chain of +the brute earth more and more, and finally gives himself up to +utter death. On the other hand, the assimilation of Divine truth +and goodness by a man, the cherishing love of all high duties and +aspirations, exert a purifying, energizing power both on the flesh +and the mind, animate and strengthen them, like a heavenly flame +burn away the defiling entanglements and spiritual fogs that fill +and hang around the wicked and sensual, increasingly pervade his +consciousness with an inspired force and freedom, illuminate his +face, touch the magnetic springs of health and healthful sympathy, +make him completely alive, and bring him into living connection +with the Omnipresent Life, so that he perceives the full testimony +that he shall never die. For, when brought into such a state by +the experience of live spirits in live frames, "We feel through +all this fleshly dresse Bright shootes of everlastingnesse." + +Spiritual sloth and sensual indulgence stupefy, blunt, and confuse +together in lifeless meshes, the vital tenant and the mortal +tenement; they grow incorporate, alike unclean, powerless, guilty, +and wretched. Then "Man lives a life half dead, a living death, +Himself his sepulchre, a moving grave." Active virtue, profound +love, and the earnest pursuit, in the daily duties of life, of +"Those lofty musings which within us sow The seeds of higher kind +and brighter being." Cleanse, vivify, and distinguish the body and +the soul, so that, when this tabernacle of clay crumbles from +around it, the unimprisoned spirit soars into the universe at +once, and, looking back upon the shadowy king bearing his pale +prey to the tomb, exclaims, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, +where is thy victory?" The facts, then, of sin, guilt, weakness, +misery, unbelief, decay, insensibility, and death, joined with the +opposite corresponding class of facts, and considered in their +mutual spiritual and physical relations and results, originally +suggested, and now interpret and justify, that peculiar +phraseology of the New Testament which we have been investigating. +It has no recondite meaning drawn from arbitrary dogmas, but a +plain meaning drawn from natural truths. + +It remains next to see what is the Christian doctrine concerning +literal, physical death, concerning the actual origin and +significance of that solemn event. This point must be treated the +more at length on account of the erroneous notions prevailing upon +the subject. For that man's first disobedience was the procuring +cause of organic, as well as of moral, death, is a doctrine quite +generally believed. It is a fundamental article in the creeds of +all the principal denominations of Christendom, and is +traditionally held, from the neglect of investigation, by nearly +all Christians. By this theory the words of James who writes, +"Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" are interpreted +with strict literalness. It is conceived that, had not evil +entered the first man's heart and caused him to fall from his +native innocence, he would have roamed among the flowers of Eden +to this day. But he violated the commandment of his Maker, and +sentence of death was passed upon him and his posterity. We are +now to prove that this imaginative theory is far from the truth. + +1. The language in which the original account of Adam's sin and +its punishment is stated shows conclusively that the penalty of +transgression was not literal death, but spiritual, that is, +degradation, suffering. God's warning in relation to the forbidden +tree was, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely +die." Of course, Jehovah's solemn declaration was fulfilled as he +had said. But in the day that man partook of the prohibited fruit +he did not die a physical death. He lived, driven from the +delights of Paradise, (according to the account,) upwards of eight +hundred years, earning his bread by the sweat of his brow. +Consequently, the death with which he had been threatened must +have been a moral death, loss of innocence and joy, experience of +guilt and woe. + +2. The common usage of the words connected with this subject in +the New Testament still more clearly substantiates the view here +taken of it. There is a class of words, linked together by +similarity of meaning and closeness of mutual relation, often used +by the Christian writers loosely, figuratively, and sometimes +interchangeably, as has been shown already in another connection. +We mean the words "sin," "flesh," "misery," "death." The same +remark may be made of another class of words of precisely opposite +signification, "righteousness," "faith," "life," "blessedness," +"eternal life." These different words frequently stand to +represent the same idea. "As the law hath reigned through sin unto +death, so shall grace reign through righteousness unto life." In +other terms, as the recognition of the retributive law of God +through rebellion and guilt filled the consciences of men with +wretchedness, so the acceptance of the pardoning love of God +through faith and conformity will fill them with blessedness. Sin +includes conscious distrust, disobedience, and alienation; +righteousness includes conscious faith, obedience, and +reconciliation. Sin and death, it will be seen, are related just +as righteousness and life are. The fact that they are sometimes +represented in the relation of identity "the minding of the flesh +is death, but the minding of the spirit is life" and sometimes in +the relation of cause and effect "the fruit of sin is death, the +fruit of righteousness is life" proves that the words are used +metaphorically, and really mean conscious guilt and misery, +conscious virtue and blessedness. No other view is consistent. We +are urged to be "dead unto sin, but alive unto God;" that is, to +be in a state of moral perfection which turns a deaf and +invincible front to all the influences of evil, but is open and +joyfully sensitive to every thing good and holy. Paul also wrote, +in his letter to the Philippians, that he had "not yet attained +unto the resurrection," but was striving to attain unto it; that +is, he had not yet reached, but was striving to reach, that lofty +state of holiness and peace invulnerable to sin, which no change +can injure, with which the event of bodily dissolution cannot +interfere, because its elements faith, truth, justice, and love +are the immutable principles of everlasting life. + +3. In confirmation of this conclusion, an argument amounting to +certainty is afforded by the way in which the disobedience of Adam +and its consequences, and the obedience of Christ and its +consequences, are spoken of together; by the way in which a sort +of antithetical parallel is drawn between the result of Adam's +fall and the result of Christ's mission. "As by one man sin +entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon +all men, so much more shall all receive the gift of God by one +man, Jesus Christ, and reign unto eternal life." This means, as +the writer himself afterwards explains, that "as by one man's +disobedience many were made sinners" and suffered the consequences +of sin, figuratively expressed by the word "death," "so by the +obedience of one shall many be made righteous" and enjoy the +consequences of righteousness, figuratively expressed by the word +"life." Give the principal terms in this passage their literal +force, and no meaning which is not absolutely incompatible with +the plainest truths can be drawn from it. Surely literal death had +come equally and fully upon all men everywhere; literal life could +do no more. But render the idea in this way, the blessedness +offered to men in the revelation of grace made by Jesus outweighs +the wretchedness brought upon them through the sin introduced by +Adam, and the sense is satisfactory. That which Adam is +represented as having lost, that, the apostle affirms, Christ +restored; that which Adam is said to have incurred, that Christ is +said to have removed. But Christ did not restore to man a physical +immortality on the earth: therefore that is not what Adam +forfeited; but he lost peace of conscience and trust in the Divine +favor. Furthermore, Christ did not free his followers from natural +decay and death: therefore that is not what Adam's transgression +brought upon his children; but it entailed upon them proclivities +to evil, spiritual unrest, and woe. The basis of the comparison is +evidently this: Adam's fall showed that the consequences of sin, +through the stern operation of the law, were strife, despair, and +misery, all of which is implied in the New Testament usage of the +word "death;" Christ's mission showed that the consequences of +righteousness, through the free grace of God, were faith, peace, +and indestructible happiness, all of which is implied in the New +Testament usage of the word "life." In the mind of Paul there was +undoubtedly an additional thought, connecting the descent of the +soul to the under world with the death of the sinful Adam, and its +ascent to heaven with the resurrection of the immaculate Christ; +but this does not touch the argument just advanced, because it +does not refer to the cause of physical dissolution, but to what +followed that event. + +4. It will not be out of place here to demonstrate that sin +actually was not the origin of natural decay, by the revelations +of science, which prove that death was a monarch on the earth for +ages before moral transgression was known. As the geologist +wanders, and studies the records of nature, where earthquake, +deluge, and volcano have exposed the structure of the globe and +its organic remains in strata piled on strata, upon these, as upon +so many pages of the earth's autobiography, he reads the history +of a hundred races of animals which lived and died, leaving their +bones layer above layer, in regular succession, centuries before +the existence of man. It is evident, then, that, independent of +human guilt, and from the very first, chemical laws were in force, +and death was a part of God's plan in the material creation. As +the previous animals perished without sin, so without sin the +animal part of man too would have died. It was made perishable +from the outset. The important point just here in the theology of +Paul was, as previously implied, that death was intended to lead +the soul directly to heaven in a new "spiritual body" or "heavenly +house;" but sin marred the plan, and doomed the soul to go into +the under world, a naked manes, when "unclothed" of "the natural +body" or "earthly house." The mission of Christ was to restore the +original plan; and it would be consummated at his second coming. + +5. There is a gross absurdity involved in the supposition that an +earthly immortality was the intended destiny of man. That +supposition necessarily implies that the whole groundwork of God's +first design was a failure, that his great purpose was thwarted +and changed into one wholly different. And it is absurd to think +such a result possible in the providence of the Almighty. Besides, +had there been no sin, could not man have been drowned if he fell +into the water without knowing how to swim? If a building tumbled +upon him, would he not have been crushed? Nor is this theory free +from another still more palpable absurdity; for, had there been no +interference of death to remove one generation and make room for +another, the world could not support the multitudes with which it +would now swarm. Moreover, the time would arrive when the earth +could not only not afford sustenance to its so numerous +inhabitants, but could not even contain them. So that if this were +the original arrangement, unless certain other parts which were +indisputable portions of it were cancelled, the surplus myriads +would have to be removed to some other world. That is just what +death accomplishes. Consequently, death was a part of God's primal +plan, and not a contingence accidentally caused by sin. + +6. If death be the result of sin, then, of course, it is a +punishment inflicted upon man for his wickedness. In fact, this is +an identical proposition. But death cannot be intended as a +punishment, because, viewed in that light, it is unjust. It comes +equally upon old and young, good and bad, joyous and wretched. It +does not permit the best man to live longest; it does not come +with the greatest terror and agony to the most guilty. All these +things depend on a thousand contingencies strung upon an iron law, +which inheres to the physical world of necessity, and has not its +basis and action in the spiritual sphere of freedom, character, +and experience. The innocent babe and the hardened criminal are +struck at the same instant and die the same death. Solomon knew +this when he said, "As dieth the fool, so the wise man dieth." +Death regarded as a retribution for sin is unjust, because it is +destitute of moral discrimination. It therefore is not a +consequence of transgression, but an era, incident, and step in +human existence, an established part of the visible order of +things from the beginning. When the New Testament speaks of death +as a punishment, it always uses the word in a symbolic sense, +meaning spiritual deadness and misery, which is a perfect +retribution, because it discriminates with unerring exactness. +This has been conclusively proved by Klaiber,1 who shows that the +peculiar language of Paul in regard to the trichotomist division +of man into spirit, soul, and body necessarily involves the +perception of physical death as a natural fact. + +7. Finally, natural death cannot be the penalty of +unrighteousness, because it is not a curse and a woe, but a +blessing and a privilege. Epictetus wrote, "It would be a curse +upon ears of corn not to be reaped; and we ought to know that it +would be a curse upon man not to die." 2 It cannot be the effect +of man's sin, because it is the improvement of man's condition. +Who can believe it would be better for man to remain on earth +forever, under any + +1 Die Neutestamentliche Lehre von der Sunde and Erlosung, ss. 22 +45. + +2 Dissert. ii. 6, 2. + + +circumstances, than it is for him to go to heaven to such an +experience as the faithful follower of Christ supposes is there +awaiting him? It is not to be thought by us that death is a +frowning enemy thrusting us into the gloom of eternal night or +into the flaming waves of irremediable torment, but rather a +smiling friend ushering us into the endless life of the spiritual +world and into the unveiled presence of God. According to the +arrangement and desire of God, for us to die is gain: every +personal exception to this if there be any exception is caused +through the marring interference of personal wickedness with the +Creator's intention and with natural order. Who has not sometimes +felt the bondage of the body and the trials of earth, and peered +with awful thrills of curiosity into the mysteries of the unseen +world, until he has longed for the hour of the soul's liberation, +that it might plume itself for an immortal flight? Who has not +experienced moments of serene faith, in which he could hardly help +exclaiming, "I would not live alway; I ask not to stay: Oh, who +would live alway away from his God?" + +A favorite of Apollo prayed for the best gift Heaven could bestow +upon man. The god said, "At the end of seven days it shall be +granted: in the mean time, live happy." At the appointed hour he +fell into a sweet slumber, from which he never awoke.3 He who +regards death as upon the whole an evil does not take the +Christian's view of it, not even the enlightened pagan's view, but +the frightened sensualist's view, the superstitious atheist's +view. And if death be upon the whole normally a blessing, then +assuredly it cannot be a punishment brought upon man by sin. The +common hypothesis of our mortality namely, that sin, hereditarily +lodged in the centre of man's life, spreads its dynamic virus +thence until it appears as death in the periphery, expending its +final energy within the material sphere in the dissolution of the +physical frame is totally opposed to the spirit of philosophy and +to the most lucid results of science. Science announces death +universally as the initial point of new life.4 + +The New Testament does not teach that natural death, organic +separation, is the fruit of sin, that, if man had not sinned, he +would have lived forever on the earth. But it teaches that moral +death, misery, is the consequence of sin. The pains and +afflictions which sometimes come upon the good without fault of +theirs do yet spring from human faults somewhere, with those +exceptions alone that result from the necessary contingencies of +finite creatures, exposures outside the sphere of human +accountability. With this qualification, it would be easy to show +in detail that the sufferings of the private individual and of +mankind at large are, directly or indirectly, the products of +guilt, violated law. All the woes, for instance, of poverty are +the results of selfishness, pride, ignorance, and vice. And it is +the same with every other class of miseries. + +"The world in Titanic immortality Writhes beneath the burning +mountain of its sins." + +3 Herod. i. 31; Cic. Tusc. Quast. i. 47. + +4 Klencke, Das Buch vom Tode. Entwurf einer Lehre vom Sterben in +der Natur und vom Tode des Mensehen insbesondere. Fur denkende +Freunde der Wissenschaft. + + +Had there been no sin, men's lives would have glided on like the +placid rivers that flow through the woodlands. They would have +lived without strife or sorrow, grown old without sadness or +satiety, and died without a pang or a sigh. But, alas! sin so +abounds in the world that "there is not a just man that lives and +sins not;" and it is a truth whose omnipresent jurisdiction can +neither be avoided nor resisted that every kind of sin, every +offence against Divine order, shall somewhere, at some time, be +judged as it deserves. He who denies this only betrays the +ignorance which conceals from him a pervading law of inevitable +application, only reveals the degradation and insensibility which +do not allow him to be conscious of his own experience. A +harmonious, happy existence depends on the practice of pure morals +and communion with the love of God. This great idea that the +conscientious culture of the spiritual nature is the sole method +of Divine life is equally a fundamental principle of the gospel +and a conclusion of observation and reason: upon the devout +observance of it hinge the possibilities of true blessedness. The +pursuit of an opposite course necessitates the opposite +experience, makes its votary a restless, wretched slave, wishing +for freedom but unable to obtain it. + +The thought just stated, we maintain, strikes the key note of the +Christian Scriptures; and the voices of truth and nature accord +with it. That Christianity declares sin to be the cause of +spiritual death, in all the deep and wide meaning of the term, has +been fully shown; that this is also a fact in the great order of +things has been partially illustrated, but in justice to the +subject should be urged, in a more precise and adequate form. In +the first place, there is a positive punishment flowing evidently +from sin, consisting both in outward inflictions of suffering and +disgrace through human laws and social customs, and in the private +endurance of bodily and mental pains and of strange misgivings +that load the soul with fear and anguish. Subjection to the animal +nature in the obedience of unrighteousness sensibly tends to bring +upon its victim a woeful mass of positive ills, public and +personal, to put him under the vile tyranny of devouring lusts, to +induce deathlike enervation and disease in his whole being, to +pervade his consciousness with the wretched gnawings of remorse +and shame, and with the timorous, tormenting sense of guilt, +discord, alienation, and condemnation. + +In the second place, there is a negative punishment for impurity +and wrong doing, less gross and visible than the former, but +equally real and much more to be dreaded. Sin snatches from a man +the prerogatives of eternal life, by brutalizing and deadening his +nature, sinking the spirit with its delicate delights in the body +and its coarse satisfactions, making him insensible to his highest +good and glory, lowering him in the scale of being away from God, +shutting the gates of heaven against him, and leaving him to +wallow in the mire. The wages of sin is misery, and its gift is a +degradation which prevents any elevation to true happiness. These +positive and negative retributions, however delayed or disguised, +will come where they are deserved, and will not fail. Do a wrong +deed from a bad motive, and, though you fled on the pinions of the +inconceivable lightning from one end of infinite space to the +other, the fated penalty would chase you through eternity but that +you should pay its debt; or, rather, the penalty is grappling with +you from within on the instant, is a part of you. + +Thirdly, if, by the searing of his conscience and absorption in +the world, a sinner escapes for a season the penal consequences +threatened in the law, and does not know how miserable he is, and +thinks he is happy, yet let him remember that the remedial, +restorative process through which he must pass, either in this +life or in the next, involves a concentrated experience of +expiatory pangs, as is shown both by the reason of the thing and +by all relevant analogies. When the bad man awakes as some time or +other he will awake to the infinite perfections and unalterable +love of the Father whose holy commands he has trampled and whose +kind invitations he has spurned, he will suffer agonies of +remorseful sorrow but faintly shadowed in the bitterness of +Peter's tears when his forgiving Master looked on him. Such is the +common deadness of our consciences that the vices of our corrupt +characters are far from appearing to us as the terrific things +they really are. Angels, looking under the fleshly garment we +wear, and seeing a falsehood or a sin assimilated as a portion of +our being, turn away with such feeling as we should experience at +beholding a leprous sore beneath the lifted ermine of a king. A +well taught Christian will not fail to contemplate physical death +as a stupendous, awakening crisis, one of whose chief effects will +be the opening to personal consciousness, in the most vivid +manner, of all the realities of character, with their relations +towards things above and things below himself. + +This thought leads us to a fourth and final consideration, more +important than the previous. The tremendous fact that all the +inwrought elements and workings of our being are self retributive, +their own exceeding great and sufficient good or evil, independent +of external circumstances and sequences, is rarely appreciated. +Men overlook it in their superficial search after associations, +accompaniments, and effects. When all tangible punishments and +rewards are wanting, all outward penalties and prizes fail, if we +go a little deeper into the mysterious facts of experience we +shall find that still goodness is rewarded and evil is punished, +because "the mind is its own place, and can itself," if virtuous, +"make a heaven of hell, if wicked, "a hell of heaven." It is a +truth, springing from the very nature of God and his irreversible +relations towards his creatures, that his united justice and love +shall follow both holiness and iniquity now and ever, pouring his +beneficence upon them to be converted by them into their food and +bliss or into their bane and misery. There is, then, no essential +need of adventitious accompaniments or results to justify and pay +the good, or to condemn and torture the bad, here or hereafter. To +be wise, and pure, and strong, and noble, is glory and blessedness +enough in itself. To be ignorant, and corrupt, and mean, and +feeble, is degradation and horror enough in itself. The one abides +in true life, the other in moral death; and that is sufficient. +Even now, in this world, therefore, the swift and diversified +retributions of men's characters and lives are in them and upon +them, in various ways, and to a much greater extent than they are +accustomed to think. History preaches this with all her revealing +voices. Philosophy lays it bare, and points every finger at the +flaming bond that binds innocence to peace, guilt to remorse. It +is the substance of the gospel, emphatically pronounced. And the +clear experience of every sensitive soul confirms its truth, +echoing through the silent corridors of the conscience the +declarations which fell in ancient Judea from the lips of Jesus +and the pen of Paul: "The pure in heart shall see God;" "The wages +of sin is death." + +We will briefly sum up the principal positions of the ground we +have now traversed. To be enslaved by the senses in the violation +of the Divine laws, neglecting the mind and abusing the members, +is to be dead to the goodness of God, the joys of virtue, and the +hopes of heaven, and alive to guilt, anguish, and despair. To obey +the will of God in love, keeping the body under, and cherishing a +pure soul, is to be dead to the evil of the world, the goading of +passions, and the fears of punishment, and alive to innocence, +happiness, and faith. According to the natural plan of things from +the dawn of creation, the flesh was intended to fall into the +ground, but the spirit to rise into heaven. Suffering is the +retributive result and accumulated merit of iniquity; while +enjoyment is the gift of God and the fruit of conformity to his +law. To receive the instructions of Christ and obey them with the +whole heart, walking after his example, is to be quickened from +that deadly misery into this living blessedness. The inner life of +truth and goodness thus revealed and proposed to men, its personal +experience being once obtained, is an immortal possession, a +conscious fount springing up unto eternity through the beneficent +decree of the Father, to play forever in the light of his smile +and the shadow of his arm. Such are the great component elements +of the Christian doctrine of life and death, both present and +eternal. + +The purely interior character of the genuine teachings of +Christianity on this subject is strikingly evident in the +foregoing epitome. The essential thing is simply that the hate +life of error and sin is inherent alienation from God, in slavery, +wretchedness, death; while the love life of truth and virtue is +inherent communion with God, in conscious freedom and blessedness. +Here pure Christianity leaves the subject, declaring this with +authority, but not pretending to clear up the mysteries or set +forth the details of the subject. Whatever in the New Testament +goes beyond this and meddles with minute external circumstances we +regard as a corrupt addition or mixture drawn from various Gentile +and Pharisaic sources and erroneously joined with the authentic +words of Christ. What we maintain in regard to the apostles and +the early Christians in general is not so much that they failed to +grasp the deep spiritual principles of the Master's teaching, not +that they were essentially in error, but that, while they held the +substance of the Savior's true thoughts, they also held additional +notions which were errors retained from their Pharisaic education +and only partially modified by their succeeding Christian culture, +a set of traditional and mechanical conceptions. These errors, we +repeat, concern not the heart and essence of ideas, but their form +and clothing. For instance, Christ teaches that there is a heaven +for the faithful; the apostles suppose that it is a located region +over the firmament. The dying Stephen said, "Behold, I see the +heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of +God." Again: Christ teaches that there is a banishment for the +wicked; the apostles suppose that it is into a located region +under the earth. In accordance with the theological dogmas of +their time and countrymen, with such modification as the peculiar +character, teachings, and life of Jesus enforced, they believed +that sin sent through the black gates of Sheol those who would +otherwise have gone through the glorious doors of heaven; that +Christ would return from heaven soon, raise the dead from the +under world, judge them, rebanish the reprobate, establish his +perfect kingdom on earth, and reascend to heaven with his elect. +That these distinctive notions came into the New Testament +through the mistakes and imperfect knowledge of the apostles, +how can any candid and competent scholar doubt?5 In the +first place, the process whereby these conceptions were +transmitted and assimilated from Zoroastrian Persia to Pharisaic +Judea is historically traceable. Secondly, the brevity and +vagueness of the apostolic references to eschatology, and their +perfect harmony with known Pharisaic beliefs, prove their mutual +consonance and the derivation of the later from the earlier. If +the supposed Christian views had been unheard of before, their +promulgators would have taken pains to define them carefully and +give detailed expositions of them. Thirdly, it was natural almost +inevitable that the apostles would retain at least some of their +original peculiarities of belief, and mix them with their new +ideas, unless they were prevented by an infallible inspiration. Of +the presence of any such infallibility there is not a shadow of +evidence; but, on the contrary, there is a demonstration of its +absence. For they differed among themselves, carried on violent +controversies on important points. Paul says of Peter, "I +withstood him to the face." The Gentile and Judaic dissensions +shook the very foundations of the Apostolic Church. Paul and +Barnabas "had a sharp controversy, insomuch that they parted +asunder." Almost every commentator and scholar worthy of notice +has been compelled to admit the error of the apostles in expecting +the visible return of Christ in their own day. And, if they erred +in that, they might in other matters. The progress of positive +science and the improvement of philosophical thought have rendered +the mechanical dogmas popularly associated with Christianity +incredible to enlightened minds. For this reason, as for many +others, it is the duty of the Christian teacher to show that those +dogmas are not an integral part of the gospel, but only an +adventitious element imported into it from an earlier and +unauthoritative system. Take away these incongruous and outgrown +errors, and the pure religion of Christ will be seen, and will be +seen to be the everlasting truth of God. + +In attempting to estimate the actual influence of Christianity, +wherever it has spread, in establishing among men a faith in +immortality, we must specify six separate considerations. First, +the immediate reception of the resurrection and ascension of +Christ as a miraculous and typical fact, putting an infallible +seal on his teachings, and demonstrating, even to the senses of +men, the reality of a heavenly life, was an extremely potent +influence in giving form and vigor to faith, more potent for ages +than every thing else combined. The image of the victorious Christ +taken up to heaven and glorified there forever, this image, +pictured in every believer's mind, stimulated the imagination and +kept an ideal vision of heaven in constant remembrance as an +apprehended reality. "There is Jesus," they said, pointing up to +heaven; "and there one day we shall be with him." + +Secondly, the obloquy and desertion experienced by the early +Christians threw them back upon a double strength of spiritual +faith, and opened to them an intensified communion with God. As +worldly goods and pleasures were sacrificed, the more powerful +became their + +5 Eschatologie, oder die Lebre von den Letzten Dingen. Mit +besonderer Rucksicht anf die gangbare Irriehre vom Hades. Basel, +1840. De Wette interprets the doctrine of Christ's descent into +Hades as a myth derived from the idea that he was the Savior not +only of his living followers but also of the heathen and the dead. +Bibl. Dogmatik, s. 272. + + +perception of moral truths and their grasp of invisible treasures. +The more fiercely they were assailed, the dearer became the cause +for which they suffered, and the more profoundly the moral springs +of faith were stirred in their souls. The natural revulsion of +their souls was from destitution, contempt, peril, and pain on +earth to a more vivid and magnified trust in a great reward laid +up for them in heaven. + +Thirdly, the unflinching zeal kindled in the early confessors of +Christianity, the sublime heroism shown by them amidst the awful +tortures inflicted on them by the persecuting Jews and Romans, +reacted on their brethren to give profounder firmness and new +intensity to their faith in a glorious life beyond the grave. The +Christians thrown into the amphitheatre to the lions calmly +kneeled in prayer, and to the superstitious bystanders a bright +nimbus seemed to play around their brows and heaven to be opened +above. As they perished at the stake, amidst brutal jeers and +shrivelling flames, serenely maintaining their profession, and +calling on Christ, over the lurid vista of smoke and fire broke on +their rapt vision the blessed splendors of Paradise; and their joy +seemed, to the enthusiastic believers around, no less than a +Divine inspiration, confirming their faith, and preaching, through +the unquestionable truthfulness of martyrdom, the certainty of +immortal life. The survivors celebrated the anniversaries of the +martyrs' deaths as their birthdays into the endless life. + +Fourthly, another means by which Christianity operated to deepen +and spread a belief in the future life was, indirectly, through +its influence in calling out and cultivating the affections of the +heart. The essence of the gospel in theory, as taught by all its +teachers, in fact, as incarnated by Christ, and in practice, as +working in history is love. From the first it condemned and tended +to destroy all the coldness and hatred of human hearts; and it +strove to elicit and foster every kindly sentiment and generous +impulse, to draw its disciples together by those yearning ties of +sympathy and devotion which instinctively demand and divinely +prophesy an eternal union in a better world. The more mightily two +human hearts love each other, the stronger will be their +spontaneous longing for immortality. The unrivalled revelation of +the disinterested love of God made by Christianity, and its effect +in refining and increasing the love of men, have contributed in a +most important degree to sanction and diffuse the faith in a +blessed life reserved for men hereafter. One remarkable +specification may be noticed. The only pagan description of +children in the future life is that given by some of the classic +poets, who picture the infant shades lingering in groups around +the dismal gates of the under world, weeping and wailing because +they could never find admittance. + +"Continuo audita voces, vagitus et ingens, Infantumque +animaflentes in limine primo." + +Go the long round of the pagan heavens, you will find no trace of +a child. Children were withered blossoms blown to oblivion. The +soft breezes that fanned the Blessed Isles and played through the +perennial summer of Elysium blew upon no infant brows. The grave +held all the children very fast. By the memorable words, "Of such +is the kingdom of heaven," Christ unbarred the portals of the +future world and revealed therein hosts of angelic children. Ever +since then children have been seen in heaven. The poet has sung +that the angel child is first on the wing to welcome the parent +home. Painters have shown us, in their visions of the blessed +realms, crowds of cherubs, have shown us + +"How at the Almighty Father's hand, +Nearest the throne of living light, +The choirs of infant seraphs stand, +And dazzling shine where all are bright." + +Fifthly, the triumphant establishment of Christianity in the world +has thrown the prestige of public opinion, the imposing authority +of general affirmation and acceptance, around its component +doctrines chief among which is the doctrine of immortality and +secured in their behalf the resistless influences of current +custom and education. From the time the gospel was acknowledged by +a nation as the true religion, each generation grew up by habitual +tutelage to an implicit belief in the future life. It became a +dogma not to be questioned. And the reception of it was made more +reasonable and easy by the great superiority of its moral features +over those of the relative superstitions embodied in the ethnic +religions which Christianity displaced. + +Finally, Christianity has exerted no small influence both in +expressing and imparting faith in immortality by means of the art +to which it has given birth. The Christian ritual and symbolism, +which culminated in the Middle Age, from the very first had their +vitality and significance in the truth of another life. Every +phase and article of them implied, and with mute or vocal +articulation proclaimed, the superiority and survival of mind and +heart, the truth of the gospel history, the reality of the opened +heaven. Who, in the excited atmosphere, amidst the dangers, living +traditions, and dramatic enactments of that time, could behold the +sacraments of the Church, listen to a mighty chant, kneel beside a +holy tomb, or gaze on a painting of a gospel scene, without +feeling that the story of Christ's ascent to God was true, being +assured that elsewhere than on earth there was a life for the +believer, and in rapt imagination seeing visions of the +supernatural kingdom unveiled? + +The inmost thought or sentiment of mediaval art to adapt a +remarkable passage from Heine6 was the depression of the body and +the elevation of the soul. Statues of martyrs, pictures of +crucifixions, dying saints, pale, faint sufferers, drooping heads, +long, thin arms, meager bones, poor, awkwardly hung dresses, +emaciated features celestially illuminated by faith and love, +expressed the Christian self denial and unearthliness. +Architecture enforced the same lesson as sculpture and painting. +Entering a cathedral, we at once feel the soul exalted, the flesh +degraded. The inside of the dome is itself a hollow cross, and we +walk there within the very witness work of martyrdom. The gorgeous +windows fling their red and green lights upon us like drops of +blood and decay. Funereal music wails and fades away along the dim +arches. Under our feet are gravestones and corruption. With the +colossal columns the soul climbs aloft, loosing itself from the +body, which sinks to the floor as a weary weed. And when we look +on one of these vast Gothic structures from without, so airy, +graceful, tender, transparent, it seems cut out of one piece, or +may be taken for an ethereal lace work of marble. + +6 Die Romantische Schule, buch i. + + +Then only do we feel the power of the inspiration which +could so subdue even stone that it shines spectrally possessed, +and make the most insensate of materials voice forth the grand +teaching of Christianity, the triumph of the spirit over the +flesh. + +In these six ways, therefore, by placing a tangible image of it in +the imagination through the resurrection of Christ, by the +powerful stirring of the springs of moral faith through the +persecutions that attended its confession, by the apparent +inspiration of the martyrs who died in its strength, by calling +out the latent force of the heart's affections that crave it, by +the moulding power of establishment, custom, and education, by the +spiritualizing, vision conjuring effect of its worship and art, +has Christianity done a work of incalculable extent in +strengthening the world's belief in a life to come.7 + +A remarkable evidence of the impression Christianity carried +before it is furnished by an incident in the history of the +missionary Paulinus. He had preached before Edwin, King of +Northumbria. An old earl stood up and said, "The life of man +seems, when compared with what is hidden, like the sparrow, who, +as you sit in your hall, with your thanes and attendants, warmed +by the blazing fire, flies through. As he flies through from door +to door, he enjoys a brief escape from the chilling storms of rain +and snow without. Again he goes forth into the winter and +vanishes. So seems the short life of man. If this new doctrine +brings us something more certain, in my mind it is worthy of +adoption."8 + +The most glorious triumph of Christianity in regard to the +doctrine of a future life was in imparting a character of +impartialness and universality to the proud, oligarchic faith +which had previously excluded from it the great multitude of men. +The lofty conceptions of the fate of the soul cherished by the +illustrious philosophers of Greece and Rome were not shared by the +commonalty until the gospel its right hand touching the throne of +God, its left clasping humanity announced in one breath the +resurrection of Jesus and the brotherhood of man. + +"Their highest lore was for the few conceived, By schools +discuss'd, but not by crowds believed. The angel ladder clomb the +heavenly steep, But at its foot the priesthoods lay, asleep. They +did not preach to nations, 'Lo, your God!' No thousands follow'd +where their footsteps trod: Not to the fishermen they said, +'Arise!' Not to the lowly offer'd they the skies. Wisdom was +theirs: alas! what men most need Is no sect's wisdom, but the +people's creed. Then, not for schools, but for the human kind, The +uncultured reason, the unletter'd mind, The poor, the oppress'd, +the laborer, and the slave, God said, 'Be light!' and light was on +the grave! No more alone to sage and hero given, For all wide oped +the impartial gates of heaven." 9 + +7 Compare Bengal's essay, Quid Doctrina de Animarum Immortalitate +Religioni Christiana debeat. + +8 Venerable Bede, book ii. ch. xiv. + +9 Bulwer, New Timon, part iv. + + +PART FOURTH + + +CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS CONCERNING A FUTURE LIFE. + +CHAPTER I. + +PATRISTIC DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +WITH reference to the present subject, we shall consider the +period of the Church Fathers as including the nine centuries +succeeding the close of the apostolic age. It extends from +Clement, Barnabas, and Hermas to OEcumenius and Gerbert. + +The principal components of the doctrine of the future life held +during this period, though showing some diversities and changes, +are in their prevailing features of one consistent type, +constituting the belief which would in any of those centuries have +been generally recognised by the Church as orthodox. + +For reasons previously given, we believe that Jesus himself taught +a purely moral doctrine concerning the future life, a doctrine +free from arbitrary, mechanical, or sacerdotal peculiarities. With +experimental knowledge, with inspired insight, with fullest +authority, he set forth conclusions agreeing with the wisest +philosophy and confirmatory of our noblest hopes, namely, that a +conscious immortality awaits the soul in the many mansions of the +Father's house, which it enters on leaving the body, and where its +experience will depend upon ethical and spiritual conditions. To +this simple and sublime doctrine announced by Jesus, so rational +and satisfactory, we believe for reasons already explained that +the apostles joined various additional and modifying notions, +Judaic and Gentile, such as the local descent of Christ into the +prison world of the dead, his mission there, his visible second +coming, a bodily resurrection, a universal scenic judgment, and +other kindred views. The sum of results thus reached the Fathers +developed in greater detail, distinguishing and emphasizing them, +and also still further corrupting them with some additional +conceptions and fancies, Greek and Oriental, speculative and +imaginative. The peculiar theological work of the apostles in +regard to this subject was the organizing of the Persian Jewish +doctrine of the Pharisees, with a Christian complement and +modifications, around the person of Christ, and fixing so near in +the immediate future the period when it was to be consummated that +it might be looked for at any time. The peculiar theological work +of the Fathers in regard to the doctrine thus formed by the +apostles was twofold. First, being disappointed of the expected +speedy second coming of Christ, they developed the intermediate +state of the dead more fully, and made it more prominent. +Secondly, in the course of the long and vehement controversies +which sprang up, they were led to complete and systematize their +theology, to define their terms, to explain and defend their +doctrines, comparing them together and attempting to harmonize +them with history, reason, and ethics, as well as with Scripture +and tradition. In this way the patristic mind became familiar with +many processes of thought, with many special details, and with +some general principles, quite foreign to the apostolic mind. +Meanwhile, defining and systematizing went on, loose notions +hardened into rigid dogmas, free thought was hampered by +authority, the scheme generally received assumed the title of +orthodox, anathematizing all who dared to dissent, and the +fundamental outlines of the patristic eschatology were firmly +established.1 + +In seeking to understand and to give an exposition of this scheme +of faith, we have, besides various collateral aids, three chief +guidances. First, we possess the symbols or confessions of faith +put forth by several of the leading theologians of those times, or +by general councils, and openly adopted as authority in many of +the churches, the creed falsely called the Apostles', extant as +early as the close of the third century, the creed of Arius, that +of Cyril, the Nicene creed, the creed falsely named the +Athanasian, and others. Secondly, we have the valuable assistance +afforded by the treatises of Irenaus, Tertullian, Epiphanius, +Augustine, and others still later, on the heresies that had arisen +in the Church, treatises which make it easy to infer, by contrast +and construction, what was considered orthodox from the statement +of what was acknowledged heretical. And, thirdly, abundant +resources are afforded us in the extant theological dissertations, +and historical documents of the principal ecclesiastical authors +of the time in review, a cycle of well known names, sweeping from +Theophilus of Antioch to Photius of Byzantium, from Cyprian of +Carthage to Maurus of Mentz. We think that any candid person, +mastering these sources of information in the illustrating and +discriminating light of a sufficient knowledge of the previous and +the succeeding related opinions, will recognise in the following +abstract a fair representation of the doctrine of a future life as +it was held by the orthodox Fathers of the Christian Church in the +period extending from the first to the tenth century. + +Before proceeding to set forth the common patristic scheme, a few +preliminary remarks are necessary in relation to some of the +peculiar, prominent features of Origen's theology, and in relation +to the rival systems of Augustine and Pelagius. Origen was a man +of vast learning, passionately fond of philosophy; and he +modifyingly mingled a great many Oriental and Platonic notions +with his theology. He imagined that innumerable worlds like this +had existed and perished before it, and that innumerable others +will do so after it in endless succession.2 He held that all souls +whether devils, men, angels, or of whatever rank were of the same +nature; that all who exist in material bodies are imprisoned in +them as a punishment for sins committed in a previous state; the +fig leaves in which Adam and Eve were dressed after their sin were +the fleshly bodies they were compelled to assume on being expelled +from the Paradise of their previous existence; that in proportion +to their sins they are confined in subtile or gross bodies of +adjusted grades until by penance and wisdom they slowly win their + +1 Bretschneider, Was lehren die altesten Kirchenvater uber die +Entstehung der Sude und des Todes, Adam's Vergehen und die +Versohnung durch Christum. Oppositionsschrift, band viii. hft. 3, +ss. 380-407. + +2 De Principiis, lib. lit. cap. 5. + + +deliverance, this gradual descent and ascent of souls being +figuratively represented by Jacob's ladder; that all punishments +and rewards are exactly fitted to the degree of sin or merit, +without possibility of failure; that all suffering even that in +the lowest hell is benevolent and remedial, so that even the worst +spirits, including Satan himself, shall after a time be restored +to heaven; that this alternation of fall and restoration shall be +continued so often as the cloy and satiety of heavenly bliss, or +the preponderant power of temptation, pervert free will into sin.3 +He declared that it was impossible to explain the phenomena and +experience of human life, or to justify the ways of God, except by +admitting that souls sinned in a pre existent state. He was +ignorant of the modern doctrine of vicarious atonement, considered +as placation or satisfaction, and regarded Christ's suffering not +as a substitute for ours, but as having merely the same efficacy +in kind as the death of any innocent person, only more eminent in +degree. He represents the mission of Christ to be to show men that +God can forgive and recall them from sin, banishment, and hell, +and to furnish them, in various ways, helps and incitements to win +salvation. The foregoing assertions, and other kindred points, are +well established by Mosheim, in his exposition of the characteristic +views of Origen.4 + +The famous controversy between Augustine and Pelagius shook +Christendom for a century and a half, and has rolled its echoing +results even to the theological shores of to day. Augustine was +more Calvinistic in his doctrines than the Fathers before him, and +even than most of those after him. In a few particulars perhaps a +majority of the Fathers really agreed more nearly with Pelagius +than with him. But his system prevailed, and was publicly adopted +for all Christendom by the third general council at Ephesus in the +year 431. Yet some of its principles, in their full force, were +actually not accepted. For instance, his dogma of unconditional +election that some were absolutely predestinated to eternal +salvation, others to eternal damnation has never been taught by +the Roman Catholic Church. When Gottschalk urged it in the ninth +century, it was condemned as a heresy;5 and among the Protestants +in the sixteenth century Calvin was obliged to fight for it +against odds. Augustine's belief must therefore be taken as a +representation of the general patristic belief only with caution +and with qualifications. The distinctive views of Augustine as +contrasted with those of Pelagius were as follow.6 Augustine held +that, by Adam's fault, a burden of sin was entailed on all souls, +dooming them, without exception, to an eternal banishment in the +infernal world. Pelagius denied the doctrine of "original sin," +and made each one responsible only for his own personal sins. +Augustine taught that baptism was necessary to free its subject +from the power which the devil had over the soul on account of +original sin, and that all would infallibly be doomed to hell who +were not baptized, except, first, the ancient saints, who foreknew +the evangelic doctrines and believed, and, secondly, the martyrs, +whose blood was their baptism. Pelagius claimed that Christian +baptism was only necessary to secure an + +3 Ibid. lib. ii. cap. 9, 10. + +4 Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians in the First Three +Centuries: Third Century sects. 27-29. + +5 Hagenbach, Dogmengeschichte, sect. 183. + +6 Wiggers, Augustinism and Pelagianism, trans. from the German by +R. Emerson, ch. xix.; also pp. 62, 68, 75, 79. + + +entrance into heaven: infants and good men, if unbaptized; would +enjoy a happy immortality in Paradise, but they never could enter +the kingdom of heaven. Augustine affirmed that Adam's sin +destroyed the freedom of the will in the whole human race. +Pelagius asserted the freedom of the individual will. Augustine +declared that a few were arbitrarily elected to salvation from +eternity, and that Christ died only for them. Pelagius taught that +salvation or reprobation depended on personal deserts, and that +the Divine election was merely through prescience of merits. +Augustine said that saving grace was supernatural, irresistible, +unattainable by human effort. Pelagius said it might be won or +resisted by conformity to certain conditions in each person's +power. Augustine believed that bodily death was inflicted as a +punishment for sin;7 Pelagius, that it was the result of a natural +law. The extensive, various learning, massive, penetrating mind, +and remorseless logical consistency, of Augustine, enabled him to +gather up the loose, floating theological elements and notions of +the time, and generalize them into a complete system, in striking +harmony, indeed, with the general character and drift of patristic +thought, but carried out more fully in its details and applied +more unflinchingly in its principles than had been done before, +and therefore in some of its dogmas outstripping the current +convictions of his contemporaries. His dogma of election was too +revolting and immoral ever to win universal assent; and few could +have the heart to unite with him in stigmatizing the whole human +race in their natural state as "one damned batch and mass of +perdition!" (conspersio damnata, massa perditionis.) With these +hints, we are ready to advance to the general patristic scheme of +eschatology. The exceptional variations and heresies will be +referred to afterwards. + +First, in regard to the natural state of men under the law, from +the time of Adam's sin to the time of Christ's suffering, their +moral condition and destination, no one can deny that the Fathers +commonly supposed that the dissolution of the body and the descent +of the soul to the under world were a penalty brought on all men +through the sin of the first man. Wherever the lengthening line of +human generations wandered, the trail of the serpent, stamp of +depravity, was on them, sealing them as Death's and marking them +for the Hadean prison. This was the indiscriminate and the +inevitable doom. There is no need of citing proofs of this +statement, as it is well known that the writings of the Fathers +are thronged both with indirect implications and with explicit +avowals of it. + +Secondly, they thought that Christ came from heaven to redeem men +from their lost state and subterranean bondage and to guide them +to heaven. Augustine, and perhaps some others, maintained that he +came merely to effectuate the salvation of a foreordained few; but +undoubtedly the common belief was that he came to redeem all who +would conform to certain conditions which he proposed and made +feasible. The important question here is, What did the Fathers +suppose the essence of Christ's redemptive work to be? and how, in +their estimation, did he achieve that work? Was it the renewal and +sanctification of human character by the melting power of a +proclamation of mercy and love from God, by the regenerating +influences and motives of the truths and appeals spoken by his +lips, illustrated + +7 In Gen. lib. ix. cap. 10, 11: "Parents would have yielded to +children not by death, but by translation, and would have become +as the angels." + +in his life, and brought to a focus in his martyr death? Certainly +this was too plainly and prominently a part of the mission of +Christ ever to be wholly overlooked. And yet one acquainted with +the writings of the Fathers can hardly mistake so widely as to +think that they esteemed this the principal element in Christ's +redemptive work. Was the essence of that work, then, the making of +a vicarious atonement, according to the Calvinistic interpretation +of that phrase, the offering of a substitutional anguish +sufficient to satisfy the claims of inexorable justice, so that +the guilty might be pardoned? No. The modern doctrine of the +atonement the satisfaction theory, as it is called was unknown to +the Fathers. It was developed, step by step, after many +centuries.8 It did not receive its acknowledged form until it came +from the mind of the great Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm, as +late as the twelfth century. No scholar will question this +confessed fact. What, then, were the essence and method of +Christ's redemptive mission according to the Fathers? In brief, +they were these. He was, as they believed, a superangelic being, +the only begotten Son of God, possessing a nature, powers, and +credentials transcending those delegated to any other being below +God himself. He became flesh, to seek and to save the lost. This +saving work was done not by his mortal sufferings alone, but by +the totality of labors extending through the whole period of his +incarnation. The subjective or moral part of his redemptive +mission was to regenerate the characters of men and fit them for +heaven by his teachings and example; the objective or physical +part was to deliver their souls from the fatal confinement of the +under world and secure for them the gracious freedom of the sky, +by descending himself as the suppressing conqueror of death and +then ascending as the beckoning pioneer of his followers. The +Fathers did not select the one point or act of Christ's death as +the pivot of human redemption; but they regarded that redemption +as wrought out by the whole of his humiliation, instruction, +example, suffering, and triumph, as the resultant of all the +combined acts of his incarnate drama. Run over the relevant +writings of Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Lactantius, +Cyril, Ambrose, Augustine himself, Jerome, Chrysostom, and the +rest of the prominent authors of the first ten centuries, and you +cannot fail to be struck with the fact that they invariably speak +of redemption, not in connection with Christ's death alone, but +emphatically in connection with the group of ideas, his +incarnation, death, descent, resurrection, and ascension! For the +most part, they received it by tradition as a fact, without much +philosophizing, that, in consequence of the sin of Adam, all men +were doomed to die, that is, to leave their bodies and descend +into the shadowy realm of death. They also accepted it as a fact, +without much attempt at theoretical explanation, that when Christ, +the sinless and resistless Son of God, died and went thither, +before his immaculate Divinity the walls fell, the devils fled, +the prisoners' chains snapped, and the power of Satan was broken. +They received it as a fact that through the mediation of Christ +the original boon forfeited by Adam was to be restored, and that +men, instead of undergoing death and banishment to Hades, should +be translated to heaven. So far as they had a theory about the +cause, it turned on two simple points: first, the free grace and +love of God; second, the self sacrifice and sufficient power of + +8 Hagenbach, Dogmengeschichte, sect. 68. + + +Christ. In the progressive course of dogmatic controversy, +metaphysical speculation, and desire for system, explanations have +been devised in a hundred different forms, from that of Aquinas to +that of Calvin; from that of Anselm to that of Grotius; from that +of Socinus to that of Bushnell. Tertullian describes the profound +abyss beneath the grave, in the bowels of the earth, where, he +says, all the dead are detained unto the day of judgment, and +where Christ in his descent made the patriarchs and prophets his +companions.9 Augustine says that nearly the whole Church agreed in +believing that Christ delivered Adam from the under world when he +rose thence himself.10 One must be very ignorant on the subject to +doubt that the Fathers attributed unrivalled importance to the +literal descent of Christ into the abode of the departed.11 + +Thirdly, after the advent of Christ, what were the conditions +proposed for the actual attainment of personal salvation? It was +the orthodox belief that Christ led up into Paradise with him the +ancient saints who were awaiting his appearance in the under +world:12 but with this exception it was not supposed that he saved +any outright: he only put it in their power to save themselves, +removing the previously insuperable obstacles. In the faith of +those who accepted the dogma of predestination, of course, the +presupposed condition of actual personal salvation was that the +given individual should become one of the elect number. But it +seems to have been usually believed that baptism was indispensable +to give final efficacy to the decree of election in each +individual case.13 Augustine says, "All are born under the power +of the devil, held in chains by him as a jailer: baptism alone, +through the force of Christ's redemptive work, breaks these chains +and secures heaven." In regard to this necessity of baptism +Pelagius agreed with his great adversary, saving an unessential +modification, as we have seen before. The same may be said of +Cyprian, Tertullian, and many other leading Fathers. Again, the so +called Athanasian Creed, which shows the prevalent opinion of the +Church in the fifth and sixth centuries, asserts that whoso +believes not in the Trinity and kindred dogmas as therein laid +down "without doubt shall perish everlastingly." In other words, +assent of mind to the established creed of the Church is a vital +condition of salvation. Finally, in the writings of nearly all of +the Fathers we find frequent declarations of the necessity of +moral virtue, righteous conduct, and piety, as a condition of +admission into the kingdom of heaven. For example, Augustine says, +"Such as have been baptized, partaken of the sacraments, and +remained always in the catholic faith, but have led wicked lives, +can have no hope of escaping eternal damnation." 14 These points +were not sharply defined, authoritatively established, and +consistently adhered to; and yet there was a pretty general +agreement among the body of the Fathers that for actual salvation +there were three practical necessary conditions, baptism, a sound +faith, a good life. + +9 De Anima, sects. 7 et 55. + +10 Epist. CLXIV. + +11 Huidekoper, Belief of the First Three Centuries concerning +Christ's Mission to the Under World. + +12 Augustine, De Civ. Del. lib. xx. cap. xv. Wiedenfeld, De +Exorcismi Origine, Mutatione, deque hujus Actus peragendi Ratione +Neander, Church History, vol. i. p. 3 + +13 Torrey's trans. + +14 De Civ. Dei., lib. xxi. cap. xxv. + + +Fourthly, the Fathers believed that none of the righteous dead +could be admitted into heaven itself, the abode of God and his +angels, until after the second coming of Christ and the holding of +the general judgment; neither were any of the reprobate dead, +according to their view, to be thrust into hell itself until after +those events; but meanwhile all were detained in an intermediate +state, the justified in a peaceful region of the under world +enjoying some foretaste of their future blessedness, the condemned +in a dismal region of the same under world suffering some +foretaste of their future torment.15 After the numerous evidences +given in previous chapters of the prevalence of this view among +the Fathers, it would be superfluous to cite further authorities +here. We will only reply to an objection which may be urged. It +may be said, the Fathers believed that Enoch and Elijah were +translated to heaven, also that the patriarchs, whom Christ +rescued on his descent to Hades, were admitted thither, and, +furthermore, that the martyrs by special privilege were granted +entrance there. The point is an important one. The reply turns on +the broad distinction made by the Fathers between heaven and +Paradise. Some of the Fathers regarded Paradise as one division of +the under world; some located it in a remote and blessed region of +the earth; others thought it was high in the air, but below the +dwelling place of God.16 Now, it was to "Paradise," not to heaven, +that the dying thief, penitent on the cross, was promised +admission. It was of "Paradise," not of heaven, that Tertullian +said "the blood of the martyrs is the perfect key." So, too, when +Jerome, Chrysostom, and others speak of a few favored ones +delivered from the common fate before the day of judgment, it is +"Paradise," and not heaven, that is represented as being thrown +open to them. Irenaus says, "Those who were translated were +translated to the Paradise whence disobedient Adam was driven into +the world."17 + +A notable attempt has been repeatedly made for example, by the +famous Dr. Coward, by Dodwell, and by some other more obscure +writers to prove that the Fathers of the Greek Church, in +opposition to the Latin Fathers, denied the consciousness of the +soul during the interval from death to the resurrection, and +maintained that the soul died with the body and would be restored +with it at the last day. But this is an error arising from the +misinterpretation of the figurative terms in which the Greek +Fathers express themselves. Tatian, Justin, Theophilus, and +Irenaus do not differ from the others in reality, but only in +words. The opinion that the soul is literally mortal is +erroneously attributed to those Greek Fathers, who in truth no +more held it than Tertullian did. "The death" they mean is, to +borrow their own language, "deprived of the rays of Divine light, +to bear a deathly immortality," (in immortalitate mortem +tolerantes,) an eternal existence in the ghostly under world.18 +The con + +15 They feel, as Novatian says, (De Trinitate, 1,) a prajudicium +futuri judicii. See also Ernesti, Excurs. de Veter. Patrum +Opinione de Statu Medio Animor. a Corpore sejunctorum. In his +Lect. Acad. in Ep. ad Hebr. + +16 E. g., see Ambrose, De Paradiso. + +17 Adv. Hares., lib. v. cap. v. + +18 See this point ably argued in an academic dissertation +published at Konigsberg, 1827, bearing the title "Antiquissimorum +Ecclesia Grsecte Patrum de Immortalitate Anima Sententia +Recensentur." + + +They held that the inner man was originally a spirit [non-ASCII +characters omitted] and a soul [non-ASCII characters omitted] +blended and immortal, that is, indestructibly united and blessed. +But by sin the soul loses the spirit and becomes subject to death. +that is, to ignorance of its Divine origin, alienation from God, +darkness, and an abode in Hades. By the influences flowing from the +mission of Christ, man is elevated again to conscious communion with +God, and the spirit is restored to the soul. "Si restituitur, manet +[non-ASCII characters omitted] fit autem [non-ASCII characters +omitted]; si non restituitur, manet [non-ASCII characters omitted], +fit autem [non-ASCII characters omitted], quod haud differt a morte." +cordant doctrine of the Fathers as to the intermediate state of the +dead was that, with the exception of a few admitted to Paradise, +they were in the under world waiting the fulness of time, when the +world should be judged and their final destination be assigned to them. +As Tertullian says, "constituimus omnem animam apud inferos +seguestrari in diem Domini." + +Finally, the Fathers expected that Christ would return from +heaven, hold a general day of judgment, and consummate all things. +The earliest disciples seem to have looked anxiously, almost from +hour to hour, for that awful crisis. But, as years rolled on and +the last apostle died, and it came not, the date was fixed more +remotely; and, as other years passed away, and still no clear +signs of its arrival appeared, the date grew more and more +indefinite. Some still looked for the solemn dawn speedily to +break; others assigned it to the year 1000; others left the time +utterly vague; but none gave up the doctrine. All agreed that +sooner or later a time would come when the deep sky would open, +and Christ, clothed in terrors and surrounded by pomp of angels, +would alight on the globe, when: + +"The angel of the trumpet Shall split the charnel earth With his +blast so clear and brave, And quicken the charnel birth At the +roots of the grave, Till the dead all stand erect." + +Augustine, representing the catholic faith, says, "The coming of +Elias, the conversion of the Jews, Antichrist's persecution, the +setting up of Christ's tribunal, the raising of the dead, the +severing of the good and the bad, the burning of the world, and +its renovation, this is the destined order of events."19 The saved +were to be transported bodily to the eternal bliss of heaven; the +damned, in like manner, were to be banished forever to a fiery +hell in the centre of the earth, there to endure uncomprehended +agonies, both physical and spiritual, without any respite, without +any end. There were important, and for a considerable period quite +extensive, exceptions, to the belief in this last dogma: +nevertheless, such was undeniably the prevailing view, the +orthodox doctrine, of the patristic Church. The strict literality +with which these doctrines were held is strikingly shown in +Jerome's artless question: "If the dead be not raised with flesh +and bones, how can the damned, after the judgment, gnash their +teeth in hell?" + +During the period now under consideration there were great +fluctuations, growths, changes, of opinion on three subjects in +regard to which the public creeds did not prevent all freedom of +thought by laying down definite propositions. We refer to baptism, +the millennium, and purgatory. Christian baptism was first simply +a rite of initiation into the Christian religion. Then it became +more distinctly a symbol of faith in Christ and in his gospel, and +an emblem of a new birth. Next it was imagined to be literally +efficacious to + +19 De Civ. Del, lib. xx. cap. 30, sect. 5. + + +personal salvation, solving the chains of the devil, washing off +original sin, and opening the door of heaven.20 To trace the +doctrine through its historical variations and its logical +windings would require a large volume, and is not requisite for +our present purpose. + +Almost all the early Fathers believingly looked for a millennium, +a reign of Christ on earth with his saints for a thousand years. +Daille has shown that this belief was generally held, though with +great diversities of conception as to the form and features of the +doctrine.21 It was a Jewish notion which crept among the +Christians of the first century and has been transmitted even to +the present day. Some supposed the millennium would precede the +destruction of the world, others that it would follow that +terrible event, after a general renovation. None but the faithful +would have part in it; and at its close they would pass up to +heaven. Irenaus quotes a tradition, delivered by Papias, that "in +the millennium each vine will bear ten thousand branches, each +branch ten thousand twigs, each twig ten thousand clusters, each +cluster ten thousand grapes, each grape yielding a hogshead of +wine; and if any one plucks a grape its neighbors will cry, Take +me: I am better!" This, of course, was a metaphor to show what the +plenty and the joy of those times would be. According to the +heretics Cerinthus and Marcion, the millennium was to consist in +an abundance of all sorts of sensual riches and delights. Many of +the orthodox Fathers held the same view, but less grossly; while +others made its splendors and its pleasures mental and moral.22 +Origen attacked the whole doctrine with vehemence and cogency. His +admirers continued the warfare after him, and the belief in this +celestial Cocaigne suffered much damage and sank into comparative +neglect. The subject rose into importance again at the approaching +close of the first chiliad of Christianity, but soon died away as +the excitement of that ominous epoch passed with equal +disappointment to the hopes and the fears of the believers. A +galvanized controversy has been carried on about it again in the +present century, chiefly excited by the modern sect of Second +Adventists. Large volumes have recently appeared, principally +aiming to decide whether the millennium is to precede or to follow +the second coming of Christ! 23 The doctrine itself is a Jewish +Christian figment supported only by a shadowy basis of fancy. The +truth contained in it, though mutilated and disguised, is that +when the religion of Christ is truly enthroned over the earth, +when his real teachings and life are followed, the kingdom of God +will indeed cover the world, and not for a thousand years only, +but unimaginable glory and happiness shall fill the dwellings of +the successive generations of men forever.24 + +The doctrine of a purgatory a place intermediate between Paradise +and hell, where souls not too sinful were temporarily punished, +and where their condition and stay were in the power of the Church +on earth, a doctrine which in the Middle Age became practically + +20 Neander, Planting and Training, Eng. trans. p. 102. + +21 De Usu Patrum, lib. ii. cap. 4. + +22 Munscher, Entwickelung der Lehre vom Tausendjahrigen Reiche in +den Drei Ersten Jahrhunderten. In Henke's Magaz. b. vi. ss. 233 +254. + +23 See e. g. The End, by Dr. Cumming. The Second Advent, by D. +Brown. + +24 Bush, On the Millennium. Bishop Russell, Discourses on the +Millennium. Carroll, Geschichte des Chiliasmus. + + +the foremost instrument of ecclesiastical influence and income was +through the age of the Fathers gradually assuming shape and +firmness. It seems to have been first openly avowed as a Church +dogma and effectively organized as a working power by Pope Gregory +the Great, in the latter part of the sixth century.25 No more +needs to be said here, as the subject more properly belongs to the +next chapter. + +It but remains in close to notice those opinions relating to the +future life which were generally condemned as heresies by the +Fathers. One of the earliest of these was the destruction of the +intermediate state and the denial of the general judgment by the +assertion, which Paul charges so early as in his day upon Hymeneus +and Philetus, "that the resurrection has passed already;" that is, +that the soul, when it leaves the body, passes immediately to its +final destination. This opinion reappeared faintly at intervals, +but obtained very little prevalence in the early ages of the +Church. Hierax, an author who lived at Leontopolis in Egypt early +in the fourth century, denied the resurrection of the body, and +excluded from the kingdom of heaven all who were married and all +who died before becoming moral agents. + +Another heretical notion which attracted some attention was the +opposite extreme from the foregoing, namely, that the soul totally +dies with the body, and will be restored to life with it in the +general resurrection at the end of the world; an opinion held by +an Arabian sect of Christians, who were vanquished in debate upon +it by Origen, and renounced it.26 + +Still another doctrine known among the Fathers was the belief that +Christ, when he descended into the under world, saved and led away +in triumph all who were there, Jews, pagans, good, bad, all, +indiscriminately. This is number seventy nine in Augustine's list +of the heresies. And there is now extant among the writings of +Pope Boniface VI, of the ninth century, a letter furiously +assailing a man who had recently maintained this "damnable +doctrine." + +The numerous Gnostic sects represented by Valentinus, Cerinthus, +Marcion, Basilides, and other less prominent names, held a system +of speculation copious, complex, and of intensely Oriental +character. That portion of it directly connected with our subject +may be stated in few words. They taught that all souls pre existed +in a world of pure light, but, sinning through the instigation and +craft of demons, they fell, were mixed with darkness and matter, +and bound in bodies. Through sensual lusts and ignorance, they +were doomed to suffer after death in hell for various periods, and +then to be born again. Jehovah was the enemy of the true God, and +was the builder of this world and of hell, wherein he contrives to +keep his victims imprisoned by deceiving them to worship him and +to live in errors and indulgences. Christ came, they said, to +reveal the true God, unmask the infernal character and wiles of +Jehovah, rescue those whom he had cruelly shut up in hell, and +teach men the real way of salvation. Accordingly, Marcion declared +that when Christ descended into the under world he released and +took into his own kingdom Cain, and the Sodomites, and all the + +25 Flugge, Geschichte der Lehre vom Zustande des Menschen nach dem +Tode in der Christlichen Kirche, absch. v. ss. 320-352. + +26 Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. vi. cap. 37. + +Gentiles who had refused to obey the demon worshipped by the Jews, +but left there, unsaved, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and the other +patriarchs, together with all the prophets.27 The Gnostics agreed +in attributing evil to matter, and made the means of redemption to +consist in fastings and scourgings of the flesh, with denial of +all its cravings, and in lofty spiritual contemplations. Of +course, with one accord they vehemently assailed the dogma of the +resurrection of the flesh. Their views, too, were inconsistent +with the strict eternity of future hell punishments. The +fundamental basis of their system was the same as that of nearly +all the Oriental philosophies and religions, requiring an ascetic +war against the world of sense. The notion that the body is evil, +and the cause of evil, was rife even among the orthodox Fathers; +but they stopped guardedly far short of the extreme to which the +Gnostics carried it, and indignantly rejected all the strange +imaginations which those heretics had devised to explain the +subject of evil in a systematic manner.28 Augustine said, "If we +say all sin comes from the flesh, we make the fleshless devil +sinless!" Hermogenes, some of whose views at least were tinged +with Gnosticism, believed the abyss of hell was formed by the +confluence of matter, and that the devil and all his demons would +at last be utterly resolved into matter.29 + +The theological system of the Manichaan sect was in some of its +cardinal principles almost identical with those of the Gnostics, +but it was still more imaginative and elaborate.30 It started with +the Persian doctrine of two antagonist deities, one dwelling with +good spirits in a world of light and love, the other with demons +in a realm of darkness and horror. Upon a time the latter, +sallying forth, discovered, far away in the vastness of space, the +world of light. They immediately assailed it. They were conquered +after a terrible struggle and driven back; but they bore with them +captive a multitude of the celestial souls, whom they instantly +mixed with darkness and gross matter. The good God built this +world of mingled light and darkness to afford these imprisoned +souls an opportunity to purge themselves and be restored to him. +In arranging the material substances to form the earth, a mass of +evil fire, with no particle of good in it, was found. It had been +left in their flight by the vanquished princes of darkness. This +was cast out of the world and shut up somewhere in the dark air, +and is the Manichaan hell, presided over by the king of the +demons. If a soul, while in the body, mortify the flesh, observe a +severe ascetic moral discipline, fix its thoughts, affections, and +prayers on God and its native home, it will on leaving the body +return to the celestial light. But if it neglect these duties and +become more deeply entangled in the toils of depraved matter, it +is cast into the awful fire of hell, where the cleansing flames of +torture partially purify it; and then it is born again and put on +a new trial. If after ten successive births twice in each of five +different forms the soul be still unreclaimed, then it is +permanently remanded to the furnace of hell. At last, when all the +celestial souls seized by the princes of darkness have returned to +God, save those just mentioned, this world will be burned. Then +the children + +27 Irenaus, Adv. Herres., lib. i. cap. 22. + +28 Account of the Gnostic Sects, in Moshelm's Comm., II. Century, +sect. 65. + +29 Lardner, Hist. of Heretics, ch. xviii. sect. 9. + +30 Baur, Das Manichaische Religionssystem. + + +of God will lead a life of everlasting blessedness with him in +their native land of light; the prince of evil, with his fiends, +will exist wretchedly in their original realm of darkness. Then +all those souls whose salvation is hopeless shall be drawn out of +hell and be placed as a cordon of watchmen and a phalanx of +soldiers entirely around the world of darkness, to guard its +frontiers forever and to see that its miserable inhabitants never +again come forth to invade the kingdom of light.31 + +The Christian after Christ's own pattern, trusting that when the +soul left the body it would find a home in some other realm of +God's universe where its experience would be according to its +deserts, capacity, and fittedness, sought to do the Father's will +in the present, and for the future committed himself in faith and +love to the Father's disposal. The apostolic Christian, conceiving +that Christ would soon return to raise the dead and reward his +own, eagerly looked for the arrival of that day, and strove that +he might be among the saints who, delivered or exempt from the +Hadean imprisonment, should reign with the triumphant Messiah on +earth and accompany him back to heaven. The patristic Christian, +looking forward to the divided under world where all the dead must +spend the interval from their decease to the general resurrection, +shuddered at the thought of Gehenna, and wrestled and prayed that +his tarrying might be in Paradise until Christ should summon his +chosen ones, justified from the great tribunal, to the Father's +presence. The Manichaan Christian, believing the soul to be +imprisoned in matter by demons who fought against God in a +previous life, struggled, by fasting, thought, prayer, and +penance, to rescue the spirit from its fleshly entanglements, from +all worldly snares and illusions, that it might be freed from the +necessity of any further abode in a material body, and, on the +dissolution of its present tabernacle, might soar to its native +light in the blissful pleroma of eternal being. + +31 Mosheim, Comm., III. Century, sects. 44-52. + + +CHAPTER II. + +MEDIAVAL DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +THE period of time covered by the present chapter reaches from the +close of the tenth century to the middle of the sixteenth, from +the first full establishment of the Roman Catholic theology and +the last general expectation of the immediate end of the world to +the commencing decline of mediaval faith and the successful +inauguration of the Protestant Reformation. The principal mental +characteristic of that age, especially in regard to the subject of +the future life, was fear. "Never," says Michelet, "can we know in +what terrors the Middle Age lived." There was all abroad a living +fear of men, fear of the State, fear of the Church, fear of God, +fear of the devil, fear of hell, fear of death. Preaching +consisted very much in the invitation, "Submit to the guidance of +the Church while you live," enforced by the threat, "or you shall +go to hell when you die." Christianity was practically reduced to +some cruel metaphysical dogmas, a mechanical device for rescuing +the devil's captives from him, and a system of ritual magic in the +hands of a priesthood who wielded an authority of supernatural +terrors over a credulous and shuddering laity. It is true that the +genuine spirit and contents of Christianity were never wholly +suppressed. The love of God, the blessed mediation of the +benignant Jesus, the lowly delights of the Beatitudes, the +redeeming assurance of pardon, the consoling, triumphant +expectation of heaven, were never utterly banished even from the +believers of the Dark Age. Undoubtedly many a guilty but repentant +soul found forgiveness and rest, many a meek and spotless breast +was filled with pious rapture, many a dying disciple was comforted +and inspired, by the good tidings proclaimed from priestly lips +even then. No doubt the sacred awe and guarded peace surrounding +their precincts, the divine lessons inculcated within their walls, +the pathetic prayers breathed before their altars, the traditions +of saintly men and women who had drawn angelic visitants down to +their cells and had risen long ago to be angels themselves, the +strains of unearthly melody bearing the hearts of the kneeling +crowd into eternity, no doubt these often made cathedral and +convent seem "islands of sanctity amidst the wild, roaring, +godless sea of the world." Still, the chief general feeling of the +time in relation to the future life was unquestionably fear +springing from belief, the wedlock of superstitious faith and +horror. + +During the six centuries now under review the Roman Catholic +Church and theology were the only Christianity publicly +recognised. The heretics were few and powerless, and the papal +system had full sway. Since the early part of the period +specified, the working theology of the Roman Church has undergone +but few, and, as pertaining to our subject, unimportant, changes +or developments. Previous to that time her doctrinal scheme was +inchoate, gradually assimilating foreign elements and developing +itself step by step. The principal changes now concerning us to +notice in the passage from patristic eschatology as deducible, for +instance, from the works of Chrysostom, or as seen in the +"Apostles' Creed" to mediaval eschatology as displayed in the +"Summa" of Thomas Aquinas or in the Catechism of Trent are these. +The supposititious details of the under world have been definitely +arranged in greater subdivision; heaven has been opened for the +regular admission of certain souls; the loose notions about +purgatory have been completed and consolidated; and the whole +combined scheme has been organized as a working instrument of +ecclesiastical power and profit. + +These changes seem to have been wrought out, first, by +continual assimilations of Christianity to paganism,1 both in +doctrine and ceremony, to win over the heathen; and, secondly, by +modifications and growths to meet the exigencies of doctrinal +consistency and practical efficiency, exigencies repeatedly +arising from philosophical discussion and political opposition. + +The degree in which papal Christianity was conformed to the +prejudices and customs of the heathen believers, whose allegiance +was sought, is astonishing. It extended to hundreds of +particulars, from the most fundamental principles of theological +speculation to the most trivial details of ritual service. We +shall mention only a few instances of this kind immediately +belonging to the subject we are treating. In the first place, the +hierophant in the pagan Mysteries, and the initiatory rites, were +the prototypes of the Roman Catholic bishop and the ceremonies +under his direction.2 Christian baptism was made to be the same as +the pagan initiation: both were supposed to cleanse from sin and +to secure for their subject a better fate in the future life: they +were both, therefore, sometimes delayed until just before death.3 +The custom of initiating children into the Mysteries was also +common, as infant baptism became.4 When the public treasury was +low, the magistrates sometimes raised a fund by recourse to the +initiating fees of the Mysteries, as the Christian popes +afterwards collected money from the sale of pardons. + +In the second place, the Roman Catholic canonization was the same +as the pagan apotheosis. Among the Gentiles, the mass of mankind +were supposed to descend to Hades at death; but a few favored ones +were raised to the sky, deified, and a sort of worship paid to +them. So the Roman Church taught that nearly all souls passed to +the subterranean abodes, but that martyrs and saints were admitted +to heaven and might lawfully be prayed to.5 + +Thirdly, the heathen under world was subdivided into several +regions, wherein different persons were disposed according to +their deserts. The worst criminals were in the everlasting penal +fire of Tartarus; the best heroes and sages were in the calm +meadows of Elysium; the hapless children were detained in the +dusky borders outside the grim realm of torture; and there was a +purgatorial place where those not too guilty were cleansed from +their stains. In like manner, the Romanist theologians divided the +under world into four parts: hell for the final abode of the +stubbornly wicked; one limbo for the painless, contented tarrying +of the good patriarchs who died before the advent of Christ had +made salvation possible, and another limbo for the sad and pallid +resting place of those children who died unbaptized; purgatory, in +which expiation is offered in agony for sins committed on earth +and unatoned for.6 + +1 Middleton, Letter from Rome, showing an exact conformity between +Popery and Paganism. + +2 Lobeck, Aglaophamus, lib. i. sect. 6. Mosheim's Comm., ch. i. +sect. 13. + +3 Warburton, Div. Leg., book ii. sect. 4. + +4 Terence, Phormio, act i scene 1. + +5 Council of Trent, sess. vi. can. xxx. Sess. xxv.: Decree on +Invocation of Saints. + +6 See Milman, Hist. Latin Christianity, book xiv. ch. ii. + + +Before proceeding further, we must trace the prevalence and +progress of the doctrine of purgatory a little as it was known +before its embodiment in mediaval mythology, and then as it was +embodied there. The fundamental doctrine of the Hindu hell was +that a certain amount of suffering undergone there would expiate a +certain amount of guilt incurred here. When the disembodied soul +had endured a sufficient quantity of retributive and purifying +pain, it was loosed, and sent on earth in a new body. It was +likewise a Hindu belief that the souls of deceased parents might +be assisted out of this purgatorial woe by the prayers and +offerings of their surviving children.7 The same doctrine was held +by the Persians. They believed souls could be released from +purgatory by the prayers, sacrifices, and good deeds of righteous +surviving descendants and friends. "Zoroaster said he could, by +prayer, send any one he chose to heaven or to hell." 8 Such +representations are found obscurely in the Vendidad and more fully +in the Bundehesh. The Persian doctrine that the living had power +to affect the condition of the dead is further indicated in the +fact that, from a belief that married persons were peculiarly +happy in the future state, they often hired persons to be espoused +to such of their relatives as had died in celibacy.9 The doctrine +of purgatory was known and accepted among the Jews too. In the +Second Book of Maccabees we read the following account: "Judas +sent two thousand pieces of silver to Jerusalem to defray the +expense of a sin offering to be offered for the sins of those who +were slain, doing therein very well and honestly, in that he was +mindful of the resurrection. For if he had not hoped that they who +were slain should rise again, it had been superfluous and vain to +pray for the dead. Whereupon he made an atonement for the dead, +that they might be delivered from sin."10 The Rabbins taught that +children by sin offerings could help their parents out of their +misery in the infernal world.11 They taught, furthermore, that all +souls except holy ones, like those of Rabbi Akiba and his +disciples, must lave themselves in the fire river of Gehenna; that +therein they shall be like salamanders; that the just shall soon +be cleansed in the fire river, but the wicked shall be lastingly +burned.12 Again, we find this doctrine prevailing among the +Romans. In the great Forum was a stone called "Lapis Manalis," +described by Festus, which was supposed to cover the entrance to +hell. This was solemnly lifted three times a year, in order to let +those souls flow up whose sins had been purged away by their +tortures or had been remitted in consideration of the offerings +and services paid for them by the living. Virgil describes how +souls are purified by the action of wind, water, and fire.13 The +feast day of purgatory observed by papal Rome corresponds to the +Lemuria celebrated by pagan Rome, and rests on the same doctrinal +basis. In the Catholic countries of Europe at the present time, on +All Saints' Day, festoons of sweet smelling flowers are hung on +the tomb stones, and the people kneeling there repeat the prayer +prescribed for releasing the souls of their relatives and friends +from the plagues of purgatory. There is a notable coincidence +between the Buddhist + +7 See references to "Sraddha" in index to Vishnu Purana. + +8 Atkinson's trans. of the Shah Nameh, p. 386. + +9 Richardson, Dissertation on the Language, Literature, and +Manners of the Eastern Nations, p. 347. + +10 Cap. xii. 42-45. + +11 Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, th. ii. kap. vi. s. 357. + +12 Kabbala Denudata, tom ii. pars. i. pp. 108, 109, 113. + +13 Aneid, lib. vi. 1. 739. + + +and the Romanist usages. Throughout the Chinese Empire, during the +seventh moon of every year, prayers are offered up accompanied by +illuminations and other rites for the release of souls in +purgatory. At these times the Buddhist priests hang up large +pictures, showing forth the frightful scenes in the other world, +to induce the people to pay them money for prayers in behalf of +their suffering relatives and friends in purgatory.14 + +Traces of belief in a purgatory early appear among the Christians. +Many of the gravest Fathers of the first five centuries naturally +conceived and taught, as is indeed intrinsically reasonable, that +after death some souls will be punished for their sins until they +are cleansed, and then will be released from pain. The Manichaans +imagined that all souls, before returning to their native heaven, +must be borne first to the moon, where with good waters they would +be washed pure from outward filth, and then to the sun, where they +would be purged by good fires from every inward stain.15 After +these lunar and solar lustrations, they were fit for the eternal +world of light. But the conception of purgatory as it was held by +the early Christians, whether orthodox Fathers or heretical sects, +was merely the just and necessary result of applying to the +subject of future punishment the two ethical ideas that punishment +should partake of degrees proportioned to guilt, and that it +should be restorative. Jeremy Taylor conclusively argues that the +prayers for the dead used by the early Christians do not imply any +belief in the Papal purgatory.16 The severity and duration of the +sufferings of the dead were not supposed to be in the power of the +living, either their relatives or the clergy, but to depend on the +moral and physical facts of the case according to justice and +necessity, qualified only by the mercy of God. + +Pope Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, either borrowing +some of the more objectionable features of the purgatory doctrine +previously held by the heathen, or else devising the same things +himself from a perception of the striking adaptedness of such +notions to secure an enviable power to the Church, constructed, +established, and gave working efficiency to the dogmatic scheme of +purgatory ever since firmly defended by the papal adherents as an +integral part of the Roman Catholic system.17 The doctrine as +matured and promulgated by Gregory, giving to the representatives +of the Church an almost unlimited power over purgatory, rapidly +grew into favor with the clergy and sank with general conviction +into the hopes and fears of the laity. Venerable Bede, in the +eighth century, gives a long account of the fully developed +doctrine concerning purgatory, hell, paradise, and heaven. It is +narrated in the form of a vision seen by Drithelm, who, in a +trance, visits the regions which, on his return, he describes. The +whole thing is gross, literal, horrible, closely resembling +several well known descriptions given under similar circumstances +and preserved in ancient heathen writers.18 The Church, seeing how +admirably this instrument was calculated to promote her interest +and deepen her power, left hardly any means untried to enlarge its +sweep and intensify its operation. Accordingly, from the ninth to +the sixteenth century, no doctrine was so central, prominent, and +effective in the common teaching and + +14 Asiatic Journal, 1840, p. 210, note. + +15 Mosheim, Comm., III. Century, sect. 49, note 3. + +16 Dissuasive from Popery, part ii. book ii. sect. 2. + +17 Edgar, Variations of Popery, ch. xvi. + +18 Hist. Ecc., lib. v. cap. xii. See also lib. iii. cap. xix. + + +practice of the Church, no fear was so widely spread and vividly +felt in the bosom of Christendom, as the doctrine and the fear of +purgatory. + +The Romanist theory of man's condition in the future life is this, +in brief. By the sin of Adam, heaven was closed against him and +all his posterity, and the devil acquired a right to shut up their +disembodied souls in the under world. In consequence of the +"original sin" transmitted from Adam, every human being, besides +suffering the other woes flowing from sin, was helplessly doomed +to the under world after death. In addition to this penalty, each +one must also answer for his own personal sins. Christ died to +"deliver mankind from sin," "discharge the punishment due them," +and "rescue them from the tyranny of the devil." He "descended +into the under world," "subdued the devil," "despoiled the +depths," "rescued the Fathers and just souls," and "opened +heaven."19 "Until he rose, heaven was shut against every child of +Adam, as it still is to those who die indebted." "The price paid +by the Son of God far exceeded our debts." The surplus balance of +merits, together with the merits accruing from the supererogatory +good works of the saints and from the Divine sacrifice continually +offered anew by the sacrament of the mass, constituted a reserved +treasure upon which the Church was authorized to draw in behalf of +any one she chose to favor. The localities of the future life were +these:20 Limbus Patrum, or Abraham's Bosom, a place of peace and +waiting, where the good went who died before Christ; Limbus +Infantum, a mild, palliated hell, where the children go who, since +Christ, have died unbaptized; Purgatory, where all sinners suffer +until they are purified, or are redeemed by the Church, or until +the last day; Hell, or Gehenna, whither the hopelessly wicked have +always been condemned; and Heaven, whither the spotlessly good +have been admitted since the ascension of Jesus. At the day of +judgment the few human souls who have reached Paradise, together +with the multitudes that crowd the regions of Gehenna, Purgatory, +and Limbo, will reassume their bodies: the intermediate states +will then be destroyed, and when their final sentence is +pronounced all will depart forever, the acquitted into heaven, +the condemned into hell. In the mean time, the poor victims of +purgatory, by the prayers of the living for them, by the transfer +of good works to their account, above all, by the celebration of +masses in their behalf, may be relieved, rescued, translated to +paradise. The words breathed by the spirit of the murdered King of +Denmark in the ears of the horror stricken Hamlet paint the +popular belief of that age in regard to the grisly realm where +guilty souls were plied with horrors whereof, but that they were +forbidden: + +"To tell the secrets of their prison house, They could a tale +unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy +young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their +spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each +particular hair to stand on end Like quills upon the fretful +porcupine." + +19 Catechism of the Council of Trent. + +20 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologia, pars Suppl. Quast. 69. + + +A few specimens of the stories embodying the ideas and +superstitions current in the Middle Age may better illustrate the +characteristic belief of the time than much abstract description. +An unquestioning faith in the personality, visibility, and +extensive agency of the devil was almost universal. Ascetics, +saints, bishops, peasants, philosophers, kings, Gregory the Great, +Martin Luther, all testified that they had often seen him. The +mediaval conception of the devil was sometimes comical, sometimes +awful. Grimm says, "He was Jewish, heathenish, Christian, +idolatrous, elfish, titanic, spectral, all at once." He was "a +soul snatching wolf," a "hell hound," a "whirlwind hammer;" now an +infernal "parody of God" with "a mother who mimics the Virgin +Mary," and now the "impersonated soul of evil."21 The well known +story of Faust and the Devil, which in so many forms spread +through Christendom, is so deeply significant of the faith and +life of the age in which it arose that a volume would be required +to unfold all its import. There was an old tradition that the +students of necromancy or the black art, on reaching a certain +pitch of proficiency, were obliged to run through a subterranean +hall, where the devil literally caught the hindmost unless he sped +so swiftly that the arch enemy could only seize his shadow, and in +that case, a veritable Peter Schlemihl, he never cast a shadow +afterwards! A man stood by his furnace one day casting eyes for +buttons. The devil came up and asked what he was doing. "Casting +eyes," replied the man. "Can you cast a pair for me?" quoth the +devil. "That I can," says the man: "will you have them large or +small?" "Oh, very large," answered the devil. He then ties the +fiend on a bench and pours the molten lead into his eyes. Up jumps +the devil, with the bench on his back, flees howling, and has +never been seen since! There was also in wide circulation a wild +legend to the effect that a man made a compact with the devil on +the condition that he should secure a new victim for hell once in +a century. As long as he did this he should enjoy life, riches, +power, and a limited ubiquity; but failing a fresh victim at the +end of each hundred years his own soul should be the forfeit. He +lived four or five centuries, and then, in spite of his most +desperate efforts, was disappointed of his expected victim on the +last night of the century; and when the clock struck twelve the +devil burst into his castle on a black steed and bore him off in a +storm of lightning amidst the crash of thunders and the shrieks of +fiends. St. Britius once during mass saw the devil in church +taking account of the sins the congregation were committing. He +covered the parchment all over, and, afraid of forgetting some of +the offences, seized the scroll in his teeth and claws to stretch +it out. It snapped, and his head was smartly bumped against the +wall. St. Britius laughed aloud. The officiating priest rebuked +him, but, on being told what had happened, improved the accident +for the edification of his hearers.22 On the bursting of a certain +glacier on the Alps, it is said the devil was seen swimming down +the Rhone, a drawn sword in one hand, a golden ball in the other: +opposite the town of Martigny, he cried, "Rise," and instantly the +obedient river swelled above its banks and destroyed the town. + +Ignes fatui, hovering about marshes and misty places, were thought +to be the spirits of unbaptized children endeavoring to guide +travellers to the nearest water. A kindred fancy + +21 Deutsche Mythologie, cap. xxxiii.: Teufel. + +22 Quarterly Review, Jan. 1820: Pop. Myth. of the Middle Ages. + + +also heard a spectral pack, called "yell hounds," afterwards +corrupted to "hell hounds," composed of the souls of unbaptized +children, which could not rest, but roamed and howled through the +woods all night.23 A touching popular myth said, the robin's +breast is so red because it flies into hell with drops of water in +its bill to relieve the children there, and gets scorched. + +In 1171, Silo, a philosopher, implored a dying pupil of his to +come back and reveal his state in the other world. A few days +after his death the scholar appeared in a cowl of flames covered +with logical propositions. He told Silo that he was from +purgatory, that the cowl weighed on him worse than a tower, and +said he was doomed to wear it for the pride he took in sophisms. +As he thus spoke he let fall a drop of sweat on his master's hand, +piercing it through. The next day Silo said to his scholars, "I +leave croaking to frogs, cawing to crows, and vain things to the +vain, and hie me to the logic which fears not death." + +"Linquo coax ranis, cras corvis, vanaque vanis, Ad logicen pergo +qua mortis non timet ergo." 24 + +In the long, quaint poem, "Vision of William concerning Piers +Ploughman," written probably by Robert Langland about the year +1362, there are many things illustrative of our subject. "I, +Trojanus, a true knight, after death was condemned to hell for +dying unbaptized. But, on account of my mercy and truth in +administering the laws, the pope wished me to be saved; and God +mercifully heard him and saved me without the help of masses."25 +"Ever since the fall of Adam, Age has shaken the Tree of Human +Life, and the devil has gathered the fruit into hell."26 The +author gives a most spirited account of Christ's descent into the +under world after his death, his battle with the devils there, his +triumph over them, his rescue of Adam, and other particulars.27 In +this poem, as in nearly all the extant productions of that period, +there are copious evidences of the extent and power of the popular +faith in the devil and in purgatory, and in their close connection +with the present life, a faith nourishingly embodied in thousands +of singular tales. Thomas Wright has collected many of these in +his antiquarian works. He relates an amusing incident that once +befell a minstrel who had been borne into hell by a devil. The +devils went forth in a troop to ensnare souls on earth. Lucifer +left the minstrel in charge of the infernal regions, promising, if +he let no souls escape, to treat him on the return with a fat monk +roasted, or a usurer dressed with hot sauce. But while the fiends +were away St. Peter came, in disguise, and allured the minstrel to +play at dice, and to stake the souls which were in torture under +his care. Peter won, and carried them off in triumph. The devils, +coming back and finding the fires all out and hell empty, kicked +the hapless minstrel out, and Lucifer swore a big oath that no +minstrel should ever darken the door of hell again! + +The mediaval belief in a future life was practically concentrated, +for the most part, around the ideas of Satan, purgatory, the last +judgment, hell. The faith in Christ, God, + +23 Allies, Antiquities of Worcestershire, 2d ed. p. 256. + +24 Michelet, Hist. de France, livre iv. chap. ix. + +25 Vision of Dowell, part iii. + +26 Vision of Dobet, part ii. + +27 Ibid., part iv. + + +heaven, was much rarer and less influential. Neander says, "The +inmost distinction of mediaval experience was an awful sense of +another life and an invisible world." A most piteous illustration +of the conjoined faith and fear of that age is furnished by an old +dialogue between the "Soul and the Body" recently edited by +Halliwell, an expression of humble trust and crouching horror +irresistibly pathetic in its simplicity.28 A flood of revealing +light is given as to the energy with which the doctrine of +purgatory impressed itself on the popular mind, by the two facts, +first, that the Council of Auxerre, in 1578, prohibited the +administration of the eucharist to the dead; and, secondly, that +in the eleventh and twelfth centuries "crosses of absolution" that +is, crosses cut out of sheet lead, with the formula of absolution +engraved on them were quite commonly buried with the dead.29 The +eager sincerity of the mediaval belief in another life is +attested, too, by the correspondence of the representations of the +dead in their legends to the appearance, disposition, and pursuits +they had in life. No oblivious draught, no pure spiritualization, +had freed the departed souls from earthly bonds and associations. +Light pretexts drew them back to their wonted haunts. A buried +treasure allowed them no rest till they had led some one to raise +it. An unfinished task, an uncancelled obligation, forced them +again to the upper world. In ruined castles the ghosts of knights, +in their accustomed habiliments, held tournaments and carousals. +The priest read mass; the hunter pursued his game; the spectre +robber fell on the benighted traveller.30 It is hard for us now to +reproduce, even in imagination, the fervid and frightful +earnestness of the popular faith of the Middle Age in the +ramifying agency of the devil and in the horrors of purgatory. We +will try to do it, in some degree, by a series of illustrations +aiming to show at once how prevalent such a belief and fear were, +and how they became so prevalent. + +First, we may specify the teaching of the Church whose authority +in spiritual concerns bore almost unquestioned sway over the minds +of more than eighteen generations. By the logical subtleties of +her scholastic theologians, by the persuasive eloquence of her +popular preachers, by the frantic ravings of her fanatic devotees, +by the parading proclamation of her innumerable pretended +miracles, by the imposing ceremonies of her dramatic ritual, +almost visibly opening heaven and hell to the over awed +congregation, by her wonder working use of the relics of martyrs +and saints to exorcise demons from the possessed and to heal the +sick, and by her anathemas against all who were supposed to be +hostile to her formulas, she infused the ideas of her doctrinal +system into the intellect, heart, and fancy of the common people, +and nourished the collateral horrors, until every wave of her wand +convulsed the world. In a pastoral letter addressed to the +Carlovingian prince Louis, the grandson of Charlemagne, a letter +probably composed by the famous Hincmar, bearing date 858, and +signed by the Bishops of Rheims and Rouen, a Gallic synod +authoritatively declared that Charles Martel was damned; "that on +the opening of his tomb the spectators were affrighted by a smell +of fire and the aspect of a horrid dragon, and that a saint of the +times was indulged with a pleasant vision of the soul and body of +this great hero burning to all eternity in the abyss of hell." + +28 Early English Miscellanies, No. 2. + +29 London Antiquaries' Archaologis, vol. xxxv. art. 22. + +30 Thorpe, Northern Mythology, vol. i., appendix. + + +A tremendous impulse, vivifying and emphasizing the eschatological +notions of the time, an impulse whose effects did not cease when +it died, was imparted by that frightful epidemic expectation of +the impending end of the world which wellnigh universally +prevailed in Christendom about the year 1000. Many of the charters +given at that time commence with the words, "As the world is now +drawing to a close." 31 This expectation drew additional strength +from the unutterable sufferings famine, oppression, pestilence, +war, superstition then weighing on the people. "The idea of the +end of the world," we quote from Michelet, "sad as that world was, +was at once the hope and the terror of the Middle Age. Look at +those antique statues of the tenth and eleventh centuries, mute, +meager, their pinched and stiffened lineaments grinning with a +look of living suffering allied to the repulsiveness of death. See +how they implore, with clasped hands, that desired yet dreaded +moment when the resurrection shall redeem them from their +unspeakable sorrows and raise them from nothingness into existence +and from the grave to God." + +Furthermore, this superstitious character of the mediaval belief +in the future life acquired breadth and intensity from the +profound general ignorance and trembling credulousness of that +whole period on all subjects. It was an age of marvels, romances, +fears, when every landscape of life "wore a strange hue, as if +seen through the sombre medium of a stained casement." While +congregations knelt in awe beneath the lifted Host, and the image +of the dying Savior stretched on the rood glimmered through clouds +of incense, perhaps an army of Flagellants would march by the +cathedral, shouting, "The end of the world is at hand!" filling +the streets with the echoes of their torture as they lashed their +naked backs with knotted cords wet with blood; and no soul but +must shudder with the infection of horror as the dreadful notes of +the "Dies Iioe" went sounding through the air. The narratives of +the desert Fathers, the miracles wrought in convent cells, the +visions of pillar saints, the thrilling accompaniments of the +Crusades, and other kindred influences, made the world a perpetual +mirage. The belching of a volcano was the vomit of uneasy hell. +The devil stood before every tempted man, Ghosts walked in every +nightly dell. Ghastly armies were seen contending where the aurora +borealis hung out its bloody banners. The Huns under Attila, +ravaging Southern Europe, were thought to be literal demons who +had made an irruption from the pit. The metaphysician was in peril +of the stake as a heretic, the natural philosopher as a magician. +A belief in witchcraft and a trust in ordeals were universal, even +from Pope Eugenius, who introduced the trial by cold water, and +King James, who wrote volumes on magic, to the humblest monk who +shuddered when passing the church crypt, and the simplest peasant +who quaked in his homeward path at seeing a will o' the wisp. +"Denounced by the preacher and consigned to the flames by the +judge, the wizard received secret service money from the Cabinet +to induce him to destroy the hostile armament as it sailed before +the wind." As a vivid writer has well said, "A gloomy mist of +credulity enwrapped the cathedral and the hall of justice, the +cottage and the throne. In the dank shadows of the universal +ignorance a thousand superstitions, like foul animals of night, +were propagated and nourished." + +31 Hallam, Middle Ages, ch. ix. + + +The beliefs and excitements of the mediaval period partook of a +sort of epidemic character, diffusing and working like a +contagion.32 There were numberless throngs of pilgrims to famous +shrines, immense crowds about the localities of popular legends, +relics, or special grace. In the magnetic sphere of such a fervid +and credulous multitude, filled with the kindling interaction of +enthusiasm, of course prodigies would abound, fables would +flourish, and faith would be doubly generated and fortified. In +commemoration of a miraculous act of virtue performed by St. +Francis, the pope offered to all who should enter the church at +Assisi between the eve of the 1st and the eve of the 2d of August +each year that being the anniversary of the saint's achievement a +free pardon for all the sins committed by them since their +baptism. More than sixty thousand pilgrims sometimes flocked +thither on that day. Every year some were crushed to death in the +suffocating pressure at the entrance of the church. Nearly two +thousand friars walked in procession; and for a series of years +the pilgrimage to Portiuncula might have vied with that to the +temple of Juggernaut.33 + +Nothing tends more to strengthen any given belief than to see it +everywhere carried into practice and to act in accordance with it. +Thus was it with the mediaval doctrine of the future life. Its +applications and results were constantly and universally thrust +into notice by the sale of indulgences and the launching of +excommunications. Early in the ninth century, Charlemagne +complained that the bishops and abbots forced property from +foolish people by promises and threats: "Suadendo de coelestis +regni beatitudine, comminando de oeterno supplicio inferni."34 The +rival mendicant orders, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, +acquired great riches and power by the traffic in indulgences. +They even had the impudence to affirm that the members of their +orders were privileged above all other men in the next world. +Milton alludes to those who credited these monstrous assumptions: +"And they who, to be sure of Paradise, Dying, put on the weeds of +Dominic, Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised." + +The Council of Basle censured the claim of the Franciscan monks +that their founder annually descended to purgatory and led thence +to heaven the souls of all those who had belonged to his order. +The Carmelites also asserted that the Virgin Mary appeared to +Simon Stockius, the general of their order, and gave him a solemn +promise that the souls of such as left the world with the +Carmelite scapulary upon their shoulders should be infallibly +preserved from eternal damnation. Mosheim says that Pope Benedict +XIV. was an open defender of this ridiculous fiction.35 + +If any one would appreciate the full mediaval doctrine of the +future life, whether with respect to the hair drawn scholastic +metaphysics by which it was defended, or with respect to the +concrete forms in which the popular apprehension held it, let him +read the Divina Commedia of Dante; for it is all there. Whoso with +adequate insight and sympathy peruses + +32 Hecker, Epidemics of the Middle Ages. + +33 Quarterly Review, July, 1819: article on Monachism. + +34 Perry, History of the Franks, p. 467. + +35 Eccl. Hist., XIII. Century, part ii. ch. 2, sect. 29. + + +the pages of the immortal Florentine at whom the people pointed as +he walked the streets, and said, "There goes the man who has been +in hell" will not fail to perceive with what a profound sincerity +the popular breast shuddered responsive to ecclesiastical threats +and purgatorial woes. + +The tremendous moral power of this solitary work lies in the fact +that it is a series of terrific and fascinating tableaux, +embodying the idea of inflexible poetic justice impartially +administered upon king and varlet, pope and beggar, oppressor and +victim, projected amidst the unalterable necessities of eternity, +and moving athwart the lurid abyss and the azure cope with an +intense distinctness that sears the gazer's eyeballs. The Divina +Commedia, with a wonderful truth, also reflects the feeling of the +age when it was written in this respect, that there is a grappling +force of attraction, a compelling realism, about its "Purgatory" +and "Hell" which are to be sought in vain in the delineations of +its "Paradise." The mediaval belief in a future life had for its +central thought the day of judgment, for its foremost emotion +terror.36 + +The roots of this faith were unquestionably fertilized, and the +development of this fear quickened, to a very great extent, by +deliberate and systematic delusions. One of the most celebrated of +these organized frauds was the gigantic one perpetrated under the +auspices of the Dominican monks at Berne in 1509, the chief actors +in which were unmasked and executed. Bishop Burnet has given an +extremely interesting account of this affair in his volume of +travels. Suffice it to say, the monks appeared at midnight in the +cells of various persons, now impersonating devils, in horrid +attire, breathing flames and brimstone, now claiming to be the +souls of certain sufferers escaped from purgatory, and again +pretending to be celebrated saints, with the Virgin Mary at their +head. By the aid of mechanical and chemical arrangements, they +wrought miracles, and played on the terror and credulity of the +spectators in a frightful manner.37 There is every reason to +suppose that such deceptions miracles in which secret speaking +tubes, asbestos, and phosphorus were indispensable38 were most +frequent in those ages, and were as effective as the actors were +unscrupulous and the dupes unsuspicious. Here is revealed one of +the foremost of the causes which made the belief of the Dark Age +in the numerous appearances of ghosts and devils so common and so +intense that it gave currency to the notion that the swarming +spirits of purgatory were disembogued from dusk till dawn. So the +Danish monarch, revisiting the pale glimpses of the moon, says to +Hamlet, "I am thy father's spirit, Doom'd for a certain time to walk the +night, And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul +crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away." + +36 If any one would see in how many forms the faith in hell and in +the devil appeared, let him look over the pages of the +"Dictionnaire Infernal," by J. Collin de Plancy. + +37 Maclaine's trans, of Mosheim's Eccl. Hist., vol. ii. p. 10, +note. + +38 Manufactures of the Ancients, pub. by Harper and Brothers, +1845, part iv. ch. 3. + + +When the shadows began to fall thick behind the sunken sun, these +poor creatures were thought to spring from their beds of torture, +to wander amidst the scenes of their sins or to haunt the living; +but at the earliest scent of morn, the first note of the cock, +they must hie to their fire again. Midnight was the high noon of +ghostly and demoniac revelry on the earth. As the hour fell with +brazen clang from the tower, the belated traveller, afraid of the +rustle of his own dress, the echo of his own footfall, the +wavering of his own shadow, afraid of his own thoughts, would +breathe the suppressed invocation, "Angels and ministers of grace +defend us!" as the idea crept curdling over his brain and through +his veins, "It is the very witching time of night, When +churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this +world." + +Working in alliance with the foregoing forces of superstition was +the powerful influence of the various forms of insanity which +remarkably abounded in the Middle Age. The insane person, it was +believed, was possessed by a demon. His ravings, his narratives, +were eagerly credited; and they were usually full of infernal +visions, diabolical interviews, encounters with apparitions, and +every thing that would naturally arise in a deranged and +preternaturally sensitive mind from the chief conceptions then +current concerning the invisible world.39 + +The principal works of art exposed to the people were such as +served to impress upon their imaginations the Church doctrine of +the future life in all its fearfulness, with its vigorous dramatic +points. In the cathedral at Antwerp there is a representation of +hell carved in wood, whose marvellous elaborateness astonishes, +and whose painful expressiveness oppresses, every beholder. With +what excruciating emotions the pious crowds must have contemplated +the harrowingly vivid paintings of the Inferno, by Orcagna, still +to be seen in the Campo Santo of Pisa! In the cathedral at +Canterbury there was a window on which was painted a detailed +picture of Christ vanquishing the devils in their own domain; but +we believe it has been removed. However, the visitor still sees on +the fine east window of York Cathedral the final doom of the +wicked, hell being painted as an enormous mouth; also in the west +front of Lincoln Cathedral an ancient bas relief representing hell +as a monstrous mouth vomiting flame and serpents, with two human +beings walking into it. The minster at Freyburg has a grotesque +bas relief over its main portal, representing the Judgment. St. +Nicholas stands in the centre, and the Savior is seated above him. +On the left, an angel weighs mankind in a huge pair of scales, and +a couple of malicious imps try to make the human scale kick the +beam. Underneath, St. Peter is ushering the good into Paradise. On +the right is shown a devil, with a pig's head, dragging after him +a throng of the wicked. He also has a basket on his back filled +with figures whom he is in the act of flinging into a reeking +caldron stirred by several imps. Hell is typified, on one side, by +the jaws of a monster crammed to the teeth with reprobates, and +Satan is seen sitting on his throne above them. A recent traveller +writes from + +39 De Boismont, Rational Hist. of Hallucivatious, ch. xiv. + + +Naples, "The favorite device on the church walls here is a +vermilion picture of a male and a female soul, respectively up to +the waist [the waist of a soul!] in fire, with an angel over each +watering them from a water pot. This is meant to get money from +the compassionate to pay for the saying of masses in behalf of +souls in purgatory." Ruskin has described some of the church +paintings of the Last Judgment by the old masters as possessing a +power even now sufficient to stir every sensibility to its depths. +Such works, gazed on day after day, while multitudes were kneeling +beneath in the shadowy aisles, and clouds of incense were floating +above, and the organ was pealing and the choir chanting in full +accord, must produce lasting effects on the imagination, and thus +contribute in return to the faith and fear which inspired them. + +Villani as also Sismondi gives a description of a horrible +representation of hell shown at Florence in 1304 by the +inhabitants of San Priano, on the river Arno. The glare of flames, +the shrieks of men disguised as devils, scenes of infernal +torture, filled the night. Unfortunately, the scaffolding broke +beneath the crowd, and many spectators were burned or drowned, and +that which began as an entertaining spectacle ended as a direful +reality. The whole affair is a forcible illustration of the +literality with which the popular mind and faith apprehended the +notion of the infernal world. + +Another means by which the views we have been considering were +both expressed and recommended to the senses and belief of the +people was those miracle plays that formed one of the most +peculiar features of the Middle Age. These plays, founded on, and +meant to illustrate, Scripture narratives and theological +doctrines, were at first enacted by the priests in the churches, +afterwards by the various trading companies or guilds of +mechanics. In 1210, Pope Gregory "forbade the clergy to take any +part in the plays in churches or in the mummings at festivals." A +similar prohibition was published by the Council of Treves, in +1227. The Bishop of Worms, in 1316, issued a proclamation against +the abuses which had crept into the festivities of Easter, and +gives a long and curious description of them.40 There were two +popular festivals, of which Michelet gives a full and amusing +description, one called the "Fete of the Tipsy Priests," when they +elected a Bishop of Unreason, offered him incense of burned +leather, sang obscene songs in the choir, and turned the altar +into a dice table; the other called the "Fete of the Cuckolds," +when the laymen crowned each other with leaves, the priests wore +their surplices wrong side out and threw bran in each others' +eyes, and the bell ringers pelted each other with biscuits. There +is a religious play by Calderon, entitled "The Divine Orpheus," in +which the entire Church scheme of man's fall the devil's empire, +Christ's descent there, and the victorious sequel is embodied in a +most effective manner. In the priestly theology and in the popular +heart of those times there was no other single particular one +tenth part so prominent and vivid as that of Christ's entrance +after his death into hell to rescue the old saints and break down +Satan's power.41 + +40 Early Mysteries and Latin Poems of the XII. and XIII. +Centuries, edited by Thomas Wright. See the eloquent sermon on +this subject preached by Luis de Granada in the sixteenth century. +Ticknor's Hist. Spanish Lit., vol. iii. pp. 123-127. + + +Peter Lombard says, "What did the Redeemer do to the despot who +had us in his bonds? He offered him the cross as a mouse trap, and +put his blood on it as bait." 42 About that scene there was an +incomparable fascination for every believer. Christ laid aside his +Godhead and died. The devil thought he had secured a new victim, +and humanity swooned in grief and despair. But, lo! the Crucified, +descending to the inexorable dungeons, puts on all his Divinity, +and suddenly "The captive world awakt, and founde The pris'ner +loose, the jailer bounde!" 43 + +A large proportion of the miracle plays, or Mysteries, turned on +this event. In the "Mystery of the Resurrection of Christ" occurs +the following couplet: "This day the angelic King has risen, +Leading the pious from their prison." 44 + +The title of one of the principal plays in the Towneley Mysteries +is "Extractio Animarum ab Inferno." It describes Christ descending +to the gates of hell to claim his own. Adam sees afar the gleam of +his coming, and with his companions begins to sing for joy. The +infernal porter shouts to the other demons, in alarm, "Since first +that hell was made and I was put therein, Such sorrow never ere I +had, nor heard I such a din. My heart begins to start; my wit it +waxes thin; I am afraid we can't rejoice, these souls must from +us go. Ho, Beelzebub! bind these boys: such noise was never heard +in hell." + +Satan vows he will dash Beelzebub's brains out for frightening him +so. Meanwhile, Christ draws near, and says, "Lift up your gates, +ye princes, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the +King of glory shall come in." The portals fly asunder. Satan +shouts up to his friends, "Dyng the dastard down;" but Beelzebub +replies, "That is easily said." Jesus and the devil soon meet, +face to face. A long colloquy ensues, in the course of which the +latter tells the former that he knew his Father well by sight! At +last Jesus frees Adam, Eve, the prophets, and others, and ascends, +leaving the devil in the lowest pit, resolving that hell shall +soon be fuller than before; for he will walk east and he will walk +west, and he will seduce thousands from their allegiance. Another +play, similar to the foregoing, but much more extensively known +and acted, was called the "Harrowing of Hell." Christ and Satan +appear on the stage and argue in the most approved scholastic +style for the right of possession in the human race. Satan says, +"Whoever purchases any thing, It belongs to him and to his +children. Adam, hungry, came to me; + +42 Sententia, lib. iii. distinctio 19. + +43 Hone, Ancient Mysteries. + +44 "Resurrexit hodie Rex angelorum Ducitur de tenebris turba +piorum." + + +I made him do me homage: For an apple, which I gave him, He and +all his race belong to me." But Christ instantly puts a different +aspect on the argument, by replying, "Satan! it was mine, The +apple thou gavest him. The apple and the apple tree Both were made +by me. As he was purchased with my goods, With reason will I have +him." 45 + +In a religious Mystery exhibited at Lisbon as late as the close of +the eighteenth century, the following scene occurs. Cain kicks his +brother Abel badly and kills him. A figure like a Chinese +mandarin, seated in a chair, condemns Cain and is drawn up into +the clouds. The mouth of hell then appears, like the jaws of a +great dragon: amid smoke and lightning it casts up three devils, +one of them having a wooden leg. These take a dance around Cain, +and are very jocose, one of them inviting him to hell to take a +cup of brimstone coffee, and another asking him to make up a party +at whist. Cain snarls, and they tumble him and themselves headlong +into the squib vomiting mouth. + +Various books of accounts kept by the trading companies who +celebrated these Mysteries of the expenses incurred have been +published, and are exceedingly amusing. "Item: payd for kepyng of +fyer at hellmothe, four pence." "For a new hoke to hang Judas, six +pence." "Item: payd for mendyng and payntyng hellmouthe, two +pence." "Girdle for God, nine pence." "Axe for Pilatte's son, one +shilling." "A staff for the demon, one penny." "God's coat of +white leather, three shillings." The stage usually consisted of +three platforms. On the highest sat God, surrounded by his angels. +On the next were the saints in Paradise, the intermediate state of +the good after death. On the third were mere men yet living in the +world. On one side of the lowest stage, in the rear, was a fearful +cave or yawning mouth filled with smoke and flames, and denoting +hell. From this ever and anon would issue the howls and shrieks of +the damned. Amidst hideous yellings, devils would rush forth and +caper about and snatch hapless souls into this pit to their +doom.46 The actors, in their mock rage, sometimes leaped from the +pageant into the midst of the laughing, screaming, trembling +crowd. The dramatis personoe included many queer characters, such +as a "Worm of Conscience," "Deadman," (representing a soul +delivered from hell at the descent of Christ,) numerous "Damned +Souls," dressed in flame colored garments, "Theft," "Lying," +"Gluttony." But the devil himself was the favorite character; and +often, when his personified vices jumped on him and pinched and +cudgelled him till he roared, the mirth of the honest audience +knew no bounds. For there were in the Middle Age two sides to the +popular idea of the devil and of all appertaining to him. He was a +soul harrowing bugbear or a rib shaking jest according to the hour +and one's + +45 Halliwell's edition of the Harrowing of Hell, p. 18. + +46 Sharp, Essay on the Dramatic Mysteries, p. 24. + + +humor. Rabelais's Pantagruel is filled with irresistible +burlesques of the doctrine of purgatory. The ludicrous side of +this subject may be seen by reading Tarlton's "Jests" and his +"Newes out of Purgatorie." 47 Glimpses of it are also to be caught +through many of the humorous passages in Shakspeare. Dromio says +of an excessively fat and greasy kitchen wench, "If she lives till +doomsday she'll burn a week longer than the whole world!" And +Falstaff, cracking a kindred joke on Bardolph's carbuncled nose, +avows his opinion that it will serve as a flaming beacon to light +lost souls the way to purgatory! Again, seeing a flea on the same +flaming proboscis, the doughty knight affirmed it was "a black +soul burning in hell fire." In this element of mediaval life, this +feature of mediaval literature, a terrible belief lay under the +gay raillery. Here is betrayed, on a wide scale, that natural +reaction of the faculties from excessive oppression to sportive +wit, from deep repugnance to superficial jesting, which has often +been pointed out by philosophical observers as a striking fact in +the psychological history of man. + +One more active and mighty cause of the dreadful faith and fear +with which the Middle Age contemplated the future life was the +innumerable and frightful woes, crimes, tyrannies, instruments of +torture, engines of persecution, insane superstitions, which then +existed, making its actual life a hell. The wretchedness and +cruelty of the present world were enough to generate frightful +beliefs and cast appalling shadows over the future. If the earth +was full of devils and phantoms, surely hell must swarm worse with +them. The Inquisition sat shrouded and enthroned in supernatural +obscurity of cunning and awfulness of power, and thrust its +invisible daggers everywhere. The facts men knew here around them +gave credibility to the imagery in which the hereafter was +depicted. The flaming stakes of an Auto da Fe around which the +victims of ecclesiastical hatred writhed were but faint emblems of +what awaited their souls in the realm of demons whereto the tender +mercies of the Church consigned them. Indeed, the fate of myriads +of heretics and traitors could not fail to project the lurid +vision of hell with all its paraphernalia into the imaginations of +the people of the Dark Age. The glowing lava of purgatory heated +the soil they trod, and a smell of its sulphur surcharged the air. +A stupendous revelation of terror, bearing whole volumes of +direful meaning, is given in the single fact that it was a common +belief of that period that the holy Inquisitors would sit with +Christ in the judgment at the last day.48 If king or noble took +offence at some uneasy retainer or bold serf, he ordered him to be +secretly buried in the cell of some secluded fortress, and he was +never heard of more. So, if pope or priest hated or feared some +stubborn thinker, he straightway, "Would banish him to wear a +burning chain In the great dungeons of the unforgiven, Beneath +the space deep castle walls of heaven." + +It was an age of cruelty, never to be restored, when the world was +boiling in tempest and men rode on the crests of fear. + +47 Recently edited by Halliwell and published by the Shakspeare +Society. + +48 Hagenbach, Dogmengeschichte, sect. 205. + + +Researches made within the last century among the remains of +famous mediaval edifices, both ecclesiastic and state, have +brought to light the dismal records of forgotten horrors. In many +a royal palace, priestly building, and baronial castle, there were +secret chambers full of infernal machinery contrived for +inflicting tortures, and under them concealed trap doors opening +into rayless dungeons with no outlet and whose floors were covered +with the mouldering bones of unfortunate wretches who had +mysteriously disappeared long ago and tracelessly perished there. +Sometimes these trap doors were directly above profound pits of +water, in which the victim would drown as he dropped from the +mangling hooks, racks, and pincers of the torture chamber. There +were horrible rumors current in the Middle Age of a machine called +the "Virgin," used for putting men to death; but little was known +about it, and it was generally supposed to be a fable, until, some +years ago one of the identical machines was discovered in an old +Austrian castle. It was a tall wooden woman, with a painted face, +which the victim was ordered to kiss. As he approached to offer +the salute, he trod on a spring, causing the machine to fly open, +stretch out a pair of iron arms, and draw him to its breast +covered with a hundred sharp spikes, which pierced him to death.49 + +Ignorance and alarm, in a suffering and benighted age, surrounded +by sounds of superstition and sights of cruelty, must needs breed +and foster a horrid faith in regard to the invisible world. +Accordingly, the common doctrine of the future life prevailing in +Christendom from the ninth century till the sixteenth was as we +have portrayed it. Of course there are exceptions to be admitted +and qualifications to be made; but, upon the whole, the picture is +faithful. Fortunately, intellect and soul could not slumber +forever, nor the mediaval nightmares always keep their torturing +seat on the bosom of humanity. Noble men arose to vindicate the +rights of reason and the divinity of conscience. The world was +circumnavigated, and its revolution around the sun was +demonstrated. A thousand truths were discovered, a thousand +inventions introduced. Papacy tottered, its prestige waned, its +infallibility sunk. The light of knowledge shone, the simplicity +of nature was seen, and the benignity of God was surmised. +Thought, throwing off many restrictions and accumulating much +material, began to grow free, and began to grow wise. And so, +before the calm, steady gaze of enlightened and cheerful reason, +the live and crawling smoke of hell, which had so long enwreathed +the mind of the time with its pendent and breathing horrors, +gradually broke up and dissolved, "Like a great superstitious +snake, uncurled From the pale temples of the awakening world." + +49 The Kiss of the Virgin, in the Archaologia published by the +Antiquaries of London, vol. xxviii. + + +CHAPTER III. + +MODERN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. + +THE folly and paganism of some of the Church dogmas, the rapacious +haughtiness of its spirit, the tyranny of its rule, and the +immoral character of many of its practices, had often awakened the +indignant protests and the determined opposition of men of +enlightened minds, vigorous consciences, and generous hearts, both +in its bosom and out of it. Many such men, vainly struggling to +purify the Church from its iniquitous errors or to relieve mankind +from its outrageous burdens, had been silenced and crushed by its +relentless might. Arnold, Wickliffe, Wessel, Savonarola, and a +host of others, are to be gratefully remembered forever as the +heroic though unsuccessful forerunners of the mighty monk of +Wittenberg.1 The corruption of the mediaval Church grew worse, and +became so great as to stir a very extensive disgust and revulsion. +Wholesale pardons for all their sins were granted indiscriminately +to those who accepted the terms of the papal officials; while +every independent thinker, however evangelical his faith and +exemplary his character, was hopelessly doomed to hell. Especially +were these pardons given to pilgrims and to the Crusaders. Bernard +of Clairvaux, exhorting the people to undertake a new Crusade, +tells them that "God condescends to invite into his service +murderers, robbers, adulterers, perjurers, and those sunk in other +crimes; and whosoever falls in this cause shall secure pardon for +the sins which he has never confessed with contrite heart."2 At +the opening of "Piers the Ploughman's Crede" a person is +introduced saying, "I saw a company of pilgrims on their way to +Rome, who came home with leave to lie all the rest of their +lives!" Nash, in his "Lenten Stuff," speaks of a proclamation +which caused "three hundred thousand people to roam to Rome for +purgatorie pills." Ecclesiasticism devoured ethics. Allegiance to +morality was lowered into devotion to a ritual. The sale of +indulgences at length became too impudent and blasphemous to be +any longer endured, when John Tetzel, a Dominican monk, travelled +over Europe, and, setting up his auction block in the churches, +offered for sale those famous indulgences of Leo X. which +promised, to every one rich enough to pay the requisite price, +remission of all sins, however enormous, and whether past, +present, or future!3 This brazen but authorized charlatan boasted +that "he had saved more souls from hell by the sale of indulgences +than St. Peter had converted to Christianity by his preaching." He +also said that "even if any one had ravished the Mother of God he +could sell him a pardon for it!" The soul of Martin Luther took +fire. The consequence to which a hundred combining causes +contributed was the Protestant Reformation. This great movement +produced, in relation to our subject, three important results. It +noticeably modified the practice and the popular preaching of the +Roman Catholic Church. + +1 Ullmann, Reformatoren vor der Reformation. + +2 Epist. CCCLXIII. ad Orientalis Francia Clerum et Populum. + +3 D'Aubigne, Hist. Reformation, book iii. + + +The dogmas of the Romanist theology remained as they were before. +But a marked change took place in the public conduct of the papal +functionaries. Morality was made more prominent, and mere +ritualism less obtrusive. Comparatively speaking, an emphasis was +taken from ecclesiastic confession and indulgence, and laid upon +ethical obedience and piety. The Council of Trent, held at this +time, says, in its decree concerning indulgences, "In granting +indulgences, the Church desires that moderation be observed, lest, +by excessive facility, ecclesiastical discipline be enervated." +Imposture became more cautious, threats less frequent and less +terrible; the teeth of persecution were somewhat blunted; miracles +grew rarer; the insufferable glare of purgatory and hell faded, +and the open traffic in forgiveness of sins, or the compounding +for deficiencies, diminished. But among the more ignorant papal +multitudes the mediaval superstition holds its place still in all +its virulence and grossness. "Heaven and hell are as much a part +of the Italian's geography as the Adriatic and the Apennines; the +Queen of Heaven looks on the streets as clear as the morning star; +and the souls in purgatory are more readily present to conception +than the political prisoners immured in the dungeons of Venice." + +A second consequence of the Reformation is seen in the numerous +dissenting sects to which its issues gave rise. The chief +peculiarities of the Protestant doctrines of the future life are +embodied in the four leading denominations commonly known as +Lutheran, Calvinistic, Unitarian, and Universalist. Each of these +includes a number of subordinate parties bearing distinctive +names, (such as Arminian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, +Restorationist, and many others;) but these minor differences are +too trivial to deserve distinctive characterization here. The +Lutheran formula is that, through the sacrifice of Christ, +salvation is offered to all who will accept it by a sincere faith. +Some will comply with these terms and secure heaven; others will +not, and so will be lost forever. Luther's views were not firmly +defined and consistent throughout his career; they were often +obscure, and they fluctuated much. It is true he always insisted +that there was no salvation without faith, and that all who had +faith should be saved. But, while he generally seems to believe in +the current doctrine of eternal damnation, he sometimes appears to +encourage the hope that all will finally be saved. In a remarkable +letter to Hansen von Rechenberg, dated 1522, he says, in effect, +"Whoso hath faith in Christ shall be saved. God forbid that I +should limit the time for acquiring this faith to the present +life! In the depths of the Divine mercy, there may be opportunity +to win it in the future state." + +The Calvinistic formula is that heaven is attainable only for +those whom the arbitrary predestination of God has elected; all +others are irretrievably damned. Calvin was the first Christian +theologian who succeeded in giving the fearful doctrine of +unconditional election and reprobation a lodgment in the popular +breast. The Roman Catholic Church had earnestly repudiated it. +Gotteschalk was condemned and died in prison for advocating it, in +the ninth century. But Calvin's character enabled him to believe +it, and his talents and position gave great weight to his advocacy +of it, and it has since been widely received. Catholicism, +Lutheranism, Calvinism, all agreed in the general proposition that +by sin physical death came into the world, heaven was shut against +man, and all men utterly lost. They differed only in some +unessential details concerning the condition of that lost state. +They also agreed in the general proposition that Christ came, by +his incarnation, death, descent to hell, resurrection, and +ascension, to redeem men from their lost state. They only differed +in regard to the precise grounds and extent of that redemption. +The Catholic said, Christ's atonement wiped off the whole score of +original sin, and thus enabled man to win heaven by moral fidelity +and the help of the Church. The Lutheran said, Christ's atonement +made all the sins of those who have faith, pardonable; and all may +have faith. The Calvinist said, God foresaw that man would fall +and incur damnation, and he decreed that a few should be snatched +as brands from the burning, while the mass should be left to +eternal torture; and Christ's atonement purchased the predestined +salvation of the chosen few. Furthermore, Lutherans and +Calvinists, in all their varieties, agree with the Romanist in +asserting that Christ shall come again, the dead be raised bodily, +a universal judgment be held, and that then the condemned shall +sink into the everlasting fire of hell, and the accepted rise into +the endless bliss of heaven. + +The Socinian doctrine relative to the future fate of man differed +from the foregoing in the following particulars. First, it limited +the redeeming mission of Christ to the enlightening influences of +the truths which he proclaimed with Divine authority, the moral +power of his perfect example, and the touching motives exhibited +in his death. Secondly, it asserted a natural ability in every man +to live a life conformed to right reason and sound morality, and +promised heaven to all who did this in obedience to the +instructions and after the pattern of Christ. Thirdly, it declared +that the wicked, after suffering excruciating agonies, would be +annihilated. Respecting the second coming of Christ, a physical +resurrection of the dead, and a day of judgment, the Socinians +believed with the other sects.4 Their doctrine scarcely +corresponds with that of the present Unitarians in any thing. The +dissent of the Unitarian from the popular theology is much more +fundamental, detailed, and consistent than that of the Socinian +was, and approaches much closer to the Rationalism of the present +day. + +The Universalist formula every soul created by God shall sooner or +later be saved from sin and woe and inherit everlasting happiness +has been publicly defended in every age of the Christian Church.5 +It was first publicly condemned as a heresy at the very close of +the fourth century. It ranks among its defenders the names of +Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of +Nyssa, and several other prominent Fathers. Universalism has been +held in four forms, on four grounds. First, it has been supposed +that Christ died for all, and that, by the infinite efficacy of +his redeeming merits, all sins shall be cancelled and every soul +be saved. This was the scheme of those early Universalist +Christians whom Epiphanius condemns as heretics; also of a few in +more modern times. Secondly, it has been thought that each person +would be punished in the future state according to the deeds done +in the body, each sin be expiated by a proportionate amount of +suffering, the retribution of some souls being severe and long, +that of others light and brief; but, every penalty being at + +4 Flugge gives a full exposition of these points with references +to the authorities. Lehre vom Zustande, u. s. f., abth. ii. ss. +243-260. + +5 Dietelmaier, Commenti Fanatici [non-ASCII characters omitted] Hist. +Antiquar. + + +length exhausted, the last victim would be restored. This was the +notion of Origen, the basis of the doctrine of purgatory, and the +view of most of the Restorationists. Thirdly, it has been imagined +that, by the good pleasure and fixed laws of God, all men are +destined to an impartial, absolute, and instant salvation beyond +the grave: all sins are justly punished, all moral distinctions +equitably compensated, in this life; in the future an equal glory +awaits all men, by the gracious and eternal election of God, as +revealed to us in the benignant mission of Christ. This is the +peculiar conception distinguishing some members of the +denomination now known as Universalists. Finally, it has been +believed that the freedom and probation granted here extend into +the life to come; that the aim of all future punishment will be +remedial, beneficent, not revengeful; that stronger motives will +be applied for producing repentance, and grander attractions to +holiness be felt; and that thus, at some time or other, even the +most sunken and hardened souls will be regenerated and raised up +to heaven in the image of God. Almost all Universalists, most +Unitarians, and large number of individual Christians outwardly +affiliated with other denominations, now accept and cherish this +theory. + +One important variation from the doctrine of the dominant sects, +in connection with the present subject, is worthy of special +notice. We refer to the celebrated controversy waged in England, +in the first part of the eighteenth century, in regard to the +intermediate state of the dead. The famous Dr. Coward and a few +supporters labored, with much zeal, skill, and show of learning, +to prove the natural mortality of the soul. They asserted this to +be both a philosophical truth proved by scientific facts and a +Christian doctrine declared in Scripture and taught by the +Fathers. They argued that the soul is not an independent entity, +but is merely the life of the body. Proceeding thus far on the +principles of a materialistic science, they professed to complete +their theory from Scripture, without doing violence to any +doctrine of the acknowledged religion.6 The finished scheme was +this. Man was naturally mortal; but, by the pleasure and will of +God, he would have been immortally preserved alive had he not +sinned. Death is the consequence of sin, and man utterly perishes +in the grave. But God will restore the dead, through Christ, at +the day of the general resurrection which he has foretold in the +gospel.7 Some of the writers in this copious controversy +maintained that previous to the advent of Christ death was eternal +annihilation to all except a few who enjoyed an inspired +anticipatory faith in him, but that all who died after his coming +would be restored in the resurrection, the faithful to be advanced +to heaven, the wicked to be the victims of unending torture.8 +Clarke and Baxter both wrote with extreme ability in support of +the natural immortality and separate existence of the soul. On the +other hand, the learned Henry Dodwell cited, from the lore of +three thousand years, a plausible body of authorities to show that +the soul is in itself but a mortal breath. He also contended, by a +singular perversion of figurative phrases from the New Testament +and from some of the Fathers, that, + +6 Coward, Search after Souls. + +7 Hallet, No Resurrection, no Future State. + +8 Coward, Defence of the Search after Souls. Dodwell, Epistolary +Discourse. Peckard, Observations. Fleming, Survey of the Search +after Souls. Law, State of Separate Spirits. Layton, Treatise of +Departed Souls. + + +in counteraction of man's natural mortality, all who undergo +baptism at the hands of the ordained ministers of the Church of +England the only true priesthood in apostolic succession thereby +receive an immortalizing spirit brought into the world by Christ +and committed to his successors. This immortalizing spirit +conveyed by baptism would secure their resurrection at the last +day. Those destitute of this spirit would never awake from the +oblivious sleep of death, unless as he maintained will actually be +the case with a large part of the dead they are arbitrarily +immortalized by the pleasure of God, in order to suffer eternal +misery in hell! Absurd and shocking as this fancy was, it obtained +quite a number of converts, and made no slight impression at the +time. One of the writers in this controversy asserted that Luther +himself had been a believer in the death or sleep of the soul +until the day of judgment.9 Certain it is that such a belief had +at one period a considerable prevalence. Its advocates were called +Psychopannychians. Calvin wrote a vehement assault on them. The +opinion has sunk into general disrepute and neglect, and it would +be hard to find many avowed disciples of it. The nearly universal +sentiment of Christendom would now exclaim, in the quaint words of +Henry More, + +"What! has old Adam snorted all this time Under some senselesse +clod, with sleep ydead?" 10 + +John Asgill printed, in the year 1700, a tract called "An argument +to prove that by the new covenant man may be translated into +eternal life without tasting death." He argues that the law of +death was a consequence of Adam's sin and was annulled by Christ's +sacrifice. Since that time men have died only because of an +obstinate habit of dying formed for many generations. For his +part, he has the independence and resolution to withstand the +universal pusillanimity and to refuse to die. He has discovered +"an engine in Divinity to convey man from earth to heaven." He +will "play a trump on death and show himself a match for the +devil!" + +While treating of the various Protestant views of the future life, +it would be a glaring defect to overlook the remarkable doctrine +on that subject published by Emanuel Swedenborg and now held by +the intelligent, growing body of believers called after his name. +It would be impossible to exhibit this system adequately in its +scientific bases and its complicated details without occupying +more space than can be afforded here. Nor is this necessary, now +that his own works have been translated and are easily accessible +everywhere. His "Heaven and Hell," "Heavenly Arcana," "Doctrine of +Influx," and "True Christian + +9 Blackburne, View of the Controversy Concerning an Intermediate +State: appendix. It is probable that the great Reformer's opinion +on this point was not always the same. For he says, distinctly, +"The first man who died, when he awakes at the last day, will +think he has been asleep but an hour" Beste, Dr. M. Luther's +Glaubenslehre, cap. iv.: Die Lehre von den Letzen Dingen. Yet. J. +S. Muller seems conclusively to prove the truth of the proposition +which forms the title of his book, "Dass Luther die Lehre vom +Seelenschlafe nie geglaubt habe." + +10 The controversy concerning the natural immortality of the soul +has within a few years raged afresh. The principal combatants were +Dobney, Storrs, White, Morris, and Hinton. See Athanasia, by J. H. +Hinton, London, 1849. + + +Religion," contain manifold statements and abundant illustrations +of every thing important bearing on his views of the theme before +us. We shall merely attempt to present a brief synopsis of the +essential principles, accompanied by two or three suggestions of +criticism. + +Swedenborg conceives man to be an organized receptacle of truth +and love from God. He is an imperishable spiritual body placed for +a season of probation in a perishable material body. Every moment +receiving the essence of his being afresh from God, and returning +it through the fruition of its uses devoutly rendered in conscious +obedience and joyous worship, he is at once a subject of personal, +and a medium of the Divine, happiness. The will is the power of +man's life, and the understanding is its form. When the will is +disinterested love and the understanding is celestial truth, then +man fulfils the end of his being, and his home is heaven; he is a +spirit frame into which the goodness of God perpetually flows, is +humbly acknowledged, gratefully enjoyed, and piously returned. But +when his will is hatred or selfishness and his understanding is +falsehood or evil, then his powers are abused, his destiny +inverted, and his fate hell. While in the body in this world he is +placed in freedom, on probation, between these two alternatives. + +The Swedenborgian universe is divided into four orders of abodes. +In the highest or celestial world are the heavens of the angels. +In the lowest or infernal world are the hells of the demons. In +the intermediate or spiritual world are the earths inhabited by +men, and surrounded by the transition state through which souls, +escaping from their bodies, after a while soar to heaven or sink +to hell, according to their fitness and attraction. In this life +man is free, because he is an energy in equilibrium between the +influences of heaven and hell. The middle state surrounding man is +full of spirits, some good and some bad. Every man is accompanied +by swarms of both sorts of spirits, striving to make him like +themselves. Now, there are two kinds of influx into man. Mediate +influx is when the spirits in the middle state flow into man's +thoughts and affections. The good spirits are in communication +with heaven, and they carry what is good and true; the evil +spirits are in communication with hell, and they carry what is +evil and false. Between these opposed and reacting agencies man is +in an equilibrium whose essence is freedom. Deciding for himself, +if he turns with embracing welcome to the good spirits, he is +thereby placed and lives in conjunction with heaven; but if he +turns, on the contrary, with predominant love to the bad spirits, +he is placed in conjunction with hell and draws his life thence. +From heaven, therefore, through the good spirits, all the elements +of saving goodness flow sweetly down and are appropriated by the +freedom of the good man; while from hell, through the bad spirits, +all the elements of damning evil flow foully up and are +appropriated by the freedom of the bad man. + +The other kind of influx is called immediate. This is when the +Lord himself, the pure substance of truth and good, flows into +every organ and faculty of man. This influx is perpetual, but is +received as truth and good only by the true and good. It is +rejected, suffocated, or perverted by those who are in love with +falsities and evils. So the light of the sun produces colors +varying with the substances it falls on, and water takes forms +corresponding to the vessels it is poured into. + +The whole invisible world heaven, hell, and the middle state is +peopled solely from the different families of the human race +occupying the numerous material globes of the universe. The good, +on leaving the fleshly body, are angels, the bad, demons. There is +no angel nor demon who was created such at first. Satan is not a +personality, but is a figurative term standing for the whole +complex of hell. In the invisible world, time and space in one +sense cease to be; in another sense they remain unchanged. They +virtually cease because all our present measures of them are +annihilated;11 they virtually remain because exact correspondences +to them are left. To spirits, time is no longer measured by the +revolution of planets, but by the succession of inward states; +space is measured not by way marks and the traversing of +distances, but by inward similitudes and dissimilitudes. Those who +are unlike are sundered by gulfs of difference. Those who are +alike are together in their interiors. Thought and love, +forgetfulness and hate, are not hampered by temporal and spatial +boundaries. Spiritual forces and beings spurn material +impediments, and are united or separate, reciprocally visible or +invisible, mutually conscious or unconscious, according to their +own laws of kindred or alien adaptedness. + +The soul the true man is its own organized and deathless body, and +when it leaves its earthly house of flesh it knows the only +resurrection, and the cast off frame returns to the dust forever. +Swedenborg repeatedly affirms with emphasis that no one is born +for hell, but that all are born for heaven, and that when any one +comes into hell it is from his own free fault. He asserts that +every infant, wheresoever born, whether within the Church or out +of it, whether of pious parents or of impious, when he dies is +received by the Lord, and educated in heaven, and becomes an +angel. A central principle of which he never loses sight is that +"a life of charity, which consists in acting sincerely and justly +in every function, in every engagement, and in every work, from a +heavenly motive, according to the Divine laws, is possible to +every one, and infallibly leads to heaven." It does not matter +whether the person leading such a life be a Christian or a +Gentile. The only essential is that his ruling motive be divine +and his life be in truth and good. + +The Swedenborgian doctrine concerning Christ and his mission is +that he was the infinite God incarnate, not incarnate for the +purpose of expiating human sin and purchasing a ransom for the +lost by vicarious sufferings, but for the sake of suppressing the +rampant power of the hells, weakening the influx of the infernal +spirits, setting an example to men, and revealing many important +truths. The advantage of the Christian over the pagan is that the +former is enlightened by the celestial knowledge contained in the +Bible, and animated by the affecting motives presented in the +drama of the Divine incarnation. There is no probation after this +life. Just as one is on leaving the earth he goes into the +spiritual world. There his + +11 Philo the Jew says, (vol. i. p. 277, ed. Mangey,) "God is the +Father of the world: the world is the father of time, begetting it +by its own motion: time, therefore, holds the place of grandchild +to God." But the world is only one measure of time; another, and a +more important one, is the inward succession of the spirit's +states of consciousness. Between Philo and Swedenborg, it may be +remarked here, there are many remarkable correspondences both of +thought and language. For example, Philo says, (vol. i. p. 494,) +"Man is a small kosmos, the kosmos is a grand man." + + +ruling affection determines his destiny, and that affection can +never be extirpated or changed to all eternity. After death, evil +life cannot in any manner or degree be altered to good life, nor +infernal love be transmuted to angelic love, inasmuch as every +spirit from head to foot is in quality such as his love is, and +thence such as his life is, so that to transmute this life into +the opposite is altogether to destroy the spirit. It were easier, +says Swedenborg, to change a night bird into a dove, an owl into a +bird of paradise, than to change a subject of hell into a subject +of heaven after the line of death has been crossed. But why the +crossing of that line should make such an infinite difference he +does not explain; nor does he prove it as a fact. + +The moral reason and charitable heart of Swedenborg vehemently +revolted from the Calvinistic doctrines of predestination and +vicarious atonement, and the group of thoughts that cluster around +them. He always protests against these dogmas, refutes them with +varied power and consistency; and the leading principles of his +own system are creditable to human nature, and attribute no +unworthiness to the character of God. A debt of eternal gratitude +is due to Swedenborg that his influence, certainly destined to be +powerful and lasting, is so clearly calculated to advance the +interests at once of philosophic intelligence, social affection, +and true piety. The superiorities of his view of the future life +over those which it seeks to supplant are weighty and numerous. +The following may be reckoned among the most prominent. + +First, without predicating of God any aggravated severity or +casting the faintest shadow on his benevolence, it gives us the +most appalling realization of the horribleness of sin and of its +consequences. God is commonly represented in effect, at least as +flaming with anger against sinners, and forcibly flinging them +into the unappeasable fury of Tophet, where his infinite vengeance +may forever satiate itself on them. But, Swedenborg says, God is +incapable of hatred or wrath: he casts no one into hell; but the +wicked go where they belong by their own election, from the +inherent fitness and preference of their ruling love. The evil man +desires to be in hell because there he finds his food, employment, +and home; in heaven he would suffer unutterable agonies from every +circumstance. The wicked go into hell by the necessary and +benignant love of God, not by his indignation; and their +retributions are in their own characters, not in their prison +house. This does not flout and trample all magnanimity, nor shock +the heart of piety; and yet, showing us men compelled to prefer +wallowing in the filth and iniquities of hell, clinging to the +very evils whose pangs transfix them, it gives us the direst of +all the impressions of sin, and beneath the lowest deep of the +popular hell opens to our shuddering conceptions a deep of +loathsomeness immeasurably lower still. + +Secondly, the Swedenborgian doctrine of the conditions of +salvation or reprobation, when compared with the popular doctrine, +is marked by striking depth of insight, justice, and liberality. +Every man is free. Every man has power to receive the influx of +truth and good from the Lord and convert it to its blessed and +saving uses, piety towards God, good will towards the neighbor, +and all kinds of right works. Who does this, no matter in what +land or age he lives, becomes an heir of heaven. Who perverts +those Divine gifts to selfishness and unrighteous deeds becomes a +subject of hell. No mere opinion, no mere profession, no mere +ritual services, no mere external obedience, not all these things +together, can save a man, nor their absence condemn him; but the +controlling motive of his life, the central and ruling love which +constitutes the substance of his being, this decides every man's +doom. The view is simple, reasonable, just, necessary. And so is +the doctrine of degrees accompanying it; namely, that there are in +heaven different grades and qualities of exaltation and delight, +and in hell of degradation and woe, for different men according to +their capacities and deserts. A profoundly ethical character +pervades the scheme, and the great stamp of law is over it all. + +Thirdly, a manifest advantage of Swedenborg's doctrine over the +popular doctrine is the intimate connection it establishes between +the present and the future, the visible and the invisible, God and +man. Heaven and hell are not distant localities, entrance into +which is to be won or avoided by moral artifices or sacramental +subterfuges, but they are states of being depending on personal +goodness or evil. God is not throned at the heart or on the apex +of the universe, where at some remote epoch we hope to go and see +him, but he is the Life feeding our lives freshly every instant. +The spiritual world, with all its hosts, sustains and arches, +fills and envelops us. Death is the dropping of the outer body, +the lifting of an opaque veil, and we are among the spirits, +unchanged, as we were before. Judgment is not a tribunal dawning +on the close of the world's weary centuries, but the momentary +assimilation of a celestial or an infernal love leading to states +and acts, rewards and retributions, corresponding. Before this +view the dead universe becomes a live transparency overwritten +with the will, tremulous with the breath, and irradiate with the +illumination of God. + +We cannot but regret that the Swedenborgian view of the future +life should be burdened and darkened with the terrible error of +the dogma of eternal damnation, spreading over the state of all +the subjects of the hells the pall of immitigable hopelessness, +denying that they can ever make the slightest ameliorating +progress. We have never been able to see force enough in any of +the arguments or assertions advanced in support of this tremendous +horror to warrant the least hesitation in rejecting it. For +ourselves, we must regard it as incredible, and think that God +cannot permit it. Instruction, reformation, progress, are the +final aims of punishment. Aspiration is the concomitant of +consciousness, and the authentic voice of God. Surely, sooner or +later, in the boonful eternities of being, every creature capable +of intelligence, allied to the moral law, drawing life from the +Infinite, must begin to travel the ascending path of virtue and +blessedness, and never retrograde again. + +Neither can we admit in general the claim made by Swedenborg and +by his disciples that the way in which he arrived at his system of +theology elevates it to the rank of a Divine revelation. It is +asserted that God opened his interior vision, so that he saw what +had hitherto been concealed from the eyes of men in the flesh, +namely, the inhabitants, laws, contents, and experiences of the +spiritual world, and thus that his statements are not speculations +or arguments, but records of unerring knowledge, his descriptions +not fanciful pictures of the imagination, but literal transcripts +of the truth he saw. This, in view of the great range of known +experience, is not intrinsically probable, and we have seen no +proof of it. Judging from what we know of psychological and +religious history, it is far more likely that a man should +confound his intangible reveries with solid fact than that he +should be inspired by God to reveal a world of mysterious truths. +Furthermore, while we are impressed with the reasonableness, +probability, and consistency of most of the general principles of +Swedenborg's exposition of the future life, we cannot but shrink +from many of the details and forms in which he carries them out. +Notwithstanding the earnest avowals of able disciples of his +school that all his details are strictly necessitated by his +premises, and that all his premises are laws of truth, we are +compelled to regard a great many of his assertions as purely +arbitrary and a great many of his descriptions as purely fanciful. +But, denying that his scheme of eschatology is a scientific +representation of the reality, and looking at it as a poetic +structure reared by co working knowledge and imagination on the +ground of reason, nature, and morality, whose foundation walls, +columns, and grand outlines are truth, while many of its details, +ornaments, and images are fancy, it must be acknowledged to be one +of the most wonderful examples of creative power extant in the +literature of the world. No one who has mastered it with +appreciative mind will question this. There are, expressed and +latent, in the totality of Swedenborg's accounts of hell and +heaven, more variety of imagery, power of moral truth and appeal, +exhibition of dramatic justice, transcendent delights of holiness +and love, curdling terrors of evil and woe, strength of +philosophical grasp, and sublimity of emblematic conception, than +are to be found in Dante's earth renowned poem. We say this of the +substance of his ideas, not of the shape and clothing in which +they are represented. Swedenborg was no poet in language and form, +only in conception. + +Take this picture. In the topmost height of the celestial world +the Lord appears as a sun, and all the infinite multitudes of +angels, swarming up through the innumerable heavens, wherever they +are, continually turn their faces towards him in love and joy. But +at the bottom of the infernal world is a vast ball of blackness, +towards which all the hosts of demons, crowding down through the +successive hells, forever turn their eager faces away from God. Or +consider this. Every thing consists of a great number of perfect +leasts like itself: every heart is an aggregation of little +hearts, every lung an aggregation of little lungs, every eye an +aggregation of little eyes. Following out the principle, every +society in the spiritual world is a group of spirits arranged in +the form of a man, every heaven is a gigantic man composed of an +immense number of individuals, and all the heavens together +constitute one Grand Man, a countless number of the most +intelligent angels forming the head, a stupendous organization of +the most affectionate making the heart, the most humble going to +the feet, the most useful attracted to the hands, and so on +through every part. + +With exceptions, then, we regard Swedenborg's doctrine of the +future life as a free poetic presentment, not as a severe +scientific statement, of views true in moral principle, not of +facts real in literal detail. His imagination and sentiment are +mathematical and ethical instead of asthetic and passionate. Milk +seems to run in his veins instead of blood, but he is of +truthfulness and charity all compact. We think it most probable +that the secret of his supposed inspiration was the abnormal +frequent or chronic turning of his mind into what is called the +ecstatic or clairvoyant state. This condition being spontaneously +induced, while he yet, in some unexplained manner, retained +conscious possession and control of his usual faculties, he +treated his subjective conceptions as objective realities, +believed his interior contemplations were accurate visions of +facts, and took the strange procession of systematic reveries +through his teeming brain for a scenic revelation of the +exhaustive mysteries of heaven and hell. "Each wondrous guess +beheld the truth it sought, And inspiration flash'd from what was +thought." + +This hypothesis, taken in conjunction with the comprehensiveness +of his mind, the vastness of his learning, the integral +correctness of his conscience, and his disciplined habits of +thought, will go far towards explaining the unparalleled +phenomenon of his theological works; and, though it leaves many +things unaccounted for, it seems to us more credible than any +other which has yet been suggested. + +The last of the three prominent phenomena which as before said +followed the Protestant Reformation was rationalism, an attempt to +try all religious questions at the tribunal of reason and by the +tests of conscience. The great movement led by Luther was but one +element in a numerous train of influences and events all yielding +their different contributions to that resolute rationalistic +tendency which afterwards broke out so powerfully in England, +France, and Germany, and, spreading thence into every country in +Christendom, has been, in secret and in public, with slow, sure +steps, irresistibly advancing ever since. In the history of +scholasticism there were three distinct epochs. The first period +was characterized by the servile submission and conformity of +philosophy to the theology dictated by the Church. The second +period was marked by the formal alliance and attempted +reconciliation of philosophy and theology. The third period saw an +ever increasing jealousy and separation between the philosophers +and the theologians.12 Many an adventurous thinker pushed his +speculations beyond the limits of the established theology, and +deliberately dissented from the orthodox standards in his +conclusions. Perhaps Abelard, who openly strove to put all the +Church dogmas in forms acceptable to philosophy, and who did not +hesitate to reject in many instances what seemed to him +unreasonable, deserves to be called the father of rationalism. The +works of Des Cartes, Leibnitz, Wolf, Kant's "Religion within the +Bounds of Pure Reason," together with the influence and the +writings of many other eminent philosophers, gradually gave +momentum to the impulse and popularity to the habits of free +thought and criticism even in the realm of theology. The dogmatic +scheme of the dominant Church was firmly seized, many errors +shaken out to the light and exposed, and many long received +opinions questioned and flung into doubt.13 The authenticity of +many of the popular doctrines regarding the future life could not +fail to be denied as soon as it was attempted as was extensively +done about the middle of the eighteenth century to demonstrate +them by mathematical methods, with all the array of axioms, +theorems, lemmas, doubts, and solutions. Flugge has historically +illustrated the employment of this method at considerable +length.14 + +12 Cousin, Hist. Mod. Phil., lect. ix. + +13 Staudlin, Geschichte des Rationalismus. Saintes, Histoire +Critique du Rationalisme en Allemagne, Eng. trans. by Dr. Beard. + +14 Geschichte des Glaubens an Unsterblichkeit, u. s. f., th. iii. +abth. ii. ss. 281-289. + + +The essence of rationalism is the affirmation that neither the +Fathers, nor the Church, nor the Scriptures, nor all of them +together, can rightfully establish any proposition opposed to the +logic of sound philosophy, the principles of reason, and the +evident truth of nature. Around this thesis the battle has been +fought and the victory won; and it will stand with spreading favor +as long as there are unenslaved and cultivated minds in the world. +This position is, in logical necessity, and as a general thing in +fact, that of the large though loosely cohering body of believers +known as "Liberal Christians;" and it is tacitly held by still +larger and ever growing numbers nominally connected with sects +that officially eschew it with horror. The result of the studies +and discussions associated with this principle, so far as it +relates to the subject before us, has been the rejection of the +following popular doctrines: the plenary inspiration of the +Scriptures as an ultimate authority in matters of belief; +unconditional predestination; the satisfaction theory of the +vicarious atonement; the visible second coming of Christ, in +person, to burn up the world and to hold a general judgment; the +intermediate state of souls; the resurrection of the body; a local +hell of material fire in the bowels of the earth; the eternal +damnation of the wicked. These old dogmas,15 scarcely changed, +still remain in the stereotyped creeds of all the prominent +denominations; but they slumber there to an astonishing extent +unrealized, unnoticed, unthought of, by the great multitude of +common believers, while every consciously rational investigator +vehemently repudiates them. To every candid mind that has really +studied their nature and proofs their absurdity is now transparent +on all the grounds alike of history, metaphysics, morals, and +science. + +The changes of the popular Christian belief in regard to three +salient points have been especially striking. First, respecting +the immediate fate of the dead, an intermediate state. The +predominant Jewish doctrine was that all souls went indiscriminately +into a sombre under world, where they awaited a resurrection. + +The earliest Christian view prevalent was the same, with the +exception that it divided that place of departed spirits +into two parts, a painful for the bad, a pleasant for the good. +The next opinion that prevailed the Roman Catholic was the same as +the foregoing, with two exceptions: it established a purgatory in +addition to the previous paradise and hell, and it opened heaven +itself for the immediate entrance of a few spotless souls. Pope +John XXII., as Gieseler shows, was accused of heresy by the +theological doctors of Paris because he declared that no soul +could enter heaven and enjoy the beatific vision until after the +resurrection. Pope Benedict XII. drew up a list of one hundred and +seventeen heretical opinions held by the Armenian Christians. One +of these notions was that the souls of all deceased adults wander +in the air until the Day of Judgment, neither hell, paradise, nor +heaven being open to them until after that day. Thomas Aquinas +says, "Each soul at death immediately flies to its appointed +place, whether in hell or in heaven, being without the body until +the resurrection, with it afterwards."16 Then came the + +15 They are defended in all their literal grossness in the two +following works, both recent publications. The World to Come; by +the Rev. James Cochrane. Der Tod, das Todtenreich, und der Zustand +der abgeschiedenen Seelen; von P. A. Maywahlen. + +16 Summa iii. in Suppl. 69. 2. + +dogma of the orthodox Protestants, slightly varying in the +different sects, but generally agreeing that at death all redeemed +souls pass instantly to heaven and all unredeemed souls to hell.17 +The principal variation from this among believers within the +Protestant fellowship has been the notion that the souls of all +men die or sleep with the body until the Day of Judgment, a notion +which peeps out here and there in superstitious spots along the +pages of ecclesiastical history, and which has found now and then +an advocate during the last century and a half. The Council of +Elvin, in Spain, forbade the lighting of tapers in churchyards, +lest it should disturb the souls of the deceased buried there. At +this day, in prayers and addresses at funerals, no phrases are +more common than those alluding to death as a sleep, and implying +that the departed one is to slumber peacefully in his grave until +the resurrection. And yet, at the same time, by the same persons +contrary ideas are frequently expressed. The truth is, the +subject, owing to the contradictions between their creed and their +reason, is left by most persons in hopeless confusion and +uncertainty. They have no determinately reconciled and conscious +views of their own. Rationalism sweeps away all the foregoing +incongruous medley at once, denying that we know any thing about +the precise localities of heaven and hell, or the destined order +of events in the hidden future of separate souls; affirming that +all we should dare to say is simply that the souls whether of good +or of bad men, on leaving the body, go at once into a spiritual +state of being, where they will live immortally, as God decrees, +never returning to be reinvested with the vanished charnel houses +of clay they once inhabited. + +Secondly, the thought that Christ after his death descended into +the under world to ransom mankind, or a part of mankind, from the +doom there, is in the foundation of the apostolic theology. It was +a central element in the belief of the Fathers, and of the Church +for fourteen hundred years. None of the prominent Protestant +reformers thought of denying it. Calvin lays great stress on it.18 +Apinus and others, at Hamburg, maintained that Christ's descent +was a part of his humiliation, and that in it he suffered +unutterable pains for us. On the other hand, Melancthon and the +Wittenbergers held that the descent was a part of Christ's +triumph, since by it he won a glorious victory over the powers of +hell.19 But gradually the importance and the redeeming effects +attached to Christ's descent into hell were transferred to his +death on the cross. Slowly the primitive dogma dwindled away, and +finally sunk out of sight, through an ever encroaching disbelief +in the physical conditions on which it rested and in the pictorial +environments by which it was recommended. And now it is scarcely +ever heard of, save when brought out from old scholastic tomes by +some theological delver. Baumgarten Crusius has learnedly +illustrated the important place long held by this notion, and well +shown its gradual retreat into the unnoticed background.20 + +17 Confession of Faith of the Church of Scotland, ch. xxxii. +Calvin, Institutes, lib. iii. cap. xxv.; and his Psychopannychia. +Quenstedt also affirms it. Likewise the Confession of Faith of the +Westminster Divines, art. xxxii., says, "Souls neither die nor +sleep, but go immediately to heaven or hell." + +18 Institutes, lib. ii. cap. 16, sects. 16, 19. + +19 Ledderhose, Life of Melancthon, Eng. trans. by Krotel, ch. xxx. + +20 Compendium der Christliche Dogmengeschichte, thl. ii. sects. +100-109. + + +The other particular doctrine which we said had undergone +remarkable change is in regard to the number of the saved. A +blessed improvement has come over the popular Christian feeling +and teaching in respect to this momentous subject. The Jews +excluded from salvation all but their own strict ritualists. The +apostles, it is true, excluded none but the stubbornly wicked. But +the majority of the Fathers virtually allowed the possibility of +salvation to few indeed. Chrysostom doubted if out of the hundred +thousand souls constituting the Christian population of Antioch in +his day one hundred would be saved! 21 And when we read, with +shuddering soul, the calculations of Cornelius a Lapide, or the +celebrated sermon of Massillon on the "Small Number of the Saved," +we are compelled to confess that they fairly represent the almost +universal sentiment and conviction of Christendom for more than +seventeen hundred years. A quarto volume published in London in +1680, by Du Moulin, called "Moral Reflections upon the Number of +the Elect," affirmed that not one in a million, from Adam down to +our times, shall be saved. A flaming execration blasted the whole +heathen world, 22 and a metaphysical quibble doomed ninety nine of +every hundred in Christian lands. Collect the whole relevant +theological literature of the Christian ages, from the birth of +Tertullian to the death of Jonathan Edwards, strike the average +pitch of its doctrinal temper, and you will get this result: that +in the field of human souls Satan is the harvester, God the +gleaner; hell receives the whole vintage in its wine press of +damnation, heaven obtains only a few straggling clusters plucked +for salvation. The crowded wains roll staggering into the iron +doorways of Satan's fire and brimstone barns; the redeemed +vestiges of the world crop of men are easily borne to heaven in +the arms of a few weeping angels. How different is the prevailing +tone of preaching and belief now! What a cheerful ascent of views +from the mournful passage of the dead over the river of oblivion +fancied by the Greeks, or the excruciating passage of the river of +fire painted by the Catholics, to the happy passage of the river +of balm, healing every weary bruise and sorrow, promised by the +Universalists! It is true, the old harsh exclusiveness is still +organically imbedded in the established creeds, all of which deny +the possibility of salvation beyond the little circle who vitally +appropriate the vicarious atonement of Christ; but then this is, +for the most part, a dead letter in the creeds. In the hearts and +in the candid confessions of all but one in a thousand it is +discredited and sincerely repelled as an abomination to human +nature, a reflection against God, an outrage upon the substance of +ethics. Remorseless bigots may gloat and exult over the thought +that those who reject their dogmas shall be thrust into the +roaring fire gorges of hell; but a better spirit is the spirit of +the age we live in; and, doubtless, a vast majority of the men we +daily meet really believe that all who try to the best of their +ability, according to their light and circumstances, to do what is +right, in the love of God and man, shall be saved. In that moving +scene of the great dramatist where the burial of the innocent and +hapless Ophelia is represented, and Lacrtes vainly seeks to win +from the Church official + +21 In Acta Apostolorum, homil. xxiv. + +22 Gotze, Ueber die Neue Meinung von der Seligkeit der angeblich +guten und redlichen Seelen unter Juden, Heiden, und Turken durch +Christum, ohne dass sie an ihn glauben. + + +the full funeral rites of religion over her grave, the priest may +stand for the false and cruel ritual spirit, the brother for the +just and native sentiment of the human heart. Says the priest, +"We should profane the service of the dead To sing a requiem and +such rest to her As to peace parted souls." And Laertes replies, +"Lay her in the earth; And from her fair and unpolluted flesh +Shall violets spring. I tell thee, churlish priest, A ministering +angel shall my sister be When thou liest howling." + +Indeed, who that has a heart in his bosom would not be ashamed not +to sympathize with the gentle hearted Burns when he expresses even +to the devil himself the quaint and kindly wish, "Oh wad ye tak' a +thought and mend!" + +The creeds and the priests, in congenial alliance with many evil +things, may strive to counteract this progressive self +emancipation from cruel falsehoods and superstitions, but in vain. +The terms of salvation are seen lying in the righteous will of a +gracious God, not in the heartless caprice of a priesthood nor in +the iron gripe of a set of dogmas. The old priestly monopoly over +the way to heaven has been taken off in the knowledge of the +enlightened present, and, for all who have unfettered feet to walk +with, the passage to God is now across a free bridge. The ancient +exactors may still sit in their toll house creeds and confessionals; +but their authority is gone, and the virtuous traveller, stepping +from the ground of time upon the planks that lead over into eternity, +smiles as he passes scot free by their former taxing terrors. + +The reign of sacramentalists and dogmatists rapidly declines. +Reason, common sentiment, the liberal air, the best and +strongest tendencies of the people, are against them to +day, and will be more against them in every coming day. Every +successive explosion of the Second Adventist fanaticism will leave +less of that element behind. Its rage in America, under the +auspices of Miller, in the nineteenth century, was tame and feeble +when compared with the terror awakened in Europe in the fifteenth +century by Stofler's prediction of an approaching comet.23 Every +new discovery of the harmonies of science, and of the perfections +of nature, and of the developments of the linear logic of God +consistently unfolding in implicated sequences of peaceful order +unperturbed by shocks of failure and epochs of remedy, will +increase and popularize an intelligent faith in the original +ordination and the intended permanence of the present constitution +of things. Finally men will cease to be looking up to see the blue +dome cleave open for the descent of angelic squadrons headed by +the majestic Son of God, the angry breath of his mouth consuming +the world, cease to + +23 Bayle, Historical Dictionary, art. Stofler, note B. + + +expect salvation by any other method than that of earnest and +devout truthfulness, love, good works, and pious submissiveness to +God, cease to fancy that their souls, after waiting through the +long sleep or separation of death, will return and take on their +old bodies again. Recognizing the Divine plan for training souls +in this lower and transient state for a higher and immortal state, +they will endeavor, in natural piety and mutual love, while they +live, to exhaust the genuine uses of the world that now is, and +thus prepare themselves to enter with happiest auspices, when they +die, the world prepared for them beyond these mortal shores. + +These cheerful prophecies must be verified in the natural course +of things. The rapid spread of the doctrine of a future life +taught by the "Spirit rappers" is a remarkable revelation of the +great extent to which the minds of the common people have at last +become free from the long domination of the ecclesiastical dogmas +on that subject. The leading representatives of the "Spiritualists" +affirm, with much unanimity, the most comforting conclusions +as to the condition of the departed. They exclude all wrath +and favoritism from the disposition of the Deity. They have +little in fact, they often have nothing whatever to say of hell. +They emphatically repudiate the ordinarily taught terms of +salvation, and deny the doctrine of hopeless reprobation. All +death is beautiful and progressive. "Every form and thing is +constantly growing lovelier and every sphere purer." The abode of +each soul in the future state is determined, not by decrees or +dogmas or forms of any kind, but by qualities of character, +degrees of love, purity, and wisdom. There are seven ascending +spheres, each more abounding than the one below it in beauties, +glories, and happiness. "The first sphere is the natural; the +second, the spiritual; the third, the celestial; the fourth, the +supernatural; the fifth, the superspiritual; the sixth, the +supercelestial; the seventh, the Infinite Vortex of Love and +Wisdom."24 Whatever be thought of the pretensions of this doctrine +to be a Divine revelation, whatever be thought of its various +psychological, cosmological, and theological characteristics, its +ethics are those of natural reason. It is wholly irreconcilable +with the popular ecclesiastical system of doctrines. Its epidemic +diffusion until now burdened as it is with such nauseating +accompaniments of crudity and absurdity, it reckons its adherents +by millions is a tremendous evidence of the looseness with which +the old, cruel dogmas sit on the minds of the masses of the +people, and of their eager readiness to welcome more humane views. + +In science the erroneous doctrines of the Middle Age are now +generally discarded. The mention of them but provokes a smile or +awakens surprise. Yet, as compared with the historic annals of our +race, it is but recently that the true order of the solar system +has been unveiled, the weight of the air discovered, the +circulation of the blood made known, the phenomena of insanity +intelligently studied, the results of physiological chemistry +brought to light, the symmetric domain and sway of calculable law +pushed far out in every direction of nature and experience. It +used to be supposed that digestion was effected by means of a +mechanical power equal to many tons. Borelli asserted that the +muscular force of the heart was one hundred and eighty thousand +pounds. These absurd estimates only disappeared when the + +24 Andrew Jackson Davis, Nature's Divine Revelations, sects. 192 +203. + + +properties of the gastric juice were discerned. The method in +which we distinguish the forms and distances of objects was not +understood until Berkeley published his "New Theory of Vision." +Few persons are aware of the opposition of bigotry, stolidity, and +authority against which the brilliant advances of scientific +discovery and mechanical invention and social improvement have +been forced to contend, and in despite of which they have slowly +won their way. Excommunications, dungeons, fires, sneers, polite +persecution, bitter neglect, tell the story, from the time the +Athenians banned Anaxagoras for calling the sun a mass of fire, to +the day an English mob burned the warehouses of Arkwright because +he had invented the spinning jenny. But, despite all the hostile +energies of establishment, prejudice, and scorn, the earnest +votaries of philosophical truth have studied and toiled with ever +accumulating victories, until now a hundred sciences are ripe with +emancipating fruits and perfect freedom to be taught. Railroads +gird the lands with ribs of trade, telegraphs thread the airs with +electric tidings of events, and steamships crease the seas with +channels of foam and fire. There is no longer danger of any one +being put to death, or even being excluded from the "best +society," for saying that the earth moves. An eclipse cannot be +regarded as the frown of God when it is regularly foretold with +certainty. The measurement of the atmosphere exterminated the +wiseacre proverb, "Nature abhors a vacuum," by the burlesque +addition, "but only for the first thirty two feet." The madman +cannot be looked on as divinely inspired, his words to be caught +as oracles, or as possessed by a devil, to be chained and +scourged, since Pinel's great work has brought insanity within the +range of organic disease. When Franklin's kite drew electricity +from the cloud to his knuckle, the superstitious theory of thunder +died a natural death. + +The vast progress effected in all departments of physical science +during the last four centuries has not been made in any kindred +degree in the prevailing theology. Most of the harsh, unreasonable +tenets of the elaborately morbid and distorted mediaval +theologyare still retained in the creeds of the great majority of +Christendom. The causes of this difference are plain. The +establishment of newly discovered truths in material science being +less intimately connected with the prerogatives of the ruling +classes, less clearly hostile to the permanence of their power, +they have not offered so pertinacious an opposition to progress in +this province: they have yielded a much larger freedom to +physicists than to moralists, to discoverers of mathematical, +chemical, and mechanical law than to reformers of political and +religious thought. Livy tells us that, in the five hundred and +seventy third year of Rome, some concealed books of Numa were +found, which, on examination by the priests, being thought +injurious to the established religion, were ordered to be +burned.25 The charge was not that they were ungenuine, nor that +their contents were false; but they were dangerous. In the second +century, an imperial decree forbade the reading of the Sibylline +Oracles, because they contained prophecies of Christ and doctrines +of Christianity. By an act of the English Parliament, in the +middle of the seventeenth century, every copy of the Racovian +Catechism (an exposition of the Socinian doctrine) that could be +obtained was burned in the streets. + +25 Lib. xl. cap. xxix. + + +The Index Expurgatorius for Catholic countries is still freshly +filled every year. And in Protestant countries a more subtle and a +more effectual influence prevents, on the part of the majority, +the candid perusal of all theological discussions which are not +pitched in the orthodox key. Certain dogmas are the absorbed +thought of the sects which defend them: no fresh and independent +thinking is to be expected on those subjects, no matter how purely +fictitious these secretions of the brain of the denomination or of +some ancient leader may be, no matter how glaringly out of keeping +with the intelligence and liberty which reign in other realms of +faith and feeling. There is nowhere else in the world a tyranny so +pervasive and despotic as that which rules in the department of +theological opinion. The prevalent slothful and slavish surrender +of the grand privileges and duties of individual thought, +independent personal conviction and action in religious matters, +is at once astonishing, pernicious, and disgraceful. The effect of +entrenched tradition, priestly directors, a bigoted, overawing, +and persecuting sectarianism, is nowhere else a hundredth part so +powerful or so extensive. + +In addition to the bitter determination by interested persons to +suppress reforming investigations of the doctrines which hold +their private prejudices in supremacy, and to the tremendous +social prestige of old establishment, another cause has been +active to keep theology stationary while science has been making +such rapid conquests. Science deals with tangible quantities, +theology with abstract qualities. The cultivation of the former +yields visible practical results of material comfort; the +cultivation of the latter yields only inward spiritual results of +mental welfare. Accordingly, science has a thousand resolute +votaries where theology has one unshackled disciple. At this +moment, a countless multitude, furnished with complex apparatus, +are ransacking every nook of nature, and plucking trophies, and +the world with honoring attention reads their reports. But how few +with competent preparation and equipment, with fearless +consecration to truth, unhampered, with fresh free vigor, are +scrutinizing the problems of theology, enthusiastically bent upon +refuting errors and proving verities! And what reception do the +conclusions of those few meet at the hands of the public? Surely +not prompt recognition, frank criticism, and grateful acknowledgment +or courteous refutation. No; but studied exclusion from notice, +or sophistical evasions and insulting vituperation. + +What a striking and painful contrast is afforded by the generous +encouragement given to the students of science by the annual +bestowment of rewards by the scientific societies such as the +Cuvier Prize, the Royal Medal, the Rumford Medal and the jealous +contempt and assaults visited by the sectarian authorities upon +those earnest students of theology who venture to propose any +innovating improvement! Suppose there were annually awarded an +Aquinas Prize, a Fenelon Medal, a Calvin Medal, a Luther Medal, a +Channing Medal, not to the one who should present the most +ingenious defence of any peculiar tenet of one of those masters, +but to him who should offer the most valuable fresh contribution +to theological truth! What should we think if the French Institute +offered a gold medal every year to the astronomer who presented +the ablest essay in support of the Ptolemaic system, or if the +Royal Society voted a diploma for the best method of casting +nativities? Such is the course pursued in regard to dogmatic +theology. The consequence has been that while elsewhere the +ultimate standard by which to try a doctrine is, What do the +most competent judges say? What does unprejudiced reason dictate? +What does the great harmony of truth require? in theology it is, +What do the committed priests say? How does it comport with the +old traditions? + +We read in the Hak ul Yakeen that the envoy of Herk, Emperor of +Rum, once said to the prophet, "You summon people to a Paradise +whose extent includes heaven and earth: where, then, is hell?" +Mohammed replied, "When day comes, where is night?" That is to +say, according to the traditionary glosses, as day and night are +opposite, so Paradise is at the zenith and hell at the nadir. Yes; +but if Paradise be above the heavens, and hell below the seventh +earth, then how can Sirat be extended over hell for people to pass +to Paradise? "We reply," say the authors of the Hak ul Yakeen, +"that speculation on this subject is not necessary, nor to be +regarded. Implicit faith in what the prophets have revealed must +be had; and explanatory surmises, which are the occasion of +Satanic doubts, must not be indulged."26 Certainly this exclusion +of reason cannot always be suffered. It is fast giving way +already. And it is inevitable that, when reason secures its right +and bears its rightful fruits in moral subjects as it now does in +physical subjects, the mediaval theology must be rejected as +mediaval science has been. It is the common doctrine of the Church +that Christ now sits in heaven in a human body of flesh and blood. +Calvin separated the Divine nature of Christ from this human body; +but Luther made the two natures inseparable and attributed +ubiquity to the body in which they reside, thus asserting the +omnipresence of a material human body, a bulk of a hundred and +fifty pounds' weight more or less. He furiously assailed Zwingle's +objection to this monstrous nonsense, as "a devil's mask and +grandchild of that old witch, mistress Reason." 27 The Roman +Church teaches, and her adherents devoutly believe, that the house +of the Virgin Mary was conveyed on the wings of angels from +Nazareth to the eastern slope of the Apennines above the Adriatic +Gulf.28 The English Church, consistently interpreted, teaches that +there is no salvation without baptism by priests in the line of +apostolic succession. These are but ordinary specimens of +teachings still humbly received by the mass of Christians. The +common distrust with which the natural operations of reason are +regarded in the Church, the extreme reluctance to accept the +conclusions of mere reason, seem to us discreditable to the +theological leaders who represent the current creeds of the +approved sects. Many an influential theologian could learn +invaluable lessons from the great guides in the realm of science. +The folly which acute learned wise men will be guilty of the +moment they turn to theological subjects, where they do not allow +reason to act, is both ludicrous and melancholy. The victim of +lycanthropy used to be burned alive; he is now placed under the +careful treatment of skilful and humane physicians. But the +heretic or infidel is still thought to be inspired by the devil, a +fit subject for discipline here and hell hereafter. The light shed +abroad by the rising spirit of rational investigation must +gradually dispel the delusions which lurk in the vales of +theology, as it already has dispelled those that formerly haunted +the hills of science. The spectres which have so long terrified a +childish world will successively vanish + +26 Merrick, Hyat ul Kuloob, note 74. + +27 Hagenbach, Dogmengeschichte, sect. 265, note 2. + +28 Christian Remembrancer, April, 1855. A full and able history of +the "Holy House of Loretto." + + +from the path of man as advancing reason, in the name of the God +of truth, utters its imperial "Avaunt!" + +Henry More wrote a book on the "Immortality of the Soul," printed +in London in 1659, just two hundred years ago. It is full of +beauty, acumen, and power. He was one of the first men of the +time. Yet he seriously elaborates an argument like this: "The scum +and spots that lie on the sun are as great an Argument that there +is no Divinity in him as the dung of Owls and Sparrows that is +found on the faces and shoulders of Idols in Temples are clear +evidences that they are no true Deities."29 He also in good faith +tells a story like this: "That a Woman with child, seeing a +Butcher divide a Swine's head with a Cleaver, brought forth her +Child with its face cloven in the upper jaw, the palate, and upper +lip to the very nose."30 The progress marked by the contrast of +the scientific spirit of the present time with the ravenous +credulity of even two centuries back must continue and spread into +every province. Some may vilify it; but in vain. Some may +sophisticate against it; but in vain. Some may invoke authority +and social persecution to stop it; but in vain. Some may appeal to +the prejudices and fears of the timid; but in vain. Some may close +their own eyes, and hold their hands before their neighbors' eyes, +and attempt to shut out the light; but in vain. It will go on. It +is the interest of the world that it should go on. It is the manly +and the religious course to help this progress with prudence and +reverence. Truth is the will of God, the way he has made things to +be and to act, the way he wishes free beings to exist and to act. +He has ordained the gradual discovery of truth. And despite the +struggles of selfish tyranny, and the complacence of luxurious +ease, and the terror of ignorant cowardice, truth will be more and +more brought to universal acceptance. Some men have fancied their +bodies composed of butter or of glass; but when compelled to move +out into the sunlight or the crowd they did not melt nor break.31 +Esquirol had a patient who did not dare to bend her thumb, lest +the world should come to an end. When forced to bend it, she was +surprised that the crack of doom did not follow. + +The mechanico theatrical character of the popular theology is +enough to reveal its origin and its fundamental falsity. The +difference between its lurid and phantasmal details and the calm +eternal verities in the divinely constituted order of nature is as +great as the difference between those stars which one sees in +consequence of a blow on the forehead and those he sees by turning +his gaze to the nightly sky. To every competent thinker, the bare +appreciation of such a passage as that which closes +Chateaubriand's chapter on the Last Judgment, with the huge bathos +of its incongruous mixture of sublime and absurd, is its +sufficient refutation: "The globe trembles on its axis; the moon +is covered with a bloody veil; the threatening stars hang half +detached from the vault of heaven, and the agony of the world +commences. Now resounds the trump of the angel. The sepulchres +burst: the human race issues all at once, and fills the Valley of +Jehoshaphat! The Son of Man appears in the clouds; the powers of +hell ascend from the infernal depths; the goats are separated from +the sheep; the wicked are plunged into the gulf; the just ascend +to heaven; God returns to his repose, + +29 Preface, p. 10. + +30 Ibid. p. 392. + +31 Bucknill and Tuke, Psychological Medicine, ch. ix. + + +and the reign of eternity begins."32 Nothing saves this whole +scheme of doctrine from instant rejection except neglect of +thought, or incompetence of thought, on the part of those who +contemplate it. The peculiar dogmas of the exclusive sects are the +products of mental and social disease, psychological growths in +pathological moulds. The naked shapes of beautiful women floating +around St. Anthony in full display of their maddening charms are +interpreted by the Romanist Church as a visible work of the devil. +An intelligent physician accounts for them by the laws of +physiology, the morbid action of morbid nerves. There is no doubt +whatever as to which of these explanations is correct. The +absolute prevalence of that explanation is merely a question of +time. Meanwhile, it is the part of every wise and devout man, +without bigotry, without hatred for any, with strict fidelity to +his own convictions, with entire tolerance and kindness for all +who differ from him, sacredly to seek after verity himself and +earnestly to endeavor to impart it to others. To such men forms of +opinion, instead of being prisons, fetters, and barriers, will be +but as tents of a night while they march through life, the burning +and cloudy column of inquiry their guide, the eternal temple of +truth their goal. + +The actual relation, the becoming attitude, the appropriate +feeling, of man towards the future state, the concealed segment of +his destiny, are impressively shown in the dying scene of one of +the wisest and most gifted of men, one of the fittest representatives +of the modern mind. In a good old age, on a pleasant spring day, +with a vast expanse of experience behind him, with an immensity of +hope before him, he lay calmly expiring. + +"More light!" he cried, with departing breath; and Death, solemn +warder of eternity, led him, blinded, before the immemorial veil +of awe and secrets. It uprolled as the flesh bandage fell from his +spirit, and he walked at large, triumphant or appalled, amidst the +unimagined revelations of God. + +And now, recalling the varied studies we have passed through, and +seeking for the conclusion or root of the matter, what shall we +say? This much we will say. First, the fearless Christian, fully +acquainted with the results of a criticism unsparing as the +requisitions of truth and candor, can scarcely, with intelligent +honesty, do more than place his hand on the beating of his heart, +and fix his eye on the riven tomb of Jesus, and exclaim, "Feeling +here the inspired promise of immortality, and seeing there the +sign of God's authentic seal, I gratefully believe that Christ has +risen, and that my soul is deathless!" Secondly, the trusting +philosopher, fairly weighing the history of the world's belief in +a future life, and the evidences on which it rests, can scarcely, +with justifying warrant, do less than lay his hand on his body, +and turn his gaze aloft, and exclaim, "Though death shatters this +shell, the soul may survive, and I confidently hope to live +forever." Meanwhile, the believer and the speculator, combining to +form a Christian philosophy wherein doubt and faith, thought and +freedom, reason and sentiment, nature and revelation, all embrace, +even as the truth of things and the experience of life demand, may +both adopt for their own the expression wrought for himself by a +pure and fervent poet in these freighted lines of pathetic beauty: + +32 Genius of Christianity, part ii. book vi. ch. vii. + + +"I gather up the scattered rays Of wisdom in the early days, Faint +gleams and broken, like the light Of meteors in a Northern night, +Betraying to the darkling earth The unseen sun which gave them +birth; I listen to the sibyl's chant, The voice of priest and +hierophant; I know what Indian Kreeshna saith, And what of life +and what of death The demon taught to Socrates, And what, beneath +his garden trees Slow pacing, with a dream like tread, The solemn +thoughted Plato said; Nor Lack I tokens, great or small, Of God's +clear light in each and all, While holding with more dear regard +Than scroll of heathen seer and bard The starry pages, promise +lit, With Christ's evangel overwrit, Thy miracle of life and +death, O Holy One of Nazareth!" 33 + +33 Whittier, Questions of Life. + + +PART FIFTH. + + +HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL DISSERTATIONS CONCERNING A FUTURE LIFE. + + +CHAPTER I. + +DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE IN THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES. + +THE power of the old religions was for centuries concentrated in +the Mysteries. These were recondite institutions, sometimes +wielded by the state, sometimes by a priesthood, sometimes by a +ramifying private society. None could be admitted into them save +with the permission of the hierarchs, by rites of initiation, and +under solemn seals of secrecy. These mysterious institutions, +charged with strange attractions, shrouded in awful wonder, were +numerous, and, agreeing in some of their fundamental features, +were spread nearly all over the world. The writings of the +ancients abound with references to them, mostly eulogistic. The +mighty part played by these veiled bodies in the life of the +periods when they flourished, the pregnant hints and alluring +obscurities amid which they stand in relation to the learning of +modern times, have repeatedly obtained wide attention, elicited +opposite opinions, provoked fierce debates, and led different +inquirers to various conclusions as to their true origin, +character, scope, meaning, and results. + +One of the principal points in discussion by scholars concerning +the Mysteries has been whether they inculcated an esoteric +doctrine of philosophy, opposed to the popular religion. Some +writers have maintained that in their symbols and rites was +contained a pure system of monotheistic ethics and religion. Our +own opinion is that in some of these institutions, at one period, +higher theological views and scientific speculations were +unfolded, but in others never. Still, it is extremely difficult to +prove any thing on this part of the general subject: there is much +that is plausible to be said on both sides of the question. +Another query to be noticed in passing is in regard to the degree +of exclusiveness and concealment really attached to the form of +initiation. Lobeck, in his celebrated work, "Aglaophamus," borne +away by a theory, assumes the extravagant position that the +Eleusinian Mysteries were almost freely open to all.1 His error +seems to lie in not distinguishing sufficiently between the Lesser +and the Greater Mysteries, and in not separating the noisy shows +of the public festal days from the initiatory and explanatory +rites of personal admission within the mystic pale. The notorious + +1 Lib. i. sects. 4, 5. + + +facts that strict inquiry was made into the character and fitness +of the applicant before his admission, and that many were openly +rejected, that instant death was inflicted on all who intruded +unprepared within the sacred circuits, and that death was the +penalty of divulging what happened during the celebrations, all +are inconsistent with the notion of Lobeck, and prove that the +Mysteries were hedged about with dread. Aschylus narrowly escaped +being torn in pieces upon the stage by the people on suspicion +that in his play he had given a hint of something in the +Mysteries. He delivered himself by appealing to the Areopagus, and +proving that he had never been initiated. Andocides also, a Greek +orator who lived about four hundred years before Christ, was +somewhat similarly accused, and only escaped by a strenuous +defence of himself in an oration, still extant, entitled +"Concerning the Mysteries." + +A third preliminary matter is as to the moral character of the +services performed by these companies. Some held that their +characteristics were divinely pure, intellectual, exalting; others +that in abandoned pleasures they were fouler than the Stygian pit. +The Church Fathers, Clement, Irenaus, Tertullian, and the rest, +influenced by a mixture of prejudice, hatred, and horror, against +every thing connected with paganism, declared, in round terms, +that the Mysteries were unmitigated sinks of iniquity and shame, +lust, murder, and all promiscuous deviltry. Without pausing to +except or qualify, or to be thoroughly informed and just, they +included the ancient stern generations and their own degraded +contemporaries, the vile rites of the Corinthian Aphrodite and the +solemn service of Demeter, the furious revels of the Bacchanalians +and the harmonious mental worship of Apollo, all in one +indiscriminate charge of insane beastliness and idolatry. Their +view of the Mysteries has been most circulated among the moderns +by Leland's learned but bigoted work on the "Use and Necessity of +a Divine Revelation." He would have us regard each one as a vortex +of atheistic sensuality and crime. There should be discrimination. +The facts are undoubtedly these, as we might abundantly +demonstrate were it in the province of the present essay. The +original Mysteries, the authoritative institutions co ordinated +with the state or administered by the poets and philosophers, were +pure: their purpose was to purify the lives and characters of +their disciples. Their means were a complicated apparatus of +sensible and symbolic revelations and instructions admirably +calculated to impress the most salutary moral and religious +lessons. In the first place, is it credible that the state would +fling its auspices over societies whose function was to organize +lawlessness and debauchery, to make a business of vice and filth? +Among the laws of Solon is a regulation decreeing that the Senate +shall convene in the Eleusinian temple, the day after the +festival, to inquire whether every thing had been done with +reverence and propriety. Secondly, if such was the character of +these secrets, why was inquisition always made into the moral +habits of the candidate, that he might be refused admittance if +they were bad? This inquiry was severe, and the decision +unrelenting. Alcibiades was rejected, as we learn from Plutarch's +life of him, on account of his dissoluteness and insubordination +in the city. Nero dared not attend the Eleusinian Mysteries, +"because to the murder of his mother he had joined the slaughter +of his paternal aunt."2 All accepted candidates were scrupulously +purified in thought and body, and clad in white robes, for nine +days previous to their reception. Thirdly, it is intrinsically +absurd to suppose that an institution of gross immorality and +cruelty could have flourished in the most polite and refined Greek +nation, as the Eleusinian Mysteries did for over eighteen hundred +years, ranking among its members a vast majority of both sexes, of +all classes, of all ages, and constantly celebrating its rites +before immense audiences of them all. Finally, a host of men like +Plato, Sophocles, Cimon, Lycurgus, Cicero, were members of these +bodies, partook in their transactions, and have left on record +eulogies of them and of their influence. The concurrent testimony +of antiquity is that in the Great Mysteries the desires were +chastened, the heart purified, the mind calmed, the soul inspired, +all the virtues of morality and hopes of religion taught and +enforced with sublime solemnities. There is no just ground for +suspecting this to be false. + +But there remains something more and different to be said also. +While the authorized Mysteries were what we have asserted, there +did afterwards arise spurious Mysteries, in names, forms, and +pretensions partially resembling the genuine ones, under the +control of the most unprincipled persons, and in which +unquestionably the excesses of unbelief, drunkenness, and +prostitution held riot. These depraved societies were foreign +grafts from the sensual pantheism ever nourished in the voluptuous +climes of the remote East. They established themselves late in +Greece, but were developed at Rome in such unbridled enormities as +compelled the Senate to suppress them. Livy gives a detailed and +vivid account of the whole affair in his history.3 But the +gladiators, scoundrels, rakes, bawds, who swarmed in these stews +of rotting Rome, are hardly to be confounded with the noble men +and matrons of the earlier time who openly joined in the pure +Mysteries with the approving example of the holiest bards, the +gravest statesmen, and the profoundest sages, men like Pindar, +Pericles, and Pythagoras. Ample facilities are afforded in the +numerous works to which we shall refer for unmasking the different +organizations that travelled over the earth in the guise of the +Mysteries, and of seeing what deceptive arts were practised in +some, what superhuman terrors paraded in others, what horrible +cruelties perpetrated in others, what leading objects sought in +each. + +The Mysteries have many bearings on several distinct subjects; but +in those aspects we have not space here to examine them. We +purpose to consider them solely in their relation to the doctrine +of a future life. We are convinced that the very heart of their +secret, the essence of their meaning in their origin and their +end, was no other than the doctrine of an immortality succeeding a +death. Gessner published a book at Gottingen, so long ago as the +year 1755, maintaining this very assertion. His work, which is +quite scarce now, bears the title "Dogma de perenni Animoruin +Natura per Sacra pracipue Eleusinia Propagata." The consenting +testimony of more than forty of the most authoritative ancient +writers comes down to us in their surviving works to the effect +that those who were admitted into the Mysteries were thereby +purified, led to holy lives, joined in communion with the gods, +and + +2 Suetonius, Vita Neronis, cap. xxxiv. + +3 Lib. xxxix. cap. viii xvi. + + +assured of a better fate than otherwise could be expected in the +future state. Two or three specimens from these witnesses will +suffice. Aristophanes, in the second act of the Frogs, describes +an elysium of the initiates after death, where he says they bound +"in sportive dances on rose enamelled meadows; for the light is +cheerful only to those who have been initiated."4 Pausanias +describes the uninitiated as being compelled in Hades to carry +water in buckets bored full of holes.5 Isocrates says, in his +Panegyric, "Demeter, the goddess of the Eleusinian Mysteries, +fortifies those who have been initiated against the fear of death, +and teaches them to have sweet hopes concerning eternity." The old +Orphic verses cited by Thomas Taylor in his Treatise on the +Mysteries run thus: "The soul that uninitiated dies Plunged in the +blackest mire in Hades lies." 6 + +The same statement is likewise found in Plato, who, in another +place, also explicitly declares that a doctrine of future +retribution was taught in the Mysteries and believed by the +serious.7 Cicero says, "Initiation makes us both live more +honorably and die with better hopes." 8 In seasons of imminent +danger as in a shipwreck it was customary for a man to ask his +companion, Hast thou been initiated? The implication is that +initiation removed fear of death by promising a happy life to +follow.9 A fragment preserved from a very ancient author is plain +on this subject. "The soul is affected in death just as it is in +the initiation into the great Mysteries: thing answers to thing. +At first it passes through darkness, horrors, and toils. Then are +disclosed a wondrous light, pure places, flowery meads, replete +with mystic sounds, dances, and sacred doctrines, and holy +visions. Then, perfectly enlightened, they are free: crowned, they +walk about worshipping the gods and conversing with good men."10 +The principal part of the hymn to Ceres, attributed to Homer, is +occupied with a narrative of her labors to endow the young +Demophoon, mortal child of Metaneira, with immortality. Now, Ceres +was the goddess of the Mysteries; and the last part of this very +hymn recounts how Persephone was snatched from the light of life +into Hades and restored again. Thus we see that the implications +of the indirect evidence, the leanings and guidings of all the +incidental clews now left us to the real aim and purport of the +Mysteries, combine to assure us that their chief teaching was a +doctrine of a future life in which there should be rewards and +punishments. All this we shall more fully establish, both by +direct proofs and by collateral supports. + +It is a well known fact, intimately connected with the different +religions of Greece and Asia Minor, that during the time of +harvest in the autumn, and again at the season of sowing in the +spring, the shepherds, the vintagers, and the people in general, +were accustomed to observe certain sacred festivals, the autumnal +sad, the vernal joyous. These undoubtedly grew out of the deep +sympathy between man and nature over the decay and disappearance, +the revival and return, of vegetation. When the hot season had +withered the verdure of the + +4 Scene iii. + +5 Lib. x. cap. xxxi. + +6 Phadon, sect. xxxviii. + +7 Leg., lib. ix. cap. x. + +8 De Leg., lib. ii. cap. xiv. + +9 St. John, Hellenes, ch. xi. + +10 Sentences of Stobaus, Sermo CXIX. + + +fields, plaintive songs were sung, their wild melancholy notes and +snatches borne abroad by the breeze and their echoes dying at last +in the distance. In every instance, these mournful strains were +the annual lamentation of the people over the death of some +mythical boy of extraordinary beauty and promise, who, in the +flower of youth, was suddenly drowned, or torn in pieces by wild +beasts, "Some Hyacinthine boy, for whom Morn well might break and April +bloom." + +Among the Argives it was Linus. With the Arcadians it was +Scephrus. In Phrygia it was Lityerses. On the shore of the Black +Sea it was Bormus. In the country of the Bithynians it was Hylas. +At Pelusium it was Maneros. And in Syria it was Adonis. The +untimely death of these beautiful boys, carried off in their +morning of life, was yearly bewailed, their names re echoing over +the plains, the fountains, and among the hills. It is obvious that +these cannot have been real persons whose death excited a sympathy +so general, so recurrent. "The real object of lamentation," says +Muller, "was the tender beauty of spring destroyed by the raging +heat, and other similar phenomena, which the imagination of those +early times invested with a personal form."11 All this was woven +into the Mysteries, whose great legend and drama were that every +autumn Persephone was carried down to the dark realm of the King +of Shadows, but that she was to return each spring to her mother's +arms. Thus were described the withdrawal and reappearance of +vegetable life in the alternations of the seasons. But these +changes of nature typified the changes in the human lot; else +Persephone would have been merely a symbol of the buried grain and +would not have become the Queen of the Dead.12 Her return to the +world of light, by natural analogy, denoted a new birth to men. +Accordingly, "all the testimony of antiquity concurs in saying +that these Mysteries inspired the most animating hopes with regard +to the condition of the soul after death."13 That the fate of man +should by imagination and sentiment have been so connected with +the phenomena of nature in myths and symbols embodied in pathetic +religious ceremonies was a spontaneous product. For how "Her fresh +benignant look Nature changes at that lorn season when, With +tresses drooping o'er her sable stole, She yearly mourns the +mortal doom of man, Her noblest work! So Israel's virgins erst +With annual moan upon the mountains wept Their fairest gone!" + +And soon again the birds begin to warble, the leaves and blossoms +put forth, and all is new life once more. In every age the gentle +heart and meditative mind have been impressed by the mournful +correspondence and the animating prophecy. + +11 History of the Literature of Ancient Greece, ch. iii. sects. 2 +3. + +12 For the connection of the Eleusinian goddesses with +agriculture, the seasons, the under world, death, resurrection, +etc., see "Demeter and Persephone," von Dr. Ludwig Preller, kap. +i. sects. 9 11. + +13 Muller, Hist. Gr. Lit., ch. xvi. sect. 2. + + +But not only was the changing recurrence of dreary winter and +gladsome summer joined by affecting analogies with the human doom +of death and hope of another life. The phenomena of the skies, the +impressive succession of day and night, also were early seized +upon and made to blend their shadows and lights, by means of +imaginative suggestions, into an image of the decease and +resurrection of man. Among the Mystical Hymns of Orpheus, so +called, there is a hymn to Adonis, in which that personage is +identified with the sun alternately sinking to Tartarus and +soaring to heaven. It was customary with the ancients to speak of +the setting of a constellation as its death, its reascension in +the horizon being its return to life.14 The black abysm under the +earth was the realm of the dead. The bright expanse above the +earth was the realm of the living. While the daily sun rises +royally through the latter, all things rejoice in the warmth and +splendor of his smile. When he sinks nightly, shorn of his +ambrosial beams, into the former, sky and earth wrap themselves in +mourning for their departed monarch, the dead god of light muffled +in his bier and borne along the darkening heavens to his burial. +How naturally the phenomena of human fate would be symbolically +interwoven with all this! Especially alike are the exuberant joy +and activity of full life and of day, the melancholy stillness and +sad repose of midnight and of death. + +The sun insists on gladness; but at night, When he is gone, poor +Nature loves to weep." + +Through her yearly and her diurnal round alike, therefore, does +mother Nature sympathize with man, and picture forth his fate, in +type of autumnal decay, and wintry darkness, and night buried +seed, in sign of vernal bud, and summer light, and day bursting +fruit. + +These facts and phenomena of nature and man, together with +explanatory theories to which they gave rise, were, by the +peculiar imaginative processes so powerfully operative among the +earliest nations, personified in mythic beings and set forth as +literal history. Their doctrine was inculcated as truth once +historically exemplified by some traditional personage. It was +dramatically impersonated and enacted in the process of initiation +into the Mysteries. A striking instance of this kind of theatrical +representation is afforded by the celebration, every eight years, +of the mythus of Apollo's fight with the Pythian dragon, his +flight and expiatory service to Admetus, the subterranean king of +the dead. In mimic order, a boy slew a monster at Delphi, ran +along the road to Tempe, represented on the way the bondage of the +god in Hades, and returned, purified, bringing a branch of laurel +from the sacred valley.15 The doctrine of a future life connected +with the legend of some hero who had died, descended into the +under world, and again risen to life, this doctrine, dramatically +represented in the personal experience of the initiate, was the +heart of every one of the secret religious societies of antiquity. + +"Here rests the secret, here the keys, Of the old death bolted +Mysteries." + +14 Leitch's Eng. trans. of K. O. Muller's Introduction to a +Scientific System of Mythology, Appendix, pp. 339-342. + +15 Muller, Introduction to Mythology, pp. 97 and 241. Also his +Dorian, lib. ii. cap. vii. sect. 8. + + +Perhaps this great system of esoteric rites and instructions grew +up naturally, little by little. Perhaps it was constructed at +once, either as poetry, by a company of poets, or as a theology, +by a society of priests, or as a fair method of moral and +religious teaching, by a company of philosophers. Or perhaps it +was gradually formed by a mixture of all these means and motives. +Many have regarded it as the bedimmed relic of a brilliant +primeval revelation. This question of the origination, the first +causes and purposes, of the Mysteries is now sunk in hopeless +obscurity, even were it of any importance to be known. One thing +we know, namely, that at an early age these societies formed +organizations of formidable extent and power, and were vitally +connected with the prevailing religions of the principal nations +of the earth. + +In Egypt the legend of initiation was this.16 Typhon, a wicked, +destroying personage, once formed a conspiracy against his +brother, the good king Osiris. Having prepared a costly chest, +inlaid with gold, he offered to give it to any one whose body +would fit it. Osiris unsuspiciously lay down in it. Typhon +instantly fastened the cover and threw the fatal chest into the +river. This was called the loss or burial of Osiris, and was +annually celebrated with all sorts of melancholy rites. But the +winds and waves drove the funereal vessel ashore, where Isis, the +inconsolable wife of Osiris, wandering in search of her husband's +remains, at last found it, and restored the corpse to life. This +part of the drama was called the discovery or resurrection of +Osiris, and was also enacted yearly, but with every manifestation +of excessive joy. "In the losing of Osiris, and then in the +finding him again," Augustine writes, "first their lamentation, +then their extravagant delight, are a mere play and fiction; yet +the fond people, though they neither lose nor find any thing, weep +and rejoice truly."17 Plutarch speaks of the death, regeneration, +and resurrection of Osiris represented in the great religious +festivals of Egypt. He explains the rites in commemoration of +Typhon's murder of Osiris as symbols referring to four things, the +subsidence of the Nile into his channel, the cessation of the +delicious Etesian winds before the hot blasts of the South, the +encroachment of the lengthening night on the shortening day, the +disappearance of the bloom of summer before the barrenness of +winter.18 But the real interest and power of the whole subject +probably lay in the direct relation of all these phenomena, +traditions, and ceremonies to the doctrine of death and a future +life for man. + +In the Mithraic Mysteries of Persia, the legend, ritual, and +doctrine were virtually the same as the foregoing. They are +credulously said to have been established by Zoroaster himself, +who fitted up a vast grotto in the mountains of Bokhara, where +thousands thronged to be initiated by him.19 This Mithraic cave +was an emblem of the universe, its roof painted with the +constellations of the zodiac, its depths full of the black and +fiery terrors of grisly hell, its summit illuminated with the blue +and starry splendors of heaven, its passages lined with dangers +and instructions, now quaking with infernal shrieks, now breathing +celestial music. In the Persian Mysteries, the initiate, in +dramatic show, died, was laid in a coffin, and + +16 Wilkinson, Egyptian Antiquities, series i. vol. i. ch. 3. + +17 De Civitate Dei, lib. vi. cap. 10. + +18 De Is. et Osir. + +19 Porphyry, De Antro Nympharum. Tertullian, Prescript. ad Her., +cap. xl., where he refers the mimic death and resurrection in the +Mithraic Mysteries to the teaching of Satan. + + +afterwards rose unto a new life, all of which was a type of the +natural fate of man.20 The descent of the soul from heaven and its +return thither were denoted by a torch borne alternately reversed +and upright, and by the descriptions of the passage of spirits, in +the round of the metempsychosis, through the planetary gates of +the zodiac. The sun and moon and the morning and evening star were +depicted in brilliant gold or blackly muffled, according to their +journeying in the upper or in the lower hemisphere.21 + +The hero of the Syrian Mysteries was Adonis or Thammuz, the +beautiful favorite of Aphrodite, untimely slain by a wild boar. +His death was sadly, his resurrection joyously, celebrated every +year at Byblus with great pomp and universal interest. The +festival lasted two days. On the first, all things were clad in +mourning, sorrow was depicted in every face, and wails and weeping +resounded. Coffins were exposed at every door and borne in +numerous processions. Frail stalks of young corn and flowers were +thrown into the river to perish, as types of the premature death +of blooming Adonis, cut off like a plant in the bud of his age.22 +The second day the whole aspect of things was changed, and the +greatest exultation prevailed, because it was said Adonis had +returned from the dead.23 Venus, having found him dead, deposited +his body on a bed of lettuce and mourned bitterly over him. From +his blood sprang the adonium, from her tears the anemone.24 The +Jews were captivated by the religious rites connected with this +touching myth, and even enacted them in the gates of their holy +temple. Ezekiel says, "Behold, at the gate of the Lord's house +which was towards the north [the direction of night and winter] +there sat women weeping for Tammuz." It was said that Aphrodite +prevailed on Persephone to let Adonis dwell one half the year with +her on earth, and only the rest among the shades, a plain +reference to vegetable life in summer and winter.25 Lucian, in his +little treatise on the Syrian Goddess, says that "the river +Adonis, rising out of Mount Libanus, at certain seasons flows red +in its channel: some say it is miraculously stained by the blood +of the fresh wounded youth; others say that the spring rains, +washing in a red ore from the soil of the country, discolor the +stream." Dupuis remarks that this redness was probably an artifice +of the priests.26 Milton's beautiful allusion to this fable is +familiar to most persons. Next came he "Whose annual wound in +Lebanon allured The Syrian damsels to lament his fate In amorous +ditties all a summer's day, While smooth Adonis from his native +rock Ran purple to the sea with Thammuz' blood." + +20 Julius Firmicus, De Errore Prof. Relig. + +21 Mithraica, Memoire Academique sur le Culte Solaire de Mithra, +par Joseph de Hammer, pp: 66-68, 125-127. Tertullian, Prescript. +ad Her., cap. xl. Porphyry, De Abstinentia, lib. iv. sect. 16. +Hyde. Hist. Vet. Pers. Relig., p. 254. + +22 Hist. du Culte d'Adonis, Mem. Acad. des Inscript., vol. iv. p. +136. + +23 Theocritus, Idyl XV. + +24 Bion, Epitaph Adon., l. 66. + +25 See references in Anthon's Class. Dict., art. Adonis. + +26 Dupuis, Orig. de Cultes, vol. iv. p. 121, ed. 1822. + + +There is no end to the discussions concerning the secret purport +of this fascinating story. But, after all is said, it seems to us +that there are in it essentially two significations, one relating +to the phenomena of the sun and the earth, the other to the mutual +changes of nature and the fate of humanity. Aphrodite bewailing +Adonis is surviving Nature mourning for departed Man. + +In India the story was told of Mahadeva searching for his lost +consort Sita, and, after discovering her lifeless form, bearing it +around the world with dismal lamentations. Sometimes it was the +death of Camadeva, the Hindu Cupid, that was mourned with solemn +dirges.27 He, like Osiris, was slain, enclosed in a chest, and +committed to the waves. He was afterwards recovered and +resuscitated. Each initiate passed through the emblematic +ceremonies corresponding to the points of this pretended history. +The Phrygians associated the same great doctrine with the persons +of Atys and Cybele. Atys was a lovely shepherd youth passionately +loved by the mother of the gods.28 He suddenly died; and she, in +frantic grief, wandered over the earth in search of him, teaching +the people where she went the arts of agriculture. He was at +length restored to her. Annually the whole drama was performed by +the assembled nation with sobs of woe succeeded by ecstasies of +joy.29 Similar to this, in the essential features, was the +Eleusinian myth. Aidoneus snatched the maiden Kore down to his +gloomy empire. Her mother, Demeter, set off in search of her, +scattering the blessings of agriculture, and finally discovered +her, and obtained the promise of her society for half of every +year. These adventures were dramatized and explained in the +mysteries which she, according to tradition, instituted at +Eleusis. + +The form of the legend was somewhat differently incorporated with +the Bacchic Mysteries. It was elaborately wrought up by the Orphic +poets. The distinctive name they gave to Bacchus or Dionysus was +Zagreus. He was the son of Zeus, and was chosen by him to sit on +the throne of heaven. Zeus gave him Apollo and the Curetes as +guards; but the brutal Titans, instigated by jealous Hera, +disguised themselves and fell on the unfortunate youth while his +attention was fixed on a splendid mirror, and, after a fearful +conflict, overcame him and tore him into seven pieces. Pallas, +however, saved his palpitating heart, and Zeus swallowed it. +Zagreus was then begotten again.30 He was destined to restore the +golden age. His devotees looked to him for the liberation of their +souls through the purifying rites of his Mysteries. The initiation +shadowed out an esoteric doctrine of death and a future life, in +the mock murder and new birth of the aspirant, who impersonated +Zagreus.31 + +The Northmen constructed the same drama of death around the young +Balder, their god of gentleness and beauty. This legend, as Dr. +Oliver has shown, constituted the secret of the Gothic +Mysteries.32 Obscure and dread prophecies having crept among the +gods that the death of the beloved Balder was at hand, portending +universal ruin, a consultation was held to devise means for +averting the calamity. At the suggestion of Balder's mother, +Freya, the Scandinavian Venus, an oath that they would not be +instrumental in causing his death was + +27 Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 187. + +28 See article Atys in Smith's Class. Dict. with references. + +29 Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, lib. ii. 11. 605-655. + +30 Muller, Hist. Greek Lit., ch. xvi. + +31 Lobeck, Aglaophamus, lib. iii. cap. 5, sect. 13. + +32 History of Initiation, Lect. X. + + +exacted from all things in nature except the mistletoe, which, on +account of its frailty and insignificance, was scornfully +neglected. Asa Loke, the evil principle of the Norse faith, taking +advantage of this fatal exception, had a spear made of mistletoe, +and with it armed Hodur, a strong but blind god. Freya, rejoicing +in fancied security, to convince Balder of his charmed exemption +from wounds, persuaded him to be the mark for the weapons of the +gods. But, alas! when Hodur tilted at him, the devoted victim was +transpierced and fell lifeless to the ground. Darkness settled +over the world, and bitter was the grief of men and gods over the +innocent and lovely Balder. A deputation imploring his release was +sent to the queen of the dead. Hela so far relented as to promise +his liberation to the upper world on condition that every thing on +earth wept for him. Straightway there was a universal mourning. +Men, beasts, trees, metals, stones, wept. But an old withered +giantess Asa Loke in disguise shed no tears; and so Hela kept her +beauteous and lamented prey. But he is to rise again to eternal +life and joy when the twilight of the gods has passed.33 This +entire fable has been explained by the commentators, in all its +details, as a poetic embodiment of the natural phenomena of the +seasons. But it is not improbable that, in addition, it bore a +profound doctrinal reference to the fate of man which was +interpreted to the initiates. + +A great deal has been written concerning the ceremonies and +meaning of the celebrated Celtic Mysteries established so long at +Samothrace, and under the administration of the Druids throughout +ancient Gaul and Britain. The aspirant was led through a series of +scenic representations, "without the aid of words," mystically +shadowing forth in symbolic forms the doctrine of the transmigration +of souls. He assumed successively the shapes of a rabbit, a hen, +a grain of wheat, a horse, a tree, and so on through a wide range +of metamorphoses enacted by the aid of secret dramatic machinery. + +He died, was buried, was born anew, rising from his dark confinement +to life again. The hierophant enclosed him in a little boat and +set him adrift, pointing him to a distant rock, which he calls +"the harbor of life." Across the black and stormy waters he strives +to gain the beaconing refuge. + +In these scenes and rites a recondite doctrine of the physical +and moral relations and destiny of man was shrouded, to be unveiled +by degrees to their docile disciples by the Druidic mystagogues.34 + +It may appear strange that there should be in connection with so +many of the old religions of the earth these arcana only to be +approached by secret initiation at the hands of hierophants. But +it will seem natural when we remember that those religions were in +the exclusive keeping of priesthoods, which, organized with +wondrous cunning and perpetuated through ages, absorbed the +science, art, and philosophy of the world, and, concealing their +wisdom in the mystic signs of an esoteric language, wielded the +mighty enginery of superstition over the people at will. The +scenes and instructions through which the priests led the +unenlightened candidate were the hiding of their power. Thus, +wherever was a priesthood we should expect to find mysteries and +initiations. Historic fact justifies the + +33 Pigott, Manual of Scandinavian Mythology, pp. 288-300. + +34 Davies, Mythology and Rites of the British Druids, pp. 207-257; +390-392; 420, 555, 572. The accuracy of many of Davies's +translations has been called in question. His statements, even on +the matters affirmed above, must be received with some reservation +of faith. + + +supposition; learning unveils the obscure places of antiquity, and +shows us the templed or cavernous rites of the religious world, +from Hindostan to Gaul, from Egypt to Norway, from Athens to +Mexico. And this brings us to the Mysteries of Vitzliputzli, +established in South America. Dr. Oliver, in the twelfth lecture +of his History of Initiation, gathering his materials from various +sources, gives a terrific account of the dramatic ritual here +employed. The walls, floor, images, were smeared and caked with +human blood. Fresh slaughters of victims were perpetrated at +frequent intervals. The candidate descended to the grim caverns +excavated under the foundations of the temple. This course was +denominated "the path of the dead." Phantoms flitted before him, +shrieks appalled him, pitfalls and sacrificial knives threatened +him. At last, after many frightful adventures, the aspirant +arrived at a narrow stone fissure terminating the range of +caverns, through which he was thrust, and was received in the open +air, as a person born again, and welcomed with frantic shouts by +the multitudes who had been waiting for him without during the +process of his initiation. + +Even among the savage tribes of North America striking traces have +been found of an initiation into a secret society by a mystic +death and resurrection. Captain Jonathan Carver, who spent the +winter of 1776 with the Naudowessie Indians, was an eye witness of +the admission of a young brave into a body which they entitled +Wakou Kitchewah, or Friendly Society of the Spirit. "This singular +initiation," he says, "took place within a railed enclosure in the +centre of the camp at the time of the new moon." First came the +chiefs, clad in trailing furs. Then came the members of the +society, dressed and painted in the gayest manner. When all were +seated, one of the principal chiefs arose, and, leading the young +man forward, informed the meeting of his desire to be admitted +into their circle. No objection being offered, the various +preliminary arrangements were made; after which the director began +to speak to the kneeling candidate, telling him that he was about +to receive a communication of the spirit. This spirit would +instantly strike him dead; but he was told not to be terrified, +because he should immediately be restored to life again, and this +experience was a necessary introduction to the advantages of the +community he was on the point of entering. Then violent agitation +distorted the face and convulsed the frame of the old chief. He +threw something looking like a small bean at the young man. It +entered his mouth, and he fell lifeless as suddenly as if he had +been shot. Several assistants received him, rubbed his limbs, beat +his back, stripped him of his garments and put a new dress on him, +and finally presented him to the society in full consciousness as +a member.36 + +All the Mysteries were funereal. This is the most striking single +phenomenon connected with them. They invariably began in darkness +with groans and tears, but as invariably ended in festive triumph +with shouts and smiles. In them all were a symbolic death, a +mournful entombment, and a glad resurrection. We know this from +the abundant direct testimony of unimpeachable ancient writers, +and also from their indirect descriptions of the ceremonies and +allusions to them. For example, Apuleius says, "The delivery of +the Mysteries is celebrated as a thing resembling a voluntary +death: the initiate, being, after a manner, born + +36 Travels in the Interior of North America, ch. vii. + + +again, is restored to a new life." 36 Indeed, all who describe the +course of initiation agree in declaring that the aspirant was +buried for a time within some narrow space, a typical coffin or +grave. This testimony is confirmed by the evidence of the ruins of +the chief temples and sacred places of the pagan world. These +abound with spacious caverns, labyrinthine passages, and curious +recesses; and in connection with them is always found some +excavation evidently fitted to enclose a human form. Such hollow +beds, covered with flat stones easily removed, are still to be +seen amidst the Druidic remains of Britain and Gaul, as well as in +nearly every spot where tradition has located the celebration of +the Mysteries, in Greece, India, Persia, Egypt.37 + +It becomes a most interesting question whence these symbols and +rites had their origin, and what they were really meant to shadow +forth. Bryant, Davies, Faber, Oliver, and several other well known +mythologists, have labored, with no slight learning and ingenuity, +to show that all these ceremonies sprang from traditions of the +Deluge and of Noah's adventures at that time. The mystic death, +burial, and resurrection of the initiate, they say, are a +representation of the entrance of the patriarch into the ark, his +dark and lonesome sojourn in it, and his final departure out of +it. The melancholy wailings with which the Mysteries invariably +began, typified the mourning of the patriarchal family over their +confinement within the gloomy and sepulchral ark; the triumphant +rejoicings with which the initiations always ended, referred to +the glad exit of the patriarchal family from their floating prison +into the blooming world. The advocates of this theory have +laboriously collected all the materials that favor it, and +skilfully striven by their means to elucidate the whole subject of +ancient paganism, especially of the Mysteries. But, after reading +all that they have written, and considering it in the light of +impartial researches, one is constrained to say that they have by +no means made out their case. It is somewhat doubtful if there be +any ground whatever for believing that traditions concerning +Noah's deluge and the ark, and his doings in connection with them, +in any way entered into the public doctrines and forms, or into +the secret initiations, of the heathen religions. At all events, +there can be no doubt that the Arkite theorists have exaggerated +the importance and extent of these views beyond all tolerable +bounds, and even to absurdity. But our business with them now is +only so far as they relate to the Mysteries. Our own conviction is +that the real meaning of the rites in the Mysteries was based upon +the affecting phenomena of human life and death and the hope of +another life. We hold the Arkite theory to be arbitrary in +general, unsupported by proofs, and inconsistent in detail, unable +to meet the points presented. + +In the first place, a fundamental part of the ancient belief was +that below the surface of the earth was a vast, sombre under +world, the destination of the ghosts of men, the Greek Hades, the +Roman Orcus, the Gothic Hell. A part of the service of initiation +was a symbolic descent into this realm. Apuleius, describing his +initiation, says, "I approached to the confines + +36 Golden Ass, Eng. trans., by Thomas Taylor, p. 280. + +37 Copious instances are given in Oliver's History of Initiation, +in Faber's Origin of Pagan Idolatry, and in Maurice's Indian +Antiquities. + + +of death and trod on the threshold of Proserpine." 38 Orpheus, to +whom the introduction of the Mysteries into Greece from the East +was ascribed, wrote a poem, now lost, called the "Descent into +Hades." Such a descent was attributed to Hercules, Theseus, +Rhampsinitus, and many others.39 It is painted in detail by Homer +in the adventure of his hero Ulysses, also by Virgil much more +minutely through the journey of Aneas. Warburton labors with great +learning and plausibility, and, as it seems to us, with +irresistible cogency, to show that these descents are no more nor +less than exoteric accounts of what was dramatically enacted in +the esoteric recesses of the Mysteries.40 Any person must be +invincibly prejudiced who can doubt that the Greek Hades meant a +capacious subterranean world of shades. Now, to assert, as Bryant +and his disciples do,41 that "Hades means the interior of Noah's +ark," or "the abyss of waters on which the ark floated, as a +coffin bearing the relics of dead Nature," is a purely arbitrary +step taken from undue attachment to a mere theory. Hades means the +under world of the dead, and not the interior of Noah's ark. +Indeed, in the second place, Faber admits that in the Mysteries +"the ark itself was supposed to be in Hades, the vast central +abyss of the earth." But such was not the location of Noah's +vessel and voyage. They were on the face of the flood, above the +tops of the mountains. It is beyond comparison the most reasonable +supposition in itself, and the one best supported by historic +facts, that the representations of a mystic burial and voyage in a +ship or boat shown in the ancient religions were symbolic rites +drawn from imagination and theory as applied to the impressive +phenomena of nature and the lot of man. The Egyptians and some +other early nations, we know, figured the starry worlds in the sky +as ships sailing over a celestial sea. The earth itself was +sometimes emblematized in the same way. Then, too, there was the +sepulchral barge in which the Egyptian corpses were borne over the +Acherusian lake to be entombed. Also the "dark blue punt" in which +Charon ferried souls across the river of death. In these surely +there was no reference to Noah's ark. It seems altogether likely +that what Bryant and his coadjutors have constructed into the +Arkite system of interpretation was really but an emblematic +showing forth of a natural doctrine of human life and death and +future fate. A wavering boat floating on the deep might, with +striking fitness, typify the frail condition of humanity in life, +as when Hercules is depicted sailing over the ocean in a golden +cup; and that boat, safely riding the flood, might also represent +the cheerful faith of the initiate in a future life, bearing him +fearlessly through all dangers and through death to the welcoming +society of Elysium, as when Danae and her babe, tossed over the +tempestuous sea in a fragile chest, were securely wafted to the +sheltering shore of Seriphus. No emblem of our human state and +lot, with their mysteries, perils, threats, and promises, could be +either more natural or more impressive than that of a vessel +launched on the deep. The dying Socrates said "that he should +trust his soul on the hope of a future life as upon a raft, and +launch away into the unknown." Thus the imagination broods over +and explores the shows and secrets, presageful warnings and +alluring + +38 Golden Ass, Taylor's trans., p. 283. + +39 Herodotus, lib. il. cap. cxxii. + +40 Divine Legation of Moses, book ii. sect. iv. + +41 Faber, Mysteries of the Cabiri, ch. v.: On the Connection of +the Fabulous Hades with the Mysteries. + + +invitations, storms and calms, island homes and unknown havens, of +the dim seas of nature and of man, of time and of eternity.42 + +Thirdly, the defenders of the Arkite theory are driven into gross +inconsistencies with themselves by the falsity of their views. The +dilaceration of Zagreus into fragments, the mangling of Osiris and +scattering of his limbs abroad, they say, refer to the throwing +open of the ark and the going forth of the inmates to populate the +earth. They usually make Osiris, Zagreus, Adonis, and the other +heroes of the legends enacted in the Mysteries, representatives of +the diluvian patriarch himself; but here, with no reason whatever +save the exigencies of their theory, they make these mythic +personages representatives of the ark, a view which is utterly +unfounded and glaringly wanting in analogy. When Zagreus is torn +in pieces, his heart is preserved alive by Zeus and born again +into the world within a human form. After the body of Osiris had +been strewn piecemeal, the fragments were fondly gathered by Isis, +and he was restored to life. There is no plausible correspondence +between these cases and the sending out from the ark of the +patriarchal family to repeople the world. Their real purpose would +seem plainly to be to symbolize the thought that, however the body +of man crumbles in pieces, there is life for him still, he does +not hopelessly die. They likewise say that the egg which was +consecrated in the Mysteries, at the beginning of the rites, was +intended as an emblem of the ark resting on the abyss of waters, +and that its latent hatching was meant to suggest the opening of +the ark to let the imprisoned patriarch forth. This hypothesis has +no proof, and is needless. It is much more plausible to suppose +that the egg was meant as a symbol of a new life about to burst +upon the candidate, a symbol of his resurrection from the mystic +tomb wherein he was buried during one stage of initiation; for we +know that the initiation was often regarded as the commencement of +a fresh life, as a new birth. Apuleius says, "I celebrated the +most joyful day of my initiation as my natal day." + +Faber argues, from the very close similarity of all the +differently named Mysteries, that they were all Arkite, all +derived from one mass of traditions reaching from Noah and +embodying his history.43 The asserted fact of general resemblance +among the instituted Mysteries is unquestionable; but the +inference above drawn from it is unwarrantable, even if no better +explanation could be offered. But there is another explanation +ready, more natural in conception, more consistent in detail, and +better sustained by evidence. The various Mysteries celebrated in +the ancient nations were so much alike not because they were all +founded on one world wide tradition about the Noachian deluge, but +because they all grew out of the great common facts of human +destiny in connection with natural phenomena. The Mysteries were +funereal and festive, began in sorrow and ended in joy, not +because they represented first Noah's sad entrance into the ark +and then his glad exit from it, but because they began with +showing the initiate that he must die, and ended with showing him +that he should live again in a happier state. Even the most +prejudiced advocates of the Arkite theory + +42 Procopius, in his History of the Gothic War, mentions a curious +popular British superstition concerning the ferriage of souls among +the neighboring islands at midnight. See Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, +kap. xxvi. zweite ausgabe. + +43 Mysteries of the Cabiri, ch. 10: Comparison of the Various +Mysteries. + + +are forced to admit, on the explicit testimony of the ancients, +that the initiates passed from the darkness and horrors of +Tartarus to the bliss and splendors of Elysium by a dramatic +resurrection from burial in the black caverns of probation to +admission within the illuminated hall or dome of perfection.44 +That the idea of death and of another life runs through all the +Mysteries as their cardinal tenet is well shown in connection with +the rites of the celebrated Cave of Trophonius at Lebadea in +Boeotia. Whoso sought this oracle must descend head foremost over +an inclined plane, bearing a honey cake in his hand. Aristophanes +speaks of this descent with a shudder of fear.45 The adventurer +was suddenly bereft of his senses, and after a while returned to +the upper air. What he could then remember composed the Divine +revelation which had been communicated to him in his unnatural +state below. Plutarch has given a full account of this experience +from one Timarchus, who had himself passed through it.46 The +substance of it is this. When Timarchus reached the bottom of the +cave, his soul passed from his body, visited the under world of +the departed, saw the sphere of generation where souls were reborn +into the upper world, received some explanation of all these +things: then, returning into the body, he was taken up out of the +cave. Here is no allusion to any traditions of the Deluge or the +ark; but the great purpose is evidently a doctrine of the destiny +of man after death. + +Before the eyes and upon the heart of all mankind in every age has +passed in common vision the revolution of the seasons, with its +beautiful and sombre changes, phenomena having a power of +suggestion irresistible to stir some of the most profound +sentiments of the human breast. The day rolls overhead full of +light and life and activity; then the night settles upon the scene +with silent gloom and repose. So man runs his busy round of toil +and pleasure through the day of existence; then, fading, following +the sinking sun, he goes down in death's night to the pallid +populations of shade. Again: the fruitful bloom of summer is +succeeded by the bleak nakedness of winter. So the streams of +enterprise and joy that flowed full and free along their banks in +maturity, overhung by blossoming trees, are shrivelled and frozen +in the channels of age, and above their sepulchral beds the +leafless branches creak in answer to the shrieks of the funereal +blast. The flush of childish gayety, the bloom of youthful +promise, when a new comer is growing up sporting about the hearth +of home, are like the approach of the maiden and starry Spring, +"Who comes sublime, as when, from Pluto free, Came, through the +flash of Zeus, Persephone." And then draw hastily on the long, +lamenting autumnal days, when "Above man's grave the sad winds +wail and rain drops fall, And Nature sheds her leaves in yearly +funeral." + +44 Faber, Mysteries of the Cabiri, ch. 10, pp. 331-356. Dion +Chrysostom describes this scene: Oration XII. + +45 The Clouds, 1. 507. + +46 Essay on the Demon of Socrates. See also Pansanias, lib. ix. +cap. xxxix. + + +The flowers are gone, the birds are gone, the gentle breezes are +gone; and man too must go, go mingle with the pale people of +dreams. But not wholly and forever shall he die. The sun soars +into new day from the embrace of night; summer restored hastens on +the heels of retreating winter; vegetation but retires and surely +returns, and the familiar song of the birds shall sweeten the +renewing woods afresh for a million springs. Apollo weeping over +the beauteous and darling boy, his slain and drooped Hyacinthus, +is the sun shorn of his fierce beams and mourning over the annual +wintry desolation: it is also Nature bewailing the remediless loss +of man, her favorite companion. It was these general analogies and +suggestions, striking the imagination, affecting the heart, +enlisting the reason, wrought out, personified, and dramatized by +poets, taken up with a mass of other associated matter by priestly +societies and organized in a scheme of legendary doctrine and an +imposing ritual, that constituted the basis and the central +meaning of the old Mysteries; and not a vapid tradition about Noah +and his ark. + +The aim of these institutions as they were wielded was threefold; +and in each particular they exerted tremendous power. The first +object was to stretch over the wicked the restraining influence of +a doctrine of future punishment, to fill them with a fearful +looking for judgment in the invisible world. And a considerable +proportion of this kind of fear among the ancients is to be traced +to the secret influence of the Mysteries, the revelations and +terrors there applied. The second desire was to encourage the good +and obedient with inspiring hopes of a happy fate and glorious +rewards beyond the grave. Plutarch writes to his wife, (near the +close of his letter of consolation to her,) "Some say the soul +will be entirely insensible after death; but you are too well +acquainted with the doctrines delivered in the Mysteries of +Bacchus, and with the symbols of our fraternity, to harbor such an +error." The third purpose was, by the wonders and splendors, the +secret awe, the mysterious authority and venerable sanctions, +thrown around the society and its ceremonies, to establish its +doctrines in the reverential acceptance of the people, and thus to +increase the power of the priesthood and the state. To compass +these ends, the hidden science, the public force, the vague +superstition, the treasured wealth, and all the varied resources +available by the ancient world, were marshalled and brought to +bear in the Mysteries. By chemical and mechanical secrets then in +their exclusive possession, the mystagogues worked miracles before +the astonished novices.47 They had the powers of electricity, +gunpowder, hydrostatic pressure, at their command.48 Their rites +were carried out on the most magnificent scale. The temple at +Eleusis could hold thirty thousand persons. Imagine what effect +might be produced, under such imposing and prepared circumstances, +on an ignorant multitude, by a set of men holding all the +scientific secrets and mechanical inventions till then discovered, +illumination flashing after darkness successively before their +smitten eyes, the floors seeming to heave and the walls to crack, +thunders bellowing through the mighty dome; now yawning revealed +beneath them the ghostly chimera of Tartarus, with all the +shrieking and horrid scenery gathered there; now + +47 Anthon's Class. Dict., art. "Elicius." + +48 Salverte, Des Sciences Occultes, ou Essai sur la Magie. See +also editor's introduction to Thomson's Eng. trans. of Salverte's +work. + + +the mild beauties of Elysium dawning on their ravished vision, +amid strains of celestial music, through fading clouds of glory, +while nymphs, heroes, and gods walked apparent. Clement of +Alexandria tells us that one feature of the initiation was a +display of the grisly secrets of Hades.49 Apuleius, in his account +of his own initiation, says, "At midnight I saw the sun shining +with a resplendent light; and I manifestly drew near to the lower +and to the upper gods and adored them in immediate presence." 50 +Lobeck says that, on the lifting of the veil exposing the adytum +to the gaze of the initiates, apparitions of the gods appeared to +them.51 Christie, in his little work on the Greek Mysteries, says +that the doctrines of the Eleusinian shows were explained by means +of transparent scenes, many of which were faithfully copied upon +the painted Greek vases; and these vase accordingly, were +deposited in tombs to evidence the faith of the deceased in a +future life. The foregoing conceptions may be illustrated by the +dramatic representations, scenic shadows behind transparent +curtains, in Java, alluded to by Sir Stamford Raffles.52 + +It is remarkable how far the Mysteries spread over the earth, and +what popularity they attained. They penetrated into almost every +nation under the sun. They admitted, in some degree, nearly the +whole people. Herodotus informs us that there were collected in +Egypt, at one celebration, seven hundred thousand men and women, +besides children.53 The greatest warriors and kings Philip, +Alexander, Sulla, Antony esteemed it an honor to be welcomed +within the mystic pale. "Men," says Cicero, "came from the most +distant shores to be initiated at Eleusis." Sophocles declares, as +quoted by Warburton, "True life is to be found only among the +initiates: all other places are full of evil." At the rise of the +Christian religion, all the life and power left in the national +religion of Greece and Rome were in the Mysteries. Accordingly, +here was the most formidable foe of the new faith. Standing in its +old entrenchments, with all its popular prestige around it, it +fought with desperate determination for every inch it was +successively forced to yield. The brilliant effort of Julian to +roll back the tide of Christianity and restore the pagan religion +to more than its pristine splendor an effort beneath which the +scales of the world's fortunes poised, tremulous, for a while was +chiefly an endeavor to revive and enlarge the Mysteries. Such was +the attachment of the people to these old rites even in the middle +of the fourth century of the Christian era, that a murderous riot +broke out at Alexandria, in which Bishop George and others were +slain, on occasion of the profanation by Christians of a secret +adytum in which the Mysteries of Mithra were celebrated.54 And +when, a little later, the Emperor Valentinian had determined to +suppress all nocturnal rites, he was induced to withdraw his +resolution by Pretextatus, proconsul in Greece, "a man endowed +with every virtue, who represented to him that the + +49 Stromata, lib. iii., cited by a writer on the Mysteries in +Blackwood, Feb. 1853, pp. 201-203. + +50 Taylor's trans. of Golden Ass, p. 283. In a note to p. 275 of +this work, the translator describes (with a citation of his +authorities) "the breathing resemblances of the gods used in the +Mysteries, statues fabricated by the telesta, so as to be +illuminated and to appear animated." + +51 Aglaophamus, lib. i. sect. 7. + +52 Discourse to the Lit. and Sci. Soc. of Java, 1815, pub. in +Valpy's Pamphleteer, No. 15. + +53 Lib. ii. cap. ix. + +54 Socrates, Ecc. Inst., lib. iii. cap. 2. + + +Greeks would consider life insupportable if they were forbidden to +celebrate those most sacred Mysteries which bind together the +human race."55 Upon the whole, we cannot fail to see that the +Mysteries must have exerted a most extensive and profound +influence alike in fostering the good hopes of human nature +touching a life to come, and in giving credit and diffusion to the +popular fables of the poets concerning the details of the future +state. Much of that belief which seems to us so absurd we can +easily suppose they sincerely embraced, when we recollect what +they thought they had seen under supernatural auspices in their +initiations. + +In the Greek and Roman faith there was gradually developed in +connection chiefly with the Mysteries, as we believe an +aristocratic doctrine which allotted to a select class of souls an +abode in the sky as their distinguished destination after death, +while the common multitude were still sentenced to the shadow +region below the grave. As Virgil writes, "The descent to Avernus +is easy. The gate of dark Dis is open day and night. But to rise +into the upper world is most arduous. Only the few heroes whom +favoring Jove loves or shining virtue exalts thither can effect +it." 56 Numerous scattered, significant traces of a belief in this +change of the destination of some souls from the pit of Hades to +the hall of heaven are to be found in the classic authors. Virgil, +celebrating the death of some person under the fictitious name of +Daphnis, exclaims, "Robed in white, he admires the strange court +of heaven, and sees the clouds and the stars beneath his feet. He +is a god now." 57 Porphyry ascribes to Pythagoras the declaration +that the souls of departed men are gathered in the zodiac.58 Plato +earnestly describes a region of brightness and unfading realities +above this lower world, among the stars, where the gods live, and +whither, he says, the virtuous and wise may ascend, while the +corrupt and ignorant must sink into the Tartarean realm.59 A +similar conception of the attainableness of heaven seems to be +suggested in the old popular myths, first, of Hercules coming back +in triumph from his visit to Pluto's seat, and, on dying, rising +to the assembly of immortals and taking his equal place among +them; secondly, of Dionysus going into the under world, rescuing +his mother, the hapless Semele, and soaring with her to heaven, +where she henceforth resides, a peeress of the eldest goddesses. +Cicero expresses the same thought when he affirms that "a life of +justice and piety is the path to heaven, where patriots, exemplary +souls, released from their bodies, enjoy endless happiness amidst +the brilliant orbs of the galaxy." 60 The same author also speaks +of certain philosophers who flourished before his time, "whose +opinions encouraged the belief that souls departing from bodies +would arrive at heaven as their proper dwelling place." 61 He +afterwards stigmatizes the notion that the life succeeding death +is subterranean as an error,62 and in his own name addresses his +auditor thus: "I see you gazing upward and wishing to migrate into +heaven." 63 It was the common belief of the Romans for ages that +Romulus was taken up into heaven, where he would remain forever, +claiming Divine honors.64 The Emperor Julian says, in his Letter +on the + +55 Essay on Mysteries, by M. Ouvaroff, Eng. trans. by J. D. Price, +p. 55. + +56 Aneid, lib. vi. 11. 125-130. + +57 Ecl. v. 11. 57, 58, 64. + +58 De Antro Nympharum. + +59 Phado sects. 136-138. + +60 Soma. Scipionis. + +61 Tusc. Quast., lib. i. cap. xi. + +62 Ibid. cap. xvi. + +63 Ibid. cap. xxxiv. + +64 Ennius, e. g., sings, "Romulus in coelo cum diis agit avum" + + +Duties of a Priest, "God will raise from darkness and Tartarus the +souls of all of us who worship him sincerely: to the pious, +instead of Tartarus he promises Olympus." "It is lawful," writes +Plato, "only for the true lover of wisdom to pass into the rank of +gods." 65 The privilege here confined to philosophers we believe +was promised to the initiates in the Mysteries, as the special +prerogative secured to them by their initiation. "To pass into the +rank of the gods" is a phrase which, as here employed, means to +ascend into heaven and have a seat with the immortals, instead of +being banished, with the souls of common mortals, to the under +world. + +In early times the Greek worship was most earnestly directed to +that set of deities who resided at the gloomy centre of the earth, +and who were called the chthonian gods.66 The hope of immortality +first sprung up and was nourished in connection with this worship. +But in the progress of time and culture the supernal circle of +divinities who kept state on bright Olympus acquired a greater +share of attention, and at last received a degree of worship far +surpassing that paid to their swarthy compeers below. The +adoration of these bright beings, with a growing trust in their +benignity, the fables of the poets telling how they had sometimes +elevated human favorites to their presence, for instance, +receiving a Ganymede to the joys of their sublime society, the +encouraging thoughts of the more religious and cheerful of the +philosophers, these facts, together with a natural shrinking from +the dismal gloom of the life of shades around the Styx, and a +native longing for admission to the serene pleasures of the +unfading life led by the radiant lords of heaven, in conjunction, +perhaps, with still other causes, effected an improvement of the +old faith, altering and brightening it, little by little, until +the hope came in many quarters to be entertained that the faithful +soul would after death rise into the assemblage and splendor of +the celestial gods. The Emperor Julian, at the close of his +seventh Oration, represents the gods of Olympus addressing him in +this strain: "Remember that your soul is immortal, and that if +you follow us you will be a god and with us will behold our +Father." Several learned writers have strenuously labored to prove +that the ground secret of the Mysteries, the grand thing revealed +in them, was the doctrine of apotheosis, shaking the established +theology by unmasking the historic fact that all the gods were +merely deified men. We believe the real significance of the +various collective testimony, hints, and inferences by which these +writers have been brought to such a conclusion is this; the +genuine point of the Mysteries lay not in teaching that the gods +were once men, but in the idea that men may become gods. To teach +that Zeus, the universal Father, causing the creation to tremble +at the motion of his brow, was formerly an obscure king of Crete, +whose tomb was yet visible in that island, would have been utterly +absurd. But to assert that the soul of man, the free, intelligent +image of the gods, on leaving the body, would ascend to live +eternally in the kingdom of its Divine prototypes, would have been +a brilliant step of progress in harmony both with reason and the +heart. Such was probably the fact. Observe the following citation +from Plutarch: "There is no occasion against nature to send the +bodies of good men to heaven; but we are to conclude that virtuous +souls, by nature and the Divine justice, rise from men to heroes, +from heroes to genii; and if, as in the Mysteries, they are + +65 Phado, sect. lxxi. + +66 Muller, Mist. Greek Lit., cap. ii. sect. 5; cap. xvi. sect. 2. + + +purified, shaking off the remains of mortality and the power of +the passions, they then attain the highest happiness, and ascend +from genii to gods, not by the vote of the people, but by the just +and established order of nature." 67 + +The reference in the last clause is to the decrees of the Senate +whereby apotheosis was conferred on various persons, placing them +among the gods. This ceremony has often been made to appear +unnecessarily ridiculous, through a perversion of its actual +meaning. When the ancients applied the term "god" to a human soul +departed from the body, it was not used as the moderns +prevailingly employ that word. It expressed a great deal less with +them than with us. It merely meant to affirm similarity of +essence, qualities, and residence, but by no means equal dignity +and power of attributes between the one and the others. It meant +that the soul had gone to the heavenly habitation of the gods and +was thenceforth a participant in the heavenly life.68 Heraclitus +was accustomed to say, "Men are mortal gods; gods are immortal +men." Macrobius says, "The soul is not only immortal, but a god." +69 And Cicero declares, "The soul of man is a Divine thing, as +Euripides dares to say, a god." 70 Milton uses language precisely +parallel, speaking of those who are "unmindful of the crown true +Virtue gives her servants, after their mortal change, among the +enthroned gods on sainted seats." Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch in +the second century, says that "to become a god means to ascend +into heaven." 71 The Roman Catholic ceremony of beatification and +canonization of saints, offering them incense and prayers +thereafter, means exactly what was meant by the ancient +apotheosis, namely, that while the multitudes of the dead abide +below, in the intermediate state, these favored souls have been +advanced into heaven. The papal functionaries borrowed this rite, +with most of its details, from their immediate pagan predecessors, +who themselves probably adopted it from the East, whence the +Mysteries came. It is well known that the Brahmans and Buddhists +believed, centuries before the Christian era, in the contrasted +fate of good men after death to enjoy the successive heavens above +the clouds, and of bad men to suffer the successive hells beneath +the earth. A knowledge of this attractive Oriental doctrine may +have united with the advance of their own speculations to win the +partial acceptance obtained among the Greeks and Romans for the +faith which broke the universal doom to Hades and opened heaven to +their hopeful aspirations. In a tragedy of Euripides the following +passage occurs, addressed to the bereaved Admetus: "Let not the +tomb of thy wife be looked on as the mound of the ordinary dead. +Some wayfarer, as he treads the sloping road, shall say, 'This +woman once died for her husband; but now she is a saint in +heaven.'" 72 + +When the meaning of the cheerful promises given to the initiates +of a more favored fate in the future life than awaited others +namely, as we think, that their spirits on leaving the body should +scale Olympus instead of plunging to Tartarus had been concealed +within the + +67 Lives, Romulus, sect. xxviii. + +68 See a valuable discussion of the ancient use of the terms theos +and deus in note D vol. iii. of Norton's Genuineness of the +Gospels. + +69 Somn. Scip., lib. ii. cap. 12. + +70 Tusc. Quest., lib. i. cap. 26. + +71 We omit several other authorities, as the reader would probably +deem any further evidence superfluous. + +72 Alcestis, ll. 1015-1025, ed. Glasg. + + +Mysteries for a long time, it at length broke into public view in +the national apotheosis of ancient heroes, kings, and renowned +worthies, the instances of which became so numerous that Cicero +cries, "Is not nearly all heaven peopled with the human race?" 73 +Over the heads of the devout heathen, as they gazed up through the +clear night air, twinkled the beams of innumerable stars, each +chosen to designate the cerulean seat where some soul was +rejoicing with the gods in heaven over the glorious issue of the +toils and sufferings in which he once painfully trod this earthly +scene. + +Herodian, a Greek historian of some of the Roman emperors, has +left a detailed account of the rite of apotheosis.74 An image of +the person to be deified was made in wax, looking all sick and +pale, laid in state on a lofty bed of ivory covered with cloth of +gold, surrounded on one side by choirs of noble lords, on the +other side by their ladies stripped of their jewels and clad in +mourning, visited often for several days by a physician, who still +reports his patient worse, and finally announces his decease. Then +the Senators and haughtiest patricians bear the couch through the +via sacra to the Forum. Bands of noble boys and of proud women +ranged opposite each other chant hymns and lauds over the dead in +solemn melody. The bier is next borne to the Campus Martius, where +it is placed upon a high wooden altar, a large, thin structure +with a tower like a lighthouse. Heaps of fragrant gums, herbs, +fruits, and spices are poured out and piled upon it. Then the +Roman knights, mounted on horseback, prance before it in beautiful +bravery, wheeling to and fro in the dizzy measures of the Pyrrhic +dance. Also, in a stately manner, purple clothed charioteers, +wearing masks which picture forth the features of the most famous +worthies of other days to the reverential recognition of the +silent hosts assembled, ride around the form of their descendant. +Suddenly a torch is set to the pile, and it is wrapped in flames. +From the turret, amidst the aromatic fumes, an eagle is let loose. +Phoenix like symbol of the departed soul, he soars into the sky, +and the seven hilled city throbs with pride, reverberating the +shouts of her people. Thus into the residence of the gods "Sic +itur ad astra" was borne the divinely favored mortal; "And thus we +see how man's prophetic creeds Made gods of men when godlike were +their deeds." + +For it was only in times of degradation and by a violent +perversion that the honor was allowed to the unworthy; and even in +such cases it was usually nullified as soon as the people +recovered their senses and their freedom. There is extant among +the works of Seneca a little treatise called Apocolocuntosis, that +is, pumpkinification, or the metamorphosis into a gourd, a sharp +satire levelled against the apotheosis of the Emperor Claudius. +The deification of mortals among the ancients has long been +laughed at. When the great Macedonian monarch applied for a decree +for his apotheosis while he was yet alive, the Lacedemonian +Senate, with bitter sarcasm, voted, "If Alexander desires to be a +god, let him be a god." The doctrine is often referred to among us +in terms of mockery. But this is principally because it is not +understood. It simply signifies the ascent of the soul after death +into the Olympian halls instead of descending into the Acheronian +gulfs. And whether we + +73 Tusc. Quast., lib. i. cap. 12. + +74 Lib. iv. + + +consider the symbolic justice and beauty of the conception as a +poetic image applied to the deathless heroes of humanity ensphered +above us forever in historic fame and natural worship, or regard +its comparative probability as the literal location of the +residence of departed spirits, it must recommend itself to us as a +decided improvement on the ideas previously prevalent, and as a +sort of anticipation, in part, of that bright faith in a heavenly +home for faithfuls souls, afterwards established in the world by +Him of whom it was written, "No man hath ascended up to heaven but +he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, who is now in +heaven." Indeed, so forcible and close is the correspondence +between the course of the aspirant in his initiation dramatically +dying, descending into Hades, rising again to life, and ascending +into heaven with the apostolic presentation of the redemptive +career of Christ, our great Forerunner, that some writers Nork, +for instance have suggested that the latter was but the exoteric +publication to all the world of what in the former was +esoterically taught to the initiates alone. + +There was a striking naturalness, a profound propriety, in the +obscurities of secrecy and awe with which the ancient Mysteries +shrouded from a rash curiosity their instructions concerning the +future life and only unfolded them by careful degrees to the +prepared candidate. It is so with the reality itself in the nature +of things. It is the great mystery of mysteries, darkly hinted in +types, faintly gleaming in analogies, softly whispered in hopes, +passionately asked in desires, patiently confirmed in arguments, +suddenly blazed and thundered in revelation. Man from the very +beginning of his race on earth has been thickly encompassed by +mysteries, hung around by the muffling curtains of ignorance and +superstition. Through one after another of these he has forced his +way and gazed on their successive secrets laid bare. Once the +Ocean was an alluring and terrible mystery, weltering before him +with its endless wash of waves, into which the weary sun, in the +west, plunged at evening, and out of which, in the east, it +bounded refreshed in the morning. But the daring prows of his +ships, guided by pioneering thought and skill, passed its islands +and touched its ultimate shores. Once the Polar Circle was a +frightful and frozen mystery, enthroned on mountains of eternal +ice and wearing upon its snowy brow the flaming crown of the +aurora borealis. But his hardy navigators, inspired by enterprise +and philanthropy, armed with science, and supplied by art, have +driven the awful phantom back, league by league, until but a small +expanse of its wonders remains untracked by his steps. Once the +crowded Sky was a boundless mystery, a maze of motions, a field +where ghastly comets played their antics and shook down terrors on +the nations. But the theories of his reason, based on the gigantic +grasp of his calculus and aided by the instruments of his +invention, have solved perplexity after perplexity, blended +discords into harmony, and shown to his delighted vision the calm +perfection of the stellar system. So, too, in the moral world he +has lifted the shrouds from many a dark problem, and extended the +empire of light and love far out over the ancient realm of +darkness and terror. But the secret of Death, the mystery of the +Future, remains yet, as of old, unfathomed and inscrutable to his +inquiries. Still, as of old, he kneels before that unlifted veil +and beseeches the oracles for a response to faith. + +The ancient Mysteries in their principal ceremony but copied the +ordination and followed the overawing spirit of Nature herself. +The religious reserve and awe about the entrance into the adytum +of their traditions were like those about the entrance into the +invisible scenes beyond the veils of time and mortality. Their +initiation was but a miniature symbol of the great initiation +through which, and that upon impartial terms, every mortal, from +King Solomon to the idiot pauper, must sooner or later pass to +immortality. When a fit applicant, after the preliminary +probation, kneels with fainting sense and pallid brow before the +veil of the unutterable Unknown, and the last pulsations of his +heart tap at the door of eternity, and he reverentially asks +admission to partake in the secrets shrouded from profane vision, +the infinite Hierophant directs the call to be answered by Death, +the speechless and solemn steward of the celestial Mysteries. He +comes, pushes the curtain aside, leads the awe struck initiate in, +takes the blinding bandage of the body from his soul; and +straightway the trembling neophyte receives light in the midst of +that innumerable Fraternity of Immortals over whom the Supreme +Author of the Universe presides. + +CHAPTER II. + +METEMPSYCHOSIS; OR, TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. + +NO other doctrine has exerted so extensive, controlling, and +permanent an influence upon mankind as that of the metempsychosis, +the notion that when the soul leaves the body it is born anew in +another body, its rank, character, circumstances, and experience +in each successive existence depending on its qualities, deeds, +and attainments in its preceding lives. Such a theory, well +matured, bore unresisted sway through the great Eastern world, +long before Moses slept in his little ark of bulrushes on the +shore of the Egyptian river; Alexander the Great gazed with +amazement on the self immolation by fire to which it inspired the +Gymnosophists; Casar found its tenets propagated among the Gauls +beyond the Rubicon; and at this hour it reigns despotic, as the +learned and travelled Professor of Sanscrit at Oxford tells us, +"without any sign of decrepitude or decay, over the Burman, +Chinese, Tartar, Tibetan, and Indian nations, including at least +six hundred and fifty millions of mankind."1 There is abundant +evidence to prove that this scheme of thought prevailed at a very +early period among the Egyptians, all classes and sects of the +Hindus, the Persian disciples of the Magi, and the Druids, and, in +a later age, among the Greeks and Romans as represented by Musaus, +Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus, Macrobius, Ovid, and many others. It +was generally adopted by the Jews from the time of the Babylonian +captivity. Traces of it have been discovered among the ancient +Scythians, the African tribes, some of the Pacific Islanders, and +various aboriginal nations both of North and of South America. +Charlevoix says some tribes of Canadian Indians believed in a +transmigration of souls; but, with a curious mixture of fancy and +reflection, they limited it to the souls of little children, who, +being balked of this life in its beginning, they thought would try +it again. Their bodies, accordingly, were buried at the sides of +roads, that their spirits might pass into pregnant women +travelling by. A belief in the metempsychosis limited in the same +way to the souls of children also prevailed among the Mexicans.2 +The Maricopas, by the Gila, believe when they die they shall +transmigrate into birds, beasts, and reptiles, and shall return to +the banks of the Colorado, whence they were driven by the Yumas. +They will live there in caves and woods, as wolves, rats, and +snakes; so will their enemies the Yumas; and they will fight +together.3 On the western border of the United States, only three +or four years ago, two Indians having been sentenced to be hung +for murder, the chiefs of their tribe came in and begged that they +might be shot or burned instead, as they looked upon hanging with +the utmost horror, believing that the spirit of a person who is +thus strangled to death goes into the next world in a foul manner, +and that it assumes a beastly form. The Sandwich Islanders +sometimes threw their dead into the sea to be devoured by sharks, +supposing their souls would animate these monsters and cause them + +1 Wilson, Two Lectures on the Religious Opinions of the Hindus, p. +64. + +2 Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico, vol. viii. p. 220. + +3 Bartlett, Personal Narrative of Explorations in Texas, New +Mexico, &c., ch. xxx. + + +to spare the living whom accident should throw within their +reach.4 Similar superstitions, but more elaborately developed, are +rife among many tribes of African negroes.5 It was inculcated in +the early Christian centuries by the Gnostics and the Manichaans; +also by Origen and several other influential Fathers. In the +Middle Ages the sect of the Cathari, the Bogomiles, the famous +scholastics Scotus Erigena and Bonaventura, as well as numerous +less distinguished authors, advocated it. And in modern times it +has been earnestly received by Lessing and Fourier, and is not +without its open defenders to day, as we can attest from our own +knowledge, even in the prosaic and enlightened circles of European +and American society. + +There have been two methods of explaining the origin of the dogma +of transmigration. First, it has been regarded as a retribution, +the sequel to sin in a pre existent state: + +"All that flesh doth cover, +Souls of source sublime, +Are but slaves sold over +To the Master Time +To work out their ransom +For the ancient crime." + +With the ancient Egyptians the doctrine was developed in +connection with the conception of a revolt and battle among the +gods in some dim and disastrous epoch of the past eternity, when +the defeated deities were thrust out of heaven and shut up in +fleshly prison bodies. So man is a fallen spirit, heaven his +fatherland, this life a penance, sometimes necessarily repeated in +order to be effectual.6 The pre existence of the soul, whether +taught by Pythagoras, sung by Empedocles, dreamed by Fludd, or +contended for by Beecher, is the principal foundation of the +belief in the metempsychosis. But, secondly, the transmigration of +souls has been considered as the means of their progressive +ascent. The soul begins its conscious course at the bottom of the +scale of being, and, gradually rising through birth after birth, +climbs along a discriminated series of improvements in endless +aspiration. Here the scientific adaptation and moral intent are +thought to lead only upwards, insect travelling to man, man +soaring to God; but by sin the natural order and working of means +are inverted, and the series of births lead downward, until +expiation and merit restore the primal adjustment and direction. + +The idea of a metempsychosis, or soul wandering, as the Germans +call it, has been broached in various forms widely differing in +the extent of their application. Among the Jews the writings of +Philo, the Talmud, and other documents, are full of it. They seem, +for the most part, to have confined the mortal residence of souls +to human bodies. They say that God created all souls on the first +day, the only day in which he made aught out of nothing; and they +imply, in their doctrine of the revolution of souls, that these +are born over and over, and will continue wandering thus until the +Messiah comes and the resurrection occurs. The + +4 Jarves, Hist. Sandwich Islands, p. 82. + +5 Wilson, Western Africa, p. 210. + +6 Dr. Roth, Agyptische Glaubenslehre. + + +Rabbins distinguish two kinds of metempsychosis; namely, "Gilgul," +which is a series of single transmigrations, each lasting till +death; and "Ibbur," which is where one soul occupies several +bodies, changing its residence at pleasure, or where several souls +occupy one body.7 The latter kind is illustrated by examples of +demoniacal possession in the New Testament. The demons were +supposed to be the souls of deceased wicked men. Sometimes they +are represented as solitary and flitting from one victim to +another; sometimes they swarm together in the same person, as +seven were at once cast out of Mary Magdalene. + +More frequently, however, the range of the soul's travels in its +repeated births has been so extended as to include all animal +bodies, beasts, birds, fishes, reptiles, insects. In this extent +the doctrine was held by the Pythagoreans and Platonists, and in +fact by a majority of its believers. Shakspeare's wit is not +without historical warrant when he makes the clown say to +Malvolio, "Thou shalt fear to kill a woodcock, lest thou +dispossess the soul of thy grandam." Many the Manichaans, for +instance taught that human souls transmigrated not only through +the lowest animal bodies but even through all forms of vegetable +life. Souls inhabit ears of corn, figs, shrubs. "Whoso plucks the +fruit or the leaves from trees, or pulls up plants or herbs, is +guilty of homicide," say they; "for in each case he expels a soul +from its body." 8 And some have even gone so far as to believe +that the soul, by a course of ignorance, cruelty, and uncleanness +pursued through many lives, will at length arrive at an inanimate +body, and be doomed to exist for unutterable ages as a stone or as +a particle of dust. The adherents of this hypothesis regard the +whole world as a deposition of materialized souls. At every step +they tread on hosts of degraded souls, destined yet, though now by +sin sunk thus low, to find their way back as redeemed and blessed +spirits to the bosom of the Godhead. + +Upon the whole, the metempsychosis may be understood, as to its +inmost meaning and its final issue, to be either a Development, a +Revolution, or a Retribution, a Divine system of development +eternally leading creatures in a graduated ascension from the base +towards the apex of the creation, a perpetual cycle in the order +of nature fixedly recurring by the necessities of a physical fate +unalterable, unavoidable, eternal, a scheme of punishment and +reward exactly fitted to the exigencies of every case, presided +over by a moral Nemesis, and issuing at last in the emancipation +of every purified soul into infinite bliss, when, by the upward +gravitation of spirit, they shall all have been strained through +the successively finer growing filters of the worlds, from the +coarse grained foundation of matter to the lower shore of the +Divine essence. + +In seeking to account for the extent and the tenacious grasp of +this antique and stupendous belief, in looking about for the +various suggestions or confirmations of such a dogma, we would +call attention to several considerations, each claiming some +degree of importance. First, among the earliest notions of a +reflecting man is that of the separate existence of the soul after +the dissolution of the body. He instinctively distinguishes the + +7 Basnage, Hist. Jews, lib. iv. cap. xxx.: Schroder, Judenthum, +buch ii. kap. iii. Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum. th. ii. kap. +i. + +8 Augustine, De Morlb. Manicha., lib. ii. cap. xvii.: De Hares.. +cap. xlvi.: Contra Faustum, lib. xvi. cap. xxviii. + + +thinking substance he is from the material vestment he wears. +Conscious of an unchanged personal identity beneath the changes +and decays everywhere visible around him, he naturally imagines +that "As billows on the undulating main, That swelling fall and +falling swell again, So on the tide of time inconstant roll The +dying body and the deathless soul." + +To one thus meditating, and desiring, as he surely would, to +perceive or devise some explanation of the soul's posthumous +fortunes, the idea could hardly fail to occur that the destiny of +the soul might be to undergo a renewed birth, or a series of +births in new bodies. Such a conception, appearing in a rude state +of culture, before the lines between science, religion, and poetry +had been sharply drawn, recommending itself alike by its +simplicity and by its adaptedness to gratify curiosity and +speculation in the formation of a thousand quaint and engaging +hypotheses, would seem plausible, would be highly attractive, +would very easily secure acceptance as a true doctrine. + +Secondly, the strange resemblances and sympathies between men and +animals would often powerfully suggest to a contemplative observer +the doctrine of the transmigration of souls.9 Looking over those +volumes of singular caricatures wherein certain artists have made +all the most distinctive physiognomies of men and beasts mutually +to approximate and mingle, one cannot avoid the fancy that the +bodies of brutes are the masks of degraded men. Notice an ox +reclining in the shade of a tree, patiently ruminating as if sadly +conscious of many things and helplessly bound in some obscure +penance, a mute world of dreamy experiences, a sombre mystery: how +easy to imagine him an enchanted and transformed man! See how +certain animals are allied in their prominent traits to humanity, +the stricken deer, weeping big, piteous tears, the fawning +affection and noble fidelity of the dog, the architectural skill +of the beaver, the wise aspect of the owl, the sweet plaint of the +nightingale, the shrieks of some fierce beasts, and the howls of +others startlingly like the cries of children and the moans of +pain, the sparkling orbs and tortuous stealthiness of the snake; +and the hints at metempsychosis are obvious. Standing face to face +with a tiger, an anaconda, a wild cat, a monkey, a gazelle, a +parrot, a dove, we alternately shudder with horror and yearn with +sympathy, now expecting to see the latent devils throw off their +disguise and start forth in their own demoniac figures, now +waiting for the metamorphosing charm to be reversed, and for the +enchanted children of humanity to stand erect, restored to their +former shapes. Pervading all the grades and forms of distinct +animal life there seems to be a rudimentary unity. The fundamental +elements and primordial germs of consciousness, intellect, will, +passion, appear the same, and the different classes of being seem +capable of passing into one another by improvement or deterioration. + +Spontaneously, then, might a primitive observer, unhampered by +prejudices, think that the soul of man on leaving its present body +would find or construct another according to its chief intrinsic +qualities and + +9 Scholz, Beweis, dass es eine Seelenwanderung bei den Thieren +giebt. + + +forces, whether those were a leonine magnanimity of courage, a +vulpine subtlety of cunning, or a pavonine strut of vanity. The +spirit, freed from its fallen cell, "Fills with fresh energy +another form, And towers an elephant, or glides a worm, Swims as +an eagle in the eye of noon, Or wails, a screech owl, to the deaf, +cold moon, Or haunts the brakes where serpents hiss and glare, +Or hums, a glittering insect, in the air." + +The hypothesis is equally forced on our thoughts by regarding the +human attributes of some brutes and the brutal attributes of some +men. Thus Gratiano, enraged at the obstinate malignity of Shylock, +cries to the hyena hearted Jew, "Thou almost mak'st me waver in my +faith, To hold opinion, with Pythagoras, That souls of animals +infuse themselves Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit +Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter, Even from the +gallows did his fell soul fleet, And, whilst thou lay'st in thine +unhallow'd dam, Infused itself in thee; for thy desires Are +wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous." + +Thirdly, there is a figurative metempsychosis, which may sometimes +the history of mythology abounds in examples of the same sort of +thing have been turned from an abstract metaphor into a concrete +belief, or from a fanciful supposition have hardened into a +received fact. There is a poetic animation of objects whereby the +imaginative person puts himself into other persons, into trees, +clouds, whirlwinds, or what not, and works them for the time in +ideal realization. The same result is put in speech sometimes as +humorous play: for example, a celebrated English author says, +"Nature meant me for a salamander, and that is the reason I have +always been discontented as a man: I shall be a salamander in the +next world!" Such imagery stated to a mind of a literal order +solidifies into a meaning of prosaic fact. It is a common mode of +speech to say of an enthusiastic disciple that the spirit of his +master possesses him. A receptive student enters into the soul of +Plato, or is full of Goethe. We say that Apelles lived again in +Titian. Augustine reappeared in Calvin, and Pelagius in Arminius, +to fight over the old battle of election and freedom. Luther rose +in Ronge. Take these figures literally, construct what they imply +into a dogma, and the product is the transmigration of souls. The +result thus arrived at finds effective support in the striking +physical resemblance, spiritual likeness, and similarity of +mission frequently seen between persons in one age and those in a +former age. Columbus was the modern Jason sailing after the Golden +Fleece of a New World. Glancing along the portrait gallery of some +ancient family, one is sometimes startled to observe a face, +extinct for several generations, suddenly confronting him again +with all its features in some distant descendant. A peculiarity of +conformation, a remarkable trait of character, suppressed for a +century, all at once starts into vivid prominence in a remote +branch of the lineage, and men say, pointing back to the ancestor, +"He has revived once more." Seeing Elisha do the same things that +his departed master had done before him, the people exclaimed, +"The spirit of Elijah is upon him." Beholding in John the Baptist +one going before him in the spirit of that expected prophet, Jesus +said, "If ye are able to receive it, this is he." Some of the +later Rabbins assert many entertaining things concerning the +repeated births of the most distinguished personages in their +national history. Abel was born again in Seth; Cain, in that +Egyptian whom Moses slew; Abiram, in Ahithophel; and Adam, having +already reappeared once in David, will live again in the Messiah. +The performance by an eminent man of some great labor which had +been done in an earlier age in like manner by a kindred spirit +evokes in the imagination an apparition of the return of the dead +to repeat his old work. + +Fourthly, there are certain familiar psychological experiences +which serve to suggest and to support the theory of transmigration, +and which are themselves in return explained by such a surmise. + +Thinking upon some unwonted subject, often a dim impression +arises in the mind, fastens upon us, and we cannot help +feeling, that somewhere, long ago, we have had these reflections +before. Learning a fact, meeting a face, for the first time, we +are puzzled with an obscure assurance that it is not the first +time. Travelling in foreign lands, we are ever and anon haunted by +a sense of familiarity with the views, urging us to conclude that +surely we have more than once trodden those fields and gazed on +those scenes; and from hoary mountain, trickling rill, and vesper +bell, meanwhile, mystic tones of strange memorial music seem to +sigh, in remembered accents, through the soul's plaintive echoing +halls, "'Twas auld lang syne, my dear, 'Twas auld lang syne." + +Plato's doctrine of reminiscence here finds its basis. We have +lived before, perchance many times, and through the clouds of +sense and imagination now and then float the veiled visions of +things that were. Efforts of thought reveal the half effaced +inscriptions and pictures on the tablets of memory. Snatches of +dialogues once held are recalled, faint recollections of old +friendships return, and fragments of landscapes beheld and deeds +performed long ago pass in weird procession before the mind's half +opened eye. We know a professional gentleman of unimpeachable +veracity, of distinguished talents and attainments, who is a firm +believer in his own existence on the earth previously to his +present life. He testifies that on innumerable occasions he has +experienced remembrances of events and recognitions of places, +accompanied by a flash of irresistible conviction that he had +known them in a former state. Nearly every one has felt instances +of this, more or less numerous and vivid. The doctrine at which +such things hint that "Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in +utter nakedness," but trailing vague traces and enigmas from a +bygone history, "do we come" yields the secret of many a mood and +dream, the spell of inexplicable hours, the key and clew to +baffling labyrinths of mystery. The belief in the doctrine of the +metempsychosis, among a fanciful people and in an unscientific +age, need be no wonder to any cultivated man acquainted with the +marvels of experience and aware that every one may say, + +"Full oft my feelings make me start, +Like footprints on some desert shore, +As if the chambers of my heart +Had heard their shadowy step before." + +Fifthly, the theory of the transmigration of souls is marvellously +adapted to explain the seeming chaos of moral inequality, +injustice, and manifold evil presented in the world of human life. +No other conceivable view so admirably accounts for the +heterogeneousness of our present existence, refutes the charge of +a groundless favoritism urged against Providence, and completely +justifies the ways of God to man. The loss of remembrance between +the states is no valid objection to the theory; because such a +loss is the necessary condition of a fresh and fair probation. +Besides, there is a parallel fact of deep significance in our +unquestionable experience; "For is not our first year forgot? The +haunts of memory echo not." + +Once admit the theory to be true, and all difficulties in regard +to moral justice vanish. If a man be born blind, deaf, a cripple, +a slave, an idiot, it is because in a previous life he abused his +privileges and heaped on his soul a load of guilt which he is now +expiating. If a sudden calamity overwhelm a good man with +unmerited ruin and anguish, it is the penalty of some crime +committed in a state of responsible being beyond the confines of +his present memory. Does a surprising piece of good fortune accrue +to any one, splendid riches, a commanding position, a peerless +friendship? It is the reward of virtuous deeds done in an earlier +life. Every flower blighted or diseased, every shrub gnarled, +awry, and blasted, every brute ugly and maimed, every man +deformed, wretched, or despised, is reaping in these hard +conditions of being, as contrasted with the fate of the favored +and perfect specimens of the kind, the fruit of sin in a foregone +existence. When the Hindu looks on a man beautiful, learned, +noble, fortunate, and happy, he exclaims, "How wise and good must +this man have been in his former lives!" In his philosophy, or +religion, the proof of the necessary consequences of virtue and +vice is deduced from the metempsychosis, every particular of the +outward man being a result of some corresponding quality of his +soul, and every event of his experience depending as effect on his +previous merit as cause.10 Thus the principal physical and moral +phenomena of life are strikingly explained; and, as we gaze around +the world, its material conditions and spiritual elements combine +in one vast scheme of unrivalled order, and the total experience +of humanity forms a magnificent picture of perfect poetic justice. +We may easily account for the rise and spread of a theory whose +sole difficulty is a lack of positive proof, but whose +applications are so consistent and fascinating alike to +imagination and to conscience. Hierocles said, and distinguished +philosophers both before and since have said, "Without the +doctrine of metempsychosis it is not possible to justify the ways +of Providence." + +10 Colebrooke, Essays, vol. i. p. 286. + + +Finally, this doctrine, having been suggested by the various +foregoing considerations, and having been developed into a +practical system of conceptions and motives by certain leading +thinkers, was adopted by the principal philosophers and +priesthoods of antiquity, and taught to the common people with +authority. The popular beliefs of four thousand years ago depended +for their prevalence, not so much on cogent arguments or intrinsic +probability, as upon the sanctions thrown around them by renowned +teachers, priests, and mystagogues. Now, the doctrine of the +transmigration of souls was inculcated by the ancient teachers, +not as a mere hypothesis resting on loose surmises, but as an +unquestionable fact supported by the experimental knowledge of +many individuals and by infallible revelation from God. The sacred +books of the Hindus abound in detailed histories of transmigrations. +Kapila is said to have written out the Vedas from his remembrance + of them in a former state of being. + +The Vishnu Purana gives some very entertaining examples of +the retention of memory through several successive lives.11 +Pythagoras pretended to recollect his adventures in previous lives; +and on one occasion, as we read in Ovid, going into the temple of +Juno, he recognised the shield he had worn as Euphorbus at the +siege of Troy. + +Diogenes Laertius also relates of him, that one day meeting a man +who was cruelly beating a dog, the Samian sage instantly detected +in the piteous howls of the poor beast the cries of a dear friend +of his long since deceased, and earnestly and successfully +interceded for his rescue. + +In the life of Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratus, numerous +extraordinary instances are told of his recognitions of +persons he had known in preceding lives. Such examples as these +exactly met the weakest point in the metempsychosis theory, and +must have had vast influence in fostering the common faith. +Plotinus said, "Body is the true river of Lethe; for souls plunged +in it forget all." Pierre Leroux, an enthusiastic living defender +of the idea of repeated births, attempts to reply to the objection +drawn from the absence of memory; but his reply is an appeal +rather to authority and fancy than to reason, and leaves the +doubts unsolved.12 His supposition is that in each spirit life we +remember all the bygone lives, both spiritual and earthly, but in +each earth life we forget all that has gone before; just as, here, +every night we lose in sleep all memory of the past, but recover +it each day again as we awake. Throughout the East this general +doctrine is no mere superstition of the masses of ignorant people: +it is the main principle of all Hindu metaphysics, the foundation +of all their philosophy, and inwrought with the intellectual +texture of their inspired books. It is upheld by the venerable +authority of ages, by an intense general conviction of it, and by +multitudes of subtle conceits and apparent arguments. It was also +impressed upon the initiates in the old Mysteries, by being there +dramatically shadowed forth through masks, and quaint symbolic +ceremonies enacted at the time of initiation.13 + +This, then, is what we must say of the ancient and widely spread +doctrine of transmigration. As a suggestion or theory naturally +arising from empirical observation and confirmed by a variety of +phenomena, it is plausible, attractive, and, in some stages of + +11 Professor Wilson's translation, p. 343. + +12 De l'Humanite, livre v. chap. xlii. + +13 Porphyry, De Abstinentis, lib. iv. sect. 16. Davies, Rites of +the Druids. + + +knowledge, not only easy to be believed, but hard to be resisted. +As an ethical scheme clearing up on principles of poetic justice +the most perplexed and awful problems in the world, it throws +streams of light through the abysses of evil, gives dramatic +solution to many a puzzle, and, abstractly considered, charms the +understanding and the conscience. As a philosophical dogma +answering to some strange, vague passages in human nature and +experience, it echoes with dreamy sweetness through the deep +mystic chambers of our being. As the undisputed creed which has +inspired and spell bound hundreds of millions of our race for +perhaps over a hundred and fifty generations, it commands +deference and deserves study. But, viewing it as a thesis in the +light of to day, challenging intelligent scrutiny and sober +belief, we scarcely need to say that, based on shadows and on +arbitrary interpretations of superficial appearances, built of +reveries and occult experiences, fortified by unreliable +inferences, destitute of any substantial evidence, it is unable to +face the severity of science. + +A real investigation of its validity by the modern methods +dissipates it as the sun scatters fog. First, the mutual +correspondences between men and animals are explained by the fact +that they are all living beings are the products of the same God +and the same nature, and built according to one plan. They thus +partake, in different degrees and on different planes, of many of +the same elements and characteristics. Lucretius, with his usual +mixture of acuteness and sophistry, objects to the doctrine that, +if it were true, when the soul of a lion passed into the body of a +stag, or the soul of a man into the body of a horse, we should see +a stag with the courage of a lion, a horse with the intelligence +of a man. But of course the manifestations of soul depend on the +organs of manifestation. Secondly, the singular psychological +experiences referred to are explicable so far as we can expect +with our present limited data and powers to solve the dense +mysteries of the soul by various considerations not involving the +doctrine in question. Herder has shown this with no little acumen +in three "Dialogues on the Metempsychosis," beautifully translated +by the Rev. Dr. Hedge in his "Prose Writers of Germany." The sense +of pre existence the confused idea that these occurrences have +thus happened to us before which is so often and strongly felt, is +explicable partly by the supposition of some sudden and obscure +mixture of associations, some discordant stroke on the keys of +recollection, jumbling together echoes of bygone scenes, snatches +of unremembered dreams, and other hints and colors in a weird and +uncommanded manner. The phenomenon is accounted for still more +decisively by Dr. Wigand's theory of the "Duality of the Mind." +The mental organs are double, one on each side of the brain. They +usually act with perfect simultaneity. When one gets a slight +start of the other, as the thought reaches the slow side a +bewildered sense of a previous apprehension of it arises in the +soul. And then, the fact that the supposition of a great system of +adjusting transmigrations justifies the ways of Providence is no +proof that the supposition is a true one. The difficulty is, that +there is no evidence of the objective truth of the assumption, +however well the theory applies; and the justice and goodness of +God may as well be defended on the ground of a single life here +and a discriminating retribution hereafter, as on the ground of an +unlimited series of earthly births. + +The doctrine evidently possesses two points of moral truth and +power, and, if not tenable as strict science, is yet instructive +as symbolic poetry. First, it embodies, in concrete shapes the +most vivid and unmistakable, the fact that beastly and demoniac +qualities of character lead men down towards the brutes and +fiends. Rage makes man a tiger; low cunning, a fox; coarseness and +ferocity, a bear; selfish envy and malice, a devil. On the +contrary, the attainment of better degrees of intellectual and +ethical qualities elevates man towards the angelic and the Divine. +There are three kinds of lives, corresponding to the three kinds +of metempsychosis, ascending, circular, descending: the aspiring +life of progress in wisdom and goodness; the monotonous life of +routine in mechanical habits and indifference; the deteriorating +life of abandonment in ignorance and vice. Timaus the Locrian, and +some other ancient Pythagoreans, gave the whole doctrine a purely +symbolic meaning. Secondly, the theory of transmigrating souls +typifies the truth that, however it may fare with persons now, +however ill their fortunes may seem to accord with their deserts +here, justice reigns irresistibly in the universe, and sooner or +later every soul shall be strictly compensated for every tittle of +its merits in good or evil. There is no escaping the chain of acts +and consequences. + +This entire scheme of thought has always allured the Mystics to +adopt it. In every age, from Indian Vyasa to Teutonic Boehme, we +find them contending for it. Boehme held that all material +existence was composed by King Satan out of the physical substance +of his fallen followers. + +The conception of the metempsychosis is strikingly fitted for the +purposes of humor, satire, and ethical hortation; and literature +abounds with such applications of it. In Plutarch's account of +what Thespesius saw when his soul was ravished away into hell for +a time, we are told that he saw the soul of Nero dreadfully +tortured, transfixed with iron nails. The workmen forged it into +the form of a viper; when a voice was heard out of an exceeding +light ordering it to be transfigured into a milder being; and they +made it one of those creatures that sing and croak in the sides of +ponds and marshes.14 When Rosalind finds the verses with which her +enamored Orlando had hung the trees, she exclaimed, "I was never +so berhymed since Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat, which +I can hardly remember." One of the earliest popular introductions +of this Oriental figment to the English public was by Addison, +whose Will Honeycomb tells an amusing story of his friend, Jack +Freelove, how that, finding his mistress's pet monkey alone one +day, he wrote an autobiography of his monkeyship's surprising +adventures in the course of his many transmigrations. Leaving this +precious document in the monkey's hands, his mistress found it on +her return, and was vastly bewildered by its pathetic and +laughable contents.15 The fifth number of the "Adventurer" gives a +very entertaining account of the "Transmigrations of a Flea." +There is also a poem on this subject by Dr. Donne, full of +strength and wit. It traces a soul through ten or twelve births, +giving the salient points of its history in each. First, the soul +animates the apple our hapless mother Eve ate, bringing "death +into the world and all our woe." Then it appeared + +14 Sera Numinis Vindicta: near the close. + +15 Spectator, No. 343. + + +successively as a mandrake, a cock, a herring, a whale, "Who spouted +rivers up as if he meant o join our seas with seas above +the firmament." Next, as a mouse, it crept up an elephant's sinewy +proboscis to the soul's bedchamber, the brain, and, gnawing the +life cords there, died, crushed in the ruins of the gigantic +beast. Afterwards it became a wolf, a dog, an ape, and finally a +woman, where the quaint tale closes. Fielding is the author of a +racy literary performance called "A Journey from this World to the +Next." The Emperor Julian is depicted in it, recounting in Elysium +the adventures he had passed through, living successively in the +character of a slave, a Jew, a general, an heir, a carpenter, a +beau, a monk, a fiddler, a wise man, a king, a fool, a beggar, a +prince, a statesman, a soldier, a tailor, an alderman, a poet, a +knight, a dancing master, and a bishop. Whoever would see how +vividly, with what an honest and vigorous verisimilitude, the +doctrine can be embodied, should read "The Modern Pythagorean," by +Dr. Macnish. But perhaps the most humorous passage of this sort is +the following description from a remarkable writer of the present +day: + +"In the mean while all the shore rang with the trump of bull +frogs, the sturdy spirits of ancient wine bibbers and wassailers, +still unrepentant, trying to sing a catch in their Stygian lake; +who would fain keep up the hilarious rules of their old festal +tables, though their voices have waxed hoarse and solemnly grave, +mocking at mirth, and the wine has lost its flavor. The most +aldermanic, with his chin upon a heart leaf, which serves for a +napkin to his drooling chaps, under this northern shore quaffs a +deep draught of the once scorned water, and passes round the cup +with the ejaculation tr r r oonk, tr r r oonk! and straightway +comes over the water from some distant cove the same password +repeated, where the next in seniority and girth has gulped down to +his mark; and when this observance has made the circuit of the +shores, then ejaculates the master of ceremonies, with +satisfaction, tr r r conk! and each in his turn, down to the +flabbiest paunched, repeats the same, that there be no mistake; +and then the bowl goes round again and again, until the sun +disperses the morning mist, and only the patriarch is not under +the pond, but vainly bellowing troonk from time to time, and +pausing for a reply." 16 + +The doctrine of the metempsychosis, which was the priest's threat +against sin, was the poet's interpretation of life. The former +gave by it a terrible emphasis to the moral law; the latter +imparted by it an unequalled tenderness of interest to the +contemplation of the world. To the believer in it in its fullest +development, the mountains piled towering to the sky and the +plains stretching into trackless distance were the conscious dust +of souls; the ocean, heaving in tempest or sleeping in moonlight, +was a sea of spirits, every drop once a man. Each animated form +that caught his attention might be the dwelling of some ancestor, +or of some once cherished companion of his own. Hence the Hindu's +so sensitive kindness towards animals: + +16 Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods, p. 137. + + +"Crush not the feeble, inoffensive worm: Thy sister's spirit wears +that humble form. Why should thy cruel arrow smite yon bird? In +him thy brother's plaintive song is beard. Let not thine anger on +thy dog descend: That faithful animal was once thy friend." + +There is a strange grandeur, an affecting mystery, in the view of +the creation from the stand point of the metempsychosis. It is an +awful dream palace all aswarm with falling and climbing creatures +clothed in ever shifting disguises. The races and changes of being +constitute a boundless masquerade of souls, whose bodies are +vizards and whose fortunes poetic retribution. The motive +furnished by the doctrine to self denial and toil has a peerless +sublimity. In our Western world, the hope of acquiring large +possessions, or of attaining an exalted office, often stimulates +men to heroic efforts of labor and endurance. What, then, should +we not expect from the application to the imaginative minds of the +Eastern world of a motive which, transcending all set limits, +offers unheard of prizes, to be plucked in life after life, and at +the end unveils, for the occupancy of the patient aspirant, the +Throne of Immensity? No wonder that, under the propulsion of a +motive so exhaustless, a motive not remote nor abstract, but +concrete, and organized in indissoluble connection with the +visible chain of eternal causes and effects, no wonder we see such +tremendous exhibitions of superstition, voluntary sufferings, +superhuman deeds. Here is the secret fountain of that irresistible +force which enables the devotee to measure journeys of a thousand +miles by prostrations of his body, to hold up his arm until it +withers and remains immovably erect as a stick, or to swing +himself by red hot hooks through his flesh. The poorest wretch of +a soul that has wandered down to the lowest grade of animate +existence can turn his resolute and longing gaze up the +resplendent ranks of being, and, conscious of the god head's germ +within, feel that, though now unspeakably sunken, he shall one day +spurn every vile integument and vault into seats of heavenly +dominion. Crawling as an almost invisible bug in a heap of +carrion, he can still think within himself, holding fast to the +law of righteousness and love, "This is the infinite ladder of +redemption, over whose rounds of purity, penance, charity, and +contemplation I may ascend, through births innumerable, till I +reach a height of wisdom, power, and bliss that will cast into +utter contempt the combined glory of countless millions of worlds, +ay, till I sit enthroned above the topmost summit of the universe +as omnipotent Buddha." 17 + +17 Those who wish to pursue the subject further will find the +following references useful: Hardy, "Manual of Buddhism," ch. v. +Upham, "History of Buddhism," ch. iii. Beausobre, "Histoire du +Manicheisme," livre vi. ch. iv. Helmont, "De Revolution Animarum." +Richter, "Das Christenthum und die Kitesten Religionen des +Orients," sects. 54-65. Sinner, "Essai sur les Dogmes de la +Metempsychose et du Purgatoire." Conz, "Schicksale der +Seelenwanderungshypothese unter verschiedenen Volkern und in +verschiedenen Zeiten." Dubois, "People of India," part iii. ch. +vii. Werner, "Commentatio Psychologica contra Metempsychosin." + + +CHAPTER III. + +RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH. + +A DOCTRINE widely prevalent asserts that, at the termination of +this probationary epoch, Christ will appear with an army of angels +in the clouds of heaven, descend, and set up his tribunal on the +earth. The light of his advancing countenance will be the long +waited Aurora of the Grave. All the souls of men will be summoned +from their tarrying places, whether in heaven, or hell, or +purgatory, or the sepulchre; the fleshly tabernacles they formerly +inhabited will be re created, a strong necromancy making the rooty +and grave floored earth give up its dust of ruined humanity, and +moulding it to the identical shapes it formerly composed; each +soul will enter its familiar old house in company with which its +sins were once committed; the books will be opened and judgment +will be passed; then the accepted will be removed to heaven, and +the rejected to hell, both to remain clothed with those same +material bodies forever, the former in celestial bliss, the latter +in infernal torture. + +In the present dissertation we propose to exhibit the sources, +trace the developments, explain the variations, and discuss the +merits, of this doctrine. + +The first appearance of this notion of a bodily restoration which +occurs in the history of opinions is among the ancient Hindus. +With them it appears as a part of a vast conception, embracing the +whole universe in an endless series of total growths, decays, and +exact restorations. In the beginning the Supreme Being is one and +alone. He thinks to himself, "I will become many." Straightway the +multiform creation germinates forth, and all beings live. Then for +an inconceivable period a length of time commensurate with the +existence of Brahma, the Demiurgus the successive generations +flourish and sink. At the end of this period all forms of matter, +all creatures, sages, and gods, fall back into the Universal +Source whence they arose. Again the Supreme Being is one and +alone. After an interval the same causes produce the same effects, +and all things recur exactly as they were before.1 + +We find this theory sung by some of the Oriental poets: +"Every external form of things, and every object which +disappear'd, Remains stored up in the storehouse of fate: When the +system of the heavens returns to its former order, God, the All +Just, will bring them forth from the veil of mystery." 2 + +The same general conception, in a modified form, was held by the +Stoics of later Greece, who doubtless borrowed it from the East, +and who carried it out in greater detail. "God is an artistic +fire, out of which the cosmopoeia issues." This fire proceeds in a +certain fixed course, in obedience to a fixed law, passing through +certain intermediate gradations and established periods, until it +ultimately returns into itself and closes with a universal +conflagration. It is to this catastrophe that reference is made in +the following passage of Epictetus: "Some say that when Zeus is +left alone at the time of the conflagration, he is solitary, and +bewails himself + +1 Wilson, Lectures on the Hindus, pp. 53-56. + +2 The Dabistan, vol. iii. p. 169. + + +that he has no company."3 The Stoics supposed each succeeding +formation to be perfectly like the preceding. Every particular +that happens now has happened exactly so a thousand times before, +and will happen a thousand times again. This view they connected +with astronomical calculations, making the burning and re creating +of the world coincide with the same position of the stars as that +at which it previously occurred.4 This they called the restoration +of all things. The idea of these enormous revolving identical +epochs Day of Brahm, Cycle of the Stoics, or Great Year of Plato +is a physical fatalism, effecting a universal resurrection of the +past, by reproducing it over and over forever. + +Humboldt seems more than inclined to adopt the same thought. "In +submitting," he says, "physical phenomena and historical events to +the exercise of the reflective faculty, and in ascending to their +causes by reasoning, we become more and more penetrated by that +ancient belief, that the forces inherent in matter, and those +regulating the moral world, exert their action under the presence +of a primordial necessity and according to movements periodically +renewed." The wise man of old said, "The thing that hath been, it +is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall +be done, and there is no new thing under the sun." The conception +of the destinies of the universe as a circle returning forever +into itself is an artifice on which the thinking mind early +seizes, to evade the problem that is too mighty for its feeble +powers. It concludes that the final aim of Nature is but the +infinite perfecting of her material in infinite transformations +ever repeating the same old series. We cannot comprehend and +master satisfactorily the eternal duration of one visible order, +the incessant rolling on of races and stars: + +"And doth creation's tide forever flow, Nor ebb with like +destruction? World on world Are they forever heaping up, and still +The mighty measure never, never full?" + +And so, when the contemplation of the staggering infinity +threatens to crush the brain, we turn away and find relief in the +view of a periodical revolution, wherein all comes to an end from +time to time and takes a fresh start. It would be wiser for us +simply to resign the problem as too great. For the conception to +which we have recourse is evidently a mere conceit of imagination, +without scientific basis or philosophical confirmation. + +The doctrine of a bodily resurrection, resting on a wholly +different ground, again emerges upon our attention in the +Zoroastrian faith of Persia. The good Ormuzd created men to be +pure and happy and to pass to a heavenly immortality. The evil +Ahriman insinuated his corruptions among them, broke their primal +destiny, and brought death upon them, dooming their material +frames to loathsome dissolution, their unclothed spirits to a +painful abode in hell. Meanwhile, the war between the Light God +and the Gloom Fiend rages fluctuatingly. But at last the Good One +shall prevail, and the Bad One sink in discomfiture, and all evil +deeds be neutralized, and the benignant arrangements decreed at +first be restored. Then all + +3 Epictetus, lib. iii. cap. 13. Sonntag, De Palingenesia +Stoicorum. + +4 Ritter's Hist. of An. Phil., lib. xi. cap. 4. + + +souls shall be redeemed from hell and their bodies be rebuilt from +their scattered atoms and clothed upon them again.5 This +resurrection is not the consequence of any fixed laws or fate, nor +is it an arbitrary miracle. It is simply the restoration by Ormuzd +of the original intention which Ahriman had temporarily marred and +defeated. This is the great bodily resurrection, as it is still +understood and looked for by the Parsees. + +The whole system of views out of which it springs, and with which +it is interwrought, is a fanciful mythology, based on gratuitous +assumptions, or at most on a crude glance at mere appearances. The +hypothesis that the creation is the scene of a drawn battle +between two hostile beings, a Deity and a Devil, can face neither +the scrutiny of science, nor the test of morals, nor the logic of +reason; and it has long since been driven from the arena of +earnest thought. On this theory it follows that death is a violent +curse and discord, maliciously forced in afterwards to deform and +spoil the beauty and melody of a perfect original creation. Now, +as Bretschneider well says, "the belief that death is an evil, a +punishment for sin, can arise only in a dualistic system." It is +unreasonable to suppose that the Infinite God would deliberately +lay a plan and allow it to be thwarted and ruined by a demon. And +it is unscientific to imagine that death is an accident, or an +after result foisted into the system of the world. Death that is, +a succession of generations is surely an essential part of the +very constitution of nature, plainly stamped on all those "medals +of the creation" which bear the features of their respective ages +and which are laid up in the archives of geological epochs. +Successive growth and decay is a central part of God's original +plan, as appears from the very structure of living bodies and the +whole order of the globe. Death, therefore, which furthermore +actually reigned on earth unknown ages before the existence of +man, could not have been a fortuitous after clap of human sin. And +so the foregoing theory of a general resurrection as the +restoration of God's broken plan to its completeness falls to the +ground. + +The Jews, in the course of their frequent and long continued +intercourse with the Persians, did not fail to be much impressed +with the vivid melodramatic outlines of the Zoroastrian doctrine +of the resurrection. They finally adopted it themselves, and +joined it, with such modifications as it naturally underwent from +the union, with the great dogmas of their own faith. A few faint +references to it are found in the Old Testament. Some explicit +declarations and boasts of it are in the Apocrypha. In the +Targums, the Talmud, and the associated sources, abundant +statements of it in copious forms are preserved. The Jews rested +their doctrine of the resurrection on the same general ground as +the Persians did, from whom they borrowed it. Man was meant to be +immortal, either on earth or in heaven; but Satan seduced him to +sin, and thus wrested from him his privilege of immortality, made +him die and descend into a dark nether realm which was to be +filled with the disembodied souls of his descendants. The +resurrection was to annul all this and restore men to their +original footing. + +We need not labor any disproof of the truth or authority of this +doctrine as the Pharisees held it, because, admitting that they +had the record of a revelation from God, this doctrine was not a +part of it. It is only to be found in their canonic scriptures by +way of vague and hasty allusion, and is historically traceable to +its derivation from the pagan oracles of Persia. + +5 Frazer, History of Persia, chap. iv. Baur, Symbolik und +Mythologice thl. ii. absch. ii. cap. ss. 394-404. + + +Of course it is possible that the doctrine of the resurrection, as +the Hebrews held it, was developed by themselves, from imaginative +contemplations on the phenomena of burials and graves; spectres +seen in dreams; conceptions of the dead as shadowy shapes in the +under world; ideas of God as the deliverer of living men from the +open gates of the under world when they experienced narrow escapes +from destruction; vast and fanatical national hopes. Before +advancing another step, it is necessary only to premise that some +of the Jews appear to have expected that the souls on rising from +the under world would be clothed with new, spiritualized, +incorruptible bodies, others plainly expected that the identical +bodies they formerly wore would be literally restored. + +Now, when Christianity, after the death of its Founder, arose and +spread, it was in the guise of a new and progressive Jewish sect. +Its apostles and its converts for the first hundred years were +Christian Jews. Christianity ran its career through the apostolic +age virtually as a more liberal Jewish sect. Most natural was it, +then, that infant Christianity should retain all the salient +dogmas of Judaism, except those of exclusive nationality and +bigoted formalism in the throwing off of which the mission of +Christianity partly consisted. Among these Jewish dogmas retained +by early Christianity was that of the bodily resurrection. In the +New Testament itself there are seeming references to this +doctrine. We shall soon recur to these. The phrase "resurrection +of the body" does not occur in the Scriptures. Neither is it found +in any public creed whatever among Christians until the fourth +century.6 But these admissions by no means prove that the doctrine +was not believed from the earliest days of Christianity. The fact +is, it was the same with this doctrine as with the doctrine of the +descent of Christ into Hades: it was not for a long time called in +question at all. It was not defined, discriminated, lifted up on +the symbols of the Church, because that was not called for. As +soon as the doctrine came into dispute, it was vehemently and all +but unanimously affirmed, and found an emphatic place in every +creed. Whenever the doctrine of a bodily resurrection has been +denied, that denial has been instantly stigmatized as heresy and +schism, even from the days of "Hymeneus and Philetas, who +concerning the truth erred, saying that the resurrection was past +already." The uniform orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church +has always been that in the last day the identical fleshly bodies +formerly inhabited by men shall be raised from the earth, sea, and +air, and given to them again to be everlastingly assumed. The +scattered exceptions to the believers in this doctrine have been +few, and have ever been styled heretics by their contemporaries. + +Any one who will glance over the writings of the Fathers with +reference to this subject will find the foregoing statements amply +confirmed.7 Justin Martyr wrote a treatise on the resurrection, a +fragment of which is still extant. Athenagoras has left us an +extremely elaborate and able discussion of the whole doctrine, in +a separate work. Tertullian is author of a famous book on the +subject, entitled "Concerning the Resurrection of the Flesh," in +which he says, "The teeth are providentially made eternal to serve +as the seeds of the + +6 Dr. Sykes, Inquiry when the Article of the Resurrection of the +Body or Flesh was first introduced into the Public Creeds. + +7 Mosheim, De Resurrectione Mortuorum. + + +resurrection." Chrysostom has written fully upon it in two of his +eloquent homilies. All these, in company indeed with the common +body of their contemporaries, unequivocally teach a carnal +resurrection with the grossest details. Augustine says, "Every +man's body, howsoever dispersed here, shall be restored perfect in +the resurrection. Every body shall be complete in quantity and +quality. As many hairs as have been shaved off, or nails cut, +shall not return in such enormous quantities to deform their +original places; but neither shall they perish: they shall return +into the body into that substance from which they grew." 8 As if +that would not cause any deformity! 9 Some of the later Origenists +held that the resurrection bodies would be in the shape of a ball, +the mere heads of cherubs! 10 + +In the seventh century Mohammed flourished. His doctrinal system, +it is well known, was drawn indiscriminately from many sources, +and mixed with additions and colors of his own. Finding the dogma +of a general bodily resurrection already prevailing among the +Parsees, the Jews, and the Christians, and perceiving, too, how +well adapted for purposes of vivid representation and practical +effect it was, or perhaps believing it himself, the Arabian +prophet ingrafted this article into the creed of his followers. It +has ever been with them, and is still, a foremost and controlling +article of faith, an article for the most part held in its literal +sense, although there is a powerful sect which spiritualizes the +whole conception, turning all its details into allegories and +images. But this view is not the original nor the orthodox view. + +The subject of the resurrection was a prominent theme in the +theology of the Middle Age. Only here and there a dissenting voice +was raised against the doctrine in its strict physical form. The +great body of the Scholastics stood stanchly by it. In defence and +support of the Church thesis they brought all the quirks and +quiddities of their subtle dialectics. As we take down their +ponderous tomes from their neglected shelves, and turn over the +dusty, faded old leaves, we find chapter after chapter in many a +formidable folio occupied with grave discussions, carried on in +acute logical terminology, of questions like these: "Will the +resurrection be natural or miraculous?" "Will each one's hairs and +nails all be restored to him in the resurrection?" "When bodies +are raised, will each soul spontaneously know its own and enter +it? or will the power of God distribute them as they belong?" +"Will the deformities and scars of our present bodies be retained +in the resurrection?" "Will all rise of the same age?" "Will all +have one size and one sex?" 11 And so on with hundreds of kindred +questions. For instance, Thomas Aquinas contended "that no other +substance would rise from the grave except that which belonged to +the individual in the moment of death."12 What dire prospects this +proposition must conjure up before many minds! If one chance to +grow prodigiously obese before death, he must lug that enormous +corporeity wearily about forever; but if he happen to die when +wasted, he must then flit through eternity as thin as a lath. + +8 De Civ. Dei, lib. xxii. cap. 19, 20. + +9 See the strange speculations of Opitz in his work "De Statura et +Atate Resurgentium. + +10 Redepenning, Origenes, b. ii. s. 463. + +11 Summa Theologia, Thoma Aquinatis, tertia pars, Supplementum, +Quastiones 79-87. + +12 Hagenbuch, Dogmengeschichte, sect. 204. + + +Those who have had the misfortune to be amputated of legs or arms +must appear on the resurrection stage without those very +convenient appendages. There will still be need of hospitals for +the battered veterans of Chelsea and Greenwich, mutilated heroes, +pensioned relics of deck and field. Then in the resurrection the +renowned "Mynheer von Clam, Richest merchant in Rotterdam," +will again have occasion for the services of the "patent cork leg +manufacturer," though it is hardly to be presumed he will accept +another unrestrainable one like that which led him so fearful a +race through the poet's verses. + +The Manichaans denied a bodily resurrection. In this all the sects +theologically allied to them, who have appeared in ecclesiastical +history, for instance, the Cathari, have agreed. There have also +been a few individual Christian teachers in every century who have +assailed the doctrine. But, as already declared, it has uniformly +been the firm doctrine of the Church and of all who acknowledged +her authority. The old dogma still remains in the creeds of the +recognised Churches, Papal, Greek, and Protestant. It has been +terribly shattered by the attacks of reason and of progressive +science. It lingers in the minds of most people only as a dead +letter. But all the earnest conservative theologians yet cling to +it in its unmitigated grossness, with unrelaxing severity. We hear +it in practical discourses from the pulpit, and read it in +doctrinal treatises, as offensively proclaimed now as ever. +Indeed, it is an essential part of the compact system of the +ruling theology, and cannot be taken out without loosening the +whole dogmatic fabric into fragments. Thus writes to day a +distinguished American divine, Dr. Spring: "Whether buried in the +earth, or floating in the sea, or consumed by the flames, or +enriching the battle field, or evaporate in the atmosphere, all, +from Adam to the latest born, shall wend their way to the great +arena of the judgment. Every perished bone and every secret +particle of dust shall obey the summons and come forth. If one +could then look upon the earth, he would see it as one mighty +excavated globe, and wonder how such countless generations could +have found a dwelling beneath its surface." 13 This is the way the +recognised authorities in theology still talk. To venture any +other opinion is a heresy all over Christendom at this hour. + +We will next bring forward and criticize the arguments for and +against the doctrine before us. It is contended that the doctrine +is demonstrated in the example of Christ's own resurrection. "The +resurrection of the flesh was formerly regarded as incredible," +says Augustine; "but now we see the whole world believing that +Christ's earthly body was borne into heaven." 14 It is the faith +of the Church that "Christ rose into heaven with his body of flesh +and blood, and wears it there now, and will forever." "Had he been +there in body before, it would have been no such wonder that he +should have returned with it; but that the flesh of our flesh and +bone of our bone should be seated at the right hand of God is +worthy of the greatest admiration." 15 That is to say, Christ was +from eternity God, the Infinite Spirit, in + +13 The Glory of Christ, vol. ii. p. 237. + +14 De Civ. Dei, lib. xxii. cap. 5. + +15 Pearson on the Creed, 12th ed., pp. 272-275. + + +heaven; he came to earth and lived in a human body; on returning +to heaven, instead of resuming his proper form, he bears with him, +and will eternally retain, the body of flesh he had worn on earth! +Paul says, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." +The Church, hastily following the senses, led by a carnal, +illogical philosophy, has deeply misinterpreted and violently +abused the significance of Christ's ascension. The drama of his +resurrection, with all its connected parts, was not meant +throughout as a strict representation of our destiny. It was a +seal upon his commission and teachings, not an exemplification of +what should happen to others. It was outwardly a miracle, not a +type, an exceptional instance of super natural power, not a +significant exhibition of the regular course of things. The same +logic which says, "Christ rose and ascended with his fleshly body: +therefore we shall," must also say, "Christ rose visibly on the +third day: therefore we shall." Christ's resurrection was a +miracle; and therefore we cannot reason from it to ourselves. The +common conception of a miracle is that it is the suspension, not +the manifestation, of ordinary laws. We have just as much logical +right to say that the physical appearance in Christ's resurrection +was merely an accommodation to the senses of the witnesses, and +that on his ascension the body was annihilated, and only his soul +entered heaven, as we have to surmise that the theory embodied in +the common belief is true. The record is according to mere +sensible appearances. The reality is beyond our knowledge. The +record gives no explanation. It is wiser in this dilemma to follow +the light of reason than to follow the blind spirit of tradition. +The point in our reasoning is this. If Christ, on rising from the +world of the dead, assumed again his former body, he assumed it by +a miracle, and for some special purpose of revealing himself to +his disciples and of finishing his earthly work; and it does not +follow either that he bore that body into heaven, or that any +others will ever, even temporarily, reassume their cast off forms. + +The Christian Scriptures do not in a single passage teach the +popular doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Every text in +the New Testament finds its full and satisfactory explanation +without implying that dogma at all. In the first place, it is +undeniably implied throughout the New Testament that the soul does +not perish with the body. It also appears, in the next place, from +numerous explicit passages, that the New Testament authors, in +common with their countrymen, supposed the souls of the departed +to be gathered and tarrying in what the Church calls the +intermediate state, the obscure under world. In this subterranean +realm they were imagined to be awaiting the advent of the Messiah +to release them. Now, we submit that every requirement of the +doctrine of the resurrection as it is stated or hinted in the New +Testament is fully met by the simple ascension of this +congregation of souls from the vaults of Sheol to the light of the +upper earth, there to be judged, and then some to be sent up to +heaven, some sent back to their prison. For, let it be carefully +observed, there is not one text in the New Testament, as before +stated, which speaks of the resurrection of the "body" or of the +"flesh." The expression is simply the resurrection of "the dead," +or of "them that slept." If by "the dead" was meant "the bodies," +why are we not told so? Locke, in the Third Letter of his +controversy with the Bishop of Worcester on this subject, very +pointedly shows the absurdity of a literal interpretation of the +words "All that are in their graves shall hear my voice and shall +come forth." Nothing can come out of the grave except what is in +it. And there are no souls in the grave: they are in the separate +state. And there are no bodies in millions of graves: they long +ago, even to the last grain of dust, entered into the circulations +of the material system. "Coming forth from their graves unto the +resurrection" either denotes the rising of souls from the under +world, or else its meaning is something incredible. At all events, +nothing is said about any resurrection of the body: that is a +matter of arbitrary inference. The angels are not thought to have +material bodies; and Christ declares, "In the resurrection ye +shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the +angels of heaven." It seems clear to us that the author of the +Epistle to the Hebrews also looked for no restoration of the +fleshly body; for he not only studiously omits even the faintest +allusion to any such notion, but positively describes "the spirits +of just men made perfect in the heavenly Jerusalem, with an +innumerable company of angels, and with the general assembly and +church of the first born." The Jews and early Christians who +believed in a bodily resurrection did not suppose the departed +could enter heaven until after that great consummation. + +The most cogent proof that the New Testament does not teach the +resurrection of the same body that is buried in the grave is +furnished by the celebrated passage in Paul's Epistle to the +Corinthians. The apostle's premises, reasoning, and conclusion are +as follows: "Christ is risen from the dead, become the first +fruits of them that slept." That is to say, all who have died, +except Christ, are still tarrying in the great receptacle of souls +under the earth. As the first fruits go before the harvest, so the +solitary risen Christ is the forerunner to the general +resurrection to follow. "But some one will say, How are the dead +raised up? and with what body do they come?" Mark the apostle's +reply, and it will appear inexplicable how any one can consider +him as arguing for the resurrection of the identical body that was +laid in the grave, particle for particle. "Thou fool! that which +thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but naked +grain, and God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him." "There +are celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies;" "there is a natural +body, and there is a spiritual body;" "the first man is of the +earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven;" "flesh and +blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;" "we shall all be +changed," and "bear the image of the heavenly, as we have borne +the image of the earthy." The analogy which has been so strangely +perverted by most commentators is used by Paul thus. The germ +which was to spring up to a new life, clothed with a new body, was +not any part of the fleshly body buried in the grave, but was the +soul itself, once contained in the old body, but released from its +hull in the grave and preserved in the under world until Christ +shall call it forth to be invested with a "glorious," "powerful," +"spiritual," "incorruptible" body. When a grain of wheat is sown, +that is not the body that shall be; but the mysterious principle +of life, latent in the germ of the seed, springs up and puts on +its body fashioned appropriately for it. So, according to Paul's +conception, when a man is buried, the material corpse is not the +resurrection body that shall be; but the living soul which +occupied it is the germ that shall put on a new body of +immortality when the spring tide of Christ's coming draws the +buried treasures of Hades up to the light of heaven. + +A species of proof which has been much used by the advocates of +the dogma of a bodily resurrection is the argument from analogy. +The intimate connection of human feeling and fancy with the +changing phenomena of Nature's seasons would naturally suggest to +a pensive mind the idea, Why, since she has her annual +resurrection, may not humanity some time have one? And what first +arose as a poetic conceit or stray thought, and was expressed in +glowing metaphors, might by an easy process pass abroad and harden +into a prosaic proposition or dogmatic formula. + +"O soul of the spring time, now let us behold The stone from the +mouth of the sepulchre roll'd, And Nature rise up from her death's +damp mould; Let our faith, which in darkness and coldness has +lain, Revive with the warmth and the brightness again, And in +blooming of flower and budding of tree The symbols and types of +our destiny see." + +Standing by the graves of our loved and lost ones, our inmost +souls yearn over the very dust in which their hallowed forms +repose. We feel that they must come back, we must be restored to +each other as we were before. Listening to the returned birds +whose warble fills the woods once more, gazing around on the +verdant and flowery forms of renewed life that clothe the +landscape over again, we eagerly snatch at every apparent emblem +or prophetic analogy that answers to our fond imagination and +desiring dream. Sentiment and fancy, especially when stimulated by +love and grief, and roving in the realms of reverie, free from the +cold guidance and sharp check of literal fact and severe logic, +are poor analysts, and then we easily confuse things distinct and +wander to conclusions philosophy will not warrant. Before building +a dogmatic doctrine on analogies, we must study those analogies +with careful discrimination, must see what they really are, and to +what they really lead. There is often an immense difference +between the first appearance to a hasty observer and the final +reality to a profound student. Let us, then, scrutinize a little +more closely those seeming analogies which, to borrow a happy +expression from Flugge, have made "Resurrection a younger sister +of Immortality." + +Nature, the old, eternal snake, comes out afresh every year in a +new shining skin. What then? Of course this emblem is no proof of +any doctrine concerning the fate of man. But, waiving that, what +would the legitimate correspondence to it be for man? Why, that +humanity should exhibit the fresh specimens of her living +handiwork in every new generation. And that is done. Nature does +not reproduce before us each spring the very flowers that perished +the previous winter: she makes new ones like them. It is not a +resurrection of the old: it is a growth of the new. The passage of +the worm from its slug to its chrysalis state is surely no symbol +of a bodily resurrection, but rather of a bodily emancipation, not +resuming a deserted dead body, but assuming a new live one. Does +the butterfly ever come back to put on the exuvia that have +perished in the ground? The law of all life is progress, not +return, ascent through future developments, not descent through +the stages already traversed. "The herb is born anew out of a +seed, Not raised out of a bony skeleton. What tree is man the seed +of? Of a soul." + +Sir Thomas Browne, after others, argues for the restoration of +man's body from the grave, from the fancied analogy of the +palingenesis or resurrection of vegetables which the magicians of +the antique East and the mystic chemists of the Middle Age boasted +of effecting. He having asserted in his "Religion of a Physician" +that "experience can from the ashes of a plant revive the plant, +and from its cinders recall it into its stalk and leaves again," +Dr. Henry Power wrote beseeching "an experimental eviction of so +high and noble a piece of chemistry, the reindividuality of an +incinerated plant." We are not informed that Sir Thomas ever +granted him the sight. Of this beautiful error, this exquisite +superstition, which undoubtedly arose from the crystallizations of +certain salts in arborescent forms which suddenly surprised the +early alchemists in some of their experiments, we have the +following account in Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature:" "The +semina of resurrection are concealed in extinct bodies, as in the +blood of man. The ashes of roses will again revive into roses, +though smaller and paler than if they had been planted +unsubstantial and unodoriferous, they are not roses which grew on +rose trees, but their delicate apparitions; and, like apparitions, +they are seen but for a moment. This magical phoenix lies thus +concealed in its cold ashes till the presence of a certain +chemical heat produces its resurrection." Any refutation of this +now would be considered childish. Upon the whole, then, while +recurrent spring, bringing in the great Easter of the year, +typifies to us indeed abundantly the development of new life, the +growth of new bodies out of the old and decayed, but nowhere hints +at the gathering up and wearing again of the dusty sloughs and +rotted foliage of the past, let men cease to talk of there being +any natural analogies to the ecclesiastical dogma of the +resurrection of the flesh. The teaching of nature finds a truer +utterance in the words of Aschylus: "There is no resurrection for +him who is once dead." 16 + +The next argument is that based on considerations of reason and of +ethics. The supporters of the doctrine of the resurrection of the +body have often disingenuously evaded the burden of proof thrown +upon them by retreating beneath loud assertions of God's power. +From the earliest dawn of the hypothesis to the present time, +every perplexity arising from it, every objection brought against +it, every absurdity shown to be involved in it, has been met and +confidently rebutted with declarations of God's abundant power to +effect a physical resurrection, or to do any thing else he +pleases, however impossible it may appear to us. Now, it is true +the power of God is competent to innumerable things utterly beyond +our skill, knowledge, or conception. Nevertheless, there is a +province within which our reason can judge of probabilities, and +can, if not absolutely grasp infallible truth, at least reach +satisfactory convictions. God is able to restore the vast coal +deposits of the earth, and the ashes of all the fuel ever burned, +to their original condition when they covered the world with + +16 Eumenides, 1. 648, Oxford edition. + + +dense forests of ferns; but we have no reason to believe he will +do it. The truth or falsity of the popular theory of the +resurrection is not a question of God's power; it is simply a +question of God's will. A Jewish Rabbin relates the following +conversation, as exultingly as if the quibbling evasion on which +it turns positively settled the question itself, which in fact it +does not approach. A Sadducee says, "The resurrection of the dead +is a fable: the dry, scattered dust cannot live again." A by +standing Pharisee makes this reply: "There were in a city two +artists: one made vases of water, the other made them of clay: +which was the more wondrous artist?" The Sadducee answered, "The +former." The Pharisee rejoins, "Cannot God, then, who formed man +of water, (gutta seminis humida,) much more re form him of clay?" +Such a method of reasoning is an irrelevant impertinence. God can +call Nebuchadnezzar from his long rest, and seat him on his old +throne again to morrow. What an absurdity to infer that therefore +he will do it! God can give us wings upon our bodies, and enable +us to fly on an exploring trip among the planets. Will he do it? +The question, we repeat, is not whether God has the power to raise +our dead bodies, but whether he has the will. To that question +since, as we have already seen, he has sent us no miraculous +revelation replying to it we can only find an answer by tracing +the indications of his intentions contained in reason, morals, and +nature. + +One of the foremost arguments urged by the Fathers for the +resurrection was its supposed necessity for a just and complete +judgment. The body was involved and instrumental in all the sins +of the man: it must therefore bear part in his punishment. The +Rabbins tell this allegory: "In the day of judgment the body will +say, The soul alone is to blame: since it left me, I have lain +like a stone in the grave. The soul will retort, The body alone is +sinful: since released from it, I fly through the air like a bird. +The Judge will interpose with this myth: A king once had a +beautiful garden full of early fruits. A lame man and a blind man +were in it. Said the lame man to the blind man, Let me mount upon +your shoulders and pluck the fruit, and we will divide it. The +king accused them of theft; but they severally replied, the lame +man, How could I reach it? the blind man, How could I see it? The +king ordered the lame man to be placed upon the back of the blind +man, and in this position had them both scourged. So God in the +day of judgment will replace the soul in the body, and hurl them +both into hell together." There is a queer tradition among the +Mohammedans implying, singularly enough, the same general thought. +The Prophet's uncle, Hamzah, having been slain by Hind, daughter +of Atabah, the cursed woman cut out his liver and gnawed it with +fiendish joy; but, lest any of it should become incorporated with +her system and go to hell, the Most High made it as hard as a +stone; and when she threw it on the ground, an angel restored it +to its original nature and place in the body of the martyred hero, +that lion of God. + +The Roman Catholic Church endorses the representation that the +body must be raised to be punished. In the Catechism of the +Council of Trent, which is an authoritative exposition of Romanist +theology, we read that the "identical body" shall be restored, +though "without deformities or superfluities;" restored that "as +it was a partner in the man's deeds, so it may be a partner in his +punishments." The same Catechism also gives in this connection the +reason why a general judgment is necessary after each individual +has been judged at his death, namely, this: that they may be +punished for the evil which has resulted in the world since they +died from the evil they did in the world while they lived! Is it +not astonishing how these theologians find out so much? A living +Presbyterian divine of note says, "The bodies of the damned in the +resurrection shall be fit dwellings for their vile minds. With all +those fearful and horrid expressions which every base and +malignant passion wakes up in the human countenance stamped upon +it for eternity and burned in by the flaming fury of their own +terrific wickedness, they will be condemned to look upon their own +deformity and to feel their fitting doom." It is therefore urged +that the body must be raised to suffer the just penalty of the +sins man committed while occupying it. Is it not an absurdity to +affirm that nerves and blood, flesh and bones, are responsible, +guilty, must be punished? Tucker, in his "Light of Nature +Pursued," says, "The vulgar notion of a resurrection in the same +form and substance we carry about at present, because the body +being partaker in the deed ought to share in the reward, as well +requires a resurrection of the sword a man murders with, or the +bank note he gives to charitable uses." We suppose an intelligent +personality, a free will, indispensable to responsibleness and +alone amenable to retributions. Besides, if the body must be +raised to undergo chastisement for the offences done in it and by +means of it, this insurmountable difficulty by the same logic +confronts us. The material of our bodies is in a constant change, +the particles becoming totally transferred every few years. Now, +when a man is punished after the general judgment for a certain +crime, he must be in the very body he occupied when that crime was +perpetrated. Since he was a sinner all his days, his resurrection +body must comprise all the matter that ever formed a part of his +corporeity, and each sinner may hereafter be as huge as the +writhing Titan, Tityus, whose body, it was fabled, covered nine +acres. God is able to preserve the integral soul in being, and to +punish it according to justice, without clothing it in flesh. This +fact by itself utterly vacates and makes gratuitous the hypothesis +of a physical resurrection from punitive considerations, an +hypothesis which is also refuted by the truth contained in Locke's +remark to Stillingfleet, "that the soul hath no greater congruity +with the particles of matter which were once united to it, but are +so no longer, than it hath with any other particles of matter." +When the soul leaves the body, it would seem to have done with +that stage of its existence, and to enter upon another and higher +one, leaving the dust to mix with dust forever. The body wants not +the soul again; for it is a senseless clod and wants nothing. The +soul wants not its old body again: it prefers to have the freedom +of the universe, a spirit. Philip the Solitary wrote, in the +twelfth century, a book called "Dioptra," presenting the +controversy between the soul and the body very quaintly and at +length. The same thing was done by Henry Nicholson in a +"Conference between the Soul and Body concerning the Present and +Future State." William Crashaw, an old English poet, translated +from the Latin a poem entitled "The Complaint: a Dialogue between +the Body and the Soul of a Damned Man."17 But any one who will +peruse with intelligent heed the works that have been written on +this whole subject must be amazed to see how exclusively the +doctrine which we are opposing has rested on pure grounds of +tradition and fancy, alike destitute of authority and reason. Some +authors have indeed attempted to support the doctrine with +arguments: for + +17 Also see Dialogue inter Corpus et Animam, p. 95 of Latin Poems +attributed to Walter Mapes. + + +instance, there are two German works, one by Bertram, one by +Pflug, entitled "The Resurrection of the Dead on Grounds of +Reason," in which recourse is had to every possible expedient to +make out a case, not even neglecting the factitious assistance of +Leibnitz's scheme of "Pre established Harmony." But it may be +deliberately affirmed that not one of their arguments is worthy of +respect. Apparently, they do not seek to reach truth, but to +bolster up a foregone conclusion held merely from motives of +tradition. + +The Jews had a favorite tradition, developed by their Rabbins in +many passages, that there was one small, almond shaped bone, +(supposed now to have been the bone called by anatomists the os +coccygis,) which was indestructible, and would form the nucleus +around which the rest of the body would gather at the time of the +resurrection. This bone, named Luz, was miraculously preserved +from demolition or decay. Pound it furiously on anvils with heavy +hammers of steel, burn it for ages in the fiercest furnaces, soak +it for centuries in the strongest solvents, all in vain: its magic +structure still remained. So the Talmud tells. "Even as there is a +round dry grain In a plant's skeleton, which, being buried, Can +raise the herb's green body up again; So is there such in man, a +seed shaped bone, Aldabaron, call'd by the Hebrews Luz, Which, +being laid into the ground, will bear, After three thousand years, +the grass of flesh, The bloody, soul possessed weed called man." + +The Jews did not, as these singular lines represent, suppose this +bone was a germ which after long burial would fructify by a +natural process and bear a perfect body: they regarded it only as +a nucleus around which the Messiah would by a miracle compel the +decomposed flesh to return as in its pristine life. All that the +Jews say of Luz the Mohammedans repeat of the bone Al Ajib. + +This conceit of superstition has been developed by a Christian +author of considerable reputation into a theory of a natural +resurrection. The work of Mr. Samuel Drew on the "Identity and +General Resurrection of the Human Body" has been quite a standard +work on the subject of which it treats. Mr. Drew believes there is +a germ in the body which slowly ripens and prepares the +resurrection body in the grave. As a seed must be buried for a +season in order to spring up in perfect life, so must the human +body be buried till the day of judgment. During this period it is +not idle, but is busily getting ready for its consummation. He +says, "There are four distinct stages through which those parts +constituting the identity of the body must necessarily pass in +order to their attainment of complete perfection beyond the grave. +The first of these stages is that of its elementary principles; +the second is that of an embryo in the womb; the third is that of +its union with an immaterial spirit, and with the fluctuating +portions of flesh and blood in our present state; and the fourth +stage is that of its residence in the grave. All these stages are +undoubtedly necessary to the full perfection of the body: they are +alembics through which its parts must necessarily move to attain +that vigor which shall continue forever."18 To state this figment +is enough. It would be folly to attempt any refutation of a fancy +so obviously a pure contrivance to fortify a preconceived opinion, +a fancy, too, so preposterous, so utterly without countenance, +either from experience, observation, science, reason, or +Scripture. The egg of man's divinity is not laid in the nest of +the grave. + +Another motive for believing the resurrection of the body has been +created by the exigencies of a materialistic philosophy. There was +in the early Church an Arabian sect of heretics who were reclaimed +from their errors by the powerful reasonings and eloquence of +Origen.19 Their heresy consisted in maintaining that the soul dies +with the body being indeed only its vital breath and will be +restored with it at the last day. In the course of the Christian +centuries there have arisen occasionally a few defenders of this +opinion. Priestley, as is well known, was an earnest supporter of +it. Let us scan the ground on which he held this belief. In the +first place, he firmly believed that the fact of an eternal life +to come had been supernaturally revealed to men by God through +Christ. Secondly, as a philosopher he was intensely a materialist, +holding with unwavering conviction to the conclusion that life, +mind, or soul, was a concomitant or result of our physical +organism, and wholly incapable of being without it. Death to him +was the total destruction of man for the time. There was therefore +plainly no alternative for him but either to abandon one of his +fundamental convictions as a Christian and a philosopher, or else +to accept the doctrine of a future resurrection of the body into +an immortal life. He chose the latter, and zealously taught always +that death is an annihilation lasting till the day of judgment, +when all are to be summoned from their graves. To this whole +course of thought there are several replies to be made. In the +first place, we submit that the philosophy of materialism is +false: standing in the province of science and reason, it may be +affirmed that the soul is not dependent for its existence on the +body, but will survive it. We will not argue this point, but +merely state it. Secondly, it is certain that the doctrine which +makes soul perish with body finds no countenance in the New +Testament. It is inconsistent with the belief in angelic spirits, +in demoniac possessions, in Christ's descent as a spirit to preach +to the spirits of departed men imprisoned in the under world, and +with other conceptions underlying the Gospels and the Epistles. +But, thirdly, admitting it to be true, then, we affirm, the +legitimate deduction from all the arrayed facts of science and all +the presumptive evidence of appearances is not that a future +resurrection will restore the dead man to life, but that all is +over with him, he has hopelessly perished forever. When the breath +ceases, if nothing survives, if the total man is blotted out, then +we challenge the production of a shadow of proof that he will ever +live again. The seeming injustice and blank awfulness of the fate +may make one turn for relief to the hypothesis of a future +arbitrary miraculous resurrection; but that is an artificial +expedient, without a shadow of justification. Once admit that the +body is all, its dissolution a total death, and you are gone +forever. One intuition of the spirit, seizing the conscious +supports of eternal ideas, casts contempt on "The doubtful +prospects of our painted dust," + +18 Drew on Resurrection, ch. vi. sect. vii. pp. 326-332. + +19 Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. lib. vi. cap. xxxvii. + + +and outvalues all the gross hopes of materialism. Between +nonentity and being yawns the untraversable gulf of infinity. No: +the body of flesh falls, turns to dust and air; the soul, +emancipated, rejoices, and soars heavenwards, and is its own +incorruptible frame, mocking at death, a celestial house, whose +maker and builder is God. + +Finally, there remain to be weighed the bearings of the argument +from chemical and physiological science on the resurrection. Here +is the chief stumbling block in the way of the popular doctrine. +The scientific absurdities connected with that doctrine have been +marshalled against it by Celsus, the Platonist philosopher, by +Avicenna, the Arabian physician, and by hundreds more, and have +never been answered, and cannot be answered. As long as man lives, +his bodily substance is incessantly changing; the processes of +secretion and absorption are rapidly going forward. Every few +years he is, as to material, a totally new man. Dying at the age +of seventy, he has had at least ten different bodies. He is one +identical soul, but has lived in ten separate houses. With which +shall he be raised? with the first? or the fifth? or the last? or +with all? But, further, the body after death decays, enters into +combination with water, air, earth, gas, vegetables, animals, +other human bodies. In this way the same matter comes to have +belonged to a thousand persons. In the resurrection, whose shall +it be? We reply, nearly in the language of Christ to the +Sadducees, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the will of +God: in the resurrection they have not bodies of earthly flesh, +but are spirits, as the angels of God." + +The argument against the common theory of a material resurrection, +on account of numerous claimants for the same substance, has of +late derived a greatly increased force from the brilliant +discoveries in chemistry. It is now found that only a small number +of substances ever enter into the composition of animal bodies.20 +The food of man consists of nitrogenized and non nitrogenized +substances. The latter are the elements of respiration; the former +alone compose the plastic elements of nutrition, and they are few +in number and comparatively limited in extent. "All life depends +on a relatively small quantity of matter. Over and over again, as +the modeller fashions his clay, are plant and animal formed out of +the same material." The particles that composed Adam's frame may +before the end of the world have run the circuit of ten thousand +bodies of his descendants: "'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been +slave to thousands." To proclaim the resurrection of the flesh as +is usually done, seems a flat contradiction of clear knowledge.21 +A late writer on this subject, Dr. Hitchcock, evades the +insuperable difficulty by saying, "It is not necessary that the +resurrection body should contain a single particle of the body +laid in the grave, if it only contain particles of the same kind, +united in the same proportion, and the compound be made to assume +the same form and structure as the natural body." 22 Then two men +who look exactly alike may in the resurrection exchange bodies +without any harm! Here the theory of punishment clashes. Does not +the esteemed author see that this would not be a resurrection of +the old bodies, but a creation of new ones + +20 Liebig, Animal Chemistry, sect. xix. + +21 The Circulation of Matter, Blackwood's Magazine, May, 1853. + +22 The Resurrection of Spring, p. 26. + + +just like them? And is not this a desertion of the orthodox +doctrine of the Church? If he varies so far from the established +formularies out of a regard for philosophy, he may as well be +consistent and give up the physical doctrine wholly, because it +rests solely on the tradition which he leaves and is every whit +irreconcilable with philosophy. This device is as wilful an +attempt to escape the scientific difficulty as that employed by +Candlish to avoid the scriptural difficulty put in the way of the +doctrine by the apostolic words "Flesh and blood cannot inherit +the kingdom of God." The eminent Scottish divine affirms that +"flesh and bones" that is, these present bodies made +incorruptible can inherit the kingdom of God; although "flesh and +blood" that is, these present bodies subject to decay cannot.23 It +is surely hard to believe that the New Testament writers had such +a distinction in their minds. It is but a forlorn resource +conjured up to meet a desperate exigency. + +At the appearing of Christ in glory, + +"When the Day of Fire shall have dawn'd, and sent Its deadly +breath into the firmament," as it is supposed, the great earth +cemetery will burst open and its innumerable millions swarm forth +before him. Unto the tremendous act of habeas corpus, then +proclaimed, every grave will yield its prisoner. Ever since the +ascension of Jesus his mistaken followers have been anxiously +expecting that awful advent of his person and his power in the +clouds; but in vain. "All things remain as they were: where is the +promise of his appearing?" As the lookers out hitherto have been +disappointed, so they ever will be. Say not, Lo here! or, Lo +there! for, behold, he is within you. The reason why this carnal +error, Jewish conceit, retains a hold, is that men accept it +without any honest scrutiny of its foundations or any earnest +thought of their own about it. They passively receive the +tradition. They do not realize the immensity of the thing, nor the +ludicrousness of its details. To their imaginations the awful +blast of the trumpet calling the world to judgment, seems no more, +as Feuerbach says, than a tone from the tin horn of a postillion, +who, at the post station of the Future, orders fresh horses for +the Curriculum Vita! President Hitchcock tells us that, "when the +last trumpet sounds, the whole surface of the earth will become +instinct with life, from the charnels of battle fields alone more +than a thousand millions of human beings starting forth and +crowding upwards to the judgment seat." On the resurrection +morning, at the first tip of light over acres of opening monument +and heaving turf, "Each member jogs the other, And whispers, Live +you, brother?" + +And how will it be with us then? Will Daniel Lambert, the mammoth +of men, appear weighing half a ton? Will the Siamese twins then be +again joined by the living ligament of their congenital band? +Shall "infants be not raised in the smallness of body in which +they died, but increase by the wondrous and most swift work of +God"? 24 + +23 Candlish, Life in a Risen Savior: Discourse XV. + +24 Augustine, De Civ. Dei, lib. xxii. cap. xiv. + + +Young sings, "Now charnels rattle; scatter'd limbs, and all The +various bones, obsequious to the call, Self moved, advance; the +neck perhaps to meet The distant head; the distant head the feet. +Dreadful to view! see, through the dusky sky Fragments of bodies +in confusion fly, To distant regions journeying, there to claim +Deserted members and complete the frame." + +The glaring melodramatic character, the startling mechanico +theatrical effects, of this whole doctrine, are in perfect keeping +with the raw imagination of the childhood of the human mind, but +in profound opposition to the working philosophy of nature and the +sublime simplicity of God. + +Many persons have never distinctly defined their views upon the +subject before us. In the minds even of many preachers and +writers, several different and irreconcilable theories would seem +to exist together in confused mixture. Now they speak as if the +soul were sleeping with the body in the grave; again they appear +to imply that it is detained in an intermediate state; and a +moment afterwards they say it has already entered upon its final +reward or doom. Jocelyn relates, in his Life of St. Patrick, that +"as the saint one day was passing the graves of two men recently +buried, observing that one of the graves had a cross over it, he +stopped his chariot and asked the dead man below of what religion +he had been. The reply was, 'A pagan.' 'Then why was this cross +put over you?' inquired St. Patrick. The dead man answered, 'He +who is buried near me is a Christian; and one of your faith, +coming hither, placed the cross at my head.' The saint stepped out +of his chariot, rectified the mistake, and went his way." Calvin, +in the famous treatise designated "Psychopannychia," which he +levelled against those who taught the sleep of souls until the day +of judgment, maintained that the souls of the elect go immediately +to heaven, the souls of the reprobate to hell. Here they tarry in +bliss and bale until the resurrection; then, coming to the earth, +they assume their bodies and return to their respective places. +But if the souls live so long in heaven and hell without their +flesh, why need they ever resume it? The cumbrous machinery of the +scheme seems superfluous and unmeaning. As a still further +specimen of the arbitrary thinking the unscientific and +unphilosophical thinking carried into this department of thought +by most who have cultivated it, reference may be made to Bishop +Burnet's work "De Statu Mortuorum et Resurgentium," which teaches +that at the first resurrection the bodies of the risen will be the +same as the present, but at the second resurrection, after the +millennium, from the rudiments of the present body a new spiritual +body will be developed. + +The true idea of man's future destiny appears to be that no +resurrection of the flesh is needed, because the real man never +dies, but lives continuously forever. There are two reasonable +ways of conceiving what the vehicle of his life is when he leaves +his present frame. It may be that within his material system lurks +an exquisite spiritual organization, invisibly pervading it and +constituting its vital power. This ethereal structure is +disengaged at last from its gross envelope, and, unfettered, soars +to the Divine realms of ether and light. This theory of an "inner +body" is elaborately wrought out and sustained in Bonnet's +"Palingenesie Philosophique." Or it may be that there is in each +one a primal germ, a deathless monad, which is the organic +identity of man, root of his inmost stable being, triumphant, +unchanging ruler of his flowing, perishable organism. This spirit +germ, born into the present life, assimilates and holds the +present body around it, out of the materials of this world; born +into the future life, it will assimilate and hold around it a +different body, out of the materials of the future world.25 Thus +there are bodies terrestrial and bodies celestial: the glory of +the terrestrial is one, fitted to this scene of things; the glory +of the celestial is another, fitted to the scene of things +hereafter to dawn. Each spirit will be clothed from the material +furnished by the world in which it resides. Not forever shall we +bear about this slow load of weary clay, this corruptible mass, +heir to a thousand ills. Our body shall rather be such "If +lightning were the gross corporeal frame Of some angelic essence, +whose bright thoughts As far surpass'd in keen rapidity The +lagging action of his limbs as doth Man's mind his clay; with like +excess of speed To animated thought of lightning flies That spirit +body o'er life's deeps divine, Far past the golden isles of +memory." + +What man knows constitutes his present world. All beyond that +constitutes another world. He can imagine two modes in which his +desire for a life after death may be gratified, a removal into the +Unknown World, or a return into the Known World. With the latter +supposition the restoration of the flesh is involved. + +Upon the whole, our conclusion is, that in the original plan of +the world it was fixed that man should not live here forever, but +that the essence of his life should escape from the flesh and +depart to some other sphere of being, there either to fashion +itself a new form, or to remain disembodied. If those who hold the +common doctrine of a carnal resurrection should carry it out with +philosophical consistency, by extending the scheme it involves to +all existing planetary races as well as to their own, should they +cause that process of imagination which produced this doctrine to +go on to its legitimate completion, they would see in the final +consummation the sundered earths approach each other, and +firmaments conglobe, till at last the whole universe concentred in +one orb. On the surface of that world all the risen races of being +would be distributed, the inhabitants of a present solar system +making a nation, the sum of gigantic nationalities constituting +one prodigious, death exempted empire, its solitary sovereign GOD. +But this is pure poetry, and not science nor philosophy. + +25 Lange on the Resurrection of the Body, Studien und Kritiken, 1836. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +DOCTRINE OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT; OR, CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE IDEA OF +A HELL. + +A HELL of fire and brimstone has been, perhaps still is, the most +terrible of the superstitions of the world. We propose to give a +historic sketch of the popular representations on this subject, +trace them to their origin, and discuss the merits of the question +itself. To follow the doctrine through all its variations, +illustrating the practical and controversial writings upon it, +would require a large volume; but, by a judicious arrangement, all +that is necessary to a fair understanding of the subject, or +really interesting, may be presented within the compass of an +essay. Any one who should read the literature of this subject +would be astonished at the almost universal prevalence of the +doctrine and at the immense diversity of appalling descriptions of +it, and would ask, Whence arises all this? How have these horrors +obtained such a seated hold in the world? + +In the first place, it is to be replied, as soon as reason is in +fair possession of the idea of a continued individual existence +beyond the grave, the moral sense, discriminating the deeds, +tempers, and characters of men, would teach that there must be +different allotments and experiences for them after death. It is +not right, say reason and conscience, for the coward, the idler, +fool, knave, sot, murderer, to enter into the same realm and have +the same bliss with heroes, sages, and saints; neither are they +able to do it. The spontaneous thought and sentiment of humanity +would declare, if the soul survives the body, passing into the +invisible world, its fortunes there must depend somewhat upon its +fitness and deserts, its contained treasures and acquired habits. +Reason, judging the facts of observation according to the +principles of ethics and the working of experienced spiritual +laws, at once decides that there is a difference hereafter between +the fate of the good heart and the bad one, the great soul and the +mean one: in a word, there is, in some sense or other, a heaven +and a hell. + +Again: the same belief would be necessitated by the conception, so +deeply entertained by the primitive people of the earth, of +overruling and inspecting gods. They supposed these gods to be in +a great degree like themselves, partial, fickle, jealous, +revengeful. Such beings, of course, would caress their favorites +and torture their offenders. The calamities and blessings of this +life were regarded as tokens, revengeful or loving, of the ruling +deities, now pleased, now enraged. And when their votaries or +victims had passed into the eternal state, how natural to suppose +them still favored or cursed by the passionate wills of these +irresponsible gods! Plainly enough, they who believe in gods that +launch thunderbolts and upheave the sea in their rage and take +vengeance for an insult by sending forth a pestilence, must also +believe in a hell where Ixion may be affixed to the wheel and +Tantalus be tortured with maddening mockeries. These two +conceptions of discriminating justice and of vengeful gods both +lead to the theoretic construction of a hell, and to the growth of +doctrines and parables about it, though in a different sort, the +former illustrating a pervasive law which distributes men +according to their deserts, the latter speaking of beings with +human passions, who inflict outward arbitrary penalties according +to their pleasure. + +Thirdly, when the general idea of a hell has once obtained +lodgment, it is rapidly nourished, developed, and ornamented, +carried out into particulars by poets, rhetoricians, and popular +teachers, whose fancies are stimulated and whose figurative views +and pictures act and react both upon the sources and the products +of faith. Representations based only on moral facts, emblems +addressing the imagination, after a while are received in a +literal sense, become physically located and clothed with the +power of horror. A Hindu poet says, "The ungrateful shall remain +in hell as long as the sun hangs in heaven." An old Jewish Rabbi +says that after the general judgment "God shall lead all the +blessed through hell and all the damned through paradise, and show +to each one the place that was prepared for him in each region, so +that they shall not be able to say, 'We are not to be blamed or +praised; for our doom was unalterably fixed beforehand.' Such +utterances are originally moral symbols, not dogmatic assertions; +and yet in a rude age they very easily pass into the popular mind +as declaring facts literally to be believed. A Talmudic writer +says, "There are in hell seven abodes, in each abode seven +thousand caverns, in each cavern seven thousand clefts, in each +cleft seven thousand scorpions; each scorpion has seven limbs, and +on each limb are seven thousand barrels of gall. There are also in +hell seven rivers of rankest poison, so deadly that if one touches +it he bursts." Hesiod, Homer, Virgil, have given minute +descriptions of hell and its agonies, descriptions which have +unquestionably had a tremendous influence in cherishing and +fashioning the world's faith in that awful empire. The poems of +Dante, Milton, and Pollok revel in the most vivid and terrific +pictures of the infernal kingdom and its imagined horrors; and the +popular doctrine of future punishment in Christendom is far more +closely conformed to their revelations than to the declarations of +the New Testament. The English poet's "Paradise Lost" has +undoubtedly exerted an influence on the popular faith comparable +with that of the Genevan theologian's "Institutes of the Christian +Religion." There is a horrid fiction, widely believed once by the +Jewish Rabbins and by the Mohammedans, that two gigantic fiends +called the Searchers, as soon as a deceased person is buried, make +him sit up in the grave, examine the moral condition of his soul, +and, if he is very guilty, beat in his temples with heavy iron +maces. It is obvious to observe that such conceptions are purely +arbitrary, the work of fancy, not based on any intrinsic fitness +or probability; but they are received because unthinking ignorance +and hungry superstition will greedily believe any thing they hear. +Joseph Trapp, an English clergyman, in a long poem thus sets forth +the scene of damnation: "Doom'd to live death and never to expire, +In floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire The damn'd shall +groan, fire of all kinds and forms, In rain and hail, in +hurricanes and storms, Liquid and solid, livid, red, and pale, A +flaming mountain here, and there a flaming vale; The liquid fire +makes seas, the solid, shores; Arch'd o'er with flames, the horrid +concave roars. In bubbling eddies rolls the fiery tide, And +sulphurous surges on each other ride. The hollow winding vaults, +and dens, and caves, Bellow like furnaces with flaming waves. +Pillars of flame in spiral volumes rise, Like fiery snakes, and +lick the infernal skies. Sulphur, the eternal fuel, unconsumed, +Vomits redounding smoke, thick, unillumed." + +But all other paintings of the fear and anguish of hell are vapid +and pale before the preternatural frightfulness of those given at +unmerciful length and in sickening specialty in some of the Hindu +and Persian sacred books.1 Here worlds of nauseating disgusts, of +loathsome agonies, of intolerable terrors, pass before us. Some +are hung up by their tongues, or by their eyes, and slowly +devoured by fiery vermin; some scourged with whips of serpents +whose poisonous fangs lacerate their flesh at every blow; some +forced to swallow bowls of gore, hair, and corruption, freshly +filled as fast as drained; some packed immovably in red hot iron +chests and laid in raging furnaces for unutterable millions of +ages. One who is familiar with the imagery of the Buddhist hells +will think the pencils of Dante and Pollok, of Jeremy Taylor and +Jonathan Edwards, were dipped in water. There is just as much +ground for believing the accounts of the former to be true as +there is for crediting those of the latter: the two are +fundamentally the same, and the pagan had earlier possession of +the field. + +Furthermore, in the early ages, and among people where castes were +prominent, when the learning, culture, and power were confined to +one class at the expense of others, it is unquestionable that +copious and fearful descriptions of the future state were spread +abroad by those who were interested in establishing such a dogma. +The haughtiness and selfishness of the hierarchic spirit, the +exclusiveness, cruelty, and cunning tyranny of many of the ancient +priesthoods, are well known. Despising, hating, and fearing the +people, whom they held in abject spiritual bondage, they sought to +devise, diffuse, and organize such opinions as would concentrate +power in their own hands and rivet their authority. Accordingly, +in the lower immensity they painted and shadowed forth the lurid +and dusky image of hell, gathering around it all that was most +abominated and awful. Then they set up certain fanciful +conditions, without the strict observance of which no one could +avoid damnation. The animus of a priesthood in the structure of +this doctrine is shown by the glaring fact that in the old +religions the woes of hell were denounced not so much upon bad men +who committed crimes out of a wicked heart, as upon careless men +who neglected priestly guidance and violated the ritual. The +omission of a prayer or an ablution, the neglect of baptism or +confession, a slight thrown upon a priest, a mental conception +differing from the decree of the "Church," would condemn a man far +more surely and deeply into the Egyptian, Hindu, Persian, +Pharisaic, Papal, or Calvinistic hell than any amount of moral +culpability according to the standard of natural ethics. + +1 See Pope's translation of the Viraf Nameh. Also the Dabistan, +vol. i. pp. 295-304, of the translation by Shea and Troyer; and +Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus, chapter on the hells. + + +The popular hells have ever been built on hierarchic selfishness, +dogmatic pride, and personal cruelty, and have been walled around +with arbitrary and traditional rituals. Through the breaches made +in these rituals by neglect, souls have been plunged in. The +Parsee priest describes a woman in hell "beaten with stone clubs +by two demons twelve miles in size, and compelled to continue +eating a basin of putridity, because once some of her hair, as she +combed it, fell into the sacred fire." The Brahmanic priest tells +of a man who, for "neglecting to meditate on the mystic +monosyllable Om before praying, was thrown down in hell on an iron +floor and cleaved with an axe, then stirred in a caldron of molten +lead till covered all over with the sweated foam of torture like a +grain of rice in an oven, and then fastened, with head downwards +and feet upwards, to a chariot of fire and urged onwards with a +red hot goad." The Papal priest declares that the schismatic, +though the kindest and justest man, at death drops hopelessly into +hell, while the devotee, though scandalously corrupt in heart and +life, who confesses and receives extreme unction, treads the +primrose path to paradise. The Episcopalian priest dooms the +dissenter to everlasting woe in spite of every virtue, because he +has not known sacramental baptism in the apostolic line. The +Arminian priest turns the rationalist over to the penal fires of +eternity, because he is in mental error as to the explanation of +the Trinity and the Atonement. In every age it has been the +priestly spirit, acting on ritual considerations, that has +deepened the foundations, enlarged the borders, and apportioned +the victims, of hell. The perversions and excesses of the doctrine +have grown out of cruel ambition and cunning on one side, and been +received by docile ignorance and superstition on the other, and +been mutually fed by traditions and fables between. The excessive +vanity and theocratic pride of the Jews led them to exclude all +the Gentiles, whom they stigmatized as "uncircumcised dogs," from +the Jewish salvation. The same spirit, aggravated if possible, +passed lineally into Christendom, causing the Orthodox Church to +exclude all the heathen, all heretics, and the unbaptized, from +the Christian salvation. + +A fifth explanation of the wholesale severity and multiplied +details of horror, which came to be incorporated with the doctrine +of hell, is to be found in the gloomy theories of certain +philosophers whose relentless speculations were tinged and moulded +by their own recluse misanthropy and the prevailing superstitions +of their time. Out of the old asceticism of the East the false +spiritualism which regarded matter as the source of evil and this +life as a penance arose the dogma of metempsychosis. The +consequence of this theory, rigidly carried out, created a +descending congeries of hells, reaching from centre to nadir, in +correspondence to an ascending congeries of heavens, reaching from +centre to zenith. Out of the myth of the Fall sprang the dogma of +total depravity, dooming our whole race to hell forever, except +those saved by the subsequent artifice of the atonement. Theories +conjured up and elaborated by fanciful and bloodless metaphysicians, +in an age when the milk of public human kindness was thinned, +soured, poisoned, by narrow and tyrannical prejudices, might +easily legitimate and establish any conclusions, however +unreasonable and monstrous. The history of philosophy is +the broad demonstration of this. The Church philosophers, (with +exceptions, of course,) receiving the traditions of the common +faith, partaking in the superstitions of their age, banished from +the bosoms of men by their monastic position, and inflamed with +hierarchic pride, with but a faint connection or intercourse +between conscience and intellect or between heart and fancy, +strove to spin out theories which would explain and justify the +orthodox dogmas. + +Working with metaphysical tools of abstract reason, not with the +practical faculties of life, dealing with the fanciful materials +of priestly tradition, not with the solid facts of ethical +observation, they would naturally be troubled with but few qualms +and make but few reservations, however overwhelming the results of +horror at which they might arrive. Habituated for years to hair +drawn analyses and superstitious broodings upon the subject, +overshadowed by the supernatural hierarchy in which they lived, +surrounded by a thick night of ignorance, persecution, and +slaughter, it was no wonder they could believe the system they +preached, although in reality it was only a traditional +abstraction metaphysically wrought up and vivified by themselves. +Being thus wrought out and animated by them, who were the sole +depositaries of learning and the undisputed lords of thought, the +mass of the people, lying abjectly in the fetters of authority, +could not help accepting it. Ample illustrations of these +assertions will occur to all who are familiar with the theological +schemes and the dialectic subtleties of the early Church Fathers +and of the later Church Scholastics. + +Finally, by the combined power, first, of natural conscience +affirming a future distinction between the good and the bad; +secondly, of imperfect conceptions of God as a passionate avenger; +thirdly, of the licentious fancies of poets drawing awful +imaginative pictures of future woe; fourthly, of the cruel spirit +and the ambitious plans of selfish priesthoods; and fifthly, of +the harsh and relentless theories of conforming metaphysicians, +the doctrine of hell, as a located place of manifold terrific +physical tortures drawing in vast majorities of the human race, +became established in the ruling creeds and enthroned as an +orthodox dogma. In some heathen nations the descriptions of the +poets, in others the accounts of the priestly books, were held to +be inspired revelations. To call them in question was blasphemous. +In Christendom the scriptural representations of the subject, +which were general moral adaptations, incidentally made, of +representations already existing, obtained a literal interpretation, +had the stamp of infallibility put on them and immense perverted +additions joined to them. Thus everywhere the dogma became +associated with the established authority. To deny it was heresy. +Heretics were excommunicated, loaded with pains and penalties, +and, for many centuries, often put to death with excruciating +tortures. From that moment the doctrine was taken out of +the province of natural reason, out of the realm of ethical +truth. The absurdities, wrongs, and barbarities deducible from it +were a part and parcel of it, and not to be considered as any +objection to it. No free thought and honest criticism were +allowed. Because taught by authority, it must be submissively +taken for granted. Henceforth we are not to wonder at the +revolting inhumanity of spirit and horribleness of gloating hatred +shown in connection with the doctrine; for it was not the +independent thought and proper moral spirit of individuals, but +the petrified dogma and irresponsible corporate spirit of that +towering hierarchy, the Church. + +The Church set forth certain conditional offers of salvation. When +those offers were spurned or neglected, the Church felt personally +insulted and aggrieved. Her servants hurled on the hated heretics +and heathen the denunciations of bigotry and the threats of rage. +Rugged old Tertullian, in whose torrid veins the fire of his +African deserts seems infused, revels with infernal glee over the +contemplation of the sure damnation of the heathen. "At that +greatest of all spectacles, the last and eternal judgment," he +says, "how shall I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when +I behold so many proud monarchs groaning in the lowest abyss of +darkness; so many magistrates liquefying in fiercer flames than +they ever kindled against the Christians; so many sage +philosophers blushing in red hot fires with their deluded pupils; +so many tragedians more tuneful in the expression of their own +sufferings; so many dancers tripping more nimbly from anguish than +ever before from applause."2 Hundreds of the most accredited +Christian writers have shown the same fiendish spirit. Drexel the +Jesuit, preaching of Dives, exclaims, "Instead of a lofty bed of +down on which he was wont to repose himself, he now lies frying in +the flames; his sparkling wine and delicious dainties are taken +from him; he is burnt up with thirst, and has nothing for his food +but smoke and sulphur." Jeremy Taylor3 says, in that discourse on +the "Pains of Hell" where he has lavished all the stores of his +matchless learning and all the wealth of his gorgeous imagination +in multiplying and adorning the paraphernalia of torture with +infinite accompaniments of unendurable pangs and insufferable +abominations, "We are amazed at the inhumanity of Phalaris, who +roasted men in his brazen bull: this was joy in respect of that +fire of hell which penetrates the very entrails without consuming +them;" "husbands shall see their wives, parents shall see their +children, tormented before their eyes;" "the bodies of the damned +shall be crowded together in hell like grapes in a wine press, +which press one another till they burst;" "every distinct sense +and organ shall be assailed with its own appropriate and most +exquisite sufferings." Christopher Love belying his name says of +the damned, "Their cursings are their hymns, howlings their tunes, +and blasphemies their ditties." Calvin writes, "Forever harassed +with a dreadful tempest, they shall feel themselves torn asunder +by an angry God, and transfixed and penetrated by mortal stings, +terrified by the thunderbolts of God, and broken by the weight of +his hand, so that to sink into any gulfs would be more tolerable +than to stand for a moment in these terrors." A living divine, Dr. +Gardiner Spring, declares, "When the omnipotent and angry God, who +has access to all the avenues of distress in the corporeal frame +and all the inlets to agony in the intellectual constitution, +undertakes to punish, he will convince the universe that he does +not gird himself for the work of retribution in vain;" "it will be +a glorious deed when He who hung on Calvary shall cast those who +have trodden his blood under their feet, into the furnace of fire, +where there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth." +Thousands of passages like these, and even worse, might easily be +collected from Christian authors, dating their utterance from the +days of St. Irenaus, Bishop of Lyons, who flamed against the +heretics, to the days of Nehemiah Adams, Congregational preacher +of Boston, who says, "It is to be feared the forty two children +that mocked Elisha are now in hell." 4 There is an unmerciful +animus in them, a vindictiveness of thought and feeling, far oh, +how far! removed from the meek and loving + +2 De Spectaculis, cap. xxx., Gibbon's trans. + +3 Contemplations of the State of Man, ch. 6 8. + +4 Friends of Christ, p. 149. + + +soul of Jesus, who wept over Jerusalem, and loved the +"unevangelical" young lawyer who was "not far from the kingdom of +heaven," and yearned towards the penitent Peter, and from the +tenderness of his immaculate purity said to the adulteress, +"Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." There are some +sectarians in whom the arbitrary narrowness, fierceness, and +rigidity of their received creeds have so demoralized and hardened +conscience and sensibility in their native healthy directions, and +artificially inflamed them in diseased channels, that we verily +believe, if the decision of the eternal destiny of the human race +were placed in their hands, they would with scarcely a twinge of +pain perhaps some of them even with a horrid satisfaction and +triumph doom all except their own dogmatic coterie to hell. They +are bound to do so. They profess to know infallibly that God will +do so: if, therefore, the case being in their arbitration, they +would decide differently, they thereby impeach the action of God, +confess his decrees irreconcilable with reason and justice, and +set up their own goodness as superior to his. Burnet has preserved +the plea of Bloody Mary, which was in these words: "As the souls +of heretics are hereafter to be eternally burning in hell, there +can be nothing more proper than for me to imitate the Divine +vengeance by burning them on earth." Thanks be to the infinite +Father that our fate is in his hands, and not in the hands of men +who are bigots, + +"Those pseudo Privy Councillors of God, +Who write down judgments with a pen hard nibb'd: +Ushers of Beelzebub's black rod, +Commending sinners, not to ice thick ribb'd, +But endless flames to scorch them up like flax, +Yet sure of heaven themselves, as if they'd cribb'd +The impression of St. Peter's keys in wax!" + +It may be thought that this doctrine and its awful concomitants, +though once promulgated, are now nearly obsolete. It is true that, +in thinking minds and generous hearts, they are getting to be +repudiated. But by no means is it so in the recognised formularies +of the established Churches and in the teachings of the popular +clergy. All through the Gentile world, wherever there is a +prevailing religion, the threats and horrors of a fearful doctrine +of hell are still brandished over the trembling or careless +multitudes. In Christendom, the authoritative announcement of the +Roman and Greek Churches, and the public creeds confessed by every +communicant of all the denominations, save two or three which are +comparatively insignificant in numbers, show that the doctrine is +yet held without mitigation. The Bishop of Toronto, only a year or +two ago, published the authoritative declaration that "every child +of humanity, except the Virgin Mary, is from the first moment of +conception a child of wrath, hated by the blessed Trinity, +belonging to Satan, and doomed to hell!" Indeed, the doctrine, in +its whole naked and frightful extent, is necessarily, in strict +logic, an integral part of the great system of the popular +Christianity, that is, Christianity as falsely interpreted, +paganized, and scholasticized. For if by the sin of Adam the +entire race were totally depraved and condemned to a hopeless +hell, and only those can be saved who personally appropriate by a +realizing faith the benefits of the subsequent artifice carried +out in the atoning blood of the incarnate God, certainly the +extremist advocate of the doctrine concerning hell has not +exceeded the truth, and cannot exceed it. All the necessities of +logic rebuke the tame hearted theologians, and great Augustine's, +great Calvin's, ghost walks unapproached among them, crying out +that they are slow and inefficient in describing the enormous +sweep of the inherited penalty! Many persons who have not taken +pains to examine the subject suppose that the horrifying +descriptions given by Christian authors of the state and +sufferings of the lost were not intended to be literally received, +but were meant as figures of speech, highly wrought metaphors +calculated to alarm and impress with physical emblems corresponding +only to moral and spiritual realities. The progress of +thought and refinement has made it natural that recourse should +often be had to such an explanation; but unquestionably it is a +mistake. The annals of theology, both dogmatic and homiletic, from +the time of the earliest Fathers till now, abound in detailed +accounts of the future punishment of the wicked, whereof the +context, the train of thought, and all the intrinsic characteristics +of style and coherence, do not leave a shadow of doubt that they +were written as faithful, though inadequate, accounts of facts. +The Church, the immense bulk of Christendom, has in theory always +regarded hell and its dire concomitants as material facts, +and not as merely spiritual experiences. + +Tertullian says, "The damned burn eternally without consuming, as +the volcanoes, which are vents from the stored subterranean fire +of hell, burn forever without wasting." 5 Cyprian declares that +"the wretched bodies of the condemned shall simmer and blaze in +those living fires." Augustine argues at great length and with +ingenious varieties of reasoning to show how the material bodies +of the damned may withstand annihilation in everlasting fire.6 +Similar assertions, which cannot be figuratively explained, are +made by Irenaus, Jerome, Athanasius, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, +Gerson, Bernard, and indeed by almost all the Christian writers. +Origen, who was a Platonist, and a heretic on many points, was +severely condemned for saying that the fire of hell was inward and +of the conscience, rather than outward and of the body. For the +strict materiality of the fire of hell we might adduce volumes of +authorities from nearly every province of the Church. Dr. Barrow +asserts that "our bodies will be afflicted continually by a +sulphurous flame, piercing the inmost sinews." John Whitaker +thinks "the bodies of the damned will be all salted with fire, so +tempered and prepared as to burn the more fiercely and yet never +consume." Jeremy Taylor teaches that "this temporal fire is but a +painted fire in respect of that penetrating and real fire in +hell." Jonathan Edwards soberly and believingly writes thus: "The +world will probably be converted into a great lake or liquid globe +of fire, a vast ocean of fire, in which the wicked shall be +overwhelmed, which will always be in tempest, in which they shall +be tost to and fro, having no rest day or night, vast waves or +billows of fire continually rolling over their heads, of which +they shall forever be full of a quick sense within and without: +their heads, their eyes, their tongues, their hands, their feet, +their loins, and their vitals shall forever be full of a glowing, +melting fire, fierce enough to melt the very rocks and elements; +and also they shall eternally be full of the most quick and lively +sense + +5 Apol. cap. 47-48. + +6 De Civ. Dei, lib. xxi. cap. 2 4. + + +to feel the torments; not for one minute, nor for one day, nor for +one age, nor for two ages, nor for a hundred ages, nor for ten +thousands of millions of ages one after another, but for ever and +ever, without any end at all, and never, never be delivered." 7 +Calvin says, "Iterum quaro, unde factum est, ut tot gentes una cum +liberis eorum infantibus aterna morti involveret lapsus Ada absque +remedio, nisi quia Deo ita visum est? Decretum horribile fateor." +8 Outraged humanity before the contemplation cries, "O God, horror +hath overwhelmed me, for thou art represented as an omnipotent +Fiend." It is not the Father of Christ, but his Antagonist, whose +face glares down over such a scene as that! The above diabolical +passage at the recital of which from the pulpit, Edwards's +biographers tell us, "whole congregations shuddered and +simultaneously rose to their feet, smiting their breasts, weeping +and groaning" is not the arbitrary exaggeration of an individual, +but a fair representation of the actual tenets and vividly held +faith of the Puritans. It is also, in all its uncompromising +literality, a direct and inevitable part of the system of doctrine +which, with insignificant exceptions, professedly prevails +throughout Christendom at this hour. We know most persons will +hesitate at this statement; but let them look at the logic of the +case in the light of its history, and they must admit the +correctness of the assertion. Weigh the following propositions, +the accuracy of which no one, we suppose, will question, and it +will appear at once that there is no possibility of avoiding the +conclusion. + +First, it is the established doctrine of Christendom that no one +can be saved without a supernatural regeneration, or sincere faith +in the vicarious atonement, or valid reception of sacramental +grace at the hands of a priest, conditions which it is not +possible that one in a hundred thousand of the whole human race +has fulfilled. Secondly, it is the established doctrine of +Christendom that there will be a general day of judgment, when all +men will be raised in the same bodies which they originally +occupied on earth, when Christ and his angels will visibly descend +from heaven, separate the elect from the reprobate, summon the +sheep to the blissful pastures on the right hand, but "Proclaim +The flocks of goats to folds of flame." + +The world is to be burnt up, and the damned, restored to their +bodies, are to be driven into the everlasting fire prepared for +them. The resurrection of the body, still held in all Christendom, +taken in connection with the rest of the associated scheme, +necessitates the belief in the materiality of the torments of +hell. That eminent living divine, Dr. Gardiner Spring, says, "The +souls of all who have died in their sins are in hell; and there +their bodies too will be after the resurrection." 9 Mr. Spurgeon +also, in his graphic and fearful sermon on the "Resurrection of +the Dead," uses the following language: "When thou diest, thy soul +will be tormented alone; that will be a hell for it: but at the +day of judgment thy body will join thy soul, and then thou wilt +have twin hells, thy soul sweating drops of blood, and thy body +suffused with agony. In fire exactly like that which we have on +earth thy body will lie, + +7 Edwards's Works, vol. viii. p. 166. + +8 Instit., lib. iii. cap. xxiii. sect. 7. + +9 The Glory of Christ, vol. ii. p. 258. + + +asbestos like, forever unconsumed, all thy veins roads for the +feet of pain to travel on, every nerve a string on which the devil +shall forever play his diabolical tune of Hell's Unutterable +Lament!" And, if this doctrine be true, no ingenuity, however +fertile in expedients and however fiendish in cruelty, can +possibly devise emblems and paint pictures half terrific enough to +present in imagination and equal in moral impression what the +reality will be to the sufferers. It is easy to speak or hear the +word "hell;" but to analyze its significance and realize it in a +sensitive fancy is difficult; and whenever it is done the fruit is +madness, as the bedlams of the world are shrieking in testimony at +this instant. The Revivalist preachers, so far from exaggerating +the frightful contents latent in the prevalent dogma concerning +hell, have never been able and no man is able to do any thing like +justice to its legitimate deductions. Edwards is right in +declaring, "After we have said our utmost and thought our utmost, +all that we have said and thought is but a faint shadow of the +reality." Think of yourselves, seized, just as you are now, and +flung into the roaring, glowing furnace of eternity; think of such +torture for an instant, multiply it by infinity, and then say if +any words can convey the proper force of impression. It is true +these intolerable details are merely latent and unappreciated by +the multitude of believers; and when one, roused to fanaticism by +earnest contemplation of his creed, dares to proclaim its logical +consequences and to exhort men accordingly, they shrink, and +charge him with excess. But they should beware ere they repudiate +the literal horrors of the historic orthodox doctrine for any +figurative and moral views accommodated to the advanced reason and +refinement of the times, beware how such an abandonment of a part +of their system affects the rest. + +Give up the material fire, and you lose the bodily resurrection. +Renounce the bodily resurrection, and away goes the visible coming +of Christ to a general judgment. Abandon the general judgment, and +the climacteric completion of the Church scheme of redemption is +wanting. Mar the wholeness of the redemption plan, and farewell to +the incarnation and vicarious atonement. Neglect the vicarious +atonement, and down crumbles the hollow and broken shell of the +popular theology helplessly into its grave. The old literal +doctrine of a material hell, however awful its idea, as it has +been set forth in flaming views and threats by all the accredited +representatives of the Church, must be uncompromisingly clung to, +else the whole popular system of theology will be mutilated, +shattered, and lost from sight. The theological leaders understand +this perfectly well, and for the most part they act accordingly. +We have now under our hand numerous extracts, from writings +published within the last five years by highly influential +dignitaries in the different denominations, which for frightfulness +of outline and coloring, and for unshrinking assertions of +literality, will compare with those already quoted. + +Especially read the following description of this kind from John +Henry Newman: "Oh, terrible moment for the soul, when it suddenly +finds itself at the judgment seat of Christ, when the Judge speaks +and consigns it to the jailers till it shall pay the endless debt +which lies against it! 'Impossible! I a lost soul? I separated +from hope and from peace forever? It is not I of whom the Judge so +spake! There is a mistake somewhere; Christ, Savior, hold thy +hand: one minute to explain it! My name is Demas: I am but Demas, +not Judas, or Nicholas, or Alexander, or Philetus, or Diotrephes. +What! eternal pain for me? Impossible! it shall not be!' And the +poor soul struggles and wrestles in the grasp of the mighty demon +which has hold of it, and whose every touch is torment. 'Oh, +atrocious!' it shrieks, in agony, and in anger too, as if the +very keenness of the infliction were a proof of its injustice. +'A second! and a third! I can bear no more! Stop, horrible fiend! +give over: I am a man, and not such as thou! I am not food for +thee, or sport for thee! I have been taught religion; I have had +a conscience; I have a cultivated mind; I am well versed in science +and art; I am a philosopher, or a poet, or a shrewd observer of men, +or a hero, or a statesman, or an orator, or a man of wit and humor. +Nay, I have received the grace of the Redeemer; I have attended the +sacraments for years; I have been a Catholic from a child; I died +in communion with the Church: nothing, nothing which I have ever +been, which I have ever seen, bears any resemblance to thee, and +to the flame and stench which exhale from thee: so I defy thee, +and abjure thee, O enemy of man!' + +"Alas! poor soul! and, whilst it thus fights with that destiny +which it has brought upon itself and those companions whom it has +chosen, the man's name perhaps is solemnly chanted forth, and his +memory decently cherished, among his friends on earth. Men talk of +him from time to time; they appeal to his authority; they quote +his words; perhaps they even raise a monument to his name, or +write his history. 'So comprehensive a mind! such a power of +throwing light on a perplexed subject and bringing conflicting +ideas or facts into harmony!' 'Such a speech it was that he made +on such and such an occasion: I happened to be present, and never +shall forget it;' or, 'A great personage, whom some of us knew;' +or, 'It was a rule with a very worthy and excellent friend of +mine, now no more;' or, 'Never was his equal in society, so just +in his remarks, so lively, so versatile, so unobtrusive;' or, 'So +great a benefactor to his country and to his kind;' or, 'His +philosophy so profound.' 'Oh, vanity! vanity of vanities! all is +vanity! What profiteth it? What profiteth it? His soul is in hell, +O ye children of men! While thus ye speak, his soul is in the +beginning of those torments in which his body will soon have part, +and which will never die!" 10 + +Some theologians do not hesitate, even now, to say that "in hell +the bodies of the damned shall be nealed, as we speak of glass, so +as to endure the fire without being annihilated thereby." "Made of +the nature of salamanders," they shall be "immortal kept to feel +immortal fire." Well may we take up the words of the Psalmist and +cry out of the bottomless depths of disgust and anguish, "I am +overwhelmed with horror!" + +Holding this abhorrent mass of representations, so grossly carnal +and fearful, up in the free light of to day, it cannot stand the +test of honest and resolute inquiry. It exists only by timid, +unthinking sufferance. It is kept alive, among the superstitious +vestiges of the outworn and out grown past, only by the power of +tradition, authority, and custom. In refutation of it we shall not +present here a prolonged detail of learned researches and logical +processes; for that would be useless to those who are enslaved to +the foregone conclusions of a creed and possessed by invulnerable +prejudices, while those who are thoughtful and candid can make + +10 Sermon on "Neglect of Divine Calls and warnings." + + +such investigations themselves. We shall merely state, in a few +clear and brief propositions, the results in which we suppose all +free and enlightened minds who have adequately studied the subject +now agree, leaving the reader to weigh these propositions for +himself, with such further examination as inclination and +opportunity may cause him to bestow upon the matter. + +We reject the common belief of Christians in a hell which is a +local prison of fire where the wicked are to be tortured by +material instruments, on the following grounds, appealing to God +for the reverential sincerity of our convictions, and appealing to +reason for their truth. First, the supposition that hell is an +enormous region in the hollow of the earth is a remnant of ancient +ignorance, a fancy of poets who magnified the grave into Hades, a +thought of geographers who supposed the earth to be flat and +surrounded by a brazen expanse bright above and black beneath. +Secondly, the soul, on leaving the body, is a spiritual substance, +if it be any substance at all, eluding our senses and all the +instruments of science. Therefore, in the nature of things, it +cannot be chained in a dungeon, nor be cognizant of suffering from +material fire or other physical infliction, but its woes must be +moral and inward; and the figment that its former fleshly body is +to be restored to it is utterly incredible, being an absurdity in +science, and not affirmed, as we believe, in Scripture. Thirdly, +the imagery of a subterranean hell of fire, brimstone, and undying +worms, as used in the Scriptures of the New Testament, is the same +as that drawn from heathen sources with modifications and employed +by the Pharisees before the time of Christ and his disciples; and +we must therefore, since neither Persians nor Pharisees were +inspired, either suppose that this imagery was adopted by the +apostles figuratively to convey moral truths, or else that they +were left, in common with their countrymen, at least partially +under the dominion of the errors of their time. Thus in every +alternative we deny that the interior of the earth is, or ever +will be, an abode of souls, full of fire, a hell in which the +damned are to be confined and physically tormented. + +The elements of the popular doctrine of future punishment which we +thus reject are the falsities contributed by superstition and the +priestly spirit. The truths remaining in the doctrine, furnished +by conscience, reason, and Scripture, we will next exhibit, in +order not to dismiss this head, on the nature of future +punishment, with negations. What is the real character of the +retributions in the future state? We do not think they are +necessarily connected with any peculiar locality or essentially +dependent on any external circumstances. As Milton says, when +speaking of the best theologians, "To banish forever into a local +hell, whether in the air, or in the centre, or in that uttermost +and bottomless gulf of chaos deeper from holy bliss than the +world's diameter multiplied, they thought not a punishment so +proper and proportionate for God to inflict as to punish sin with +sin." + +God does not arbitrarily stretch forth his arm, like an enraged +and vindictive man, and take direct vengeance on offenders; but by +his immutable laws, permeating all beings and governing all +worlds, evil is, and brings, its own punishment. The intrinsic +substances and forces of character and their organized +correlations with the realities of eternity, the ruling +principles, habits, and love of the soul, as they stand affected +towards the world to which they go, these are the conditions on +which experience depends, herein is the hiding of retribution. +"Each one," as Origen says, "kindles the flame of his own +appropriate fire." Superior spirits must look on a corrupted human +soul with a sorrow similar, though infinitely profounder, to that +with which the lapidary contemplates a splendid pearl with a dark +flaw in its centre. The Koran says, "Men sleep while they live, +and when they die they wake." The sudden infliction of pain in the +future state comes from the sudden unveiling of secrets, +quickening of the moral consciousness, and exposure of the naked +soul's fitnesses to the spiritual correspondences of its deserts. +It is said, "Death does Away disguise: souls see each other +clear, At one glance, as two drops of rain in air Might look into +each other had they life." + +The quality of the soul's character decides the elements of the +soul's life; and, as this becomes known on crossing the death +drawn line of futurity, conscious retribution then arises in the +guilty. This is a retribution which is reasonable, moral, +unavoidable, before which we may well pause and tremble. The great +moral of it is that we should not so much dread being thrust into +an eternal hell as we should fear carrying a hell with us when we +go into eternity. It is not so bad to be in hell as to be forced +truly to say, "Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell." + +If these general ideas are correct, it follows even as all common +sense and reflection affirm that every real preparation for death +and for what is to succeed must be an ingrained characteristic, +and cannot consist in a mere opinion, mood, or act. Here we strike +at one of the shallowest errors, one of the most extensive and +rooted superstitions, of the world. Throughout the immense +kingdoms of the East, where the Brahmanic and Buddhist religions +hold sway over six hundred millions of men, the notion of +yadasanna that is, the merit instantaneously obtained when at the +point of death fully prevails. They suppose that in that moment, +regardless of their former lives and of their present characters, +by bringing the mind and the heart into certain momentary states +of thought and feeling, and meditating on certain objects or +repeating certain sacred words, they can suddenly obtain exemption +from punishment in their next life.11 The notion likewise obtains +almost universally among Christians, incredible as it may seem. +With the Romanists, who are three fourths of the Christian world, +it is a most prominent doctrine, everywhere vehemently proclaimed +and acted on: that is the meaning of the sacrament of extreme +unction, whereby, on submission to the Church and confession to a +priest, the venal sins of the dying man are forgiven, purgatory +avoided or lessened, and heaven made sure. The ghost of the King +of Denmark complains most of the unwarned suddenness of his +murder, not of the murder itself, but of its suddenness, which +left him no opportunity to save his soul: "Sleeping, was I by a +brother's hand Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, + +11 Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 489. + + +Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd; No reckoning made, but sent to +my account With all my imperfections on my head." + +Hamlet, urged by supernatural solicitings to vengeance, finds his +murderous uncle on his knees at prayer. Stealing behind him with +drawn sword, he is about to strike the fatal blow, when the +thought occurs to him that the guilty man, if killed when at his +devotions, would surely go to heaven; and so he refrains until a +different opportunity. For to send to heaven the villain who had +slain his father, + +"That would be hire and salary, not revenge. He took my father +grossly full of bread, With all his crimes broad blown, as flush +as May; And how his audit stands who knows save Heaven? But, in +our circumstance and course of thought, 'Tie heavy with him. And +am I then revenged To take him in the purging of his soul, When he +is fit and season'd for his passage? No; but when he is drunk, +asleep, enraged, Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed, At +gaming, swearing, or about some act That has no relish of +salvation in't: Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, +And that his soul may be as damn'd and black As hell, whereto it +goes." + +This, though poetry, is a fair representation of the mediaval +faith held by all Christendom in sober prose. The same train of +thought latently underlies the feelings of most Protestants too, +though it is true any one would now shrink from expressing it with +such frankness and horrible gusto. But what else means the minute +morbid anatomy of death beds, the prurient curiosity to know how +the dying one bore himself in the solemn passage? How commonly, if +one dies without physical anguish, and with the artificial +exultations of a fanatic, rejoiceful auguries are drawn! if he +dies in physical suffering, and with apparent regret, a gloomy +verdict is rendered! It is superstition, absurdity, and injustice, +all. Not the accidental physical conditions, not the transient +emotions, with which one passes from the earth, can decide his +fate, but the real good or evil of his soul, the genuine fitness +or unfitness of his soul, his soul's inherent merits of bliss or +bale. There is no time nor power in the instant of death, by any +magical legerdemain, to turn away the impending retributions of +wickedness and guilt. What is right, within the conditions of +Infinite wisdom and goodness, will be done in spite of all +traditional juggles and spasmodic spiritual attitudinizations. +What can it avail that a most vile and hardened wretch, when +dying, convulsed with fright and possessed with superstition, +compels, or strives to compel, a certain sentiment into his soul, +conjures, or tries to conjure, his mind into the relation of +belief towards a certain ancient and abstract dogma? + +"Yet I've seen men who meant not ill, Compelling doctrine out of +death, With hell and heaven acutely poised Upon the turning of a +breath." + +Cruelly racking the soul with useless probes of theological +questions and statements, they stand by the dying to catch the +words of his last breath, and, in perfect consistence with their +faith, they pronounce sentence accordingly. If, as the pallid lips +faintly close, they hear the magic words, "I put my trust in the +atoning blood of Christ," up goes the soul to heaven. If they hear +the less stereotyped words, "I have tried to do as well as I +could: I hope God will be merciful towards me and receive me," +down goes the soul to hell. Strange and cruel superstition, that +imagines God to act towards men only according to the evanescent +temper and technical phrase with which they leave the world! The +most popular English preacher of the present day, the Rev. Mr. +Spurgeon, after referring to the fable that those before whom +Perseus held the head of Medusa were turned into stone in the very +act and posture of the moment when they saw it, says, "Death is +such a power. What I am when death is held before me, that I must +be forever. When my spirit goes, if God finds me hymning his +praise, I shall hymn it in heaven: doth he find me breathing out +oaths, I shall follow up those oaths in hell. As I die, so shall I +live eternally!" 12 + +No: the true preparation for death and the invisible realm of +souls is not the eager adoption of an opinion, the hurried +assumption of a mood, or the frightened performance of an outward +act: it is the patient culture of the mind with truth, the pious +purification of the heart with disinterested love, the consecrated +training of the life in holiness, the growth of the soul in habits +of righteousness, faith, and charity, the organization of divine +principles into character. Every real preparation of the soul for +death must be a characteristic rightly related to the immortal +realities to which death is the introduction of the soul. An evil +soul is not thrust into a physical and fiery hell, fenced in and +roofed over from the universal common; but it is revealed to +itself, and consciously enters on retributive relations. In the +spiritual world, whither all go at death, we suppose that like +perceives like, and thus are they saved or damned, having, by the +natural attraction and elective seeing of their virtues or vices, +the beatific vision of God, or the horrid vision of iniquity and +terror. + +It cannot be supposed that God is a bounded shape so vast as to +fill the entire circuits of the creation. Spirit transcends the +categories of body, and it is absurd to apply the language of +finite things to the illimitable One, except symbolically. When we +die, we do not sink or soar to the realm of spirits, but are in +it, at once, everywhere; and the resulting experience will depend +on the prevailing elements of our moral being. If we are bad, our +badness is our banishment from God; if we are good, our goodness +is our union with God. In every world the true nature and law of +retribution lie in the recoil of conduct on character, and the +assimilated results ensuing. Take a soul that is saturated with +the rottenness of depravity into the core of heaven, and it is in +the heart of hell still. Take a soul that is compacted of divine + +12 Sermons, 3d Series. Sermon XIV., Thoughts on the Last Battle. + + +realities to the very bottom of hell, and heaven is with it there. + +We are treading on eternity, and infinitude is all around us. Now, +as well as hereafter, to us, the universe is action, the soul is +reaction, experience is the resultant. Death but unveils the +facts. Pass that great crisis, in the passage becoming conscious +of universal realities and of individual relations to them, and +the Father will say to the discordant soul, "Alienated one, +incapable of my embrace, change and come to me;" to the harmonious +soul, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." + +Having thus considered the question as to the nature of future +punishments, it now remains to discuss the question concerning +their duration. The fact of a just and varied punishment for souls +we firmly believe in. The particulars of it in the future, or the +degrees of its continuance, we think, are concealed from the +present knowledge of man. These details we do not profess to be +able to settle much about. We have but three general convictions +on the subject. First, that these punishments will be experienced +in accordance with those righteous and inmost laws which +indestructibly express the mind of God and rule the universe, and +will not be vindictively inflicted through arbitrary external +penalties. Secondly, that they will be accurately tempered to the +just deserts and qualifications of the individual sufferers. And +thirdly, that they will be alleviated, remedial, and limited, not +unmitigated, hopeless, and endless. + +Upon the first of these thoughts perhaps enough has already been +said, and the second and third may be discussed together. Our +business, therefore, in the remainder of this dissertation, is to +disprove, if truth in the hands of reason and conscience will +enable us to disprove, the popular dogma which asserts that the +state of the condemned departed is a state of complete damnation +absolutely eternal. Against that form of representing future +punishment which makes it unlimited by conceiving the destiny of +the soul to be an eternal progress, in which their initiative +steps of good or evil in this life place different souls under +advantages or disadvantages never relatively to be lost, we have +nothing to object. It is reasonable, in unison with natural law, +and not frightful.13 But we are to deal, if we fairly can, a +refutation against the doctrine of an intense endless misery for +the wicked, as that doctrine is prevailingly taught and received. + +The advocates of eternal damnation primarily plant themselves upon +the Christian Scriptures, and say that there the voice of an +infallible inspiration from heaven asserts it. First of all, let +us examine this ground, and see if they do not stand there only +upon erroneous premises sustained by prejudices. In the beginning, +then, we submit to candid minds that, if the literal eternity of +future torment be proclaimed in the New Testament, it is not a +part of the revelation contained in that volume; it is not a truth +revealed by inspiration; and that we maintain for this reason. The +same representations of the everlasting duration of future +punishment in hell, the same expressions for an unlimited +duration, which occur in the New Testament, were previously +employed by the Hindus, Greeks, and Pharisees, who were not +inspired, but must have drawn the doctrine from fallible sources. +Now, to say the least, it is as reasonable to suppose that these +expressions, when found in the New Testament, were + +13 Lessing, Ueber Leibnitz von den Ewigen Strafen. + + +employed by the Saviour and the evangelists in conformity with the +prevailing thought and customary phraseology of their time, as to +conclude that they were derived from an unerring inspiration. The +former is a natural and reasonable inference; the latter is a +gratuitous hypothesis for which we have never heard of any +evidence. If its advocates will honestly attempt really to prove +it, we are convinced they will be forced to renounce it. The only +way they continue to hold it is by taking it for granted. If, +therefore, the strict eternity of future woe be declared in the +New Testament, we regard it not as a part of the inspired +utterance of Jesus, but as an error which crept in among others +from the surrounding notions of a benighted pagan age. + +But, in the next place, we do not admit by any means that the +literal eternity of future damnation is taught in the Scriptures. +On the contrary, we deny such an assertion, for several reasons. +First, we argue from the usage of language before the New +Testament was written. The Egyptians, Hindus, Greeks, often make +most emphatic use of phrases declaring the eternal sufferings of +the wicked in hell; but they must have meant by "eternal" only a +very long time, because a fundamental portion of the great system +of thought on which their religions rested was the idea of +recurring epochs, sundered by immense periods statedly arriving, +when all things were restored, the hells and heavens vanished +away, and God was all in all. If the representations of the +eternal punishment of the wicked, made before the New Testament +was written, were not significant, with metaphysical severity, of +an eternity of duration, but only, with popular looseness, of an +extremely long period, the same may be true of the similar +expressions found in that record. + +Secondly, we argue from the usage of language in and after the New +Testament age. The critics have collected, as any one desirous may +easily find, and as every theological scholar well knows, scores +of instances from the writings of authors contemporary with Christ +and his apostles, and succeeding them, where the Greek word for +"eternal" is used popularly, not strictly, in a rhetorical, not in +a philosophical, sense, not denoting a duration literally endless, +but one very prolonged. In all Greek literature the word is +undoubtedly used in a careless and qualified sense at least a +hundred times where it is used once with its close etymological +force. And the same is true of the corresponding Hebrew term. The +writer of the "Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs," at the close +of every chapter, describing the respective patriarch's death, +says, "he slept the eternal sleep," though by "eternal" he can +only mean a duration reaching to the time of the resurrection, as +plainly appears from the context. Iamblichus speaks of "an eternal +eternity of eternities."14 Origen, and Gregory of Nyssa, and +others, the fact of whose belief in final universal salvation no +one pretends to deny, do not hesitate with earnestness and +frequency to affirm the "eternal" punishment of the wicked in +hell. Now, if the contemporaries of the evangelists, and their +successors, often used the word "eternal" popularly, in a +figurative, limited sense, then it may be so employed when it +occurs in the New Testament in connection with the future pains of +the bad. + +Thirdly, we argue from the phraseology and other peculiarities of +the representation of the future woe of the condemned, given in +the New Testament itself, that its authors + +14 De Mysteriis Egyptiorum, cap. viii. sect. 10. + + +did not consciously intend to proclaim the rigid endlessness of +that woe.15 "These shall go away into everlasting punishment." +Since the word "everlasting" was often used simply to denote a +long period, what right has any one to declare that here it must +mean an absolutely unending duration? How does any one know that +the mind of Jesus dialectically grasped the metaphysical notion of +eternity and deliberately intended to express it? Certainly the +intrinsic probabilities are all the other way. Such a conclusion +is hardly compatible with the highly tropical style of speech +employed throughout the discourse. Besides, had he wished to +convey the overwhelming idea that the doom of the guilty would be +strictly irremediable, their anguish literally infinite, would he +not have taken pains to say so in definite, guarded, explained, +unmistakable terms? He might easily, by a precise prosaic +utterance, by explanatory circumlocutions, have placed that +thought beyond possibility of mistake. + +Fourthly, we have an intense conviction not only that the leaving +of such a doctrine by the Savior in impenetrable obscurity and +uncertainty is irreconcilable with the supposition of his +deliberately holding it in his belief, but also that a belief in +the doctrine itself is utterly irreconcilable with the very +essentials of his teachings and spirit, his inmost convictions and +life. He taught the infinite and unchangeable goodness of God: +confront the doctrine of endless misery with the parable of the +prodigal son. He taught the doctrine of unconquerable forgiveness, +without apparent qualification: bring together the doctrine of +never relenting punishment and his petition on the cross, "Father, +forgive them." He taught that at the great judgment heaven or hell +would be allotted to men according to their lives; and the notion +of endless torment does not rest on the demerit of sinful deeds, +which is the standard of judgment that he holds up, but on +conceptions concerning a totally depraved nature, a God inflamed +with wrath, a vicarious atonement rejected, or some other ethnic +tradition or ritual consideration equally foreign to his mind and +hostile to his heart. + +Fifthly, if we reason on the popular belief that the letter of +Scripture teaches only unerring truth, we have the strongest +argument of all against the eternal hopelessness of future +punishment. The doctrine of Christ's descent to hell underlies the +New Testament. We are told that after his death "he went and +preached to the spirits in prison." And again we read that "the +gospel was preached also to them that are dead." This New +Testament idea was unquestionably a vital and important feature in +the apostolic and in the early Christian belief. It necessarily +implies that there is probation, and that there may be salvation, +after death. It is fatal to the horrid dogma which commands all +who enter hell to abandon every gleam of hope, utterly and +forever. The symbolic force of the doctrine of Christ's descent +and preaching in hell is this, as Guder says in his "Appearance of +Christ among the Dead," that the deepest and most horrible depth +of damnation is not too deep and horrible for the pitying love +which wishes to save the lost: even into the veriest depth of hell +reaches down the love of God, and his beatific call sounds to the +most distant distances. There is no outermost darkness to which +his heavenly and all conquering light cannot shine. The book which +teaches that Christ went even into hell itself, to seek and to +save that which was lost, + +15 Corrodi, Ueber die Ewigkeit der Hollenetrafen. In den Beitragen +zur Beforderung des Vernunft. Denk. n. s. w. heft vii. ss. 41-72. + + +does not teach that from the instant of death the fate of the +wicked is irredeemably fixed. + +Upon the whole, then, we reach the clear conclusion that the +Christian Scriptures do not really declare the hopeless eternity +of future punishment.16 They speak popularly, not scientifically, +speak in metaphors which cannot be analyzed and reduced to +metaphysical precision. The subject is left with fearful warnings +in an impressive obscurity. There we must either leave it, in awe +and faith, undecided; or, if not content to do that, we must +examine and decide it on other grounds than those of traditional +authority, and with other instruments than those of textual +interpretation. + +Let us next sift and weigh the arguments from reason by which the +dogma of the eternity of future misery is respectively defended +and assailed. The advocates of it have sought to support it by +four positions, which are such entire assumptions that only a word +will be requisite to expose each of them to logical rejection. +First, it is said that sin is infinite and deserves an infinite +penalty because it is an outrage against an infinite being.17 A +more absurd perversion of logic than this, a more glaring +violation of common sense, was never perpetrated. It directly +reverses the facts and subverts the legitimate inference. Is the +sin measured by the dignity of the lawgiver, or by the +responsibility of the law breaker? Does justice heed the wrath of +the offended, or the guilt of the offender? As well say that the +eye of man is infinite because it looks out into infinite space, +as affirm that his sin is infinite because committed against an +infinite God. That man is finite, and all his acts finite, and +consequently not in justice to be punished infinitely, is a plain +statement of fact which compels assent. All else is empty +quibbling, scholastic jugglery. The ridiculousness of the argument +is amusingly apparent as presented thus in an old Miracle Play, +wherein Justice is made to tell Mercy "That man, havinge offended +God who is endlesse, His endlesse punchement therefore may nevyr +seese." + +The second device brought forward to sustain the doctrine in +question is more ingenious, but equally arbitrary. It is based on +the foreknowledge of God. He foresaw that the wicked, if allowed +to live on earth immortally in freedom, would go on forever in a +course of constant sin. They were therefore constructively guilty +of all the sin which they would have committed; but he saved the +world the ravages of their actual crimes by hurling them into hell +beneath the endless penalty of their latent infinite guilt. In +reply to those who argue thus, it is obvious to ask, whence did +they learn all this? There is no such scheme drawn up or hinted in +Scripture; and surely it is not within the possible discoveries of +reason. Plainly, it is not a known premise legitimating a result, +not a sound argument proving a conclusion: it is merely a conceit, +devised to explain and fortify a theory already embraced from +other considerations. It is an imaginative hypothesis without +confirmation. + +16 Bretschneider, in his Systematische Entwickelung aller in der +Dogmatik vorkommenden Begriffe, gives the literature of this +subject in a list of thirty six distinct works. Sect. 139, Ewig +keit der Hollenstrafen. + +17 Thomas Aquinas, Summa, pars iii. suppl. qu. 99, art. 1. + + +Thirdly, it has been said that future punishment will be endless +because sin will be so. The evil soul, growing ever more evil, +getting its habits of vice and passions of iniquity more deeply +infixed, and surrounded in the infernal realm with all the +incentives to wickedness, will become confirmed in depravity +beyond all power of cure, and, sinning forever, be necessarily +damned and tortured forever. The same objection holds to this +argument as to the former. Its premises are daring assumptions +beyond the province of our knowledge. They are assumptions, too, +contrary to analogy, probability, the highest laws of humanity, +and the goodness of God. Without freedom of will there cannot be +sin; and those who retain moral freedom may reform, cease to do +evil and learn to do good. There are invitations and opportunities +to change from evil to good here: why not hereafter? The will is +free now: what shall suddenly paralyze or annihilate that freedom +when the soul leaves the body? Why may not such amazing +revelations be made, such regenerating motives be brought to bear, +in the spiritual world, as will soften the hardest, convince the +stubbornest, and, sooner or later, transform and redeem the worst? +It is true the law of sinful habit is dark and fearful; but it is +frequently neutralized. The argument as the support of a positive +dogma is void because itself only hypothetical. + +Some have tried to prove eternal condemnation by an assumed +necessity of moral gravitation. There is a great deal of loose and +hasty talk afloat about the law of affinities distributing souls +hereafter in fitted companies. Similar characters will +spontaneously come together. The same qualities and grades of +sympathy will coalesce, the unlike will fly apart. And so all +future existence will be arranged in circles of dead equality on +stagnant levels of everlasting hopelessness of change. The law of +spiritual attraction is no such force as that, produces no such +results. It is broken up by contrasts, changes, multiplicity of +other interacting forces. We are not only drawn by affinity to +those like ourselves, but often still more powerfully, with +rebuking and redeeming effect, to those above us that we may +become like them, to those beneath us that we may pity and help +them. The law of affinity is not in moral beings a simple force +necessitating an endless uniformity of state, but a complex of +forces, sometimes mingling the unlike by stimulants of wedded +similarity and contrast to bless and advance all, now punishing, +now rewarding, but ever finally intended to redeem. Reasoning by +sound analogy, the heavens and hells of the future state are not +monotonous circles each filled with mutually reflecting +personalities, but one fenceless spiritual world of distinctive, +ever varying degrees, sympathetic and contrasted life, circulating +freshness, variety of attractions and repulsions, divine +advancement. + +Finally, it is maintained by many that endless misery is the fate +of the reprobate because such is the sovereign pleasure of God. +This is no argument, but a desperate assertion. It virtually +confesses that the doctrine cannot be defended by reason, but is +to be thrown into the province of wilful faith. A host of gloomy +theologians have taken this ground as the forlorn hope of their +belief. The damned are eternally lost because that is the +arbitrary decree of God. Those who thus abandon reason for +dogmatic authority and trample on logic with mere reiterated +assertion can only be met with the flat denial, such is not the +arbitrary pleasure of God. Then, as far as argument is concerned, +the controversy ends where it began. + +These four hypotheses include all the attempted justifications of +the doctrine of eternal misery that we have ever seen offered from +the stand point of independent thought. We submit that, considered +as proofs, they are utterly sophistical. + +There are three great arguments in refutation of the endlessness +of future punishment, as that doctrine is commonly held. The first +argument is ethical, drawn from the laws of right; the second is +theological, drawn from the attributes of God; the third is +experimental, drawn from the principles of human nature. We shall +subdivide these and consider them successively. + +In the first place, we maintain that the popular doctrine of +eternal punishment is unjust, because it overlooks the differences +in the sins of men, launching on all whom it embraces one infinite +penalty of undiscriminating damnation. The consistent advocates of +the doctrine, the boldest creeds, unflinchingly avow this, and +defend it by the plea that every sin, however trivial, is equally +an offence against the law of the infinite God with the most +terrible crime, and equally merits an infinite punishment. Thus, +by a metaphysical quibble, the very basis of morals is overturned, +and the child guilty of an equivocation through fear is put on a +level with the pirate guilty of robbery and murder through cold +blooded avarice and hate. In a hell where all are plunged in +physical fire for eternity there are no degrees of retribution, +though the degrees of evil and demerit are as numerous and various +as the individuals. The Scriptures say, "Every man shall receive +according to the deeds done in the body:" some "shall be beaten +with many stripes," others "with few stripes." + +The first principle of justice exact discrimination of judgment +according to deeds and character is monstrously violated and all +differences blotted out by the common dogma of hell. A better +thought is shown in the old Persian legend which tells that God +once permitted Zoroaster to accompany him on a visit to hell. The +prophet saw many in grievous torments. Among the rest, he saw one +who was deprived of his right foot. Asking the meaning of this, +God replied, "Yonder sufferer was a king who in his whole life did +but one kind action. Passing once near a dromedary which, tied up +in a state of starvation, was vainly striving to reach some +provender placed just beyond its utmost effort, the king with his +right foot compassionately kicked the fodder within the poor +beast's reach. That foot I placed in heaven: the rest of him is +here." 18 + +Again: there is the grossest injustice in the first assumption or +fundamental ground on which the theory we are opposing rests. That +theory does not teach that men are actually damned eternally on +account of their own personal sins, but on account of original +sin: the eternal tortures of hell are the transmitted penalty +hurled on all the descendants of Adam, save those who in some way +avoid it, in consequence of his primal transgression. Language +cannot characterize with too much severity, as it seems to us, the +injustice, the immorality, involved in this scheme. The belief in +a sin, called "original," entailed by one act of one person upon a +whole immortal race of countless millions, dooming vast majorities +of them helplessly to a hopeless torture prison, can rest only on +a sleep of reason and a delirium of + +18 Wilson's ed. of Mill's Hist. of British India, vol. i. p. 429, +note. + + +conscience. Such a "sin" is no sin at all; and any penalty +inflicted on it would not be the necessary severity of a holy God, +but a species of gratuitous vengeance. For sin, by the very +essence of ethics, is the free, intelligent, wilful violation of a +law known to be right; and every punishment, in order to be just, +must be the suffering deserved by the intentional fault, the +personal evil, of the culprit himself. The doctrine before us +reverses all this, and sends untold myriads to hell forever for no +other sin than that of simply having been born children of +humanity. Born totally depraved, hateful to God, helpless through +an irresistible proclivity to sin and an ineradicable aversion to +evangelical truth, and asked to save themselves, asked by a +mockery like that of fettering men hand and foot, clothing them in +leaden straitjackets, and then flinging them overboard, telling +them not to drown! What justice, what justice, is here in this? + +Thirdly, the profound injustice of this doctrine is seen in its +making the alternative of so unutterably awful a doom hinge upon +such trivial particulars and upon merely fortuitous circumstances. +One is born of pious, orthodox parents, another of heretics or +infidels: with no difference of merit due to them, one goes to +heaven, the other goes to hell. One happens to form a friendship +with an evangelical believer, another is influenced by a +rationalist companion: the same fearful diversity of fate ensues. +One is converted by a single sermon: if he had been ill that day, +or had been detained from church by any other cause, his fated bed +would have been made in hell, heaven closed against him forever. +One says, "I believe in the Trinity of God, in the Deity of +Christ;" and, dying, he goes to heaven. Another says, "I believe +in the Unity of God and in the humanity of Christ:" he, dying, +goes to hell. Of two children snatched away by disease when twenty +four hours old, one has been baptized, the other not: the angels +of heaven welcome that, the demons of hell clutch this. The +doctrine of infant damnation, intolerably painful as it is, has +been proclaimed thousands of times by authoritative teachers and +by large parties in the Church, and is a logical sequence from the +popular theology. It is not a great many years since people heard, +it is said, the celebrated statement that "hell is paved with the +skulls of infants not a span long!" Think of the everlasting bliss +or misery of a helpless infant depending on the petty accident of +whether it was baptized or not! There are hypothetical cases like +the following: If one man had died a year earlier, when he was a +saint, he would not have fallen from grace, and renounced his +faith, and rolled in crimes, and sunk to hell. If another had +lived a year later, he would have been smitten with conviction, +and would have repented, and made his peace, and gone to heaven. +To the everlasting loss of each, an eternity of bliss against an +eternity of woe hung fatally poised on the time appointed for him +to die. Oh how the bigoted pride, the exclusive dogmatism of self +styled saints, self flatterers equally satisfied of their own +election and of the rejection of almost everybody else, ought to +sink and fade when they reflect on the slight chances, mere +chances of time and place, by which the infinite contingency has +been, or is to be, decided! They should heed the impregnable good +sense and logic conveyed in the humane hearted poet's satirical +humor when he advises such persons to + +"Consider well, before, like Hurlothrumbo, +They aim their clubs at any creed on earth, +That by the simple accident of birth +They might have been high priests to Mumbo Jumbo." + +It is evidently but the rankest mockery of justice to suspend an +infinite woe upon an accident out of the power of the party +concerned. + +Still further: there is a tremendous injustice even in that form +of the doctrine of endless punishment, the most favorable of all, +which says that no one is absolutely foreordained to hell, but +that all are free, and that life is a fixed season of probation +wherein the means of salvation are offered to all, and if they +neglect or spurn them the fault is their own, and eternal pain +their merited portion. The perfectly apparent inconsistency of +this theory with known facts is fatal to it, since out of every +generation there are millions on millions of infants, idiots, +maniacs, heathen, within whose hearing or power the means of +salvation by a personal appropriation of the atoning merit of +Christ's blood were never brought; so that life to them is no +scene of Christian probation. But, waiving that, the probation is +not a fair one to anybody. If the indescribable horror of an +eternal damnation be the consequence that follows a certain course +while we are on trial in this life, then a knowledge of that fact +in all its bearings ought to be given us, clear, explicit, beyond +any possibility of mistake or doubt. Otherwise the probation is +not fair. To place men in the world, as millions are constantly +placed, beset by allurements of every sort within and without, led +astray by false teachings and evil examples, exposed in ignorance, +bewildered with uncertainties of conflicting doubts and surmises, +either never hearing of the way of salvation at all, or hearing of +it only in terms that seem absurd in themselves and unaccompanied +by sufficient, if by any, proof, and then, if under these fearful +hazards they waver from strict purity of heart, rectitude of +conduct, or orthodoxy of belief, to condemn them to a world of +everlasting agony, would be the very climax of cruelty, with no +touch of mercy or color of right. + +Beneath such a rule the universe should be shrouded in the +blackness of despair, and God be thought of with a convulsive +shudder. Such a "probation" would be only like that on which the +Inquisitors put their victims who were studiously kept ignorant in +their dungeons, waiting for the rack and the flame to be made +ready. Few persons will deny that, as the facts now are, a good, +intelligent, candid man may doubt the reality of an endless +punishment awaiting men in hell. But if the doctrine be true, and +he is on probation under it, is it fair that he should be left +honestly in ignorance or doubt about it? No: if it be true, it +ought to be burned into his brain and crushed into his soul with +such terrific vividness and abiding constancy of impression as +would deter him ever from the wrong path, keep him in the right. A +distinguished writer has represented a condemned delinquent, +suffering on, and still interminably on, in hell, thus complaining +of the unfairness of his probation: "Oh, had it been possible for +me to conceive even the most diminutive part of the weight and +horror of this doom, I should have shrunk from every temptation to +sin, with the most violent recoil."19 + +19 John Foster, Letter on the Eternity of Future Punishments. + +If an endless hell is to be the lot of the sinner, he ought to +have an infallible certainty of it, with all possible helps and +incentives to avoid it. Such is not the case; and therefore, since +God is just and generous, the doctrine is not true. + +Finally, the injustice of the dogma of everlasting punishment is +most emphatically shown by the fact that there is no sort of +correspondence or possible proportion between the offence and the +penalty, between the moment of sinning life and the eternity of +suffering death. If a child were told to hold its breath thirty +seconds, and, failing to do it, should be confined in a dark +solitary dungeon for seventy years amidst loathsome horrors and +speechless afflictions, and be frightfully scourged six times a +day for that entire period, there would be just proportion nay, an +inexpressibly merciful proportion between the offence and the +punishment, in comparison with that which, being an absolutely +infinite disproportion, does not really admit of any comparison, +the sentence to an eternal abode in hell as a penalty for the +worst kind and the greatest amount of crime a man could possibly +crowd into a life of a thousand years. Think, then, of passing +such a sentence on one who has struggled hard against temptation, +and yielded but rarely, and suffered much, and striven to do as +well as he could, and borne up courageously, with generous +resolves and affections, and died commending his soul to God in +hope. + +"Fearfully fleet is this life," says one, "and yet in it eternal +life is lost or won: profoundly wretched is this life, yet in it +eternal bliss is lost or won." Weigh the words adequately, and say +how improbable is the thought, and how terribly unjust. Perhaps +there have already lived upon this earth, and died, and passed +into the invisible world, two hundred thousand millions of men, +the everlasting doom of every one of whom, it is imagined, was +fixed unalterably during the momentary period of his mortal +transit from cradle to grave. In respect of eternity, six thousand +years and this duration must be reduced to threescore years and +ten, since that is all that each generation enjoyed is the same as +one hour. Suppose, now, that all these two hundred thousand +millions of men were called into being at once; that they were +placed on probation for one hour; that the result of their choice +and action in that hour was to decide their irrevocable fate, +actually forever, to ecstatic bliss or to ecstatic woe; that +during that hour they were left, as far as clear and stable +conviction goes, in utter ignorance and uncertainty as to the +great realities of their condition, courted by opposing theories +and modes of action; and that, when the clock of time knelled the +close of that awful, that most evanescent hour, the roaring gulf +of torture yawned, and its jaws of flame and blackness closed over +ninety nine hundredths of them for eternity! That is a fair +picture of the popular doctrine of temporal probation and eternal +punishment, when examined in the light of the facts of human life. +Of course, no man at this day, who is in his senses and thinks +honestly upon the subject, can credit such a doctrine, unless +indeed he believes that a lawless fiend sits on the throne of the +universe and guides the helm of destiny. And lives there a man of +unperverted soul who would not decidedly prefer to have no God +rather than to have such a one? Ay, "Rather than so, come FATE +into the list And champion us to the utterance." + +Let us be atheists, and bow to mortal Chance, believe there is no +pilot at all at the rudder of Creation's vessel, no channel before +the prow, but the roaring breakers of despair to right and left, +and the granite bluff of annihilation full in front! + +In the next place, then, we argue against the doctrine of eternal +damnation that it is incompatible with any worthy idea of the +character of God. God is love; and love cannot consent to the +useless torture of millions of helpless souls for eternity. The +gross contradiction of the common doctrine of hell to the spirit +of love is so obvious that its advocates, unable to deny or +conceal it, have often positively proclaimed it, avowing that, in +respect to the wicked, God is changed into a consuming fire full +of hatred and vengeance. But that is unmitigated blasphemy. God is +unchangeable, his very nature being disinterested, immutable +goodness. The sufferings of the wicked are of their own +preparation. If a pestilential exhalation is drawn from some +decaying substance, it is not the fault of any alteration in the +sunlight. But a Christian writer assures us that when "the damned +are packed like brick in a kiln, so bound that they cannot move a +limb nor even an eyelid, God shall blow the fires of hell through +them for ever and ever." + +And another writer says, "All in God is turned into fury: in hell +he draws out into the field all his forces, all his attributes, +whereof wrath is the leader and general."20 Such representations +may be left without a comment. Every enlightened mind will +instantly reject with horror the doctrine which necessitates a +conception of God like that here pictured forth. God is a being of +infinite forgiveness and magnanimity. To the wandering sinner, +even while a great way off, his arms are open, and his inviting +voice, penetrating the farthest abysses, says, "Return." His sun +shines and his rain falls on the fields of the unjust and +unthankful. What is it, the instant mortals pass the line of +death, that shall transform this Divinity of yearning pity and +beneficence into a devil of relentless hate and cruelty? It cannot +be. We shall find him dealing towards us in eternity as he does +here. An eminent theologian says, "If mortal men kill the body +temporally in their anger, it is like the immortal God to damn the +soul eternally in his." "God holds sinners in his hands over the +mouth of hell as so many spiders; and he is dreadfully provoked, +and he not only hates them, but holds them in utmost contempt, and +he will trample them beneath his feet with inexpressible +fierceness, he will crush their blood out, and will make it fly so +that it will sprinkle his garments and stain all his raiment."21 +Oh, ravings and blasphemies of theological bigotry, blinded with +old creeds, inflamed with sectarian hate, soaked in the gall of +bitterness, encompassed by absurd delusions, you know not what you +say! + +A daring writer of modern times observes that God can never say +from the last tribunal, in any other than a limited and +metaphorical sense, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting +fire," because that would not be doing as he would be done by. +Saving the appearance of irreverence, we maintain his assertion to +be just, based on impregnable morality. A recent religious poet +describes Jesus, on descending into hell after his crucifixion, + +20 For these and several other quotations we are indebted to the +Rev. T. J. Sawyer's work, entitled "Endless Punishment: its Origin +and Grounds Examined." + +21 Edwards's works, vol. vii. p. 499. + + +meeting Judas, and when he saw his pangs and heard his stifled +sobs, "Pitying, Messiah gazed, and had forgiven, But Justice her +eternal bar opposed." 22 + +The instinctive sentiment is worthy of Jesus, but the deliberate +thought is worthy of Calvin. Why is it so calmly assumed that God +cannot pardon, and that therefore sinners must be given over to +endless pains? By what proofs is so tremendous a conclusion +supported? Is it not a gratuitous fiction of theologians? The +exemplification of God's character and conduct given in the +spirit, teachings, and deeds of Christ is full of a free mercy, an +eager charity that rushes forward to forgive and embrace the +sinful and wretched wanderers. He is a very different being whom +the evangelist represents saying of Jesus, "This is my beloved +Son, in whom I am well pleased," from Him whom Professor Park +describes "drawing his sword on Calvary and smiting down his Son!" + +Why may not pardon from unpurchased grace be vouchsafed as well +after death as before? What moral conditions alter the case then? +Ah! it is only the metaphysical theories of the theologians that +have altered the case in their fancies and made it necessary for +them to limit probation. The attributes of God are laws, his modes +of action are the essentialities of his being, the same in all the +worlds of boundless extension and all the ages of endless +duration. How far some of the theologians have perverted the +simplicity of the gospel, or rather how utterly they have strayed +from it, may be seen when we remember that Christ said concerning +little children, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven," and then +compare with this declaration such a statement as this: "Reprobate +infants are vipers of vengeance which Jehovah will hold over hell +in the tongs of his wrath, till they writhe up and cast their +venom in his face." We deliberately assert that no depraved, +insane, pagan imagination ever conceived of a fiend malignant and +horrible enough to be worthily compared with this Christian +conception of God. Edwards repeatedly says, in his two sermons on +the "Punishment of the Wicked" and "Sinners in the Hands of an +Angry God," "You cannot stand an instant before an infuriated +tiger even: what, then, will you do when God rushes against you in +all his wrath?" Is this Christ's Father? + +The God we worship is "the Father of lights, with whom there is +neither variableness nor shadow of turning, from whom cometh down +every good and every perfect gift." It is the Being referred to by +the Savior when he said, in exultant trust and love, "I am not +alone; for the Father is with me." It is the infinite One to whom +the Psalmist says, "Though I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art +there." If God is in hell, there must be mercy and hope there, +some gleams of alleviation and promise there, surely; even as the +Lutheran creed says that "early on Easter morning, before his +resurrection, Christ showed himself to the damned in hell." If God +is in hell, certainly it must be to soothe, to save. "Oh, no," +says the popular theologian. Let us quote his words. "Why is God +here? To keep the tortures of the damned freshly plied, and to see +that no one ever escapes!" Can the climax of horror and + +22 Lord, Christ in Hades. + + +blasphemy any further go? How much more reasonable, more moral and +Christ like, to say, with one of the best authors of our time, + +"What hell may be I know not: this I know: I cannot lose the +presence of the Lord: One arm humility takes hold upon His dear +Humanity; the other love Clasps his Divinity: so, where I go He +goes; and better fire wall'd Hell with him Than golden gated +Paradise without." + +The irreconcilableness of the common doctrine of endless misery +with any worthy idea of God is made clear by a process of +reasoning whose premises are as undeniable as its logic is +irrefragable and its conclusion consolatory. God is infinite +justice and goodness. His purpose in the creation, therefore, must +be the diffusion and triumph of holiness and blessedness. God is +infinite wisdom and power. His design, therefore, must be +fulfilled. Nothing can avail to thwart the ultimate realization of +all his intentions. The rule of his omnipotent love pervades +infinitude and eternity as a shining leash of law whereby he holds +every child of his creation in ultimate connection with his +throne, and will sooner or later bring even the worst soul to a +returning curve from the career of its wildest orbit. In the realm +and under the reign of a paternal and omnipotent God every being +must be salvable. Remorse itself is a recoil which may fling the +penitent into the lap of forgiving love. Any different thought +appears narrow, cruel, heathen. The blackest fiend that glooms the +midnight air of hell, bleached through the merciful purgation of +sorrow and loyalty, may become a white angel and be drawn into +heaven. + +Lavater writes of himself, and the same is true of many a good +man, "I embraced in my heart all that is called man, past, +present, and future times and nations, the dead, the damned, even +Satan. I presented them all to God with the warmest wishes that he +would have mercy upon all." This is the true spirit of a good man. +And is man better than his Maker? We will answer that question, +and leave this head of the discussion, by presenting an Oriental +apologue. + +God once sat on his inconceivable throne, and far around him, rank +after rank, angels and archangels, seraphim and cherubim, resting +on their silver wings and lifting their dazzling brows, rose and +swelled, with the splendors of an illimitable sea of immortal +beings, gleaming and fluctuating to the remotest borders of the +universe. The anthem of their praise shook the pillars of the +creation, and filled the vault of heaven with a pulsing flood of +harmony. When, as they closed their hymn, stole up, faint heard, +as from some most distant region of all space, in dim accents +humbly rising, a responsive "Amen." God asked Gabriel, "Whence +comes that Amen?" The hierarchic peer replied, "It rises from the +damned in hell." God took, from where it hung above his seat, the +key that unlocks the forty thousand doors of hell, and, giving it +to Gabriel, bade him go release them. On wings of light sped the +enraptured messenger, rescued the millions of the lost, and, just +as they were, covered all over with the traces of their sin, +filth, and woe, brought them straight up into the midst of heaven. +Instantly they were transformed, clothed in robes of glory, and +placed next to the throne; and henceforth, for evermore, the +dearest strain to God's ear, of all the celestial music, was that +borne by the choir his grace had ransomed from hell. And, because +there is no envy or other selfishness in heaven, this promotion +sent but new thrills of delight and gratitude through the heights +and depths of angelic life. + +We come now to the last class of reasons for disbelieving the +dogma of eternal damnation, namely, those furnished by the +principles of human nature and the truths of human experience. The +doctrine, as we think can be clearly shown, is literally +incredible to the human mind and literally intolerable to the +human heart. In the first place, it is, viewed in the abstract, +absolutely incredible because it is inconceivable: no man can +possibly grasp and appreciate the idea. The nearest approximation +to it ever made perhaps is in De Quincey's gorgeous elaboration of +the famous Hindu myth of an enormous rock finally worn away by the +brushing of a gauze veil; and that is really no approximation at +all, since an incommensurable chasm always separates the finite +and the infinite. John Foster says, "It is infinitely beyond the +highest archangel's faculty to apprehend a thousandth part of the +horror of the doom to eternal damnation." The Buddhists, who +believe that the severest sentence passed on the worst sinner will +be brought to an end and his redemption be attained, use the +following illustration of the staggering periods that will first +elapse. A small yoke is thrown into the ocean and borne about in +every direction by the various winds. Once in a hundred thousand +years a blind tortoise rises to the surface of the water. Will the +time ever come when that tortoise shall so rise up that its neck +shall enter the hole of the yoke? It may, but the time required +cannot be told; and it is equally difficult for the unwise man, +who has entered one of the great hells, to obtain deliverance. +There is a remarkable specimen of the attempt to set forth the +idea of endless misery, by Suso, a mystic preacher who flourished +several centuries ago. It runs thus. "O eternity, what art thou? +Oh, end without end! O father, and mother, and all whom we love! +May God be merciful unto you for evermore! for we shall see you no +more to love you; we must be separated forever! O separation, +everlasting separation, how painful art thou! Oh, the wringing of +hands! Oh, sighing, weeping, and sobbing, unceasing howling and +lamenting, and yet never to be pardoned! Give us a millstone, says +the damned, as large as the whole earth, and so wide in +circumference as to touch the sky all around, and let a little +bird come in a hundred thousand years, and pick off a small +particle of the stone, not larger than the tenth part of a grain +of millet, and after another hundred thousand years let him come +again, so that in ten hundred thousand years he would pick off as +much as a grain of millet, we wretched sinners would desire +nothing but that thus the stone might have an end, and thus our +pains also; yet even that cannot be."23 But, after all the +struggles of reason and all the illustrations of laboring +imagination, the meaning of the phrase "eternal suffering in hell" +remains remote, dim, unrealized, an abstraction in words. If we +could adequately apprehend it, if its full significance should +burst upon us, as sometimes in fearful dreams the spaceless, +timeless, phantasmal, reeling sense of + +23 Hagenbach, Dogmengeschichte, sect. 210. + + +the infinite seems to be threatening to break into the brain, an +annihilating shudder would seize and destroy the soul. + +We say, therefore, that the doctrine of the eternity of future +punishment is not believed as an intellectually conceived truth, +because that is a metaphysical impossibility. But more: we affirm, +in spite of the general belief in it publicly professed, that it +is actually held by hardly any one as a practical vivid belief +even within the limits wherein, as an intellectual conception, it +is possible. When intellect and imagination do not fail, heart and +conscience do, with sickened faintness and convulsive protest. In +his direful poem on the Last Day, Young makes one of the condemned +vainly beg of God to grant "This one, this slender, almost no, +request: When I have wept a thousand lives away, When torment is +grown weary of its prey, When I have raved of anguish'd years in +fire Ten thousand thousands, let me then expire." + +Such a thought, when confronted with any generous holy sentiment +or with any worthy conception of the Divine character, is +practically incredible. The men all around us in whose Church +creed such a doctrine is written down do not truly believe it. +"They delude themselves," as Martineau well says, "with the mere +fancy and image of a belief. The death of a friend who departs +from life in heresy affects them in the same way as the loss of +another whose creed was unimpeachable: while the theoretic +difference is infinite, the practical is virtually nothing." Who +that had a child, parent, wife, brother, or other precious friend, +condemned to be roasted to death by a slow fire, would not be +frantic with agony? But there are in the world literally millions +on millions, some of whose nearest and dearest ones have died +under circumstances which, by their professed creeds, can leave no +doubt that they must roast in the fires of hell in an anguish +unutterably fiercer, and for eternity, and yet they go about as +smilingly, engage in the battle for money, in the race for fame, +in all the vain shows and frivolous pleasures of life, as eagerly +and as gayly as others. How often do we see the literal truth of +this exemplified! It is clear they do not believe in the dogma to +whose technical terms they formally subscribe. + +A small proportion of its professors do undeniably believe the +doctrine so far as it can be sanely believed; and accordingly the +world is to them robed in a sable shroud, and life is an awful +mockery, under a flashing surface of sports concealing a +bottomless pit of horror. Every observing person has probably +known some few in his life who, in a degree, really believed the +common notions concerning hell, and out of whom, consequently, all +geniality, all bounding impulses, all magnanimous generosities, +were crushed, and their countenances wore the perpetual livery of +mourning, despair, and misanthropy. We will quote the confessions +of two persons who may stand as representatives of the class of +sincere believers in the doctrine. The first is a celebrated +French preacher of a century and a half ago, the other a very +eminent American divine of the present day. Saurin says, in his +great sermon on Hell, "I sink under the weight of this subject, +and I find in the thought a mortal poison which diffuseth itself +into every period of my life, rendering society tiresome, +nourishment insipid, pleasure disgustful, and life itself a cruel +bitter." Albert Barnes writes, "In the distress and anguish of my +own spirit, I confess I see not one ray to disclose to me the +reason why man should suffer to all eternity. I have never seen a +particle of light thrown on these subjects that has given a +moment's ease to my tortured mind. It is all dark dark dark to my +soul; and I cannot disguise it." + +Such a state of mind is the legitimate result of an endeavor +sincerely to grasp and hold the popularly professed belief. So +often as that endeavor reaches a certain degree of success, and +the idea of an eternal hell is reduced from its vagueness to an +embraced conception, the over fraught heart gives way, the brain, +stretched on too high a tension, reels, madness sets in, and one +more case is added to that list of maniacs from religious causes +which, according to the yearly reports of insane asylums, forms so +large a class. Imagine what a vast and sudden change would come +over the spirit and conduct of society if nineteen twentieths of +Christendom believed that at the end of a week a horrible influx +of demons, from some insurgent region, would rush into our world +and put a great majority of our race to death in excruciating +tortures! But the doctrine of future punishment professed by +nineteen twentieths of Christendom is, if true, an evil +incomparably worse than that, though every element of its +dreadfulness were multiplied by millions beyond the power of +numeration; and yet all goes on as quietly, the most of these +fancied believers live as chirpingly, as if heaven were sure for +everybody! Of course in their hearts they do not believe the +terrific formula which drops so glibly from their tongues. + +Again: it is a fatal objection to the doctrine in question that if +it be true it must destroy the happiness of the saved and fill all +heaven with sympathetic woe. Jesus teaches that "there is joy in +heaven over every sinner that repenteth." By a moral necessity, +then, there is sorrow in heaven over the wretched, lost soul. That +sorrow, indeed, may be alleviated, if not wholly quenched, by the +knowledge that every retributive pang is remedial, and that God's +glorious design will one day be fully crowned in the redemption of +the last prodigal. But what shall solace or end it if they know +that hell's borders are to be enlarged and to rage with avenging +misery forever? The good cannot be happy in heaven if they are to +see the ascending smoke and hear the resounding shrieks of a hell +full of their brethren, the children of a common humanity, among +whom are many of their own nearest relatives and dearest friends. + +True, a long list of Christian writers may be cited as maintaining +that this is to be a principal element in the felicity of the +redeemed, gloating over the tortures of the damned, singing the +song of praise with redoubled emphasis as they see their parents, +their children, their former bosom companions, writhing and +howling in the fell extremities of torture. Thomas Aquinas says, +"That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God +more richly, a perfect sight of the punishment of the damned is +granted to them."24 Especially did the Puritans seem to revel in +this idea, that "the joys of the blessed were to be deepened and +sharpened by constant contrast with the sufferings of the damned." +One of them thus expresses the delectable thought: "The sight of +hell torments will exalt the happiness of the saints forever, as a +sense of the opposite misery always increases the relish of any +pleasure." + +24 Summa, pars iii., Suppl. Qu. 93, art. i. + + +But perhaps Hopkins caps the climax of the diabolical pyramid of +these representations, saying of the wicked, "The smoke of their +torment shall ascend up in the sight of the blessed for ever and +ever, and serve, as a most clear glass always before their eyes, +to give them a bright and most affecting view. This display of the +Divine character will be most entertaining to all who love God, +will give them the highest and most ineffable pleasure. Should the +fire of this eternal punishment cease, it would in a great measure +obscure the light of heaven and put an end to a great part of the +happiness and glory of the blessed."25 That is to say, in plain +terms, the saints, on entering their final state of bliss in +heaven, are converted into a set of unmitigated fiends, out +sataning Satan, finding their chief delight in forever comparing +their own enjoyments with the pangs of the damned, extracting +morsels of surpassing relish from every convulsion or shriek of +anguish they see or hear. It is all an exquisite piece of +gratuitous horror arbitrarily devised to meet a logical exigency +of the theory its contrivers held. When charged that the knowledge +of the infinite woe of their friends in hell must greatly affect +the saints, the stern old theologians, unwilling to recede an inch +from their dogmas, had the amazing hardihood to declare that, so +far from it, on the contrary their wills would so blend with God's +that the contemplation of this suffering would be a source of +ecstasy to them. It is doubly a blank assumption of the most +daring character, first assuming, by an unparalleled blasphemy, +that God himself will take delight in the pangs of his creatures, +and secondly assuming, by a violation of the laws of human nature +and of every principle of morals, that the elect will do so too. +In this world a man actuated by such a spirit would be styled a +devil. On entering heaven, what magic shall work such a demoniacal +change in him? There is not a word, direct or indirect, in the +Scriptures to warrant the dreadful notion; nor is there any +reasonable explanation or moral justification of it given by any +of its advocates, or indeed conceivable. The monstrous hypothesis +cannot be true. Under the omnipotent, benignant government of a +paternal God, each change of character in his chosen children, as +they advance, must be for the better, not for the worse. + +We once heard a father say, running his fingers the while among +the golden curls of his child's hair, "If I were in heaven, and +saw my little daughter in hell, should not I be rushing down there +after her?" There spoke the voice of human nature; and that love +cannot be turned to hatred in heaven, but must grow purer and +intenser there. The doctrine which makes the saints pleased with +contemplating the woes of the damned, and even draw much of their +happiness from the contrast, is the deification of the absolute +selfishness of a demon. Human nature, even when left to its +uncultured instincts, is bound to far other and nobler things. +Radbod, one of the old Scandinavian kings, after long resistance, +finally consented to be baptized. After he had put one foot into +the water, he asked the priest if he should meet his forefathers +in heaven. Learning that they, being unbaptized pagans, were +victims of endless misery, he drew his foot back, and refused the +rite, choosing to be with his brave ancestors in hell rather than +to be in heaven with the Christian priests. And, speaking from the +stand point of the highest refinement of feeling and virtue, who +that has a heart in his + +25 Park, Memoir of Hopkins, pp. 201, 202. + + +bosom would not say, "Heaven can be no heaven to me, if I am to +look down on the quenchless agonies of all I have loved here!" Is +it not strictly true that the thought that even one should have +endless woe "Would cast a shadow on the throne of God And darken +heaven"? + +If a monarch, possessing unlimited power over all the earth, had +condemned one man to be stretched on a rack and be freshly plied +with incessant tortures for a period of fifty years, and if +everybody on earth could hear his terrible shrieks by day and +night, though they were themselves all, with this sole exception, +blessed with perfect happiness, would not the whole human race, +from Spitzbergen to Japan, from Rio Janeiro to Liberia, rise in a +body and go to implore the king's clemency for the solitary +victim? So, if hell had but one tenant doomed to eternal anguish, +a petition reaching from Sirius to Alcyone, signed by the universe +of moral beings, borne by a convoy of angels representing every +star in space, would be laid and unrolled at the foot of God's +throne, and He would read thereon this prayer: "FORGIVE HIM, AND +RELEASE HIM, WE BESEECH THEE, O GOD." And can it be that every +soul in the universe is better than the Maker and Father of the +universe? + +The popular doctrine of eternal torment threatening nearly all our +race is refuted likewise by the impossibility of any general +observance of the obligations morally and logically consequent +from it. In the first place, as the world is constituted, and as +life goes on, the great majority of men are upon the whole happy, +evidently were meant to be happy. But every believer of the +doctrine in debate is bound to be unutterably wretched. If he has +any gleam of generous sentiment or touch of philanthropy in his +bosom, if he is not a frozen petrifaction of selfishness or an +incarnate devil, how can he look on his family, friends, +neighbors, fellow citizens, fellow beings, in the light of his +faith seeing them quivering over the dizzy verge of a blind +probation and momentarily dropping into the lake of fire and +brimstone that burns forever, how can he do this without being +ceaselessly stung with wretchedness and crushed with horror by the +perception? For a man who appreciatingly believes that hell is +directly under our meadows, streets, and homes, and that nine +tenths of the dead are in it, and that nine tenths of the living +soon will be, for such a man to be happy and jocose is as horrible +as it would be for a man, occupying the second story of a house, +to light it up brilliantly with gas, and make merry with his +friends, eating tidbits, sipping wine, and tripping it on the +light fantastic toe to the strains of gay music, while, +immediately under him, men, women, and children, including his own +parents and his own children, were stretched on racks, torn with +pincers, lacerated with surgical instruments, cauterized, lashed +with whips of fire, their half suppressed shrieks and groans +audibly rising through the floor! + +Secondly, if the doctrine be true, then all unnecessary worldly +enterprises, labors, and studies should at once cease. One moment +on earth, and then, accordingly as we spend that moment, an +eternity in heaven or in hell: in heaven, if we succeed in +placating God by a sound belief and ritual proprieties; in hell, +if we are led astray by philosophy, nature, and the attractions of +life! On these suppositions, what time have we for any thing but +reciting our creed, meditating on the atonement, and seeking to +secure an interest for ourselves with God by flouting at our +carnal reason, praying in church, and groaning, "Lord, Lord, have +mercy on us miserable sinners"? What folly, what mockery, to be +searching into the motions of the stars, and the occult forces of +matter, and the other beautiful mysteries of science! There will +be no astronomy in hell, save vain speculations as to the distance +between the nadir of the damned and the zenith of the saved; no +chemistry in hell, save the experiments of infinite wrath in +distilling new torture poisons in the alembics of memory and +depositing fresh despair sediments in the crucibles of hope. If +Calvin's doctrine be true, let no book be printed, save the +"Westminster Catechism;" no calculation be ciphered, save how to +"solve the problem of damnation;" no picture be painted, save +"pictures of hell;" no school be supported, save "schools of +theology;" no business be pursued, save "the business of +salvation." What have men who are in imminent peril, who are in +truth almost infallibly sure, of being eternally damned the next +instant, what have they to do with science, literature, art, +social ambition, or commerce? Away with them all! Lures of the +devil to snare souls are they! The world reflecting from every +corner the lurid glare of hell, who can do any thing else but +shudder and pray? "Who could spare any attention for the +vicissitudes of cotton and the price of shares, for the merits of +the last opera and the bets upon the next election, if the actors +in these things were really swinging in his eye over such a verge +as he affects to see?" + +Thirdly, those who believe the popular theory on this subject are +bound to live in cheap huts, on bread and water, that they may +devote to the sending of missionaries among the heathen every cent +of money they can get beyond that required for the bare +necessities of life. If our neighbor were perishing of hunger at +our door, it would be our duty to share with him even to the last +crust we had. How much more, then, seeing millions of our poor +helpless brethren sinking ignorantly into the eternal fires of +hell, are we bound to spare no possible effort until the +conditions of salvation are brought within the reach of every one! +An American missionary to China said, in a public address after +his return, "Fifty thousand a day go down to the fire that is not +quenched. Six hundred millions more are going the same road. +Should you not think at least once a day of the fifty thousand who +that day sink to the doom of the lost?" The American Board of +Commissioners of Foreign Missions say, "To send the gospel to the +heathen is a work of great exigency. Within the last thirty years +a whole generation of five hundred millions have gone down to +eternal death." Again: the same Board say, in their tract entitled +"The Grand Motive to Missionary Effort," "The heathen are involved +in the ruins of the apostasy, and are expressly doomed to +perdition. Six hundred millions of deathless souls on the brink of +hell! What a spectacle!" How a man who thinks the heathen are thus +sinking to hell by wholesale through ignorance of the gospel can +live in a costly house, crowded with luxuries and splendors, +spending every week more money on his miserable body than he gives +in his whole life to save the priceless souls for which he says +Christ died, is a problem admitting but two solutions. Either his +professed faith is an unreality to him, or else he is as selfish +as a demon and as hard hearted as the nether millstone. If he +really believed the doctrine, and had a human heart, he must feel +it to be his duty to deny himself every indulgence and give his +whole fortune and earnings to the missionary fund. And when he had +given all else, he ought to give himself, and go to pagan lands, +proclaiming the means of grace until his last breath. If he does +not that, he is inexcusable. + +Should he attempt to clear himself of this obligation by adopting +the theory of predestination, which asserts that all men were +unconditionally elected from eternity, some to heaven, others to +hell, so that no effort can change their fate, logical consistency +reduces him to an alternative more intolerable in the eyes of +conscience and common sense than the other was. For by this theory +the gates of freedom and duty are hoisted, and the dark flood of +antinomian consequences rushes in. All things are fated. Let men +yield to every impulse and wish. The result is fixed. We have +nothing to do. Good or evil, virtue or crime, alter nothing. + +Fourthly, if the common doctrine of eternal damnation be true, +then surely no more children should be brought into the world: it +is a duty to let the race die out and cease. He who begets a +child, forcing him to run the fearful risk of human existence, +with every probability of being doomed to hell at the close of +earth, commits a crime before whose endless consequences of horror +the guilt of fifty thousand deliberate murders would be as +nothing. For, be it remembered, an eternity in hell is an infinite +evil; and therefore the crime of thrusting such a fate on a single +child, with the unasked gift of being, is a crime admitting of no +just comparison. Rather than populate an everlasting hell with +human vipers and worms, a hell whose fires, alive and wriggling +with ghastly shapes of iniquity and anguish, shall swell with a +vast accession of fresh recruits from every generation, rather +than this, let the sacred lights on the marriage altar go out, no +more bounding forms of childhood be seen in cottage or hall, the +race grow old, thin out, and utterly perish, all happy villages be +overgrown, all regal cities crumble down, and this world roll +among the silent stars henceforth a globe of blasted deserts and +rank wildernesses, resonant only with the shrieks of the wind, the +yells of wild beasts, and the thunder's crash. + +Fifthly, there is one more conclusion of moral duty deducible from +the prevalent theory of infinite torment. It is this. God ought +not to have permitted Adam to have any children. Let us not seem +presumptuous and irreverent in speaking thus. We are merely +reasoning on the popular theory of the theologians, not on any +supposition of our own or on any truth; and by showing the +absurdity and blasphemy of the moral consequences and duties +flowing from that theory, the absurdity, blasphemy, and +incredibility of the theory itself appear. We are not responsible +for the irreverence, but they are responsible for it who charge +God with the iniquity which we repel from his name. If the sin of +Adam must entail total depravity and an infinite penalty of +suffering on all his posterity, who were then certainly innocent +because not in existence, then, we ask, why did not God cause the +race to stop with Adam, and so save all the needless and cruel woe +that would otherwise surely be visited on the lengthening line of +generations? Or, to go still further back, why did he not, +foreseeing Adam's fall, refrain from creating even him? There was +no necessity laid on God of creating Adam. No positive evil would +have been done by omitting to create him. An infinite evil, +multiplied by the total number of the lost, was done by creating +him. Why, then, was he not left in peaceful nonentity? On the +Augustinian theory we see no way of escaping this awful dilemma. +Who can answer the question which rises to heaven from the abyss +of the damned? "Father of mercies, why from silent earth Didst +thou awake and curse me into birth, Push into being a reverse of +thee, And animate a clod with misery?" + +Satan is a sort of sublime Guy Fawkes, lurking in the infernal +cellar, preparing the train of that stupendous Gunpowder Plot by +which he hopes, on the day of judgment, to blow up the world +parliament of unbelievers with a general petard of damnation. Will +the King connive at this nefarious prowler and permit him to carry +out his design? + +The doctrine of eternal damnation, as it has prevailed in the +Christian Church, appears to the natural man so unreasonable, +immoral, and harrowingly frightful, when earnestly contemplated, +that there have always been some who have shrunk from its +representations and sought to escape its conclusions. Many of its +strongest advocates in every age have avowed it to be a fearful +mystery, resting on the inscrutable sovereignty of God, and beyond +the power of man's faculties to explain and justify. The dogma has +been eluded in two ways. Some have believed in the annihilation of +the wicked after they should have undergone just punishment +proportioned to their sins. This supposition has had a +considerable number of advocates. It was maintained, among others, +by Arnobius, at the close of the third century, by the Socini, by +Dr. Hammond, and by some of the New England divines.26 All that +need be said in opposition to it is that it is an arbitrary device +to avoid the intolerable horror of the doctrine of endless misery, +unsupported by proof, extremely unsatisfactory in many of its +bearings, and really not needed to achieve the consummation +desired. + +Others have more wisely maintained that all will finally be saved: +however severely and long they may justly suffer, they will at +last all be mercifully redeemed by God and admitted to the common +heaven. Defenders of the doctrine of ultimate universal salvation +have appeared from the beginning of Christian history.27 During +the last century and a half their numbers have rapidly +increased.28 A dignified and influential class of theologians, +represented by such names as Tillotson. Bahrdt, and Less, say that +the threats of eternal punishment, in the Scriptures, are +exaggerations to deter men from sin, and that God will not really +execute them, but will mercifully abate and limit them.29 Another +class of theologians, much more free, consistent, and numerous, +base their reception of the doctrine of final restoration on +figurative explanations of the scriptural language seemingly +opposed to it, and on arguments drawn from the character of God, +from reason, and from morals. This view of the subject is +spreading fast. All independent, genial, and cultivated thought +naturally leads to it. The central principles of the gospel +necessitate it. The spirit of the age cries for it. Before it the +old antagonistic dogma must fall and perish from respect. Dr. +Spring says, in reference to the hopeless condemnation of the +wicked to hell, "It puts in requisition all our confidence + +26 This theory bas been resuscitated and advocated within a few +years by quite a number of writers, among whom may be specified +the Rev. C. F. Hudson, author of "Debt and Grace," a learned, +earnest, and able work, pervaded by an admirable spirit. + +27 Ballou, Ancient History of Universalism. + +28 Whittemore, Modern History of Universalism. + +29 Knapp, Christian Theology, Woods's translation, sect. 158. + + +in God to justify this procedure of his government."30 + +A few devout and powerful minds have sought to avoid the gross +horrors and unreasonableness of the usual view of this subject, by +changing the mechanical and arithmetical values of the terms for +spiritual and religious values. They give the word "eternity" a +qualitative instead of a quantitative meaning. The everlasting woe +of the damned consists not in mechanical inflictions of torture +and numerical increments of duration, but in spiritual discord, +alienation from God, a wretched state of being, with which times +and spaces have nothing to do.31 + +How much better were it for the advocates of the popular theory, +instead of forcing their moral nature to bear up against the awful +perplexities and misgivings as to the justice and goodness of God +necessarily raised in them whenever they really face the dark +problems of their system of faith,32 resolutely to ask whether +there are any such problems in the actual government of God, or +anywhere else, except in their own "Bodies of Divinity"! It is an +extremely unfortunate and discreditable evasion of responsibility +when any man, especially when a teacher, takes for granted the +received formularies handed down to him, and, instead of honestly +analyzing their genuine significance and probing their foundations +to see if they be good and true, spends his genius in contriving +excuses and supports for them. + +It is the very worst policy at this day to strive to fasten the +dogma of eternal misery to the New Testament. If both must be +taken or rejected together, an alternative which we emphatically +deny, what sincere and earnest thinker now, whose will is +unterrifiedly consecrated to truth, can be expected to hesitate +long? The doctrine is sustained in repute at present principally +for two reasons. First, because it has been transmitted to us from +the Church of the past as the established and authoritative +doctrine. It is yet technically current and popular because it has +been so: that is, it retains its place simply by right of +possession. The question ought to be sincerely and universally +raised whether it is true or false. Then it will swiftly lose its +prestige and disappear. Secondly, it is upheld and patronized by +many as a useful instrument for frightening the people and through +their fears deterring them from sin. We have ourselves heard +clergymen of high reputation say that it would never do to admit, +before the people, that there is any chance whatever of penitence +and salvation beyond the grave, because they would be sure to +abuse the hope as a sort of permission to indulge and continue in +sin. Thus to ignore the only solemn and worthy standard of judging +an abstract doctrine, namely, Is it a truth or a falsehood? and +put it solely on grounds of working expediency, is disgraceful, +contemptible, criminal. Watts exposes with well merited rebuke a +gross instance of pious frail in Burnet, who advised preachers to +teach the eternity of future punishment whether they believed it +or not.33 It is by such a course that error and superstition +reign, that truckling conformity, intellectual disloyalty, moral +indifference, vice, and infidelity, abound. It is practical +atheism, debauchery of conscience, and genuine spiritual + +30 Glory of Christ, vol. ii. p. 268. + +31 Lange, Positive Dogmatik, sect. 131: Die Aeonen der Verdammten. +Maurice, Theological Essays: Future Punishment. + +32 See Beecher's Conflict of Ages, b. ii. ch. 4, 13. + +33 World to Come, Disc. XIII. + + +death. Besides, the course we are characterizing is actually as +inexpedient in practice as it is wrong in theory. Experience and +observation show it to be as pernicious in its result as it is +immoral in its origin. Is a threat efficacious over men in +proportion to its intrinsic terror, or in proportion as it is +personally felt and feared by them? Do the menacing penalties of a +sin deter a man from it in proportion to their awfulness, or in +proportion to his belief in their reality and unavoidableness? +Eternal misery would be a threat of infinite frightfulness, if it +were realized and believed. But it is incredible. Some reject it +with indignation and an impetuous recoil that sends them much too +far towards antinomianism. Others let it float in the spectral +background of imagination, the faint reflection of a disagreeable +and fading dream. To all it is an unreality. An earnest belief in +a sure retribution exactly limited to desert must be far more +effective. If an individual had a profound conviction that for +every sin he committed he must suffer a million centuries of +inexpressible anguish, realizing that thought, would he commit a +sin? + +If he cannot appreciate that enormous penalty, much less can he +the infinite one, which is far more likely to shade off and blur +out into a vague and remote nothing. Truth is an expression of +God's will, which we are bound exclusively to accept and employ +regardless of consequences. When we do that, God, the author of +truth, is himself solely responsible for the consequences. But +when, thinking we can devise something that will work better, we +use some theory of our own, we are responsible for the +consequences. Let every one beware how he ventures to assume that +dread responsibility. It is surely folly as well as sin. For +nothing can work so well as truth, the simple, calm, living truth, +which is a chime in the infinite harmony of morals and things. It +is only the morbid melodramatic tastes and incompetencies of an +unfinished culture that make men think otherwise. The magnificent +poetry of the day of judgment an audience of five hundred thousand +millions gathered in one throng as the Judge rises to pronounce +the last oration over a dissolving universe takes possession of +the fancy, and people conceive it so vividly, and are so moved by +it, that they think they see it to be true. + +Grant for a moment the truth of the conception of hell as a +physical world of fiery torture full of the damned. Suppose the +scene of probation over, hell filled with its prisoners shut up, +banished and buried in the blackest deeps of space. Can it be left +there forever? Can it be that the roar of its furnace shall rage +on, and the wail of the execrable anguish ascend, eternally? +Endeavor to realize in some faint degree what these questions +mean, and then answer. If anybody can find it in his heart or in +his head to say yes, and can gloat over the idea, and wish to have +it continually brandished in terrorem over the heads of the +people, one feels impelled to declare that he of all men the most +needs to be converted to the Christian spirit. An unmitigated hell +of depravity, pain, and horror, would be Satan's victory and God's +defeat; for the very wish of a Satanic being must be for the +everlasting prevalence of sin and wretchedness. As above the +weltering hosts of the lost, each dreadful second, the iron clock +of hell ticked the thunder word "eternity," how would the devil on +his sulphurous dais shout in triumph! But if such a world of fire, +crowded with the writhing damned, ever existed at all, could it +exist forever? + +Could the saved be happy and passive in heaven when the muffled +shrieks of their brethren, faint from the distance, fell on their +ears? In tones of love and pity that would melt the very +mountains, they would plead with God to pardon and free the lost. +Many a mourning lover would realize the fable of the Thracian poet +who wandered into Hades searching for his Eurydice; many a heroic +son would emulate the legend of the Grecian god who burst through +the iron walls of Tartarus and rescued his mother, the unfortunate +Semele, and led her in triumph up to heaven. + +Could the angels be contented when they contemplated the far off +lurid orb and knew the agonies that fed its conscious conflagration? +Their gentle bosoms would be racked with commiserating pangs, +they would fly down and hover around that anguished world, +to moisten its parched tongues with the dropping of their sympathetic +tears and to cool its burning brows with the fanning of their wings. + +Could Christ be satisfied? he who once was rich but for our sakes +became poor? he whose loving soul breathed itself forth in the +tender words, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy +laden, and I will give you rest"? he who poured his blood on +Judea's awful summit, be satisfied? Not until he had tried the +efficacy of ten thousand fresh crucifixions, on as many new +Calvaries, would he rest. + +Could God suffer it? God! with the full rivers of superfluous +bliss rolling around thy throne, couldst thou look down and hear +thy creatures calling thee Father, and see them plunging in a sea +of fire eternally eternally eternally and never speak the +pardoning word? It would not be like thee, it would be like thine +adversary to do that. Not so wouldst thou do. But if Satan had +millions of prodigals, snatched from the fold of thy family, shut +up and tortured in hell, paternal yearnings after them would fill +thy heart. Love's smiles would light the dread abyss where they +groan. Pity's tears would fall over it, shattered by the radiance +into rainbows. And through that illumination THOU wouldst descend, +marching beneath the arch of its triumphal glories to the rescue +of thy children! Therefore we rest in hope, knowing that "Thou +wilt not leave our souls in hell." + +CHAPTER V. + +THE FIVE THEORETIC MODES OF SALVATION. + +THE conceptions and fore feelings of immortality which men have +entertained have generally been accompanied by a sense of +uncertainty in regard to the nature of that inheritance, by a +perception of contingent conditions, yielding a twofold fate of +bliss and woe, poised on the perilous hinge of circumstance or +freedom. Almost as often and profoundly, indeed, as man has +thought that he should live hereafter, that idea has been followed +by the belief that if, on the one hand, salvation gleamed for him +in the possible sky, on the other hand perdition yawned for him in +the probable abyss. Heaven and Hell are the light side and shade +side of the doctrine of a future life. Few questions are more +interesting, as none can be more important, than that inquiry +which is about the salvation of the soul. The inherent reach of +this inquiry, and the extent of its philosophical and literary +history, are great. But, by arranging under certain heads the +various principal schemes of salvation which Christian teachers +have from time to time presented for popular acceptance, and +passing them before the mind in order and in mutual lights, we can +very much narrow the space required to exhibit and discuss them. +When the word "salvation" occurs in the following investigation, +it means unless something different be shown by the context the +removal of the soul's doom to misery beyond the grave, and the +securing of its future blessedness. Heaven and hell are terms +employed with wide latitude and fluctuating boundaries of literal +and figurative meaning; but their essential force is simply a +future life of wretchedness, a future life of joy; and salvation, +in its prevailing theological sense, is the avoidance of that and +the gaining of this. We shall not attempt to present the different +theories of redemption in their historical order of development, +or to give an exhaustive account of their diversified prevalence, +but shall arrange them with reference to the most perspicuous +exhibition of their logical contents and practical bearings. + +The first scheme of Christian salvation to be noticed is the one +by which it is represented that the interference and suffering of +Christ, in itself, unconditionally saved all souls and emptied +hell forever. This theory arose in the minds of those who received +it as the natural and consistent completion of the view they held +concerning the nature and consequences of the fall of Adam, the +cause and extent of the lost state of man. Adam, as the federal +head of humanity, represented and acted for his whole race: the +responsibility of his decision rested, the consequences of his +conduct would legitimately descend, it was thought, upon all +mankind. If he had kept himself obedient through that easy yet +tremendous probation in Eden, he and all his children would have +lived on earth eternally in perfect bliss. But, violating the +commandment of God, the burden of sin, with its terrible penalty, +fell on him and his posterity. Every human being was henceforth to +be alien from the love of goodness and from the favor of God, +hopelessly condemned to death and the pains of hell. The sin of +Adam, it was believed, thoroughly corrupted the nature of man, and +incapacitated him from all successful efforts to save his soul +from its awful doom. The infinite majesty of God's will, the law +of the universe, had been insulted by disobedience. The only just +retribution was the suffering of an endless death. The adamantine +sanctities of God's government made forgiveness impossible. Thus +all men were lost, to be the prey of blackness, and fire, and the +undying worm, through the remediless ages of eternity. Just then +God had pity on the souls he had made, and himself came to the +rescue. In the person of Christ, he came into the world as a man, +and freely took upon himself the infinite debt of man's sins, by +his death on the cross expiated all offences, satisfied the claims +of offended justice, vindicated the inexpressible sacredness of +the law, and, at the same time, opened a way by which a full and +free reconciliation was extended to all. When the blood of Jesus +flowed over the cross, it purchased the ransom of every sinner. As +Jerome says, "it quenched the flaming sword at the entrance of +Paradise." The weary multitude of captives rose from their bed, +shook off the fetters and stains of the pit, and made the cope of +heaven snowy with their white winged ascent. The prison house of +the devil and his angels should be used no more to confine the +guilty souls of men.1 Their guilt was all washed away in the blood +of the Lamb. Their spirits, without exception, should follow to +the right hand of the Father, in the way marked out by the +ascending Redeemer. This is the first form of Universalism, the +form in which it was held by several of the Fathers in the earlier +ages of the Church, and by the pioneers of that doctrine in modern +times. Cyril of Jerusalem says, "Christ went into the under world +alone, but came out with many." 2 Cyril of Alexandria says that +when Christ ascended from the under world he "emptied it, and left +the devil there utterly alone." 3 The opinion that the whole +population of Hades was released, is found in the lists of ancient +heresies.4 It was advanced by Clement, an Irish priest, antagonist +of Boniface the famous Archbishop of Mentz, in the middle of the +eighth century. He was deposed by the Council of Soissons, and +afterwards anathematized by Pope Zachary. Gregory the Great also +refers in one of his letters with extreme severity to two +ecclesiastics, contemporaries of his own, who held the same +belief. Indeed, this conclusion is a necessary result of a +consistent development of the creed of the Orthodox Church, so +called. By the sin of one, even Adam, through the working of +absolute justice, hell became the portion of all, irrespective of +any fault or virtue of theirs; so, by the voluntary sacrifice, the +infinite atonement, of one, even Christ, through the unspeakable +mercy of God, salvation was effected for all, irrespective of any +virtue or fault of theirs. One member of the scheme is the exact +counterpoise of the other; one doctrine cries out for and +necessitates the other. Those who accept the commonly received +dogmas of original sin, total depravity, and universal +condemnation entailed upon all men in lineal descent from Adam, +and the dogmas of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Vicarious +Atonement, are bound, by all the constructions of logic, to accept +the scheme of salvation just set forth, namely, that the death of +Christ secured the deliverance of all unconditionally. We do not +believe that doctrine, only because we do not believe the other +associated doctrines out of which it springs and of whose system +it is the complement. + +1 Doederlein, De Redemptione a Potestate Diaboli. In Opuse. +Theolog. + +2 Catechesis xis. 9. + +3 De Festis Paschalibus, homilia vii. + +4 Augustine, De Haresibus, lxxix. + + +The reasons why we do not believe that our race fell into helpless +depravity and ruin in the sin of the first man are, in essence, +briefly these: First, we have never been able to perceive any +proof whatever of the truth of that dogma; and certainly the onus +probandi rests on the side of such an assumption. It arose +partially from a misinterpretation of the language of the Bible; +and so far as it has a basis in Scripture, we are compelled by +force of evidence to regard it as a Jewish adoption of a pagan +error without authority. Secondly, this doctrinal system seems to +us equally irreconcilable with history and with ethics: it seems +to trample on the surest convictions of reason and conscience, and +spurn the clearest principles of nature and religion, to blacken +and load the heart and doom of man with a mountain of gratuitous +horror, and shroud the face and throne of God in a pall of wilful +barbarity. How can men be guilty of a sin committed thousands of +years before they were born, and deserve to be sent to hopeless +hell for it? What justice is there in putting on one sinless head +the demerits of a world of reprobates, and then letting the +criminal go free because the innocent has suffered? A third +objection to this whole view an objection which, if sustained, +will utterly annihilate it is this: It is quite possible that, +momentous as is the part he has played in theology, the Biblical +Adam is not at all a historical personage, but only a significant +figment of poetry. The common belief of the most authoritative men +of science, that the human race has existed on this earth for a +vastly longer period than the Hebrew statement affirms, may yet be +completely established. It may also yet be acknowledged that each +distinct race of men had its own Adam.5 Then the dogmatic +theology, based on the fall of our entire race into perdition in +its primary representative, will, of course, crumble. + +The second doctrine of Christian salvation is a modification and +limitation of the previous one. This theory, like the former, +presupposes that a burden of original sin and natural depravity +transmitted from the first man had doomed, and, unless prevented +in some supernatural manner, would forever press, all souls down +to the realms of ruin and woe; also that an infinite graciousness +in the bosom of the Godhead led Christ to offer himself as an +expiation for the sins, an atoning substitute for the condemnation, +of men. But, according to the present view, this interference +of Christ did not by itself save the lost: it only removed +the otherwise insuperable bar to forgiveness, and presented +to a chosen portion of mankind the means of experiencing +a condition upon the realization of which, in each individual +case, the certainty of salvation depends. That condition is a +mysterious conversion, stirring the depths of the soul through an +inspired faith in personal election by the unchanging decree of +God. The difference, then, in a word, between the two methods of +salvation thus far explained, is this: While both assume that +mankind are doomed to death and hell in consequence of the sin of +Adam, the one asserts that the interference of Christ of itself +saved all souls, the other asserts that that interference cannot +save any soul except those whom God, of his sovereign pleasure, +had from eternity arbitrarily elected.6 This scheme grew directly +out of the dogma of fatalism, which sinks human freedom in Divine +predestination. God having solely of his + +5 Burdach, Carus, Oken, Bayrhoffer, Agassiz. See Bunsen, +Christianity and Mankind, vol. iv. p. 28; Mott and Gliddon, Types +of Mankind, p. 338. + +6 Confession of Faith of Westminster Divines, ch. iii. sect. 3. + + +own will foreordained that a certain number of mankind should be +saved, Christ died in order to pay the penalty of their sins and +render it possible for them to be forgiven and taken into heaven +without violating the awful bond of justice. The benefits of the +atonement, therefore, are limited to the elect. Nor is this to be +regarded as an act of severity; on the contrary, it is an act of +unspeakable benevolence. For by the sin of Adam the whole race of +men, without exception, were hateful to God, and justly sentenced +to eternal damnation. When, consequently, he devised a plan of +redemption by which he could himself bear the guilt, and suffer +the agony, and pay the debt of a few, and thus ransom them from +their doom, the reprobates who were left had no right to complain, +but the chosen were a monument of disinterested love, because all +alike deserved the endless tortures of hell. According to this +conception, all men being by their ancestral act and inherited +nature irretrievably lost, God's arbitrary pleasure was the cause, +Christ's voluntary death was the means, by which a certain number +were to be saved. What individuals should compose this portion of +the race, was determined from eternity beyond all contingencies. +The effect of faith and conversion, and of the new birth, is not +to save the soul, but simply to convince the soul that it is +saved. That is to say, a regenerating belief and love is not the +efficient cause, it is merely the revealed assurance, of +salvation, proving to the soul that feels it, by the testimony of +the Holy Spirit, that it is of the chosen number. The preaching of +the gospel is to be extended everywhere, not for the purpose of +saving those who would otherwise be lost, but because its +presentation will awaken in the elect, and in them alone, that +responsive experience which will reveal their election to them, +and make them sure of it, already foretasting it; though it is +thought that no one can be saved who is ignorant of the gospel: it +is mysteriously ordered that the terms of the covenant shall be +preached to all the elect. There are correlated complexities, +miracles, absurdities, in wrought with the whole theory, +inseparable from it. The violence it does to nature, to thought, +to love, to morals, its arbitrariness, its mechanical form, the +wrenching exegesis by which alone it can be forced from the +Bible,7 its glaring partiality and eternal cruelty, are its +sufficient refutation and condemnation. If the death of Christ has +such wondrous saving efficacy, and nothing else has, what keeps +him from dying again to convince the unbelieving and to save the +lost? What man is there who, if he knew that, after thirty years +of suffering terminated by a fearful death, he should rise again +into boundless bliss and glory while rapt infinitude rung with the +paans of an applauding universe, and that by means of his +humiliation he could redeem countless millions from eternal +torture, would not with a joyous spring undertake the task? And is +a common man better than Christ? + +The third general plan of Christian salvation which we are to +consider differs from the foregoing one in several essential +particulars. It affirms the free will of man in opposition to a +fatal predestination. It declares that the atonement is sufficient +to redeem not only a portion of our race, but all who will put +themselves in right spiritual relations with it. In a word, while +it admits that some will actually be lost forever, it asserts that +no one is doomed + +7 Schweizer, Die Lehre des Apostels Paulus vom erlosenden Tode +Christi. Theologische Studien und Kritiken, Jahrg. 1858, heft 3. + + +to be lost, but that the offer of pardon is made to every soul, +and that every one has power to accept or reject it. The sacrifice +of the incarnate Deity vindicated the majesty of the law, appeased +the wrath of God, and purchased his saving favor towards all who, +by a sound and earnest faith, seize the proffered justification, +throw off all reliance on their own works, and present themselves +before the throne of mercy clothed in the righteousness and +sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Here the appropriation of the +merits of Christ, through an orthodox and vivifying faith, is the +real cause as well as the experimental assurance of salvation. +This is free to all. As the brazen serpent was hoisted in the +wilderness, and the scorpion bitten Israelites invited to look on +it and be healed, so the crucified God is lifted up, and all men, +everywhere, are urged to kneel before him, accept his atonement, +and thus enable his righteousness to be imputed to them, and their +souls to be saved. The vital condition of salvation is an +appropriating faith in the vicarious atonement. Without this no +one can be saved. Thus with one word and a single breath whole +nations and races are whiffed into hell. All that the good hearted +Luther could venture to say of Cicero, whom he deeply admired and +loved, was the kind ejaculation, "I hope God will be merciful to +him!" To those who appreciate it with hostility, and look on all +things in its light, the thought that there can be no salvation +except by belief in the expiatory death of Christ, hopelessly +dooming all the heathen,8 and all infant children, unless baptized +in a proxy faith,9 builds an altar of blood among the stars and +makes the universe reek with horror. Other crimes, though stained +through with midnight dyes and heaped up to the brim of outrageous +guilt, may be freely forgiven to him who comes heartily to credit +the vicarious death of the Savior; but he who does not trust in +that, though virtuous as man can be, must depart into the +unappeasable fires. "Why this unintelligible crime of not seeing +the atonement happens to be the only sin for which there is no +atonement, it is impossible to say." Though this view of the +method, extent, and conditions of redemption is less revolting and +incredible than the other, still, it does not seem to us that any +person whose mental and moral nature is unprejudiced, healthy, and +enlightened, and who will patiently study the subject, can +possibly accept either of them. The leading assumed doctrines +common to them, out of which they severally spring, and on which +they both rest, are not only unsupported by adequate proofs, but +really have no evidence at all, and are absurd in themselves, +confounding the broadest distinctions in morals, and subverting +the best established principles of natural religion.10 + +The fourth scheme of Christian salvation is that which predicates +the power of insuring souls from hell solely of the Church. This +is the sacramental theory. It is assumed that, in the state of +nature subsequent to the transgression and fall of Adam, all men +are alienated from God, and by the universal original sin +universally exposed to damnation, indeed, the helpless victims of +eternal misery. In the fulness of time, Christ appeared, and +offered himself to suffer in their stead to secure their +deliverance. His death cancelled the whole sum of + +8 Bretschneider, Entwickelung der Dogmatik, sect. 112, Nos. 37 50. + +9 So affirmed by the Council of Carthage, Canon II. + +10 The violence done to moral reason by these views is powerfully +exposed in Bushnell's Discourse on the Atonement: God in Christ, +pp. 193-202. + + +original sin, and only that, thus taking away the absolute +impossibility of salvation, and leaving every man in the world +free to stand or fall, incur hell or win heaven, by his personal +merits. From that time any person who lived a perfectly holy life +which no man could find practically possible thereby secured +eternal blessedness; but the moment he fell into a single sin, +however trivial, he sealed his condemnation: Christ's sacrifice, +as was just said, merely removed the transmitted burden of +original sin from all mankind, but made no provision for their +personal sins, so that practically, all men being voluntary as +well as hereditary sinners, their condition was as bad as before: +they were surely lost. To meet this state of the case, the Church, +whose priests, it is claimed, are the representatives of Christ, +and whose head is the vicegerent of God on earth, was empowered by +the celebration of the mass to re enact, as often as it pleased, +the tragedy of the crucifixion. In this service Christ is supposed +literally to be put to death afresh, and the merit of his +substitutional sufferings is supposed to be placed to the account +of the Church.11 As Sir Henry Wotton says, "One rosy drop from +Jesus' heart Was worlds of seas to quench God's ire." + +In one of the Decretals of Clement VI., called "Extravagants," it +is asserted that "one drop of Christ's blood [una guttula +sanguinis] being sufficient to redeem the whole human race, the +remaining quantity which was shed in the garden and on the cross +was left as a legacy to the Church, to be a treasure whence +indulgences were to be drawn and administered by the Roman +pontiffs." Furthermore, saints and martyrs, by their constant self +denial, voluntary sufferings, penances, and prayers, like Christ, +do more good works than are necessary for their own salvation; and +the balance of merit the works of supererogation is likewise +accredited to the Church. In this way a great reserved fund of +merits is placed at the disposal of the priests. At their pleasure +they can draw upon this vicarious treasure and substitute it in +place of the deserved penalties of the guilty, and thus absolve +them and effect the salvation of their souls. All this dread +machinery is in the sole power of the Church. Outside of her pale, +heretics, heathen, all alike, are unalterably doomed to hell. But +whoso will acknowledge her authority, confess his sins, receive +the sacrament of baptism, partake of the eucharist, obey the +priests, shall be infallibly saved. The Church declares that those +who neglect to submit to her power and observe her rites are lost, +by excommunicating such every year just before Easter, thereby +typifying that they shall have no part in the resurrection and +ascension. The scheme of salvation just exhibited we reject as +alike unwarranted by the Scriptures, absurd to reason, absurd to +conscience, fraught with evil practices, and traceable in history +through the gradual and corrupt growths of the dogmatic policy of +an interested body. There is not one text in the Bible which +affords real argument, credit, or countenance to the haughty +pretensions of a Church to retain or absolve guilt, to have the +exclusive control of the tangible keys of heaven and hell. It is +incredible to a free and intelligent mind that the opposing fates +forever of hundreds of millions of men should turn on a mere +accident of time + +11 Thomas Aquinas, Summa, Suppl. pars iii. qu. 25, art. 1. + + +and place, or at best on the moral contingence of their +acknowledging or denying the doubtful authority of a tyrannical +hierarchy, a mere matter of form and profession, independent of +their lives and characters, and of no spiritual worth at all. One +is here reminded of a passage in Plutarch's Essay "How a Young Man +ought to hear Poems." The lines in Sophocles which declare that +the initiates in the Mysteries shall be happy in the future life, +but that all others shall be wretched, having been read to +Diogenes, he exclaimed, "What! Shall the condition of Pantacion, +the notorious robber, be better after death than that of +Epaminondas, merely because he was initiated in the Mysteries?" It +is also a shocking violence to common sense, and to all proper +appreciation of spiritual realities, to imagine the gross +mechanical transference of blame and merit mutually between the +bad and the good, as if moral qualities were not personal, but +might be shifted about at will by pecuniary considerations, as the +accounts in the debt and credit columns of a ledger. The theoretic +falsities of such a scheme are as numerous and evident as its +practical abuses have been enormous and notorious. How ridiculous +this ritual fetch to snatch souls from perdition appears as stated +by Julian against Augustine! "God and the devil, then, have +entered into a covenant, that what is born the devil shall have, +and what is baptized God shall have!"12 We hesitate not to stake +the argument on one question. If there be no salvation save by +believing and accepting the sacraments with the authority of the +Romanist or the Episcopalian Church, then less than one in a +hundred thousand of the world's population thus far can be saved. +Death steadily showers into hell, age after age, an overwhelming +proportion of the souls of all mankind, a rain storm of agonized +drops of immortality to feed and freshen the quenchless fires of +damnation. Who can believe it, knowing what it is that he +believes? + +We advance next to a system of Christian salvation as remarkable +for its simplicity, boldness, and instinctive benevolence as those +we have previously examined are for complexity, unnaturalness, and +severity. The theory referred to promises the natural and +inevitable salvation of every created soul. It bases itself on two +positions, the denial that men are ever lost, except partially and +temporarily, and the exhibition of the irresistible power, perfect +wisdom, and infinite goodness of God. The advocates of this +doctrine point first to observation and experience, and declare +that no person is totally reprobate, that every one is salvable; +those most corrupt and abandoned to wickedness, unbelief, and +hardness, have yet a spark that may be kindled, a fount that may +be made to gush, unto the illumination and purification of the +whole being. A stray word, an unknown influence, a breath of the +Spirit, is continually effecting such changes, such salvations. +True, there are many fettered by vices, torn by sins, ploughed by +the caustic shares of remorse, lost to peaceful freedom, lost to +spiritual joys, lost to the sweet, calm raptures of religious +belief and love, and, in that sense, plunged in damnation. But +this, they say, is the only hell there is. At the longest, it can +endure but for the night of this life: deliverance and blessedness +come with the morning dawn of a better world. Exact retributions +are awarded to all iniquity here; so + +12 Julian, lib. vi. ix. + + +that at the termination of the present state there is nothing to +prevent the flowing of an equal bliss impartially over all. The +substantive faculties and forces of the soul are always good and +right: only their action is perverted to evil.13 This perversion +will cease with the accidents of the present state; and thus death +is the door to salvation. God's desires and intentions for his +creatures, again they argue, must be purely gracious and blessed; +for Nature, the Bible, and the Soul blend their ultimate teachings +in one affirmation that he is Love. Being omnipotent and of +perfect wisdom, nothing can withstand his decrees or thwart his +plans. His purpose, of course, must be fulfilled. There is every +thing to prove, and nothing, rightly understood, to disprove, that +that purpose is the eternal blessedness of all his intelligent +offspring after death. Therefore, they think they are justified in +concluding, the laws of nature, God's regular habits and course of +government, the normal arrangement and process of things, will of +themselves work out the inevitable salvation of all mankind. After +the uproar and darkness, the peril and fear, of a tempestuous +night, the all embracing smile of daylight gradually spreads over +the world, and the turmoil silently subsides, and the scene +sleeps. So after the sins and miseries, the condemnation and hell, +of this state of existence, shall succeed the redemption, the +holiness and happy peace, of heaven, into which all pass by the +order of nature, the original and undisturbed arrangement of the +creative Father. This view is advanced by some on grounds both of +revelation and reason. It is the doctrine of those Beghards who +taught that "there is neither hell nor purgatory; that no one is +damned, neither Jew nor Saracen, because on the death of the body +the soul returns to God."14 But the proper doctrine of the +Universalist denomination is founded directly on Scripture, and +seems now to be simply the absolute certainty of final salvation +for all. Balfour held that Christ, in obedience to the will of +God, secures eternal life for all men in the most literal manner, +by causing the resurrection of the dead from their otherwise +endless sleep in the grave, a doctrine nearly or quite fossil +now.15 + +It will be noticed that by this view salvation is an unlimited +necessity, not a contingency, a boon thrown to all, and which no +one has power to reject: + +"The road to heaven is broader than the world, +And deeper than the kingdoms of the dead; +And up its ample paths the nations tread +With all their banners furl'd." + +This theory contains elements, it seems to us, both of truth and +falsehood. It casts off gross mistakes, announces some fundamental +realities, overlooks, perverts, exaggerates, some essential facts +in the case. There is so much in it that is grateful and beautiful +that we cannot wonder at its reception where the tender instincts +of the heart are stronger than the stern decisions of the +conscience, where the kindly sentiments usurp the province of the +critical reason and sit in judgment upon evidence for the +construction of a dogmatic creed. We + +13 Universalist Quarterly Review, vol. x. art. xvi.: Character and +its Predicates. + +14 Hagenbach, Dogmengeschichte, sect. 209, note 14. + +15 See Ballou, Examination of the Doctrine of Future Punishment, +pp. 152-157. Williamson, Exposition of Universalism, Sermon XL: +Nature of Salvation. Cobb, Compend. of Divinity, ch. ix. sect. 3. + + +cannot accept it as a whole, cannot admit its great unqualified +conclusion, not only because there is no direct evidence for it, +but because there are many potent presumptions against it. It is +not built upon the facts of our consciousness and present +experience, but is resolutely constructed in defiance of them by +an arbitrary process of assumption and inference; for since God's +perfections are as absolute now as they ever can be, and he now +permits sin and misery, there is no impossibility that they will +be permitted for a season hereafter. If they are necessary now, +they may be necessary hereafter. An experience of salvation by +all, regardless of what they do or what they leave undone, would +also defeat what we have always considered the chief final cause +of man, namely, the self determined resistance of Evil and choice +of Good, the free formation of virtuous character. The plan of a +necessary and indiscriminate redemption likewise breaks the +evident continuity of life, ignores the lineal causative power of +experience, whereby each moment partially produces and moulds the +next, destroys the probationary nature of our lot, and palsies the +strength of moral motive. It is furthermore the height of +injustice, awarding to all men the same condition, remorselessly +swallowing up their infinite differences, making sin and virtue, +sloth and toil, exactly alike in the end. Whose earnestly embraces +the theory, and meditates much upon it, and reasons closely, will +be likely to become an Antinomian. It overlooks the loud, +omnipresent hints which tell us that the present state is +incomplete and dependent, the part of a great whole, the visible +segment of a circle whose complement overarches the invisible +world to come, where future correspondences and fulnesses will +satisfy and complete present claims and deficiencies. We reject +this scheme, as to its distinctive feature, for all those reasons +which lead us to accept that final view to which we now turn. + +The theory of Christian redemption which seems to us correct, +represents the good and evil forces of personal character, +harmonious or discordant with the mind of God, as the conditions +of salvation or of reprobation. Swedenborg, who teaches that man +in the future state is the son of his own deeds in the present +state, says he once saw Melancthon in hell, writing, "Faith alone +saves," the words fading out as fast as written, because +expressive of a falsehood! It is not belief, but love, that +dominates the soul, not a mental act, but a spiritual substance. +According as the realities of the soul are what they should be, +just and pure, or what they should not be, perverted and corrupt, +and according as the realities of the soul are in right relations +with truth, beauty, goodness, or in vitiated relations with them, +so, and to that extent, is the soul saved or lost. This is not a +matter of arbitrary determination on one hand; and of helpless +submission on the other: it is a matter of Divine permission on +one hand, and of free, though sometimes unintelligent and +mistaken, choice on the other. The only perdition is to be out of +tune with the right constitution and exercise of things and rules. +That, of itself, makes a man the victim of guilt and wretchedness. +The only salvation is the restoration of the balance and normal +efficiency of the faculties, the restoration of their harmony with +the moral law, the recommencement of their action in unison with +the will of God. When a soul, through its exposure and freedom, +becomes and experiences what God did not intend and is not pleased +with, what his creative and executive arrangements are not +purposely ordered for, it is, for the time, and so far forth, +lost. It is saved, when knowledge of truth illuminates the mind, +love of goodness warms the heart, energy, purity, and aspiration +fill and animate the whole being. Then, having realized in its +experience the purposes of Christ's mission, the original aims of +its existence, it rejoices in the favor of God. In the harmonious +fruition of its internal efficiencies and external relations, all +things work together for good unto it, and it basks in the beams +of the sun of immortality. Perdition and hell are the condemnation +and misery instantaneously deposited in experience whenever and +wherever a perverted and corrupt soul touches its relations with +the universe. The meeting of its consciousness with the alienated +mournful faces of things, with the hostile retributive forces of +things, produces unrest and suffering with the same natural +necessity that the meeting of certain chemical substances deposits +poison and bitterness. Perdition being the degradation and +wretchedness of the soul through ingrained falsehood, vice, +impurity, and hardness, salvation is the casting out of these +evils, and the replacing them with truth, righteousness, a holy +and sensitive life. To ransom from hell and translate to heaven is +not, then, so much to deliver from a local dungeon of gnawing +fires and worms, and bear to a local paradise of luxuries, as it +is to heal diseases and restore health. Hell is a wrong, diseased +condition of the soul, its indwelling wretchedness and +retribution, wherever it may be, as when the light of day tortures +a sick eye. Heaven is a right, healthy condition of the soul, its +indwelling integrity and concord, in whatever realms it may +reside, as when the sunshine bathes the healthy orb of vision with +delight. Salvation is nothing more nor less than the harmonious +blessedness of the soul by the fruition of all its right powers +and relations. Remove a man who is writhing in the agonies of some +physical disease, from his desolate hut on the bleak mountain side +to a gorgeous palace in a delicious tropical clime. He is just as +badly off as before. He is still, so to speak, in hell, wherever +he may be in location. Cure his sickness, and then he is, so to +speak, saved, in heaven. It is so with the soul. The conditions of +salvation and reprobation are not arbitrary, mechanical, fickle, +but are the interior and unalterable laws of the soul and of the +universe. "Every devil," Sir Thomas Browne says, "holds enough of +torture in his own ubi, and needs not the torture of circumference +to afflict him." If there are, as there may be, two entirely +separate regions in space, whose respective boundaries enclose +hell and heaven, banishment into the one, or admission into the +other, evidently is not what constitutes the essence of perdition +or of salvation, is not the all important consideration; but the +characteristic condition of the soul, which produces its +experience and decides its destination, that is the essential +thing. The mild fanning of a zephyr in a summer evening is +intolerable to a person in the convulsions of the ague, but most +welcome and delightful to others. So to a wicked soul all objects, +operations, and influences of the moral creation become hostile +and retributive, making a hell of the whole universe. Purify the +soul, restore it to a correct condition, and every thing is +transfigured: the universal hell becomes universal heaven. + +We may gather up in a few propositions the leading principles of +this theory of salvation. First, Perdition is not an experience to +which souls are helplessly born, not a sentence inflicted on them +by an arbitrary decree, but is a result wrought out by free +agency, in conformity to the unalterable laws of the spiritual +world. Secondly, heaven and hell are not essentially particular +localities into which spirits are thrust, nor states of +consciousness produced by outward circumstances, but are an outward + reflection from, and a reciprocal action upon, internal character. + +Thirdly, condemnation, or justification, is not absolute and +complete, equalizing all on each side of a given line, but is a +thing of degrees, not exactly the same in any two individuals, +or in the same person at all times. Fourthly, we have no reason +to suppose that probation closes with the closing of the +present life; but every relevant consideration leads us to +conclude that the same great constitution of laws pervades all +worlds and reigns throughout eternity, so that the fate of souls +is not unchangeably fixed at death. No analogy indicates that +after death all will be thoroughly different from what it is +before death. Rather do all analogies argue that the hell and +heaven of the future will be the aggravation, or mitigation, or +continuation, of the perdition and salvation of the present. It is +altogether a sentence of exact right according to character, a +matter of personal achievement depending upon freedom, an +experience of inward elements and states, a thing of degrees, and +a subject of continued probation. + +The condition of the heathen nations in reference to salvation is +satisfactory only in the light of the foregoing theory. If a +person is what God wishes, as shown by his revealed will in the +model of Christ, pure, loving, devout, wise, and earnest, he is +saved, whether he ever heard of Christ or not. Are Plato and +Aristides, Cato and Antoninus, to be damned, while Pope Alexander +VI. and King Philip II are saved, because those glorious +characters merely lived at the then height of attainable +excellence, but these fanatic scoundrels made a technical +profession of Christianity? The "Athanasian" creed asserts that +whoever doth not fully believe its dogmas "shall without doubt +perish everlastingly." And the eighteenth article in the creed of +the Church of England declares "them accursed who presume to say +that any man can be saved by diligently framing his life according +to the law or sect which he professeth, and the light of +nature."16 + +Another particular in which the present view of salvation is +satisfactory, in opposition to the other theories, is in leaving +the personal nature of sin clear, the realm of personal +responsibility unconfused. Why should a system of thought be set +up and adhered to in religion that would be instantly and +universally scouted at if applied to any other subject? 17 "No one +dreams that the sin of an unexercised intellect, of gross +ignorance, can be pardoned only through faith in the sacrifice of +some incarnation of the Perfect Reason. No one expects to be told +that the violation of the bodily laws can be forgiven by the +Infinite Creator only on the ground that some perfect physician +honors them by obedience and death. It is by opening the mind to +God's published truth, and by conformity to the discovered +philosophical + +16 Arnauld, Emes, Goeze, and others, have written volumes to prove +the indiscriminate damnation of the heathen. On the contrary, +Muller, in his "Diss. de Paganorum poet Mortem Conditione," and +Marmontel, in his "Belisaire," take a more favorable view of the +fate of the ethnic world. The best work on the subject a work of +great geniality and ability is Eberhard's "Neue Apologie des +Socrates." Also see Knapp's Christian Theology, sect. lxxxviii. + +17 Martineau, Studies of Christianity, pp. 153-176: Mediatorial +Religion. Ibid. pp. 468-477: Sin What it is, What it is not. + + +order, or the reception of the adopted remedy, that the mind and +the frame experience new life. And our souls are redeemed, not by +any expiation on account of which penalties are lifted, but by +reception of spiritual truth and consecration of will, which push +away penalties by wholesome life." 18 + +The awful inviolability of justice is shown by the eternal course +of God's laws bringing the exactly deserved penalty upon every +soul that sinneth. Whoever breaks a Divine decree puts all sacred +things in antagonism to him, and the precise punishment of his +offences not the worth of worlds nor the blood of angels can +avert. The boundless mercy of God, his atoning love, is shown by +the absence of all vindictiveness from his judgments, their +restorative aim and tendency. Whenever the sinner repents, +reforms, puts himself in a right attitude, God is waiting to +pardon and bless him, the sun shines and the happy heart is glad +as at first, the cloudy screen of sin and fear and retributive +alienation being removed. This view, when appreciated, affords as +impressive a sanction to law, and as affecting an exhibition of +love, as are theoretically ascribed to the doctrine of vicarious +expiation. The infinite sanctity of justice and the fathomless +love of God are certainly much more plainly and satisfactorily +shown by the righteous nature and beneficent operation of the law, +than by its terrible severity and arbitrary subversion. According +to the present view, the relation of Christ to human redemption is +as simple and rational as it is divinely appointed and perfectly +fulfilled. Accredited with miraculous seals, presenting the most +pathetic and inspiring motives, he reveals the truths and +exemplifies the virtues which, when adopted, regenerate the +springs of faith and character, rectify the lines of conduct, and +change men from sinful and wretched to saintly and blessed. He +stirs the stagnant soul, that man may replunge into his native +self, and rise redeemed. + +For the more distinct comprehension and remembrance of the schemes +of Christian salvation we have been considering, it may be well to +recapitulate them. + +The first theory is this: When, by the fall of Adam, all men were +utterly lost and doomed to hell forever, the vicarious sufferings +of Christ cancelled sin, and unconditionally purchased and saved +all. This was the original development of Universalism. It sprang +consistently from Augustinian grounds. It was taught by a party in +the Church of the first centuries, was afterwards repeatedly +condemned as a heresy by popes and by councils, and was revived by +Kelly, Murray, and others. We are not aware that it now has any +avowed disciples. + +The second conception is, in substance, that God, foreseeing from +eternity the fall of Adam and the consequent damnation of his +posterity, arbitrarily elected a portion of them to salvation, +leaving the rest to their fate; and the vicarious sufferings of +Christ were the only possible means of carrying that decree into +effect. This is the Augustinian and Calvinistic theology, and has +had a very extensive prevalence among Christians. Many church +creeds still embody the doctrine; but in its original, +uncompromising form it is rapidly fading from belief. Even now few +persons can be found to profess it without essential modifications, +so + +18 T. S. King, Endless Punishment Unchristian and Unreasonable, p. +65. + + +qualifying it as to destroy its identity. + +The third plan of delivering souls from the doom supposed to rest +on them attributes to the vicarious sufferings of Christ a +conditional efficacy, depending upon personal faith. Every one who +will heartily believe in the substitutional death of Christ, and +trust in his atoning merits, shall thereby be saved. This was the +system of Pelagius, Arminius, Luther. It prevails now in the so +called Evangelical Churches more generally than any other system. + +The fourth received method of salvation, assuming the same +premises which the three foregoing schemes assume, namely, that +through the fall all men are eternally sentenced to hell, declares +that, by Christ's vicarious sufferings, power is given to the +Church, a priestly hierarchy, to save such as confess her +authority and observe her rites. All others must continue lost.19 +This theory early began to be constructed and broached by the +Fathers. It is held by the Roman Catholic Church, and by all the +consistent portion of the Episcopalian. A part of the Baptist +denomination also through their popular preachers, if not in their +recognised symbols assert the indispensableness of ritual baptism +to salvation. + +The fifth view of the problem is that no soul is lost or doomed +except so far as it is personally, voluntarily depraved and +sinful. And even to that extent, and in that sense, it can be +called lost only in the present life. After death every soul is +freed from evil, and ushered at once into heaven. This is the +distinctive doctrine of the ultra Universalists. It is +disappearing from among its recent advocates. As a body they have +already exchanged its arbitrary conceptions of "death and glory" +for the more rational conclusions of the "Restorationists." 20 + +The sixth and final scheme of Christian salvation teaches that, by +the immutable laws which the Creator has established in and over +his works and creatures, a free soul may choose good or evil, +truth or falsehood, love or hate, beneficence or iniquity. Just so +far and just so long as it partakes of the former it is saved; as +it partakes of the latter it is lost, that is, alienates the favor +of God, forfeits so much of the benefits of creation and of the +blessings of being. The conditions and means of repentance, +reformation, regeneration, are always within its power, the future +state being but the unencumbered, more favorable experience of the +spiritual elements of the present, under the same Divine +constitution and laws. This is the common belief of Unitarians and +Universalists, the latter alone teaching it as a sure doctrine of +Revelation. + +Salvation by purchase, by the redeeming blood of Christ; salvation +by election, by the independent decree of God, sealed by the blood +of Christ; salvation by faith, by an appropriating faith in the +blood of Christ; salvation by the Church, by the sacraments made +efficacious to that end by the blood of Christ; salvation by +nature, by the irresistible working of the natural order of +things, declared by the teachings of Christ; salvation by a +resurrection from the dead, miraculously effected by the delegated +power of Christ; salvation by character, by conformity of +character to the spiritual laws of the universe, to the nature and +will of God, revealed, urged, exemplified, by the whole mission of +Christ; these are the different theories + +19 Adams, Mercy to Babes. (A plea for the baptism of infants, that +they may not be damned.) + +20 Adin Ballou, Universalism and Restorationism Moral Contraries, +1837. + + +proposed for the acceptance of Christians. + +Outside of Christendom we discern, received and operative in +various forms, all the theoretic modes of salvation acknowledged +within it, and some others in addition. The creed and practice of +the Mohammedans afford a more unflinching embodiment of the +conception of salvation by election than is furnished anywhere +else. Islam denotes Fate. All is predestinated and follows on in +inevitable sequence. No modifying influence is possible. Can a +breath move Mount Kaf? The chosen of Allah shall believe; the +rejected of Allah shall deny. Every believer's bower is blooming +for him in Paradise; every unbeliever's bed is burning for him in +hell. And nothing whatever can avail to change the persons or the +total number elected for each. + +There is one theory of salvation scarcely heard of in the West, +but extensively held in the East. The Brahmanic as well as the +Buddhist thinker relies on obtaining salvation by knowledge. Life +in a continual succession of different bodies is his perdition. +His salvation is to be freed from the vortex of births and deaths, +the fret and storm of finite existence. Neither goodness nor piety +can ever release him. Knowledge alone can do it: an unsullied +intellectual vision and a free intellectual grasp of truth and +love alone can rescue him from the turbid sea of forms and +struggles. "As a lump of salt is of uniform taste within and +without, so the soul is nothing but intelligence."21 If the soul +be an entire mass of intelligence, a current of ideas, its real +salvation depends on its becoming pure and eternal truth without +mixture of falsehood or of emotional disturbance. He "must free +himself from virtues as well as from sins; for the confinement of +fetters is the same whether the chain be of gold or of iron."22 +Accordingly, the Hindu, to secure emancipation, planes down the +mountainous thoughts and passions of his soul to a desert level of +indifferent insight. And when, in direct personal knowledge, free +from joy and sorrow, free from good and ill, he gazes into the +limitless abyss of Divine truth, then he is sure of the bosom of +Brahm, the door of Nirwana. Then the wheel of the Brahmanic Ixion +ceases revolving, and the Buddhist Ahasuerus flings away his +staff; for salvation is attained. + +The conception of salvation by ritual works based on faith either +faith in Deity or in some redemptive agency is exhibited all over +the world. Hani, a Hindu devotee, dwelt in a thicket, and repeated +the name of Krishna a hundred thousand times each day, 23 and thus +saved his soul. The saintly Muni Shukadev said, as is written in +the most popular religious authority of India, "Who even +ignorantly sing the praises of Krishna undoubtedly obtain final +beatitude; just as, if one ignorant of the properties of nectar +should drink it, he would still become immortal. Whoever worships +Hari, with whatever disposition of mind, obtains beatitude."24 +"The repetition of the names of Vishnu purifies from all sins, +even when invoked by an evil minded person, as fire burns even him +who approaches it unwillingly."25 Nothing is more common in the +sacred writings of the Hindus than the promise that "whoever reads +or hears this narrative with a devout mind shall receive final +beatitude." Millions on millions of these docile and abject +devotees undoubtingly expect salvation by such merely ritual + +21 Colebrooke, Essays, vol. i. p. 359. + +22 Ibid. p. 363. + +23 Asiatic Researches, vol. xvi. p. 115. + +24 Eastwick, Prem Sagar, p. 56. + +25 Vishnu Parans, p. 210, note 13. + + +observances. One cries "Lord!" "Lord!" Another thumbs a book, as +if it were an omnipotent amulet. Another meditates on some mystic +theme, as if musing were a resistless spell of silent exorcism and +invocation. Another pierces himself with red hot irons, as if +voluntary pain endured now could accumulate merit for him and buy +off future inflictions. + +It is surprising to what an extent men's efforts for salvation +seem underlaid by conceptions of propitiation, the placation of a +hatred, the awakening of a love, in the objects of their worship. +In all these cases salvation is sought indirectly through works, +though not particularly good works. The savage makes an offering, +mutters a prayer, or fiercely wounds his body, before the hideous +idol of his choice. The fakir, swung upon sharp hooks, revolves +slowly round a fire. The monk wears a hair shirt, and flagellates +himself until blood trickles across the floor of his cell. The +Portuguese sailor in a storm takes a leaden saint from his bosom +and kneels before it for safety. The offending Bushman crawls in +the dust and shudders as he seeks to avert the fury of the fetich +which he has carved and set in a tree. The wounded brigand in the +Apennines, with unnumbered robberies and murders on his soul, +finds perfect ease to his conscience as his glazing eye falls on a +carefully treasured picture of the Virgin, and he expires in a +triumph of faith, saying, "Sweet Mother of God, intercede for me." +The Calvinistic convert, about to be executed for his fearful +crimes, kneels at the foot of the gallows, and exclaims, as in a +recent well known instance, "I hold the blood of Christ between my +soul and the flaming face of God, and die happy, assured that I am +going to heaven." + +It is all a terrible delusion, arising from perverted sentiment +and degraded thought. Of the five theoretical modes of salvation +taught in the world, Election, Faith, Works, Knowledge, Harmony, +one alone is real and divine, although it contains principles +taken from all the rest and blended with its own. There is no +salvation by foregone election; for that would dethrone the moral +laws and deify caprice. There is no salvation by dogmatic faith; +because faith is not a matter of will, but of evidence, not within +man's own power, and a thousand varieties of faith are +necessitated among men. There is no salvation by determinate +works; for works are measurable quantities, whose rewards and +punishments are meted and finally spent, but salvation is +qualitative and infinite. There is no salvation by intellectual +knowledge; for knowledge is sight, not being, an accident, not an +essence, an attribute of one faculty, not a right state and ruling +force in all. The true salvation is by harmony; for harmony of all +the forces of the soul with themselves and with all related forces +beyond, harmony of the individual will with the Divine will, +harmony of personal action with the universal activity, what other +negation of perdition is possible? what other definition and +affirmation of salvation conceivable? By the Creator's fiat, man +is first elected to be. By the guiding stimulus of faith, he is +next animated to spiritual exertion. By the performance of good +works, he then brings his moral nature into beautiful form and +attitude. By knowledge of truth, he furthermore sees how to +direct, govern, and attune himself. And finally, by the +accomplishment of all this in the organized harmony of a wise and +holy soul, there results that state of being whose passive +conditions constitute salvation, and whose active experience is +eternal life. + +CHAPTER VI. + +RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN A FUTURE LIFE. + +OF all the sorrows incident to human life, none is so penetrating +to gentle hearts as that which fills them with aching regrets, +and, for a time, writes hollowness and vanity on their dearest +treasures, when death robs them of those they love. And so, of all +the questions that haunt the soul, wringing its faculties for a +solution, beseeching the oracles of the universe for a response, +none can have a more intense interest than gathers about the +irrepressible inquiry, "Shall we ever meet again, and know, the +friends we have lost? somewhere in the ample creation and in the +boundless ages, join, with the old familiar love, our long parted, +fondly cherished, never forgotten dead?" The grief of bereavement +and the desire of reunion are experienced in an endless diversity +of degrees by different persons, according as they are careless, +hard, and sense bound, or thoughtful, sympathizing, and +imaginative; undisciplined by the mysteries and afflictions of our +mortal destiny, or profoundly tried by the disappointments and +prophecies of time and fate; and as they are shadowed by the gloom +of despair, or cheered by the radiance of belief. But to all who +feel, even the least, the uncertain but deep monitions of the +silent pall, the sad procession, and the burial mound, the +impressive problem must occur, with frequency and power, Does the +grave sunder us and the objects of our affection forever? or, +across that dark gulf, shall we be united again in purer bonds? +Outside of the atheistic dissolution and the pantheistic +absorption, it is supposable that, surviving the blow of death, +our spirits may return to God and run their endless course in +divine solitude. On the other hand, it is supposable that, +possessed with all the memories of this probationary state, +blessed by the companionship of our earthly friends, we may aspire +together along the interminable gradations of the world to come. +If the former supposition be true, and the farewell of the dying +is the announcement of an irrevocable separation, then the tears +we shed over the shrouded clay, once so prized, should be +distillations from Lethe's flood, to make us forget all. But if +the latter be true, then our deadly seeming losses are as the +partings of travellers at night to meet in the morning; and, as +friend after friend retires, we should sigh to each departing +spirit a kind adieu till we meet again, and let pleasing memories +of them linger to mingle in the sacred day dreams of remaining +life. + +Evidently it is of much importance to a man which of these views +he shall take; for each exerts a distinctive influence in regard +to his peace of mind, his moral strength, and his religious +character. On one who believes that hereafter, beyond all the +partings in this land of tombs, he shall never meet the dear +companions who now bless his lot, the death of friends must fall, +if he be a person of strong sensibilities, as a staggering blow, +awakening an agony of sorrow, taking from the sky and the earth a +glory nothing can ever replace, and leaving in his heart a +wretched void nothing can ever fill. Henceforth he will be +deprived mostly for all felt connection between them is hopelessly +sundered of the good influences they exerted on him when present: +he must try, by all expedients, to forget them; think no more of +their virtues, their welcome voices and kindly deeds; wipe from +the tablets of his soul all fond records of their united happy +days; look not to the future, let the past be as though it had +never been, and absorb his thoughts and feelings in the turmoil of +the present. This is his only course; and even then, if true to +the holiest instincts of his soul, he will find the fatal +separation has lessened his being and impoverished his life, + +"For this losing is true dying; This is lordly man's down lying, +This his slow but sure reclining, Star by star his world +resigning." + +But to him who earnestly expects soon to be restored under fairer +auspices and in a deathless world to those from whom he parted as +he laid their crumbling bodies in the earth, the death of friends +will come as a message from the Great Father, a message solemn yet +kind, laden indeed with natural sadness yet brightened by sure +promise and followed by heavenly compensations. If his tears flow, +they flow not in scalding bitterness from the Marah fountain of +despair, but in chastened joy from the smitten rock of faith. So +far from endeavoring to forget the departed, he will cling to +their memories with redoubled tenderness, as a sacred trust and a +redeeming power. They will be more precious to him than ever, +stronger to purify and animate. Their saintly examples will +attract him as never before, and their celestial voices plead from +on high to win him to virtue and to heaven. The constant thought +of seeing them once more, and wafting in their arms through the +enchanted spaces of Paradise, will wield a sanctifying force over +his spirit. They will make the invisible sphere a peopled reality +to him, and draw him to God by the diffused bonds of a spiritual +acquaintance and an eternal love. + +Since the result in which a man rests on this subject, believing +or disbelieving that he shall recognise his beloved ones the other +side of the grave, exerts a deep influence on him, in one case +disheartening, in the other uplifting, it is incumbent on us to +investigate the subject, try to get at the truth, clear it up, and +appreciate it as well as we can. It is a theme to interest us all. +Who has not endeared relatives, choice friends, freshly or long +ago removed from this earth into the unknown clime? In a little +while, as the ravaging reaper sweeps on his way, who will not have +still more there, or be there himself? Whether old acquaintance +shall be all forgot or be well remembered there, is an inquiry +which must profoundly interest all who have hearts to love their +companions, and minds to perceive the creeping shadows of mystery +drawing over us as we approach the sure destiny of age and the dim +confines of the world. It is a theme, far removed from noisy +strifes and vain shows, penetrating that mysterious essence of +affection and thought which we are. The thing of first importance +is not the conclusion we reach, but the spirit in which we seek +and hold it. The Christian says to his friend, "Our souls will be +united in yonder heaven." Danton, with a horrible travesty, said +to his comrades on the scaffold, "Our heads will meet in that +sack." + +Before engaging directly in the discussion, it will be interesting +to notice, for an instant, the verdict which history, in the +spontaneous suppositions and rude speculations of ancient peoples, +pronounces on this subject.1 Among their various opinions about +the state after death, it is a prominent circumstance that they +generally agree in conceiving it as a social state in which +personal likenesses and memories are retained, fellow countrymen +are grouped together, and friends united. This is minutely true of +those nations with the details of whose faith we are acquainted, +and is implied in the general belief of all others, except those +who expected the individual spirit to be absorbed in the soul of +the universe. Homer shows Ulysses and Virgil in like manner shows +Aneas upon his entrance into the other world mutually recognising +his old comrades and recognised by them. The two heroes whose +inseparable friendship on earth was proverbial are still together +in Elysium: + +"Then, side by side, along the dreary coast Advanced Achilles' and +Patroclus' ghost, A friendly pair." + +In this representation that there was a full recognition of +acquaintances, all the accounts of the other world given in Greek +and Roman literature harmonize. The same is true of the accounts +contained in the literature of the ancient Hebrews. In the Book of +Genesis, when Jacob hears of the death of his favorite child, he +exclaims, "I shall go down to my son Joseph in the under world, +mourning." When the witch of Endor raised the ghost of Samuel, +Saul knew him by the description she gave of him as he rose. The +monarch shades in the under world are pictured by Isaiah as +recognising the shade of the king of Babylon and rising from their +sombre thrones to greet him with mockery. Ezekiel shows us each +people of the heathen nations in the under world in a company by +themselves. When David's child died, the king sorrowfully +exclaimed, "He will not return to me; but I shall go to him." All +these passages are based on the conception of a gloomy +subterranean abode where the ghosts of the dead are reunited after +their separation at death on earth. An old commentator on the +Koran says a Mohammedan priest was once asked how the blessed in +paradise could be happy when missing some near relative or dear +friend whom they were thus forced to suppose in hell. He replied, +God will either cause believers to forget such persons or else to +rest in expectation of their coming. The anecdote shows +affectingly that the same yearning heart and curiosity are +possessed by Moslem and Christian. A still more impressive case in +point is furnished by a picture in a Buddhist temple in China. The +painting represents the story of the priest Lo Puh, who, on +passing into paradise at death, saw his mother, Yin Te, in hell. +He instantly descended into the infernal court, Tsin Kwang Wang, +where she was suffering, and, by his valor, virtues, and +intercessions, rescued her. The picture vividly portraying the +whole story may be seen and studied at the present time by +Christian missionaries who enter that temple of the benevolent +Buddha.2 From the faith of many other nations illustrations might +be brought of the same fact, that the great common instinct which +has led men to believe in a future life has at the same time +caused them to believe that in that life there would be a union +and recognition of friends. Let this far reaching historical fact +be taken at its just value, + +1 Alexius, Tod and Wiedersehen. Eine Gedankenfolge der besten +Schriftsteller aller Zeiten und Volker. + +2 Asiatic Journal, 1840, p. 211. + + +while we proceed to the labor in hand. The fact referred to is of +some value, because, being an expression of the heart of man as +God made it, it is an indication of his will, a prophecy. + +There are three ways of trying the problem of future recognition. +The cool, skeptical class of persons will examine the present +related facts of the case; argue from what they now know; test the +question by induction and inference. Let us see to what results +they will thus be led. In the first place, we learn upon +reflection that we now distinguish each other by the outward form, +physical proportion, and combination of looks, tones of voice, and +other the like particulars. Every one has his individuality in +these respects, by which he is separable from others. It may be +hastily inferred, then, that if we are to know our friends +hereafter it will be through the retention or the recovery of +their sensible peculiarities. Accordingly, many believe the soul +to be a perfect reflection or immaterial fac simile of the body, +the exact correspondence in shadowy outline of its gross +tabernacle, and consequently at once recognizable in the +disembodied state. The literature of Christendom we may almost say +of the world teems with exemplifications of this idea. Others, +arguing from the same acknowledged premises, conclude that future +recognition will be secured by the resurrection of the material +body as it was in all its perfection, in renovated and unfading +prime. But, leaving out of view the inherent absurdity of the +doctrine of a physical resurrection, there is a fatal difficulty +in the way of both these supposititious modes of mutual knowledge +in another world. It is this. The outward form, features, and +expression sometimes alter so thoroughly that it is impossible for +us to recognise our once most intimate companions. Cases are not +rare of this kind. Let one pass in absence from childhood to +maturity, and who that had not seen him in the mean time could +tell that it was he? The trouble arising thence is finely +illustrated by Shakspeare in the motherly solicitude of Constance, +who, on learning that her young son has been imprisoned by his +uncle, King John, and will probably be kept until he pines to +death, cries in anguish to her confessor, + +"Father cardinal, I have heard you say +That we shall see and know our friends in heaven: +If that be true, I shall see my boy again; +For, since the birth of Cain, the first male child, +To him that did but yesterday suspire, +There was not such a gracious creature born. +But now will canker sorrow eat my bud +And chase the native beauty from his cheek, +And he will look as hollow as a ghost, +As dim and meagre as an ague's fit; +And so he'll die; and, rising so again, +When I shall meet him in the court of heaven +I shall not know him: therefore never, never +Must I behold my pretty Arthur more." + +Owing to the changes of all sorts which take place in the body, +future recognition cannot safely depend upon that or upon any +resemblance of the spirit to it. Besides, not the faintest proof +can be adduced of any such perceptible correspondence subsisting +between them. + +Turning again to the facts of experience, we find that it is not +alone, nor indeed chiefly, by their visible forms and features +that we know our chosen ones. We also, and far more truly, know +them by the traits of their characters, the elements of their +lives, the effluence of their spirits, the magic atmosphere which +surrounds them, the electric thrill and communication which vivify +and conjoin our souls. And even in the exterior, that which most +reveals and distinguishes each is not the shape, but the +expression, the lights and shades, reflected out from the immortal +spirit shrined within. We know each other really by the mysterious +motions of our souls. And all these things endure and act +uninterrupted though the fleshly frame alter a thousand times or +dissolve in its native dust. The knowledge of a friend, then, +being independent of the body, spirits may be recognised in the +future state by the associations mutually surrounding them, the +feelings connecting them. Amidst all the innumerable thronging +multitudes, through all the immeasurable intervening heights and +depths, of the immaterial world, remembered and desired companions +may be selected and united by inward laws that act with the ease +and precision of chemical affinities. We may therefore recognise +each other by the feelings which now connect us, and which shall +spontaneously kindle and interchange when we meet in heaven, as +the signs of our former communion. + +It needs but little thought to perceive that by this view future +recognition is conditional, being made to depend on the permanence +of our sympathies: there must be the same mutual relations, +affinities, fitness to awaken the same emotions upon approaching +each other's sphere, or we shall neither know nor be known. But in +fact our sympathies and aversions change as much as our outward +appearance does. The vices and virtues, loves and hatreds, of our +hearts alter, the peculiar characteristics of our souls undergo as +great a transformation, sometimes, as thorough a revolution, as +the body does in the interval between childhood and manhood. These +changes going on in our associates frequently change our feelings +towards them, heightening or diminishing our affection, creating a +new interest, destroying an old one, now making enemies lovers, +and now thoroughly alienating very friends. Such fundamental +alterations of character may occur in us, or in our friend, before +we meet in the unseen state, that we shall no more recognise each +other's spirits than we should know each other on earth after a +separation in which our bodily appearances and voices had been +entirely changed. These considerations would induce us to think +that recognition hereafter is not sure, but turns on the condition +that we preserve a remembrance, desire, and adaptedness for one +another. + +If now the critical inquirer shall say there is no evidence, and +it is incredible, that the body will be restored to a future life, +or that the soul has any resemblance to the body by which it may +be identified, furthermore, if he shall maintain that the doctrine +of the revelation and recognition of the souls of friends in +another life by an instinctive feeling, a mysterious attraction +and response, is fanciful, an overdrawn conclusion of the +imagination, not warranted by a stern induction of the average +realities of the subject, and if he shall then ask, how are we to +distinguish our former acquaintances among the hosts of heaven? +there is one more fact of experience which meets the case and +answers his demand. When long absence and great exposures have +wiped off all the marks by which old companions knew each other, +it has frequently happened that they have met and conversed with +indifference, each being ignorant of whom the other was; and so it +has continued until, by some indirect means, some accidental +allusion, or the agency of a third person, they have been suddenly +revealed. Then, with throbbing hearts, in tears and rapture, they +have rushed into each other's arms, with an instantaneous +recurrence of their early friendship in all its original warmth, +fulness, and flooding associations. Many such instances are +related in books of romance with strict truth to the actual +occurrences of life. Several instances of it are authenticated in +the early history of America, when children, torn from their homes +by the Indians, were recovered by their parents after twenty or +thirty years had elapsed and they were identified by circumstantial +evidence. Let any parent ask his heart, any true friend ask his heart, +if, discovering by some foreign means the object of his love, +he would not embrace him with just as ardent a gratitude and +devotion as though there were no outward change and they had +known one another at sight. So, in the life beyond the +grave, if we are not able to recognise our earthly companions +directly, either by spiritual sight or by intuitive feeling, we +may obtain knowledge of each other indirectly by comparison of +common recollections, or by the mediation of angels, or by some +other Divine arrangement especially prepared for that purpose. And +therefore, whether in heaven we look or feel as we do here or not, +whether there be any provision in our present constitution for +future recognition or not, is of no consequence. In a thousand +ways the defect can be remedied, if such be the will of God. And +that such is his will every relevant fact and consideration would +seem to prove. It is a consistent and seemingly requisite +continuation and completion of that great scheme of which this +life is a part. It is an apparently essential element and +fulfilment of the wonderful apparatus of retribution, reward, and +discipline, intended to educate us as members of God's eternal +family. Because from the little which we now understand we cannot +infer with plainness and certainty the precise means and method by +which we can discriminate our friends in heaven need be no +obstacle to believing the fact itself; for there are millions of +undoubted truths whose conditions and ways of operation we can +nowise fathom. Upon the whole, then, we conclude that we cannot by +our mere understandings decide with certainty the question +concerning future recognition; but we are justified in trusting to +the accuracy of that doctrine, since it rests safely with the free +pleasure of God, who is both infinitely able and disposed to do +what is best, and we cannot help believing that it is best for us +to be with and love hereafter those whom we are with and love +here.3 + +There is a way of dealing with the general subject before us +wholly different from the course thus far pursued. Ceasing to act +the philosopher, laying aside all arguments and theories, all dry +speculations, we may come as simple believers to the Christian +Scriptures and investigate their teachings to accept whatever they +pronounce as the word of God's truth. Let us see to what results +we shall thus be led. Searching the New Testament to learn its +doctrine + +3 Munch, Werden wir uns wiedersehen nach dem Tode. This work, +based on the Kantian philosophy, denies future recognition. There +is an able reply to it by Vogel, Ueber die Hoffnung des +Wiedersehens. + + +in regard to reunion in a future state, we are very soon struck +with surprise at the mysterious reserve, so characteristic of its +pages, on this entire theme. Instead of a full and minute +revelation blazing along the track of the gospel pens, a few +fragmentary intimations, incidental hints, scattered here and +there, are the substance of all that it expressly says. But though +little is directly declared, yet much is plainly implied: +especially the one great inference with which we are now concerned +may be unequivocally and repeatedly drawn. In the parable of the +Rich Man and the Beggar the Savior pictures forth the recognition +of their souls in the disembodied state. Dives also is described +as recollecting with intense interest, with the most anxious +sympathy, his endangered brethren on earth. Although this occurs +in a parable, yet it is likely that so prominent and vital a +feature of it would be moulded, as to its essential significance, +in accordance with what the author intended should be received as +truth. Jesus also speaks of many who should come from the east and +the west and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the +kingdom of heaven; from which it would appear that the patriarchs +are together in fellowship and that the righteous of after times +were to be received with them in mutual acquaintance. On the Mount +of Transfiguration the witnessing disciples saw Moses and Elias +together with Jesus, and recognised them, probably from their +resemblance to traditional descriptions of them. Jesus always +represented the future state as a society. He said to his +followers, "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there +ye may be also;" and he prayed to his Father that his disciples +might be with him where he was going. At another time he declared +of little children, "Their angels always behold the face of my +Father in heaven:" he also taught that "there is joy in heaven +over every sinner that repenteth;" passages that presuppose such a +community of faculties, sympathies, in heaven and earth, in angels +and men, as certainly implies the doctrine of continued knowledge +and fellowship. When heaven was opened before the dying Stephen, +he saw and instantly knew his Divine Master, the Lord Jesus, and +called to him to welcome his ascending spirit. Paul writes to the +Thessalonians that he would not have them sorrow concerning the +dead as those who have no hope, assuring them that when Christ +reappears they shall all be united again. In the Apocalypse, John +saw, in a vision, the souls of the martyrs, who had died for the +faith of the gospel, together, under the altar. From community of +suffering and a common abode together in heaven we may safely +infer their recognition of each other. The Gospels declare that +Christ after his death remembered his disciples and came back to +them to assure them that they should rejoin him on high; and the +apostles assert that we are to be with Christ and to be like him +in the future state. It follows from the admission of these +declarations that we shall remember our friends and be united with +them in conscious knowledge. Few, and brief, and vague as the +utterances of the Scriptures are in relation to this theme, they +necessarily involve all the results of an avowed doctrine. They +undeniably involve the supposition that in the other life we shall +be conscious personalities as here, retaining our memories and +constituting a society. From these implications the fact of the +future recognition of friends irresistibly results, unless there +be some special interference to prevent it; and such an +interposition there is no hint of and can be no reason for +fearing. + +Such is really all that we can learn from the Scriptures on the +subject of our inquiry.4 Its indirectness and brevity would +convince us that God did not intend to betray to us in clear light +the secrets of the shrouded future, that for some reason it is +best that his teaching should be so reserved, and leave us to the +haunting wonder, the anxious surmise, the appalling mystery, the +alluring possibilities, that now meet our gaze on the unmoving +veil of death. God intends we shall trust in him without +knowledge, and by faith, not by sight, pursue his guidance into +the silent and unknown land. + +Therefore, after analyzing the relevant facts of present +experience and inferring what we can from them, and after studying +the Scriptures and finding what they say, there is yet another +method of considering the problem of recognition in the future +state. That is without caring for critical discussion, without +deferring to extraneous authority, we may follow the gravitating +force of instinct, imagination, and moral reason. We are made to +love and depend on each other. The longer, the more profoundly, we +know and admire the good, the more our being becomes intertwined +with theirs, so much the more intensely we desire to be with them +always, and so much the more awful is the agony of separation. +This, what is it but great Nature's testimony, God's silent +avowal, that we are to meet in eternity? Can the fearful anguish +of bereavement be gratuitous? can the yearning prophecies of the +smitten heart be all false? Belief in reunion hereafter is +spontaneously adopted by humanity. We therefore esteem it divinely +ordered or true. Without that soothing and sustaining trust, the +unrelieved, intolerable wretchedness in many cases would burst +through the fortress of the mind, hurl reason from its throne, and +tear the royal affections and their attendants in the trampled +dust of madness. Many a rarely gifted soul, unknown in his +nameless privacy of life, has been so conjoined with a worthy +peer, through precious bonds of unutterable sympathy, that, rather +than be left behind, "the divided half of such a friendship as had +mastered time," he has prayed that they, dying at once, might, +involved together, hover across the dolorous strait to the other +shore, and + +"Arrive at last the blessed goal +Where He that died in Holy Land +Might reach them out the shining hand +And take them as a single soul." + +Denied that inmost wish, the rest of his widowed life below has +been one melancholy strain of "In Memoriam." Many a faithful and +noble mourner, whose garnered love and hope have been blighted for +this world, would tell you that, without meeting his lost ones +there, heaven itself would be no heaven to him. In such a state of +soul we must expect to know again in an unfading clime the +cherished dead. That belief is of Divine inspiration, an +arrangement to heal the deadly wounds of sorrow. It is madness not +to think it a verity. Who believes, as he shall float through the +ambrosial airs of heaven, he could touch, in passing, the radiant +robes of his chosen friends without a thrill of recognition, the +prelude to a blissful and immortal communion? Is there not truth +in the poet's picture of the meeting of child and parent in heaven? + +4 Harbaugh, The Heavenly Recognition. Gisborne, Recollections of +Friends in the World to Come. Muston, Perpetuation of Christian +Friendship. + + +"It was not, mother, that I knew thy face: The luminous eclipse +that is on it now, Though it was fair on earth, would have made it +strange Even to one who knew as well as he loved thee; But my +heart cried out in me, Mother!" + +Think of the unfathomable yearnings, the infinite ecstasies of +desire and faith from age to age swelling in the very heart of the +world, all set on the one hope of future union, and who then can +believe that God will coldly blast them all? They are innocent, +they are holy, they are meritorious, they are unspeakably dear. We +would not destroy them; and God will not. + +Man's life is the true fable of that beautiful youth, Narcissus, +who had a twin sister of remarkable loveliness, strongly +resembling himself, and to whom he was most tenderly attached. She +dies young. He frequents fountains to gaze upon his own image +reflected in the waters, it seeming to him the likeness of her he +has lost. He is in pity transformed into a flower on the border of +a stream, where, bending on his fragile stem, he seeks his image +in the waters murmuring by, until he fades and dies. Has not God, +the all loving Author who composed the sweet poem of Man and +Nature, written at the close a reconciling Elysium wherein these +pure lovers, the fond Narcissus and his echo mate, shall wander in +perennial bliss, their embracing forms mirrored in unruffled +fountains? + +Looking now for the conclusion of the whole matter, we find that +it lies in three different aspects, both of inquiring thought and +of practical morality, according to the lights and modes in which +three different classes of minds approach it. To the consistent +metaphysician, reasoning rigidly on grounds of science and +philosophy, every thing pertaining to the methods and circumstances +of the future life is an affair of entire uncertainty and hypothesis.5 +If in the future state the soul retains its individuality as an +identical force, form, life, and memory, and if associates in the +present state are brought together, it is probable that old friends +will recognise each other. But if they are oblivious of the past, +if they are incommunicably separated in space or state, if one +progresses so much farther that the other can never overtake him, +if the personal soul blends its individual consciousness with the +unitary consciousness of the Over Soul, if it commences a new career +from a fresh psychical germ, then, by the terms, there will be no +mutual recognition. In that case his comfort and his duty are to +know that the anguish and longing he now feels will cease then; to +trust in the benignity of the Infinite Wisdom, who knows best what +to appoint for his creatures; and to submit with harmonizing +resignation to the unalterable decree, offering his private wish a +voluntary sacrifice on the altar of natural piety. That he shall +know his friends hereafter is not impossible, not improbable; +neither is it certain. He may desire it, expect it, but not with +speculative pride dogmatically affirm it, nor with insisting +egotism presumptuously demand it. + +5 Gravell, Das Wiedersehen nach dem Tode. Wie es nur sein konne. + +To the uncritical Christian the recognising reunion of friends in +heaven is an unshaken assurance.6 There is nothing to disturb his +implicit reception of the plain teaching of Scripture. The +legitimate exhortations of his faith are these. Mourn not too +bitterly nor too long over your absent dead; for you shall meet +them in an immortal clime. As the last hour comes for your dearest +ones or for yourself, be of good cheer; for an imperishable joy is +yours. You: + +"Cannot lose the hope that many a year +Hath shone on a gleaming way, +When the walls of life are closing round +And the sky grows sombre gray." + +Put not away the intruding thoughts of the departed, but let them +often recur. The dead are constant. You know not how much they may +think of you, how near they may be to you. Will you pass to meet +them not having thought of them for years, having perhaps +forgotten them? Let your mind have its nightly firmament of +religious communion, beneath which white and sable memories shall +walk, and the sphered spirits of your risen friends, like stars, +shed down their holy rays to soothe your feverish cares and hush +every murmuring doubt to rest. From the dumb heavings of your +loving and trustful heart, sometimes exclaim, Parents who nurtured +and watched over me with unwearied affection, I would remember you +oft, and love you well, and so live that one day I may meet you at +the right hand of God. Early friends, so close and dear once, who +in the light of young romance trod with me life's morning hills, +neither your familiar faces nor your sweet communion are forgotten +by me: I fondly think of you, and aspire towards you, and pray for +a purer soul, that I may mount to your celestial circle at last; + +"For many a tear these eyes must weep, +And many a sin must be forgiven, +Ere these pale lids shall sink to sleep, +Ere you and I shall meet in heaven." + +Blessed Jesus, elder Brother of our race, who sittest now by thy +Father's throne, or pacest along the crystal coast as a leader, +chief among ten thousand, whose condescending brow the bloody +thorns no longer press, but the dazzling crown of thy Divinity +encircles, oh, remember us, poor erring pilgrims after thine +earthly steps; pity us, help us, and after death bring us to thy +home. + +To the sympathetic poet, the man of sentiment and meditation, who +views the question from the position of the heart, in the glory +and vistas of the imagination, but with all the known facts and +relations of the subject lying bare under his sight, the uniting +restoration, in another sphere, of earth's broken ties and parted +friends, is an unappeasable craving of the soul, in harmony with +the moral law, powerfully prophesied to his experience from all +quarters, and seemingly confirmed to his hopes by every promise of +God and nature.7 + +6 Grafe, Biblische Beitrage zu der Frage, Werden wir uns +wiedersehen nach dem Tode. + +7 Engel, Wir werden uns wiedersehen. Halst, Beleuchtung der +Hauptgrunde fur den Glauben an Erinnerung und Wiedersehen nach dem +Tode. Streicher, Neue Beitrage zur Kritik des Glaubens an +Ruckerinnerung nach dem Tode. + + +Received as a truth, it is a well of inexhaustible comfort, making +experience a green oasis where it overflows. The denial of it as a +proven falsehood is a withering blast of dust blowing on the +friendly caravan of sojourners in the desert of life. If existence +is the enjoyment of a largess of social love, and death is to have +a solitary hand snatch it all away forever, how dismal is the +prospect to the poor heart that loves and clings, loses and +despairs, and can only falter hopelessly on! It cannot be so. Love +is the true prophet. Heaven will restore the treasures earth has +lost. + +The mourner by the grave! Eve convulsed over the form of Abel! +Jesus weeping where Lazarus lay! America embracing the urn of +Washington! The Genius of Humanity at the Tomb of the Past! It is +the most pathetic spectacle of the world. As in the old myth the +pelican, hovering over her dead broodlets, pierced her own breast +in agony and fluttered there until by the fanning of her wings +above them and the dropping of her warm blood on them they were +brought to life again, so the great Mother of men seems in history +to brood over the ashes of departed ages, dropping the tears of +her grief and faith into the future to restore her deceased +children to life and draw them together within her embrace. And +that sublime Rachel will not easily be comforted except when her +thoughts, migrating whither her offspring have gone, seem to find +them happy in some happy heaven. + +The poet, lover of his race, who cannot trust his happier +instinct, but perforce believes that beyond the sepulchral line of +mortality he shall know no more of his friends, may find, as helps +to a willing acquiescence in what is fated, either one of two +possible contemplations.8 He may sadly lay upon his heart the +stifling solace, There will be no baffled wants nor unhappiness, +but all will be over when hic jacet is sculptured on the headstone +of my grave. Or, with measureless rebound of faith, he may crowd +the capacity of his soul with the mysterious presentiment, In the +unchangeable fulness of an infinite bliss, all specialties will be +merged and forgotten, and I shall be one of those to whom "the +wearisome disease" of remembered sorrow and anticipated joy "is an +alien thing." + +8 Wieland's Euthanasia expresses disbelief in the preservation of +personality and consciousness after death. The same ground had +been taken in the work published anonymously at Halle in 1775, +Plato and Leibnitz jenseits des Styx. See, on the other side of +the question, Wohlfahrt, Tempel der Unsterblichkeit, oder neue +Anthologie der wichtigsten Ausspruche, besonders neuerer Weisen +uber Wiedersehen u. s. w. + +CHAPTER VII. + +LOCAL FATE OF MAN IN THE ASTRONOMIC UNIVERSE. + +ACCORDING to the imagining of some speculative geologists, perhaps +this earth first floated in the abyss as a volume of vapor, +wreathing its enormous folds of mist in fantastic shapes as it was +borne along on the idle breath of law. Ages swept by, until this +stupendous fog ball was condensed into an ocean of fire, whose +billows heaved their lurid bosoms and reared their ashy crests +without a check, while their burning spray illuminated its track +around the sable vault. During periods which stagger computation, +this molten world was gradually cooled down; constant rivers wrung +from the densely swathing vapor poured over the heated mass and at +last submerged its crust in an immense sea. Then, for unknown +centuries, fire, water, and wind waged a Titanic war, that +imagination shudders to think of, jets of flame licking the stars, +massive battlements and columns of fire piled to terrific heights, +now the basin of the sea suddenly turned into a glowing caldron +and the atmosphere saturated with steam, again explosions hurling +mountains far into space and tearing the earth open in ghastly +rents to its very heart. At length the fire was partially subdued, +the peaceful deep glassed the sky in its bosom or rippled to the +whispers of the breeze, and from amidst the fertile slime and +mould of its sheltered floor began to sprout the first traces of +organic life, the germs of a rude species of marine vegetation. +Thousands of years rolled on. The world ocean subsided, the peaks +of mountains, the breasts of islands, mighty continents, emerged, +and slowly, after many tedious processes of preparation, a +gigantic growth of grass, every blade as large as our vastest oak, +shot from the soil, and the incalculable epoch of ferns commenced, +whose tremendous harvest clothed the whole land with a deep carpet +of living verdure. While unnumbered growths of this vegetation +were successively maturing, falling, and hardening into the dark +layers of inexhaustible coal beds, the world, one waving +wilderness of solemn ferns, swept in its orbit, voiceless and +silent, without a single bird or insect of any kind in all its +magnificent green solitudes, the air everywhere being heavily +surcharged with gases of the deadliest poison. Again innumerable +ages passed, and the era of mere botanic growths reaching its +limit, the lowest forms of animal life moved in the waters, the +earliest creatures being certain marine reptiles, worms, and bugs +of the sea. Then followed various untimed periods, during which +animal life rose by degrees from mollusk and jellyfish, by +plesiosaurus and pterodactyl, horrible monsters, hundreds of feet +in length, whose tramp crashed through the woods, or whose flight +loaded the groaning air, to the dolphin and the whale in the sea, +the horse and the lion on the land, and the eagle, the +nightingale, and the bird of paradise in the air. Finally, when +millions of aons had worn away, the creative process culminated in +Humanity, the crown and perfection of all; for God said, "Let us +make man in our own image;" and straightway Adam, with upright +form, kingly eye, and reason throned upon his brow, stood on the +summit of the world and gave names to all the races of creatures +beneath.1 + +At this stage two important questions arise. The first is, whether +man is the final type of being intended in the Divine plan for +this world, or whether he too is destined in his turn to be +superseded by a higher race, endowed with form, faculties, and +attributes transcending our conceptions, even as our own +transcended the ideas of the previous orders of existence. +Undoubtedly, had the ichthyosaurus, ploughing through the deep and +making it boil like a pot, or one of those mammoth creatures of +the antediluvian age who browsed half a dozen trees for breakfast, +crunched a couple of oxen for luncheon and a whole flock of sheep +for his dinner, been consulted on a similar problem, he would have +replied, without hesitation, "I exhaust the uses of the world. +What animal can there be superior to me? beyond a question, my +race shall possess the earth forever!" The mastodon could not know +any uses of nature except those he was fitted to experience, nor +imagine a being with the form and prerogatives of man. Therefore +he would not believe that the mastodon race would ever be +displaced by the human. We labor under the same disqualification +for judgment. There may be in the system of nature around us +adaptations, gifts, glories, as much higher than any we enjoy as +our noblest powers and privileges are in advance of those of the +tiger or the lark. + +It is a remarkable fact that the mature states of the antediluvian +races correspond with the foetal states of the present races, and +that the foetal states of embryonic man are counterparts of the +mature states of the lower races now contemporaneous with him. +This great discovery of modern science, though perhaps destitute +of logical value, suggests to the imagination the thought that man +may be but the foetal state of a higher being, a regent +temporarily presiding here until the birth and inauguration of the +true king of the world, and destined himself to be born from the +womb of this world into the free light and air of the spirit +kingdom! + +The resources of God are inexhaustible; and in the evolution of +his prearranged ages it may be that there will arise upon the +earth a race of beings of unforetold majesty, who shall disinter +the remnant bones and ponder the wrecked monuments of forgotten +man as we do those of the disgusting reptiles of the Saurian +epoch. But this is a mere conceit of possibility; and, so far as +the data for forming an opinion are in our hands, it is altogether +incredible. So far as appears, the adaptation between man and the +earth is exhaustive. He is able to subdue all her forces, reign +over all her provinces, enjoy all her delights, and gather into +his consciousness all her prophecies. And our practical conviction +is absolute that the race of men is the climax of being destined +for this earth, and that they will occupy its hospitable bosom +forever with their toils and their homes, their sports and their +graves.2 + +The other question is this: Was the subjection of the human race +to physical death a part of the Creator's original plan, or the +retributive result of a subsequent dislocation of that plan by +sin? a part of the great harmony of nature, or a discord marring +the happy destiny + +1 Harris, The Pre Adamite Earth. + +2 Agassiz says no higher creature than man is to be expected on +earth, because the capacities of the earthly plan of organic +creation are completed and exhausted with him. Introduction to +Study of Natural History, p. 57. + + +of man? Approaching this problem on grounds of science and reason +alone, there can be no hesitation as to the reply. There are but +two considerations really bearing upon the point and throwing +light upon it; and they both force us to the same conclusion. +First, it is a fact admitting no denial that death was the +predetermined natural fate of the successive generations of the +races that preceded man. Now, what conceivable reason is there for +supposing that man, constructed from the same elements, living +under the same organic laws, was exempt from the same doom? There +is not in the whole realm of science a single hint to that effect. +Secondly, the reproductive element an essential feature in the +human constitution, leading our kind to multiply and replenish the +earth is a demonstration that the office of death entered into +God's original plan of the world. For otherwise the earth at this +moment could not hold a tithe of the inhabitants that would be +demanding room. When God had permitted this world to roll in space +for awful ages, a lifeless globe of gas, fire, water, earth, and +then let it be occupied for incommensurable epochs more by snails, +vermin, and iguanodons, would he wind up the whole scene and +destroy it when the race of man, crowning glory of all, had only +flourished for a petty two thousand years? It is not credible. And +yet it must have been so unless it was decreed that the successive +generations should pass away and thus leave space for, the new +comers. We conclude, then, that it is the will of God and was in +the beginning that the human race shall possess the earth through +all the unknown periods of the future, the parents continually +passing off the stage in death as the children rise upon it to +maturity. We cannot discern any authority in those old traditions +which foretell the impending destruction of the world. On what +grounds are we to believe them? The great system of things is a +stable harmony. There is no wear or tear in the perfect machinery +of the creation, rolling noiseless in its blue bearings of ether. +It seems, comparatively speaking, to have just begun. Its +oscillations are self adjusted, and science prophesies for +humanity an illimitable career on this earthly theatre. The swift +melting of the elements and restoration of chaos is a mere heathen +whim or a poetic figment. It is the bards who sing, + +"The earth shall shortly die. Her grave is dug. I see the worlds, +night clad, all gathering In long and dark procession. And the +stars, Which stand as thick as glittering dewdrops on The fields +of heaven, shall pass in blazing mist." + +Such pictures are delusion winning the imagination, not truth +commanding the reason. In spite of all the Cassandra screams of +the priesthood, vaticinating universal ruin, the young old earth, +fresh every spring, shall remain under God's preserving +providence, and humanity's inexhaustible generations renewedly +reign over its kingdoms, forever. Plotinus said, "If God repents +having made the world, why does he defer its destruction? If he +does not yet repent, he never will, as being now accustomed to it, +and becoming through time more friendly to it." + +3 Lucan says, "Our bones and the stars shall be mingled on one +funeral pyre." Communis mundo superest rogus, ossibus astra +Misturus. + +But to receive such a good piece of poetry as veritable prevision +is surely a puerile error which a mature mind in the nineteenth +century should be ashamed to commit. + +The most recently broached theory of the end of the world is that +developed from some remarkable speculations as to the composition +and distribution of force. The view is briefly this. All force is +derived from heat. All heat is derived from the sun.4 The +mechanical value of a cubic mile of sunlight at the surface of the +earth is one horse power for a third of a minute; at the sun it is +fifteen thousand horse power for a minute. Now, it is calculated +that enough heat is radiated from the sun to require for its +production the annual consumption of the whole surface of the sun +to the depth of from ten to twenty miles. Of course, ultimately +the fuel will be all expended; then the forces of the system will +expire, and the creation will die.5 This brilliant and sublime +theorem assumes, first, that the heat of the sun arises from +consumption of matter, which may not be true; secondly, that it is +not a self replenishing process, as it certainly may be. Some have +even surmised that the zodiacal light is an illuminated tornado of +stones showering into the sun to feed its tremendous +conflagration. The whole scheme is a fine toy, but a very faint +terror. Even if it be true, then we are to perish at last from +lack of fire, and not, as commonly feared, from its abundance! + +The belief of mankind that a soul or ghost survives the body has +been so nearly universal as to appear like the spontaneous result +of an instinct. We propose to trace the history of opinions +concerning the physical destination of this disembodied spirit, +its connection with localities, to give the historical topography +of the future life. + +The earliest conception of the abode of the dead was probably that +of the Hebrew Sheol or the Greek Hades, namely, the idea born from +the silence, depth, and gloom of the grave of a stupendous +subterranean cavern full of the drowsy race of shades, the +indiscriminate habitation of all who leave the land of the living. +Gradually the thought arose and won acceptance that the favorites +of Deity, peerless heroes and sages, might be exempt from this +dismal fate, and migrate at death to some delightful clime beyond +some far shore, there, amidst unalloyed pleasures, to spend +immortal days. This region was naturally located on the surface of +the earth, where the cheerful sun could shine and the fresh +breezes blow, yet in some untrodden distance, where the gauntlet +of fact had not smitten the sceptre of fable. The paltry portion +of this earth familiar to the ancients was surrounded by an +unexplored region, which their fancy, stimulated by the legends of +the poets, peopled with mythological kingdoms, the rainbow bowers +and cloudy synods of Olympus, from whose glittering peak the +Thunderer threw his bolts over the south; the Golden Garden of the + +3 Ennead ii. lib. ix.: Contra Gnosticos, cap. 4. + +4 Helmholtz, Edinburgh Phil. Msg., series iv. vol. xi.: +Interaction of Natural Forces. + +5 Thomson, Ibid. Dec. 1854: Mechanical Energies of the Solar +System. + + +Hesperides, whose dragons lay on guard in the remote west; the +divine cities of Meru, whose encircling towers pierced the eastern +sky; the Banquet Halls of Ethiopia, gleaming through the fiery +desert; the fragrant Islands of Immortality, musical and luring in +the central ocean; the happy land of the Hyperboreans, beyond the +snowy summits of northern Caucasus: + +"How pleasant were the wild beliefs That dwelt in legends old! +Alas! to our posterity Will no such tales be told. We know too +much: scroll after scroll Weighs down our weary shelves: Our only +point of ignorance Is centred in ourselves." + +There was a belief among the Persians that Kaf, a mountain two +thousand miles high, formed a rim to the flat world and prevented +travellers from ever falling off.6 The fact that the earth is a +globe inhabited on all sides is a comparatively recent piece of +knowledge. So late as in the eighth century Pope Zachary accused +Virgilius, an Irish mathematician and monk, of heresy for +believing in the existence of antipodes.7 St. Boniface wrote to +the Pope against Virgilius; and Zachary ordered a council to be +held to expel him from the Church, for "professing, against God +and his own soul, so perverse and wicked a doctrine." To the +ancients all beyond the region they had traversed was an unknown +land, clothed in darkness, crowded with mystery and allurement. +Across the weltering wastes of brine, in a halcyon sea, the Hindu +placed the White Isle, the dwelling of translated and immortalized +men.8 Under the attraction of a mystic curiosity, well might the +old, wearied Ulysses say, + +"Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push +off, and, sitting well in order, smite The sounding furrows; for +my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all +the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash +us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the +great Achilles, whom we knew." + +Decius Brutus and his army, as Florus relates, reaching the coast +of Portugal, where, for the first time, they saw the sun setting +in the blood tinged ocean, turned back their standards with horror +as they beheld "the huge corpse of ruddy gold let down into the +deep." The Phoenician traders brought intelligence to Greece of a +people, the Cimmerians, who dwelt on the borders of Hades in the +umbered realms of perpetual night. To the dying Roman, on the +farthest verge of the known horizon hovered a vision of Elysian +Fields. And the American + +6 Adventures of Hatim Tai, p. 36, note. + +7 Whewell, Hist. Inductive Sciences, vol. i. book iv. ch. i. sect. +7. + +8 Wilford, Essays on the Sacred Isles, In Asiatic Researches, +vols. viii. xi. + + +Indian, sinking in battle or the chase, caught glimpses of happier +Hunting Grounds, whose woods trooped with game, and where the +arrows of the braves never missed, and there was no winter. There +was a pretty myth received among some of the ancient Britons, +locating their paradise in a spot surrounded by tempests, far in +the Western Ocean, and named Flath Innis, or Noble Island.9 The +following legend is illustrative. An old man sat thoughtful on a +rock beside the sea. A cloud, under whose squally skirts the +waters foamed, rushed down; and from its dark womb issued a boat, +with white sails bent to the wind, and hung round with moving +oars. Destitute of mariners, itself seemed to live and move. A +voice said, "Arise, behold the boat of heroes: embark, and see the +Green Isle of those who have passed away!" Seven days and seven +nights he voyaged, when a thousand tongues called out, "The Isle! +the Isle!" The black billows opened before him, and the calm land +of the departed rushed in light on his eyes. We are reminded by +this of what Procopius says concerning the conveyal of the soul of +the barbarian to his paradise. At midnight there is a knocking at +the door, and indistinct voices call him to come. Mysteriously +impelled, he goes to the sea coast, and there finds a frail, empty +wherry awaiting him. He embarks, and a spirit crew row him to his +destination.10 + +"He finds with ghosts His boat deep freighted, sinking to the edge +Of the dark flood, and voices hears, yet sees No substance; but, +arrived where once again His skiff floats free, hears friends to +friends Give lamentable welcome. The unseen Shore faint resounds, +and all the mystic air Breathes forth the names of parent, +brother, wife." + +During that period of poetic credulity while the face of the earth +remained to a great extent concealed from knowledge, wherever the +Hebrew Scriptures were known went the cherished traditions of the +Garden of Eden from which our first parents were driven for their +sin. Speculation naturally strove to settle the locality of this +lost paradise. Sometimes it was situated in the mysterious bosom +of India; sometimes in the flowery vales of Georgia, where roses +and spices perfumed the gales; sometimes in the guarded recesses +of Mesopotamia. Now it was the Grand Oasis in the Arabian desert, +flashing on the wilted pilgrim, over the blasted and blazing +wastes, with the verdure of palms, the play of waters, the smell +and flavor of perennial fruits. Again it was at the equator, where +the torrid zone stretched around it as a fiery sword waving every +way so that no mortal could enter. In the "Imago Mundi," a Latin +treatise on cosmography written early in the twelfth century, we +read, "Paradise is the extreme eastern part of Asia, and is made +inaccessible by a wall of fire surrounding it and rising unto +heaven." At a later time the Canaries were thought to be the +ancient Elysium, and were accordingly named the Fortunate Isles. +Indeed, among the motives that animated + +9 Macpherson, Introduction to the History of Great Britain and +Ireland, pp. 180-186. + +10 Procopius, Gothica, lib. iv. + + +Columbus on his adventurous voyage no inferior place must be +assigned to the hope of finding the primeval seat of Paradise.11 +The curious traveller, exploring these visionary spots one by one, +found them lying in the light of common day no nearer heaven than +his own natal home; and at last all faith in them died out when +the whole surface of the globe had been surveyed, no nook left +wherein romance and superstition might any longer play at hide and +seek. + +Continuing our search after the local abode of the departed, we +now leave the surface of the earth and descend beneath it. The +first haunted region we reach is the realm of the Fairies, which, +as every one acquainted with the magic lore of old Germany or +England knows, was situated just under the external ground, and +was clothed with every charm poets could imagine or the heart +dream. There was supposed to be an entrance to this enchanted +domain at the Peak Cavern in Derbyshire, and at several other +places. Sir Walter Scott has collected some of the best legends +illustrative of this belief in his "History of Demonology." Sir +Gawaine, a famous knight of the Round Table, was once admitted to +dine, above ground, in the edge of the forest, with the King of +the Fairies: + +"The banquet o'er, the royal Fay, intent +To do all honor to King Arthur's knight, +Smote with his rod the bank on which they leant, +And Fairy land flash'd glorious on the sight; +Flash'd, through a silvery, soft, translucent mist, +The opal shafts and domes of amethyst; +Flash'd founts in shells of pearl, which crystal walls +And phosphor lights of myriad hues redouble. +There, in the blissful subterranean halls, +When morning wakes the world of human trouble +Glide the gay race; each sound our discord knows, +Faint heard above, but lulls them to repose." + +To this empire of moonlit swards and elfin dances, of jewelled +banks, lapsing streams, and enchanting visions, it was thought a +few favored mortals might now and then find their way. But this +was never an earnest general faith. It was a poetic superstition +that hovered over fanciful brains, a legendary dream that pleased +credulous hearts; and, with the other romance of the early world, +it has vanished quite away. + +The popular belief of Jews, Greeks, Etruscans, Romans, Germans, +and afterwards of Christians, was that there was an immense world +of the dead deep beneath the earth, subdivided into several +subordinate regions. The Greenlanders believed in a separated +heaven and hell, both located far below the Polar Ocean. According +to the old classic descriptions of the under world, what a scene +of colossal gloom it is! Its atmosphere murmurs with a breath of +plaintive sighs. Its population, impalpable ghosts timidly +flitting at every motion, + +11 Irving, Life of Columbus: Appendix on the Situation of the +Terrestrial Paradise. By far the most valuable book ever published +on this subject is that of Schulthess, Das Paradies, das irdische +und uberirdische historische, mythische und mystische, nebst einer +kritischen Revision der allgemelnen biblischen Geographie. + + +crowd the sombre landscapes in numbers surpassing imagination. +There Cocytus creeps to the seat of doom, his waves emitting +doleful wails. Styx, nine times enfolding the whole abode, drags +his black and sluggish length around. Charon, the slovenly old +ferryman, plies his noiseless boat to and fro laden with shadowy +passengers. Far away in the centre grim Pluto sits on his ebony +throne and surveys the sad subjects of his dreadful domain. By his +side sits his stolen and shrinking bride, Proserpine, her +glimmering brows encircled with a wreath of poppies. Above the +subterranean monarch's head a sable rainbow spans the infernal +firmament; and when, with lifted hand, he announces his decrees, +the applause given by the twilight populace of Hades is a rustle +of sighs, a vapor of tears, and a shudder of submission. + +The belief in this dolorous kingdom was early modified by the +reception of two other adjacent realms, one of reward, one of +torture; even as Goethe says, in allusion to the current Christian +doctrine, "Hell was originally but one apartment: limbo and +purgatory were afterwards added as wings." Passing through Hades, +and turning in one direction, the spirit traveller would arrive at +Elysium or Abraham's bosom: + +"To paradise the gloomy passage winds Through regions drear and +dismal, and through pain, Emerging soon in beatific blaze Of +light." + +There the blessed ones found respite and peaceful joys in flowery +fields, pure breezes, social fellowship, and the similitudes of +their earthly pursuits. In this placid clime, lighted by its own +constellations, favored souls roamed or reposed in a sort of +ineffectual happiness. According to the pagans, here were such +heroes as Achilles, such sages as Socrates, to remain forever, or +until the end of the world. And here, according to the Christians, +the departed patriarchs and saints were tarrying expectant of +Christ's arrival to ransom them. Dante thus describes that great +event: + +"Then he, who well my covert meaning knew, +Answer'd, Herein I had not long been bound, +When an All puissant One I saw march through, +With victory's radiant sign triumphal crown'd. +He led from us our Father Adam's shade, +Abel and Noah, whom God loved the most, +Lawgiving Moses, him who best obey'd, +Abraam the patriarch, royal David's ghost; +Israel, his father, and his sons, and her +Whom Israel served for, faithfully and long, +Rachel, with more, to bliss did He transfer: +No souls were saved before this chosen throng." 12 + +At the opposite extremity of Hades was supposed to be an opening +that led down into Tartarus, "a place made underneath all things, +so low and horrible that hell is its heaven." Here the old earth +giants, the looming Titans, lay, bound, transfixed with +thunderbolts, their + +12 Parsons's trans. Dell' Inferno, canto iv. ii. 55-63. + + +mountainous shapes half buried in rocks, encrusting lava, and +ashes. Rivers of fire seam the darkness, whose borders are braided +with sentinel furies. On every hand the worst criminals, +perjurers, blasphemers, ingrates, groan beneath the pitiless +punishments inflicted on them without escape. Any realization of +the terrific scenery of this whole realm would curdle the blood.13 +There were fabled entrances to the dread under world at Acherusia, +in Bithynia, at Avernus, in Campania, where Ulysses evoked the +dead and traversed the grisly abodes, through the Sibyl's cave at +Cuma, at Hermione, in Argolis, where the people thought the +passage below so near and easy that they neglected to give the +dying an obolus to pay ferriage to Charon, at Tanarus, the +southern most point of Peloponnesus, where Herakles went down and +dragged the three headed dog up into day, at the cave of +Trophonius, in Lebadea, and at several other places. + +Similar conceptions have been embodied in the ecclesiastical +doctrine which has generally prevailed in Christendom. Locating +the scene in the hollow of the earth, thus has it been described +by Milton, + +"A dungeon horrible on all sides round As one great furnace +flamed; yet from those flames No light, but rather darkness +visible, Served only to discover sights of woe, Regions of +anguish, doleful shades, where peace Nor hope can come, but +torture without end Still urges, and a fiery deluge fed With ever +burning sulphur unconsumed;" wherein, confined by adamantine +walls, the fallen angels and all the damned welter overwhelmed +with floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire. Shapes once +celestially fair and proud, but now scarred from battle and +darkened by sin into faded forms of haggard splendor, support +their uneasy steps over the burning marl. Everywhere shrieks and +moans resound, and the dusky vault of pandemonium is lighted by a +blue glare cast pale and dreadful from the tossings of the flaming +lake. This was hell, where the wicked must shrink and howl +forever. Etna, Vesuvius, Stromboli, Hecla, were believed to be +vent holes from this bottomless and living pit of fire. The famous +traveller, Sir John Maundeville, asserted that he found a descent +into hell "in a perilous vale" in the dominions of Prester John. +Many a cavern in England still bears the name of "Hell hole." In a +dialogue between a clerk and a master, preserved in an old Saxon +catechism, the following question and reply occur: "Why is the sun +so red when she sets?" "Because she looks down upon hell." +Antonius Rusca, a learned professor at Milan, in the year 1621, +published a huge quarto in five books, giving a detailed +topographical account of the interior of the earth, hell, +purgatory, and limbo.14 There is a lake in the south of Ireland in +which is an island containing a cavern said to open down into +hell. This cave + +13 Descriptions of the sufferings of hell, according to the +popular notions at different periods, are given in the work +published at Weimar in 1817, Das Rad der ewigen Hollenqual. In den +Curiositaten der physisch literarisch artistisch historischen Vor +und Mitwelt, band vi. st. 2. + +14 De Inferno et Statn Damonum ante Mundi Exitium. + + +is called St. Patrick's Purgatory, and the pretence obtained quite +general credit for upwards of five centuries. Crowds of pilgrims +visited the place. Some who had the hardihood to venture in were +severely pinched, beaten, and burned, by the priests within, +disguised as devils, and were almost frightened out of their wits +by the diabolical scenes they saw where + +"Forth from the depths of flame that singed the gloom Despairing +wails and piercing shrieks were heard." + +Several popes openly preached in behalf of this gross imposition; +and the Church virtually authorized it by receiving the large +revenues accruing from it, until at last outraged common sense +demanded its repudiation and suppression.15 + +Few persons now, as they walk the streets and fields, are much +disturbed by the thought that, not far below, the vivid lake of +fire and brimstone, greedily roaring for new food, heaves its +tortured surges convulsed and featured with souls. Few persons now +shudder at a volcanic eruption as a premonishing message freshly +belched from hell.16 In fact, the old belief in a local physical +hell within the earth has almost gone from the public mind of to +day. It arose from pagan myths and figures of speech based on +ignorant observation and arbitrary fancy, and with the growth of +science and the enlightenment of reason it has very extensively +fallen and faded away. No honest and intelligent inquirer into the +matter can find the slightest valid support for such a notion. It +is now a mere tradition, upheld by groundless authority. And yet +the dim shadow of that great idea of a subterranean hell which +once burned so fierce and lurid in the brain of Christendom still +vaguely haunts the modern world. The dogma still lies in the +prevalent creeds, and is occasionally dragged out and brandished +by fanatic preachers. The transmitted literature and influences of +the past are so full of it that it cannot immediately cease. +Accordingly, while the common understanding no longer grasps it as +a definite verity, it lingers in the popular fancy as a half +credible image. The painful attempts made now and then by some +antiquated or fanatical clergyman to compel attention to it and +belief in it as a tangible fact of science, as well as an +unquestionable revelation of Scripture, scarcely win a passing +notice, but provoke a significant smile. Father Passaglia, an +eminent Jesuit theologian, in 1856 published in Italy a work on +the Literality of Hell Fire and the Eternity of the Punishments of +the Damned. He says, "In this world fire burns by chemical +operations; but in hell it burns by the breath of the Lord!" The +learned and venerable Faber, a voluminous author and distinguished +English divine, published in the year 1851 a large octavo entitled +"The Many Mansions in the House of the Father," discussing with +elaborate detail the question as to the locality of the scenes +awaiting souls after death. His grand conclusion the unreasonableness +of which will be apparent without comment is as follows: +"The saints having first risen with Christ into the highest +regions of the air, out of reach of the dreadful heat, the +tremendous flood of fire hitherto detained inside the earth will +be let loose, and an awful conflagration rage till the whole +material globe is dissipated into sublimated particles. Then the +world will be formed anew, in three parts. First, there will be + +15 Wright, St. Patrick's Purgatory: an Essay on the Legends of +Paradise, Hell, and Purgatory, current during the Middle Ages. + +16 Patuzzi, De Sede inferni in Terris quarenda. + + +a solid central sphere of fire the flaming nucleus of Gehenna two +thousand miles in diameter. Secondly, there shall roll around this +central ball on all sides an ignited ocean of liquid fire two +thousand miles in depth, the peculiar residence of the wicked, the +sulphurous lake spoken of in the Apocalypse. Thirdly, around this +infernal sea a vast spherical arch will hang, a thousand miles +thick, a massive and unbroken shell, through which there are no +spiracles, and whose external surface, beautiful beyond +conception, becomes the heaven of the redeemed, where Christ +himself, perfect man as well as perfect God, fixes his residence +and establishes the local sovereignty of the Universal Archangel." +17 A comfortable thought it must be for the saints, as they roam +the flowery fields, basking in immortal bliss, to remember that +under the crust they tread, a soundless sea of fire is forever +plunging on its circular course, all its crimson waves packed with +the agonized faces of the damned as thick as drops! The whole +scheme is without real foundation. Science laughs at such a +theory. Its scriptural supports are either ethnic figments or +rhetorical tropes. Reason, recollecting the immateriality of the +soul, dissipates the ghastly dream beyond the possibility of +restoration to belief. + +Following the historic locations of the abode of departed souls, +we next ascend from the interior of the earth, and above the +surface of the earth, into the air and the lofty realms of ether. +The ancient Caledonians fixed the site of their spirit world in +the clouds. Their bards have presented this conception in manifold +forms and with the most picturesque details. In tempests the +ghosts of their famous warriors ride on the thunderbolts, looking +on the earth with eyes of fire, and hurling lances of lightning. +They float over the summits of the hills or along the valleys in +wreaths of mist, on vapory steeds, waving their shadowy arms in +the moonlight, the stars dimly glimmering through their visionary +shapes. The Laplanders also placed their heaven in the upper air, +where the Northern Lights play. They regarded the auroral +streamers as the sport of departed spirits in the happy region to +which they had risen. Such ideas, clad in the familiar imagery +furnished by their own climes, would naturally be suggested to the +ignorant fancy, and easily commended to the credulous thoughts, of +the Celts and Finns. Explanation and refutation are alike +unnecessary. + +Plutarch describes a theory held by some of the ancients locating +hell in the air, elysium in the moon.18 After death all souls are +compelled to spend a period in the region between the earth and +the moon, the wicked in severe tortures and for a longer time, the +good in a mild discipline soon purging away all their stains and +fitting them for the lunar paradise. After tarrying a season +there, they were either born again upon the earth, or transported +to the divine realm of the sun. Macrobius, too, says, "The +Platonists reckon as the infernal + +17 Part iv. chap. ix. p. 417. Dr. Cumming (The End, Lect. X.) +teaches the doctrine of the literal resurrection of the flesh, and +the subsequent residence of the redeemed on this globe as their +eternal heaven under the immediate rule of Christ. Quite a full +detail of the historic and present belief in this scheme may be +found in the recent work of its earnest advocate, D. T. Taylor, +The Voice of the Church on the Coming of the Redeemer, or a +History of the Doctrine of the Reign of Christ on Earth. + +18 In his Essay on the Face in the Orb of the Moon. + + +region the whole space between the earth and the moon."19 He also +adds, "The tropical signs Cancer and Capricorn are called the +gates of the sun, because there he meets the solstice and can go +no farther. Cancer is the gate of men, because by it is the +descent to the lower regions; Capricorn is the gate of gods, +because by it is a return for souls to the rank of gods in the +seat of their proper immortality." 20 The Manicheans taught that +souls were borne to the moon on leaving their bodies, and there +washed from their sins in water, then taken to the sun and further +cleansed in fire. They described the moon and sun as two splendid +ships prepared for transferring souls to their native country, the +world of perfect light in the heights of the creation.21 + +The ancient Hebrews thought the sky a solid firmament overarching +the earth, and supporting a sea of inexhaustible waters, beyond +which God and his angels dwelt in monopolized splendor. Eliphaz +the Temanite says, "Is not God in the height of heaven? And behold +the stars, how high they are; but he walketh upon the arch of +heaven!" And Job says, "He covereth the face of his throne, and +spreadeth his clouds under it. He hath drawn a circular bound upon +the waters to the confines of light and darkness." From the +dazzling realm above this supernal ocean all men were supposed, +until after the resurrection of Christ, to be excluded. But from +that time the belief gradually spread in Christendom that a way +was open for faithful souls to ascend thither. Ephraim the +Syrian,22 and Ambrose, located paradise in the outermost East on +the highest summit of the earth, stretching into the serene +heights of the sky. The ancients often conceived the universe to +form one solid whole, whose different provinces were accessible +from each other to gods and angels by means of bridges and golden +staircases. Hence the innumerable paradisal legends associated +with the mythic mountains of antiquity, such as Elborz, Olympus, +Meru, and Kaf. Among the strange legends of the Middle Age, +Gervase of Tilbury preserves the following one, illustrative of +this belief in a sea over the sky: "One Sunday the people of an +English village were coming out of church, a dark, gloomy day, +when they saw the anchor of a ship hooked to one of the +tombstones, the cable, tightly stretched, hanging down the air. +Presently they saw a sailor sliding down the rope to unfix the +anchor. When he had just loosened it the villagers seized hold of +him; and, while in their hands, he quickly died, as though he had +been drowned!" There is also a famous legend called "St. Brandon's +Voyage." The worthy saint set sail from the coast of Ireland, and +held on his way till he arrived at the moon, which he found to be +the location of hell. Here he saw Judas Iscariot in execrable +tortures, regularly respited, however, every week from Saturday +eve till Sunday eve! + +The thought so entirely in accordance with the first impression +made by the phenomenon of the night sky on the ignorant senses and +imagination that the stars are set in a firm revolving dome, has +widely prevailed; and the thought that heaven lies beyond that +solid arch, in the unknown space is a popular notion lingering +still. The scriptural image declaring that the convulsions of the +last day will shake the stars from their sockets in the + +19 In Somnium Scipionis, lib. i. cap. xi. + +20 Ibid. cap. xii. + +21 Augustine, De Natura Boni, cap. xliv. + +22 De Paradiso Eden, Sermo I. + + +heavenly floor, "as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she +is shaken of a mighty wind," although so obviously a figure of +speech, has been very generally credited as the description of a +literal fact yet to occur. And how many thousands of pious +Christians have felt, with the sainted Doddridge, + +"Ye stars are but the shining dust Of my Divine abode, The +pavement of those heavenly courts Where I shall see my God!" + +The universal diffusion in civilized nations of the knowledge that +the visible sky is no substantial expanse, but only an illimitable +void of space hung with successive worlds, has by no means +banished the belief, originally based on the opposite error, in a +physical heaven definitely located far overhead, the destination +of all ransomed souls. This is undoubtedly the most common idea at +the present time. An English clergyman once wrote a book, +afterwards translated into German, to teach that the sun is hell, +and that the black spots often noticed on the disk of that orb are +gatherings of damned souls.23 Isaac Taylor, on the contrary, +contends with no little force and ingenuity that the sun may be +the heaven of our planetary system, a globe of immortal +blessedness and glory.24 The celebrated Dr. Whiston was convinced +that the great comet which appeared in his day was hell. He +imagined it remarkably fitted for that purpose by its fiery vapor, +and its alternate plunges, now into the frozen extremity of space, +now into the scorching breath of the sun. Tupper fastens the +stigma of being the infernal prison house on the moon, in this +style: + +"I know thee well, O Moon, thou cavern'd realm, Sad satellite, +thou giant ash of death, Blot on God's firmament, pale home of +crime, Scarr'd prison house of sin, where damned souls Feed upon +punishment: Oh, thought sublime, That amid night's black deeds, +when evil prowls Through the broad world, thou, watching sinners +well, Glarest o'er all, the wakeful eye of Hell!" + +Bailey's conception is the darker birth of a deeper feeling: + +"There is a blind world, yet unlit by God, Rolling around the +extremest edge of light, Where all things are disaster and decay: +That black and outcast orb is Satan's home That dusky world man's +science counteth not Upon the brightest sky. He never knows How +near it comes to him; but, swathed in clouds, As though in plumed +and palled state, it steals, Hearse like and thief like, round the +universe, Forever rolling, and returning not, + +23 Swinden, On the Nature and Location of Hell. + +24 Physical Theory of Another Life, chap. xvi. + + +Robbing all worlds of many an angel soul, With its light hidden +in its breast, which burns With all concentrate and superfluent +woe." + +In the average faith of individuals to day, heaven and hell exist +as separate places located somewhere in the universe; but the +notions as to the precise regions in which they lie are most vague +and ineffectual when compared with what they formerly were. + +The Scandinavian kosmos contained nine worlds, arranged in the +following order: Gimle, a golden region at the top of the +universe, the eternal residence of Allfather and his chosen ones; +next below that, Muspel, the realm of the genii of fire; Asgard, +the abode of the gods in the starry firmament; Vindheim, the home +of the air spirits; Manheim, the earth, or middle realm; +Jotunheim, the world of the giants, outside the sea surrounding +the earth; Elfheim, the world of the black demons and dwarfs, just +under the earth's surface; Helheim, the domain of the goddess of +death, deep within the earth's bosom; and finally, Niflheim, the +lowest kingdom of horror and pain, at the very bottom of the +creation. The Buddhist kosmos, in the simplest form, as some of +them conceived it, was composed of a series of concentric spheres +each separated from the next by a space, and successively +overarching and under arching each other with circular layers of +brightness above and blackness beneath; each starry hollow +overhead being a heaven inhabited by gods and blessed souls, each +lurid hollow underfoot being a hell filled with demons and wicked +souls in penance. The Arabian kosmos, beginning with the earth, +ascended to a world of water above the firmament, next to a world +of air, then to a world of fire, followed in rising order by an +emerald heaven with angels in the form of birds, a heaven of +precious stones with angels as eagles, a hyacinth heaven with +angels as vultures, a silver heaven with angels as horses, a +golden and a pearl heaven each peopled with angel girls, a crystal +heaven with angel men, then two heavens full of angels, and +finally a great sea without bound, each sphere being presided over +by a chief ruler, the names of all of whom were familiar to the +learned Arabs. The Syrian kosmos corresponded closely to the +foregoing. It soared up the mounting steps of earth, water, air, +fire, and innumerable choruses successively of Angels, Archangels, +Principalities, Powers, Virtues, Dominations, Thrones, Cherubim +and Seraphim, unto the Expanse whence Lucifer fell; afterwards to +a boundless Ocean; and lastly to a magnificent Crown of Light +filling the uppermost space of all.25 + +It is hard for us to imagine the aspects of the universe to the +ancients and the impressions it produced in them, all seemed so +different then, in the dimness of crude observation, from the +present appearance in the light of astronomic science. Anaximander +held that the earth was of cylindrical form, suspended in the +middle of the universe and surrounded by envelopes of water, air, +and fire, as by the coats of an onion, but that the exterior +stratum was broken up and collected into masses, and thus +originated the sun, moon, and stars, which are carried around by +the three spheres in which they are fixed.26 Many of the Oriental +nations believed the planets to be animated beings, conscious +divinities, freely marching around their high realms, keeping +watch and ward over the creation, smiling their favorites on to +happy fortune, + +25 Dupuis, L'Origine de tous les Cultes, Planche No. 21. + +26 Arist. de Coel. ii. 13. + + +fixing their baleful eyes and shedding disastrous eclipse on +"falling nations and on kingly lines about to sink forever." This +belief was cherished among the later Greek philosophers and Roman +priests, and was vividly held by such men as Philo, Origen, and +even Kepler. It is here that we are to look for the birth of +astrology, that solemn lore, linking the petty fates of men with +the starry conjunctions, which once sank so deeply into the mind +of the world, but is now wellnigh forgotten: + +"No more of that, ye planetary lights! Your aspects, dignities, +ascendancies, Your partite quartiles, and your plastic trines, And +all your heavenly houses and effects, Shall meet no more devout +expounders here. + +The joy of Jupiter, The exaltation of the Dragon's head, The sun's +triplicity and glorious Day house on high, the moon's dim +detriment, And all the starry inclusions of all signs, Shall rise, +and rule, and pass, and no one know That there are spirit rulers +of all worlds, Which fraternize with earth, and, though unknown, +Hold in the shining voices of the stars Communion on high and +everywhere." + +The belief that the stars were living beings, combining with the +fancy of an unscientific time, gave rise to the stellar apotheosis +of heroes and legendary names, and was the source of those +numerous asterisms, out lined groups of stars, which still bedeck +the skies and form the landmarks of celestial topography. It was +these and kindred influences that wrought together + +"To make the firmament bristle with shapes Of intermittent motion, +aspect vague, And mystic bearings, which o'ercreep the earth, +Keeping slow time with horrors in the blood;" the Gorgon's +petrific Head, the Bear's frightful form, Berenice's streaming +Hair, the curdling length of Ophiuchus, and the Hydra's horrid +shape. The poetic eye of old religion saw gods in the planets +walking their serene blue paths, + +"Osiris, Bel, Odin, Mithras, Brahm, Zeus, Who gave their names to +stars which still roam round The skies all worshipless, even from +climes Where their own altars once topp'd every hill." + +By selected constellations the choicest legends of the antique +world are preserved in silent enactment. On the heavenly sea the +Argonautss keep nightly sail towards the Golden Fleece. There +Herakles gripes the hydra's heads and sways his irresistible club; +Arion with his harp rides the docile Dolphin; the Centaur's right +hand clutches the Wolf; the Hare flees from the raging eye and +inaudible bark of the Dog; and space crawls with the horrors of +the Scorpion. + +In consequence of the earth's revolution in its orbit, the sun +appears at different seasons to rise in connection with different +groups of stars. It seems as if the sun made an annual journey +around the ecliptic. This circuit was divided into twelve parts +corresponding to the months, and each marked by a distinct +constellation. There was a singular agreement in regard to these +solar houses, residences of the gods, or signs of the zodiac, +among the leading nations of the earth, the Persians, Chaldeans, +Hebrews, Syrians, Hindus, Chinese, Arabians, Japanese, Siamese, +Goths, Javanese, Mexicans, Peruvians, and Scandinavians. 27 Among +the various explanations of the origin of these artificial signs, +we will notice only the one attributed by Volney to the Egyptians. +The constellations in which the sun successively appeared from +month to month were named thus: at the time of the overflow of the +Nile, the stars of inundation, (Aquarius;) at the time of +ploughing, stars of the ox, (Taurus;) when lions, driven forth by +thirst, appeared on the banks of the Nile, stars of the lion, +(Leo;) at the time of reaping, stars of the sheaf, (Virgo;) stars +of the lamb and two kids, (Aries,) when these animals were born; +stars of the crab, (Cancer,) when the sun, touching the tropic, +returned backwards; stars of the wild goat, (Capricorn,) when the +sun reached the highest point in his yearly track; stars of the +balance, (Libra,) when days and nights were in equilibrium; stars +of the scorpion, (Scorpio,) when periodical simooms burned like +the venom of a scorpion; and so on of the rest.28 + +The progress of astronomical science from the wild time when men +thought the stars were mere spangles stuck in a solid expanse not +far off, to the vigorous age when Ptolemy's mathematics spanned +the scope of the sky; from the first reverent observations of the +Chaldean shepherds watching the constellations as gods, to the +magnificent reasonings of Copernicus dashing down the innumerable +crystalline spheres, "cycle on epicycle, orb on orb," with which +crude theorizers had crowded the stellar spaces; from the uncurbed +poetry of Hyginus writing the floor of heaven over with romantic +myths in planetary words, to the more wondrous truth of Le Verrier +measuring the steps from nimble Mercury flitting moth like in the +beard of the sun to dull Neptune sagging in his cold course twenty +six hundred million miles away; from the half inch orb of +Hipparchus's naked eye, to the six feet speculum of Rosse's awful +tube; from the primeval belief in one world studded around with +skyey torch lights, to the modern conviction of octillions of +inhabited worlds all governed by one law constitutes the most +astonishing chapter in the history of the human mind. Every step +of this incredible progress has had its effect in modifying the +conceptions of man's position and importance in nature and of the +connection of his future fate with localities. Of old, the entire +creation was thought to lie pretty much within the comprehension +of man's unaided senses, and man himself was supposed to be the +chief if not the sole object of Divine providence. The deities +often came down in incarnations and mingled with their favorites +and rescued the earth from evils. Every thing was anthropomorphized. +Man's relative magnitude and power were believed to be such +that he fancied during an eclipse that, by screams, the crashing +of gongs, and magic rites, he could scare away the monsters + +27 Pigott, Scandinavian Mythology, chap. i. p. 31. + +28 Volney, Ruins, chap. xxii. sect. 3. Maurice, Hist. Hindostan, +vol. i. pp. 145-147. + + +who were swallowing the sun or the moon. Meteors shooting through +the evening air the Arabs believed were fallen angels trying to +get back into heaven but hurled from the crystal battlements by +the flaming lances of the guardian watchers. Then the gazer saw +"The top of heaven full of fiery shapes, Of burning cressets." + +Now the student contemplates an abyss swarming with orbs each out +weighing millions of our earth. Then they read their nativities in +the planets and felt how great must be the state overwatched by +such resplendent servitors. Now "They seek communion with the stars +that they may know How petty is this ball on which they come and go." + +Then the hugest view of the extent of the universal sphere was +that an iron mass would require nine days and nights to plunge +from its Olympian height to its Tartarean depth. Now we are told +by the masters of science that there are stars so distant that it +would take their light, travelling at a rate of nearly twelve +million miles a minute, thirty million years to reach us. The +telescope has multiplied the size of the creation by hundreds of +millions, and the grandest conception of the stellar universe +possible to the most capacious human mind probably bears no larger +proportion to the fact than an orrery does to the solar system. +Our earth is a hundred million miles from the sun, whose diameter +is so monstrous that a hundred such orbs strung in a straight line +would occupy the whole distance. The sun, with all his attendant +planets and moons, is sweeping around his own centre supposed by +some to be Alcyone at the rate of four hundred thousand miles a +day; and it will take him eighteen million years to complete one +revolution. Our firmamental cluster contains, it has been +calculated, in round numbers about twenty million stars. There are +many thousands of such nebula visible, some of them capable of +packing away in their awful bosoms hundreds of thousands of our +galaxies. Measure off the abysmal space into seven hundred +thousand stages each a hundred million miles wide, and you reach +the nearest fixed stars, for instance, the constellation of the +Lyre. Multiply that inconceivable distance by hundreds of +thousands, and still you will discern enormous sand banks of stars +obscurely glittering on the farthest verge of telescopic vision. +And even all this is but a little corner of the whole. + +Coleridge once said, "To some infinitely superior Being, the whole +universe may be as one plain, the distance between planet and +planet being only as the pores in a grain of sand, and the spaces +between system and system no greater than the intervals between +one grain and the grain adjacent." One of the vastest thoughts yet +conceived by any mortal mind is that of turning the universe from +a mechanical to a chemical problem, as illustrated by Prof. +Lovering.29 Assuming the acknowledged truths in physics, that the +ultimate particles of matter never actually touch each other, and +that water in evaporating expands into eighteen hundred times its +previous volume, he demonstrates that the porosity of our solar +system is no greater than that of steam. "The porosity of granite +or gold may be equal to that of steam, + +29 Cambridge Miscellany, 1842. + + +the greater density being a stronger energy in the central +forces." And the conclusion is scientifically reached that "the +vast interval between the sun and Herschel is an enormous pore, +while the invisible distance that separates the most closely +nestled atoms is a planetary space, a stupendous gulf when +compared with the little spheres between which it flows." Thus we +may think of the entire universe as a living organism, like a +ripening orange, its component atoms worlds, the sidereal +movements its vital circulation. + +Surely, when a man looks up from his familiar fields and household +roof to such incommensurable objects as scientific imagination +reveals in the sparkling sword handle of Perseus and the hazy +girdle of Andromeda, overpowering humility will fill his breast, +an unutterable solemnity will "fall on him as from the very +presence chamber of the Highest." And will he not, when he +contemplates the dust like shoals of stars, the shining films of +firmaments, that retreat and hover through all the boundless +heights, the Nubecula nebula, looking like a bunch of ribbons +disposed in a true love's knot, that most awful nebula whirled +into the shape and bearing the name of the Dumb Bell, the Crab +nebula, hanging over the infinitely remote space, a sprawling +terror, every point holding millions of worlds, thinking of these +all transcendent wonders, and then remembering his own +inexpressible littleness, how that the visible existence of his +whole race does not occupy a single tick of the great Sidereal +Clock, will he not sink under helpless misgivings, will he not +utterly despair of immortal notice and support from the King of +all this? In a word, how does the solemn greatness of man, the +supposed eternal destiny of man, stand affected by the modern +knowledge of the vastness of creation? Regarding the immensities +receding over him in unfathomable abysses bursting with dust heaps +of suns, must not man be dwarfed into unmitigated contempt, his +life and character rendered absolutely insignificant, the utmost +span of his fortunes seeming but as the hum and glitter of an +ephemeron in a moment's sunshine? Doubtless many a one has at +times felt the stupendous truths of astronomy thus palsying him +with a crushing sense of his own nothingness and burying him in +fatalistic despair. Standing at night, alone, beneath the august +dome studded from of old with its ever blazing lights, he gazes up +and sees the innumerable armies of heaven marshalled forth above +him in the order and silence of their primeval pomp. Peacefully +and forever they shine there. In nebula separated from nebula by +trillions of leagues, plane beyond plane, they stretch and glitter +to the feet of God. Falling on his knees, he clasps his hands in +speechless adoration, but feels, with an intolerable ache of the +heart, that in this infinitude such an one as he can be of no +consequence whatever. He waits passively for the resistless round +of fate to bear him away, ah, whither? "Conscious that he dwells +but as an atom of dust on the outskirts of a galaxy of +inconceivable glory" moving through eternity in the arms of law, +he becomes, in his own estimation, an insensible dot lost in the +uncontainable wilderness of firmamental systems. But this +conclusion of despair is a mistake as sophistical as it is +injurious, as baseless in reality as it is natural in seeming. Its +antidote and corrective are found in a more penetrative thought +and juster understanding of the subject, which will preserve the +greatness and the immortal destiny of man unharmed despite the +frowning vastitudes of creation. This will appear from fairly +weighing the following considerations. + +In the first place, the immensity of the material universe is an +element entirely foreign to the problem of human fate. When +seeking to solve the question of human destiny, we are to study +the facts and prophecies of human nature, and to conclude +accordingly. It is a perversion of reason to bring from far an +induction of nebular magnitudes to crush with their brute weight +the plain indications of the spirit of humanity. What though the +number of telescopic worlds were raised to the ten thousandth +power, and each orb were as large as all of them combined would +now be? what difference would that make in the facts of human +nature and destiny? It is from the experience going on in man's +breast, and not from the firmaments rolling above his head, that +his importance and his final cause are to be inferred. The human +mind, heart, and conscience, thought, love, faith, and piety, +remain the same in their intrinsic rank and capacities whether the +universe be as small as it appeared to the eyes of Abraham or as +large as it seems in the cosmical theory of Humboldt. Thus the +spiritual position of man really remains precisely what it was +before the telescope smote the veils of distance and bared the +outer courts of being. + +Secondly, if we do bring in the irrelevant realms of science to +the examination of our princely pretensions, it is but fair to +look in both directions. And then what we lose above we gain +below. The revelations of the microscope balance those of the +telescope. The animalcula magnify man as much as the nebulsa +belittle him. We cannot help believing that He who frames and +provides for those infinitesimal animals quadrillions of whom +might inhabit a drop of water or a leaf and have ample room and +verge enough, and whose vital and muscular organization is as +complicated and perfect as that of an elephant, will much more +take care of man, no matter how numerous the constellations are. +Let us see how far scientific vision can look beneath ourselves as +the question is answered by a few well known facts. In each drop +of human blood there are three million vitalized corpuscular +disks. Considering all the drops made up in this way, man is a +kosmos, his veins galaxies through whose circuits these red +clustering planets perform their revolutions. How small the +exhaling atoms of a grain of musk must be, since it will perfume +every breath of air blowing through a hall for a quarter of a +century, and then not be perceptibly diminished. An ounce of gold +may be reduced into four hundred and thirty two billion parts, +each microscopically visible.30 There is a deposit of slate in +Bohemia covering forty square miles to the depth of eight feet, +each cubic inch of which Ehrenberg found by microscopic +measurement to contain forty one thousand million infusorial +animals. Sir David Brewster says, "A cubic inch of the Bilin +polieschiefer slate contains above one billion seven hundred and +fifty thousand millions of distinct individuals of Galionella +ferruginea."31 It is a fact that the size of one of these insects +as compared with the bulk of a man is virtually as small as that +of a man compared with the whole scheme of modern astronomy. Thus, +if the problem of our immortal consequence is prejudicially +vitiated by contemplating the immense extremity of vision, it is +rectified by gazing on the opposite extremity. If man justly +scrutinized, without comparisons, is fitted for and worthy of +eternity, + +30 Lardner, Hand Book of Natural Philosophy, book i. chap. v.31 +More Worlds than One, ch. viii. note 3. + + +no foreign facts, however magnificent or minute, should alter our +judgment from the premises. + +Thirdly, is it not evident that man's greatness keeps even pace +along the scale of magnitude with the widening creation, since it +is his mind that sees and comprehends how wondrous the dimensions +of the universe are? The number of stars and the limits of space +are not more astounding than it is that he should be capable of +knowing such things, enumerating and staking them off. When man +has measured the distance and weighed the bulk of Sirius, it is +more appropriate to kneel in amazement before the inscrutable +mystery of his genius, the irrepressible soaring of his soul, than +to sink in despair under the swinging of those lumps of dirt in +their unapproachable spheres because they are so gigantic! The +appearance of the creation to man is not vaster than his +perception of it. They are exactly correlated by the very terms of +the statement. As the astronomic world expands, the astronomer's +mind dilates and must be as large as it in order to contain it in +thought. What we lose in relative importance from the enlargement +of the boundaries of the universe we gain from the new revelation +of our capacities that is made through these transcendent +achievements of our science. That we are favorites of the Creator +and destined for immortal glories is therefore logically and +morally just as credible after looking through Herschel's forty +feet reflector and reading La Place's Mecanique Celeste as it +would be were this planet, suspended in a hollow dome, the +entirety of material being. + +Furthermore, we can reason only from the data we have; and, doing +that, we should conclude, from the intrinsic and incomparable +superiority of spirit to matter, that man and his kindred +scattered in families over all the orbs of space were the especial +objects of the infinite Author's care. They are fitted by their +filial attributes to commune with Him in praise and love. They +know the prodigious and marvellous works of mechanical nature; +mechanical nature knows nothing. Man can return his Maker's +blessing in voluntary obedience and thanks; matter is inanimate +clay for the Potter's moulding. Turning from the gleaming +wildernesses of star land to the intellect and heart, appreciating +the infinite problems and hopes with which they deal and aspire, +we feel the truth expressed by Wordsworth in his tremendous lines: + +"I must, aloft ascending, breathe in worlds To which the heaven of +heavens is but a veil. Not chaos, darkest pit of Erebus, Nor aught +of blinder vacancy, scoop'd out By help of dreams, can breed such +fear and awe As fall upon us often when we look Into our minds, +into the mind of man." + +Is not one noble thought of truth, one holy emotion of love, one +divine impulse of devotion, better than a whole planet of mud, a +whole solar system of gas and dust? Who would not rather be the +soul that gauges the deeps, groups the laws, foretells the +movements, of the universe, writing down in a brief mathematical +formula a complete horoscope of the heavens as they will appear on +any given night thousands of years hence, than to be all that +array of swooping systems? To think the world is to be superior to +the world. That which appreciates is akin to that which makes; and +so we are the Creator's children, and these crowding nebula, +packed with orbs as thick as the ocean beach with sands, are the +many mansions of the House fitted up for His abode and ours. An +only prince would be of more consideration than a palace, although +its foundation pressed the shoulders of Serpentarius, its turret +touched the brow of Orion, and its wings reached from the Great +Bear to the Phoenix. So a mind is of more importance than the +material creation, and the moral condition of a man is of greater +moment than the aspect of stellar firmaments. + +Another illustration of the truth we are considering is to be +drawn from the idealist theory, to which so many of the ablest +thinkers of the world have given their devoted adhesion, that +matter is merely phenomenal, no substantial entity, but a +transient show preserved in appearance for some ulterior cause, +and finally, at the withdrawal or suspension of God's volition, to +return into annihilating invisibility as swiftly as a flash of +lightning. The solid seeming firmaments are but an exertion of +Divine force projected into vision to serve for a season as a +theatre for the training of spirits. When that process is +complete, in the twinkling of an eye the phantasmal exhibition of +matter will disappear, leaving only the ideal realm of +indestructible things, souls with their inward treasures remaining +in their native sphere of the infinite, while the outward universe +"Doth vanish like a ghost before the sun." + +The same practical result may also be reached by a different path, +may be attained by the road of physics as well as by that of +transcendental metaphysics. For Newton has given in his Principia +a geometrical demonstration of the infinite compressibility of +matter. All the worlds, therefore, that cluster in yon swelling +vault can be condensed into a single globe of the size of a +walnut; and then, on that petty lump of apparent substance, the +enfranchised soul might trample in an exultation of magnanimous +scorn upon the whole universe of earths, and soar through its own +unlimited dominion, Monarch of Immortality, the snatched glory of +shrunken firmaments flashing from its deathless wings. + +Finally, a proper comprehension of the idea of God will neutralize +the skepticism and despondency sometimes stealthily nourished or +crushingly impressed by contemplations of the immensity of nature. +If one, from regarding the cold and relentless mechanism of the +surrounding system, tremble for fear of there being no kind +Overruler, let him gaze on the warm beauty that flushes the +countenance of day, the mystic meditativeness that hangs on the +pensive and starry brow of night, let him follow the commanding +instincts of his own heart, and he will find himself clinging in +irresistible faith and filial love to the thought of an infinite +Father. If still the atheistic sentiment obtrudes upon him and +oppresses him, let him observe how every spot of immensity whereon +the eye of science has fallen is crowded with unnumbered amazing +examples of design, love, beneficence, and he will perceive that +the irrefragable lines of argument drawn through the boundless +spaces of creation light up the stupendous contour of God and show +the expression of his features to be love. It seems as though any +man acquainted with the truths and magnitudes of astronomy, who, +after seeing the star strewn abysses, would look in his mirror and +ask if the image reflected there is that of the greatest being in +the universe, would need nothing further to convince him that a +God, the Creator, Preserver, Sovereign, lives. And then, if, +mistakenly judging from his own limitations, he thinks that the +particular care of all the accumulated galaxies of worlds, every +world perhaps teeming with countless millions of conscious +creatures, would transcend the possibilities even of God, a +moment's reflection will dissolve that sophistry in the truth that +God is infinite, and that to his infinite attributes globule and +globe are alike, the oversight of the whole and of each part a +matter of instantaneous and equal ease. Still further: if this +abstract truth be insufficient to support faith and bestow peace, +what will he say to the visible fact that all the races of beings, +and all the clusters of worlds, from the motes in a sunbeam to the +orbs of the remotest firmament, are now taken care of by Divine +Providence? God now keeps them all in being and order, unconfused +by their multiplicity, unoppressed by their magnitude, and not for +an instant forgetting or neglecting either the mightiest or the +least. Morbidly suspicious, perversely incredulous, must be the +mind that denies, since it is so now in this state, that it may be +so as well in the other state and forever! Grasping the conception +of one God, who creates, rules, and loves all, man may +unpresumptuously feel himself to be a child of the Infinite and a +safe heir of immortality. Looking within and without, and soaring +in fancy amidst the blue and starry altitudes interspersed with +blazing suns and nebulous oceans, he may cry, from a sober +estimate of all the experimental and phenomenal facts within his +reach, + +"Even here I feel, +Among these mighty things, that as I am +I am akin to God; that I am part +Of the use universal, and can grasp +Some portion of that reason in the which +The whole is ruled and founded; that I have +A spirit nobler in its cause and end, +Lovelier in order, greater in its powers, +Than all these bright and swift immensities." + +Perhaps the force of these arguments may be better condensed and +expressed by help of an individual illustration. While the pen is +forming these words, the announcement of the death of Dr. Kane +saddens the world. Alas that the gallant heart no longer beats, +the story of whose noble generosity and indomitable prowess has +just thrilled the dull nations of men of meaner mould! Who even +though standing before a telescope under the full architecture of +the heavens can believe that that maiden soul of heroism and +devotion is now but an extinguished spark, that the love, honor, +intelligence, self sacrificing consecration which enswathed him as +with a saintly halo have all gone out? Turning from that pale +form, stretched on the couch of death in fatal Cuba, through the +receding gulfs of space where incomputable systems of worlds are +wheeling on their eternal courses, and then looking back again +from the noiseless glitter and awful bulk of the creation, do you +despair of the immortal consequence of the poor sufferer whose +fleshly moorings to existence are successively loosening at every +gasp? Ah, remember that Matter and the Soul are not alone! Far +above that clay bound, struggling soul, and far above those +measureless, firmamental masses, is God, the Maker of them both, +and the Lover of his child. Glancing in His omniscience down upon +that human death couch, around which affectionate prayers are +floating from every part of the earth, and from whose pallid +occupant confiding sighs are rising to His ear, He sees the +unutterable mysteries of yearning thought, emotion, and power, +which are the hidden being of man, and which so ally the filial +spirit to the parent Divinity. As beneath His gaze the faithful +soul of Elisha Kane slowly extricating itself from its overwrought +tabernacle, and also extricating itself from the holy network of +heart strings which sixty millions of men speaking one speech have +flung around him, if haply so they might retain him to earth to +take their love and waiting honors rises into the invisible, +seeking to return, bearing its virgin purity with it, to the bosom +of God, will He overlook it, or carelessly spurn it into night, +because the banks of stars are piled up so thick and high that +they absorb His regards? My soul, come not thou into the counsels +of them that think so! It should not be believed though astronomy +were a thousand times astronomy. But it shall rather be thought +that, ere now, the brave American has discovered the Mariner whom +he sought, though sailing on far other seas, where there is no +destroying winter and no need of rescue. + +In association with the measureless spaces and countless worlds +brought to light by astronomic science naturally arises the +question whether the other worlds are, like our earth, peopled +with responsible intelligences. In ancient times the stars were +not generally thought to be worlds, but to be persons, genii or +gods. At the dawn of creation "the morning stars sang together;" +that is, "the sons of God shouted for joy." The stars were the +living army of "Jehovah of hosts." At the time when the +theological dogmas now prevalent were first conceived, the +greatness and glory of the universe were supposed to centre on +this globe. The fortunes of man wellnigh absorbed, it was +imagined, the interest of angels and of God. The whole creation +was esteemed a temporary theatre for the enactment of the sublime +drama of the fall and redemption of man. The entire heavens with +all their host were thought to revolve in satellite dependence +around this stationary and regal planet. For God to hold long, +anxious, repeated councils to devise means to save us, was not +deemed out of keeping with the relative dignity of the earth and +the human race. But at length the progress of discovery put a +different aspect on the physical conditions of the problem. The +philosopher began to survey man's habitation and history, and to +estimate man's comparative rank and destiny, not from the stand +point of a solitary planet dating back only a few thousand years, +but in the light of millions of centuries of duration and from a +position among millions of crowded firmaments whence our sun +appears as a dim and motionless star. This new vision of science +required a new construction of theology. The petty and monstrous +notions of the ignorant superstition of the early age needed +rectification. In the minds of the wise and devout few this was +effected; but with the great majority the two sets of ideas +existed side by side in unreconciled confusion and contradiction, +as they even continue to do unto this day. + +When it came to be believed that the universe teemed with suns, +moons, and planets, composed of material substances, subject to +day and night, and various other laws and changes, like our own +abode, it was natural to infer that these innumerable worlds were +also inhabited by rational creatures akin to ourselves and capable +of worshipping God. Numerous considerations, possessing more or +less weight, were brought forward to confirm such a conclusion. +The most striking presentation ever made of the argument, perhaps, +is that in Oersted's essay on the "Universe as a Single +Intellectual Realm." It became the popular faith, and is +undoubtedly more so now than ever before. Towards the end of the +seventeenth century a work was published in explicit support of +this faith by Fontenelle. It was entitled "Conversations on the +Plurality of Worlds," and had marked success, running through many +editions. A few years later, Huygens wrote a book, called +"Cosmotheoros," in maintenance of the same thesis. The more this +doctrine obtained root and life in the convictions of men, the +more strongly its irreconcilableness with the ordinary theology +must have made itself felt by fearless and competent thinkers. +Could a quadrillion firmaments loaded with stars, each inhabited +by its own race of free intelligences, all be burned up and +destroyed in the Day of Judgment provoked on this petty grain of +dust by the sin of Adam? 32 Were the stars mere sparks and +spangles stuck in heaven for us to see by, it would be no shock to +our reason to suppose that they might be extinguished with our +extinction; but, grasping the truths of astronomy as they now lie +in the brain of a master in science, we can no longer think of God +expelling our race from the joys of being and then quenching the +splendors of his hall "as an innkeeper blows out the lights when +the dance is at an end." God rules and over rules all, and +serenely works out his irresistible ends, incapable of wrath or +defeat. Would it be more incongruous for Him to be angry with an +ant hill and come down to trample it, than to be so with the earth +and appear in vindictive fire to annihilate it? + +From time to time, in the interests of the antiquated ideas, +doubts have been raised as to the validity of the doctrine of +stellar worlds stocked with intellectual families.33 Hegel, either +imbued with that Gnostic contempt and hatred for matter which +described the earth as "a dirt ball for the extrication of light +spirits," or from an obscure impulse of pantheistic thought, +sullies the stars with every demeaning phrase, even stigmatizing +them as "pimples of light." Michelet, a disciple of Hegel, +followed his example, and, in a work published in 1840, strove +vigorously to aggrandize the earth and man at the expense of the +accepted teachings of astronomy.34 With argument and ridicule, wit +and reason, he endeavored to make it out that the stars are no +better than gleaming patches of vapor. We are the exclusive +autocrats of all immensity. Whewell has followed up this species +of thought with quite remarkable adroitness, force, and +brilliance.35 Whether his motive in this undertaking is purely +scientific and artistic, or whether he is impelled by a fancied +religious animus, having been bitten by some theological fear +which has given him the astrophobia, does not clearly appear. + +32 As specimens of the large number of treatises which have been +published asserting the destruction of the whole creation in the +Day of Judgment, the following may be consulted. Osiander, De +Consummatione Saculi Dissertationum Pentus. Lund, De Excidio +Universi Totali et Substantiali. Frisch, Die Welt im Feuer, oder +das wahre Vergehen und Ende der Welt durch den letzen Sundenbrand. +For a century past the opinion has been gaining favor that the +great catastrophe will be confined to our earth, and that even +this is not to be annihilated, but to be transformed, purged, and +beautified by the crisis. See, e. g., Brumhey, Ueber die endliche +Umwandlung der Erde durch Feuer. + +33 Kurtz, Bibel and Astronomie. Simonton's Eng. trans., ch. vi. +sect. 14: Incarnation of God. + +34 Vorlesungen uber die ewige Personlichkeit des Geistes. 35 Of a +Plurality of Worlds: An Essay. + + +Brewster has replied to Whewell's disturbing essay in a volume +which more commands our sympathies and carries our reason, +but is less sustained in force and less close in logic.36 Powell +has still more recently published a very valuable treatise on the +subject;37 and with this work the discussion rests thus far, +leaving, as we believe, the popular faith in an astronomic +universe of inhabited worlds unshaken, however fatal the +legitimate implications of that faith may be to other doctrines +simultaneously held.38 It is curious to observe the shifting +positions taken up by skepticism in science, now, with powerful +recoil from the narrow bigotries of theology, eagerly embracing +the sublimest dreams of astronomic speculation, and now inclining +to the faith that the remoter stars are but brilliant globules +trickling from the poles of some terrible battery in the godless +heights of space. But if there be any thing sure in science at +all, it is that the material creation is inconceivably vast, +including innumerable systems, and all governed by invariable +laws. But let us return from this episode. + +The foregoing sixfold argument, preserving us from the remorseless +grasp of annihilation, leaves to us unchanged the problem of the +relations which shall be sustained by the disembodied soul to time +and space, the question as to the locality of the spirit world, +the scene of our future life. Sheol, Hades, Tartarus, Valhalla +with its mead brimmed horns, Blessed Isles, Elysium, supernal +Olympus, firmamental Heaven, paradisal Eden, definite sites of +celestial Worlds for departed souls, the Chaldee's golden orbs, +the Sanscrit Meru, the Indian Hunting Ground, the Moslem's love +bowers, and wine rivers, and gem palaces thronged with dark eyed +houris, these notions, and all similar ones, of material +residences for spirits, located and bounded, we must dismiss as +dreams and cheats of the childish world's unripe fancy. There is +no evidence for any thing of that coarse, crude sort. The +fictitious theological Heaven is a deposit of imagination on the +azure ground of infinity, like a bird's nest on Himalaya. What, +then, shall we say? Why, in the first place, that, while there are +reasons enough and room enough for an undisheartened faith in the +grand fact of human immortality, it is beyond our present powers +to establish any detailed conclusions in regard to its locality or +its scenery. + +But surely, in the second place, we should say that it becomes us, +when reflecting on the scenes to be opened to us at death, to rise +to a more ideal and sublime view than any of those tangible +figments which were the products of untrained sensual imagination +and gross materialistic theory. When the fleshly prison walls of +the mind fall, its first inheritance is a stupendous freedom. The +narrow limits that caged it here are gone, and it lives in an +ethereal sphere with no impeding bounds. Leaving its natal +threshold of earth and the lazar house of time, its home is +immensity, and its lease is eternity. Even in our present state, +to a true + +36 More Worlds than One the Creed of the Philosopher and the Hope +of the Christian. + +37 Essay on the Unity or Plurality of Worlds. See, furthermore, in +Westminster Review, July, 1858, Recent Astronomy and the Nebular +Hypothesis. + +38 Volger, Erde and Ewigkeit. (Natural History of the Earth as a +Periodical Process of Development in Opposition to the Unnatural +Geology of Revolutions and Catastrophes.) Treise, Dag Endlose der +grossen und der kleinen materiellen Welt. + + +thinker there is no ascent or descent or terminating wall in +space, but equal motion illimitably in all directions; and no +absolute standard of duration, only a relative and variable one +from the insect of an hour, to man, to an archangel, to that +incomprehensible Being whose shortest moments are too vast to be +noted by the awful nebula of the Hour Glass, although its rushing +sands are systems of worlds. The soul emerges from earthly bondage +emancipated into eternity, while "The ages sweep around him with +their wings, Like anger'd eagles cheated of their prey." + +We have now sufficient premonitions and examples of this wondrous +enlargement to base a rational belief on. What hems us in when we +think, feel, and imagine? And what is the heaven that shall dawn +for us beyond the veil of death's domain but the realm of Thought, +the sphere of the spirit's unhampered powers? There are often +vouchsafed to us here hours of outsoaring emotion and conception +which make the enclosures in which the astronomer loiters seem +narrow. "His skies are shoal, and imagination, like a thirsty +traveller, pants to be through their desert. The roving mind +impatiently bursts the fetters of astronomical orbits, like +cobwebs in a corner of its universe, and launches itself to where +distance fails to follow, and law, such as science has discovered, +grows weak and weary." There are moods of spiritual expansion and +infinite longing that illustrate the train of thought so well +expressed in the following lines: + +"Even as the dupe in tales Arabian +Dipp'd but his brow beneath the beaker's brim, +And in that instant all the life of man +From youth to age roll'd its slow years on him, +And, while the foot stood motionless, the soul +Swept with deliberate wing from pole to pole; +So when the man the Grave's still portal passes, +Closed on the substances or cheats of earth, +The Immaterial, for the things earth glasses, +Shapes a new vision from the matter's dearth: +Before the soul that sees not with our eyes +The undefined Immeasurable lies." 39 + +Then we realize that the spiritual world does not form some now +unseen and distant region of the visible creation, but that the +astronomic universe is a speck lying in the invisible bosom of the +spiritual world. "Space is an attribute of God in which all matter +is laid, and other attributes he may have which are the home of +mind and soul." We suppose the difference between the present +embodied and the future disembodied state to be so vast that the +conditions of the latter cannot be intelligibly illustrated by the +analogies of the former. It is not to be expected that the human +soul will ever be absolutely independent of time and space, +literally transcending them, but only relatively so as compared +with its earthly predicament. + +39 Bulwer, King Arthur, book xi. + + +For, as an able thinker and writer a philosopher of the +Swedenborgian school, too has said, "The conception of a mind +absolutely sundered from all connection with space is a mere +pretence which words necessarily repudiate." + +The soul on the hypothesis that there is a soul is now in the +body. Evidently, on leaving the body, it must either be nowhere, +and that is annihilation, which the vehement totality of our +thought denies; or everywhere, and that implies infinity, the loss +of finite being in boundless Deity, a conclusion which we know of +nothing to warrant; or somewhere, and that predicates a surviving +individuality related to surrounding externals, which is the +prophesied and satisfactory result in which we rest in faith, +humbly confessing our ignorance as to all the minutia. It does not +necessarily follow from this view, however, that the soul is +limited to a fixed region in space. It may have the freedom of the +universe. More wonders, and sublimer than mortal fancies have ever +suspected, are waiting to be revealed when we die: + +"For this life is but being's first faint ray, And heaven on +heaven make up God's dazzling day." + +We are here living unconsciously engirt by another universe than +the senses can apprehend, thinly veiled, but real, and waiting for +us with hospitable invitation. "What are those dream like and +inscrutable thoughts which start up in moments of stillness, +apparently as from the deeps, like the movement of the leaves +during a silent night, in prognostic of the breeze that has yet +scarce come, if not the rustlings of schemes and orders of +existence near though unseen?" Perchance the range of the abode +and destiny of the soul after death is all immensity. The +interstellar spaces, which we usually fancy are barren deserts +where nonentity reigns, may really be the immortal kingdom +colonized by the spirits who since the beginning of the creation +have sailed from the mortal shores of all planets. They may be the +crowded aisles of the universal temple trod by bright throngs of +worshipping angels. The soul's home, the heaven of God, may be +suffused throughout the material universe, ignoring the existence +of physical globes and galaxies. So light and electricity pervade +some solid bodies, as if for them there were no solidity. So, +doubtless, there are millions of realities around us utterly +eluding our finest senses. "A fact," Emerson says, "is the last +issue of spirit," and not its entire extent. "The visible creation +is the terminus of the invisible world," and not the totality of +the universe. There are gradations of matter and being, from the +rock to the flower, from the vegetable to man. Is it most probable +that the scale breaks abruptly there, or that other ranks of +spiritual existence successively rise peopling the seeming abysses +unto the very confines of God? + +"Can every leaf a teeming world contain, +Can every globule gird a countless race, +Yet one death slumber in its dreamless reign +Clasp all the illumed magnificence of space? +Life crowd a grain, from air's vast realms effaced? +The leaf a world, the firmament a waste?" + +An honest historical criticism forces us, however reluctantly, to +loose our hold from the various supposed localities of the soul's +destination, which have pleased the fancies and won the assent of +mankind in earlier times. But it cannot touch the simple and +cardinal fact of an immortal life for man. It merely forces us to +acknowledge that while the fact stands clear and authoritative to +instinct, reason, and faith, yet the how, and the where, and all +such problems, are wrapped in unfathomable mystery. We are to obey +and hope, not dissect and dogmatize. However the fantastic dreams +of the imagination and the subtle speculations of the intellect +may shift from time to time, and be routed and vanish, the deep +yearning of the heart remains the same, the divine polarity of the +reason changes not, and men will never cease fondly to believe +that although they cannot tell where heaven is, yet surely there +is a heaven reserved for them somewhere within the sheltering +embrace of God's infinite providence. We may not say of that +kingdom, Lo, here! or Lo, there! but it is wherever God's +approving presence extends: and is that not wherever the pure in +heart are found? 40 + +Let every elysian clime the breezes blow over, every magic isle +the waves murmur round, every subterranean retreat fancy has +devised, every cerulean region the moon visits, every planet that +hangs afar on the neck of night, be disenchanted of their +imaginary charms, and brought, by the advance of discovery, within +the relentless light of familiarity, for the common gaze of +fleshly eyes and tread of vulgar feet, still the prophetic MIND +would not be robbed of its belief in immortality; still the +unquenchable instincts of the HEART would retain, uninjured, the +great expectation of ANOTHER WORLD, although no traveller returns +from its voiceless bourne to tell in what local direction it lies, +no voyager comes back from its mystic port to describe its +latitude and longitude on the chartless infinite of space. + +Turn we now from the lateral distribution of notions as to a +future life, to their lineal development. We have seen that the +development of belief as to the locality of our future destination +has been a chase of places, over the earth, under the earth, +through the sky, as fast as the unknown was brought within the +known, until it has stopped at the verge of the unknowable. There +we stand, confessing our inability to fix the scene. The doctrine +of the conditions and contents of the future life has followed the +same course as that of its locality. + +In the first stage of belief the future life consists of the gross +conditions and materials of the known present reflected, under the +impulse of the senses, into the unknown future. This style of +faith prevailed for a vast period, and is not yet obsolete. When +the King of Dahomey has done a great feat, he kills a man to carry +the tidings to the ghost of his royal father. When he dies +himself, a host are killed, that he may enter Deadland with a +becoming cortege. His wives also are slain, or commit suicide, +that they may rejoin him. + +The second stage of belief is reached when, under the ethical +impulse, only certain refined elements of the present, +discriminated portions of the products of reason, imagination and +sentiment, are reflected into the future, and accepted as the +facts of the life there. Critical processes, applied to thought +and faith, cause the rejection of much that was received. That +alone which answers to our wants, and has coherence, continues to +be held + +40 Chalmers, Sermon, Heaven a Character and not a Locality. + + +as truth. An example is afforded by Augustine in his essay, De +Libero Arbitrio. He argues that the wicked are kept in being on +the out skirts of the material universe; partly wretched, partly +happy; too bad for heaven, too good for annihilation; incapable of +attaining the summit of their beatified destiny. Not the crude +reflection of the present state, but a criticized and purged +portion of the results of speculation on it, is thrown forward, +and composes the doctrine of the future life. This is the +condition of faith in which civilized mankind, for the most part, +now are. + +The third stage of development is that wherein the thinker +perceives that it is illegitimate to reflect into the future any +of the realities or relations of the present, and then to regard +them as the truths of the experience which awaits him after death. +His experience here is the resultant of his faculties as related +to the universe. Destroy his organization, and what follows? One +will say, "Nonentity." Another, more wise and modest, will say, +"Something necessarily unknown as yet." We have no better right to +project into the ideal space of futurity the ingredients of our +thoughts than we have to project there the objects of our senses. +Bunsen, whose thought and scholarship included pretty much all the +knowledge of mankind, represents this stage of faith. He stands on +the religious side of the movement of Science, believing in +immortality without defining it. Comte stands on the positivist +side, blankly denying all objective immortality. These two +represent the results in which, advancing from its opposite sides, +the logical development of the doctrine of a future life ends. +With Comte, atheistic dogmatism crushing every eternal hope; with +Bunsen, Christian faith pointing the child to an eternal home in +the Father. For all but fetichistic minds the only choice lies +between these two. + +The organic evolution of the doctrine of a life to come is, +therefore, a process of faith beginning with the crude +transference of the elements of the present into the future, +continuing with refined modifications of that transference, ending +with an entire cessation of it as inapplicable and incompetent. +Having examined all the historic, experimental, and scientific +data within our reach, we pause on the edge of the PART which we +know, and wait, with serene trust, though with bowed head and +silent lip, before the UNKNOWABLE WHOLE. + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CRITICAL HISTORY OF DISBELIEF IN A FUTURE LIFE. + +IF the first men were conscious spirits who, at the command of +God, dropped from the skies into organic forms of matter, or who +were created here on an exalted plane of insight and communion far +above any thing now experienced by us, then the destination of man +to a life after death may originally have been a fact of direct +knowledge, universally seen and grasped without any obscuring +peradventure. From that state it gradually declined into dubious +dimness as successive generations grew sinful, sensual, hardened, +immersed and bound in affairs of passion and earth. It became +remoter, assumed a questionable aspect, gave rise to discussions +and doubts, and here and there to positive disbelief and open +denial. Thus, beginning as a clear reality within the vision of +all, it sank into a matter of uncertain debate among individuals. + +But if the first men were called up into being from the earth, by +the creative energy of God, as the distinct climax of the other +species, then the early generations of our race, during the long +ages of their wild and slowly ameliorating state, were totally +ignorant of any conscious sequel to the fate seemingly closed in +death. They were too animal and rude yet to conceive a spiritual +existence outside of the flesh and the earth. Among the +accumulating trophies of their progressive intellectual conquests +hung up by mankind in the historic hall of experience, this +marvellous achievement is one of the sublimest. What a day was +that for all humanity forever after, when for the first time, on +some climbing brain, dawned from the great Sun of the spirit world +the idea of a personal immortality! It was announced. It dawned +separately wherever there were prepared persons. It spread from +soul to soul, and became the common faith of the world. Still, +among every people there were pertinacious individuals, who swore +not by the judge and went not with the multitude, persons of less +credulous hearts and more skeptical faculties, who demurred at the +great doctrine, challenged it in many particulars, gainsaid it on +various grounds, disbelieved it from different motives, and fought +it with numerous weapons. + +Whichever of the foregoing suppositions be adopted, that the +doctrine of a future life subsided from universal acceptance into +party contention, or that it arose at length from personal +perception and authority into common credit, the fact remains +equally prominent and interesting that throughout the traceable +history of human opinion there is a line of dissenters who have +thought death the finality of man, and the next world an illusion. +The history of this special department of thought opens a wide and +fertile subject. To gain a comprehensive survey of its boundaries +and a compact epitome of its contents, it will be well to consider +it in these two lights and divisions, all the time trying to see, +step by step, what justice, and what injustice, is done: first, +the dominant motive forces animating the disbelievers; secondly, +the methods and materials they have employed. + +At first thought it would appear difficult to tell what impulses +could move persons to undertake, as many constantly have +undertaken, a crusade against a faith so dear to man, so ennobling +to his nature. Peruse the pages of philosophical history with +careful reflection, and the mystery is scattered, and various +groups of disbelievers stand revealed, with earnest voices and +gestures assailing the doctrine of a future life.1 + +One company, having their representatives in every age, reject it +as a protest in behalf of the right of private judgment against +the tyranny of authority. The doctrine has been inculcated by +priesthoods, embodied in sacred books, and wrought into the +organic social life of states; and acceptance of it has been +commanded as a duty, and expected as a decent and respectable +thing. To deny it has required courage, implied independent +opinions, and conferred singularity. To cast off the yoke of +tradition, undermine the basis of power supporting a galling +religious tyranny, and be marked as a rebellious freethinker in a +generation of slavish conformists, this motive could scarcely fail +to exhibit results. Some of the radical revolutionists of the +present time say that the doctrine of the divine right of kings +and the infallible authority of the priesthood is the living core +of the power of tyranny in the world. They therefore deny God and +futurity in order to overthrow their oppressors, who reign over +them and prey upon them in the name of God and the pretended +interests of a future life.2 The true way to secure the real +desideratum corruptly indicated in this movement is not by denying +the reality of a future life, but by removing the adjustment of +its conditions and the administration of its rewards and penalties +out of the hands of every clique of priests and rulers. A +righteously and benignly ordered immortality, based in truth and +adjudicated by the sole sovereignty of God, is no engine of +oppression, though a doctrine of heaven and hell irresponsibly +managed by an Orphic association, the guardians of a Delphic +tripod, the owners of a secret confessional, or the interpreters +of an exclusive creed, may be. In a matter of such grave +importance, that searching and decisive discrimination, so rare +when the passions get enlisted, is especially needed. Because a +doctrine is abused by selfish tyrants is no reason for supposing +the doctrine itself either false or injurious. + +No little injury has been done to the common faith in a future +life, great disbelief has been provoked unwittingly, by writers +who have sought to magnify the importance of revealed religion at +the expense of natural religion. Many such persons have labored to +show that all the scientific, philosophical, and moral arguments +for immortality are worthless, the teachings and resurrection of +Christ, the revealed word of God, alone possessing any validity to +establish that great truth. An accomplished author says, in a +recent work, "The immortality of the soul cannot be proved without +the aid of revelation." 3 Bishop Courtenay published, a few years +since, a most deliberate and unrelenting attack upon the arguments +for the deathlessness of the soul, seeking with persevering +remorselessness to demolish every one of them, and to prove that +man totally perishes, but will be restored to life at the second +coming of Christ.4 There can scarcely be a question that such +statements usually awaken and confirm a deep skepticism as to a +future life, instead of enhancing a grateful estimate of the +gospel. + +1 J. A. Luther, Recensetur numerus eorum, qui immortalitatem +inficiati sunt. + +2 Schmidt, Geschichte der Deutschen Literatur im neunzehnten +Jahrhundert, band iii. kap. iv.: Der philosophische Radicalismus. + + +3 Bowen, Metaphysical and Ethical Science, part ii. ch. ix. The +Future States: Their Evidences and Nature considered on Principles +Physical, Moral, and Scriptural, with the Design of Showing the +Value of the Gospel Revelation. + + +If man is once annihilated, it is hardly credible that he will be +identically restored. Such a stupendous and arbitrary miracle +clashes with the continuity of the universe, and staggers rather +than steadies faith. We should beg such volunteers however sincere +and good their intentions to withhold the impoverishing gift of +their service. And when kindred reasonings are advanced by such +men as the unbelieving Hume, we feel tempted to say, in the +language of a distinguished divine speaking on this very point, +"Ah, gentlemen, we understand you: you belong to the sappers and +miners in the army of the aliens!" + +Another party of disbelievers have repudiated the whole conception +of a future state as a protest against the nonsense and cruelty +associated with it in the prevailing superstitions and dogmatisms +of their time. From the beginning of history in most nations, the +details of another existence and its conditions have been +furnished to the eager credulity of the people by the lawless +fancies of poets, the fine spinning brains of metaphysicians, and +the cold blooded calculations or hot headed zeal of sectarian +leaders. Of course a mass of absurdities would grow up around the +central germ and a multitude of horrors sprout forth. While the +common throng would unquestioningly receive all these ridiculous +and revolting particulars, they could not but provoke doubt, +satire, flat rejection, from the bolder and keener wits. So we +find it was in Greece. The fables about the under world the +ferriage over the Styx, poor Tantalus so torturingly mocked, the +daughters of Danaus drawing water in sieves all were accredited by +the general crowd on one extreme.5 On the other extreme the whole +scheme, root and branch, was flung away with scorn. The following +epitaph on an unbeliever is attributed to Callimachus. "O +Charidas, what are the things below? Vast darkness. And what the +returns to earth? A falsehood. And Pluto? A fable. We have +perished: this is my true speech to you; but, if you want the +flattering style, the Pellaan's great ox is in the shades."6 +Meanwhile, a few judicious mediators, neither swallowing the whole +gross draught at a gulp, nor throwing the whole away with utter +disgust, drank through the strainer of a discriminative +interpretation. Because caprice, hatred, and favoritism are +embalmed in some perverse doctrine of future punishment is no +defensible reason for denying a righteous retribution. Because +heaven has been located on a hill top, and its sublime denizens +made to eat ambrosia and sometimes to fall out among themselves, +is no adequate reason for rejecting the idea of a heavenly life. +Puerilities of fancy and monstrosities of passion arbitrarily +connected with principles claiming to be eternal truths should be +carefully separated, and not the whole be despised and trodden on +together. From lack of this analysis and discrimination, in the +presence of abnormal excrescences and offensive secretions dislike +and disbelief have often flourished where, if judicial thought and +conscience had cut off the imposed deformities + +5 Plutarch, De Superstition. The reality of the popular credulity +and terror in later Rome clearly appears from the fact that Marcus +Aurelius had a law passed condemning to banishment "those who do +any thing through which men's excitable minds are alarmed by a +superstitious fear of the Deity." Nero, after murdering his +mother, haunted by her ghost and tortured by the Furies, attempted +by magical rites to bring up her shade from below, and soften her +vindictive wrath Suetonius, Vita Neronis, cap. xxxiv. + +6 Epigram. XIV. + + +and dispelled the discoloring vengeance, faith and love would have +been confirmed in contemplating the pure and harmonious form of +doctrine left exposed in the beauty of benignant truth. The aim +ostensibly proposed by Lucretius, in his elaborate and masterly +exposition of the Epicurean philosophy, is to free men from their +absurd belief in childish legends and their painful fears of death +and hell. As far as merely this purpose is concerned, he might +have accomplished it as effectually, perhaps, and more directly, +by exposing the adventitious errors without assailing the great +doctrine around which they had been gathered. Bion the +Borysthenite is reported by Diogenes Laertius to have said, with a +sharp humor, that the souls below would be more punished by +carrying water in whole buckets than in such as had been bored! A +soul may pass into the unseen state though there be no Plutonian +wherry, suffer woe though there be no river Pyriphlegethon, enjoy +bliss though there be no cup of nectar borne by Hebe. But to fly +to rash extremes and build positive conclusions on mere ignorance +has always been natural to man, not only as a believer, but also +as an iconoclastic denier. + +A third set of disbelievers in a future life consists of those who +advocate the "emancipation of the flesh" and assert the +sufficiency of this life when fully enjoyed. They attack the dogma +of immortality as the essential germ of asceticism, and abjure it +as a protest against that superstitious distrust and gloom which +put a ban on the pleasures of the world. These are the earthlings +who would fain displace the stern law of self denial with the +bland permission of self indulgence, rehabilitate the senses, feed +every appetite full, and, when satiated of the banquet of +existence, fall asleep under the table of the earth. The +countenance of Duty, severe daughter of God, looks commands upon +them to turn from dallying ease and luxury, to sacrifice the +meaner inclinations, to gird themselves for an arduous race +through difficulties, to labor and aspire evermore towards the +highest and the best. They prefer to install in her stead +Aphrodite crowned with Paphian roses, her eyes aglow with the +light of misleading stars, her charms bewitching them with fatal +enchantments and melting them in softest joys. The pale face of +Death, with mournful eyes, lurks at the bottom of every winecup +and looks out from behind every garland; therefore brim the purple +beaker higher and hide the unwelcome intruder under more flowers. +We are a cunning mixture of sense and dust, and life is a fair but +swift opportunity. Make haste to get the utmost pleasure out of it +ere it has gone, scorning every pretended bond by which sour +ascetics would restrain you and turn your days into penitential +scourges. This gospel of the senses had a swarm of apostles in the +last century in France, when the chief gates of the cemetery in +Paris bore the inscription, "Death is an eternal sleep." It has +had more in Germany in this century; and voices of enervating +music are not wanting in our own literature to swell its siren +chorus.7 Perhaps the greatest prophet it has had was Heine, whose +pages reek with a fragrance of pleasure through which sighs, like +a fading wail from the solitary string of a deserted harp struck +by a lonesome breeze, the perpetual refrain of death! death! +death! His motto seems to be, "Quick! let me + +7 Pierer, Universal Lexikon, dritte Auflage, Deutsche Literatur, +sect. 42. Schmidt, Geschichte der Deutschen Literatur im +neuntzehnten Jahrhundert, band iii: kap. i.: Das junge +Deutschland. + + +enjoy what there is; for I must die. Oh, the gusty relish of life! +Oh, the speechless mystery, the infinite reality, of death!" He +says himself, comparing the degradation of his later experience +with the soaring enthusiasm of his youth, "It is as if a star had +fallen from heaven upon a hillock of muck, and swine were gnawing +at it!" + +These men think that the doctrine of a future life, like a great +magnet, has drawn the needle of human activity out of its true +direction; that the dominant tendency of the present age is, and +of right ought to be, towards the attainment of material well +being, in a total forgetfulness to lay up treasures in heaven. The +end is enjoyment; the obstacle, asceticism; the means to secure +the end, the destruction of faith in immortality, so that man, +having nothing left but this world, will set himself to improve +and enjoy it. The monkish severity of a morbid and erroneous +theology, darkening the present and prescribing pain in it to +brighten the future and increase its pleasures, legitimates an +earnest reaction. But that reaction should be wise, measured by +truth. It should rectify, not demolish, the prevailing faith. For +the desired end is most likely to be reached by perceiving, not +that all terminates in the grave, but that the greatest enjoyment +flows from a self controlling devotedness to noble ends, that the +claims of another life are in perfect unison with the interests of +this life, that the lawful fruition of every function of human +nature, each lower faculty being subordinated to each higher one, +and the highest always reigning, at once yields the most immediate +pleasure and makes the completest preparation for the hereafter. +In the absence of the all irradiating sun of immortality, these +disbelievers, exulting over the pale taper of sensual pleasure, +remind us of a parcel of apes gathered around a cold glow worm and +rejoicing that they have found a fire in the damp, chilly night. + +Besides the freethinkers, who will not yield to authority, but +insist upon standing apart from the crowd, and the satirists, who +level their shafts undiscriminatingly against what they perceive +associated with absurdity, and the worldlings, who prefer the +pleasures of time to the imaginarily contrasted goods of eternity, +there is a fourth class of men who oppose the doctrine of a +personal immortality as a protest against the burdensome miseries +of individuality. The Gipseys exclaimed to Borrow, "What! is it +not enough to have borne the wretchedness of this life, that we +must also endure another?" 8 A feeling of the necessary +limitations and suffering exposures of a finite form of being has +for untold ages harassed the great nations of the East with +painful unrest and wondrous longing. Pantheistic absorption to +lose all imprisoning bounds, and blend in that ecstatic flood of +Deity which, forever full, never ebbs on any coast has been +equally the metaphysical speculation, the imaginative dream, and +the passionate desire, of the Hindu mind. It is the basis and +motive of the most extensive disbelief of individual immortality +the world has known. "The violence of fruition in these foul +puddles of flesh and blood presently glutteth with satiety," and +the mortal circuits of earth and time are a round of griefs and +pangs from which they would escape into the impersonal Godhead. +Sheerly against this lofty strain of poetic souls is that +grovelling life of ignorance which, dominated by selfish +instincts, crawling on brutish grounds, + +8 The Zincali, part ii. ch. i. + + +cannot awaken the creative force of spiritual wants slumbering +within, nor lift its head high enough out of the dust to see the +stars of a deathless destiny; and a fifth group of disbelievers +deny immortality because their degraded experience does not +prophesy it. Many a man might say, with Autolycus, "For the life +to come, I sleep out the thought of it." A mind holy and loving, +communing with God and an ideal world, "lighted up as a spar grot" +with pure feelings and divine truths, is mirrored full of +incorporeal shapes of angels, and aware of their immaterial +disentanglement and eternity. A brain surcharged with fires of +hatred, drowsed with filthy drugs, and drenched with drunkenness, +will teem, on the contrary, with vermin writhing in the meshes of +decaying matter. Cleaving to evanescent things, men feel that they +are passing away like leaves on waves; filled with convictions +rooted and breathing in eternity, they feel that they shall abide +in serene survival, like stars above tempests. Turn from every +obscene sight, curb every base propensity, obey every heavenly +vision by assimilation of immortal things, sacred self denials and +toils, disinterested sympathies and hopes, accumulate divine +treasures and kindle the mounting flame of a divine life, and at +the same time consciousness will crave and faith behold an +illimitable destiny. Experiences worthy of being eternal generate +faith in their own eternity. But the ignorant and selfish +sensualist, whose total experience is of the earth earthy, who has +no realization of pure truth, goodness, beauty, is incapable of +sincere faith in immortal life. The dormancy of his higher powers +excludes the necessary conditions of such a faith. His ignoble +bodily life does not furnish the conscious basis and prophecy of a +glorious spiritual life, but shudderingly proclaims the cessation +of all his experience with the destruction of his senses. The +termination of all the functions he knows, what else can it be but +his virtual annihilation? When to the privative degradations of an +uncultivated and earthy experience, naturally accompanied by a +passive unbelief in immortality, are added the positive coarseness +and guilt of a thick insensibility and a wicked life, aggressive +disbelief is quite likely to arise, the essay of an uneasy +conscience to slay what it feels would be a foe, and strangle the +worm that never dies. The denial springing from such sources is +refuted when it is explained. Its motive should never by any man +be yielded to, much less be willingly nourished. It should be +resisted by a devout culture courting the smiles of God, by rising +into the loftier airs of meditation and duty, by imaginative +sentiment and practical philanthropy, until the eternal instinct, +long smothered under sluggish loads of sense and sin, reached by a +soliciting warmth from heaven, stirs with demonstrating vitality. + +The last and largest assemblage of dissenters from the prevailing +opinion on this subject comprises those who utter their disbelief +in a future existence out of simple loyalty to seeming truth, as a +protest against what they think a false doctrine, and against the +sophistical and defective arguments by which it has been propped. +It may be granted that the five previously named classes are +equally sincere in their convictions, honest assailants of error +and adherents of truth; but they are actuated by animating motives +of a various moral character. In the present case, the ruling +motive is purely a determination, as Buchner says, to stand by the +facts and to establish the correct doctrine. The directest and +clearest way of giving a descriptive account of the active +philosophical history of this class of disbelievers will be to +follow on the lines of their tracks with statements and criticisms +of their procedures.9 Disbelief in the doctrine of a future life +for man has planted itself upon bold affirmation, and fortified +itself with arguments which may most conveniently be considered +under five distinct heads. + +First is the sensational Argument from Appearance. In death the +visible functions cease, the organism dissolves, the mind +disappears; there is apparently a total scattering and end of the +individual. That these phenomena should suggest the thought of +annihilation is inevitable; to suppose that they prove the fact is +absurd. It is an arrant begging of the question; for the very +problem is, Does not an invisible spiritual entity survive the +visible material disintegration? Among the unsound and +superstitious attempts to prove the fact of a future life is that +founded on narratives of ghosts, appearances and visions of the +dead. Dr. Tafel published at Tubingen in 1853 a volume aiming to +demonstrate the immortality and personal identity of the soul by +citation of ninety cases of supernatural appearances, extending +from the history of the ghost whose address to Curtius Rufus is +recorded by Tacitus, to the wonderful story told by Renatus +Luderitz in 1837. Such efforts are worse than vain. Their data are +so explicable in many cases, and so inconclusive in all, that they +quite naturally provoke deeper disbelief and produce telling +retorts. While here and there a credulous person is convinced of a +future life by the asserted appearance of a spirit, the well +informed psychologist refers the argument to the laws of insanity +and illusions, and the skeptic adds as a finality his belief that +there is no future life, because no ghost has ever come back to +reveal and certify it. The argument on both sides is equally +futile, and removed from the true requisitions of the problem. + +To the philosophical thinker a mere appearance is scarcely a +presumption in favor of a conclusion in accordance with it. +Science and experience are full of examples exposing the nullity +or the falsity of appearances. The sun seems to move around the +earth; but truth contradicts it. We seem to discern distances and +the forms of bodies by direct sight; but the truth is we see +nothing but shades and colors: all beyond is inference based on +acquired experience. The first darkness would seem to the +trembling contemplator absolutely to blot out the universe; but in +truth it only prevented him from seeing it. The first thorough +unconscious sleep would seem to be the hopeless destruction of the +soul in its perfect oblivion. Death is forever for the first time, +shrouded in the misleading obscurities of an unknown novelty. +Appearances are often deceitful, yielding obvious clews only to +mistakes and falsehoods. They are always superficial, furnishing +no reliable evidence of the reality. + +"Who could have thought such darkness lay conceal'd +Within thy beams, O Sun! Or who could find, +Whilst fly and leaf and insect stood reveal'd, +That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind? +Why then do we shun death with anxious strife? +If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life?" + +9 Spazier, Antiphadon, oder Prufung einiger Hauptbeweise fur die +Einfachheit und Unsterblichkeit der menschlichen Seele. + + +When the body dies, the mind is no longer manifested through it. +That is all we immediately know by perception. The inference that +the mind has therefore ceased to be at all, is a mere supposition. +It may still live and act, independently of the body. An outside +phenomenon can prove nothing here. We must by some psychological +probe pierce to the core of the being and discern, as there +concealed, the central interpretation of truth, or else, in want +of this, turn from these surface shadows and seek the solution in +some other province. Millions of appearances being opposed to the +truth or inadequate to hint it, we must never implicitly trust +their suggestions. What microscope can reveal the organic life in +a kernel of corn, and show that through the decay of that kernel a +stalk will spring up and bear a thousand kernels more? But if a +new mental life emerges from the dying form of man, it lies in a +spiritual realm whereinto we have no instruments to gaze. Every +existent thing has its metes and limits. In fact, the only final +weapon and fort of a thing is its environing limitation. It goes +into nothing if that be taken down, the atheist says; into +infinity, the mystic says. The mistake and difficulty lie in +discerning what the last wall around the essence is. "The universe +is the body of our body." The boundary of our life is boundless +life. Schlegel has somewhere asked the question, "Is life in us, +or are we in life?" Because man appears to be wholly extinguished +in death, we have no right whatever in reason to conclude that he +really is so. The star which seemed to set in the western grave of +aged and benighted time, we, soon coming round east to the true +spirit sky, may discern bright in the morning forehead of +eternity. There can be no safe reasoning from the outmost husk and +phenomenon of a thing to its inmost essence and result. And, in +spite of any possible amount of appearance, man himself may pass +distinct and whole into another sphere of being when his flesh +falls to dust. That science should search in vain with her finest +glasses to discern a royal occupant reigning in the purple +chambered palace of the heart, or to trace any such mysterious +tenant departing in sudden horror from the crushed and bleeding +house of life, belongs to the necessary conditions of the subject; +for spirit can only be spiritually discerned. As well might you +seek to smell a color, or taste a sound, tie a knot of water, or +braid a cord of wind. + +Next comes the abstract Argument from Speculative Philosophy. +Under this head are to be included all those theories which deny +the soul to be a spiritual entity, but reduce it to an atomic +arrangement, or a dependent attribute, or a process of action. +Heracleitus held that the soul was fire: of course, when the fuel +was exhausted the fire would go out. Thales taught that it was +water: this might all evaporate away. Anaximenes affirmed that it +was air, of which all things were formed by rarefaction and +condensation: on such a supposition it could have no permanent +personal identity. Critias said it was blood: this might +degenerate and lose its nature, or be poured out on the ground. +Leucippus maintained that it was a peculiar concourse of atoms: as +these came together, so they might fly apart and there be an end +of what they formed. The followers of Aristotle asserted that it +was a fifth unknown substance, with properties of its own, unlike +those of fire, air, water, and earth. This might be mortal or +immortal: there was nothing decisive in the conception or the +defining terms to prove which it was. Accordingly, the Peripatetic +school has always been divided on the question of the immortality +of the soul, from the time of its founder's immediate disciples to +this day. It cannot be clearly shown what the mighty Stagyrite's +own opinion really was. + +Speculative conceptions as to the nature of the soul like the +foregoing, when advanced as arguments to establish its proper +mortality, are destitute of force, because they are gratuitous +assumptions. They are not generalizations based on careful +induction of facts; they are only arbitrary hypotheses. +Furthermore, they are inconsistent both with the facts and +phenomena of experience. Mind cannot fairly be brought into the +category of the material elements; for it has properties and +performs functions emphatically distinguishing it from every thing +else, placing it in a rank by itself, with exclusive predicates of +its own. Can fire think? Can water will? Can air feel? Can blood +see? Can a mathematical number tell the difference between good +and evil? Can earth be jealous of a rival and loyal to a duty? Can +a ganglion solve a problem in Euclid or understand the Theodicee +of Leibnitz? It is absurd to confound things so distinct. Mind is +mind, and matter is matter; and though we are now consciously +acquainted with them only in their correlation, yet there is as +much reason for supposing that the former survives the close of +that correlation as for supposing that the latter does. True, we +perceive the material remaining and do not perceive the spirit. +Yes; but the differentiation of the two is exactly this, that one +is appreciable by the senses, while the other transcends and +baffles them. It is absolutely inconceivable in imagination, +wholly incredible to reason, intrinsically nonsensical every way, +that a shifting concourse of atoms, a plastic arrangement of +particles, a regular succession of galvanic shocks, a continuous +series of nervous currents, or any thing of the sort, should +constitute the reality of a human soul, the process of a human +life, the accumulated treasures of a human experience, all +preserved at command and traversed by the moral lines of personal +identity. The things lie in different spheres and are full of +incommunicable contrasts. However numerously and intimately +correlated the physical and psychical constituents of man are, +yet, so far as we can know any thing about them, they are steeply +opposed to each other both in essence and function. Otherwise +consciousness is mendacious and language is unmeaning. A recent +able author speaks of "that congeries of organs whose union forms +the brain and whose action constitutes the mind." 10 The mind, +then, is an action! Can an action love and hate, choose and +resolve, rejoice and grieve, remember, repent, and pray? Is not an +agent necessary for an action? All such speculative conceptions as +to the nature of soul as make it purely phenomenal are to be +offset, if they can be, by the view which exhibits the personal +ego or conscious selfhood of the soul, not as an empty spot in +which a swarm of relations centre as their goal point, but as an +indestructible monad, the innermost and substantial essence and +cause of the organization, the self apprehending and unchangeable +axis of all thinking and acting. Some of the most free, acute, +learned, wise, and powerful thinkers of the world have been +champions of this doctrine; especially among the moderns may be +named Leibnitz, Herbart, Goethe, and Hartenstein. Jacobi most +earnestly maintained it both against Mendelssohn and against +Fichte. + +10 Bucknill and Tuke, Psychological Medicine, p. 371. + + +That the mind is a substantial entity, and therefore may be +conceived as immortal, that it is not a mere functional operation +accompanying the organic life, a phantom procession of conscious +states filing off on the stage of the cerebrum "in a dead march of +mere effects," that it is not, as old Aristoxenus dreamed, merely +a harmony resulting from the form and nature of the body in the +same way that a tune springs from the consenting motions of a +musical instrument, seems to be shown by facts of which we have +direct knowledge in consciousness. We think that the mind is an +independent force, dealing with intellectual products, weighing +opposing motives, estimating moral qualities, resisting some +tendencies, strengthening others, forming resolves, deciding upon +its own course of action and carrying out its chosen designs +accordingly. If the soul were a mere process, it could not pause +in mid career, select from the mass of possible considerations +those adapted to suppress a base passion or to kindle a generous +sentiment, deliberately balance rival solicitations, and, when +fully satisfied, proceed. Yet all this it is constantly doing. So, +if the soul were but a harmony, it would give no sounds contrary +to the affections of the lyre it comes from. But actually it +resists the parts of the instrument from which they say it +subsists, exercising dominion over them, punishing some, +persuading others, and ruling the desires, angers, and fears, as +if itself of a different nature.11 Until an organ is seen to blow +its own bellows, mend its shattered keys, move its pedals, and +play, with no foreign aid, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," or a +violin tunes up its discordant strings and wields its bow in a +spontaneous performance of the Carnival, showing us every Cremona +as its own Paganini, we may, despite the conceits of speculative +disbelief, hold that the mind is a dynamic personal entity. That +thought is the very "latch string of a new world's wicket." + +Thirdly, we have the fanciful Argument from Analogy. The keen +champions of disbelief, with their athletic agility of dialectics, +have made terrible havoc among the troops of poetic arguments from +resemblance, drawn up to sustain the doctrine of immortality. They +have exposed the feebleness of the argument for our immortality +from the wonderful workmanship and costliness of human nature, on +the ground that what requires the most pains and displays the most +skill and genius in its production is the most lovingly preserved. +For God organizes the mind of a man just as easily as he +constructs the geometry of a diamond. His omnipotent attributes +are no more enlisted in the creation of the intelligence of an +elephant or the gratitude of a soul than they are in the +fabrication of the wing of a gnat or the fragrance of a flower. +Infinite wisdom and power are equally implied in each and in all. +They have shown the gross defectiveness of the comparison of the +butterfly and psyche. The butterfly, lying in the caterpillar +neatly folded up like a flower in the bud, in due time comes +forth. It is a material development, open to the senses, a common +demonstration tosensible experience. The disengagement of a spirit +from a fleshly encasement, on the other hand, is a pure hypothesis +wholly removed from sensible apprehension. There is no parallel in +the cases. So the ridiculousness has been made evident of Plato's +famous analogical argument that by a general law of nature all +things are produced contraries from contraries; warmth dies into +the + +11 Plato, Phado, 98. + + +life of cold, and lives out of the death of cold; night is born +from the death of day, and day is born from the death of night; +and thus everywhere death springs from life, and life from +death.12 The whole comparison, considered as evidence of human +immortality, is baseless and full of astonishing sophistry. When +one hemisphere of the earth is turned away from the sun, it is +night there; when it is turned towards the sun, it is day again. +To this state of facts this revolving succession there is +obviously no parallelism whatever in the two phenomenal phases of +man, life and death, whereof one finishes its course and then the +other seems fixed forever. In like manner, when Jeremy Taylor,13 +after the example of many others, especially of old Licetus, +argues soberly, as he does in a letter to Evelyn, for the +immortality of the soul from the analogy of lamps burning in tombs +for centuries with no waste of matter, there is no apposite and +valid similarity, even if the instances were not a childish fable. +An equally baseless argument for the existence of an independent +spiritual body within the material body, to be extricated from the +flesh at death and to survive in the same form and dimensions, we +recollect having seen in a work by a Swedenborgian author.14 He +reasons that when a person who has suffered amputation feels the +lost limb as vividly as ever before, the phenomenon is palpable +proof of a spirit limb remaining while the fleshly one is gone! Of +course, the simple physiological explanation is that the mind +instinctively refers the sensations brought in by the severed +nerves to the points where, by inveterate custom, it has hitherto +learned to trace their origination. The report being the same, it +is naturally attributed to the same source. + +But those skeptics who have mercilessly exposed these fallacious +arguments from analogy have themselves reasoned in the same way as +fallaciously and as often. When individual life leaves the +physical man, say they, cosmical life immediately enters the +corpse and restores it to the general stock of nature; so when +personal consciousness deserts the psychical man, the universal +spirit resumes the dissolving soul. When certain conditions meet, +a human soul is formed, a gyrating current of thought, or a vortex +of force: soon some accident or a spent impulse breaks the eddy, +and the individual subsides like a whirl in the air or a water +spout in the sea. When the spirit fuel of life is exhausted, man +goes out as an extinguished candle. He ceases like a tone from a +broken harp string. All these analogies are vitiated by radical +unlikeness between the things compared. As arguments they are +perfectly worthless, being spoiled by essential differences in the +cases. Wherein there is a similarity it falls short of the vital +point. There is no justice in the conception of man as a momentary +gyre of individual consciousness drawn from the universal sea by a +sun burst of the Spirit. He is a self ruling intelligence, using a +dependent organism for his own ends, comprehending his own +destiny, successively developing its conditions and acquiring the +materials for occupying and improving them, with a prevision of +eternity. A flower may just as well perish as live, a musical +sound cease as continue, a lamp be put out as burn on: they know +not the difference. Not so with the soul of man. We here overpass +a discrete degree and enter upon a subject + +12 Crawford, On the Phadon of Plato. + +13 Heber's Life and Works of Jeremy Taylor, vol. i. p. 69. + +14 Dee Guays, True System of Religious Philosophy, Letter V. + + +within another circle of categories. Let the rash reasoner who +madly tries conclusions on a matter of such infinite pith and +moment, with data so inapt and poor, pause in sacred horror +before, having first "Put out the light, he then puts out +THE LIGHT!" + +There are peculiarities in the soul removing it out of the range +of physical combinations and making a distinct destiny fairly +predicable of it. When we reflect on the nature of a self +contained will, intelligent of immaterial verities and perhaps +transcendent of space and time, how burlesque is the terror of the +ancient corpuscular theorists lest the feebly cohering soul, on +leaving the body, especially if death happened during a storm, +would be blown in pieces all abroad! Socrates, in the Phado, has a +hearty laugh over this; but Lucretius seriously urges it.15 The +answer to the skeptical reasoning from analogy is double. First, +the lines of partial correspondence which visibly terminate within +our tangible reach can teach nothing as to the termination of +other lines which lead out of sight and disappear in a spiritual +region. An organized material form for instance, a tree is fatally +limited: else it would finally fill and exhaust the earth. But no +such limiting necessity can be predicated of mind. Secondly, as +far as there is genuine analogy, its implications are much +stronger in favor of immortality than against it. Matter, whose +essence is materiality, survives all apprehensible changes; +spirit, whose essence is spirituality, should do the same. + +Another attack on the doctrine of a future life is masked in the +negative Argument from Ignorance. We do not know how we shall live +again; we are unable to construct the conditions and explain the +details of a spiritual state of existence; and therefore, it is +said, we should of right conclude that there is no such thing. The +proposition is not usually stated so blankly; but it really +amounts to that. The Epicureans say, as a tree cannot exist in the +sky, nor clouds in the ocean, nor fishes in the meadow, nor water +in stone, thus the mind cannot exist apart from the nerves and the +blood. This style of reasoning is a bold begging of the question. +Our present experience is vacant of any specific knowledge of the +conditions, methods, and contents of a life it has not yet +experienced: therefore there is no such life. Innumerable millions +of facts beyond our present knowledge unquestionably exist. It is +not in any way difficult to conceive that innumerable millions of +experiences and problems now defying and eluding our utmost powers +may hereafter fall within our comprehension and be easily solved. +Will you accept the horizon of your mind as the limit of the +universe? In the present, experience must be confined within its +own boundaries by the necessity of the case. If an embryo were +endowed with a developed reasoning consciousness, it could not +construct any intelligible theory of the world and life into which +it was destined soon to emerge. But it would surely be bad logic +to infer, because the embryo could not, from want of materials +within its experience, ascertain the how, the when, the where, and +the what, of the life awaiting it, that there was no other life +reserved for it. An acorn buried and sprouting in the dark mould, +if endowed with intelligent consciousness, could not know any +definite particulars of its maturer life yet to be in the upper +light and air, with cattle in its shade and + +15 Lib. iii. ll. 503-508. + + +singing birds in its branches. Ignorance is not a ground of +argument, only of modest suspense. We can only reason from what we +know. And the wondrous mysteries or natural miracles with which +science abounds, myriads of truths transcending all fictions, melt +and remove from the path of faith every supposed difficulty. Any +quantity of facts have been scientifically established as real +which are intrinsically far more strange and baffling to belief +than the assertion of our immortality is. Indeed, "there is no +more mystery in the mind living forever in the future than in its +having been kept out of life through a past eternity. The +authentic wonder is the fact of the transition having been made +from the one to the other; and it is far more incredible that, +from not having been, we are, than that, from actual being, we +shall continue to be." 16 + +The unbounded possibilities of life suggested by science and open +to imagination furnish sufficient reply to the objection that we +cannot conceive the precise causes and modes of a future state. +Had one little partitular been different in the structure of the +eye, or in the radiation and media of light, we should never have +seen the stars! We should have supposed this globe the whole of +creation. So some slightest integument or hindering condition may +now be hiding from us the sublime reality and arrangements of +immortality which in death's disenveloping hour are to burst into +our vision as the stellar hemisphere through the night. Shut up +now to one form of being and one method of experience, how can we +expect an exhaustive knowledge of other and future forms and +methods of being and experience? It is a contradiction to ask it. +But the soul is warranted in having faith, like a buried mustard +seed which shall yet mount into its future life. A sevenfold +denser mystery and a seven times narrower ignorance would bring no +real argument against the survival of the soul. For in an +omnipotent infinitude of possibilities one line of ignorance +cannot exhaust the avenues and capacities of being. Escaping the +flesh, we may soar into heaven + +"Upon ethereal wings, whose way +Lies through an element so fraught +With living Mind that, as they play, +Their every movement is a thought." + +Ignorance of the scientific method avails nothing against moral +proofs of the fact. The physiologist studying the coats of the +stomach, the anatomist dissecting the convolutions of the brain, +could never tell that man is capable of sentiment, faith, and +logic. No stethoscope can discern the sound of an expectation, and +no scalpel can lay bare a dream; yet there are expectations and +dreams. No metaphysical glass can detect, no prognosis foresee, +the death of the soul with the dissolution of its organs: on +empirical grounds, the assertion of it is therefore unwarranted. +But though no amount of obscurity enveloping the subject, no +extent of ignorance disabling us now to grasp the secret, is a +legitimate basis of disbelief, yet actually, there can be no +doubt, in multitudes of instances, the effectual cause of +disbelief in immortality is the impossibility of vividly +conceiving its conditions and scenery; "for," as one of the +subtlest of thinkers has remarked, "however far faith may go +beyond experience, it + +16 Martineau, Sermon on Immortality, in Endeavors after the +Christian Life. + + +must always be chained down by it at a distance." But if there are +good grounds for anticipating another life, then man should +confide in it, no matter how incompetent he is to construct its +theatre and foresee its career. A hundred years ago, one might +have scouted the statement that the most fearful surgical +operations would be performed without inflicting pain, because it +was impossible to see how it could be done. Or if a person had +been informed that two men, one in Europe and one in America, +should converse in lightning athwart the bed of the Atlantic, he +might have rejected it as an absurdity, because he could not +conceive the mode. If destined to a future life, all we could +reasonably expect to know of it now would be through hinting germs +and mystic presentiments of it. And there we do experience to the +fullest extent: their ceaseless prophecies are everywhere with us, + +"Blank misgivings of a creature Moving about in worlds not +realized." + +The last weapon of disbelief in a future life is the Scientific +Argument from Materialism. Lucretius says, "There is nothing in +the universe but bodies and the properties of bodies." This is a +characteristic example of the method of the materialists: to +assume, as an unquestionable postulate, the very point in debate, +and that, too, in defiance of the intelligent instincts of +consciousness which compel every unsophisticated person to +acknowledge the simultaneous existence of mind and matter as two +correlated yet distinct realities. The better statement would be, +There is nothing in the universe but forces and the relations of +forces. For, while we know ourselves in immediate self +consciousness, as personal intelligences perceiving, willing, and +acting, all we know of an outward world is the effects produced on +us by its forces. Certainly the powers of the universe can never +be lost from the universe. Therefore if our souls are, as +consciousness declares, causes, and not mere phenomena, they are +immortal. To ignore either factor in the problem of life, the +material substratum or the dynamic agent, is mere narrowness and +blindness. + +But the unbelieving naturalist argues that the total man is a +product of organization, and therefore that with the dissolution +of the living combination of organs all is over. Matter is the +marriage bed and grave of soul. Priestley says, "The principle of +thought no more belongs to substance distinct from body than the +principle of sound belongs to substance distinct from bell." There +is no relevancy in the comparison, because the things are wholly +unlike. Thought is not, as Hartley's theory avowed it was, a +vibration of a cerebral nerve, as sound is a vibration of a +sonorous body; for how could these vibrations be accumulated in +memory as our mental experiences are? When a material vibration +ends, it has gone forever; but thoughts are stored up and +preserved. A hypothetical simile, like that just cited from +Priestley, is not a cogent argument. It is false science thus to +limit the modes of being to what lies within our present empirical +knowledge. Is it not pure presumptuousness to affirm that the +creative power of Almighty God is shut up so that intelligent +creatures can only exist in forms of flesh? When a recent +materialist makes the assertion, "The thinking man is the sum of +his senses," it is manifest that he goes beyond the data, assuming +what should be proved, and confounding the instruments and +material with the workman. It is as if one should say, "A working +cotton manufactory is the sum of its machines," excluding the +persons by whose guiding oversight all is done. Plainly, it may be +granted that all which man knows is brought in through the door of +the senses, without allowing the same of all that man is. We have +no warrant for pronouncing the identical coextensiveness of what +man learns to know and what he is created to be. The very +proposition, man knows something, presupposes three things, a +subject, an act, and an object. Whether the three exist and perish +together or not is matter for discussion, and not fairly to be +settled by forcibly lumping the heterogeneous three into +homogeneous unity. + +In the present state of science it must be confessed that all +kinds of physical force whether mechanical, chemical, vital, or +nervous are drawn more or less directly from the sun, the material +reservoir of power for our solar system. This must be admitted, +although some recent materialists have pushed the doctrine so far +that they may be called the Parsees of the West. Whenever the +proper conditions for an animate being are furnished, a force +derived from the sun lifts matter from its stable equilibrium to +the level of organic existence. In due season, from its wavering +life struggle there, it decays back to the deep rest of insensate +earth.17 This is a truth throughout the organic realm, from the +bulb of a sea weed to the brain of a Casar. So much cannot be +denied. Every organism constantly receives from the universe food +and force, and as constantly restores in other forms the material +and dynamical equivalents of what it receives, and finally itself +goes to the sources whence it came. But the affirmation of this +for all within the physical realm is not the admission of it for +what subsists in an immeasurably higher rank and totally different +realm. Entering the psychical sphere, where we deal with a new, +distinct order of realities, not impenetrability, weight, +extension, but thought, affection, will, why may not this province +contain eternities, even though the other holds only mortalities? +It is a question to be examined on its own grounds, not to be put +aside with a foregone conclusion. In nature the cause endures +under all evanescent changes, and survives all phenomenal +beginnings and endings: so in spirit the causal personality, if +there be one, may outlast all the shifting currents of the outward +phenomena in endless persistence. Of course, the manifestation of +the mind through the senses must cease when the senses no longer +remain. The essence of the controversy, then, is exactly this: Is +the mind an entity? or is it a collection of functions? If the +soul be a substantial force, it is immortal. If it be a phenomenal +resultant, it ceases at death. + +A reductio ad absurdum immediately occurs. If the psychical +totality of man consists of states of feeling, modes of volition, +and powers of thought, not necessitating any spiritual entity in +which they inhere, then, by parity of reasoning, the physical +totality of man consists of states of nutrition, modes of +absorption, and powers of change, implying no body in which these +processes are effectuated! Qualities cannot exist without a +subject: and just as physical attributes involve a body, spiritual +attributes involve a mind. And, if a mental entity be admitted, +its death or cessation with that of its outer dress or case is not +a fair inference, but needs appropriate evidence. + +The soul of a man has been defined as the sum of his ideas, an +idea being a state of the consciousness. But the essence of mind +must be the common ground and element of all + +17 Moleschott, Licht and Leben. + + +different states of consciousness. What is that common ground and +element but the presence of a percipient volitional force, whether +manifested or unmanifested, still there? That is the germinal core +of our mental being, integrating and holding in continuous +identity all the phenomenal fluctuations of consciousness. It is +clear that any other representation seems inconsistent with the +most central and vivid facts of our knowledge. In illustration of +this, let us see how every materialistic exposition omits utterly, +or fails to account for, the most essential element, the solitary +and crowning peculiarity, of the case. For example, it is said +that thought or consciousness is a phenomenal process of changes +sustained in the brain by a correlation of forces, just as the +rainbow appears, but has no ontological subsistence of its own: +the continuous spectrum hangs steady on the ceaselessly renewed +substratum of the moving mist rack and the falling rain. But the +comparison is absolutely inapplicable, because the deepest ground +principle of the mind is wanting in the rainbow, namely, conscious +and continuous identity holding in each present moment all the +changes of the past moments. If the rainbow were gifted with +consciousness, it could not preserve its personal identity, but +merely its phenomenal identity, for any two successive moments, +since its whole being would consist of an untied succession of +states. + +Traversing the body from its extreme tissues to the gray vesicular +substance composing the spinal cord and covering the surface and +convolutions of the brain, are two sets of white, fibrous nerves. +One set, the afferents, bring in sensation, all kinds of tidings, +from the out world of matter. The other set, the efferents, carry +out volition, all kinds of decrees, from the in world of mind. +Without an afferent nerve no influence of the world can reach the +mind; and without an efferent nerve no conclusion of the mind can +reach the world. As we are now constituted, this machinery is +necessary for the intercommunication of the mind and the material +universe. But if there be something in the case besides live +machinery and crossing telegrams, if there be a monarch mind +inaccessible to the vulgar crowd of things and only conversing +with them through the internuncial nerves, that spirit entity may +itself be capable of existing forever in an ideal universe and of +communing there face to face with its own kingly lineage and +brood. And we maintain that the account of the phenomena is +grossly defective, and that the phenomena themselves are palpably +inexplicable, except upon the supposition of such an entity, which +uses the organism but is not the organism itself nor a function of +it. "Ideas," one materialist teaches, "are transformed +sensations." Yes; but that does not supersede a transforming mind. +There must be a force to produce the transformations. "The +phenomena of mind," says another, "consist in a succession of +states of consciousness." Yes; but what is it that presides over, +takes up, and preserves this succession? The phenomena of the mind +are not the mind itself. "The actions of the mind are the +functions of the cerebrum," adds a third. Yes; but the inquiry is, +what is the mind itself? not, what are its acts? The admission of +the gray nerve cells of the brain, as the material substratum +through which sensations are received and volitions returned, does +not exclude the necessity of a dynamical cause for the +metamorphosing phenomenon. That cause must be free and +intelligent, because the products of its action, as well as its +accompanying consciousness, are marked by freedom and intelligence. +For example, when a cylindrical and + +fibrous porter deposits his sensitive burden in the vesicular and +cineritious substance, something examines it, tests its import, +reflects on what shall be done, forms an intelligent resolution, +and commands another porter to bear the dynamic load forth. The +reflective and determining something that does this is the mind. +Thus, by the fact of an indissoluble dynamic will, is the broad +lineal experience of man grasped and kept from dissipating into +crumbled psychical states, as when the dead kings of ancient India +were burned their corpses were wrapped in asbestos shrouds to hold +the ashes together. + +The flame of a burnt out candle twinkling in the socket is not +numerically the same with that which appeared when it was first +lighted; nor is a river at any two periods numerically the same. +Different particles constantly feed an ever renewed flame or +stream, just like the former but never the same. A totally new +element appears when we contemplate mind. Here, although the whole +molecular substance of the visible organism is in perpetual flux, +the same conscious personality persists through all, growing ever +richer in an accumulating possession of past experiences still +held in living command. The Arethusa of identity threads the +blending states of consciousness, and, passing the ocean bed of +death, may emerge in some morning fount of immortality. A +photographic image impressed on suitable paper and then +obliterated is restored by exposure to the fumes of mercury. But +if an indefinite number of impressions were superimposed on the +same paper, could the fumes of mercury restore any one called for +at random? Yet man's memory is a plate with a hundred millions of +impressions all cleanly preserved, and he can at will select and +evoke the one he wants. No conceivable relationship of +materialistic forces can account for the facts of this miraculous +daguerreotype plate of experience, and the power of the mind to +call out into solitary conspicuousness a desired picture which has +forty nine million nine hundred and ninety nine thousand nine +hundred and ninety nine latent pictures lying above it, and fifty +millions below it. It has been said that "the impressions on the +brain, whether perceptions or intellections, are fixed and +retained through the exactness of assimilation. As the mind took +cognizance of the change made by the first impression of an object +acting on the brain through the sense organs, so afterwards it +recognises the likeness of that change in the parts inserted by +the nutritive process.18 This passage implies that the mind is an +agent, not a phenomenon; and it describes some of the machinery +with which the mind works, not the essence of the mind itself. Its +doctrine does not destroy nor explain the presiding and elective +power which interprets these assimilated and preserved changes, +choosing out such of them as it pleases, that unavoided and +incomprehensible power, the hiding place of volition and eternity, +whose startling call has often been known, in some dread crisis, +to effect an instantaneous restoration of the entire bygone life, +making all past events troop through the memory, a swiftly awful +cavalcade marching along the fibrous pavement of the brain, while +each terrified thought rushes to its ashy window to behold. We +here leave the material realm behind and enter a spiritual +province where other predicates and laws hold, and where, +"delivered over to a night of pure light, in which no unpurged +sight is sharp enough to penetrate the mysterious essence that +sprouteth into different persons," we kneel in most pious awe, and +cry, with Sir + +18 Paget. Surgical Pathology, Lecture II. + + +Thomas Browne, "There is surely a piece of divinity in us, +something that was before the elements and owes no homage unto the +sun!" + +The fatal and invariable mistake of materialism is that it +confounds means and steps with causes, processes with sources, +organs with ends, predicates with subject.19 Alexander Bain denies +that there is any cerebral closet or receptacle of sensation and +imagery where impressions are stored to be reproduced at pleasure. +He says, the revival of a past impression, instead of being an +evocation of it from an inner chamber, is a setting on anew of the +current which originally produced it, now to produce it again.20 +But this theory does not alter the fact that all past impressions +are remembered and can be revived at will by an internal +efficiency. The miracle, and the necessity of an unchanging +conscious entity to explain it, are implied just as they were on +the old theory. "The organs of sense," Sir Isaac Newton writes, +"are not for enabling the soul to perceive the species of things +in its sensorium, but for conveying them there." 21 Now, as we +cannot suppose that God has a brain or needs any material organs, +but rather that all infinitude is his Sensorium, so spirits may +perceive spiritual realities without any mediating organism. Our +physical experience in the present is no limit to the spiritual +possibilities of the future. The materialistic argument against +immortality fails, because it excludes essential facts. As +anterior to our experience in the present state there was a power +to organize experiences and to become what we are, so none of the +superficial reasonings of a mere earth science can show that there +is not now a power to organize experiences in a future state and +to become what our faith anticipates we shall be. And this +suggests to speculative curiosity the query, Shall we commence our +future life, a psychical cell, as we commenced our present life, a +physical cell? + +It will be well, perhaps, to reply next to some of the aggressive +sophistries of disbelief. The following lines by Dr. Beddoes are +striking, but, considered as a symbol of life, seem almost +wilfully defective: + +"The body is but an engine Which draws a mighty stream of +spiritual power Out of the world's own soul, and makes it play A +while in visible motion." + +Man is that miraculous engine which includes not only all the +needful machinery, but also fuel, fire, steam, and speed, and +then, in climacteric addition to these, an engineer! Does the +engineer die when the fire goes out and the locomotive stops? When +the engine madly plunges off the embankment or bridge of life, +does the engineer perish in the ruin, or nimbly leap off and +immortally escape? The theory of despair has no greater +plausibility than that of faith. + +Feuerbach teaches that the memento mori of reason meets us +everywhere in the spiritual God's acre of literature. A book is a +grave, which buries not the dead remains, but the quick + +19 Frauenstadt, Per Materialismus, seine Wahrheit und sein +Irrthum, s. 169. + +20 The Senses and the Intellect, p. 61. + +21 Brodie, Psychological Inquiries, p. 41, 3d edition. + + +man, not his corpse, but his soul. And so we live on the psychical +deposits of our ancestry. Our souls consist of that material which +once constituted other souls, as our bodies consist of the +material which once constituted other bodies. A thought, it is to +be replied, is never excreted from the mind and left behind. Only +its existence is indicated by symbols, while itself is added to +the eternal stock of the deathless mind. A thought is a spiritual +product in the mind from an affection of the cerebral substance. A +sentence is a symbol of a thought adapted to create in the +contemplator just such a cerebral affection as that from which it +sprang, and to deposit in his mind just such a spiritual product +as that which it now denotes. Thus are we stimulated and +instructed by the transmitted symbols of our ancestors' +experiences, but not literally nourished by assimilation of their +very psychical substance, as this remorseless prophet of death's +ghastly idealism would have us believe. Still, in whatever aspect +we regard it, one cannot but shudder before that terrible +cineritious substance whose dynamic inhabitants are generated in +the meeting of matter's messages with mind's forces, and sent +forth in emblems to shake the souls of millions, revolutionize +empires, and refashion the world. + +Strauss employs an ingenious argument against the belief in a +future life, an argument as harmless in reality as it is novel and +formidable in appearance. "Whether the nerve spirit be considered +as a dependent product, or as the producing principle of the +organism, it ends at death: for, in the former case, it can no +longer be produced when the organism perishes; in the latter case, +that it ceases to sustain the organism is a proof that it has +itself decayed."22 In this specious bit of special pleading, +unwarranted postulates are assumed and much confusion of thought +is displayed. It is covertly taken for granted that every thing +seen in a given phenomenon is either product or producer; but +something may be an accompanying part, involved in the conditions +of the phenomenon, yet not in any way essentially dependent on it, +and in fact surviving it. What does Strauss mean by "the nerve +spirit"? Is there no mind behind it and above it, making use of it +as a servant? Our present life is the result of an actual and +regulated harmony of forces. Surely that harmony may end without +implying the decay of any of its initial components, without +implying the destruction of the central constituent of its +intelligence. It is illegitimate logic, passing from pure +ignorance to positive affirmation; a saltation of sophistry from a +negative premise of blindness to all behind the organic life, to a +dogmatic conclusion of denial that there is any thing behind the +organic life. + +A subtle and vigorous disbeliever has said, "The belief in +immortality is not a correct expression of human nature, but rests +solely on a misunderstanding of it. The real opinion of human +nature is expressed in the universal sorrow and wailing over +death." It is obvious to answer that both these expressions are +true utterances of human nature. It grieves over the sadness of +parting, the appalling change and decay, the close locked mystery +of the unseen state. It rejoices in the solace and cheer of a +sublime hope springing out of the manifold powerful promises +within and without. Instead of contemning the idea of a heavenly +futurity as an idle dream image of human longing, it were both +devouter and more reasonable, from + +22 Charakteristiken und Kritiken, s. 394. + + +that very causal basis of it, to revere it and confide in it as +divinely pledged. All the thwarted powers and preparations and +affections, too grand, too fine, too sacred, to meet their fit +fulfilment here, are a claim for some holier and vaster sphere, a +prophecy of a more exalted and serene existence, elsewhere. The +unsatisfied and longing soul has created the doctrine of a future +life, has it? Very good. If the soul has builded a house in +heaven, flown up and made a nest in the breezy boughs of +immortality, that house must have tenants, that nest must be +occupied. The divinely implanted instincts do not provide and +build for naught. + +Certain considerations based on the resemblances of men and +beasts, their asserted community of origin and fundamental unity +of nature, have had great influence in leading to the denial of +the immortality of the human soul. It is taken for granted that +animals are totally mortal; and then, from the apparent +correspondences of phenomena and fate between them and us, the +inference is drawn that the cases are parallel throughout, and +that our destiny, too, is annihilation. The course of thought on +this subject has been extremely curious, illustrating, on the one +hand, that "where our egotism begins, there the laws of logic +break," and, on the other hand, that often when fancy gets scent +of a theory the voice and lash of reason are futile to restrain it +until the theory is run into the ground. Des Cartes, and after him +Malebranche and a few other writers, gave no slight currency to +the notion that brutes are mere machines, moved by prearranged +influences and utterly destitute of intelligence, will, or +consciousness. This scheme gave rise to many controversies, but +has now passed into complete neglect.23 Of late years the tendency +has been to assimilate instead of separating man and beast. +Touching the outer sphere, we have Oken's homologies of the +cranial vertebra. In regard to the inner sphere, we have a score +of treatises, like Vogt's Pictures from Brute Life, affirming that +there is no qualitative, but merely a quantitative, distinction +between the human soul and the brute soul.24 Over this point the +conflict is still thick and hot. But, however much of truth there +may be in the doctrine of the ground identity of the soul of a man +and the soul of a dog, the conclusion that man therefore perishes +is a pure piece of sophistry. Such a monstrous assassination of +the souls of the human race with the jaw bone of an ass may be +legitimately avoided in either of two ways. It is as fair to argue +the immortality of animals from their likeness to us, as our +annihilation from our likeness to them. The psychological realm +has been as much deepened in them by the researches of modern +science as the physiological domain has been widened in us. As +Agassiz says, we must not lose sight of the mental individuality +of animals in an exclusive attention to the bodily side of their +nature.25 A multitude of able thinkers have held the faith that +animals have immaterial and deathless souls. Rightly considered, +there is nothing in such a + +23 Darmanson, La bete transformee en machine. Ditton, Appendix to +Discourse on Resurrection of Christ, showing that brutes are not +mere machines, but have immortal souls. Orphal, Sind die Thiere +blos sinnliche Geschopfe? Thomasius, De Anima Brutorum, quo +asseritur, eam non esse Materialem, contra Cartesianam Opinionem. +Winkler, Philosophische Untersuchungen von dem Seyn and Wesen der +Seelen der Thiere, von einzelnen Liebhabern der Weltweisheit. + +24 Buchner, Kraft und Stoff, kap. 19: Die Thierseele. + +25 Essay on Classification, p. 64. + + +doctrine which a keen reasoner may not credit and a person of the +most refined feelings find pleasure in embracing. In their serene +catholicity and divine sympathy, science and religion exclude +pride and contempt. + +But admitting that there is no surviving psychical entity in the +brute, that is in no way a clear postulate for proving that the +same fact holds of man. The lower endowments and provinces of +man's nature and experience may correspond ever so closely with +the being and life of brutes whose existence absolutely ceases at +death, and yet he may be immortal. The higher range of his +spiritual faculties may elevate him into a realm of universal and +eternal principles, extricating his soul from the meshes of decay. +He may come into contact with a sphere of truths, grasp and rise +into a region of realities, conferring the prerogative of +deathlessness, not to be reached by natures gifted in a much lower +degree, although of the same kind. Such a distinction is made +between men themselves by Spinoza.26 His doctrine of immortality +depicts the stupendous boon as contingent, to be acquired by +observance of conditions. If the ideas of the soul represent +perishable objects, it is itself mortal; if imperishable, it is +immortal. Now, brutes, it is probable, never rise to the +apprehension of pure and eternal truths; but men do. It was a mean +prejudice, founded on selfish ignorance and pride, which first +assumed the total destruction of brutes in death, and afterwards, +by the grovelling range of considerations in which it fastened and +the reaction it naturally provoked, involved man and all his +imperial hopes in the same fate. A firm logical discrimination +disentangles the human mind from this beastly snarl.27 The +difference in data warrants a difference in result. The argument +for the immortality of brutes and that for the immortality of men +are, in some respects, parallel lines, but they are not +coextensive. Beginning together, the latter far outreaches the +former. Man, like the animals, eats, drinks, sleeps, builds; +unlike them, he adorns an ideal world of the eternal future, lays +up treasures in its heavenly kingdom, and waits to migrate into +it. + +There are two distinct methods of escaping the fatal inference of +disbelief usually drawn by materialists. First, by the denial of +their philosophical postulates, by the predication of immaterial +substance, affirming the soul to be a spaceless point, its life an +indivisible moment. The reasonings in behalf of this conception +have been manifold, and cogent enough to convince a multitude of +accomplished and vigorous thinkers.28 In Herbart's system the soul +is an immaterial monad, or real, capable of the permanent +formation of states in its interior. Its life consists of a +quenchless series of self preservations. These reals, with their +relations and aggregations, constitute at once the varying +phenomena and the causal substrata of the universe. Mamertius +Claudianus, a philosophical priest of Southern Gaul in the fifth +century, wrote a treatise "On the Nature of the Soul." He says, +"When the soul wills, it is all will; when it recollects or feels, +it is all recollection or feeling. Now, will, recollection, and +feeling, are not bodies. Therefore the soul is incorporeal." This +makes the conscious man an + +26 Jouffroy, Introduction to Ethics: Channing's trans., vol. ii. +pp. 189-191. + +27 Schaller, Leib und Seele, kap. 13: Der Psychische Unterschied +des Menschen vom Thiere. + +28 Crombie, Natural Theology, vol. ii.: Essay on the Immortality +of the Soul. Brougham, Discourse of Nat. Theol., sect. 5. + + +imperishable substantial activity. An old English writer, with +quaint eloquence, declares, "There is a proportion between an atom +and the universe, because both are quantitative. All this excesse +vanisheth into nothing as soon as the lowest substance shineth out +of that orbe where they reside that scorn divisibility." + +From this brief statement of the position of the immaterialists, +without arguing it, we pass to note, in the second place, that +nearly all the postulates ordinarily claimed by the materialist +may be granted without by any means proving the justice of their +disbelief of a future life.29 Admit that there can be no sensation +without a nerve, no thought without a brain, no phenomenal +manifestation without an organ. Such an admission legitimates the +conclusion, on empirical grounds, that our present mode of life +must cease with the dissolution of our organism. It does not even +empirically prove that we may not survive in some other mode of +being, passing perhaps to an inconceivably higher stage and more +blessed kind of life. After the entire disintegration of our +material organs, we may, by some now unknown means, possess in a +refined form the equivalents of what those organs gave us. There +may be, interfused throughout the gross mortal body, an immortal +body of exquisitely delicate structure invisibly extricating +itself from the carious ruins at death. Plattner develops and +defends this hypothesis with plausible skill and power.30 The +Hindus conceived the soul to be concealed within several +successive sheaths, the innermost of which accompanied it through +all its transmigrations.31 "The subtile person extends to a small +distance over the skull, like the flame of a lamp above its wick." +32 The later Pythagoreans and Platonists seem to have believed +that the same numerical ethereal body with which the soul was at +first created adhered to it inseparably during all its descents +into grosser bodies, a lucid and wingy vehicle, which, purged by +diet and catharms, ascends again, bearing the soul to its native +seat.33 The doctrine of Swedenborg asserts man to be interiorly an +organized form pervading the physical body, an eternal receptacle +of life from God. In his terminology, "constant influx of life" +supersedes the popular idea of a self contained spiritual +existence. But this influx is conditioned by its receiving organ, +the undecaying inner body.34 However boldly it may be assailed and +rejected as a baseless theory, no materialistic logic can disprove +the existence of an ethereal form contained in, animating, and +surviving, the visible organism. It is a possibility; although, +even if it be a fact, science, by the very conditions of the case, +can never unveil or demonstrate it. + +When subjected to a certain mode of thought developed recently by +Faraday, Drossbach, and others, materialism itself brightens and +dissolves into a species of idealism, the universe becomes a +glittering congeries of indestructible points of power, and the +immortality of the soul is established as a mathematical +certainty.35 All bodies, all entities, are but forms of + +This has been ably shown by Spiers in his treatise, Ueber das +korperliche Bedingtsein der Seelenthatigkeiten. + +30 Spes immortalitatis animorum per rationes physiologicas +confirmata. + +31 Dabistan, vol. ii. p. 177. + +32 Colebrooke, Essays, vol. i. p. 246. + +33 Cudworth, Int. Sys., vol. ii. pp. 218-230, Am. ed. + +34 On the Intercourse between the Soul and the Body, sect. 9. + +35 Lott, Herbarti de animi immortalitate doctrina. + + +force.36 Gravity, cohesion, bitterness, thought, love, +recollection, are manifestations of force peculiarly conditioned. +Our perceptions are a series of states of consciousness. An +attribute or property of a thing is an exercise of force or mode +of activity producing a certain state of consciousness in us. The +sum of its attributes or properties constitutes the totality of +the thing, and is not adventitiously laid upon the thing: you can +separate the parts of a thing; but you cannot take away its forces +from any part, because they are its essence. Matter is not a +limitation or neutralization, but a state and expression, of +force. Force itself is not multiplex, but one, all qualities and +directions of it lying potentially in each entity, the kinds and +amounts which shall be actually manifested depending in each case +on the conditions environing it. All matter, all being, therefore, +consists of ultimate atoms or monads, each one of which is an +inseparable solidarity of activities. The universe is an eternal +society of eternal force individuals, all of which are capable of +constant changes in groupings, aggregations, developments, +relations, but absolutely incapable of annihilation. Every atom +possesses potential reason, and comes to self apprehension +whenever the appropriate conditions meet. All differences +originate from conditions and exist not in essentialities. + +According to this theory, the eternity of the soul is sure, but +that eternity must be an endless series of mutual transitions +between consciousness and unconsciousness, life and death.37 Since +all cannot be men at once, they must take their turns. Carus says, +a soul enclosing in itself an independent consciousness is +inconceivable. When the organism by which consciousness is +conditioned and revealed is destroyed in death, consciousness +disappears as certainly as the gleaming height of a dome falls in +when its foundation is removed. And Drossbach adds, death is the +shade side of life. Without shade, light would not be perceptible, +nor life without death; for only contrast leads to knowledge. The +consciousness of life is realized by interchange with the +unconsciousness of death. Mortality is the inevitable attribute of +a self conscious being. The immortality of such a being can be +nothing else than an everlasting mortality. In this restless +alternation between the opposite states of life and death, being +holds continuous endurance, but consciousness is successively +extinguished and revived, while memory is each time hopelessly +lost. Widenmann holds that the periods of death are momentary, the +soul being at once born again, retaining no vestiges of its +past.38 Drossbach, on the contrary, believes that memory is an +indefeasible quality of the soul atom, the reason why we do not +remember previous lives being that the present is our first +experiment. When all atoms destined to become men have once run +the human career, the earliest ones will begin to reappear with +full memory of their preceding course. It matters not how long it +requires for one circuit of the whole series of souls; for the +infinite future is before us, and, as we are unconscious in death, +the lapse of ages is nothing. We lie down to sleep, and instantly +rise up to a new life. + +36 Hickok, Rational Cosmology, ch. ii. sect. 1: Matter is force. + +37 Drossbach, Die personliche Unsterblichkeit als Folge der +atomistischen Verfaasung der Natur, abschn. iv. kap. ii. sect. 5, +6. + +38 Gedanken uber die Unsterblichkeit als Wiederholung des +Erdenlebens. + + +"Death gives to life all its relish, as hunger is the true sauce +of food. Death first makes us precious and dear to ourselves. +Since it lies in the nature of change that no condition is +endless, but morning ever follows night, death cannot be endless. +Be unconcerned; thy being shall as little be lost as the grain of +dust at thy foot! Because in death thou dost not know that thou +art, therefore fearest thou that thou shalt be no more? O +pusillanimous! the great events of nature are too vast for thy +weak heart. A whole eternity thou hast not been conscious that +thou art, and yet thou hast become conscious of it. Every night +thou losest thy consciousness, yet art thou conscious again, and +shalt be. The loss of consciousness is not necessarily the loss of +self. The knowledge of my being is not my being itself, but a +peculiar force thereof, which, entering into reciprocal action +with other forces, is subject to change. It is its essence to act, +and thus to change, yet without surrendering its essence. Goethe's +words may be applied to the soul: 'It is; therefore eternally it +is.' + +Not in cold motionlessness consists eternal life, but in eternal +movement, in eternal alteration, in incessant change. These are +warranties that no state endures forever, not even the +unconscious, death." 39 + +In this unfolding of the theory there are many arbitrary and +fanciful conceptions which may easily be dispensed with. The +interspersion of the bright life of the human monads with blank +epochs of oblivious darkness, and the confinement of their destiny +to an endless repetition of their life course on this globe, are +not necessary. In the will of God the free range of the boundless +universe may lie open to them and an incessant career in forever +novel circumstances await them. It is also conceivable that human +souls, leading still recurrent lives on earth with total +forgetfulness, may at last acquire sufficient power, in some happy +concurrence or sublime exigency, to summon back and retain all +their foregone states. But, leaving aside all such incidental +speculations, the chief interest of the dynamic atomistic or monad +theory, as affording a solid basis for immortality, is in relation +to the arrogance of a shallow and conceited materialism. Says the +materialist, "Show me a spirit, and I will believe in your +heaven." Replies the idealist, "Show me your matter, however small +a piece, and I will yield to your argument." Spirit is no +phenomenon to be shown, and matter is an inference from thought: +thus the counter statements of physical science and ideal +philosophy fairly offset each other, and throw their respective +advocates back upon the natural ground of unsophisticated faith +and observation. Standing there unperverted, man has an invincible +reliance on the veracity of his faculties and the normal reports +of nature. Through immediate apprehension of his own conscious +will and the posited experience of his senses, he has knowledge +both of causal forms of being, or free productive force, and of +resultant processes and phenomena. And surely sound logic teaches +that the latter may alter or disappear without implying the +annihilation of the former. If all material substance, so called, +were destroyed, not only would space remain as an infinite +indivisible unity, but the equivalents + +39 Drossbach, Die individuelle Unsterblichkeit vom monadistisch +metaphysischen Standpunkte betrachtet. + + +of what had been destroyed must remain in some form or other. Who +shall say that these equivalents would not be intelligent points +of power, capable of organizing aggregate bodies and of +reconstituting the universe in the will of God, or of forming from +period to period, in endless succession, new kinds of universes, +each abounding in hitherto unimagined modes of life and degrees of +bliss? To our present faculties, with only our present +opportunities and data, the final problem of being is insoluble. +We resolve the properties of matter into methods of activity, +manifestations of force. But there, covered with alluring awe, a +wall of impenetrable mystery confronts us with its baffling "Thus +far, and no farther, shall thine explicating gaze read the secrets +of destiny." We cannot tell what force is. We can conceive neither +its genesis nor its extinction. Over that obscure environment, +into the immense empire of possibilities, we must bravely fling +the treasures of our love and the colors of our hope, and with a +divine impulse in the moment of death leap after, trusting not to +sink as nothing into the abyss of nowhere, but, landing safe in +some elysium better than we know, to find ourselves still in God. + +In dealing with moral problems in the realm of the higher reason, +intuitions, mysterious hints, prophetic feelings, instinctive +apprehensions of fitness and harmony, may be of more convincing +validity than all the formal arguments logic can build.40 +"Sentiment," Ancillon says, as quoted by Lewes, "goes further than +knowledge: beyond demonstrative proofs there is natural evidence; +beyond analysis, inspiration; beyond words, ideas; beyond ideas, +emotions; and the sense of the infinite is a primitive fact of the +soul." In transcendental mathematics, problems otherwise +unapproachable are solved by operating with emblems of the +relations of purely imaginary quantities to the facts of the +problems. The process is sound and the result valid, notwithstanding +the hypothetical and imaginary character of the aids in reaching it. + +When for mastering the dim momentous problems of our destiny +the given quantities and relations of science are inadequate, +the helpful supposititious conditions furnished by faith may +equally lead over their airy ways to conclusions of eternal truth. + +The disbelievers of a future life have in their investigations +applied methods not justly applicable to the subject, and +demanded a species of proof impossible for the subject to yield: +as if one should use his ear to listen to the symmetries of beauty, +and his eye to gaze upon the undulations of music. + +It is therefore that the terribly logical onslaughts of +Feuerbach are harmless upon most persons. The glittering scimetar +of this Saracenic metaphysician flashes swift and sharp, but he +fights the air with weapons of air. No blood flows from the +severed emptiness of space; no clash of the blows is heard any +more than bell strokes would be heard in an exhausted receiver. +One may justifiably accept propositions which strict science +cannot establish and believe in the existence of a thing which +science cannot reveal, as Jacobi has abundantly shown41 and as +Wagner has with less ability tried to illustrate.42 The utmost +possible achievement of a negative criticism is to show the +invalidity of the physiological, + +40 Abel, Disquisitio omnium tam pro immortalitate quam pro +mortalitate argumentandi generum. + +41 Von den goutlichen Dingen and ibrer Offenbarung. Wissen und +Glauben mit besonderer Beziehung zur Zukunft der Seelen: +Fortsetzung der Betrachtungen uber Menschenschopfung und +Seelensubstanz. + + +analogical, and metaphysical arguments to furnish positive proof +of a future life for us. But this negation fully admitted is no +evidence of our total mortality. Science is impotent to give any +proof reaching to such a conclusion. However badly the archery of +the sharp eyed and strong armed critics of disbelief has riddled +the outer works of ordinary argument, it has not slain the +garrison. Scientific criticism therefore leaves us at this point: +there may be an immortal soul in us. Then the question whether +there actually is an immortal soul in us, rests entirely on moral +facts and considerations. Allowing their native force to these +moral facts and considerations, the healthy ethical thinker, +recognising in himself an innermost self conscious ego which knows +itself persistent and identical amidst the multiplex vicissitude +of transient conditions, lies down to die expecting immediately to +continue his being's journey elsewhere, in some other guise. +Leaving out of view these moral facts and considerations, the +materialistic naturalist thinker, recognising his consciousness as +only a phantom procession of states across the cerebral stage hung +in ashy livery and afloat on blood, lies down to expire expecting +immediately to be turned into nobody forever. Misinterpreting and +undervaluing these moral facts and considerations, the anchorless +speculative thinker, recognising his organism as an eye through +which the World Spirit beholds itself, or a momentary pulse in +which the All feels itself, his consciousness as a part of the +infinite Thought, lies down on his death couch expecting +immediately to be turned into everybody, eternity, instead of +greeting him with an individual kiss, wrapping him in a monistic +embrace. The broad drift of human conviction leads to the first +conclusion, a persistent personality. The greatest philosophers, +from Plato to Pascal, deny the second view, a blotting extinction +of the soul, declaring it false in science and incredible in +presentation. The third theory a pantheistic absorption the +irresistible common sense of mankind repudiates as a morbid dream. +Man naturally believes himself immortal but not infinite. Monism +is a doctrine utterly foreign to undiseased thinking. Although it +be a Fichte, a Schelling, or a Hegel, who says that the soul is a +circumscribed yet omnipotent ego, which first radiates the +universe, and afterwards beholds it in the mirror of itself, and +at length breaks into dead universality, the conception is, to the +average apprehension of humanity, as overweening a piece of wild +fancy as ever rose in a madman's reveries.43 + +The ordinary contemplator of the phenomena of the world and the +sequel of human life from the materialistic point of view feels +disgust and terror at the prospect. The scene seems to him +degrading and the fate fearful. The loathing and dismay vulgarly +experienced thus, it is true, arise from an exaggerated +misapprehension of the basis and meaning of the facts: rightly +appreciated, all is rulingly alive, aspirant, beautiful, and +benignant. The ceaseless transformations filling the heights and +depths of the creation are pervaded with joy and + +42 A full discussion of the pantheistic doctrine of immortality +will be found in the following works. Richmann, Gemsinfassl. +Darstellung und Wurdigung aller gehaltreichen Beweisarten fur Gott +und fur Unsterblichkeit der Seele. Unius, Unsterblichkeit. +Blanche, Philosophische Unsterblichkeitlehre. + +43 Weisse, Die philosophische Geheimlehre von der Unsterblichkeit +des menschlichen Individuums. Goschel, Von den Beweisen fur die +Unsterblichkeit der menschlichen Seele im Lichte der speculativen +Philosophie. Morell, Historical and Critical View of the +Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the 19th Century, part ii. ch. +v. sect. 2: The German School of the 19th Century. Buchanan, +Modern Atheism. + + +clothed with a noble poetry. There is no real death: what seems so +is but a "return or falling home of the fundamental phenomenon to +the phenomenal foundation, a dissolution through which nature +seeks her ground and strives to renew herself in her principles." +Still, in spite of this more profound and genial interpretation of +the shifting metamorphoses of nature, the fear of there being no +conscious future life for man produces, when first entertained, a +horrid constriction around the heart, felt like the ice cold coils +of a serpent. The thought of tumbling hopelessly into "The blind +cave of eternal night" naturally oppresses the heart of man with +sadness and with alarm. To escape the unhappiness thus inflicted, +recourse has been had to expedients. Four artificial substitutes +for immortality have been devised. Fondly fixing attention upon +these, men have tried to find comfort and to absorb their thoughts +from the dreaded spectre and the long oblivion. The first is the +sentimental phantasm of posthumous fame. The Latin bard, ancient +Ennius, sings, + +"Nemo me lacrymis decoret, nec funera fletu Faxit. Cur? volito +vivu' per ora virum." 44 + +Shakspeare likewise often expresses the same thought: + +"When all the breathers of this world are dead, You still shall +live (such virtue hath my pen) Where breath most breathes, even in +the mouths of men." + +And again in similar strain: + +"My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes, Since, spite of +him, I'll live in this poor rhyme, While he insults o'er dull and +speechless tribes." + +Napoleon is reported to have said, "My soul will pass into history +and the deathless memories of mankind; and thus in glory shall I +be immortal." This characteristically French notion forms the +essence of Comte's "positivist" doctrine of a future life. Those +deemed worthy after their death to be incorporated, by vote of the +people, in the Supreme Being, the Grand Etre, a fictitious product +of a poetic personification, through the perpetual fame and +influence thus secured have an immortal life in the thoughts and +feelings of a grateful posterity. Comte says, "Positivism greatly +improves immortality and places it on a firmer foundation, by +changing it from objective to subjective." Great and eternal +Humanity is God. The dead who are meritorious are alone +remembered, and, thus incorporated into the Divinity, they have a +"subjective immortality in the brains of the living." 45 It is a +poor shadow of the sublime truth which the soul craves. Leopardi, +in his Bruto Minore, expresses this "poor hope of being in the +future's breath:" + +44 Cicero, Tusc. Quast., lib. i. cap. xv. + +45 Catechism of Positive Religion, Conversation III. + + +"dell' atra morte ultima raggio Conscia future eta." That proud +and gifted natures should have seriously stooped to such a toy, to +solace themselves with it, is a fact strange and pathetic. With +reverential tenderness of sympathy must we yearn towards those +whose loving natures, baffled of any solid resource, turn +appealingly, ere they fade away, to clasp this substanceless image +of an image. + +Another scheme is what may be called the "lampada tradunt" 46 +theory of a future life. Generations succeed each other, and the +course is always full. Eternal life takes up new subjects as fast +as its exhausted receptacles perish. Men are the mortal cells of +immortal humanity. The individual must comfort himself with the +sympathetic reflection that his extinction destroys nothing, since +all the elements of his being will be manipulated into the forms +of his successors. + +Life is a constant renovation, and its sum is forever full and +equal on the globe. The only genuine resurrection unto eternal +life is an unending re creation of organisms from the same +materials to repeat the same physiological and psychological +processes.47 There is a gleam of cheer and of nobleness in this +representation; but, upon the whole, it is perhaps as ineffectual +as the former. It is a vapid consolation, in view of our own +annihilation, to think that others will then live and also be +annihilated in their turn. It is pleasant to believe that the +earth will forever be peopled with throngs of men; but though such +a belief might help to reconcile us to our fate, it could not +alter the intrinsic sadness of that fate. + +A third substitute for the common view of immortality is a +scientific perception of the fact that the peculiar force which +each man is, the sum of his character and life, is a cause +indestructibly mixed with the course of subsequent history, an +objective personal immortality, though not a conscious one. What +he was, remains and acts forever in the world. + +The fourth substitute is an identification of self with the +integral scheme of things. I am an inseparable portion of the +totality of being, to move eternally in its eternal motion. + +"If death seem hanging o'er thy separate soul, Discern thyself a +part of life's great whole." + +Lose the thought of thy particular evanescence in the thought of +the universal permanence. The inverted torch denotes death to a +mere inhabitant of the earth: to a citizen of the universe, +downward and upward are the same. Perhaps one who rejects the +ordinary doctrine of a future life can be solaced and edified by +these substitutes in proportion to his fineness, greatness, and +nobleness. But to most persons no substitute can atone for the +withdrawn truth of immortality itself. + +In regard to the eternal preservation of personal consciousness, +it were bigoted blindness to deny that there is room for doubts +and fears. While the monad soul so to call it lies here beneath +the weak glimmer of suns so far off that they are forceless to +develop it to a + +46 Lucretius, De Nat. Rerum, lib. ii. 1. 78. + +47 Schultz Schultzenstein, Die Bildung des menschlichen Geistes +durch Kultur der Verjungung seines Lebens, ss. 834-847: Die +Unsterblichkeitsbegriffe. + + +victorious assurance, we cannot but sometimes feel misgivings and +be depressed by skeptical surmises. Accordingly, while belief has +generally prevailed, disbelief has in every age had its +representatives. The ancients had their Dicaarchus, Protagoras, +Panatius, Lucan, Epicurus, Casar, Horace, and a long list besides. +The moderns have had their Gassendi, Diderot, Condillac, Hobbes, +Hume, Paine, Leopardi, Shelley, and now have their Feuerbach, +Vogt, Moleschott, and scores of others needless to be named. And +although in any argument from authority the company of the great +believers would incomparably outshine and a thousand times +outweigh the array of deniers, this does not alter the obvious +fact that there are certain phenomena which are natural +provocatives of doubt and whose troubling influence scarcely any +one can always escape. Homer, in giving expression to Hector's +confidence of victory over the Greeks, makes him wish that he were +but as sure of entering the state of the immortal gods.48 When +some one asked Dr. Johnson, "Have we not proof enough of the +immortality of the soul?" he replied, "I want more." Davenant of +whom Southey says, "I know no other author who has so often +expressed his doubts respecting a future state and how burdensome +he felt them" writes, "But ask not bodies doom'd to die, +To what abode they go: Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy, +It is not safe to know." + +Charles Lamb writes, "If men would honestly confess their +misgivings, (which few men will,) there are times when the +strongest Christian of us has reeled under questionings of such +staggering obscurity." Many a man, seeing nature hang her veil of +shifting glories above the silent tombs of vanished generations, +voiceless now forever, entertaining innumerable contradictory +queries amidst feelings of decay and sights of corruption, before +the darkness of unknown futurity might piteously exclaim, without +deserving blame, + +"I run the gauntlet of a file of doubts, Each one of which down +hurls me to the ground." + +Who that has reached maturity of reflection cannot appreciate and +sympathize somewhat with these lines of Byron, when he stands +before a lifeless form of humanity? + +"I gazed, as oft I have gazed the same, To try if I could wrench +aught out of death Which should confirm, or shake, or make, a +faith; But it was all a mystery. Here we are, And there we go: but +where? Five bits of lead, Or three, or two, or one, send very far! +And is this blood, then, form'd but to be shed? Can every element +our elements mar? Can air, earth, water, fire, live and we dead? +We, whose minds comprehend all things? No more." + +48 Iliad, lib, viii. Il. 538-540. + + +Doubt is not sin, but rather a misfortune; for it is to adopt a +suggestion from Schaller a cleft in the soul through which thought +steals away what the heart desires. The guilt or innocence of +doubting depends on the spirit in which it is done. There are two +attitudes of mind and moods of feeling before propositions and +evidence. One is, "I will not believe unless I see the prints of +the nails and lay my finger in the marks of the wounds." The other +is, "Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief." In abstract logic +or rigid science the former may be appropriate and right. The +latter alone can be justifiable in moral and religious things. If +a man sorrowfully and humbly doubts, because he cannot help it, he +shall not be condemned. When he is proud of his doubts, +complacently swells with fancied superiority, plays the fanfaron +with his pretentious arguments, and sets up as a propagandist of +disbelief, being all the while in reality "Most ignorant of what +he is most assured, His glassy essence," his conduct is offensive +to every good man, and his spirit must receive the condemnation of +God. A missionary of atheism and death, horridly eager to destroy +those lofty thoughts which so much help to make us men, is a +shocking spectacle. Yet a few such there are, who seem delighted +as by their dismal theory they bury mankind in an iron tomb of +materialism and inscribe on the irrevocable door the solitary +words, Fate and Silence. + +The more attentively one dwells on the perishable physical side of +life, the more prone he will be to believe in an absolute death; +the more prevailingly he ponders the incorruptible psychical side, +the more prepared he will be to credit immortality. The chemist +who confines his studies exclusively within his own province, when +he reflects on the probable sequence of life, will speculatively +see himself vanish in his blowpipes and retorts. Whoso devotedly +dabbles in organisms, nerves, and bloods may easily become +skeptical of spirit; for it everywhere balks his analysis and +eludes his search. The objects he deals with are things. They +belong to change and dissolution. Mind and its proper home belong +to a different category of being. Because no heaven appears at the +end of the telescope, and no soul is seen on the edge of the +dissecting knife, and no mind is found at the bottom of the +crucible, to infer that therefore there is neither heaven, nor +soul, nor mind, is as monstrous a non sequitur as it would be to +infer the non existence of gravity because it cannot be distilled +in any alembic nor discerned with any glass. The man who goes into +the dark crimson dripping halls of physiology seeking proofs of +immortality, and, failing to find them, abandons his faith in it, +is like that hapless traveller who, groping in the catacombs under +Rome, was buried by the caving in of the sepulchral roof, and thus +lost his life, while all the time, above, the great vault of +heaven was stretching, blue and breezy, filled with sunshine and +sentient joy! + +When we contemplate men in a mass, like a swarm of bees or a hive +of ants, we find ourselves doubting their immortality. They melt +away, in swiftly confused heaps and generations, into the bosom of +nature. On the other hand, when we think of individuals, an almost +unavoidable thought of personal identity makes us spontaneously +conclude them immortal. It rather requires the effort then to +think them otherwise. But obviously the real problem is never of +the multitudinous throng, but always of the solitary person. In +reference + +to this question it is sophistry to fix our thoughts on a Chinese +city as crowded with nameless and indistinguishable human +inhabitants as a decayed cheese is with vermin. Fairness requires +that our imaginations and reasonings upon the subject fasten upon +an individual, set apart and uplifted, like a king, in the +incommunicable distinctness and grandeur of selfhood and +responsibility. + +From looking about this grave paved star, from painful and +degrading contemplations of dead bodies, "the snuff and loathed +part of nature which burns itself out," let a man turn away, and +send his interior kingly glance aloft into ideal realms, let him +summon up the glorious sentiments of freedom, duty, admiration, +the noble experiences of self sacrifice, love, and joy, and his +soul will extricate itself from the filthy net of material decay, +and feel the divine exemption of its own clean prerogatives, +dazzling types of eternity, and fragments of blessedness that +"Promise, on our Maker's truth, Long morrow to this mortal youth." +Martyrdom is demonstration of immortality; for self preservation +is the innermost, indestructible instinct of every conscious +being. When the soul, in a sacred cause, enthusiastically rushes +upon death, or in calm composure awaits death, it is irresistibly +convinced that it cannot be hurt, but will be blessed, by the +crisis. It knows that in an inexpressibly profound sense whosoever +would ignobly save his life loses it, but whosoever would nobly +lose his life saves it. Martyrdom demonstrates immortality. + +"Life embark'd out at sea, 'mid the wave tumbling roar, The poor +ship of my body went down to the floor; But I broke, at the bottom +of death, through a door, And, from sinking, began forever to +soar." + +The most lamentable and pertinacious doubts of immortality +sometimes arise from the survey of instances of gross wickedness, +sluggishness, and imbecility forced on our attention. But, as +these undeniably are palpable violations of the creative +intention, it is not just to reason from them. In fairness the +argument demands that we select the noblest, healthiest specimens +of completed humanity to reason from. Should we not take a case in +which God's will is so far plainly fulfilled, in order to trace +that will farther and even to its finality? And regarding on his +death bed a Newton, a Fenelon, a Washington, is it difficult to +conceive him surviving the climax and catastrophe of his somatic +cell basis and soaring to a more august range of existence? +Remembering that such as these have lived and died, ay, and even +the godlike Nazarene, can we believe that man is merely a white +interrogation point lifted on the black margin of matter to ask +the answerless secret of the universe and be erased? + +Such a conclusion charges God with the transcendent crime of +infanticide perpetrated in the most deliberate manner and on the +most gigantic scale. Who can bear, by thus quenching the hope of +another life, to add death to death, and overcast, to every +thoughtful eye, the whole sunny field of life with the melancholy +shadow of a bier? There is a noble strength and confidence, +cheering to the reader, in these words of one of the wisest and +boldest of thinkers: "I should be the very last man to be willing +to dispense with the faith in a future life: nay, I would say, +with Lorenzo de'Medici, that all those are dead, even for the +present life, who do not hope for another. I have the firm +conviction that our soul is an existence of indestructible nature, +whose working is from eternity to eternity. It is like the sun, +that seems indeed to set, but really never sets, shining on in +unchangeable splendor." 49 Such a view of our destiny incomparably +inspires and ennobles us. Man, discovering under all the poor, +wretched accidents of earth and sense and hard fortune the +immortality of his soul, feels as that king's son who, lost in +infancy, and growing up under the care of a forest hind, supposed +himself to belong to the rude class among whom he lived; but one +day, learning his true parentage, he knew beneath his mean +disguise that he was a prince, and immediately claimed his +kingdom. These facts of experience show clearly how much it +behooves us to cultivate by every honest method this cardinal +tenet of religion, how much wiser faith is in listening to the +lucid echoes of the sky than despair in listening to the muffled +reverberations of the grave. All noble and sweet beliefs grow with +the growing nobleness and tenderness of characters sensitive to +those fine revealings which pachydermatous souls can never know. +In the upper hall of reason, before the high shrine of faith, burn +the base doubts begotten in the cellars of sense; and they may +serve as tapers to light your tentative way to conviction. If the +floating al Sirat between physiology and psychology, earth and +heaven, is too slippery and perilous for your footing, where heavy +limbed science cannot tread, nerve the wings of faith for a free +flight. Or, if every effort to fasten a definite theory on some +solid support on the other side of the gulf fails, venture forth +on the naked line of limitless desire, as the spider escapes from +an unwelcome position by flinging out an exceedingly long and fine +thread and going forth upon it sustained by the air.50 Whoever +preserves the full intensity of the affections is little likely to +lose his trust in God and a future life, even when exposed to +lowering and chilling influences from material science and +speculative philosophy: the glowing of the heart, as Jean Paul +says, relights the extinguished torch in the night of the +intellect, as a beast stunned by an electric shock in the head is +restored by an electric shock in the breast. Daniel Webster says, +in an expression of his faith in Christianity written shortly +before his death, "Philosophical argument, especially that drawn +from the vastness of the universe in comparison with the apparent +insignificance of this globe, has sometimes shaken my reason for +the faith which is in me; but my heart has always assured and +reassured me."51 Contemplating the stable permanence of nature as +it swallows our fleet generations, we may feel that we vanish like +sparks in the night; but when we think of the persistent identity +of the soul, and of its immeasurable superiority to the brute mass +of matter, the aspect of the case changes and the moral inference +is reversed. Does not the simple truth of love conquer and trample +the world's aggregated lie? The man who, with assiduous toil and +earnest faith, develops his forces, and disciplines his faculties, +and cherishes his aspirations, and accumulates virtue and wisdom, +is thus preparing the auspicious stores and conditions of another +existence. As he slowly journeys over the mountains of life, aware +that there can be + +49 Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe. + +50 Greenough, An Artist's Creed. + +51 Memorial of Daniel Webster from the City of Boston, p. 16. + + +no returning, he gathers and carries with him materials to build a +ship when he reaches the strand of death. Upon the mist veiled +ocean launching then, he will sail where? Whither God orders. Must +not that be to the right port? + +We remember an old Brahmanic poem brought from the East by Ruckert +and sweetly resung in the speech of the West full of encouragement +to those who shall die.52 A man wrapped in slumber calmly reclines +on the deck of a ship stranded and parting in the breakers. The +plank on which he sleeps is borne by a huge wave upon a bank of +roses, and he awakes amidst a jubilee of music and a chorus of +friendly voices bidding him welcome. So, perhaps, when the body is +shattered on the death ledge, the soul will be tossed into the +fragrant lap of eternal life on the self identified and dynamic +plank of personality. + +52 Brahmanische Erzahlungen, s. 5. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MORALITY OF THE DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. IN discussing the +ethics of the doctrine of a future life a subject here amazingly +neglected, there more amazingly maltreated, and nowhere, within +our knowledge, truly analyzed and exhibited1 it is important that +the theme be precisely defined and the debate kept strictly to the +lines. Let it be distinctly understood, therefore, that the +question to be handled is not, "Whether there ought to be a future +life or not," nor, "Whether there is a future life or not." The +question is, "What difference should it make to us whether we +admit or deny the fact of a future life?" If we believe that we +are to pass through death into an immortal existence, what +inferences pertaining to the present are right, fully to be drawn +from the supposition? If, on the other hand, we think there is +nothing for us after the present, what are the logical +consequences of that faith in regard to our aims and rules of +conduct in this world? + +Suppose a man who has always imagined that death is utter +annihilation should in some way suddenly acquire knowledge that an +endless existence immediately succeeds the termination of this: +what would be the legitimate instructions of his new information? +Before we can fairly answer this inquiry, we need to know what +relations connect the two states of existence. A knowledge of the +law and method and means of man's destiny is more important for +his guidance than the mere ascertainment of its duration. With +reference to the query before us, four hypotheses are conceivable. +If, in the first place, there be no connection whatever except +that of temporal sequence between the present life and the future, +then, so far as duty is concerned, the expectation of a world to +come yields not the slightest practical application for the +experience that now is. It can only be a source of comfort or of +terror; and that will be accordingly as it is conceived under the +aspect of benignity or of vengeance. If, secondly, the character +of the future life depend on conditions to be fulfilled here, but +those conditions be not within our control, then, again, no +inferences of immediate duty can be drawn from the apprehended +hereafter. Being quasi actors in a scene prearranged and with a +plot predetermined, we can no more be capable of any obligation or +choice, in regard to the end, than puppets which some unseen +Harlequin moves by the terrible wires of primitive decree or +transmitted depravity towards the genial or the tragic crisis. If +the soul's fate there is to be heaven or hell according to the +part enacted here, it must have free will and a fair opportunity +to work the unmarred problem safely out. Otherwise the future life +is reduced, as far as it affects us here, to a mere source of +complacency or of horror as it respectively touches the elect and +the reprobate. + +Thirdly, it may be conceived that the future life is a state of +everlasting reward and punishment unchangeably decided by the way +in which the probationary period allotted on + +1 The only direct treatise on the subject known to us is +Tilemann's Kritik der Unsterblichkeitslehre in Ansehung des +Sittengesetzes, published in 1789. And this we have not seen. + + +earth is passed through. Here are men, for a brief time, free to +act thus or otherwise. Do thus, and the endless bliss of heaven is +won. Do otherwise, and the endless agony of hell is incurred. The +plain rule of action yielded by this doctrine is, Sacrifice all +other things to the one thing needful. The present life is in +itself a worthless instant. The future life is an inexhaustible +eternity. And yet this infinite wealth of glory or woe depends on +how you act during that poor moment. Therefore you have nothing to +do while on earth but to seek the salvation of your soul. To waste +a single pulse beat on any thing else is the very madness of +folly. To find out how to escape hell and secure heaven, and then +to improve the means, this should absolutely absorb every energy +and every thought and every desire of every moment. This world is +a bridge of straw over the roaring gulf of eternal fire. Is there +leisure for sport and business, or room for science and +literature, or mood for pleasures and amenities? No: to get +ourselves and our friends into the magic car of salvation, which +will waft us up from the ravenous crests of the brimstone lake +packed with visages of anguish, to bind around our souls the +floating cord of redemption, which will draw us up to heaven, this +should intensely engage every faculty. Nothing else can be +admitted save by oversight of the awful facts. For is it not one +flexible instant of opportunity, and then an adamantine +immortality of doom? That doctrine of a future life which makes +eternal unalterable happiness or misery depend on the fleeting +probation allowed here yields but one practical moral; and that it +pronounces with imminent urgency and perfect distinctness. The +only true duty, the only real use, of this life is to secure the +forensic salvation of the soul by improvement of the appointed +means. Suspended by such a hair of frailty, for one breathless +moment, on such a razor edged contingence, an entrancing sea of +blessedness above, a horrible abyss of torture beneath, such +should be the all concentrating anxiety to secure safety that +there would be neither time nor taste for any thing else. Every +object should seem an altar drenched with sacrificial blood, every +sound a knell laden with dolorous omen, every look a propitiatory +confession, every breath a pleading prayer. From so single and +preternatural a tension of the believer's faculties nothing could +allow an instant's cessation except a temporary forgetting or +blinking of the awful scene and the immeasurable hazard. Such +would be a logical application to life of the genuine morals of +the doctrine under consideration. But the doctrine itself is to be +rejected as false on many grounds. It is deduced from Scripture by +a technical and unsound interpretation. It is unjust and cruel, +irreconcilable with the righteousness or the goodness of God. It +is unreasonable, opposed to the analogies of nature and to the +experience of man. It is wholly impossible to carry it out +consistently in the practice of life. If it were thoroughly +credited and acted upon, all the business of the world would +cease, and the human race would soon die out. + +There remains one other view of the relationship of a future life +with the present. And it seems to be the true view. The same +Creator presiding, the same laws prevailing, over infinitude and +eternity that now rule over time and earth, our immortality cannot +reasonably be imagined either a moment of free action and an +eternity of fixed consequences, or a series of separate fragments +patched into a parti colored experience with blanks of death +between the patterns of life. It must be conceived as one endless +existence in linear connection of cause and effect developing in +progressive phases under varying conditions of motive and scenery. +With what we are at death we live on into the next life. In every +epoch and world of our destiny our happiness depends on the +possession of a harmoniously working soul harmoniously related +with its environment. Each stage and state of our eternal +existence has its peculiarities of duty and privilege. In this one +our proper work is to improve the opportunities, discharge the +tasks, enjoy the blessings, belonging here. We are to do the same +in the next one when we arrive in that. All the wealth of wisdom, +virtue, strength, and harmony we acquire in our present life is +the vantage ground and capital wherewith we start in the +succeeding life. Therefore the true preparation for the future is +to fit ourselves to enter it under the most favorable auspices, by +accumulating in our souls all the spiritual treasures afforded by +the present. In other words, the truest aim we can set before +ourselves during our existence on earth is to make it yield the +greatest possible results of the noblest experience. The life +hereafter is the elevated and complementary continuation of the +life here; and certainly the directest way to ameliorate the +continuation is to improve the commencement. + +But, it may be said, according to this representation, the fact of +a future life makes no difference in regard to our duty now; for +if the grave swallows all, still, it is our duty and our interest +to make the best and the most of our life in the world while it +lasts. True; and really that very consideration is a strong proof +of the correctness of the view in question. It corresponds with +the other arrangements of God. He makes every thing its own end, +complete in itself, at the same time that it subserves some +further end and enters into some higher unity. He is no mere +Teleologist, hobbling towards his conclusions on a pair of decayed +logic crutches,2 but an infinite Artist, whose means and ends are +consentaneous in the timeless and spaceless spontaneity and +perfection of his play. If the tomb is our total goal, our genuine +aim in this existence is to win during its course an experience +the largest in quantity and the best in quality. On the other +hand, if another life follows this, our wisdom is just the same; +because that experience alone, with the favor of God, can +constitute our fitness and stock to enter on the future. And yet +between the two cases there is this immense difference, not +indeed in duty, but in endowment, that in the latter instance we +work out our allotted destiny here, in a broader illumination, +with grander incentives, and with vaster consolations. A future +life, then, really imposes no new duty upon the present, alters no +fundamental ingredient in the present, takes away none of the +charms and claims of the present, but merely sheds an additional +radiance upon the shaded lights already shining here, infuses an +additional motive into the stimulants already animating our +purposes, distills an additional balm into the comforts which +already assuage our sorrows amidst an evanescent scene. The belief +that we are to live hereafter in a compensating world explains to +us many a sad mystery, strengthens us for many an oppressive +burden, consoles us in many a sharp grief. Else we should oftener +go mad in the baffling whirl of problems, oftener obey the baser +voice, oftener yield to despair. These three are the moral uses, +in the present life, of the + +2 "Seht, an der morschen Syllogismenkrucke Hinkt Gott in Seine +Welt."Lenau's Satire auf einen Professor philosophia. + + +doctrine of a future life. Outside of these three considerations +the doctrine has no ethical meaning for human observance here. + +It will be seen, according to the foregoing representation, that +the expectation of a future life, instead of being harmful to the +interests and attractions of the present, simply casts a cheering +and magnifying light upon them. It does not depreciate the +realities or nullify the obligations now upon us, but emphasizes +them, flinging their lights and shades forward through a mightier +vista. Consequently there is no reason for assailing the idea of +another life in behalf of the interests of this. Such an +opposition between the two states is entirely sophistical, +resulting from a profound misinterpretation of the truemoral +relations connecting them. + +The belief in immortality has been mistakenly attacked, not merely +as hostile to our welfare on earth, but likewise as immoral in +itself, springing from essential selfishness, and in turn +nourishing selfishness and fatally tainting every thing with that +central vice. To desire to live everlastingly as an identical +individual, it has been said, is the ecstasy and culmination of +avaricious conceitedness. Man, the vain egotist, dives out of +sight in God to fish up the pearl of his darling self. He makes +his poor individuality the measure of all things, his selfish +desire the law of endless being. Such a rampant proclamation of +self will and enthronement of pure egotism, flying in the face of +the solemn and all submerging order of the universe, is the very +essence and climax of immorality and irreligiousness. To this +assault on the morality of the belief in a future life, whether +made in the devout tones of magnanimous sincerity, as by the +sublime Schleiermacher, or with the dishonest trickiness of a +vulgar declaimer for the rehabilitation of the senses, as by some +who might be named, several fair replies may be made. In the first +place, the objection begs the question, by assuming that the +doctrine is a falsehood, and that its disciples wilfully set up +their private wishes against the public truth. Such tremendous +postulates cannot be granted. It is seizing the victory before the +battle, grasping the conclusion without establishing the premises. +For, if there be a future life provided by the Creator, it cannot +be sinful or selfish in us to trust in it, to accept it with +humble gratitude, and to prepare our souls for it. That, instead +of being rebellious arrogance or overweening selfishness, would +simply be conforming our thoughts and plans, our desires and +labors, to the Divine arrangements. That would be both morality +and piety. When one clings by will to a doctrine known to be a +falsehood, obstinately suppressing reason to affirm it as a truth, +and, in obedience to his personal whims, trying to force all +things into conformity with it, he does act as a selfish egotist +in full violation of the moral law and the spirit of religion. But +a future life we believe to be a fact; and therefore we are, in +every respect, justified in gladly expecting it and consecratedly +living with reference to it. + +Furthermore, admitting it to be an open question, neither proved +nor disproved, but poised in equal uncertainty, still, it is not +immoral nor undevout deeply to desire and fondly to hope a +personal immortality. "The aim of religion," it has been said, "is +the annihilation of one's own individuality, the living in the +All, the becoming one with the universe." But in such a definition +altogether too much is assumed. The aim of religion is only the +annihilation of the self will of the individual as opposed to the +Will of the Whole, not the losing of one's self in the unconscious +wastes of the universe, but the harmonizing of one's self with the +Supreme Law of the universe. + +An humble, loving, and joyous conformity to the truth constitutes +morality and religion. This is not necessarily inconsistent with a +personal immortality. Besides, the charge may be retorted. To be +identified with the universe is a prouder thought than to be +subordinated to it as an infinitesimal individual. It is a far +haughtier conceit to fancy one's self an integral part of God's +substance than to believe one's self a worshipping pensioner of +God's will. The conception, too, is less native to the mind, has +been more curiously sought out, and is incomparably more pampering +to speculative luxury. If accusations of selfishness and +wilfulness are to be hurled upon any modes of preferred faith as +to our destiny, this self styled disinterested surrender of our +personality to the pantheistic Soul is as obnoxious to them as the +common belief. + +If a desire for personal immortality be a normal experience in the +development of our nature, it cannot be indictable as an offence, +but must be recognised as an indication of God's design. Whether +the desire is a cold and degraded piece of egotism deserving +rebuke and contempt, or a lofty and sympathetic affection worthy +of reverence and approval, depends on no intrinsic ingredient of +the desire itself, but on the character in which it has its being. +One person will be a heartless tyrant, another a loving saint, in +his hope of a future life. Shall our love of the dead, our prayers +to meet them again, our unfathomed yearnings to know that they +still live and are happy, be stigmatized as mean and evil? Regard +for others as much as for ourselves prompts the eternal sigh. Nor +will Divinity ever condemn the feeling himself has awakened. It is +said that Xerxes, gazing once upon his gorgeous army of a million +men spread out below hire, sheathed in golden armor, white plumes +nodding, purple standards waving, martial horns blowing, wept as +he thought that in thirty years the entire host composing that +magnificent spectacle would be dead. To have gazed thoughtfully +upon such a sight with unmoved sensibilities would imply a much +more selfish and hard hearted egotist. So when a lonely +philanthropist from some meditative eminence looks down on the +human race, if, as the contemplation of their pathetic fading and +decay wounds his saddened heart, he heals and cheers it with the +faith of a glorious immortality for them all, who shall call him +selfish and sinful? To rest contented with the speedy night and +the infinite oblivion, wiping off all the unsolved sums from the +slate of existence with annihilation's remorseless sponge, that +would be the selfishness and the cruelty. + +When that sweet asp, death, fastens on our vein of earthly life, +we all feel, like the dying queen of Egypt, that we have "immortal +longings" in us. Since the soul thus holds by a pertinacious +instinct to the eternity of her own existence, it is more rational +to conclude that this is a pledge of her indestructible +personality, God's impregnable defence reared around the citadel +of her being, than to consider it the artificial rampart flung up +by an insurgent egotism. In like manner, it is a misrepresentation +of the facts to assert the culpable selfishness of the faith in a +future life as a demanded reward for fidelity and merit here. No +one demands immortality as pay for acquired desert. It is modestly +looked for as a free boon from the God who freely gave the present +and who has by a thousand symbolic prophecies promised it. Richter +says, with great insight, "We desire immortality not as the reward +of virtue, but as its continuance. Virtue can no more be rewarded +than joy can: it is its own reward." Kant says, "Immortality has +been left so uncertain in order that pure freedom of choice, and +no selfish views, shall prompt our aspirations." "But," Jean Paul +keenly replies, "as we have now discovered this intention, its +object is defeated. Besides, if the belief in immortality makes +virtue selfish, the experience of it in the next world would make +it more so." The anticipation of heaven can hardly make man a +selfish calculator of profit; because heaven is no reward for +crafty reckoning, but the home of pure and holy souls. Virtue +which resists temptation and perseveres in rectitude because it +has a sharp eye to an ulterior result is not virtue. No credible +doctrine of a future life offers a prize except to those who are +just and devout and strenuous in sacred service from free loyalty +to the right and the good, spontaneously obeying and loving the +higher and better call because it divinely commands their +obedience and love. The law of duty is the superior claim of truth +and goodness. Virtue, yielding itself filially to this, finds in +heaven not remuneration, but a sublimer theatre and an immortal +career. Egotistic greed, all mere prudential considerations as +determining conditions or forces in the award, are excluded as +unclean and inadmissible by the very terms; and the doctrine +stands justified on every ground as pure and wholesome before the +holiest tribunal of ethics. Surely it is right that goodness +should be blessed; but when it continues good only for the sake of +being blessed it ceases to be goodness. It is not the belief in +immortality, but only the belief in a corrupt doctrine of +immortality which can poison the springs of disinterested virtue. + +The morality of the doctrine of a future life having thus been +defended from the attacks of those who have sought to destroy it +in the fancied interests either of the enjoyments of the earth or +of the purity of virtue and religion, it now remains to free it +from the still more fatal supports which false or superficial +religionists have sought to give it by wrenching out of it +meanings it never held, by various perverse abuses of it, by +monstrous exaggerations of its moral importance to the present. We +have seen that the supposition of another life, correctly +interpreted, lays no new duty upon man, takes away from him no old +duty or privilege, but simply gives to the previously existing +facts of the case the intensifying glory and strength of fresh +light, motive, and consolation. But many public teachers, not +content to treat the subject with this sobriety of reason, instead +of presenting the careful conclusions of a conscientious analysis, +have sought to strengthen their argument to the feelings by help +of prodigious assumptions, assumptions hastily adopted, highly +colored, and authoritatively urged. Upon the hypothesis that +annihilation is the fate of man, they are not satisfied merely to +take away from the present all the additional light, incentive, +and comfort imparted by the faith in a future existence, but they +arbitrarily remove all the alleviations and glories intrinsically +belonging to the scene, and paint it in the most horrible hues, +and set it in a frame of midnight. Thus, instead of calmly seeking +to elicit and recommend truth, they strive, by terrifying the +fancy and shocking the prejudices, to make people accept their +dogma because frightened at the seeming consequences of rejecting +it. It is necessary to expose the fearful fallacies which have +been employed in this way, and which are yet extensively used for +the same purpose. + +Even a Christian writer usually so judicious as Andrews Norton has +said, "Without the belief in personal immortality there can be no +religion; for what can any truths of religion concern the feelings +and the conduct of beings whose existence is limited to a few +years in this world?" 3 Such a statement from such a quarter is +astonishing. Surely the sentiments natural to a person or +incumbent upon him do not depend on the duration of his being, but +on the character, endowments, and relations of his being. The +hypothetical fact that man perishes with his body does not destroy +God, does not destroy man's dependence on God for all his +privileges, does not annihilate the overwhelming magnificence of +the universe, does not alter the native sovereignty of holiness, +does not quench our living reason, imagination, or sensibility, +while they last. The soul's gratitude, wonder, love, and worship +are just as right and instinctive as before. If our experience on +earth, before the phenomena of the visible creation and in +conscious communion with the emblemed attributes of God, does not +cause us to kneel in humility and to adore in awe, then it may be +doubted if heaven or hell will ever persuade us to any sincerity +in such acts. The simple prolongation of our being does not add to +its qualitative contents, cannot increase the kinds of our +capacity or the number of our duties. Chalmers utters an injurious +error in saying, as he does, "If there be no future life, the +moral constitution of man is stripped of its significancy, and the +Author of that constitution is stripped of his wisdom and +authority and honor." 4 The creative Sovereign of fifty million +firmaments of worlds "stripped of his wisdom and authority and +honor" because a few insects on a little speck are not eternal! +Can egotistic folly any further go? The affirmation or denial of +immortality neither adds to nor diminishes the numerical relations +and ingredients of our nature and experience. If religion is +fitted for us on the former supposition, it is also on the latter. +To any dependent intelligence blessed with our human susceptibilities, +reverential love and submission are as obligatory, natural, and +becoming on the brink of annihilation as on the verge of immortality. + +Rebellious egotism makes all the difference. Truth is truth, +whatever it be. Religion is the meek submission of self will to +God's will. That is a duty not to be escaped, no matter what the +future reserves or excludes for us. + +Another sophism almost universally accepted needs to be shown. +Man, it is said, has no interest in a future life if not conscious +in it of the past. If, on exchange of worlds, man loses his +memory, he virtually ceases to exist, and might just as well be +annihilated. A future life with perfect oblivion of the present is +no life at all for us. Is not this style of thought the most +provincial egotism, the utter absence of all generous thought and +sympathy unselfishly grasping the absolute boons of being? It is a +shallow error, too, even on the grounds of selfishness itself. In +any point of view the difference is diametric and immense between +a happy being in an eternal present, unconscious of the past, and +no being at all. Suppose a man thirty years of age were offered +his choice to die this moment, or to live fifty years longer of +unalloyed success and happiness, only with a complete +forgetfulness of all that has happened up to this moment. He would +not hesitate to grasp the gift, however much he regretted the +condition. + +3 Tracts concerning Christianity, p. 307. + +4 Bridgewater Treatise, part ii. ch. 10, sect. 15. + + +It has often been argued that with the denial of a retributive +life beyond the grave all restraints are taken off from the +passions, free course given to every impulse. Chateaubriand says, +bluntly, "There can be no morality if there be no future state." 5 +With displeasing coarseness, and with most reprehensible +recklessness of reasoning, Luther says, in contradiction to the +essential nobleness of his loving, heroic nature, "If you believe +in no future life, I would not give a mushroom for your God. Do, +then, as you like. For if no God, so no devil, no hell: as with a +fallen tree, all is over when you die. Then plunge into lechery, +rascality, robbery, and murder." What bible of Moloch had he been +studying to form, for the time, so horrid a theory of the happiest +life, and to put so degrading an estimate upon human nature? Is +man's will a starved wolf only held back by the triple chain of +fear of death, Satan, and hell, from tearing forth with ravenous +bounds to flesh the fangs of his desires in bleeding virtue and +innocence? Does the greatest satisfaction man is capable of here, +the highest blessedness he can attain to, consist in drunkenness, +gluttony, dishonesty, violence, and impiety? If he had the +appetite of a tiger or a vulture, then, thus to wallow in the +offal of vice, dive into the carrion of sensuality, abandon +himself to revelling in carnivorous crime, might be his instinct +and his happiness. But by virtue of his humanity man loves his +fellows, enjoys the scenery of nature, takes delight in thought +and art, dilates with grand presentiments of glory and eternity, +mysteriously yearns after the hidden God. To a reasonable man and +no other is to be reasoned with on matters of truth and interest +the assumption of this brief season as all, will be a double +motive not to hasten and embitter its brevity by folly, excess, +and sin. If you are to be dead to morrow, for that very reason, in +God's name, do not, by gormandizing and guzzling, anticipate death +to day! The true restraint from wrong and degradation is not a +crouching conscience of superstition and selfishness, fancying a +chasm of fire, but a high toned conscience of reason and honor, +perceiving that they are wrong and degradation, and spontaneously +loathing them. + +Still worse, many esteemed authors have not hesitated to assert +that unless there be a future life there is not only no check on +passion within, but no moral law without; every man is free to do +what he pleases, without blame or fault. Sir Kenelm Digby says, in +his "Treatise on Man's Soule," that "to predicate mortality in the +soule taketh away all morality, and changeth men into beastes, by +removing the ground of all difference in those thinges which are +to governe our actions." 6 This style of teaching is a very +mischievous absurdity. Admit, for a moment, that Jocko in the +woods of Brazil, and Schiller in the brilliant circles of Weimar, +will at last meet the same fate in the dusty grasp of death; yet, +while they live, one is an ape, the other is a man. And the +differences of capacity and of duty are numberless and immense. +The statement is enough: argument would be ridiculous. The words +of an audacious French preacher are yet more shocking than those +of the English nobleman. It is hard to believe they could be +uttered in good faith. Says Massillon, in his famous declamation +on immortality, "If we wholly perish with the body, the maxims of +charity, patience, justice, honor, gratitude, and friendship, are +but empty words. Our own passions shall decide our duty. + +5 Genie du Christianisme, partie ii. livre vi. chap. 3. + +6 Ch. ix. sect. 10. + + +If retribution terminate with the grave, morality is a mere +chimera, a bugbear of human invention." 7 What debauched +unbeliever ever inculcated a viler or a more fatal doctrine? Its +utter barelessness, as a single illustration may show, is obvious +at a glance. As the sciences of algebra and geometry, the +relations of numbers and bodies, are true for the material world +although they may be lost sight of when time and space are +transcended in some higher state, so the science of ethics, the +relations of nobler and baser, of right and wrong, the manifold +grades and qualities of actions and motives, are true for human +nature and experience in this life even if men perish in the +grave. However soon certain facts are to end, while they endure +they are as they are. In a moment of carelessness, by some strange +slip of the mind, showing, perhaps, how tenaciously rooted are the +common prejudice and falsehood on this subject, even so bold and +fresh a thinker as Theodore Parker has contradicted his own +philosophy by declaring, "If to morrow I perish utterly, then my +fathers will be to me only as the ground out of which my bread +corn is grown. I shall care nothing for the generations of +mankind. I shall know no higher law than passion. Morality will +vanish." 8 Ah, man reveres his fathers and loves to act nobly, not +because he is to live forever, but because he is a man. And, +though all the summer hopes of escaping the grave were taken from +human life, choicest and tenderest virtues might still flourish, +as it is said the German crossbill pairs and broods in the dead of +winter. The martyr's sacrifice and the voluptuary's indulgence are +very different things to day, if they do both cease to morrow. No +speed of advancing destruction can equalize Agamemnon and +Thersites, Mansfield and Jeffries, or hustle together justice and +fraud, cowardice and valor, purity and corruption, so that they +will interchange qualities. There is an eternal and immutable +morality, as whiteness is white, and blackness is black, and +triangularity is triangular. And no severance of temporal ties or +compression of spatial limits can ever cut the condign bonds of +duty and annihilate the essential distinctions of good and evil, +magnanimity and meanness, faithfulness and treachery. + +Reducing our destiny from endless to definite cannot alter the +inherent rightfulness and superiority of the claims of virtue. The +most it can do is to lessen the strength of the motive, to give +the great motor nerve of our moral life a perceptible stroke of +palsy. In reference to the question, Can ephemera have a moral +law? Richter reasons as follows: "Suppose a statue besouled for +two days. If on the first day you should shatter it, and thus rob +it of one day's life, would you be guilty of murder? One can +injure only an immortal." 9 The sophistry appears when we rectify +the conclusion thus: one can inflict an immortal injury only on an +immortal being. In fact, it would appear to be a greater wrong and +injury, for the time, to destroy one day's life of a man whose +entire existence was confined to two days, than it would be to +take away the same period from the bodily existence of one who +immediately thereupon passes into a more exalted and eternal life. +To the sufferer, the former would seem an immitigable calamity, +the latter a benign furtherance; while, in the agent, the overt +act is the same. This general moral problem has been more +accurately answered by Isaac Taylor, whose lucid statement is as +follows: "The creatures of a summer's day might be imagined, when + +7 OEuvres Completes, tome xiii.: Immortalite de l'Ame. + +8 Sermons of Theism, Sermon VII. + +9 Werke, band xxxiii. s. 240. + + +they stand upon the threshold of their term of existence, to make +inquiry concerning the attributes of the Creator and the rules of +his government; for these are to be the law of their season of +life and the measure of their enjoyments. The sons of immortality +would put the same questions with an intensity the greater from +the greater stake." + +Practically, the acknowledged authority of the moral law in human +society cannot be destroyed. Its influence may be unlimitedly +weakened, its basis variously altered, but as a confessed +sovereign principle it cannot be expelled. The denial of the +freedom of the will theoretically explodes it; but social custom, +law, and opinion will enforce it still. Make man a mere dissoluble +mixture of carbon and magnetism, yet so long as he can distinguish +right and wrong, good and evil, love and hate, and, unsophisticated +by dialectics, can follow either of opposite courses of action, +the moral law exists and exerts its sway. + +It has been asked, "If the incendiary be, like the fire he kindles, +a result of material combinations, shall he not be treated in the +same way?" 10 We should reply thus: No matter what man springs +from or consists of, if he has moral ideas, performs moral +actions, and is susceptible of moral motives, then he is morally +responsible: for all practical and disciplinary purposes he is +wholly removed from the categories of physical science. + +Another pernicious misrepresentation of the fair consequences of +the denial of a life hereafter is shown in the frequent +declaration that then there would be no motive to any thing good +and great. The incentives which animate men to strenuous services, +perilous virtues, disinterested enterprises, spiritual culture, +would cease to operate. The essential life of all moral motives +would be killed. This view is to be met by a broad and indignant +denial based on an appeal to human consciousness and to the reason +of the thing. Every man knows by experience that there are a +multitude of powerful motives, entirely disconnected with future +reward or punishment, causing him to resist evil and to do good +even with self sacrificing toil and danger. When the fireman risks +his life to save a child from the flames of a tumbling house, is +the hope of heaven his motive? When the soldier spurns an offered +bribe and will not betray his comrades nor desert his post, is the +fear of hell all that animates him? A million such decisive +specifications might be made. The renowned sentence of Cicero, +"Nemo unquam sine magna spe immortalitatis se pro patria offerret +ad mortem," 11 is effective eloquence; but it is a baseless libel +against humanity and the truth. In every moment of supreme +nobleness and sacrifice personality vanishes. Thousands of +patriots, philosophers, saints, have been glad to die for the +freedom of native land, the cause of truth, the welfare of fellow +men, without a taint of selfish reward touching their wills. Are +there not souls "To whom dishonor's shadow is a substance More +terrible than death here and hereafter"? + +He must be the basest of men who would decline to do any sublime +act of virtue because he did not expect to enjoy the consequences +of it eternally. Is there no motive for the + +10 Some discussion of this general subject is to be found in +Schaller, Leib nod Seele. kap. 5: Die Consequentzen des +Materialismus. And in Schopenhauer, Die beiden Grundprobleme der +Ethik. + +11 Tuscul. Quast. lib. i. cap. 15. + + +preservation of health because it cannot be an everlasting +possession? Since we cannot eat sweet and wholesome food forever, +shall we therefore at once saturate our stomachs with nauseating +poisons? + +If all experienced good and evil wholly terminate for us when we +die, still, every intrinsic reason which, on the supposition of +immortality, makes wisdom better than folly, industry better than +sloth, righteousness better than iniquity, benevolence and purity +better than hatred and corruption, also makes them equally +preferable while they last. Even if the philosopher and the idiot, +the religious philanthropist and the brutal pirate, did die alike, +who would not rather live like the sage and the saint than like +the fool and the felon? Shall heaven be held before man simply as +a piece of meat before a hungry dog to make him jump well? It is a +shocking perversion of the grandest doctrine of faith. Let the +theory of annihilation assume its direst phase, still, our +perception of principles, our consciousness of sentiments, our +sense of moral loyalty, are not dissolved, but will hold us firmly +to every noble duty until we ourselves flow into the dissolving +abyss. But some one may say, "If I have fought with beasts at +Ephesus, what advantageth it me if the dead rise not?" It +advantageth you every thing until you are dead, although there be +nothing afterwards. As long as you live, is it not glory and +reward enough to have conquered the beasts at Ephesus? This is +sufficient reply to the unbelieving flouters at the moral law. +And, as an unanswerable refutation of the feeble whine of +sentimentality that without immortal endurance nothing is worth +our affection, let great Shakspeare advance, with his matchless +depth of bold insight reversing the conclusion, and pronouncing, +in tones of cordial solidity, + +"This, thou perceivest, will make thy love more strong, To love +that well which thou must leave ere long." + +What though Decay's shapeless hand extinguish us? Its foreflung +and enervating shadow shall neither transform us into devils nor +degrade us into beasts. That shadow indeed only falls in the +valleys of ignoble fear and selfishness, leaving all the clear +road lines of moral truth and practical virtue and heroic +consecration still high and bright on the table land of a worthy +life; and every honorable soul, calmly confronting its fate, will +cry, despite the worst, "The pathway of my duty lies in sunlight; +And I would tread it with as firm a step, Though it should +terminate in cold oblivion, As if Elysian pleasures at its +Close Gleam'd palpable to sight as things of earth." + +If a captain knew that his ship would never reach her port, would +he therefore neglect his functions, be slovenly and careless, +permit insubordination and drunkenness among the crew, let the +broad pennon draggle in filthy rents, the cordage become tangled +and stiff, the planks be covered with dirt, and the guns be grimed +with rust? No: all generous hearts would condemn that. He would +keep every inch of the deck scoured, every piece of metal polished +like a mirror, the sails set full and clean, and, with shining +muzzles out, ropes hauled taut in their blocks, and every man at +his post, he would sweep towards the reef, and go down into the +sea firing a farewell salute of honor to the sun, his flag flying +above him as he sunk. + +The dogmatic assertors of a future life, in a partisan spirit set +upon making out the most impressive case in its behalf, have been +guilty of painting frightful caricatures of the true nature and +significance of the opposite conclusion. Instead of saying, "If +such a thing be fated, why, then, it must be right, God's will be +done," they frantically rebel against any such admission, and +declare that it would make God a liar and a fiend, man a "magnetic +mockery," and life a hellish taunt. This, however unconscious it +may be to its authors, is blasphemous egotism. One of the +tenderest, devoutest, richest, writers of the century has +unflinchingly affirmed that if man who trusted that love was the +final law of creation, although nature, her claws and teeth red +with raven, shrieked against his creed be left to be blown about +the desert dust or sealed within the iron hills, + +"No more! a monster, then, a dream, +A discord; dragons of the prime, +That tare each other in their slime, +Were mellow music match'd with Him!" + +Epictetus says, "When death overtakes me, it is enough if I can +stretch out my hands to God, and say, 'The opportunities which +thou hast given me of comprehending and following thy government, +I have not neglected. I thank thee that thou hast brought me into +being. I am satisfied with the time I have enjoyed the things thou +hast given me. Receive them again, and assign them to whatever +place thou wilt.'" 12 Surely the pious heathen here speaks more +worthily than the presumptuous Christian! How much fitter would it +be, granting that death is the end all, to revise our interpretation, +look at the subject from the stand point of universal order, +not from this opinionative narrowness, and see if it be not +susceptible of a benignant meaning, worthy of grateful acceptance +by the humble mind of piety and the dispassionate spirit of science! +Yea, let God and his providence stand justified, though man prove +to have been egregiously mistaken. + +"Though He smite me, yet will I praise Him; though He slay me, yet +will I trust in Him." + +To return into the state we were in before we were created is not +to suffer any evil: it is to be absolutely free from all evil. It +is but the more perfect playing of that part, of which every sound +sleep is a rehearsal. The thought of it is mournful to the +enjoying soul, but not terrific; and even the mournfulness ceases +in the realization. He uttered a piece of cruel madness who said, +"Hell is more bearable than nothingness." Is it worse to have +nothing than it is to have infinite torture? Milton asks, + +"For who would lose, Though full of pain, this intellectual +being?" + +Every creature that exists, if full of pain, would snatch at the +boon of ceasing to be. To be blessed is a good; to be wretched is +an evil; not to be is neither a good nor an evil, but simply + +12 Dissert., lib. iv. cap. x. sect. 2. + + +nothing. If such be our necessary fate, let us accept it with a +harmonized mind, not entertaining fear nor yielding to sadness. +Why should we shudder or grieve? Every time we slumber, we try on +the dress which, when we die, we shall wear easily forever. + +Not satisfied to let the result rest in this somewhat sad but +peaceful aspect, it is quite customary to give it a turn and hue +of ghastly horribleness, by casting over it the dyspeptic dreams, +injecting it with the lurid lights and shades, of a morbid and +wilful fancy. The most loathsome and inexcusable instance in point +is the "Vision of Annihilation" depicted by the vermicular, +infested imagination of the great Teutonic phantasist while yet +writhing under the sanguinary fumes of some horrid attack of +nightmare. Stepping across the earth, which is but a broad +executioner's block for pale, stooping humanity, he enters the +larva world of blotted out men. The rotten chain of beings reaches +down into this slaughter field of souls. Here the dead are +pictured as eternally horripilating at death! "As annihilation, +the white shapelessness of revolting terror, passes by each +unsouled mask of a man, a tear gushes from the crumbled eye, as a +corpse bleeds when its murderer approaches." Pah! Out upon this +execrable retching of a nauseated fancy! What good is there in the +baseless conceit and gratuitous disgust of saying, "The next world +is in the grave, betwixt the teeth of the worm"? In the case +supposed, the truth is merely that there is no next world +anywhere; not that all the horrors of hell are scooped together +into the grave, and there multiplied by others direr yet and +unknown before. Man's blended duty and interest, in such a case, +are to try to see the interior beauty and essential kindness of +his fate, to adorn it and embrace it, fomenting his resignation +with the sweet lotions of faith and peace, not exasperating his +wounds with the angry pungents of suspicion, alarm, and complaint. +At the worst, amidst all our personal disappointments, losses, and +decay, "the view of the great universal whole of nature," as +Humboldt says, "is reassuring and consolatory." If the boon of a +future immortality be not ours, therefore to scorn the gift of the +present life, is to act not like a wise man, who with grateful +piety makes the best of what is given, but like a spoiled child, +who, if he cannot have both his orange and his gingerbread, +pettishly flings his gingerbread in the mud. + +The future life, outside of the realm of faith, to an earnest and +independent inquirer, and considered as a scientific question, +lies in a painted mist of uncertainty. There is room for hope, and +there is room for doubt. The wavering evidences in some moods +preponderate on that side, in other moods on this side. Meanwhile +it is clear that, while he lives here, the best thing he can do is +to cherish a devout spirit, cultivate a noble character, lead a +pure and useful life in the service of wisdom, humanity, and God, +and finally, when the appointed time arrives, meet the issue with +reverential and affectionate conformity, without dictating terms. +Let the vanishing man say, like Ruckert's dying flower, "Thanks to +day for all the favors I have received from sun and stream and +earth and sky, for all the gifts from men and God which have made +my little life an ornament and a bliss. Heaven, stretch out thine +azure tent while my faded one is sinking here. Joyous spring tide, +roll on through ages yet to come, in which fresh generations shall +rise and be glad. Farewell all! Content to have had my turn, I now +fall asleep, without a murmur or a sigh." Surely the mournful +nobility of such a strain of sentiment is preferable by much to +the selfish terror of that unquestioning belief which in the +Middle Age depicted the chase of the soul by Satan, on the columns +and doors of the churches, under the symbol of a deer pursued by a +hunter and hounds; and which has in later times produced in +thousands the feeling thus terribly expressed by Bunyan, "I +blessed the condition of the dog and toad because they had no soul +to perish under the everlasting weight of hell!" + +Sight of truth, with devout and loving submission to it, is an +achievement whose nobleness outweighs its sorrow, even if the +gazer foresee his own destruction. + +It is not our intention in these words to cast doubt on the +immortality of the soul, or to depreciate the value of a belief in +it. We desire to vindicate morality and religion from the +unwitting attacks made on them by many self styled Christian +writers in their exaggeration of the practical importance of such +a faith. The qualitative contents of human nature have nothing to +do with its quantitative contents: our duties rest not on the +length, but on the faculties and relations, of our existence. Make +the life of a dog endless, he has only the capacity of a dog; make +the life of a man finite, still, within its limits, he has the +psychological functions of humanity. Faith in immortality may +enlarge and intensify the motives to prudent and noble conduct; it +does not create new ones. The denial of immortality may pale and +contract those motives; it does not take them away. + +Knowing the burden and sorrow of earth, brooding in dim solicitude +over the far times and men yet to be, we cannot recklessly utter a +word calculated to lessen the hopes of man, pathetic creature, who +weeps into the world and faints out of it. It is our faith not +knowledge that the spirit is without terminus or rest. The +faithful truth hunter, in dying, finds not a covert, but a better +trail. Yet the saintliness of the intellect is to be purged from +prejudice and self will. With God we are not to prescribe +conditions. The thought that all high virtue and piety must die +with the abandonment of belief in immortality is as pernicious and +dangerous as it is shallow, vulgar, and unchristian. The view is +obviously gaining prevalence among scientific and philosophical +thinkers, that life is the specialization of the universal in the +individual, death the restoration of the individual to the whole. +This doubt as to a personal future life will unquestionably +increase. Let traditional teachers beware how they venture to +shift the moral law from its immutable basis in the will of God to +a precarious poise on the selfish hope and fear of man. The sole +safety, the ultimate desideratum, is perception of law with +disinterested conformity. + +The influence of the doctrine of reward and punishment in a future +state, as a working motive for the observance of the moral law, is +enormously overestimated. The influence, as such a motive, of the +public opinion of mankind, with the legal and social sanctions, is +enormously underestimated. And the authority of a personal +perception of right is also most unbecomingly depreciated. +UNIVERSAL ORDER is the expression of the purposes of God, not as +arbitrarily chosen by his will and capriciously revealed in a +book, but as necessitated by his nature and embodied in his works. +The true basis of morality is universal order. The true end of +morality is life, the sum of moral laws being identical with the +sum of the conditions in accordance with which the fruition of the +functions of life can be secured with nearest approach to +perfectness, perpetuity, and universality. The true sanctions of +morality are the manifold forms in which consciousness of life is +heightened by harmony with universal order or lowered by discord +with it. The true law of moral sacrifice or resistance to +temptation is misrepresented by the common doctrine of heaven and +hell, which makes it consist in the renunciation of a present good +for the clutching of a future good, the voluntary suffering of a +small present evil to avoid the involuntary suffering of an +immense future evil. The true law of moral sacrifice is deeper, +purer, more comprehensive, than that. It expresses our duty, in +accordance with the requirements of universal order, to +subordinate the gratification of any part of our being to that of +the whole of our being, to forego the good of any portion of our +life in deference to that of all our life, to renounce any +happiness of the individual which conflicts with the welfare of +the race, to hold the spiritual atom in absolute abeyance to the +spiritual universe, to sink self in God. If a man believe in no +future life, is he thereby absolved from the moral law? The kind +and number of his duties remain as before: only the apparent +grandeur of their scale and motives is diminished. The two halves +of morality are the co ordination of separate interests in +universal order, and the loyalty of the parts to the wholes. The +desire to remove the obligations and sanctions of the moral law +from their intrinsic supports, and posit them on the fictitious +pedestals of a forensic heaven and hell, reveals incompetency of +thought and vulgarity of sentiment in him who does it, and is a +procedure not less perilous than unwarranted. If the creation be +conceived as a machine, it is a machine self regulating in all its +parts by the immanent presence of its Maker. + +When we die, may the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter of Christ, be +our confessor; the last inhaled breath our cup of absolution; the +tears of some dear friend our extreme unction; no complaint for +past trials, but a grateful acknowledgment for all blessings, our +parting word. And then, resigning ourselves to the universal +Father, assured that whatever ought to be, and is best to be, will +be, either absolute oblivion shall be welcome, or we will go +forward to new destinies, whether with preserved identity or with +transformed consciousness and powers being indifferent to us, +since the will of God is done. In the mean time, until that +critical pass and all decisive hour, as Milnes says: + +"We all must patient stand, Like statues on appointed pedestals: +Yet we may choose since choice is given to shun Servile +contentment or ignoble fear In the expression of our attitude; And +with far straining eyes, and hands upcast, And feet half raised, +declare our painful state, Yearning for wings to reach the fields +of truth, Mourning for wisdom, panting to be free." + +PART SIXTH SUPPLEMENTARY. + +[FIFTEEN YEARS LATER] + +CHAPTER I. + +THE END OF THE WORLD. + +WE read in the New Testament that the heavens and the earth are +reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, when they shall be +burned up, and all be made new. It is said that the elements shall +melt with ferment heat, the stars fall, and the sky pass away like +a scroll that is rolled together. On these and similar passages is +based the belief of Christendom in the destined destruction of the +world by fire and in the scenic judgment of the dead and the +living gathered before the visible tribunal of Christ. This belief +was once general and intense. It is still common, though more +vague and feeble than formerly. In whatever degree it is held, it +is a doctrine of terror. We hope by tracing its origin, and +showing how mistaken it is, to help dispel its sway, free men from +the further oppression of its fearfulness, and put in its place +the just and wholesome authority of the truth. The true doctrine +of the divine government of the world, the correct explanation of +the course and sequel of history, must be more honorable to God, +more useful to men, of better working and omen in the life of +society, than any error can be. Let us then, as far as we are +able, displace by the truth the errors prevalent around us in +regard to the end of the world and the day of judgment. + +It will help us in our proposed investigation, if we first notice +that the ecclesiastical doctrine as to an impending destruction of +the world is not solitary, but has prototypes and parallels in the +faiths of other nations and ages. Almost every people, every +tribe, has its cosmogony or theory of the creation, in which there +are accounts, more or less rude or refined, general or minute, of +the supposed beginning and of the imagined end of nature. All +early literatures from the philosophic treatises of the Hindus to +the oral traditions of the Polynesians are found to contain either +sublime dreams or obscure prophecies or awful pictures of the +final doom and destruction of earth and man. The Hebrew symbols +and the Christian beliefs in relation to this subject therefore +stand not alone, but in connection with a multitude of others, +each one plainly reflecting the degree of knowledge and stage of +development attained by the minds which originated it. Before +proceeding to examine the familiar doctrine so enveloped in our +prejudices, a brief examination of some kindred doctrines, less +familiar to us and quite detached from our prejudices, will be of +service. + +The sacred books of the Hindus describe certain enormous periods +of time in which the universe successively begins and ends, +springs into being and sinks into nothing. These periods are +called kalpas, and each one covers a duration of thousands of +millions of years. Each kalpa of creation is called a day of +Brahma; each kalpa of destruction, a night of Brahma. The belief +is that Brahma, waking from the slumber of his self absorbed +solitude, feels his loneliness, and his thoughts and emotions go +forth in creative forms, composing the immense scheme of worlds +and creatures. These play their parts, and run their courses, +until the vast day of Brahma is completed; when he closes his +eyes, and falls to rest, while the whole system of finite things +returns to the silence and darkness of its aboriginal unity, and +remains there in invisible annihilation through the stupendous +night that precedes the reawaking of the slumbering Godhead and +the appearance of the creation once more. + +A little reflection makes the origin of this imagery and belief +clear. Each night, as the darkness comes down, and the outer world +disappears, man falls asleep, and, so far as he is consciously +concerned, every thing is destroyed. In his unconsciousness, +everything ceases to be. The light dawns again, he awakes, and his +reopened senses create anew the busy frame and phenomena of +nature. Transfer this experience from man to God; consider it not +as abstract and apparent, but as concrete and real, and you have +the Hindu doctrine of the kalpa. When we sleep, to us all things +are destroyed; and when we awake, to us they reappear. When God +sleeps, all things in themselves really end; and when he wakes, +they begin anew to be. The visible and experimental phenomena of +day and night, sleeping and waking, are universalized, and +attributed to God, It is a poetic process of thought, natural +enough to a rich minded, simple people, but wholly illegitimate as +a logical ground of belief, But being stated in books supposed to +be infallibly inspired, and in the absence of critical tests for +the discrimination of sound from unsound thought, it was +implicitly accepted by multitudes. + +Closely allied to the foregoing doctrine, yet in several +particulars strikingly different from it, and evidently quite +independent in its origin, was the Great Year of the Stoics, or +the alternative blotting out and restoration of all things. This +school of philosophers conceived of God as a pure artistic force +or seed of universal energy, which exhibits its history in the +evolution of the kosmos, and, on its completion, blossoms into +fire, and vanishes. The universal periodical conflagration +destroys all evil, and leaves the indestructible God alone in his +pure essence again. The artistic germ or seed force then begins, +under its laws of intrinsic necessity, to go once more through the +same process to the same end. + +The rise of this imagery and belief is not so obvious as in the +last instance, but it is equally discoverable and intelligible. +Every animal, every flower, every plant, begins from its proper +specific germ or force, goes through a fixed series of growths and +changes, and relapses into its prime elements, and another and +another follow after it in the same order. The seasons come and +go, and come again and go again, Every planet repeats its +revolutions over and over. Wherever we look, this repetition of +identical processes greets our vision. Now, by imaginative +association universalize this repetition of the course of +phenomena as seen in the parts, and take it up and apply it to the +whole creation, and you have the doctrine in hand. + +It is a poetic process of thought not scientific or philosophic, +and without claim to belief; yet, in the absence of scientific +data and standards, it might easily win acceptance on authority. + +The Scandinavians, also, have transmitted to us, in their sacred +books, descriptions of their belief in the approaching end of the +world, descriptions rude, wild, terrible, not without elements of +appalling grandeur. They foretell a day called Ragnarok, or the +Twilight of the gods, when all the powers of good and evil shall +join in battle, and the whole present system of things perish in a +scene of unutterable strife and dismay. The Eddas were composed in +an ignorant but deeply poetic and fertile age, when all the +mythological elements of mind were in full action. Their authors +looking within, on their own passions, and without, on the natural +scenery around them, conscious of order and disorder, love and +hate, virtue and crime, beholding phenomena of beauty and horror, +sun and stars, night and tempest, winter and summer, icebergs and +volcanoes, placid moonlight and blinding mist, assisting friends +and battling foes, personified everything as a demon or a +divinity. Asgard, above the blue firmament, was the bright home of +the gods, the Asir. Helheim, beneath the rocky earth and the +frozen ocean, was the dark and foul abode of the bad spirits, the +Jotuns. Everywhere in nature, fog and fire, fertility and +barrenness, were in conflict; everywhere in society, law and crime +were contending. In the moon followed by a drifting cloud, they +saw a goddess chased by a wolf. The strife goes on waxing, and +must sooner or later reach a climax. Each side enlists its allies, +until all are ranged in opposition, from Jormungandur, the serpent +of the deep, to Heindall, the warder of the rainbow, gods and +brave men there, demons, traitors, and cowards here. Then sounds +the horn of battle, and the last day dawns in fire and splendor +from the sky, in fog and venom from the abyss. Flame devours the +earth. For the most part, the combatants mutually slay each other. +Only Gimli, the high, safe heaven of All Father, remains as a +refuge for the survivors and the beginning of a new and fairer +world. + +The natural history of this mythological mess is clear enough. It +arises from the poetic embodiment and personification of +phenomena, the grouping together of all evil and of all good, then +imaginatively universalizing the conflict, and carrying it out in +idea to its inevitable ultimatum. The process of thought was +obviously natural in its ground, but fictitious in its result. Yet +in a period when no sharp distinction was drawn between fancy and +fact, song and science, but an indiscriminate faith was often +yielded to both, even such a picturesque medley as this might be +held as religious truth. + +The Zarathustrian or Persian scheme of a general judgment of men +and of the world in some respects resembles the systems already +set forth, in other respects more closely approaches that +Christian doctrine partially borrowed from it, and which is +hereafter to be noticed. Ahura Mazda, the God of light and truth, +creates the world full of all sorts of blessings. His adversary, +Angra Mainyus, the author of darkness and falsehood, seeks to +counteract and destroy the works of Ahura Mazda by means of all +sorts of correspondent evils and woes. When Ahura Mazda creates +the race of men happy and immortal, Angra Mainyus, the old serpent, +full of corruption and destruction, steals in, seduces them from +their allegiance, and brings misery and death on them, and then +leads their souls to his dark abode. The whole creation is +supposed to be crowded with good spirits, the angels of Ahura +Mazda, + +seeking to carry out his beneficent designs; and also with evil +spirits, the ministers of Angra Mainyus, plotting to make men +wicked, and to pervert and poison every blessing with an answering +curse. Light is the symbol of God, darkness the symbol of his +Antagonist. Under these hostile banners are ranged all living +creatures, all created objects. For long periods this dreadful +contention rages, involving everything below in its fluctuations. +But at last Ahura Mazda subdues Angra Mainyus, overturns all the +mischief he has done, by means of a great deliverer whom he has +sent among men to instruct and redeem them raises the dead, +purifies the world with fire, and, after properly punishing the +guilty, restores all nature to its original paradisal condition, +free from pain and death. + +In the primitive state of mankind, when the germs of this religion +were conceived, when men dwelt in ignorance, exposure, and fear, +they naturally shuddered at darkness as a supernatural enemy, and +worshipped light as a supernatural friend. That became the emblem +or personification of the Devil, this the emblem or personification +of God. They grouped all evils with that, all goods with this. + +Imaginatively associating all light and darkness, all blessing +and bale, respectively with Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyus, +they universalized the fragmentary embodiments and oppositions +of these into one great battle; and under the impulse of +worshipping faith and hope, carried it to its crisis in the +final victory of the good. Plainly, it is mere poetry injected a +little with a later speculative element, and dealing in +mythological fashion chiefly with the phenomena of nature as +related to the experience of man. No one now can accept it +literally. + +This survey of the various heathen myths of the end of the world +has prepared us, in some degree, to consider the corresponding +view held by the Jews, and more completely developed by the +Christian successors to the Jewish heritage of thought and +feeling. + +The Hebrews believed themselves to be exclusively the chosen +people of God, who directly ruled over them himself by a +theocratic government represented in their patriarchs, law givers, +prophets, and kings. Jehovah was the only true God; they were his +only pure and accepted worshippers, sharply distinguished from the +whole idolatrous world. The heathen nations, uncircumcised +adorers of vain idols or of demons, were by consequence enemies +both of the true God and of his servants. This contrast and +hostility they even carried over into the unseen world, and +imagined that each nation had its own guardian angel in the Court +of Jehovah in heaven, who contended there for its interests; their +own national guardian, the angel Michael, being more powerful and +nearer to the throne than any other one. In the calamities that +fell on them, they recognized the vengeance of Jehovah for the +violation of his commands. In their victories, their deliverances, +their great blessings, especially in their rescue from Egypt, and +in the many miracles which they believed to have accompanied that +great passage, they saw the signal superiority of their God over +every other god, and the proofs of his particular providence over +them in distinct preference to all other peoples. He had, as they +piously believed, made a special covenant with Abraham, and set +apart his posterity as a sacred family, exclusively intrusted with +the divine law, and commissioned to subdue and govern all the +other families of the earth. When this proud and intensely +cherished faith was baffled of fulfillment, they never dreamed of +abandoning it. + +They only supposed its triumphant execution postponed, as a +penalty for their sins, and looked forward with redoubled ardor to +a better time when their hopes should break into fruition, their +exile be ended, their captivity appear as a dream, Jerusalem be +the central gem of the world, and the anointed ruler wield his +sceptre over all mankind. + +But misfortunes and woes were heaped on them. Their city was +sacked, their temple desecrated, their people dragged into foreign +slavery, forbidden to celebrate the rites of their religion, +slaughtered by wholesale. Many times, during the two centuries +before and the first century after Christ, did they suffer these +terrible sorrows. Their hatred and scorn of their heathen +persecutors; their faith in their own incomparable destiny; their +expectation of the speedy appearance of an anointed deliverer, +raised up by Jehovah to avenge them and vindicate their trust, all +became the more fervent and profound the longer the delay. Under +these circumstances grew up the Jewish doctrine of the Messiah, as +it is seen in that Apocalyptic literature represented by the Book +of Daniel, the Sibylline Oracles, the Book of Enoch, the +Assumption of Moses, the Fourth Book of Esdras, and similar +documents. + +The Jews were remarkably free from that habit of mind which led +almost all the other nations to personify the most startling +phenomena of nature as living beings, which created fetiches of +stocks and stones and animals; saw a god in every wind, season, +star, and cloud. The Semitic mind and literature were more sober, +rational, and monotheistic. The place occupied in the thoughts of +other peoples by the phenomena of nature was held in the thoughts +of the Jews by political phenomena, by ritual, legal, and military +relations. And the poetic action of fancy, the mythological +creativeness and superstitious feeling which other people +exercised on the objects and changes of nature, the Jews exercised +on the phenomena of their own national history. The burning +central point of their polity and belief and imagination was the +conviction of their own national consecration as the exclusive +people of God, meant to conquer, teach, and rule all the infidel +nations; that Jehovah was literally their invisible King, +represented in their chief ruler; that every great triumph or +disaster was a signal Day of the Lord, a special Coming of Jehovah +to reward or punish his people. During their repeated bondages +under the Persians, Syrians, Greeks, Parthians, Romans, their +feeling of the antagonism between themselves and the other people +increased. From the time of the Babylonish captivity the Persian +doctrine of good and evil spirits had infiltrated into their +belief; and they adopted the notion of Angra Mainyus, and +developed it (with certain modifications) into their conception of +Satan. Then, in their faith, the war of Jews and Gentiles spread +into the invisible world, and took up on its opposite sides the +good and the fallen angels. And, finally, the idea of their +Messiah became the centre of a battle and a judgment in which all +the generations of the dead as well as of the living were to have +a part; and which should culminate in the overthrow of evil, the +subjection of the heathen, the assignment of the righteous to a +paradisal reign, and of the wicked to a doom typified by the +submersion of Sodom and Gomorrah in fiery brimstone. + +How plainly this doctrine was the result of the same poetic +process of thought with the other schemes already depicted! Only +they were developed on the basis of natural phenomena; this, on +the basis of political phenomena. It is simply the imaginative +universalization of the struggle between Jew and Gentile, and the +carrying of it to its crisis and sequel. And when inexplicable +delays and the accumulation of obstacles made the realization of +the expected result amidst the conditions of the present world +seem ever more and more hopeless, the growing and assimilative +action of faith and fancy expanded the scene, and transferred it +to a transmundane state, involving the destruction of the heavens +and earth and their replacement with a new creation. + +Is there any more real reason for believing this doctrine than +there is for believing the other kindred schemes? Not a whit. It +is a mistake of the same poetic nature, and resting on the same +grounds with them. Two thousand years have passed, and it has not +been fulfilled; and there is ever less and less sign of its +fulfillment. It never will be fulfilled, except in a spiritual +sense. The Jews will finally lose their pride of race and +covenant, abandon their special Messianic creed, and blend +themselves and their opinions in the mass of redeemed and +progressive humanity, and no more dream of a physical resurrection +of the dead amidst the dissolving elements of nature. + +And now we must notice that besides all these poetic pictures of +the end of the world, there are prophecies of a similar result +which wear an apparently scientific garb. Many men of science +firmly believe that our world is destined to be destroyed, that a +close for the earthly fortunes of mankind can be plainly foreseen. +No little alarm was felt a century or more ago, when it was +discovered that there was a progressive diminution going on in the +orbit of the moon, which must cause it at length to impinge upon +the earth. But La Grange exhibited the fallaciousness of the +prophecy, by showing that the decrease was periodical and +succeeded by a corresponding increase. Intense and widely spread +terror has repeatedly been felt less a comet should come within +our planetary orbit, and shatter or melt our globe by its contact. +But the discovery of the nebulous nature of comets, of their great +numbers and regular movements, has quite dissipated that fear from +the popular mind in our day. + +There are, however, other forms of scientific speculation which +put the prophesied destruction of the world on a more plausible +and formidable basis. It is supposed by many scientists that all +force is derived from the consumption of heat; and that the fuel +must at last be used up, and therefore no life or energy be left +for sustaining the present system of the creation. This theory is +met by the counter statement that the heat of the sun and other +similar centres may possibly not depend on any material +consumption; or, if it does, there may be a self replenishing +supply, loss and repair forming an endless circle. + +It is foretold by some chemists, that the progressive interior +cooling and contraction of our orb will cause ever greater +interstices or vacant spaces among the solid substances below the +outer crust; and that into these pores, first all liquids, then +all gases and the whole atmosphere, will be absorbed: so that the +world will be left desolate, utterly uninhabitable by life. + +Again: it is said that all force or energy tends at every +transformation to pass (at least partially) into heat; and +therefore that, finally, all force will be frittered down into the +one form of heat, all matter vanishing from its separate shapes +into the state of a homogeneous, nebulous fire. The portentous +sight, repeatedly descried by astronomers, of a nameless world, +away in remotest space, which has suddenly kindled, blazed, +smouldered, darkened, and vanished forever from its place, is +perhaps a solemn symbol of the fate of our own planet; hinting at +a time when the earth, too, shall make itself a funeral pyre, + +And, awed in distant orbs, some race unknown Shall miss one star +whose smile had lit their own. + +This same final crisis is also prophesied on the basis of a slight +retardation to which the planets are subjected in their passage +through the ethereal medium. No matter how slight the resistance +thus interposed, its consequence, it is thought, must accumulate +and ultimately compel all material bodies to approach each other; +and, as their successive collisions convert them into heat and +vapor, nothing will be left at last but one uniform nebula. The +process of evolution will then begin anew, and so the stupendous +history of the universe repeat itself eternally. + +This is the sublimest of all the generalizations of science. It +may be true, and it may not be true. At any rate, it differs +immensely in the moral impression it makes from that made by the +current theological doctrine of the same catastrophe. We can +contemplate the scientific prophecy of the end of the world with a +peace of mind which the traditional prophecy does not permit. + +In the first place, the ecclesiastical doctrine makes the +destruction of the world a result of wrath and vengeance. The +angry God looms above us with flaming features and avenging +weapons to tread down his enemies. We shrink in fright from the +wrath and power of the personal Judge, the inexorable Foe of the +wicked. But the scientific doctrine makes the end a result of +passionless laws, a steady evolution of effects from causes, +wholly free from everything vindictive. + +Secondly. The ecclesiastical doctrine makes the dreadful +conclusion a sudden event, an inconceivable shock of horror, +falling in an instant, overwhelming all its victims with the +swiftness of lightning in the unutterable agony of their ruin. But +the scientific doctrine makes the climax a matter of slow and +gradual approach. Whether the worlds are to be frozen up by +increasing cold, or to evaporate in culminating heat, or to be +converted into gas as they meet in their career, the changes of +the chemical conditions will be so steady and moderate beforehand +as to cause all living creatures to have diminished in numbers by +insensible degrees, and to have utterly ceased long before the +final shock arrives. + +Thirdly. The ecclesiastical doctrine makes the sequel imminent, +near, ready to fall at a moment's warning. At any hour the signal +may strike. Thus it is to the earnest believer a constant, urgent +alarm, close at hand. But the scientific doctrine depicts the +close as almost unimaginably remote. All the data in the hands of +our scientists lead their calculations as to the nearest probable +end to land them in an epoch so far off as to be stated only in +thousands of millions of years. Thus the picture is so distant as +to be virtually enfeebled into nothing. We cannot, even by the +most vivid imagination, bring it home closely enough to make it +real and effective on our plans. + +And, finally, the theological dogma of the destruction of the +world professes to be an infallible certainty. The believer holds +that he absolutely knows it by a revelation of supernatural +authority. But with the scientist such a belief is held as merely +a probability. A billion of centuries hence the world may perhaps +come to an end; and, on the other hand, the phenomena which lead +to such a belief may yet be explained as implying no such result. +And these two issues, so far as our social or ideal experience is +concerned, are virtually the same. + +A brilliant French writer has suggested that even if the natural +course of evolution does of itself necessitate the final +destruction of the world, yet our race, judging from the +magnificent achievements of science and art already reached, may, +within ten thousand centuries, which will be long before the +foreseen end approaches, obtain such a knowledge and control of +the forces of nature as to make collective humanity master of this +planet, able to shape and guide its destinies, ward off every +fatal crisis, and perfect and immortalize the system as now +sustained. It is an audacious fancy. But like many other +incredible conceptions which have forerun their own still more +incredible fulfillment, the very thought electrifies us with hope +and courage. + +And thus the conclusion in which we rest at the close of our +investigation is the belief that the world is to last, and our +race to flourish on it virtually forever. This conclusion is +equally a relief from the frightful burdens of superstition, and a +consolation for our own personal evanescence. The stable harmony +of natural beauty and beneficence, amidst which we individually +play our brief part and vanish, shall stand fast, blooming with +fresh growths, and shining with fadeless light, and the successive +generations of our dear fellow men shall grow ever wiser and +happier, beyond the reach of our farthest vision into the future. +And if we recognize in the great catastrophic myths and previsions +of the poets and scientists the fundamental truth that the things +which are seen are temporal, while the things alone which are +unseen are eternal, the end being a regular and remote sequel in +the creative plan of God, free from anger, retributive +disappointment, or cruelty will not alarm us. For if souls are +substantial entities, and not mere phenomenal processes, they will +survive the universal crisis, and either at the lucid goals of +their perfected destiny rejoice forever in a reflected individual +fruition of the attributes of God, or else start refreshed on a +new career with that redistribution of the cosmic matter and +motion which in its gigantic and eternal rhythm of development and +dissolution the ancient Hindu mind figured as the respiration of +Brahm and which ambitious science now generalizes as the law of +evolution. + +CHAPTER II. + +THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. + +JUDAISM so largely supplied the circumstantial and doctrinal germs +out of which dogmatic Christianity grew, that we cannot thoroughly +understand the Christian belief in a final day of judgment, unless +we first notice the historic and literary derivation of that +belief from Judaism, and then trace its development in the new +conditions through which it passed. The personal character, +teachings, life, and death of Jesus Christ, together with his +subsequent resurrection and career in the consciousness of +ecclesiastical Christendom, constituted the crystalizing centre +which, dipped in the inherited solution of ideal and social +materials furnished by the Church, has gathered around it the +accretion of faith and dogma composing the theoretic Christianity +of the present day. To follow this process with reference to the +particular tenet before us, analyze it, discriminate the +appropriate in it from the inappropriate, the true from the false, +maybe difficult; but it is necessary for a satisfactory +conclusion. To this task let us therefore now address ourselves, +putting away all bias and prejudice, invoking in equal degree +candor, fearlessness and charity. + +The Jews believed themselves to be a people chosen out of all the +world as the exclusive favorites of God. By the covenant of +Abraham, and the code of Moses, Jehovah had entered, as they +thought, into a special contract with them to be their peculiar +God, Guardian, and Ruler. In contrast with the depraved habits and +idolatrous rites of the heathen nations, the Israelites were +strictly to keep the moral law, and, at the same time, to pay a +pure worship to Jehovah through the scrupulous observance of their +ceremonial law. The bond of race and family descent from Abraham, +the practice of circumcision, and the ceremonies of the Mosaic +ritual, sealed them as accepted members of this divine covenant. +So long as they were true to the duties involved in this relation, +Jehovah would watch over them, defend them from their enemies, set +them proudly above the alien Gentiles, and crown them with every +spiritual and temporal blessing. The noblest representatives of +the people believed this with unparalleled thoroughness and +intensity. They looked down on the uncircumcised nations as wicked +idolaters, destined to be their servants until they should be +adopted into the same covenant by becoming proselytes to their +faith. Jehovah was literally their direct, though invisible, King, +Law giver, and Judge, palpably rewarding their fidelity by overt +temporal blessings, punishing their dereliction by awful temporal +calamities and sufferings. + +Every signal instance of his providential intervention in their +affairs they called a Day of the Lord, a Coming of Jehovah, a +Judgment from heaven. Thus the prophet Joel foretells the +vengeance which God would take on Tyre and Sidon and Philistia, +because they had assailed and scattered his people. "Behold the +day of Jehovah cometh, the great and terrible day. And I will show +wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and +pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the +moon into blood. Then whosoever calleth on the name of Jehovah +shall be delivered: for upon Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be +deliverance. I will contend with the Gentiles for my people, and +will bring back the captives. + +The multitudes, the multitudes in the valley of judgment: for the +day of Jehovah is near in the valley of judgment." In a similar +strain Isaiah prophesies against Edom: "Draw near, O ye nations, +and hear! For the wrath of Jehovah is kindled against the nations, +and he hath given up their armies to slaughter. The stench of +their carcasses shall ascend, and the mountains shall melt with +their blood. And all the hosts of heaven shall melt away; and all +their host shall fall down, as the blighted fruit from the fig +tree. For my sword shall rush drunk from heaven: behold, upon Edom +shall it descend. For it is a day of vengeance from Jehovah. Her +streams shall be turned into pitch, and her dust into brimstone, +and her whole land shall become burning pitch. It shall lie waste +forever, and none shall pass through it. The pelican and the +hedgehog shall possess it; the heron and the raven shall dwell in +it." + +Tremendous and appalling as this imagery is, it is obvious that +the whole meaning of it is earthly and temporal, a local judgment +of Jehovah in vindication of his people against the heathen. And +kindred judgments are threatened against his own people when they +lapse into wickedness and idolatry. "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, +I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and +turning it upside down." "Jehovah appeareth as a hostile witness, +the Lord from his holy place. Behold, Jehovah cometh forth from +his dwelling place, and advanceth on the high places of the earth. +The mountains melt under him, and the valleys cleave asunder like +wax before the fire. For the sin of the house of Israel is all +this." + +Thus the earliest meaning of the phrase, Day of the Lord, or Day +of Judgment, according to Biblical usage, was the occurrence of +any severe calamity, either to the Jews, as a punishment for their +apostasy; or to the Gentiles, as a punishment for their +wickedness, or for their violent encroachment on the rights of the +chosen people. These visitations of military disaster or political +subjection, though purely local and temporal, are depicted in the +most terrific images, such as flaming brimstone, falling stars, +heaven and earth dissolving in darkness, blood, and fire. Ezekiel, +alluding to the barbarous invasion headed by Prince Gog, +represents Jehovah as declaring, "I will contend against him, and +will rain fire and brimstone upon him and his hosts. Thus will I +show myself in my greatness and glory before the eyes of many +nations, and they shall know that I am Jehovah." The highly +figurative character of this imagery must be apparent to every +candid critic. + +For example, in the following passage from Zechariah, no one will +suppose for a moment that it is meant that Jehovah will appear +visibly in person and reign in Jerusalem, but only that his +promise shall be fulfilled, and his law shall prevail there in the +triumphant establishment of his chosen people: "Behold the day of +Jehovah cometh, when I will gather all nations to battle against +Jerusalem; and the city shall be taken. Then shall Jehovah go +forth, and fight against those nations. And his feet shall stand +in that day upon the Mount of Olives. And Jehovah shall be king +over all the earth. And it shall be that whoso of all the families +of the earth will not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, +Jehovah of hosts, upon them shall be no rain." + +When the prophets burst out in the lyric metaphors, "Jehovah will +roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem;" "Egypt shall +be a waste and Edom a wilderness for their violence to the sons of +Judah; but Jerusalem shall be inhabited forever, and Jehovah shall +dwell upon Zion," the meaning is simply that "Jehovah will be a +refuge to his people, a stronghold to the sons of Israel, and all +people shall know that Jehovah is God." It would imply the +grossest ignorance in any critic if he imagined that the Jews ever +believed that Jehovah was visibly to come down and reign over them +in person. They did however, believe that an awful token or the +presence of Jehovah dwelt in the holy of holies of their temple. +They also believed that every anointed ruler who governed them in +justice and piety represented the authority of Jehovah. And as, in +the long times of their natural captivity and oppression, their +hopes sought refuge from the depressing present in bright visions +of a glorious future, when some inspired deliverer should justify +their faith by carrying the national power and happiness to the +highest pitch, they naturally believed that the spirit and signet +of the Lord would, in a special manner, rest on that Messianic +hero. + +By the assimilative action of faith and imagination, this idea of +a divinely accredited Messiah developed, and grew ever richer and +more complete. It began simply with the expectation of a holy +leader and ruler who should subdue the heathen and establish the +favored people of Jehovah in peerless purity, power, and happiness +in the land of Judea. Little by little the rewards of the +righteous and the punishments of the wicked were extended beyond +those living on the earth, and took in the dead. The prophet +Ezekiel depicted the promised restoration of the Jews from their +captivity at Babylon to Jerusalem under the poetic image of a +revivification of a heap of dead bones. This metaphor slowly +assumed the form of a literal dogma, which grew from its beginning +as an exceptional belief in the resurrection of a chosen few, +stated in the book of Daniel and the second book of Maccabees, to +the belief in the universal resurrection of the dead, avowed by +Paul as the common Pharisaic belief. The belief, too, in regard to +the scene of the Messianic triumph, the penalties to be inflicted +on the enemies of Jehovah, and the kind and number of those +enemies, underwent the same process of development and growth. The +world was conceived as a sort of three story house connected with +passage ways; heaven above the firmament, the earth between, and a +penal region below. The imagery of fire and brimstone associated +in the Hebrew mind with Sodom and Gomorrah, and the fearful +imagery of idolatory, filth, and flames in the detested valley of +Hinnom where the refuse of Jerusalem was carried to be burned, had +been transferred by the popular imagination to the subterranean +place of departed souls. The story in the book of Genesis about +the sons of God forming an alliance with the daughters of men, and +begetting a wicked brood of giants, had been wrought into the +belief in a race of fallen angels, foes of God and men, whose +dwelling place was the upper air. Above these wicked spirits in +high places, but below the heaven of Jehovah, was the paradise +whither Enoch and Elijah were supposed to have been translated, +and whence they would come again in the last days. The Jewish +apocryphal book of Enoch which was written probably about a +century and a half before the birth of Christ, and is explicitly +quoted in the Epistle of Jude contains a minute account of the +final judgment, including in its scope this whole scenery and all +these agents, and closely anticipating both the doctrinal and +verbal details of the same subject as recorded in the New +Testament itself. There is not, with one exception, a single +essential feature of the now current Christian belief, in regard +to the day of judgment at the end of the world, which is not +distinctly brought out in the same form in the book of Enoch, +written certainly more than a hundred years before a line of the +Gospels was composed. The exception referred to relates to the +person of the Messiah. In the book of Enoch he is indeed called +the Son of man, but is wrapt in mysterious obscurity, undefined +and unnamed: in the Christian documents and faith he is, of +course, identified with Jesus of Nazareth, and, at a later period, +identified also with God. + +The growth of the Messianic personality in distinctness, +prominence, importance, and completeness of associated grouping, +is not only historically traceable, but was also perfectly +natural. At first the prophecy of the triumphant re establishment +of the Jews was conceived as the result of the favoring power of +Jehovah, not in a personal manifestation, but providentially +displayed. Thus Joel represents Jehovah as saying, in his promise +to vindicate Jerusalem, "Let the heathen be wakened, and come up +to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all +the heathen round about." It cannot be denied that this was purely +metaphorical. But in all imagery of a kingdom, of war, of +judgment, the idea of the king, the leader, the judge, would +naturally be the strongest point of imaginative action, the center +of crystalizing association around which congruous particulars +would be drawn until the picture was complete. So it actually +happened. Perhaps the most striking example of this is seen in the +growth of the notion of the great Adversary who precedes and +fights against the Messiah. The book of Daniel, written just after +Antiochus Epiphanes had oppressed the Jews with such frightful +cruelties and profaned their temple with such abominable +desecrations, impersonated in him the whole head and front of the +impious hostility which the promised deliverer would have to +subdue in vindicating the rights and hopes of the chosen people. +"The figure of Antiochus Epiphanes," Martineau has happily said, +"placed in immediate antecedence and antithesis to that of the +Messiah, as the predicted crisis moved forward, was carried with +it, and spread its portentous shadow over the expected close." The +writer of the book of Daniel looked for the immediate arising of +some inspired hero and servant of Jehovah to overthrow this wicked +despot, this persecuting monster, and avenge the oppressed Jews on +their Gentile tyrants. When subsequent events postponed this +expected sequel, the opposed parties in it, the Antichrist and the +Christ, were thrown forward together in ever dilating proportions +of gloom and brightness: the fierce countenanced king in Daniel +becomes the Man of Sin in Paul and the Beast drunk with the blood +of saints in the Apocalypse. And in the Rabbinical books of the +Jews the belief in Antichrist, under the name of Armillus, is +developed into a mass of mythological details, afterwards adopted +quite in the gross by the Mohammedans. Terrible signs will precede +the appearance of the Messiah, such as a dew of blood, the +darkening of the sun, the destruction of the holy city, with the +slaughter and dispersion of the Israelites, and the suffering of +awful woes. The Messiah shall gather his people and rebuild and +occupy Jerusalem. Armillus shall collect an army and besiege that +city. But God shall say to Messiah, "Sit thou on my right hand," +and to the Israelites, "Stand still, and see what God will work +for you to day." Then God will pour down sulphur and fire from +heaven, and consume Armillus and his hosts. Then the trumpet will +sound, the tombs be opened, the ten tribes be led to Paradise to +celebrate the marriage supper of the Messiah, the aliens be +consigned to Gehenna, and the earth be renovated. + +As the doctrine of the functions of the Messiah, in this finished +form, is not stated in the Old Testament, but was familiar in the +Christian Church, it is commonly supposed to be exclusively a +later Christian development from the Jewish germ. It did, however, +exist in the Jewish mind, before the birth of Christ, in the +mature form already set forth. It is found clearly laid down and +drawn out in Jewish apocryphal books dated earlier than the +Christian era. It is likewise explicitly and minutely detailed in +the Talmud, where its subsequent adoption from the Christians must +have been impossible to the bigoted scorn and hate of the Jews for +the Christians; while the historic affiliation of Christianity on +Judaism made the Christians avowedly adopt all the vital doctrines +of the older creed. The gradual growth of the Christian doctrine +of the connection of the Messiah with the final judgment, out of +the previous Jewish and Rabbinical notions, by the hardening of +metaphors into dogmas and the universalizing of local peculiarities, +is confessedly an obscure process, in many of its particulars +extremely difficult to trace. But that it did thus grow up, +no impartial scholar, who has mastered what is now known +on the subject, can doubt. A world of new knowledge and light has +been thrown on this whole field during the last thirty five years +by Gfrorer, Baur, Ewald, Hoffmann, Hilgenfeld, Dilmann, Ceriani, +Volkmar, and other students of kindred power and spirit. +Researches and discussions in this department are still pushed +with the greatest zeal; and it is confidently believed that in a +few years the views adopted in the present writing will be +established beyond all cavil from any fair minded critic. Then all +the steps will have been clearly defined in the development of +that doctrine of the great Day of the Lord, which, beginning with +a poetic picture of a Jewish overthrow of the Gentiles, through +the inspiring power of Jehovah, before the walls of Jerusalem, +ended with a literal belief in the setting up, by the Messiah, of +a tribunal in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the assemblage there of +all the living and the dead for judgment, the installation of the +immortalized righteous in Paradise, and the submerging of the +wicked under the Vale of Hinnom in a rainstorm of blazing +brimstone. + +And now what must we think in regard to the truth or falsehood of +the outward, forensic, military, and ritual part of the doctrine +of historic and literary development we have imperfectly followed. +Is it not perfectly clear, that the growth of the doctrine in +question has been but a natural action of the imagination on the +materials furnished it; adding congruous particulars, one after +another, until the view was complete, and therefore could extend +no further? And is it not equally obvious, that it can lay no sort +of claim to logical validity? The superstitious and arbitrary +character of its intrinsic constituents, its irreconcilableness +with science and philosophy, disprove, to all who dare honestly +face the facts, every plea set up for it as an inspired revelation +of truth. It is a mixture of poetry and speculation, credible +enough in an early and uncritical age, but a hopeless stumbling +block to the educated reason of the present day. Every one who +brings a free intelligence to the subject will find it impossible +not to recognize the same fanciful process of thought, the same +poetic ingredients, here as in the schemes of those heathen +religions whose principal portrayals we all regard as mythology. +To argue that because earthly rulers, in their anger and power, +send retributive armies against their rebellious subjects, to +bring them to judgment, destroy their homes and cities, and lay +waste their lands with fire and sword, therefore God, the supreme +King, will do so by the whole world, is not to reason logically, +but to poetize creatively. There can be no warrant for +transferring the political and military relations between men and +earthly sovereigns to the moral and spiritual relations between +the human race and God, since the two sets of relations are wholly +different. The relation of Creator and creature is immensely +higher and wider than that of king and subject. He whose laws are +everywhere incessantly self executing needs not to select and +group and reserve his friends or foes for any climateric +catastrophe. The common notion of a final judgment day the +fanciful association of all the good together, on one side, to be +saved; of all the bad together, on the other side, to be damned, +applies to the divine government an imperfection belonging only to +human governments. Surely every one must see, the moment the +thought is stated, that this imaginative universalizing of the +indignation of God, and carrying it to a climax, in the +destruction of the world, is a mythological procedure utterly +inapplicable to a Being who can know no anger, no caprice, no +change, a Being whose will is universal truth, whose throne is +immensity, whose robe is omnipresence. + +Original Christianity, internally regarded in its divine truth, +was the pure moral law exemplified in the personal traits of Jesus +Christ, and universalized by his ascent out of the flesh into that +kingdom of heaven which knows not nationalities or ceremonies. But +original Christianity, externally and historically regarded, in +the belief of its first disciples, was simply Judaism, with the +addition of the faith that the Messiah had actually come in the +person of Jesus Christ. The first disciples vividly cherished the +prevalent Pharisaic doctrine that the Messiah would glorify his +people, vanquish the heathen, raise and judge the dead, change the +face of the earth, and inaugurate a holy reign of Israel in joy +and splendor. This the Messiah was to do. But they believed Jesus +to be the Messiah. Yet, before doing these things, he had been put +to death. Therefore, they argued, he must come again, to finish +his uncompleted mission. Such was the derivation of the apostolic +and ecclesiastical doctrine of the speedy second advent of Christ +to judge the dead and the living, and to wind up the present +scheme of things. The belief was inevitable under the circumstances. +To have believed otherwise, they must have reconstructed the current +idea of the Messiah, and have seen in him no political monarch +with an outward realm, but purely a king of truth. + +For this they were not ready; though it seems as if, after +the experience of eighteen hundred years, we ought by this +time to be prepared to see that such was really the intention of +Providence. + +It is a question of primary interest, whether Jesus himself, in +assuming the Messiahship, regarded it personally as an exclusively +spiritual office, or as a literally including these royal and +judicial functions in a visible form. + +Jesus foretold, in the same imaginary used by the previous +prophets, and familiar to the minds of his contemporaries, the +speedy approach of frightful calamities, wars, rumor of wars, +famine and slaughter, Jerusalem compassed with armies and +destroyed. Then, he adds, the Son of man shall come in the clouds +of heaven, with all his holy angels, and take possession of the +scene, apportioning the destinies of the righteous and the wicked. +The question is, whether this pictured reappearance, in such +transcendent pomp and power, was meant by him as a literal +prophecy, to be physically fulfilled in his own person; or as a +moral horoscope of the destined fortunes of his religion, a +figurative representation of the establishment and reign of his +spiritual truth. The latter view seems to us to be the correct one. + +In the first place, this is what has actually taken place. In the +growing recognition of his spirit and power, in the spread of his +teachings and name, in the revolutionizing advancement of his +kingdom among men, Jesus has come again and again. Jerusalem was +destroyed by the Romans, as he foretold, amidst unspeakable +tribulations, and the disciples of the new faith installed in +domination over the world. He said the time was then at hand, even +at the doors, that some of those standing by should not taste +death until all these things came to pass. If his prophecy bore a +moral sense, the sequel justified it; if it bore a physical sense, +the sequel refuted and falsified it. For that generation passed +away, fifty generations since have passed away, and yet there has +been no literal second advent of Jesus in person to judge the dead +and the living, and to destroy the world. The event proves that we +must either give the words of Jesus a metaphorical interpretation +or hold that he was in error. + +But, secondly, such an error would be incompatible with soundness +of mind. For any man, even for him called by an apostle "the man +Christ Jesus," to believe that after his death he should reappear, +swooping down from heaven, convoyed by squadrons of angels, to +collect all men from their graves, and replace the old creation +with a new one, would imply a profound disturbance of reason, a +monomaniacal fanaticism if not an actual insanity. It is such a +pure piece of theatrics that no one deeply in unison with that +spirit of truth which expresses the mind of God through the order +of nature and providence could possibly believe it. Such a nature +was preeminently that of Jesus. All his most characteristic +utterances, such as: "blessed are the pure in heart, for they +shall see God;" "who loves much shall be forgiven much;" reveal +unsurpassed saneness and truth of perception. It is by much the +most probable supposition, that Jesus employed in the deepest and +purest moral sense alone those Messianic images and catastrophic +prophecies which were indeed originally used as moral metaphors, +but had been afterwards degraded into material dogmas. + +Still further, the literal belief commonly attributed to Jesus, in +his own physical reappearance and reign, is not only incompatible +with his supreme soundness of mind, it is also irreconcilable with +his other explicit teachings. "My kingdom is not of this world." +"Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." He warns his +disciples against the many false Christs who will appear, and says +that "the kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation." "Say +not, lo here! or lo there! for the kingdom of heaven is within +you." "I am the truth, the way, and the life." "He that rejecteth +me, I judge him not; the word that I have spoken, that shall judge +him." "Whoever doeth the will of my Father in heaven, the same is +my brother." In view of these and kindred utterances of the +profoundest insight, irreconcilable with any gross mythological +beliefs, we must hold to the purely spiritual character of the +doctrine of Jesus concerning his personal offices, and think that +all the speeches, if any such there be, which cannot be fairly +explained in accordance with this view, have been refracted in +their transmission through incompetent reporters, or even perhaps +fictitiously ascribed to him from the faith of a later age. There +is a grateful satisfaction in thus discharging, as we feel we are +fairly entitled to do, from the authority of Jesus a burden too +great even for his peerless name any longer to support. For, say +what its advocates may, this gigantic melo drama of the second +advent, this world wide mixture and display of martial and +forensic elements before an audience of all mankind and amidst a +convulsed and closing universe, is inherently incredible by any +mind not grossly ignorant and undisciplined or drilled to the most +slavish servility of traditional thought. Every one really +educated in science and philosophy, and familiar with the +physiological conditions and literary history of mythology in the +other nations of the world, will plainly perceive the intrinsic +fancifulness and falsity of the belief, at the same time that he +easily accounts for its rise and prevalence. + +The same picture of the siege of Jerusalem by a league of +idolatrous armies, and of the mighty coming of the Messiah, found +in the New Testament, is drawn in the third book of the Sibylline +Oracles, which was composed by a Jew two hundred years before one +word of Matthew or Luke was written. Jesus took up this current +and fitting imagery wherein to express the conflict of his +religion with the world, and to predict its ultimate triumph. He +identifies himself with the truths he has brought, with the +regenerating energies he has inaugurated to combat and overcome +the wickedness and despotism of the nations of men. Every advent +of his universal principles to a wider conflict or a higher seat +of authority, is a true coming of the Son of Man. The vices and +crimes of men, the selfishness and tyranny of governments, +accumulate impediments in the way of the free working of the will +of God in human society. Therefore from period to period +convulsive crises occur, shocks of progressive truth and liberty +against the obstacles gathered in their way. Thus, not only the +destruction of Jerusalem, but the destruction of Rome, the French +Revolution, and all the terrible social crises in the advancing +affairs of the world, write on the earth and the sky, in huge +characters of blood, smoke and fire, the true meaning of the +repeated coming of Christ. This is the only kind of judicial +second advent he will ever make, and this will occur over and over +in calamitous but helpful revolutions, until all removable evils +are done away, all the laws of men made just and all the hearts of +men pure. Then the spirit once manifested by Jesus in his lonely +mission will be a universal presence on earth, and the genuine +millennium prevail without end. + +It is necessary now, as preliminary to a clear exposition of the +true Christian doctrine of judgment, to explain the cause and +process of the dark perversion which the teachings of Christ +himself have so unfortunately undergone in the Church. For this +purpose we must again, for a moment, refer to the original +connection of Christianity with Judaism. + +Judaism was composed of two parts: one an accidental form; the +other, essential truth. The first was the ceremonial peculiarities +of the Jewish race and history; the second was the absolute and +eternal principles of morality and religion. These two parts the +ritual law and moral law were closely joined in all the best +representatives of the nation at all the best periods of its +history. Yet there was a constant tendency to separate these. One +party exalted the ritual element, another party the spiritual +element; the priestly class and the vulgar populace the former; +the prophets the men of poetic, fiery heart and genius the latter. + +Such men as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, always insisted on personal +and national righteousness, purity, and devotion, as the one +essential thing. But the natural tendency of the common multitude, +and of every professional class, to an external routine of +mechanised forms, manifested itself more and more in a party which +made an overt covenant and ritualistic conformity the all +important thing. This party reached its head in the sect of the +Pharisees, who, at the time of Jesus, possessed the offices, and +represented the dominant spirit and authority of the Jewish +nation. The character of this sect of bigoted formalists, as +indignantly described and denounced by Jesus, is too well known to +need illustration. They subordinated and trivialized the weightier +matters of justice, mercy, humility, and peace, but enthroned and +glorified the regime of mint, anise, and cummin. + +What was the Jewish idea of salvation, or citizenship in the +kingdom of God? What was the condition of acceptance in the +Pharisaic church? It was heirship in the Jewish race, either by +descent or adoption, with ceremonial blamelessness in belief and +act. Do you belong to the chosen family of Abraham, and are you +undefiled in relation to all the requirements of our code? Then +you are one of the elect. Are you a Gentile, an idolatrous member +of the uncircumcision, or a scorner of the Levitic and Rabbinical +customs? Then you are unfit to enter beyond the outer precincts of +the Temple; you are a hopeless alien from the kingdom of heaven. +Thus the Jewish test of acceptance with God was national, +external, formal, a local and temporal peculiarity. + +When Jesus arose and began to teach, his transcendent genius, +working under the unparalleled inspiration of God, an unprecedented +sensibility to divine truth in its utmost purity and freedom, +expanded beyond all these shallow material accidents and +bonds; and he propounded a perfectly moral and spiritual test of +acceptance before God; namely, the possession of an intrinsically +good character. He made nothing of the distinction between Jew and +Gentile, declaring, "My father is able of these stones to raise up +children unto Abraham." He affirmed the condition of admittance +into the kingdom of God to be simply the doing of the will of God. +When he saw the young lawyer who had kept the two commandments, +loving God with all his soul, and his neighbor as himself, his +heart yearned towards him in benediction. And, finally, in his +sublime picture of the last judgment, he, in the most explicit and +unmistakable manner, makes the one essential condition of +rejection to be inhumanity of life, cruel selfishness of +character; the one essential condition of acceptance, the spirit +of love, the practical doing of good. He utters not a solitary +syllable about immaculateness of ceremonial propriety or soundness +of dogmatic belief. He only says, Inasmuch as ye have or have not +visited the sick and the imprisoned, fed the hungry, and clothed +the naked, ye shall be justified or condemned at the divine +tribunal. This test of personal goodness or wickedness, benevolent +or malignant conduct, proclaimed by Jesus, is the true standard, +free from everything local and temporary, fitted for application +to all nations and all ages. + +But no sooner had Christianity obtained a foothold on earth, +multiplied its converts, and gained some outward sway, than its +Judaizing disciples and promulgators, fastening on that which was +easiest to comprehend and practise, that which was most impressive +to the imagination, that which seemed most sharply to distinguish +them from the unbelieving and unconforming world around, thrust +far into the background this universal and eternal test of +judgment set up by Jesus himself, and in place of it installed an +exclusive test fashioned after a more developed and aggravated +pattern of the very narrowest and worst elements in the +Phariasaism which he expressly came to supersede. The Pharisaic +condition of salvation was inheritance, by blood or adoption, in +the Jewish race and Abrahamic covenant, together with exactitude +of ceremonial observance. Everybody else was an unclean alien, an +uncircumcised dog, an uncovenanted leper. In place of this test, +the orthodox ecclesiastical party made their test dogmatic belief +in the supernatural Messiahship of Jesus Christ, formal profession +of allegiance to the official person of Jesus Christ. It is summed +up in the formula, "Whoso believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is +of God; whoso denieth this, is of the Devil." + +Exactly here is where Paul, the noble apostle to the Gentiles, +broke with the Judaizing apostles, and taught a doctrine more +fully developed in its historic sequence, but substantially in +perfect unison with the free teachings and spirit of Jesus +himself. With Paul the test of Christian salvation was the +possession of the mind of Christ. "If any man have not the spirit +of Christ, he is none of his;" "but as many as are led by the +spirit of God are sons of God." "Neither circumcision availeth +anything, nor uncircumcision; but a new creature," begotten in the +image of Christ, availeth everything before God. "God rewardeth +every man, the Jew and the Gentile, according to his works." With +Paul, descent from Abraham was nothing, observance of the legal +code was nothing: a just and pure character, full of self +sacrificing love, evoked by faith in Christ, was the all in all. +Jesus Christ was the head of a new race, the second Adam; and all +disciples, who, through moral faith in him, were regenerated into +his likeness and unto newness of living, were thereby adopted as +sons of God and joint heirs with him. The Pauline formula of +salvation, freely open to all the world, was, spiritual +assimilation and reproduction of Christ in the disciple. + +But the Judaizing party bore a heavy preponderance in the early +Church, and has succeeded unto this day in imposing on +ecclesiastical Christendom its own test: namely, a sound dogmatic, +belief in the supreme personal rank and office of Christ, as the +only means of admission to the kingdom of heaven. The one +peculiarity which most sharply and broadly contrasted the early +Christians with the rest of the world was unquestionably their +belief in the miraculous mission of Jesus, a belief growing +deeper, higher, intenser, until it actually identified him with +the omnipotent God. There was an inevitable tendency, it was a +perfectly natural and necessary process, for them to make this +point of contrast the central condition on which depended the +possession of all the special privileges supposed to be promised +to its disciples by the new religion. The result is well expressed +by Polycarp in these words: "Whosoever confesses not that Christ +is come in the flesh, is an Antichrist; and whosoever acknowledges +not the martyrdom of the cross, is of the Devil; and whosoever +says that there is no resurrection nor judgment, is the first born +of Satan." This extract strikes the key note of the Orthodox +Church all through Christendom from the second century to the +present hour. In place of the true condition of salvation +announced by Jesus, personal and practical goodness, it +inaugurates the false ecclesiastic standard, soundness of dogmatic +belief in relation to Jesus himself! Those who hold this are the +elect, and shall stand in heaven with white robes and palms and a +new song, while all the rest of the world apostate and detested +enemies of God and his saints shall be trampled down in merciless +slaughter, and flung into the pit whence the smoking signal of +their torment shall ascend for ever and ever. It is a transformation +of the bigoted scorn and hate of the covenanted Jew for his +Gentile foes into the intensified horror of the Orthodox +believer for the reprobate infidel. And it finally culminated in +the following frightful picture which still lowers and blazes in +the imagination of ecclesiastical Christendom as a veritable +revelation of what is to take place at the end of the world: + +While the stars are falling, the firmament dissolving, the dead +swarming from their graves, and the nations assembling, Christ +will come in the clouds of heaven with a host of angels and sit in +judgment on collected mankind. All who submissively believed in +his Divinity, and have the seal of his blood on their foreheads, +he will approve and accept; all others he will condemn and reject. +No matter for the natural goodness and integrity of the +unbeliever: his unbelief dooms him. No matter for the natural +depravity and iniquity of the believer: his faith in the atoning +sacrifice saves him. The Judge will say to the orthodox, on his +right, "You may have been impure and cruel, lied, cheated, hated +your neighbor, rolled in vice and crime, but you have believed in +me, in my divinity: therefore, come, ye blessed, inherit my +kingdom." To the heretical, on his left, he will say, "You may +have been pure and kind, sought the truth, self sacrificingly +served your fellow men, fulfilled every moral duty in your power, +but you have not believed in me, in my deity, and my blood: +therefore, depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." Such is a +fit verdict to be pronounced by the avenging Warrior depicted in +the Apocalypse, from whose mouth issues a two edged sword, to cut +his enemies asunder; who sits on a white charger, in a vesture +dipped in blood, with a bow and a crown, and goes forth conquering +and to conquer; whose eyes are flames of fire; who treads his +rejecters in the wine press of his wrath until their blood reaches +to the horse bridles. It was the natural reflection of an age +filled with the most murderous hatreds and persecutions, based on +political and dogmatic distinctions. But how contradictory it is +to the teachings of Jesus himself! How utterly irreconcilable it +is with the image and spirit of that meek and lowly Son of Man who +said that he "came not to destroy men's lives but to save them;" +who declared, "of mine own self I can do nothing;" who modestly +deprecated all personal homage, asking, "Why callest thou me +good?" who sat with the publican, and forgave the harlot, and +denounced bigotry in many an immortal breathing of charity; and +who, even in his final agony, pardoned and prayed for his +murderers! What reason is there for supposing that he who was so +infinitely gentle, unselfish, forgiving, when on earth, will +undergo such a fiendish metamorphosis in his exaltation and +return? It is the most monstrous, the most atrocious travesty of +the truth that ever was perpetrated by the superstitious ignorance +and audacity of the human mind. It is a direct transference into +the Godhead of the most egotistical and hateful feelings of a bad +man. No good man who had been ever so grossly misconceived, +vilified, and wronged, if he saw his enemies prostrate in +submissive terror at his feet, perfectly powerless before his +authority, could bear to trample on them and wreak vengeance on +them. He would say, "Unhappy ones, fear not; you have misunderstood +me; I will not injure you; if there be any favor which I can +bestow on you, freely take it." And is it not an incredible +blasphemy to deny to the deified Christ a magnanimity equal to +that which any good man would exhibit? + +It is with pain and regret that the writer has penned the +foregoing sentences, which, he supposes, some persons will read +with the feeling that they are inexcusable misrepresentations, +others, with a shocked and resentful horror, relieving itself in +the cry, Infidelity! Blasphemy! The reply of the writer is simply +that, while reluctant to wound the sensibility of any, he feels +bound in conscience to make this exposition, because he believes +it to be a true statement; and loyalty to truth is the first duty +of every man. Truth is the will of God, obedience to which alone +is sound morality, reverential love of which alone is pure piety. +Frightful as is the picture drawn above of Christ in the judgment, +it is impossible to deny, without utter stultification, that every +lineament of it is logically implied in the formula. "There is no +salvation for the man who unbelievingly rejects, no damnation for +the man who believingly accepts, the official Christ and his +blood." And what teacher will have the presumption to deny that +just this has been, and still is, the central dogma in the faith +of ecclesiastical Christendom? The legitimate result of this view, +unflinchingly carried out, and applied to the precise point we now +have in hand, is seen in that horrible portrayal of the Last +Judgment wherewith Michael Angelo has covered the ceiling of the +Sistine Chapel, in Rome. The great anatomical artist consistently +depicts Christ as an almighty athlete, towering with vindictive +wrath, flinging thunderbolts on the writhing and helpless +wilderness of his victims. The popular conception of Christ in the +judgment has been borrowed from the type of a king, who, hurling +off the incognito in which he has been outraged, breaks out in his +proper insignia, to sentence and trample his scorners. The true +conception is to be fashioned after the type given in his own +example during his life. So far as Christ is the representative of +God, there must be no vanity or egotism in him. Every such quality +ascribed to the Godhead is anthropomorphizing sophistry. However +much more God may be, he is the General Mind of the Universe. He +includes, while he transcends, all other beings. Now, the General +Mind must represent the interests of all, the disinterested good +of the whole, and not any particular and selfish exactions, or +resentful caprices, fashioned on the pattern shown among human +egotists by a kingly despot. + +The Church, in developing Christianity out of Judaism through the +person and life of Jesus, has given prominence and emphasis to the +wrong elements, seeking to universalize and perpetuate, in a +transformed guise, the local spirit and historic errors of that +Pharisaic sect against which he had himself launched all his +invective. That temper of bigotry and ceremonial technicality +which hates all outside of its own pale as reprobate, and which +ultimated itself in the virtual Pharisaic formula, "Keep the hands +and platter washed, and it is no matter how full of uncleanness +you are within," at a later period embodied itself through the +leaders of ecclesiastical Orthodoxy in the central dogma, "Nothing +but faith in Christ can avail man anything before God." Instead of +this the true doctrine is, Nothing but obedience, surrender, and +trust, personal penitence and aspiration, can avail man anything +before God. + +The Christians, as the Jews did before them, have made a wrong +selection of the doctrine to be, on the one hand, particularized +and left behind; on the other hand, carried forward and +universalized. This immense error demands correction. Let us +notice a few specimens in exemplication of it. Jehovah is not the +only true God in distinction from odious idols; but Brahma, Ahura +Mazda, Osiris, Zeus, Jupiter, and the rest, are names given by +different nations to the Infinite Spirit whom each nation worships +according to its own light. The Jews and the Christians are not +the only chosen people of God; but all nations are his people, +chosen in the degree of their harmony with his will. The +providence of God is not an exceptional interference from without, +exclusively for the Jews and Christians; but it is for all, a +steady order of laws within, as much to be seen in the shining of +the sun, or the regular harvest, as in any shocks of political +calamity and glory. Not the Messiah alone reveals God; but, in his +degree, every ruler, prophet, priest, every man who stands for +wisdom, justice, purity, and devotion, represents him. It is not +doctrinal belief in the Messiah, but vital adoption of his spirit +and character, of the principles of real goodness, that +constitutes the salvation of the disciple. We are to look not for +the resurrection of the flesh from the grave, but for the +resurrection of the soul from all forms of sin, ignorance, and +misery. It is the universal prevalence of truth and virtue, +knowledge, love, and peace, in the hearts of men, not the physical +reign of the returning Messiah, which will make a millennium on +earth. The kingdom of God which Judaism localized exclusively in +Palestine, and the early church exclusively in heaven or on the +millennial earth, should be recognized in every place, whether +above the sky or on the globe, where duty is done, and pure +affection, trust, and joy experienced; for God is not excluded +from all other spaces by any enthronization in one. We ought not +to cling, as to permanent fixtures of revealed truth, to the rigid +outlines of that scheme of faith which was struck out when the +three story house of the Hebrew cosmogony showed the limits of +what men knew, before exact science was born, or criticism +conceived, or the telescope invented, or America and Australia and +the Germanic races heard of; but we should hold our speculative +theological beliefs freely and provisionally, ready to reconstruct +and read just them, from time to time, in accordance with the +demands of the growing body of human knowledge. + +Reflecting, in the light of these general ideas of truth, on the +whole subject of the current doctrine of the end of the world and +the day of judgment, we shall see that that doctrine presents no +valid claim for our belief, but is a mythological growth out of +the historic and literary conditions amidst which Christianity +arose on the basis of Judaism. The doctrine was formed by the +unconscious transmutation of metaphors into dogmas. Poetic figures +came, by dint of familiarizing repetition, by dint of imaginative +collection and contemplation, to be taken as expressive of literal +truths. To any reader of the Apocalypse, with competent historical +and critical information for entering into the book from the point +of view occupied by its author, it is just as evident that its +imagery was meant to describe the immediate conflict of Hebrew +Christianity with pagan Rome, and not the literal blotting out of +the universe, as it is unquestionable that the book of Daniel +depicts, not the impending destruction of the world, but the +relations of the chosen nation with the hostile empires of +Persia, Media, Babylon, and Macedonia, from which they had +suffered so much, and which they then hoped speedily to put +beneath their feet. The slain Lamb, standing amidst the throne of +God, with seven eyes and seven horns; Death, on a pale horse, with +Hell following him; the woman, clothed with the sun, and the moon +under her feet; the great red dragon, whose tail casts to the +earth the third part of the stars of heaven; the worm wood star, +that falls as a blazing lamp, and turns a third of the waters of +the earth into bitterness; the seven thunders, seven seals, seven +vials, seven spirits before the throne, seven candlesticks, seven +angels, seven trumpets, seven epistles to the seven churches, +seven horns, seven headed beast, all these things must, perforce, +be taken as free poetic imagery; it would require a lunatic or an +utterly unthinking verbalist to interpret them literally. Why, +then, shall we select from the mass of metaphors a few of the most +violent, and insist on rendering these as veritable statements of +fact? If the rest is symbolism, so are the pictures of the +avenging armies of angels, the reeking gulf of sulphur, and the +golden streets of the city. + +The entire scheme of thought, as it still stands in the mind of +the Orthodox believer, is to be rejected as spurious, because it +rests on a process of imaginative accumulation and transference +which is absolutely illegitimate; namely, the association and +universalizing of political and military images, which are then +hardened from emblems into facts, and cast over upon the mutual +relations of God and mankind. We ought to break open the +metaphors, extract their significance, and throw the shells aside. +But ignorant bibliolatary and ecclesiasticism insist on +worshipping the shells, with no insight of their contents. + +There is one all important fact which should convince of their +error those who hold the current view of a general judgment at the +end of the world as having been revealed from God through Christ. +We refer to the fact that the system of ideas in which a final +resurrection and judgment of the dead are logical parts, existed +in the Zoroastrian theology five or six centuries before the birth +of Christ. It was adopted thence by the Jews, and afterwards +adopted from the Jews by the Christians. If, therefore, this +doctrine be a revelation from God, it was revealed by him to the +Persians in a dark and credulous antiquity. In that case it is +Zoroaster and not Christ to whom we are indebted for the central +dogmas of our religion! No, these things are imagery, not essence, +the human element of imaginative error with which the divine +element of truth has been overlaid, and from whose darkening and +corrupt company this is to be extricated. + +There are, in the New Testament, in addition to the relevant +metaphors which we have already examined, several others of great +impressiveness and importance. We must now explain these, separate +the truths and errors popularly associated with them, and leave +the subject with an exposition of the real method of the divine +government and the true idea of the day of judgment, in contrast +with the prevalent ecclesiastical perversions of them. + +The part played in theological speculation and popular religious +belief by imagery borrowed from the scenery and methods of +judicial tribunals, the procedures and enforcement of penal law, +has not been less prominent and profound than the influence +exerted by natural, political, and military metaphors. The power, +the pomp, the elaborate spectacle, the mysterious formalities, the +frightful penalties, the intense personal hopes and fears, +associated with the trial of culprits in courts or before the head +of a nation, must always have sunk so deeply into the minds of men +as to be vividly present in imagination to be affixed as typical +stamps on their theories concerning the judgments of God and the +future world. This process is perhaps nowhere more distinctly +shown than in the belief of the ancient Egyptians. Before the +sarcophagus containing the mummy was ferried over the holy lake to +be deposited in the tomb, the friends and relatives of the +departed, and his enemies and accusers, if he had any, together +with forty two assessors, each of whom had the oversight of a +particular sin, assembled on the shore and sat in judgment. The +deceased was put on his trial before them: and, if justified, +awarded an honorable burial; if condemned, disgraced by the +withholding of the funeral rites. Now the papyrus rolls found with +the mummies give a description of the judgment of the dead, a +picture of the fate of the disembodied soul in the Egyptian Hades, +minutely agreeing in many particulars with the foregoing ceremony. +Ma, the Goddess of Justice, leads the soul into the judgment hall, +before the throne of Osiris, where stands a great balance with a +symbol of truth in one scale, the symbol of a human heart in the +other. The accuser is heard, and the deceased defends himself +before forty two divine judges who preside over the forty two sins +from which he must be cleared. The gods Horus and Anubis attend to +the balance, and Thoth writes down the verdict and the sentence. +The soul then passes on through adventures of penance or bliss, +the details of which are obviously copied, with fanciful changes +and additions, from the connected scenery and experience known on +the earth. + +Taking it for all in all, there perhaps never was any other scene +in human society so impressive as the periodical sitting in +judgment of the great Oriental kings. It was the custom of those +half deified rulers the King of Egypt, the Sultan of Persia, the +Emperor of India, the Great Father of China to set up, each in the +gate of his palace, a tribunal for the public and irreversible +administration of justice. Seated on his throne, blazing in +purple, gold, and gems, the members of the royal family nearest to +his person; his chief officers and chosen favorites coming next in +order; his body guards and various classes of servants, in +distinctive costumes, ranged in their several posts; vast masses +of troops, marshalled far and near. The whole assemblage must have +composed a sight of august splendor and dread. Then appeared the +accusers and the accused, criminals from their dungeons, captives +taken in war, representatives of tributary nations, all who had +complaints to offer, charges to repel, or offences to expiate. The +monarch listened, weighed, decided, sentenced; and his executioners +carried out his commands. Some were pardoned, some rewarded, some +sent to the quarries, some to prison, some to death. When the +tribunal was struck, and the king retired, and the scene ended, +there was relief with one, joy with another, blood here, darkness +there, weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in many a place. + +Dramatic scenes of judgment, public judicial procedures, in some +degree corresponding with the foregoing picture, are necessary in +human governments. The prison, the culprit, the witnesses, the +judge, the verdict, the penalty, are inevitable facts of the +social order. Offences needing to be punished by overt penalties, +wrongs demanding to be rectified by outward decrees, criminals +gathered in cells, appeals from lower courts to higher ones, may +go on accumulating until a grand audit or universal clearing up of +arrears becomes indispensable. Is it not obvious how natural it +would be for a mind profoundly impressed with these facts, and +vividly stamped with this imagery, to think of the relation +between mankind and God in a similar way, conceiving of the +Creator as the Infinite King and Judge, who will appoint a final +day to set everything right, issue a general act of jail delivery, +summon the living and the dead before him, and adjudicate their +doom according to his sovereign pleasure? + +The tremendous language ascribed to Jesus, in the twenty fifth +chapter of Matthew, was evidently based on the historic picture of +an Eastern king in judgment. "When the Son of Man shall come in +his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit +upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all +nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a +shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the +sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left." If Jesus +himself used these words, we suppose he meant figuratively to +indicate by them the triumphant installation, as a ruling and +judging power in human society, of the pure eternal principles of +morality, the true universal principles of religion, which he had +taught and exemplified. But unfortunately the image proved so +overpoweringly impressive to the imagination of subsequent times, +that its metaphorical import was lost in its physical setting. + +This momentous error has arisen from the inevitable tendency of +the human mind to conceive of God after the type of an earthly +king, as an enthroned local Presence; from the rooted incapacity +of popular thought to grasp the idea that God is an equal and +undivided Everywhereness. In his great speech on Mar's Hill, the +apostle Paul told the Athenians that "God had appointed a day in +the which he would judge the world in righteousness by that man +whom he hath ordained." Is not this notion of the judgment being +delegated to Jesus plainly adopted from the political image of a +deputy? The king himself rarely sits on a judicial tribunal: he is +generally represented there by an inferior officer. But this +arrangement is totally inapplicable to God, who can never abdicate +his prerogatives, since they are not legal, but dynamic. The +essential nature of God is infinity. Certainly, there can be no +substitution of this. It cannot be put off, nor put on, nor +multiplied. There is one Infinite alone. + +The Greeks located, in the future state, three judges of the dead, +Minos, who presided at the trial of souls arriving from Europe; +Rhadamanthus, who examined those coming from Asia; and Aacus, who +judged those from Africa. They had no fourth and fifth inspectors +for the souls from America and Australia, because those divisions +of the earth were, as yet, unknown! How suggestive is this mixture +of knowledge and ignorance! The heaven of the Esquimaux is a place +where they will have a plenty of fine boats and harpoons, and find +a summer climate, and a calm ocean abounding with fat seals and +walruses. The Greenlander's hell is a place of torment from cold; +the Arab's, a place of torment from heat. Every people and every +man unless they have learned by comparative criticism to correct +the tendency conceive their destiny in the unknown future in +forms and lights copied, more or less closely, from their familiar +experiences here. Is there not just as much reason for holding to +the literal accuracy and validity of the result in one case as in +another? The popular picture, in the imagination of Christendom, +of Gabriel playing a trumpet solo at the end of the world, and a +huge squad of angelic police darting about the four quarters of +heaven, gathering the past and present inhabitants of the earth, +while the Judge and his officers take their places in the +Universal Assize, instead of being received as sound theology, +should be held as moral symbol. Taken in any other way, it sinks +into gross mythology. Can any one fail to see that this picture of +the Last Judgment is the result of an illogical process; namely, +the poetic association and universalizing of our fragmentary +judicial experiences, and the bodily transfer of them over upon +our relations with God? The procedure is clearly a fallacious one, +because the relations of men with God in the sphere of eternal +truths are wholly different from their relations with each other +in the sphere of political society. They are, in no sense, formal +or forensic, but substantial and moral; not of the nature of a +league or compact, but interior and organic; not acting by fits +and starts, or gathering through interruptions and delays to +convulsive catastrophes, but going on in unbreakable continuity. +God is a Spirit; and we too, in essence, are spirits. The rewards +and punishments imparted from God to us, then, are spiritual, +results of the regular action of the laws of our being as related +to all other being. Consequently, no figures borrowed from those +judicial and police arrangements inevitable in the broken and +hitching affairs of earthly rulers, can be directly applicable, +the circumstances are so completely different. The true +illustration of the divine government must be adopted from +physiology and psychology, where the perfect working of the +Creator is exemplified, not from the forum and the court, where +the imperfect artifices of men are exhibited. + +God forever sits in judgment on all souls, in the reactions of +their own acts. The divine retribution for every deed is the kick +of the gun, not an extra explosion arbitrarily thrown in. The +thief, the liar, the misanthrope, the drunkard, the poet, the +philosopher, the hero, the saint, all have their just and +intrinsic returns for what they are and for what they do, in the +fitness of their own characters and their harmonies or discords +with the will of God, with the public order of creation. Thus is +the daily experience of one man made a lake of peace threaded with +thrilling rivulets of bliss; that of another, a stream of +devouring fire and poison, or a heaving and smoking bed of +uncleanness and torment. The virtues represent the conditions of +universal good; the vices represent private opposition to those +conditions. Accordingly, the good man is in attracting and +cooperative connection with all good; the bad man, in antagonistic +and repulsive connection with it. In these facts a perfect +retribution resides. If any one does not see it, does not feel its +working, it is because he is too insensible to be conscious of the +secrets of his own being, too dull to read the lessons of his own +experience. And this self ignorant degradation, so far from +refuting, is itself the profoundest exemplification of the truth +of that wonderful word of Jesus: "Verily, I say unto you, they +have their reward." Those who consider themselves saints indulge +in an unspeakable vulgarity, when they feel, "Well, the sinners +have their turn in this world; we shall have ours in the next." +The law of retribution in the spiritual sphere is identical with +the first law of motion in the material sphere; action and +reaction are equal, and in opposite directions. This law being +instantaneous and incessant in its operation, there can be no +occasion for a final epoch to redress its accumulated disbalancements. +It has no disbalancements, save in our erroneous or defective vision. + +The true conception of the relation of the all judging Creator to +his creatures is that of the Infinite Being who supplies all +finite receptacles in accordance with their special forms of +organization and character, and who causes exact retributions of +good and evil intrinsically to inhere in their indulged modes of +thought and feeling and will, their own virtues and vices, +fruitions and battlements. This internal, continuous, dynamic view +worthily represents the perfection of the Divine government. The +incomparably inferior view the external, intermittent, +constabulary theory rests, as it seems to us, merely on the +traditions of ignorance and fancy. It has, in every instance, +originated from the unwarrantable interpretation of a trope as a +truth. + +For example, the picture of the Last Judgment, supposed to be +drawn by Jesus, in the Parable of the Tares, must be considered, +not as a rigid prophecy of the end of the earth, and the +transmundane destination of souls, but as a free emblem of the +approaching close of the Jewish dispensation, and the terrible +calamities which would then come on the proud, obstinate and +rebellious people. The reaping angels are the Roman and Jewish +armies, and other kindred agencies and collisions in the destined +evolution of the fortunes of Christianity and mankind in the +future. Taken literally, the symbols are incongruous with fact, +and absolutely incredible in doctrine. For they are based on the +image of a royal land owner, who draws his support from the income +of his fields and subjects, and who rewards the faithful bringer +of fruits, and punishes the slothful defaulter; who welcomes and +stores sheaves, because they are wealth: rejects and burns tares, +because they are an injury and a nuisance. But nothing can be +riches or a nuisance to the infinite God, who neither lives on +revenue nor judges by jerks. Men are not literally wheat, the +property of the good sower, Christ; nor tares, the property of the +bad sower, the Devil: they are souls, responsibly belonging to +themselves, under God. And the pay of the human agriculturists, in +the moral fields of the divine King, consists in the daily crops +of experience they raise, not in being advanced to a seat at the +right hand of their Lord, or in being flagellated and flung into a +flaming furnace. + +Jesus himself, undoubtedly, used this physical imagery as the +vehicle of spiritual truths; it is lamentable that perfunctory +minds have so generally overlooked the substance in the dress. He +is represented, in Matthew, as having said to his apostles: "When +the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall +sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." +Now, that he used this figure to convey an impersonal moral +meaning, and that his profound thought underwent a materializing +degradation in the minds of his hearers and reporters, appears +clearly from the incident related immediately afterward. The wife +of Zebedee asked that her two sons might sit, the one on his right +hand, and the other on the left, in his kingdom. And Jesus said, +"Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism +that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my +left, is not mine to give." The imagery meant that the missionary +assistants, in forwarding and spreading the kingdom of truth and +love he came to establish, would be represented in common with +himself in the power it would acquire and sway over the world. +When his hearers interpreted the imagery in a physical sense, as +indicating that he was hereafter to be a visible king, and that +his favorites might expect to share in his authority, honor, and +glory, he solemnly repudiated it. + +There is yet another and a wholly different style of imagery +employed by Jesus to convey his instructions as to the judgment +which is to separate the justified from the condemned. The +consideration of this species of imagery would afford an +independent proof, of a cogent character, that they strangely +misapprehend the mind of Jesus who interpret the moral meaning of +his parable in an outward and dramatic sense. The metaphors to +which we now refer are of a domestic and convivial nature, based +on some of the most impressive social customs of the Oriental +nations. It was the habit of kings, governors, and other rich and +powerful men, to give, on certain occasions, great banquets, to +which the guests were invited by special favor. These feasts were +celebrated with the utmost pomp and splendor, by night, in +brilliantly illuminated apartments. The contrast of the blazing +lights, the richly costumed guests, the music and talk, the honor +and luxury within, set against the darkness, the silence, the +envious poverty and misery without, must have deeply struck all +who saw it, and would naturally secure rhetorical reflections in +speech and literature. The Jews illustrated their idea of the +Kingdom of God by the symbol of a table at which Abraham and Isaac +and Jacob were banqueting, and would be joined by all their +faithful countrymen. In his parable of the Supper, describing how +a king, on occasion of the marriage of his son, made a feast and +sent out generous invitations to it, Jesus works up this imagery +still more elaborately. What did he really mean to teach by it? Is +it not clearly apparent from the whole context that he intended it +as an illustration of the fact that the Jews, to whom he first +announced his gospel, and offered all its privileges, having +rejected it, its blessings would be freely thrown open to the +Gentiles, and that they would crowd in to occupy the place of joy +and honor, which the chosen people of Jehovah had refused to +accept? It is by a pure effect of fancy and doctrinal bias that +the parable has been perverted into a description of the Last +Judgment. The reference plainly indicates admission to or +exclusion from the privileges of the new dispensation, a matter of +personal experience in the heart of the disciple and in the +society of the church on this earth. The wedding garment, without +which no one can come to the royal table, is a holy, humble, and +loving character. In consequence of his destitution of this, +Judas, although seated at the table, with the most honored guests, +in the very presence of his Lord, was proved to have no right +there, and was thrust into the outer darkness. His bad spirit, his +inability to appreciate and enjoy the pure truths of the kingdom, +constituted his expulsion. That such was the idea in the mind of +Jesus, something to be experienced personally and spiritually in +the present, and not something to be shown collectively and +materially at the end of the world, appears from the great number +of different forms in which he reiterates his doctrine. Had he +meant to teach literally that he was to come in person at the last +day, and sit in judgment on all men, would he not have had a +distinct conception of the method, and have always drawn one and +the same consistent picture of it? But if he meant to teach that +all who were fitted by their spirit, character and conduct to +assimilate the living substance of his kingdom were thereby made +members of it, while all others were, by their own intrinsic +unfitness, excluded, then it was perfectly natural that his +fertile mind would on a hundred different occasions convey this +one truth in a hundred different figures of speech. That in which +the images all differ is unessential: that in which they all agree +must be the essential thought. Now the parables differ in the +forms of judgment they picture. Therefore these forms are +metaphoric dress. The parables agree in assigning a different fate +to the righteous and the wicked. Therefore this difference is the +vital truth. And Jesus nowhere makes righteousness consist in +anything national, dogmatic, or ceremonial, but everywhere is +something moral. + +The doctrine of an unfailing tribunal in the soul, the belief that +we are all judged momentarily at the continuous bar of the truth +reflected in our own conscience, is too deep, delicate, and +elusive a view for the ignorance and hardness of some ages, and of +some persons in every age. They cannot understand that the mind of +man is itself a living table of the law and judgment seat of the +Creator, by its positive and negative polarities, in sympathetic +connection with the standards of good and evil, pronouncing the +verdicts and executing the sentences deserved. They need to +project the scheme of retribution into the startling shape of a +trial in a formal court, and then to universalize it into an +overwhelming world assize. The semi dramatic figment, no doubt, +was an inevitable stage of thought, and has wrought powerfully for +good in certain periods of history. But the pure truth must be as +much better for all who can appreciate it, as it is more real and +more pervasive. + +Since God, the indefeasible Creator, is a resistless power of +justice and love in omnipresent relations with his creatures, the +genuine day of judgment to each being must be the entire career of +that being. In a lower degree, every day is a day of judgment; +because all acts, in the spirit from which they spring and the end +at which they aim, carry their own immediate retributions. If we +could survey the whole, at once, from the Divine point of view, +and comprehend the relation of the parts to the whole, undoubtedly +we should perceive that the deserts and the receipts of each +ephemeral existence are balanced between the rise and set of its +sun. But death may, with most solemn emphasis, be regarded as the +final day of judgment to each man, in this sense; that then the +sum of his earthly life and deeds is sealed up and closed from all +further alteration by him, passing into history as a collective +cause or total unit of influence. As long as the creation rolls in +space, and conscious beings live and die, that bequeathal will +tell its good or evil tale of him. What sensitive spirit will not +tremble at the thought of a judgment so unavoidable and so +tremendous as this! The votaries of superstition are mistaken in +supposing that the removal of their false beliefs will destroy or +weaken the sanctions of duty among men. The removal of imaginary +sanctions will but cause the true ones to appear more clearly and +to work more effectively. + +The judgment of God then, we conclude, is no vengeful wreaking of +arbitrary royal volitions; but it is the return of the laws of +being on all deeds, actual or ideal. This is, in itself, perpetual +and infallible: but it sometimes forces itself on our recognition +in sudden shocks or crises caused by the gathering obstacles and +opposition made to it by our ignorance, vice, and crime. Every +other doctrine of the Divine judgment is either an error or a +figurative statement of this one. In the latter case, the physical +cover should be dissolved and thrown away, the moral nucleus laid +bare and appropriated. But the popular mind of Christendom has +unfortunately pursued the contrary course, first exaggerating and +consolidating the metaphors, then putting their forms literally in +the place of their meaning. + +The awful panorama of the last things, as painted in the +Apocalypse, the sun becoming as sackcloth of hair, and the moon as +blood; the blighted stars dropping; the unveiling of the great +white throne, from before the face of whose occupant the +frightened heaven and earth flee away; the standing up of the +dead, both small and great, the opening of the books, and the +judging of the dead out of the things written therein, this scenic +array has, by its terrible vividness and power of fanciful +plausibility, sunk so deeply into the imagination, and taken such +a tenacious hold on the feelings of the Christian world, secured +for itself so constant a contemplation and encrusted itself with +such a mass of associations, that it has actually come to be +regarded as a veritable revelation of the reality, and to act as +such. And yet, surely, surely, no one who will stop to think on +the subject, with conscious clearness, can believe that books are +provided in heaven with the names of men in them and recording +angels appointed to keep their accounts by double or by single +entry, and that God will literally sit upon a vast white dais +raised on the earth, and go through an overt judicial ceremony. On +what principle is a part of the undivided apocalyptic portrayal +rendered as emblem, the rest accepted as absolute verity? If the +blood red warrior on his white horse followed by the shining +cavalry of heaven, the horrible vials of wrath, the chimerical +angels and beasts, the sky and globe converted into terror struck +fugitives, the bridal city descending from God with its incredible +walls and its impossible gates and its magic tree of life yielding +twelve kinds of fruit, are imagery; then the lake of burning +sulphur, and the resurrection trumpet, and the indictment of the +dead before the dazzling throne, are imagery too. The reader +smiles at the idea that the good Esquimau will sit in Leaven +amidst boiling pots of walrus meat, while in hell the fish lines +of the bad Esquimau will break, and his canoe be crushed by +falling ice. But what better reason can the civilized man give for +the reflecting over upon the judgments of the future his present +experience in the imagery of criminal courts? The same process of +thought is exemplified in both cases. Can any one literally credit +the following verses: + +"There are two angels that attend, unseen Each one of us, and in +great books record Our good and evil deeds. He who writes down The +good ones after every action closes His volume and ascends to God. +The other keeps his dreadful day book open Till sunset, that we +may repent, which doing, The record of the action fades away, And +leaves a line of white across the page." + +No more should we literally credit the kindred phraseology in the +New Testament. It is free metaphor. The sultan may keep in his +treasury a book with the names of all his favorites enrolled in +it. Is it not a peurility to suppose that God has such documents? + +When the Gospels and the Epistles of the New Testament were +written, the reappearance of Christ for the last judgment was +almost universally supposed by the Church to be just at hand. At +any instant of day or night the signal blast might be blown, the +troops of the sky pour down the swarms of the dead surge up, and +the sheep and the goats for ever be parted to the right and left. +Each day when they saw "the sun write its irrevocable verdict in +the flame of the west," the believers felt that the supreme Dies +iroe was so much nearer to its dawn. But as generation after +generation died, without the sight, and the tokens of its approach +seemed no clearer, the belief itself subsided from its early +prominence into the background. But as it retreated, and became +more obscure and vague in its date and other details, it grew ever +more sombre, appalling, and stupendous in its general certainty +and preternatural accompaniments. When the tenth century drew nigh +its close, a literal acceptance of the scriptural text that "the +dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, after +being bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years," should +"be loosed a little season," filled Christendom with the most +intense agitation and alarm. From all the literature and history +of that period the reverberations of the frightful effects of the +general expectation of the impending judgment and destruction of +the world have rolled down to the present time. The portentous +season passed, all things continuing as they were, and the immense +incubus rose and dissolvingly vanished. And the Mediaval Church, +like the Apostolic Church before, instead of logically saying: Our +expectation of the physical return of Christ was a delusion, +fancifully concluded: We were wrong as to the date; and still +continued to expect him. + +The longer the crisis was delayed, and the more it was brooded +over, the more awful the suppositious picture became. The +Mohammedans held that the end would be announced by three blasts: +the blast of consternation, so terrible that mothers will neglect +the babes on their breasts, and the solid world will melt; the +blast of disembodiment, which will annihilate everything but +heaven and hell and their inhabitants; and the blast of +resurrection, which will call up brutes, men, genii, and angels, +in such numbers that their trial will occupy the space of +thousands of years. + +But in the later imagination of Christendom the vision assumed a +shape even more fearful than this. The Protestant Reformation, +when one party identified the Pope, the other, Luther, with +Antichrist, gave a new impulse to the common expectation of the +avenging advent of the Lord. The horrible cruelties inflicted on +each other by the hostile divisions of the Church aggravated the +fears and animosities reflected in the sequel at the last day. +Probably nothing was ever seen in this world more execrable or +more dreadful than those great ceremonies celebrated in Spain and +Portugal, in the seventeenth century, at the execution of heretics +condemned to death by the Inquisition. The slow, dismal tolling of +bells; the masked and muffled familiars; the Dominicans carrying +their horrid flag, followed by the penitents behind a huge cross; +the condemned ones, barefoot, clad in painted caps and the +repulsive sanbenito; next the effigies of accused offenders who +had escaped by flight; then, the bones of dead culprits in black +coffins painted with flames and other hellish symbols; and, +finally, the train closing with a host of priests and monks. The +procession tediously winds to the great square in front of the +cathedral, where the accused stand before a crucifix with +extinguished torches in their hands. The king, with all his court +and the whole population of the city, exalt the solemnity by their +presence. The flames are kindled, and the poor victims perish in +long drawn agonies. Now can anything conceivable give one a more +vivid idea of the terrors embodied in the day of judgment than the +fact that it came to be thought of under the terrific image of an +Auto da Fe magnified to the scale of the human race and the earth, +Christ, the Grand Inquisitor, seated as judge; his familiars +standing by ready with their implements of torture to fulfil his +bidding; his fellow monks enthroned around him; his sign, the +crucifix, towering from hell to heaven in sight of the universe; +the whole heretical world, dressed in the sanbenito, helpless +before him, awaiting their doom? Who will not shudder at the +inexorable horrors of such a scheme of doctrine, and devoutly +thank God that he knows it to be a fiction as baseless as it is +cruel? + +Since the cooling down of the great Anabaptist fanaticism, the +millennarian fever has raged less and less extensively. But if the +literature it has produced, in ignorant and declamatory books, +sermons, and tracts, were heaped together, they would make a pile +as big as one of the pyramids. The preaching of Miller, about a +quarter of a century ago, with his definite assignment of the time +for the appointed consummation, caused quite a violent panic in +the United States. Several prophets of a similar order in Germany +have also stirred transient commotions. In England, the celebrated +London preacher, Dr. Cumming, whose works entitled "The End," and +"The Great Tribulation," have been circulated in tens of thousands +of copies, is now the most prominent representative of this +catastrophic belief. He has, however, made himself so ridiculous +by his repeated postponements of the crisis, that he has become +more an object of laughter than of admiration. Mathematical +calculations, based on mystic numbers transmitted in apocalyptic +poetry, are at a heavy discount. And yet there is a considerable +sect, called the Second Adventists, composed of the most +illiterate believers, and swelled by clergymen wrought up to the +fanatic pitch by an exclusive dogmatic drill, who lead an +eleemosynary life on mouldy scraps of Scripture, and anxiously +wait for the sound of the archangelic trump. Every earthquake, +pestilence, revolution, violent thunderstorm, comet, meteoric +shower, or extraordinary gleaming of the aurora borealis, startles +them as a possible avant courier of the crack of doom. Some of +them are said to keep their white robes in their closets all ready +for ascension. What a dismal thing it must be to live in such a +lurid and lugubrious dream; their best hope for the world the hope +that its end is at hand, + +"Impatient of the stars that keep their course And make no pathway +for the coming Judge!" + +But this excited and uneasy anticipation is now a rare exception. +In the minds of most intelligent Christians, even of those who +still cling to the old Orthodox dogmas, the day of judgment has +been put forward as far as the day of creation has been put +backward. Less and less do religious believers shudder before the +theatric trials depicted in heathen and Christian mythology; more +and more do they reverently recognize the intrinsic jurisdiction +in the structure of the soul, and in the organism of society. The +time is not far remote, let us trust, when the ancient spirit of +national separation, political antipathy, and sectarian hatred, +whose subjects identify themselves with the party of God, all +others with the party of the Devil, and cry, "How long, O Lord, +dost thou not judge and avenge us on our enemies," will give way +to that better spirit of philanthropy and true piety, which sees +brethren in all men, and prays to the common Father for the equal +salvation and blessedness of all. Then the faith of the self +righteous, who plume themselves on their sound creed, and so +relentlessly consign the heretics to perdition, gloating over the +idea of the time "when the kings of the earth, and the chief +captains, and the rich men, and the mighty men, and every bondman, +and every freeman, shall hide themselves in dens and caves, saying +to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the +face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the +Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be +able to stand?" then the temper of this faith will be seen to be +as wicked as its doctrine is erroneous. It will be recognized as a +remnant of the barbaric past in steep contradiction with the whole +mind of the modest and loving Jesus, who, when the disciples +wished to call down fire from heaven to consume his opponents, +rebuked them in words still condemning all their imitators, "Ye +know not what spirit ye are of." Many a bigoted and complacent +dogmatist, wrapt in that same ignorance to day, fails to read his +own heart, and obstinately shuts his eyes to the truth, foolishly +fancying himself better and safer, on account of his blind +conservatism, than he who fearlessly seeks the guidance of +science. Yet are not the principles of science as much glimpses of +the mind of God as any sentences in the Bible are? The whole +ecclesiastical scheme of eschatology is a delusion. No such +gigantic melodrama, no such grotesque and horrible extravaganza, +will ever get itself enacted between heaven and earth. Forever, as +freshly as on the first morning, the Creator pours his will +through his works in irresistible vibrations of goodness and +justice; and forever may all his creatures come to him unimpeded, +and trust in him without limit. + +Away, then, monstrous horrors, bred in the night of the past! +Dreadful incubi! too cruelly and too long ye have sat on the +breast of man. The cockcrow of reason has been heard, and it is +time ye were gone. Fade, terrible dream, painted by superstition +on the cope of the sky, picture of contending fiends and angels, +fiery rain, a frowning God, and shuddering millions of victims! +Away forever, and leave the blue space free for the benignant +mysteries of the unknown eternity to lure us blessedly forward to +our fate. Come, believers in the merciful God of truth, lend your +aid to the glorious work of spiritual emancipation. In this benign +battle for the deliverance of the world from error and fear, every +free mind should be a champion, every loving heart a volunteer. +Free leaders of the free, forward! out of the darkness into the +light. Lift your banner in the front of the field of opinions +where all may see it, and then follow it as far as truth itself +shall lead. On! Progress is the eternal rule. Man was made to +outgrow the old and struggle into the new, as every morning the +sun mounts afresh out of the dead day, and drives the night before +him. Ignorance and despotism have crushed us long. But now, now we +fling our fetters off, and, marching from good to better, hope to +escape from every falsehood, and to conquer every wrong, under the +inspiration of the omnipresent Judge who executes his decrees in +the very working itself of that Universal Order whose progressive +unfolding will be fulfilled at last, not in any magic resurrection +and assize, but in the simple lifting of the veil of ignorance +from all souls brought into full community, and the illumination +before their opened faculties of the whole contents of history. +For we believe that all history is by its own enactment +indestructibly registered in the theatre of space, and that every +consciousness is educating to read it and adore the perfect +justification of the ways of God. The eternal immensity of the +universe is the true Aula Regis in which God holds perpetual +session, overlooking no suppliant, omitting no case. + +CHAPTER III. + +THE MYTHOLOGICAL HELL AND THE TRUE ONE, OR THE LAW OF PERDITION. + + +THE doctrine that there is a material place of torment destined to +be the eternal abode of the wicked after death is based on the +language of the Bible, supported by the aggregate teachings of the +church, and commonly asserted, though with a stricken and failing +faith, throughout Christendom at this moment. When any one tries +to show the unreasonableness of the belief in this local prison +house of the damned, arrayed with the innumerable horrors of +physical anguish, he is at once met with the declaration that God +himself has declared the fact, and consequently that we are bound +to accept it without question, as a truth of revelation. For the +reasons which we will immediately proceed to give, this +representation must be rejected as a mistake. + +The popular doctrine of hell is not a divine revelation, but is a +mythological growth. It is a fanciful mass of grotesque and +frightful errors enveloping a truth which needs to be separated +from them and exhibited in its purity. In the first place, the +substance of the doctrine affirmed, the notion of a bottomless +pit, or penal territory of fire and torment in which God will +confine all the unredeemed portions of the human race after their +bodily dissolution, is something wholly apart from morality and +religion, something belonging to the two departments of +descriptive geography and police history. The existence or +nonexistence of a place of material torment reserved for the +wicked, is a question not of theology, but of topography. In +earlier times it was avowedly included in geography; and numerous +caves, lakes, volcanos, as at Lebadeia, Derbyshire, Avernus, +Nafita, Etna, and elsewhere were believed to be literally +entrances to hell. So famous and eminent a man as Saint Gregory +the Great, when the great Sicilian volcano was seen to be +increasingly agitated, taught that it was owing to the press of +lost souls, rendering it necessary to enlarge the approach to +their prison. With the increase of knowledge, the localization of +hell was subsequently by many authors, made a part of cosmography, +and shifted about among the comets, the moon and the sun, although +most people still think that it is the interior of the earth. But, +the best theologians of all denominations, the most authoritative +thinkers of all schools, now hold that the supernatural +revelations of God are limited to the sphere of the spirit, and do +not include the data of geology, astronomy, chemistry and +mathematics. + +God is not a local king, ruling his subjects by means of political +machinery and external interferences; he is the omnipresent +Creator, spiritually sustaining and governing his creatures from +within by means of the laws which determine their experience, the +action and reaction between their faculties and their surrounding +conditions. Accordingly, the sphere of direct revelations from the +spirit of God to the spirit of man is limited to the implications +in the divine logic of the soul and its life, that is, to moral +and religious truths. The facts of history and cosmology are left +for the processes of natural discovery. Whether there be or be not +a localized hell of material tortures lies not within the domain +of revelation, but is a problem of physical science. And science +demonstrates, from the weight of the globe, that it is solid; and +not, according to the current belief, a hollow shell containing a +sea of flame packed with the floating hosts of the lost. + +Furthermore, the only mode in which the truth of such a doctrine +could be made known is wholly aside from the method of +supernatural revelation. God does not utter his thoughts to his +chosen messengers in words or other outward signs as a man does. +Men communicate information to one another by voice, gesture, +drawing, writing or other mechanical devices. It is the natural +mistake of a crude age to suppose that God does the same, +breathing verbal formularies into the of minds of his selected +servants. But this is not the case. Revelation is not to receive +an announcement; it is to perceive a truth. Since God is infinite, +we cannot stand out against him and talk with him. Souls in finer +and fuller harmony with the works and laws of God, thus fulfilling +the human conditions of inspiration, are met by the divine +conditions, and obtain new insight of the ways and designs of God. +They experience purer and richer ideas and emotions than others, +and may afterwards impart them to others, thus transmitting the +revelation to them. For this new enlightenment, sanctification, or +rise of life, is what alone constitutes a true revelation. Now if +there be a local and physical hell, it is not a moral truth which +the inspired soul can see, but a scientific fact which can be +perceived only by the senses or deduced by the logical intellect. +If a man could travel to every nook of the creation he might +discover whether there were such a hell or not. But you cannot +discover a spiritual truth by any amount of outward travel. When a +soul is so delivered from egotism, or the jar of self will against +universal law, and brought into such high harmony with the spirit +of the whole, as to perceive this divine law of life, "He who +dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him," then he is +inspired to see a religious truth. He has obtained a divine +revelation. But we cannot conceive of any degree of exaltation +into unison with God which would enable a man to see the fact that +the centre of the earth or the surface of the sun or any other +spot, is a place of fire set apart as the penal abode of the +damned, and that it is crowded with burning sulphur and +unimaginable forms of wickedness and agony. Such a doctrine is out +of the province, and its conveyance irreconcilable with the method +of revelation, which consists not in an exterior communication of +scientific facts to messengers selected to receive them, but in an +interior unveiling of religious truths to souls prepared to see +them. + +In the next place, we maintain, that the doctrine of a local hell, +a guarded and smoking dungeon of the damned, ought not to be +regarded as a truth contained in a revelation from God, because it +is plainly proved by historic evidence to be a part of the +mythology of the world, a natural product of the poetic +imagination of ignorant and superstitious men. In all ages and +lands men have recognized the difference between the good and the +bad, merit and crime; have seen that innocence and virtue +represented the permanent conditions of human welfare, that guilt +and vice represented the insurrection of private or lower and +transient desire against public or higher and more lasting good; +and have felt that the former deserved to be praised and rewarded, +the latter to be blamed and punished. In all ages and all nations +society has teemed with devices for the distribution of these +returns, prizes to the meritorious, penalties to the derelict. +There is scarcely any evil discoverable in nature or inventable in +art which has not been used as a means for the punishment of +criminals. Enemies captured in battle, or seized by the minions of +despots, violators of the laws of the community, arraigned before +judicial tribunals, have been in every country subjected to every +species of penalty, such as slavery, imprisonment, banishment, +fine, stripes, dismemberment. They have been starved, frozen, +burned, hung, drowned, strangled by serpents, devoured by wild +beasts. The rebellious and hated offenders of the king, while he +banquets in his illuminated palace with his faithful servants and +favorites around him, are exiled into outer darkness, fettered in +dungeons, plied with every conceivable indignity and misery, +bastinadoed, bowstrung, or torn in pieces with lingering torture. +Here we have the germ of hell. To get the fully developed popular +doctrine of hell it is only necessary to concentrate and aggravate +the known evils of this world, the horrible sufferings inflicted +on criminals and enemies here, and transfer the vindictive and +pitiable mass of wretchedness over into the future state as a +representation of the doom God has there prepared for his foes. +Earthly rulers and their practice, the most impressive scenes and +acts experienced among men, have always hitherto furnished the +types of thought applied to illustrate the unknown details of the +hereafter. The judge orders the culprit to be disgraced, scourged, +put in the stocks, or cropped and transported. The sultan hurls +those he hates into the dungeon, upon the gibbet or into the +flame, with every accompaniment of mockery and pain. So, an +imaginative instinct concludes, God will deal with all who offend +him. They will be excluded from his presence, imprisoned and +tormented forever. + +This whole process of comparison and inference, natural as it is, +is one prolonged fallacy exemplifying the very essence of all +mythological construction in contrast both with inspired +perception and logical reasoning. The revealing arrival of a truth +in consciousness is when an intuitive thrill announces the action +of our faculties in correspondence with some relation in the +reality of things. Mythology is the deceptive substitute for this, +employed when we arbitrarily project forms of our present +experience into the unknown futurity, and then hold the resultant +fancies as a rigid belief, or regard them as actual knowledge. +This is exactly what has happened in the case of the doctrine of +an eternal physical hell beyond the grave. The natural and +punitive horrors of the present state have been collected, +intensified, dilated, and thrown into the future as a world of +unmitigated sin and wrath and anguish, a consolidated image of the +vengeance of God on his insurgent subjects. + +Now the true desideratum, the only result on which reason can +rest, whenever tests are applied to our beliefs, is this: that +what is known be scientifically set forth in distinct definitions; +that what is unknown be treated provisionally, with theoretic +approaches; and that what is absolutely unknowable be fixedly +recognized as such. This regulative principle of thought is +grossly violated in every particular by the popular belief in a +material hell. + +Wherever we look at the prevalent doctrines of hell among +different peoples, from the rudest to the most refined, we see +them reflecting into the penal arrangements of the other world the +leading features of their earthly experience of natural, domestic, +judicial, and political evils. The hells of the inhabitants of the +frigid zones are icy and rocky; those of the inhabitants of the +torrid zones are fiery and sandy. Are not the poetic process and +its sophistry clear? Nastrond, the hell of the Northmen, is a +vast, hideous and grisly dwelling, its walls built of adders whose +heads, turned inward, continually spew poison which forms a lake +of venom wherein all thieves, cowards, traitors, perjurers and +murderers, eternally swim. Is this revelation, science, logic, or +is it mythology? + +The Egyptian priests taught, and the people seemed to have +implicitly trusted the tale, that there was a long series of hells +awaiting the disembodied souls of all who had not scrupulously +observed the ritual prescribed for them, and secured the pass +words and magical formulas necessary for the safe completion of +the post mortal journey. The specifications and pictures of the +terrors and distresses provided in the various hells are vivid in +the extreme, including ingenious paraphrases of every sort of +penalty and pang known in Egypt. The same thing may be affirmed +with quadruple emphasis of the Hindu doctrine of future +punishment. In the Hindu hells, truly, the possibilities of horror +are exhausted. To enumerate their sufferings in anything like +their own detail would require a large volume. The Vishnu Parana +names twenty eight distinct hells, assigning each one to a +particular class of sinners; and it adds that there are hundreds +of others, in which the various classes of offenders undergo the +penalties of their misdeeds. There are separate hells for thieves, +for liars, for those who kill a cow, for those who drink wine, for +those who insult a priest, and so on. Some of the victims are +chained to posts of red hot steel and lashed with flexible flames: +others are forced to devour the most horrible filth. Some are +mangled and eaten by ravenous birds, others are squeezed into +chests of fire and locked up for millions of years. These examples +may serve as a small specimen of the infernal ingenuity displayed +in the descriptions of the Hindu hells, which are all of one +substantial pattern, however varied in the embroidery. + +The Parsees hold that when a bad man dies his soul remains by the +body three days and nights, seeing all the sins it has ever +committed, and anxiously crying, "Whither shall I go? Who will +save me?" On the fourth day devils come and thrust the bad soul +into fetters and lead it to the bridge that reaches from earth to +heaven. The warder of the bridge weighs the deeds of the wicked +soul in his balance, and condemns it. The devils then fling the +soul down and beat it cruelly. It shrieks and groans, struggles, +and calls for help; but all in vain. It is forced on toward hell, +when it is suddenly met by a hideous and hateful maiden. It +demands, "Who art thou, O, maiden, uglier and more detestable than +I ever saw in the world?" She replies, "I am no maiden; I am thine +own wicked deeds, O, thou hateful unbeliever furnished with bad +thoughts and words." After further disagreeable adventures, the +soul is plunged into the abode of the devil, where the darkness +and foul odor are so thick that they can be grasped. Fed with +horrid viands, such as snakes, scorpions, poison, there the wicked +soul must remain until the day of resurrection. + +Now, no enlightened Christian scholar or thinker will hesitate +with one stroke to brush away all the details of these pagan +descriptions of hell, as so much mythological rubbish, leaving +nothing of them but the bare truth that there is a retribution for +the guilty soul in the future as in the present. But, in the +ecclesiastical doctrine of hell, prevalent in Christendom, we see +the full equivalents of the baseless fancies and superstitions +incorporated in these other doctrines. If the mythological hells +of the heathen nations are not a revelation from God, neither is +that of the Christians; for they are fundamentally alike, all +illustrating the same fallacy of the imaginative association of +things known, and the transference of them to things unknown. Not +a single argument can the Christian urge in behalf of his local +hell which the Scandinavian, the Egyptian, the Hindu or the +Persian, would not urge in behalf of his. + +We can actually trace the historic development of the orthodox +belief in a material hell from its simple beginning to its +subsequent monstrousness of detail. The Hebrew Sheol or +underworld, the common abode of the dead, is depicted in the Old +Testament as a vast, slumberous, shadowy, subterranean realm, +gloomy and silent. It grew out of the grave in this manner. The +dead man was buried in the ground. The imagination of the +survivors followed him there and brooded on the idea of him there. +The image of him survived in their minds, as a free presence +existing and moving wherever their conscious thought located him. +The grave expanded for him, and one grave opened into another +adjoining one, and shade was added to shade in the cavernous space +thus provided; just as the sepulchres were associated in the +burial place, and as the family of the dead were associated in the +recollection of the remaining members. Thus Sheol was an +imaginative dilatation of the grave. + +But it was dark and still; an obscure region of painless rest and +peace. How came the notions of punishment, fire, brimstone, and +kindred imagery, to be connected with it? We might safely say in +general that these ideas were joined with the supposed world of +the dead, by the Hebrews, in the same way that a similar result +has been reached by almost every other civilized nation, that is, +by a reflection into the future state of the retributive terrors +experienced here. Since the sharpest torture known to us in this +world is that inflicted by fire, it is perfectly natural that men, +in imagining the punishments to be inflicted on his victims in the +next world by one who has at his command all possible modes of +pain, should think of the application of fire there. But happily, +we are not left to this possible conjecture. + +Few influences sank more deeply into the Hebrew mind then the +legend how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed into Sheol, +Korah and Dathan and Abiram, the rebels against the authority of +Moses, at the same time that fire fell from Jehovah and consumed +two hundred and fifty of their confederates. In this story, +rebellion against a prophet of God, fire and submersion in Sheol, +are fused into one thought as a type of the future punishment of +the wicked. + +But another narrative has been of far greater importance in this +direction, namely, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The +Cities of the Plain were situated on a sulphur freighted and +volcanic soil. They were inhabited by a people specially abandoned +to vices, and specially odious to the chosen people of God. When a +terrible eruption took place, overwhelming those cities with all +their people, and swallowing them under a flood of bituminous +flame, ashes and gas, it was natural that the Hebrews in after +time should say that Jehovah had rained fire and brimstone from +heaven on his enemies, and then that the history should take form +in their proud and pious imaginations as a fixed type of the doom +of the wicked. So it did. + +At a later period the scenes and events in Gehenna, or the Valley +of Hinnom in the outskirts of Jerusalem, confirmed this tendency +and completed the Jewish picture of hell. In this detested vale +the worship of Moloch was once celebrated by roasting children +alive in the brazen arms of the god, in whose hollow form a fierce +fire was kept up, and around whose shrine gongs were beaten and +hymns howled to drown the shrieks of the victims. Here all the +refuse and offal of the city was carried and consumed, in a +conflagration whose fire was never quenched, and amidst an +uncleanness whose worms never died. This imagery, too, was cast +over into the future state as a representation of the fate +awaiting the wicked. + +Still further, it was the custom of some Oriental kings to have +criminals of an especially revolting character, or the objects of +their own particular hatred, flung into a furnace of fire, and +there burned alive before the eyes of their judges. The example of +this given in the Book of Daniel, where Nebuchadnezzar had the +furnace heated seven times hotter than was wont, and ordered +Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego cast into it, furnished both the +Jews and the Christians with another type of the punishment of +hell. So striking an image could hardly fail to take effect, and +to be often reproduced. It occurs repeatedly in the New Testament. +The old dragon, the devil, as the Apocalypse says, is to be +chained and cast into a furnace of fire. In the writings of the +Church fathers, and in the visions of the monks of the Middle Age, +this image constantly occupies a conspicuous place. And thus, +finally, the common notion of hell became an underground world of +burning brimstone, an enormous furnace or lake of fire, full of +fiends and shrieking souls. + +Tundale, an Irish monk of the Twelfth century, describes the devil +in the midst of hell, fastened to a blazing gridiron by red hot +chains, The screams echo from the rafters, but with his hands he +seizes lost souls, crushes them like grapes between his teeth, and +with his breath draws them down the fiery caverns of his throat. +Some of the damned the chronicler describes as suspended by their +tongues, some sawn asunder, some alternately plunged into caldrons +of fire and baths of ice, some gnawed by serpents, some beaten on +an anvil and welded into one mass, some boiled and strained +through a cloth. The defenders of the orthodox doctrine of hell +will admit that this terrible picture is mere mythology; but they +will say it is the product of a benighted age, and long since +outgrown. Yet it is no more mythological than the declarations in +the Apocalypse which are still literally accredited by multitudes +of the believing. And what shall be said of the following extract +from a little book called "The Sight of Hell," recently published +with high ecclesiastical endorsement, for circulation among the +children of Great Britain and America? The writer, the Rev. J. +Furniss, describes the different dungeons of hell, and the passage +which we quote is but a fair specimen of the entire series of +tracts which he has collected in a volume, and which is having a +large sale at this very time. "In the middle of the fourth dungeon +there is a boy. His eyes are burning like two burning coals. Two +long flames come out of his ears. He opens his mouth, and blazing +fire rolls out. But listen! there is a sound like a kettle +boiling. The blood is boiling in the scalded veins of that boy. +The brain is boiling and bubbling in his head. The marrow is +boiling in his bones. There is a little child in a red hot oven. +Hear how it screams to come out. See how it turns and twists +itself about in the fire. It beats its head against the roof of +the oven. It stamps its little feet on the floor. Very likely God +saw that this child would get worse and worse, and never repent, +and thus would have to be punished much more in hell. So God in +his mercy called it out of the world in its early childhood." Of +these diabolical horrors, drawn out through hundreds of pages, the +orthodox Protestant may say, "Oh, this is only a piece of Popish +superstition. We all repudiate it as a most repulsive and absurd +fancy." + +Well, what then will he say if representations, though perhaps not +quite so grossly graphic in circumstance, yet absolutely identical +in principle, are set before him from the fresh utterances of +hundreds of the most distinguished Baptist, Methodist, +Presbyterian, Episcopalian preachers and theologians? It would be +easy to present whole volumes of apposite citations. But two or +three will be enough. John Henry Newman in that one of his +parochial sermons, entitled, "On the Individuality of the Soul," +gives us accounts of hell which for unshrinking detail of +materiality will compare with the most frightful passages of +Oriental mythology. George Bull, Lord Bishop of Saint Davids, in +his volume of sermons declares that all who die with any sin +unrepented of, "are immediately consigned to a place and state of +irreversible misery a place of horrid darkness where there shines +not the least glimmering of light or comfort." Mr. Spurgeon +asserts, "There is a real fire in hell a fire exactly like that +which we have on earth, except that it will torture without +consuming. When thou diest thy soul will be tormented alone in +hell: but at the day of judgment thy body shall join thy soul, and +then thou wilt have twin hells, body and soul together, each +brimfull of pain; thy soul sweating in its inmost pores drops of +blood, and thy body, from head to foot, suffused with agony; not +only conscience, judgment, memory, all tormented, but thy head +tormented with racking pain, thine eyes starting from their +sockets with sights of blood and woe; thine ears tormented with +horrid noises; thy heart beating high with fever; thy pulse +rattling at an enormous rate in agony; thy limbs cracking in the +fire, and yet unburned; thyself put in a vessel of hot oil, +pained, yet undestroyed. Ah! fine lady, who takest care of thy +goodly fashioned face, that fair face shall be scarred with the +claws of fiends. Ah! proud gentleman, dress thyself in goodly +apparel for the pit; come to hell with powdered hair. It ill +becomes you to waste time in pampering your bodies when you are +only feeding them to be devoured in the flame. If God be true, and +the Bible be true, what I have said is the truth, and you will +find it one day to be so." Is not this paragraph a disgusting +combination of ignorance and arrogance? It is to be swept aside +and forgotten along with the immense mass of similar trash, +loathsome mixture of superstition and conceit, with which +Christendom has for these many centuries been so cruelly deceived +and surfeited. + +Tearing off and throwing away from the vulgar doctrine of hell all +the incrustation of material errors and poetic symbolism, the pure +truth remains that God will forever see that justice is done, +virtue rewarded, vice punished. Then the question arises, In what +way is this done? Not by the material apparatus of a local hell. +For the doctrine of such a penal abode is not only a natural +product of the mythological action of the human mind in its +development through the circumstances of history, but when +regarded in that light it is clearly a false representation. It is +a figment incredible to any vigorous, educated and free + +mind at the present day. Such reception as it now has it retains +by force of an unthinking submission to tradition and authority. +In the primitive ages, when the soul was imagined to be a fac +simile of the body, only of a more refined substance, capable of +becoming visible as a ghost, of receiving wounds, of uttering +faint shrieks when hurt, of partaking of physical food and +pleasure, it was perfectly natural to believe it susceptible of +material imprisonment and material torments. Such was the common +belief when the doctrine of a physical hell was wrought out. The +doctrine yet lingers by sheer force of prescription and +unthinkingness, when the basis on which it originally rested has +been dissipated. We know great as our ignorance is, we know that +the soul is a pure immateriality. Its manifestations depend on +certain physical organs and accompaniments, but are not identical +with them. Thought, feeling, will, action, force, desire, these +are spirit, and not matter. A pure consciousness cannot be shut up +in a dungeon under lock and bolt. A wish cannot be lashed with a +whip. A volition cannot be fastened in chains of iron. You may +crush or blast the visible organism in connection with which the +soul now acts; but no hammer can injure an idea, no flame scorch a +sentiment. What the spiritual personality becomes, how it exists, +what it is susceptible of, when disembodied, no man knows. It is +idle for any man, or any set of men to pretend to know. +Unquestionably it is not capable of material confinement and +penalties. The gross popular doctrine of hell as the fiery prison +house of the devil and his angels, and the condemned majority of +mankind, therefore, fades into thin air and vanishes before the +truth of the absolute spirituality of mind. + +In those early times, when military, political, judicial and +convivial phenomena furnished the most imposing and instructive +phenomena, before exact science and critical philosophy had given +us their fitter moulds and tests of thought, it was unavoidable +that men should think of God and Satan as two hostile monarchs, +each having his own empire and striving to secure his own +subjects, and looking on the subjects of his adversary as foes to +be thwarted at all points. But when, with the progress of thought +evil is discerned to be a negation, the devil vanishes as a verbal +phantom, and the bounds of his local realm are blotted out and +blent in the single dominion of the infinite God who regards none +as enemies, but is the steady friend and ruler of all creatures, +everywhere aiming, not to inflict vengeance on the wicked, but to +harmonize the discordant, bringing good out of bad and better out +of good in perpetual evolution. Sound theology will see that God +is the pervading Creator who governs all from within by the +continuous action and reaction between every life and its +environing conditions. But mythology puts in place of this the +incompetent conception of God as a political king, governing by +external edicts and agents, by overt decrees and constables. This +deludes us with the local and material hell of superstition, which +has no existence in reality. Disordered Function is the open +turnpike and metropolis of the real hell of experience. The great +king's highway, leading to heaven from every point in the universe +is the golden Mean of Virtue; but on the right and left of this +broad road two tributary rivers, namely, Defect and Excess, empty +into hell. The only true hell is the vindicating and remedial +return of resisted law on a being out of tune with some just +condition of his nature and destiny. The fearful cruelty and +tyranny of the mythological hell, supported by the constant +drilling of the people on the part of the priesthood whose vested +interests and prejudices are bound up in the doctrine, have held +the human race long enough in their bondage of pain and terror. In +a Buddhist scripture we read, "The people in hell who are immersed +in the Lohakumbha, a copper caldron a thousand miles in depth, +boiling and bubbling like rice grains in a cooking pot, once in +sixty thousand years descend to the bottom and return to the top. +As they reach the surface they utter one syllable of prayer, and +sink again on their terrific journey. Those who, during their life +on earth, reverence the three jewels, Buddha, the Law and the +Priesthood, will escape Lohakumbha!" The same essential doctrine +resting on the same inveterate basis, selfish love of power and +sensation, still prevails, though diminishingly, among us. When at +last in the light of reason and a pure faith it vanishes away what +a long breath of relief Christendom and humanity will draw! + +If we thus dismiss as a vulgar error the belief in a hell which is +a bounded region of physical torture somewhere in outward space, +it becomes us to acquire in place of this rejected figment some +more just and adequate idea. For a doctrine which has played such +a tremendous part in the religious history of the world must be +based on a truth, however travestied and overlaid that truth may +be. This frightful envelop of superstitious fictions cannot be +without some important reality within. In distinction, then, from +the monstrous mass of mistakes denoted by it, what is the truth +carried in the awful word, hell? + +Denying hell to be distinctively any particular locality in time +and space, we affirm it to be an experience resulting wherever the +spiritual conditions of it are furnished. Accordingly, we are not +to exclude it from the present state and confine it to the future, +as those seem to do who say that men go to hell after death. Being +a personal experience and not a material place, many are in it now +and here as much as they ever will be anywhere. Neither are we to +exclude it from the future and confine it to the present state, as +those do who say that all the hell there is terminates with the +emergence of the soul from the body. This might be so, if all sins +discords and retributions were bodily. But, plainly, they are not. +A mental chaos or inversion of order is as possible as a physical +one. Hell is anywhere or nowhere, at any time or at no time, +accordingly as the soul carries or does not carry its conditions. +We are not to say of the sinner that he goes to hell when he dies, +but that hell comes to him when he feels the returns of his evil +deeds. It is a state within rather than a place without. + +The true meaning of hell is, a state of painful opposition to the +will of God, misadjustment of personal constitution with universal +order or the rightful conditions of being. This is not, as the +vulgar doctrine would make it, an experience of unvarying sameness +into which all its subjects are indiscriminately flung. It is a +thing of endless varieties and degrees, varying with the +individual fitnessess. Hell is pain in the senses, slavery in the +will, contradiction or confusion in the intellect, remorse or vain +aspiration in the conscience, disproportion or ugliness in the +imagination, doubt, fear, and hate in the heart. There is a hell +of remorse, forever retreading the path of ruined yesterdays. +There is a hell of loss, whose occupant stands gazing on the +melancholy might have been transmuted now into a relentless +nevermore. Every sinner has a hell as original and idiosyncratic +as his soul and its contents. As the ingredients of evil +experience are not mixed alike in any, hell cannot be one +monotonous fixture for all, but must be a process altering with +the different elements and degrees afforded, and softening or +ending its wretchedness in proportion as the heavenly elements and +degrees of freedom, pleasure, clearness, self approval, beauty, +faith and love, furnish the conditions of blessedness. Hell being +the consciousness of a soul in which private will is antagonistic +to some relation of universal law, its keenness and extent, in +every instance, must be measured by the variations of this +antagonism. But how does such an antagonism arise? What are the +results or penalties of it? How can it be remedied? No amount of +reflection will enable any man to penetrate to the bottom of all +the mysteries connected with these questions. But though we cannot +tell why the principles of our destiny should be as we find them, +we can see what the facts of the case actually are as revealed in +the history of human experience. And this is what chiefly concerns +us. Let us, then, try to penetrate a little more thoroughly into +the nature of hell. + +The rude definition of heaven and hell, regardless of any special +place or time, is respectively the experience of good, and the +experience of evil. But what are good and evil? Good is the +conscious realization of universal order, the absolute fruition of +being, the fulfillment of individual function, in accordance with +the conditions for the most perfect and prolonged fulfillment of +the universal totality of functions. Supposing that there were +only one instance and form of conscious life, with no possibility +of conflicting claims within or without, then good would be to +that life simply the fulfillment of the functions of its nature. +But the moment a being is set in relation with other beings like +itself, and also made aware of various gradations of importance +among its own interior faculties, then the definition of good is +no longer the simple fulfillment of function, or the mere +gratification of desire; but it becomes the fulfillment of +function in such a manner as to secure the greatest total quality +and quantity of fulfilled function. Now evil is the opposite or +negation of this. It is whatever lessens the fruition of life, +prevents the fulfillment of function, contracts or mars the +realization of universal order in the consciousness of a living +being. Thus evil is not merely the keeping of an individual desire +from its own proper good. But every gratification of desire which +involves the winning of a less important good at the expense of a +more important one is evil; or, on the other hand, the evil of +sacrificing or denying a gratification in itself legitimate, +becomes good when it is the means for securing a more authoritative +gratification. Let us try to make these abstract statements +intelligible by illustration. + +The appropriation of nutriment is a good, the indispensable method +for sustaining life. It is right that we should eat and drink; and +the pleasure which accompanies the proper performance of the +function is the reflex approval of the Creator. The refusal fitly +to take and relish our food brings debility, disease, pain, and +premature death. Whether this refusal results from absorption in +other employment or from some superstitious belief, it is a +violation of the will of our Maker, and the consequent suffering +and dissolution are the retributive hell or reflex signals, +painfully pointing out our duty. On the other hand, if the +pleasure of gratifying appetite becomes a motive for its own sake +and leads to excessive indulgence, the superior good of permanent +health and vigor is sacrificed to the far inferior transient good +of a tickled palate. Thus, the dyspeptic over loading his stomach +is plunged into the horrid hell of nightmare: the gourmand, +pampering himself with a diet of spiced meats and Burgundy, +shrieks from the twinging hell of gout. There is no divine malice +in this. It is simply the rectifying rebound of the distorted +arrangements of nature. The law of virtue prescribes in every +respect that course of action which, on the whole, permanently and +universally, will secure the greatest amount and the best quality +of life and experience. Vice is whatever inverts or interferes +with this, as when a man exalts a physical impulse above a moral +faculty, or incurs years of shame and misery in the future for the +sake of some passing gratification in the present. God commands +man to rule his passions by reason, not slavishly obey them; to +exercise a wisely proportioned self denial to day for the winning +of a safer and nobler morrow. The degree in which they do this +measures the civilization, wisdom, moral valor, and dignity of +men. The failure to do this is the condition on which every +infernal penalty or reaction of hellish experience hinges. A man +may feed an abnormal craving for opium, until all his once royal +powers of body and mind are sacrificed, imbecility and madness set +in, and his nervous system becomes a darting box of torments. How +much better, according to the aphorism of Jesus, to have cut off +this single desire, than for the whole man to be thus cast into +hell. + +Hell is the retributive reflex or return of disarranged order +experienced when in the hieriarchy of man higher grades of faculty +and motive are subordinated to lower ones. The miser who gives +himself up to a base greed for money, separated from its uses, is +thereby degraded into a mechanized, self fed and self consuming +passion, having no pleasure, except that of accumulating, hoarding +and gloating over the idle emblem of a good never realized. His +time and life, his very brain and heart, are coined into an +obscene dream of money. He knows nothing of the grandest ranges of +the universe, nothing of the sweetest delights of humanity. +Contracted, stooping, poorly clad, ill fed, self neglected, +despised by everybody, dwelling alone in a bleak and squalid +chamber, despite his potential riches, his whole life is a +conglomerate of impure fears welded by one sordid lust fear of +robbery, fear of poverty, fear of men, fear of God, fear of death, +all fused together by a lust for money. Is he not in a competent +hell? Who would wish anything worse for him? His vice is the +elevation of the love of money above a thousand nobler claims. His +unclean and odious experience is the avenging hell which warns the +spectators, and would redeem its occupant, if he would open his +soul to its lessons. So, when a burglar breaks into a bank and +bears off the treasures deposited there, scattering dismay and +ruin amidst a hundred families, the essence of his crime is that +he makes the narrow principle of his selfish desire paramount over +the broad principle of the public welfare, setting the petty good +of his individual enrichment above the weighty good represented by +that respect for the right of property which is a condition +essential to the life of the community. The principle on which he +acts, if carried out, would cause the dissolution of society. The +evil which he seeks to avoid, his lack of the means of life, is +incomparably smaller than the evil he perpetrates, the means for +the death of society. The resulting sense of hostility between +himself and the community, alienation from his fellow men and from +God, fear of detection, actual condemnation by his own conscience, +and ideal condemnation by all the world, constitute a hell felt in +proportion to the delicacy of his sensibility. The spiritual +disturbance and pain thus suffered are the effort of Providence to +readjust the inverted relation of his low self interest to the +higher interest of the general public, and remove the threatened +ruinous consequences of his sin by remedying the order it has +disbalanced and broken. + +These illustrations have prepared the way for a statement of the +true idea of hell in its final formula. The will of God is +expressed in that gradation of goods or scale of ranks which +indicates the fixed conditions of universal welfare and the +accordant forces of the motives which should impel our pursuit of +them. To seek these goods in their proper order of importance and +authority, every level of function beneath kept subservient to +every one above, is the law of salvation, or the pathway of heaven +through the universe. To substitute our will for the will of God, +the intensity of private desires in place of the dignity of public +motives, putting the lower and smaller over the higher and +greater, is the law of perdition, or the pathway of hell through +the universe. + +The lowest function of man is a simple momentary gratification of +sense, as, for example, an act of nutrition. The highest function +of which his nature is capable is the surrender of himself to the +universal order, the sympathetic identification of himself with +the eternal law and weal of the whole. Between those vast extremes +there are hundreds of intermediate functions, rising in worth and +authority from the direct gratifications of appetite to the ideal +appropriations of transcendental good, from the titillation given +by a pinch of snuff to the thrill imparted by an imaginative +contemplation of the redeemed state of humanity a million years +ahead. But, throughout the entire range, all the sin and guilt +from which hell is produced consist in obeying a lower motive in +preference to a higher one, making some narrow or selfish good +paramount over a wider or disinterested one. A man, educated as a +physician, practiced his profession on scientific principles, and +nearly starved on an income of seven hundred dollars a year. He +then set up as a quack, compounded a worthless nostrum, and, by +dint of impudence, advertising, and other charlatanry, made +eighteen thousand dollars a year, and justified his conduct on the +ground of his success. By falsehood and cheating he preyed on the +credulity of the public. If all men were like him, society could +not exist. The meanness of his soul, shutting him out from the +most exquisite and exalted prerogatives of human nature, is the +revenge which the universe takes on such a man the hell in which +God envelops him. A manufacturer turns out certain products by +means of a chemical process which adds seven per cent. to his +profit, but shortens the average life of his workmen five years. +All mankind would indignantly denounce him with an instinctive +recognition of his wickedness in thus erecting the profane +standard of pecuniary gain above the sacredness of the lives of +his brothers. But when of two men in deadly peril from an +approaching explosion only one can escape, and the stronger, +instead of monopolizing the chance, as he might, stands back and +lays down his life in saving the weaker, it is a deed of heroic +virtue, applauded by all men, supported by the whole moral +creation which derives new beauty and sweetness from it. It +radiates a peaceful bliss of self approval through the breast +before it is mangled and cold, and fills the soul with a serene +joy as it flies to God. The essential merit of such an action is +the subjection of that selfishness which is the principle of all +sin, and whose recoil is the spring trap of hell, to that +disinterestedness which is the germ of redemption and the perfume +of heaven. + +It is not an unfrequent occurrence for a mixture of heaven and +hell to be experienced. Here is an able and upright merchant who +is about to fail, in consequence of disasters which he could +neither foresee nor prevent, and for which he is in no sense +responsible. He shrinks from bankruptcy with inexpressible shame +and distress. He is mortified, cut to the quick, robbed of sleep, +can hardly look his creditors in the face. Now, he reflects, "This +is not my fault. I have been honest, prudent, economical, +unwearied in effort, I have done my duty to the best of my +ability. God approves me, and all good men would if they knew the +exact facts." If that assurance does not shed an element of heaven +into his hell, spread a soothing veil of light and oil over his +stormy trouble, then it is because his pride is greater than his +self respect, his vanity more keen than his conscience is strong, +his regard for appearances more influential than his knowledge of +the truth. And in that case the misery he suffers is the penalty +of his excessive self sensitiveness. + +The elements of hell are pain, slavery, imprisonment, rebellion, +forced exertion, forced inaction, shame, fear, self condemnation, +social condemnation, universal condemnation, aimlessness, and +despair. He who seeks good only in the just order of its +successive standards, gratifying no lower function, except in +subservience to the higher ones, escapes these experiences, feels +that he fulfills his destiny, and is an approved freeman of God. +The service of truth and good alone makes free; all service of +evil is slavery and wretchedness. For freedom is spontaneous +obedience to that which has a right to command. The thirsty man +who quaffs a glass of cold water does an act of liberty; but he +who constantly intoxicates himself in satiation of a morbid and +despotic appetite, knows that he is a slave, and feels condemned, +and chafes in the hell of his bondage. + +The dissipated sluggards and thieves who feed the vices and prey +on the interests of the community, writhe under the rebuke of the +higher laws they break in enthroning their selfish propensities +above the cardinal standards of the public good; and in the stale +monotony of their indulgences, they know nothing of the glorious +zest shed by the best prizes of existence into the breasts of the +virtuous and aspiring, whom every day finds farther advanced on +their way to perfection. Envy is the very blast that blows the +forge of hell. It sets its victim in painful antagonism with all +good not his own, actually turning it into evil; while a generous +sympathy appropriates as its own all the foreign good it +contemplates. The sight of his successful rival keeps an envious +man in a chronic hell, but adds a heavenly enjoyment to the +experience of a generous friend. Ignorance, pride, falsehood, and +hate are the four master keys to the gates of hell keys which +sinners are ever unwittingly using to let themselves in, and then +to lock the bolts behind. + +A character whose spontaneous motions are upward and outward, from +the central and lowermost instincts of self toward the highest and +outer most apprehensions of good, exemplifies the law of +salvation, which guides the conscious soul in an ascending and +expanding spiral through the successively greater spheres of truth +and life. The character whose spontaneous tendencies are the +reverse of this, moving inward and downward, exemplifies the law +of perdition, which guides the soul in a descending and +contracting spiral, constantly enslaving it to lower and viler +attractions of self in preference to letting it freely serve the +superior ranks forever issuing their redemptive behests and +invitations above. When the members of a family erect their +separate wills as independent laws, instead of harmoniously +blending around a common authority of truth and love, when they +live in incessant collisions and stormy insubordination, a +poisonous fret of irritable vanity gnawing their heart strings, a +fiery sleet of hate and scorn hurtling through the domestic +atmosphere, the whole household are in perdition. Their home is a +concentrated hell. To be without love, without soothing attentions +and encouragements, without fresh aims, and a relishing +alternation of work and rest, without progress and hope, to be +deprived of the legitimate gratifications of the functions of our +being, and compelled to suffer their opposites what closer +definition of hell can there be than this? And this, while avoided +or neutralized by virtue, is, in its various degrees, obviously +the inevitable result and penalty of sin. + +The great mistake in the popular view or mythological doctrine of +hell has arisen from conceiving of God under the image of a +political ruler, acting from without, by wilful methods, and +inflicting arbitrary judgments on his rebellious subjects. He +should be conceived as the dynamic Creator, acting from within, +through the intrinsic order and laws of things, for the +instruction and guidance of his creatures. His condemnation is the +inevitable culmination of a discordant state of being, rather than +the verdict of a vindictive judge or the sentence of a forensic +monarch. Every retribution is an impinge of the creature in the +creation, and, so far from expressing destructive wrath, is an act +of the self rectifying mechanism of the universe to readjust the +part with the whole. With what pernicious folly, what cruel +superstition, men have attributed their own miserable passions to +their imperturbable Maker, breaking his infinite perfection into +all sorts of frightful shapes, as seen through the blur and +effervescence of their own imperfections! So the sun seems to go +down with his garments rolled in blood, and to set angrily in a +stormy ocean of fire: but really the great lamp of the universe +shines serenely from the unalterable fixture of his central seat, +and all this spectral tempest of blaze and glare is but a +refraction of his beams through our vexed atmosphere. + +God being infinitely perfect, does not change his dispositions and +modes of action like a fickle man. His intentions and deeds are +the same here and everywhere, now and always. If we wish to learn +in what manner God will prepare a hell and punish the impenitent +wicked after death, we must not, as men did in the barbaric and +mythological ages, make an induction from the treatment of +criminals by capricious and revengeful rulers in this world; we +must see how God himself now treats his disobedient children for +their demerits here, assured that his eternal temper and method +are identical with his temporal temper and method. + +Well, then, how does God treat offenders now? Incapable of anger +or caprice, he retains his own steady procedures and absolute +serenity unaltered, but leaves the culprits to endure the effects +of their perverted bearing towards him and towards the order he +has established. + +If a man lies or defiles himself, or blasphemes, or murders, God +does not dash him from a cliff or cast him into a furnace of fire. +There would be no connection of cause and effect in + +that; and to suppose it, is a gross superstition. He leaves the +offender to the reactions of his own acts, the discordant vileness +of his own degradation, the devouring return of his own passions, +to punish him for his sin, and to purge him of his wrong. The true +retribution of every wicked deed is contained in the recalcitration +of its own motive. What fitter penalty can the soul suffer than +that of being embraced in the hellish atmosphere of its own bad spirit, +to teach it to reform itself and cultivate a better spirit? + +What, then, is the meaning of the fear, suffering and horror, +which so often accompany or follow sin? They do not, as has been +commonly supposed, express the indignation and revengefulness of +God. No, at their very darkest, they must suggest the shadow of +his aggrieved will, not the lurid frown of his rage. A part of the +discord which sin is and introduces, they denote the remedial +struggles of nature and grace to restore the perverted being to +its normal condition. If you put your finger in the fire the +burning pain is the reaction of your act, and that pain is not +vengeance, but preservative education. When some frightful disease +seizes on a man, the inflammation and convulsions which succeed +are the violent spring of the constitution on the enemy, its +desperate attempt to shake off the fell grasp, and bring the +organism to health and peace again. These efforts either succeed, +or in the exhausting shocks the body is destroyed. It is the same +with the soul. Sin is the displacement of the hierarchy of +authorities in the soul, the misbalancing of its energies, the +disturbance of its health and peace. And all the varieties of +retribution are the recoil of the injured faculties, the struggles +of the insulted authorities, to vindicate and reestablish +themselves. Now, these efforts, if the soul is indestructible, +must always, at last, be successful. Health in the body is the +harmonious adjustment of its energies with its conditions; and a +sufficient modicum must be obtained or death ensues. Virtue in the +soul is the harmony of its powers with the laws of God; the +measure of this is the measure of spiritual life; and granting the +soul to be immortal, the tendency towards a complete measure of +virtue must ultimately become irresistible, and every hell at last +terminate in paradise. The persistent forces or laws of the divine +environment steadily tend to draw the unstable forces or passions +of all creatures into harmony with them, and that harmony is +redemption. Perdition is consequently never, as the ecclesiastical +doctrine makes it always, a state of fixed hopelessness. Though we +make our bed in the nethermost hell, God is there. And wherever +God is, penitence and grace, reformation and pardon, have a right +of eminent domain between him and the souls of his children. + +According to the common doctrine of hell as a physical locality, +and the predestination of all men to it through the sin of Adam, +birth is a universal gateway of perdition, the whole world one +open course to damnation for all except the few elected to be +saved through the blood of Christ. The orthodox scheme depicts the +lineage of Adam as a dark river of perdition, choked with the +souls of the damned, steadily pouring into hell ever since our +human generations began. But in addition to the refutation of this +terrible belief by its monstrous moral iniquity, science is now +doubly refuting it by the proof of the existence of the human race +on the earth for unnumbered centuries before the Biblical date of +Adam. So this fictitious gate of a fictitious hell is shut and +abolished. With it vanishes the horrible picture of this world as +floored with omnipresent trap doors to the bottomless pit, and +closed fatally around by a dead wall of doom, through which, by +one bloody orifice alone, the believers in the vicarious atonement +could crawl up into heaven. In place of this, we see the whole +universe as one open House of God, traversed in all directions by +the free entries of laws of intrinsic justice and love. + +And so of the remaining theoretic gates of hell, unbelief, ritual +neglect, and the other technicalities on which priests and deluded +zealots have always hinged the perdition of such as heed not their +authority; none of them shall much longer prevail. With the wiping +out of the mythological hell all these fanciful entrances to it +likewise disappear. But instead of these visionary ones we should +point out and warn men from the substantial gates of the true +hell. Whatever is a cause of insubordinate and discordant fruition +in body or soul, individual or community, is a real gate of hell. +All the moral and social evils, intemperance, war, ambition, +avarice, the extremes of poverty and wealth, ignorance, bad +example, despotism, disease, every form of vice or crime, all the +influences that destroy or mar human virtue, excellence, and +harmony, are so many open gates of hell, drawing their victims in. +In holding back those who are approaching these fatal gates, in +trying to contract them, to shut them up here is a vital work to +be done, infinitely more promising than the brandishing of the +terrors of that material hell in which sensible men can no longer +believe. For the only true hell is the remedial vibration of truth +in an uncoordinated soul, even when not remedial for the +individual still remedial for the race. + +It is not our outward abode, but our inmost spirit, that makes our +experience infernal or heavenly: for, in the last result, it is +the occupying spirit that moulds the environment, not the +habitation that determines the tenant. This is the substance of +the whole matter. An accomplished chemist, who was a good man in +truth, but a heretic by the standard of orthodoxy, died. Being an +unbeliever, of course, he went to hell. Seeing a group of children +in torment there, he pitied them very deeply, and straightway +began to devise measures, by means of his skill in chemical +science, to shield them from the flame. Instantly the whole scene +changed. The beauty of heaven lay around him, and all its +blandness breathed through him. Forgetting his own sufferings in +sympathy for those of others, he had obeyed the law of virtue, +subjecting a selfish desire to a disinterested one; and the +omnipotent God enveloped him with the heaven of his own spirit. +Another man, who was hard and cruel in character, but perfectly +sound in the orthodox faith and observances, died. It is true he +was an avaricious and hard saint, but then he believed in the +atoning blood; and so, of course, he went to heaven. No sooner did +he find himself safely seated in bliss than he tried to peep over +the golden wall into the pit of perdition, in order to heighten +the relish of his favored lot by the contrast of the agonies of +the lost. Instantly the celestial scenery about him was changed +into infernal, and, by the radiation and return of his own bad +spirit, he found himself plunged into hell and writhing under its +retributive experience. His character exemplified the law of +perdition, enthroning selfishness over disinterestedness, +subverting the order of virtue; and the insulted will of God made +his imagined heaven a real hell. + +Hell is revealed in the experience of the world as a diminishing +quantity through the successive periods since war, cannibalism and +slavery were universal. Will not the progressive process terminate +in the utter extinction of it, paradise everywhere steadily +encroaching on purgatory until at last the whole universe of matter +and spirit composes an unbroken heaven? + +According to the nebular hypothesis, the entire creation was once +a measureless chaos confusion, conflict, collisions, explosions, +making a universal hell of matter. But the discords and +perturbations grew ever less and less, regularity and order more +and more, as suns and planets and moons took form and wheeled in +their gleaming circles, till now the mazy web of worlds is weaving +throughout space the perfect harmony of the creative design. The +evolution of incarnate spiritual destinies began later, and is +more complex than the material, each mind being as complicated as +the whole galaxy. May we not trust that at last it shall be as +complete as the evolution of the astronomic motions already is, +and a divine empire of holy and happy men be the goal of history? +This hope carries the cross through hell, and leaves nothing +unredeemed. + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE GATES OF HEAVEN; OR, THE LAW OF SALVATION IN ALL WORLDS. + +HEAVEN, in the crude fancy of mankind, has generally been +conceived as a definite, exclusive, material abode; either some +elysian clime on the surface of the earth; or some happy isle +beyond the setting sun; or this whole globe, renovated by fire and +peopled with a risen and ransomed race; or else some halcyon spot +in the sky, curtained with inaccessible splendor and crowded with +eternal blessings. It was natural that men should think thus of +heaven as a place whence all the evils which they knew were +excluded and where all the goods which they knew were carried to +the highest pitch, God himself visibly enthroned there in +entrancing glory amidst throngs of worshippers. + +This was unavoidable, because, in an early age, before knowledge +and reflection had trained men to the critical examination and +correction of their instinctive conclusions, all the data which +they possessed would naturally lead them to imagine the unknown +God in the glorified form and circumstances of the most enviable +being their experience had yet revealed to them; and to paint the +unknown future state of perfected souls under the purest aspects +of the most desirable boons they had known in the present state. +It being a necessity of their uncritical minds to personify God by +a definite picture of imagination, and to portray heaven to +themselves as an external place, they could not do otherwise than +work out the results by means of the most intense experiences and +the most impressive imagery familiar to them. The highest idea +they had of man, purified and expanded to the utmost, would be +their idea of God; and the grandest and happiest conditions of +existence within their observation, enhanced by the removal of +every limiting ill, would form their notion of heaven. Both would +be outward, definite, local, and, as it were, tangible. Royal +courts with their pomp of power and luxury; priestly temples, with +their exclusive sanctity, their awe inspiring secrets, their +processions and anthems, would inevitably furnish the prevailing +casts and colors to the dogmas and the scenery of early religion. +For what were the most vivid of all the experiences men had among +their fellows on earth? Why, the exhibitions of the sultan with +his gorgeous ceremonial state, and of the high priest with the +dread sacrifice and homage he paid amidst clouds of incense and +rolling waves of song; the admission of the favored, in glittering +robes, to share the privileges; the exclusion of the profane and +vulgar in squalid misery and outer darkness. Consequently, except +by a miracle, these sights could not fail largely to constitute +the scenic elements for the popular belief concerning God and +heaven. What should men reflect over into the unknown to portray +their ideals there, if not the most coveted ingredients and the +most impressive forms of the known? The great thing, then, +inevitably, would be supposed to be to gain the personal favor of +the supreme Sovereign by some artifice, some flattery, some +fortunate compliance with his arbitrary caprice, and to get into +the charmed enclosure of his abode by some special grace some +authoritative passport or magic art. + +But as soon as science and philosophy, and a spiritual experience +rectifying its own errors by reflective criticism, have created a +more competent theology it discredits all these raw schemes. It +teaches that God, being the eternal omnipresent power and mystery +which foreran, underlies, pervades and includes all things, cannot +justly be figured as a man, locally here or there, and not +elsewhere. He can be justly thought of only as the almighty +Creator of the universe, intelligible in the order of his works +and ways, but inscrutable in his essence, absent nowhere, present +everywhere in general, and specially revealed anywhere whenever a +fit experience in the soul awakens a special consciousness of him. +This conception of God the only one any longer defensible as the +Infinite Spirit, incapable, except in his various incarnations, of +particular local enthronement and uncovering to the outward gaze +of worshippers, necessitates a correspondent alteration in the +vulgar idea of heaven as an exclusive spot in space. + +In every form of being, in any portion of the universe, the +central idea of a state of salvation, is the fulfillment of the +will of the Creator in the faculties of the creature, the fruition +of the ends of the whole in the consciousness of the part, the +congruity of the forces of the soul with the requirements of its +situation. If this definition be accepted, it is clear that no +mere place of residence, however excellent, can be heaven. That is +but one factor of heaven, and worthless without a corresponding +factor of a spiritual kind. Essentially, heaven is a divine +experience, not a divine location; yet constructively it is both +of these. Ever so serene and pure a space, perfectly free from +every perturbation of ill, and surrounded with all the outer +provisions of power and order, would be no heaven, until a +prepared soul entered it, furnishing the spiritual conditions for +the forces to run into fruition, for the melody of blissful being +to play. The material elements of the universe, so far as we know, +are unconscious dynamics. However perfectly marshalled, they can +by themselves compose no heaven. So the conscious soul, as far as +we know, is incapable of an independent and unrelated existence in +itself. All its experience, when ultimately analyzed, is the +resultant of the mutual relations between its own energies and +capacities and the forms and forces of things outside of itself. +When there is a right arrangement of right realities in the +residence, and a right development of faculties and affections +within the resident, and such an adjustment of the spiritual +states with the surrounding conditions, that, as these act and +react upon each other, the laws of the universe break into +conscious harmony, or the will of God is realized in a life of +blessedness; that harmony, that blessedness, is what we mean by +heaven; and the conditions of its realization constitute the law +of salvation. + +Such being the true idea of heaven, obviously, it cannot be +limited to any particular locality. It may be here, elsewhere, +anywhere, everywhere, before death, in death, after death; +whenever and wherever the proper conditions meet inward state and +outward circumstances so adjusted as to produce an experience +which fulfills the will of God and realizes the end of the +creation. Hereafter this may be, as we know it now on earth, a +spiritual fruition in material conditions, or it may be something +altered in accordance with the varying exigences of worlds whose +details are as yet inconceivable by us, altogether hidden behind +the veil of futurity and our ignorance. But its one fundamental +condition, its eternal essence under all circumstances which can +possibly happen, must always be the same. Whatever changes await +the soul, embodied in a new form in the state after death, or +remaining in pure disembodiment; whatever be the relation of the +immaterial entity of mind to the circumference and contents of its +new home, it can be in paradise, it can command peace and bliss, +or any equivalent of these terms, only by the fulfillment of the +will of God in its being. Heaven is, therefore, the reconciliation +and unison of the soul with its divinely appointed lot, the +identification of the ideal and the real. + +The will of God is expressed in the soul in the submissive +services and virtues of a pure and pious character it is expressed +in the outward creation by the unbreakable persistency of his laws +through all the aberrations and discords of accompaning evil or +limitation. Nowhere can it ever be an impossibility to conjoin +these and thus to make a heaven. The one thing which everywhere is +variable and evanescent, is evil, or the imperfect adjustment of +the creature with the works and designs of the Creator. The one +thing which forever stays, and steadily invites the intelligent +soul to its embrace, is good, that is, the opportunity to realize +the divinely intended correspondence of the relations in the part +with the relations in the whole, a serene movement of life through +the unison of the soul with its true fate. Now, the one predicate +which is essential in all things, without whose presence nothing +can be, is the will of God. Even could that will be violated or +withstood, still it would be there, upholding, forgiving, wooing +Salvation, or a life of conscious harmony, is capable of +realization, of course, wherever the means are offered for the +performance and enjoyment of the will of God; and the infinity of +his attributes necessarily makes that condition an omnipresent +possibility in the realm of free spirits. Therefore, heaven is not +outwardly limited to one place, or to one period, but may be +achieved at any time, and anywhere. This throws light on the +fallacy of the current, narrow doctrine of a limited probation. +The oriental belief that the action of the present is the fate of +the future unquestionably covers a profound truth. Yet, if there +is always a future there must likewise always be a present, and +the right action in this may forever redeem that. Probation is +limited by no decree, only by the duration of free being. + +Although the essential element in the idea of heaven is forever +the same, it may be regarded in three different aspects, or on +three different scales as an individual experience, as a social +state, as a far off universal event. Heaven, as a private +experience, is the harmonized intercourse of the soul with the +divineness in its surrounding conditions. Heaven, as a public +society, is the blessed communion of blessed souls, a complete +adjustment of the lives of kindred natures. Heaven, as a final +consummation, is the publication of the vindicated will of God in +the total harmony of the universe, all individual wills so many +separate notes blent in the collective consonance of the whole. + +But, for all practical purposes, we may overlook this triple +distinction and think of heaven simply as the correspondence of +the life of the soul with those outward conditions which represent +the will of God. And towards this conclusion everything, in its +profoundest and most persistent tendency, is bearing. In spite of +interruptions and seeming exceptions, it is towards this that the +entire confluence of forces and beings gravitates and slowly +advances. The universal law of evolution, in which a scientific +philosophy has generalized its most comprehensive induction, is +but a history and prophecy of the progress towards a moving +equilibrium of the totality of worlds and intelligences, which can +eventuate only in a universal heaven, or unimpeded completion of +the creative design. + +Do we not see all creatures tending towards the perfection of +their respective types, every improvement selectively taken up and +carried on, every deteriorating deviation eliminated, all errors +and failures doomed to perish or change into new conditions for +more hopeful attempts? This confirms the faith first based on the +deeper argument. For, since the will of God is the one persistent +reality, the one all evolving and all inclusive power of which +evil is only the distorted and shadowy negation, that opposition +to the will of God which constitutes sin and misery, that discord +with him which generates hell, must prove an ever smaller +accompaniment of his plan, a transitory phenomenon ceasing in even +degree with the spreading conquests of his almighty purpose, as +race on race of creatures, and system on system of worlds, sweep +into the victorious harmony, until the boundless realm of being +shall be boundless heaven. + +Heaven, then, in essence, is not merely a favored locality, not +merely a resigned soul, but the result of a combination of these +in a just relation. It is not a playing power in the material +environment nor an inherent attribute of the spiritual instrument; +but it is the music which flows from the instrument when it is +attuned to react in coordination with the acting environment. +Salvation, consequently, is not simply a divine place of abode, +not simply a divine state of soul; but it is these two conjoined. +It is the experimental deposit between the two poles of rightly +ordered conditions in the realm and rightly directed energies in +the inhabitant. Heaven, then, in the best and briefest definition +we can give, is the will of God in fulfillment, or the law of the +whole in uncrossed action. + +Hell is the experience produced by the rebound of violated law. +Or, if we hold that, strictly speaking, a divine law is incapable +of violation; as every seeming resistance to gravitation is in +fact a deeper obedience to gravitation, then we may say, in more +accurate phrase, hell is the collision and friction of the +limitations of different laws. It is the discord of the part with +the whole. It is the antagonism of the soul with God. But the +perpetual preservation of a perfectly balanced antagonism with God +is inconceivable. It must vary, totter, grow either worse or +better. If it grows worse, it will finally destroy itself, the +aberrant individuality or malign insurgence vanishing in the +totality of force, as the filth of our sewers vanishes purely in +the purity of the ocean. If it grows better, its improvement will +finally transform the opposition into reconciliation, the evil +disappearing in good. Therefore, every being must at length be +saved from misery, if not by redemptive atonement then by +absolvent annihilation, and one absolute heaven finally absorb the +dwindling hells. + +The question of chief importance to us in relation to heaven is, +How can we gain admission into it. The limitations of language +necessitate the use of imagery for the expression of religious +ideas: and there is no objection to it if it be recognized as +imagery, and be interpreted accordingly. Considering, then, that +beatific experience of which heaven consists, under the metaphor +of a city, what are its ways of entrance? How can we pass to its +citizenship? + +The obstacles to our entrance exist not in the city itself. Its +gates are never closed. The supreme conditions of redemption are +spiritual, and not local or material. If there be within +no fatal impediments to the free course of the will of God, all +outer obstacles easily give way and cease. If we are ever to know +heaven, it is within ourselves that we must find it out. Whatever +abolishes that internal rebellion of the soul which makes its +experience a purgatory, whatever replaces this confusion with an +accord of the faculties, is a road to heaven. Whatever removes +vices and inserts virtues in their stead, attuning us to the +eternal laws of things, leads us through some gate into paradise. +And nothing else can no ceremonial artifice, no external +transference, no sacramental exorcism, no priestly dodge. + +The same mistake generally committed in regard to the nature of +heaven, making it a mere local residence, has been as generally +committed in regard to the conditions of admission. They have been +made arbitrary, whereas they are intrinsic. They are inwrought +with the substantial laws of being. The idea of God being first +fashioned after the image of a sultan throned in his palace amidst +his courtiers, ruling an empire by his whims, it was but natural +that heaven, and the terms of entrance there, should be in a +similar manner conceived under the forms of court ceremonial with +its capricious favoritisms. Thus it has been supposed that by the +atoning sacrifice of an incarnate person of the Godhead +satisfaction has been made for the sins of the world, which was +hopelessly ruined by its original federal representative, and that +thus a pardon was offered to those alone who mentally accept the +formula of the correspondent belief. + +According to this view, the only open gateway of heaven is faith +in the vicarious atonement, a baptismal passage through the blood +of Christ. Science explodes this narrow and repulsive doctrine by +demonstrating its irreconcilableness alike with physical fact and +with moral law, first tracing the affiliated lines of our race +back to many separate Adams in the shadows of an indeterminable +antiquity, and then showing that the divine method of salvation is +through substantial rejection of evil and appropriation of good in +personal character, and not through royal proclamation and +forensic conformity. + +The plan of God for the salvation of men, as its culmination is +seen in Christ, is the exhibition of the true type of being, the +true style of motive and action, for their assimilation and +reproduction: but Calvinism, when fundamentally analyzed, reduces +it to a monarchical manifesto and spectacular drama working its +effects through verbal terms, acts of mental assent and gesticular +deeds. Every sound teaching of philosophy refutes this exclusive +and arbitrary creed. In fact, its fictitious and mythological +nature is obvious the moment we see that the will of God is +represented in those laws of nature which are the direct +articulations and embodiments of his eternal mind, and not in +those political regulations or priestly and judicial formalities +which express the perverted desires and artificial devices of men. +The wearing of a certain dress, the bending of the knee, the +muttering of a phrase, may flatter an earthly sovereign and gain a +seat at his banquets. But it is childish folly to fancy any such +thing of God. It is absurd to suppose that he has two schemes of +government, one for the present state, another for the future; one +for the elect, another for the reprobate; one for those who gaze +on the spectacle of the crucifixion and make a certain sign, +another for those who do not. His laws, identified with the +unchangeable nature and course of the creation, sweep in one +unbroken order throughout immensity and eternity, awarding perfect +justice, and perfect mercy to all alike, making the experience of +all souls a hell or a heaven to them accordingly as they strive +against or harmonize with the divine system of existence in +which they have their being. The mere acceptance of a technical +dogma, the mere performance of a ritual action, cannot adjust +a discordant character with the conditions of blessedness so +as to reinstate an exile of heaven. To imagine that God will, +in consideration of some technical device, place in heaven a +man whose character fits him for hell, or, in default of that +conventionality, place in hell a man whose character fits him +for heaven, is to represent him as acting on an eccentric whim. +And surely every one who has a worthy idea of God must find +it much easier to believe that men have mixed mythological +dreams with their religion, than to believe that the infinite +God is capable of despotic freaks or melo dramatic caprices. + +The poor, odious figment that baptism with the blood of Christ +is the sole entrance to heaven, is rebuked by the sweet and awful +imperturbableness with which the laws of being act, distributing +the ingredients of hell or heaven to every one accordingly as his +vices disobey or his virtues obey the will of God. + +In a universe of law where God with all his attributes is +omnipresent no trick can ever be the pathway into paradise. The +true method of salvation is by the production of a good character +through divine grace and the discipline of life. Thus, the real +law of salvation through Christ consists not in the technical +belief that he shed his blood for our redemption, but in the +personal derival from him of that spirit which will make us +willing to shed our own blood for the good of others. + +There was, not long ago, called to her eternal home, a young +woman, who, by the sweet gentleness, the heroic generosity and the +unspotted fidelity of her whole life, deserves an exalted place on +the roll of feminine chivalry and saintliness. Not a brighter +name, or one associated with a more fearless and accomplished +spirit, is recorded on the list of those Christian women who +volunteered to serve as nurses in the great American war of +nationality. No soldier was braver, few were more under fire, than +she; still plying her holy work with unfaltering love and +fortitude, both in the horrid miasma of camps and before the +charge of cavalry and the blaze of cannon. Many a time, the +livelong night, under the solemn stars, equipped with assuaging +stores, she threaded her way alone through the debris of carnage, +seeking out the wounded among the dead, lifting her voice in song +as a signal for any lingering survivor who might be near. Many a +time she broke on the vision of mutilated and dying men, with the +light of love in her eyes, a hymn of cheer on her lips, and +unwearied ministrations in her hands, transfigured with courage +and devotion, gleaming on their sight through the sulphurous flame +of battle or the darkening mists of disease like an angel from +heaven. Receiving the seeds of fatal illness from her exposures, +she returned home to delight with her noble qualities all who knew +her, to make a husband happy, and then to die a contented martyr. +Meekly folding her hands, and saying: "Thanks, Father, for what +thou hast enabled me to do, and still more for the new home to +which thou art calling me now" she was gone. The cruel creed of +superstition says: "Since she was a Universalist, having no part, +by faith, in the mystic sacrifice of Christ, she is doomed to +hell." But every attribute of God, every promise written by his +own finger in the sacred instincts of our nature, as well as the +cardinal teachings of the New Testament, assure us that as the +victorious purity and devotedness of her soul bore her away from +the tabernacle of flesh, the welcoming Savior said: "Come, thou +blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared from the +foundation of the world." And heaven swung wide its gate for her; +and excited fancy conceives that, as she passed in, there was a +gratulatory flutter of wings and waving of palms through the +angelic ranks. + +In distinction from that hypothetical gate of blood, set up by a +crude theology in one narrow place alone, what, then, are the real +gates of heaven, which stand open throughout the realms of +responsible being? All the causes which bring the will of man into +consent with the will of God. Truth is the harmony of mind with +the divine order; beauty, the harmony of taste with the divine +symmetries; good, the harmony of volition with the divine ends. +Everything that secures these for us is an avenue into the +peaceful city of bliss. To be in heaven is to be a transparent +medium through which the qualities of objects, the reflections of +phenomena, the vibrations of aboriginal power, pass in blessed +freedom, without deflection or jar, and on which the mysterious +attraction of the Infinite exerts its supreme spell. To be there +in a superlative degree is to have a mind which is an +infinitesimal mirror of the All, and a heart responsive to that +mind, every perception of truth in the realm of the intellect +generating a correspondent emotion of good in the realm of +affection. Not any forensic act of faith in atoning blood, but +ingrained piety a modest renunciation before the reality of things +is the grand gateway of souls to the blessedness and repose of +God. Anselm, the great sainted Archbishop of Canterbury, said: "I +would rather be in hell without a fault than in heaven with one." +Can any defective technicality damn such a man? No; such a spirit +carries and radiates heaven is itself heaven. That spirit is God +himself in his creature, and can no more be imprisoned in hell +than God can be. On the other hand, any professing Orthodoxist +who, according to a horrible doctrine of the Calvinists in former +days, should hope in heaven to obtain a sharper relish for his own +joy by looking down on the tortures of the damned, and contrasting +his blissful safety with the hopeless agony of their perdition, +would find himself in hell. The infernal scenery, even there, +would burst on his gaze, its atmosphere of pain reek around him, +and the detestable turmoil of its experience rage in his breast. +The selfishness of his character, in steep contradiction to the +public disinterestedness belonging to the divine will, must invert +every proper experience of heaven. Could any conventional +arrangement, or accident of locality, save such a man, while his +character remained unchanged? No; such a spirit carries and +radiates hell, is itself hell. + +A Mohammedan author says of the seventy three sects into which his +coreligionists are divided, that seventy two are wrong ways, +terminating in eternal damnation; the remaining one alone, in +which are the party of salvation, leads through the true faith +into the City of Allah. The same unwise bigotry, the same +unripeness of judgment, has been generally shown by Christians. It +is time they were ashamed of it, and allowed their souls to mature +and expand into a more liberal creed in fuller keeping with the +hospitable amplitude of the righteousness and goodness of God. +Everything that tends to bring the will of man into loving +submission to the infinite Father, to mould the structure of +character into correspondence with those established conditions of +rightful being represented by the moral and religious +virtues, is an open highway of salvation. And all the great +cardinal ordinations of life do legitimately tend to this result. +Therefore all these are gates of heaven. Some pass in through one +of them, others through another; and by means of them all, it is +decreed in the sovereign councils of the Divinity, as we believe, +that, sooner or later, every intelligence shall reach the goal. + +First is the gate of innocence. Little children, spotless youths +and maidens who have known no malice or guile, the saintly few +among mature men and women who by the untempted elevation and +serenity of their temper have kept their integrity unmarred and +their robes unsullied, enter by this nearest and easiest gate. +Borne aloft by their own native gravitation, we see the white +procession of the innocent ones winding far up the cerulean height +and defiling in long melodious line into heaven. + +The second gate is prosperity. Through this enter those to whom +good fortune has served as the guiding smile of God, not pampering +them with arrogance, nor hardening them with careless egotism, but +shaping them to thankful meekness and generosity. Exempt from +lacerating trials, every want benignly supplied, girt with +friends, they have grown up in goodness and gratitude, obeying the +will of God by the natural discharge of their duties, diffusing +benedictions and benefits around them. To such beautiful spirits, +saved from wrong and woe by the redemptive shelter of their lot, +happiness is a better purgatory than wretchedness. The crystal +stream of joy percolating throughout the soul cleanses it more +perfectly than any flames of pain can. And so the virtuous +children of a favored fortune, who have improved their privileges +with pious fidelity, move on into heaven. + +Then the third gate is victory. This is more arduous of approach, +and yet a throng of heroic souls, the very chivalry of heaven, +press through it, wounded and bleeding from the struggle, but +triumphant. These are they who have endured hardship with +uncomplaining fortitude and fought their way through all enemies, +seductions and tribulations. These are they who, armed with the +native sacrament of righteousness, inspired with a loyal love, +would never stoop their crests to wrong nor make a league with +iniquity the conquering champions who tread down every vile +temptation, ever hearing their Leader say, "In the world ye shall +have trouble and sorrow; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the +world." + +Penitence is another gate of heaven. By the instructions of +Providence, by the natural progress of experience, the evolution +of wisdom, a sinner may become aware of the ingratitude of his +disobedience, ashamed of the odiousness of his guilt; be smitten +with a regenerating love of truth, beauty, goodness, God; and, +without waiting for the lash of an external judgment to drive him +the way he should go, by voluntary preference may grieve over his +folly and sin, and turn to his duty and his Savior. Then the +blessed gate of a spontaneous repentance stands open before him; +and through this hospitable entrance multitudes find admission to +the divine home. + +Death often gives an otherwise unattainable deliverance, and so +yields the poor victim of unhappy outer conditions a passage to +heaven. It is a thought no less false than it is frightful, which +represents death as the vindictive turnkey of the creation, at +whose approach probation ends, and the shuddering convict is +thrust into hell, the hopeless bolt dropping into its ward behind +him. It is rather the divine messenger of deliverance for those +who are borne down here under a fate too hard for them. Oh, what +myriads of afflicted ones orphan children crushed by brutal +treatment; poor seamstresses starving in garrets; men and women +ground and grimed almost out of the semblance of humanity, in the +drudgery and darkness of coal mines; hapless suicides, who have +rashly fled from this step dame world, and whose alabaster forms, +purpled with bruises, are laid on the dismal beds of brass in the +morgue, where a ghastly light strains through the grates, and the +crowd of gazers sweeps endlessly on; unsuccessful men of genius, +unappreciated, neglected, cruelly wronged, their extreme +sensitiveness making their lives a long martyrdom to these what a +blessed angel is death, freeing them, setting them in a new state, +starting them on a fresh career, amidst fairer circumstances, in +front of better opportunities! To be saved, and in paradise, what +is it but to be a pure instrument to echo the music of divine +things? When the corruptible parts of the instrument are +hopelessly discordant, or the circumstances of its place here are +jangled with evils which it cannot overcome, then the +disentanglement of the spiritual harp, and the translation of it +to some finer sphere; where its free chords may ring their proper +music clearly out, are a blessed redemption, making death itself a +triumphant gate of heaven. + +Retribution is the remotest and most difficult of all the heavenly +gates; and yet it is one, and one that is indispensable for many a +neglectful, halting, and obstinate child of man. It is an extreme +error to think punishment a gate of hell. It is rather a result of +being already inside, and it legitimately serves as an outlet +thence. Whatever may be the case with imperfect human rulers, in +the government of God no punishment is ever inflicted for the sake +of vengeance, a gratuitous evil. It is blasphemy to deem God +vindictive. He always punishes for the sake of good, to awaken +attention, produce insight and sorrow, and cause a reattunement of +character and conduct with the laws of right, seen at last to be +supremely authoritative and benignant, indissolubly bound up with +the truest good of each and with the sole good of all. On every +gate of hell may be written. Wherever retribution is actual, +salvation is possible, equivalent to the great maxim of +jurisprudence: Ubi jus ibi remedium! So, even the dark door of +retribution, when men will advance by no other way, leads them to +thoughtfulness, regret, and a redemptive readjustment of their +passions and acts. Thus it becomes the ultimate gate of heaven. +And, alas! what a dismal crowd of sufferers, refusing all shorter +and happier ways, wait to be drawn through this torturing passage +of remedial mercy! May the number entering by the other gates ever +increase, and those entering this dwindle! And yet, may it forever +stand open for the unhappy culprits who must be lost unless saved +here! + +Besides all these gates, and commanding them all, there is one +everywhere accessible, and never shut on any soul which has the +grace to try it the omnipresent gate of resignation. Remove the +conditions of resistance, or friction, by a total surrender of +self will and an absolute acceptance of the Divine Will, and, it +matters not where you are, the essence of perdition is destroyed +in your soul. The utter abandonment of pride, a pious submission +to the laws of things, a glad and grateful acquiescence in +whatever the Supreme Authority decrees this is the unrestricted +way into heaven which waits before the steps of all who will only +exhibit the requisite spirit, and enter. Yes, let any being but +banish from himself every vestige of personal dictation before God +and unexactingly identify his desires with universal good; and, +even though he stand on the bottom of hell, heaven will be directly +before him through the open gate of resignation. For the organic +attitude of a pure and loving submission tunes the discordant +creature to that eternal breath of God which blows everywhere +through the universe of souls, sighing until they conspire with +it to make the music of redemption. + +CHAPTER V. + +RESUME HOW THE QUESTION OF IMMORTALITY NOW STANDS. + +IN THE leading nations of Christendom, the belief in the +immortality of the soul has for some time past obviously been +weakening. The number of those who assail the belief increases, +and their utterances become more frank and dogmatic. A multitude +of instances, clear to every careful observer, prove this. +Especially at the present moment do examples of painful doubt, +profound misgiving, bold and exultant denial, mocking flippancy +and ridicule, abound on all sides, in private conversation, in +public discussion, and in every form of literary activity. The +hearty thoroughness and fervor with which the faith of the Church +was once held have gone from whole classes. Subtle skepticism or +blank negation is a common characteristic. Whether this tendency +towards unbelief be sound or fallacious, temporary or permanent, +it is at least actual. And it is important that we examine the +causes of it, and test their logical validity while tracing their +historic spread. Why, then, we ask, is the faith in a future life +for man suffering such a marked decay in the present generation of +Christendom? + +In the first place, the faith pales and dwindles, from the general +neglect of that strenuous and constant cultivation of it formerly +secured by the stern doctrinal drill and by the rigid supervision +of daily thought and habit in the interests of religion. Never +before were men so absorbed as now in material toil and care +during the serious portion of their existence; never before so +beset as now during the leisure portion by innumerable forms of +amusement and dissipation. The habit of lonely meditation and +prayer grows rarer. The exactions of the struggle of ambition grow +fiercer, the burdens of necessity press more heavily; the vices +and temptations of society thicken: and they withdraw the +attention of men from ideal and sacred aims. More and more men +seem to live for labor and pleasure, for time and sense; less and +less for truth and good, for God and eternity. Absorbed in the +materialistic game, or frittered and jaded in frivolous +diversions, all eternal aims go by default. In what precious age +was maddening rivalry so universal, giggling laughter so pestilent +an epidemic, triviality at such a premium and sublimity at such a +discount? But the things to which men really devote themselves +dilate to fill the whole field of their vision. They soon come to +disbelieve that for which they take no thought and make no +sacrifice or investment. The average men of our time, as well +those of the educated classes as those of the laboring classes, do +not live for immortality. Therefore their faith in it diminishes. +Our fathers, to a degree not common now, walked in mental +companionship with God, practiced solitary devotion, shaped their +daily feelings and deeds with reference to the effect on their +future life. Thus that hidden life became real to them. Now the +interests and provocations of the present world, concentrated and +intensified as never before the strife of aspirants, the giddy +enterprises of speculation and commerce and engineering, the chaos +of caucuses and newspapers and telegraphs monopolize our +faculties and exhaust our energies, leaving us but faint +inclination to attend to the solemn themes of the soul and the +mystic lures of infinity. To those crazed with greed, battling +with rivals or sunk in debauchery, God naturally becomes a verbal +phantom and immortality a foolish dream. There is nothing in +mechanism and mammon worship, nothing in selfish sloth and +laughter, nothing in cruel oppression and drudgery, to inspire +belief in the deathless spirituality of man. Among a people +prevailingly given over to these earthlinesses, faith in the +transcendent verities of religion perforce dies out. In the long +run the supreme devotion of the soul irresistibly moulds its +faith. Christendom does not live in conscious sacrifices and +aspirations for God and eternal life, but it lives chiefly for +selfish power and knowledge, money, praise and luxury. Therefore +in Christendom faith in immortality is decaying. But we believe +this decay to be temporary, the necessary transition to a richer +and more harmonic insight. The passing eclipse of faith in a +future life is destined by concentrating attention on the present +to develop its resources, realize the divine possibilities of this +world, unveil all the elements of hell and heaven really existing +here, and fully attune mankind to the conditions of virtue and +blessedness now. When this shall have been done the tangential and +fractional character of our experience will be so obvious, the +inadequacy of the earthly state for the wants of our transcendent +and prophetic faculties will be so urgent, and the supplementing +adaptations of the entire unseen but clearly divined future to the +craving parts in the present will be so manifest, that a complete +revelation of immortality will break upon the prepared mind of the +race. Then history will take a new departure in breathing +communion with the whole creation. + +But infidelity to duty and privilege does not destroy the truth of +duty and privilege. It only blinds the faithless eyes so that they +cannot see the truth. If the immortality of the soul be a truth, +the materialistic absorption of our life would blind us to it and +make us deny it. Exclusive attention to the present would hide the +future from us, although its dazzling prizes, scattered on the +dark back ground of eternity, were burning there in everlasting +invitation and hospitality. Thus, while the eager worldliness of +our age practically vacates the faith in a future life, it does +not logically disprove it; but leaves it for the ultimate test of +the genuine evidence. + +The second reason for the apparent rapid crumbling away of the +belief in immortality in Christendom is the recent wide diffusion +of a critical knowledge of the comparative history of the opinions +of all nations on the subject of a future life, revealing the +mythological character common to them, and tracking them back to +their origin in primitive superstitions no longer is their literal +purport credible to any educated intelligence. In many works by +theological writers, and by scientific writers, of free habits of +thought, like Strauss and Spencer, collections have been made of +the fancies and theories of mankind respecting the survival of the +spirit and the conditions of its experience after the death of the +body. These beliefs, it has been agreed, even among the most +enlightened peoples, rest at last on the same basis with the +crudest notions of the barbarians of the prehistoric period, +namely, the spontaneous workings of raw instinct and imagination. +Tracing the views of Christians as to the nature of the soul, and +the life to come in heaven or hell, back to the rude conceptions +of the naked savages who fashioned their idea of the ghost from +the shadow or the reflection of the man, which was a picture or +representative of him, yet without matter, and from the phenomena +of dreams, in which they supposed the spirit of the man left him +and went through the adventures of the dream and returned ere he +awoke it has been asserted that every form of later faith, however +refined and improved in details, yet really resting on such +puerile fancies, such incompetent and absurd beginnings, is +thereby discredited and must be rejected. + +Now, it is true that when we find among Christian believers, +connected with the doctrine of a future life, an incongruous +medley of physical imagery and gross imaginative pictures, +conceptions of just the same character as the grotesque dreamings +of the earliest savages and the elaborate mythology of subsequent +priesthoods, we are required to treat the whole suppositious mass +as mere poetry or superstition, and to dismiss it from our faith. +But we are by no means justified in doing so with the essential +fact itself of a future life. The essential fact, the assertion of +immortality, may be true, even if the mythological dress be all +fictitious. It does not follow that man has no surviving soul +because the local heaven or hell, described by savage or priest as +its residence, is unreal. It surely is no correct inference that +the soul perishes with the body, because the barbarian mind +generalized its idea of the soul from the phenomena of shadows, +reflections, echoes and dreams. The critical scholar, who judges +the case fairly, will correct the fallacies of the confused +reasoning instinct, and relegate the mythology to its proper +province, but reserve his judgment on the question itself of +spiritual survival to be settled on the only appropriate evidence. +Although the habit thus formed by the critical scholar, and by +those who follow his authority, of sweeping away as wholly +untenable so many varieties of speculation, and so many groups of +images connected with the belief in a future life, has +unquestionably contributed powerfully to foster complete disbelief +in the doctrine itself, yet it is equally unquestionable that this +process of negation is illogical. Many a true doctrine has been +cradled in superstitions and absurdities. A faith supported by +many classes of independent arguments is not overthrown by the +disproof of one of those classes. It is as wrongful a procedure to +deny the immortality of the soul because barbaric instinct +grounded it on erroneous notions and enveloped it with falsehoods, +as it would be to reject the established laws of gravitation and +light and sound, for the reason that the various provisional +theories, preceding the correct ones, were ridiculous mistakes. +The problem to be solved is, Does the man who is now a soul in a +body remain a soul when the body dissolves? The inadequacy or +folly of a hundred provisional answers does not affect the final +answer. Instead of denying immortality because the childish mind +of the early world feigned impossible things about it, we should +change the question by appeal to a more competent court, and +inquire what Pythagoras, Augustine, Dante, Leibnitz, Fichte, +Schelling, Swedenborg, Goethe, thought about it. It is a question +for the consensus of the most gifted and impartial minds, the very +Areopagus of Humanity, to decide. Furthermore, on a deeper +inquiry, it seems clear that the real belief in immortality did +not originate from the contemplation of the phenomena of dreams +and shadows and echoes, but arose rather from the inexpugnable +self assertion of consciousness, its inability to feel itself non +existent. This persistency of consciousness, following it in all +its imaginative flights of thought beyond the death of the body, +was the cause of the mythological creativeness of the barbaric +mind. And thus the elaboration of the imagery of ghosts and a +ghostly realm was not the precursor, but the result of a belief in +another life. The belief sprang directly out of the feeling of a +continuous being unconquerably connected with human self +consciousness, and is independent of the imagery in which it has +been clothed, may clothe itself in endless forms of imagery, and +survive their removal on the discovery of their incompetence. + +Besides, the savage himself was, after all, not so far out of the +way. His mythology was not a mere fiction concreted into fact by +superstition. He was on that track of analogy which, when cleared, +will be, perhaps, the luminous highway to universal truth. The +savage was obscurely conscious that the objects which appeared +around him as solid material realities had their immaterial +correspondences within his spirit. The tree, the stone, the +flower, the star, the beast, the man, had within him correspondent +mental images or ideas just as real as they, but without sensible +qualities, and incapable of hurt. With creative wonder he +recognized a symbol or analogy of this inner world in the shadow +and the reflection. The shadow or the reflection is a representation +of its original, but without material substance. + +See, it lies there, wavering, on the rock, or in the water. No +arrow can pierce it, no club bruise it, no pestle pulverize it, no +chemistry disintegrate it. It is an emblem of the immaterial and +indestructible spirit, revealed in the outer world of matter, +where everything changes and passes away except the noumena under +the phenomena. No wonder it stirred the brooding fancy of the +ignorant, but prophetic primitive man, and made it teem with poesy +and personification. + +Freely, then, let us brush aside the mythological extravagance and +irrational errors in the entire cosmopolitan doctrine of a future +life, but beware of rejecting the fact itself of immortality until +we have better grounds than have yet been afforded by the +accumulating insight of literary history. As the world moves on, +and the human mind develops with it, the crude must give way to +the mature, and the false be replaced, not with vacancy, but with +the true. The problem of the nature and destiny of the soul will +not be solved by tearing away the fictitious drapery thrown around +it, but by piercing to the roots of the reality within the +drapery. + +And now we come to the third reason for the increasing doubt and +decreasing faith in regard to a future life: that reason is that +the form of the belief in it prevalent in Christendom has become +incredible, and the rejection of the form has loosened the hold on +the substance. The philosophic mind, which has attained to the +idea of the infinite God, without body, or parts, or passions, +omnipresent in his total perfection, can reason to the belief in a +kindred immortality for its own finite being. But since our +experience is here limited to the life now known, we are utterly +without data or ability to image forth such a conception of +immortality in any form of picture or mental scenery. There seem +to be only three ways in which we can give imaginative +representation of a future life. The first is the method of the +universal barbarian mind, which paints the life to come as a +shadowy reflex or copy of the present world and life, an +unsubstantial, graspless, yet actual and conscious realm of +ghosts, carrying on a pale and noiseless mimicry of their former +adventures in the body. Holding fast to that clew of analogy which +is the nucleus of philosophy in this view, but rejecting the rest +as fantastic figment, we arrive at the next way in which those who +are unwilling to leave their thoughts of the future life in empty +rational abstraction, portray it in vivid concrete. This they do +by means of the doctrine of a general bodily resurrection of the +dead. + +It is a striking fact that four of the great historic and literary +religions have taught the doctrine of immortality under the form +of a physical resurrection, namely: Zoroastrianism, Judaism, +Christianity, and Mohammedanism. It has been attributed, also, to +the ancient religion of Egypt, but erroneously. Its belief there +is a mere inference from facts which do not really imply it. The +Egyptians plainly believed in a series of individual reincarnations, +not in any general resurrection. But it is a sufficiently +interesting and impressive fact that over one third of the human +race have embodied their expectation of a future eternal life +in this concrete and astonishing form. It has not rested on a basis +of reason, but on one of asserted revelation and authority. It +originated in the fact that the only life of which we now have +any experience is a life in the body, and, therefore, this is the +life which we instinctively love and prefer; also in the fact +that this is the only mode of life which we are able to +represent to ourselves in any satisfactory, apprehensible image. +It then bolstered itself up by arbitrary theological theorizings, +and proclaimed itself with sanctions of a pretended supernatural +authority. Slowly the minds of its disciples were drilled to a +familiarity with it, and to a habit of implicitly believing it, +which grew strong enough to make them hold to it in spite of its +difficulty as a sheer and violent miracle having no connection +whatever with the natural order of things. Authority and passive +habit long maintained the belief in unbroken sway. They still so +support it in the Mohammedan world, where there is almost no +science, but little skeptical thought, and a common uniformity of +abject submission to the word of the Koran. But in Christendom it +fares differently. Here, the knowledge of modern science and +habits of free inquiry are almost universally diffused. The +consequence is, since the chief Christian belief in immortality +has been identified with the notion of a general physical +resurrection of the dead at the last day, and since all +philosophical and scientific thinking refutes that notion by +setting its arbitrariness and monstrous abnormality in high and +steep relief against the consensus of demonstrated knowledge and +moral probability, that the popular belief of Christendom in +immortality itself is depolarized and swiftly dropping into decay +with a large class of persons. But this spread of doubt and +denial, while a natural process, is yet an illogical and +unnecessary one. The competent thinker will extricate the question +of the immortality of the soul from its accidental entanglement +with the doctrine of the resurrection, and, rejecting the latter +as incredible, still affirm the former on its own independent +grounds. To prove and illustrate these statements we must here +give a little additional study, fresh and independent study, to +the subject. + +The doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh is bound up with the +whole fabric of the Catholic and Orthodox dogmatic theology of +Christendom, and cannot be removed without logically shaking that +system of belief into pieces. And yet the doctrine, as has been +shown in a previous chapter, is unscriptural and of a purely pagan +origin, the New Testament foretelling a resurrection of spirits +from the underworld, not of bodies from the grave. It has no real +analogies in the world, but is a figment of fancy, unsupported by +reason on any authentic physical or moral grounds. It is, +furthermore, a doctrine whose realization is impossible, because +it is a self destroying absurdity. + +All that we need for demonstrating its absolute incredibility, is +simply to ultimate its implications, carry it out in thought to +the necessary results which its ignorant originators never +foresaw. The doctrine of a physical resurrection presupposes that +our race was originally intended to be immortal on earth, and that +death was a penalty for sin. Fill out the theory. Adam and Eve, +made male and female, were commanded to multiply and replenish the +earth. Their descendants, doubling every twenty five years, would, +after sixty or seventy generations had accumulated, have covered +the whole earth so thickly that they would be packed in one +immovable mass, the whole planet carpeted with their forms and +paved with their upturned faces. Not an inch of room on the globe +for any harvest to grow or any creature to move; the world, +crowded and imbedded at every point with one continuous multitude +of immortal human beings, would have then rolled around the +zodiac, presenting this chronic and motionless picture, to all +eternity! + +If it be maintained that had it not been for sin and its penalty, +the successive generations would neither have died nor have +remained forever on the earth, but would have been translated +bodily to some other world, the absurdity just exposed is escaped +only to introduce another one equally glaring. For in time, the +entire solid contents of the globe would thus be removed, and the +disappearance of our planet unhinge the solar system and produce a +general cataclysm. The solid contents of the earth have been +estimated at about thirty nine trillions of cubic feet. Seventy +five doublings of the primal pair would reach to over seventy +trillions of human beings, each containing more than a solid cubic +foot. + +It is perfectly clear, therefore, in any view, that the only way +in which the human race, with their reproductive constitution, +could permanently inhabit the world is by the present system of +successive births and deaths; a system, furthermore, which science +shows to have been in working existence among the preceding races +of creatures for innumerable ages before the mythical sin of Adam +and Eve, with its mythical consequences. + +The fabulous scheme of an intended bodily immortality on the earth +is a discordant and disagreeable one in every respect, asthetic, +rational, and moral. It jars incongruously with the great order of +nature and providence, which everywhere interpolates a night +between two days, a sleep between two wakings, to keep the edge of +consciousness fresh and the possibilities of pleasure alive. +Imprisoned in this carcass of flesh with its ignoble necessities +for endless ages, the contemplation of the fearful burden of +monotony would be insufferable to any one who had thought the case +out in all its details with vivid realization. And yet, so +unthinking are most persons in regard to the conventional beliefs +prevalent in society, Parsees, Jews, Christians and Mohammedans, +professedly base their entire faith in immortality on this dogma +with the resurrection involved in it. + +When carried out in its particulars by the imagination, the +doctrine is self evidently untenable, contradictory to the +essential facts of human nature under the given conditions of the +material creation. It had its theologic birth in the speculations +of the dualistic religion of Persia, whence it was first borrowed +by the Jews, then secondarily adopted into Christianity, and +thence finally impacted into the mongrel creed of Mohammed and his +followers. It is philosophically irreconcilable with a pure +monotheism; for, if God be infinite, no enemy could subvert his +original scheme and force Him to an arbitrary miracle to restore +it. It is a creaking and dissonant artifice, every way repugnant +to all whose reason and sentiment have learned to love the smooth +and continuous evolution of the order of the cosmos and the +connected destinies of conscious beings. It is absolutely refuted +by the double reductio ad absurdum shown above to be contained in +it. + +Yet, while the grounds on which the common belief in a destined +general resurrection of the dead rests have really lost their +validity to the mind of the nineteenth century, the millions of +Islam and Christendom retain the article unchanged in their +creeds, and to question it is a heresy. No wonder skepticism +flourishes and genuine faith decays. This clinging to an outgrown +scheme is not only from the strong drift of a passive mental +conformity, as the train of cars keeps on for some time after the +dynamic locomotive has been taken off. Another reason is that the +tenet is so centrally imbedded in the dogmatic ecclesiasticism +that it cannot be extricated without involving all the associated +dogmas. Therefore, one portion of this knowing generation repeat +the formula and blink the difficulties, while another portion go +over to open disbelief of any future life. The doctrine of the +literal resurrection of the body from the grave is incredible to +the educated and free intelligence of the age. In continuing to +affirm it ecclesiastical Christendom brands itself with frivolity, +not earnest enough to carry its thought in loyalty to truth as far +as possible, or with hypocrisy, consciously dishonest to its +doubts. + +It is a precious boon to be rid of such an unnatural and ominous +belief as that in the final disemboguing of the dead by sea and +land, the tumbling of the rocks, the falling of the stars, and the +everlasting torture of the condemned in a prison of fire. Far +better than any such doctrine is a calm confronting of the mystery +of the future in its confessed secrecy as it is, and a peaceful +resignation to the will of God in conscious ignorance and trust. +And yet the believer in this scheme of colossal and ghastly +necromancy, when confronted with the unanswerable arguments +against it, is sometimes found clinging to it with willful +tenacity, and bitterly complaining of those who refute it, that +they would rob him of his faith and give him nothing in exchange. +Suppose a man to believe that in the year nineteen hundred the +earth will be exploded, and that all men, except himself and the +little clique of his friends, will be strung for eternity on a red +hot iron wire in empty space. Suppose that this horrid notion is +clearly proved to him to be an error. Then, because he is not +taught exactly what will happen in the year nineteen hundred, he, +the unhappy man, assails his enlightener for having robbed him of +his faith and given him nothing in exchange! Is not the truth of +ignorance better than the falsity of superstition? Modest faith in +front of the shrouded unknown can well stand comparison with the +arrogant and incompetent exultation of fanaticism. In regard to +that belated relic of the belief in magic, the doctrine of the +literal resurrection of the dead in their fleshy bodies, let us +gratefully wipe it all out and draw a long breath of relief. Let +us rejoice to know that the will of God will be done in the +fulfilling order of the universe, although we may now be ignorant +of precisely what that will is. Believing the will of God to be +good, whether revealed or concealed, we can afford to wait in +peace, trying in the meantime to carry our individual character +and our social state and experience here steadily toward +perfection. Surely, that is the best way to prepare ourselves for +whatever lies beyond. + +And yet we are not wholly shut up to mere blind faith. There is +always some ground of moral truth in every widely extended +dogmatic belief. In casting off the dogma we should carefully +extract its moral purport and try to give it a more authentic +setting. It will not be hard to do this with reference to the +doctrine now under consideration. + +Obscure and complicated and baffling as the problem of our future +destiny is, we can already trace many a line of light, many a +prophetic signal and hint suggestive of what is ordained to happen +to the individual and the race. + +Unquestionably, the genuine moral reason why the belief in the +fleshly resurrection has been so general and tenacious is the two +fold consideration: first; that we desire our future life to be an +incarnate life because our experience makes that form of being +realizable and precious to our imagination, while a disembodied +ghostliness is, perforce, repulsively vacant and abstract; and, +secondly because our affection and our imagination and our +conscience profoundly crave the complete fulfillment of the scheme +of the historic career of collective humanity in this world in +some such manner, that here, on this dear old earth, the +experience of our whole race may be brought to a clear epical +unity, and may close with an illuminating justification of +providence in the sight of all men, who shall then read the +interpretation of their entire past, and see together eye to eye. +Now we believe that the essence of this natural desire and this +sublime hope is a divine prophecy which shall be fulfilled. We +believe that in the very falsity of the doctrine of a carnal +resurrection and judgment there lurks a truth yet to break out in +overwhelming refulgence and perfectly satisfy every soul of man. +But it will be brought about by the gradual culmination of the +means and processes which God is now visibly carrying forward, and +not by any sudden convulsion of miracle. + +The faculties of human consciousness in the individual and the +race are in process of development. Also the transmissible sum of +knowledge, on which those faculties employ themselves, is in +process of rapid increase. The faculties of knowledge possessed by +an accomplished master of literature and science now, contrasted +with those of a cannibal savage of the pre glacial epoch, reveal +an advance which hardly needs to be repeated in order to give us a +comprehension of the whole experience of our kind on earth, quite +ample to explain the facts of the case and solve the problem of +our destiny. The grasp of our intelligence and the richness of our +sensibility increase along the ages. The generalizations of our +philosophy grow wider, the gropings of our sympathetic faith +become vaster, the retrospection and the prevision of our science +keener and longer and more inclusive, every generation. It is very +significant that the further away we get from the prehistoric +times the more we learn about them. Archaology is one of the +latest and most swiftly enlarging branches of knowledge. Let the +processes thus indicated go on, as they have gone on and are with +accelerated pace going on, and the date is not beyond prophecy +when all earthly and human secrets will be solved, and their +mysteries be revealed, and the autobiographic book and volume of +the world be opened, and the universal tribunal be set in the +light of every life, and the irreversible judgment be declared, by +the simple revelation of the truth of history in the web of its +relations. For as every atom of matter is conjoined by all the +laws of nature with all other atoms of matter, and the history of +all their adventures is registered by their own indestructible +vibrations in the elemental spaces of the universe where they run +their career, so every identity of spirit is conjoined by all the +laws of spirit with all other spirits, and all their deeds and +sufferings are ineffaceably self registered in their reactions +upon the authors, in the pictures they shed upon space, and the +influences they set rolling through the eternity of successive +souls and lives. All, then, that is needed for a perfectly +vindicating judgment is the awakening of consciousness to the full +view of the facts. And the tendencies are powerfully moving in +that direction. What was the illumination of Swedenborg but the +taking possession by his consciousness of the unconscious lower +nervous system, with all its impacted ancestral experiences and +wondrous relations with the visible and invisible worlds? And this +may be repeated, by and by, and be perfected, and become common. +What may result is as yet almost inconceivable. Let us trace a +little, in this regard, the connections of the individual and the +face, and follow out some of their implications. + +Suppose that in turn every child born begets or bears two +children. Then in the thirtieth generation the transmitted +qualities of spirit, nerve and blood, of the single original pair +of parents will be represented in upwards of one thousand millions +of descendants. It is clear from this law, allowing for all +deviations from its numerical progression on account of inter +marriages and of failures of offspring, how powerfully and swiftly +the ever multiplying streams of consanguinity are spreading in +every direction, affiliating and fraternizing the whole human race +literally into one family, the innumerable rills of separate +descent intermingling as they flow on, and finally diffusing over +the earth in that oceanic unity of humanity, which, when full, +will beat with the tidal pulse of a single sympathy. It is +believed by many that no experience of any living creature is ever +lost, but is by its own spontaneous and exact reflex vibrations +either registered in the conscious memory or deposited in the +unconscious organism in latent perfection of vestige and tendency. +Memory is a faithful treasurer of all the stores of events. +Suppose now that each parent bequeaths in the dynamic germ of his +progeny the possibility of reviving into consciousness, when the +proper conditions shall be furnished, the accumulated sum of all +that has happened throughout the entire line of his ancestry. And +again, imagine that all the souls composing the human race each of +which is a substantial and indestructible entity, living +incarnated over and over, and not a mere phenomenal process that +vanishes into nothing with the dissolution of the body are so +limited in number that they may be embodied on the earth in one +generation, whose members shall be so conjoined in knowledge and +fellowship that the life of the whole is concentrated in every +one, and the life of every one mirrored in the whole. Now, +finally, let it be conceived that this latest generation, +including all who have ever inhabited the world, at last attain a +development which enables them to grasp in distinct consciousness +the collective sum of the organic heritage of the race, each one +reading with perfect clearness in every particular the complete +history of humanity from the beginning to the end, understanding +all its causes, courses and consequences, and beholding with +unspeakable delight the justification of the ways of God, the +whole universe opening into free intercommunication, as if time +and space were either no more or else their measures were of +boundless subjective elasticity, every creature found in peace and +rapture at the goal of his destiny. That, indeed, would be a +realization of the day of judgment and the resurrection of the +dead, but without a shock or a jar in the course of things which +science reveals. The process of development now going on, if +carried far enough, will naturally result in this or in something +equivalent to it; while the notion of the vomiting forth of the +accumulated dead from land and sea, at the blast of a trumpet, is +a wild piece of imagery, borrowed from startling political +phenomena, and applied with absurd incongruity to the chronic +providence of God. The former view contains all the moral +significance of the latter, but without its violation of +probability. Nor is it all necessary that the climax shall be +brought about of a simultaneous universal judgment, or of the +appearance of our whole race on the earth at one time. The giving +of the vision to souls subjectively, one after another, in the +order of their attainment of the conditions, would meet every +requirement of the case. To each one in turn, wherever he was, as +the result broke on him in the ecstatic glory of all it means, the +essence of the so long cherished faith of Christendom would be +justified, and the providential theater and scenery of human +experience would appear under its illumination as a dazzling +vision of poetic justice perfect at every point. + +Marvelous and almost incredible as this scheme of thought may +seem, it is not more mysterious in itself, or more staggering in +its demand on our faith, than many things successively were which +are now established beyond a doubt such as the telegraphic +conversation of men through the ocean and around the globe; the +seven hundred and thirty three thousand millions of ethereal +vibrations in a second, which cause the report of the violet ray +in consciousness; the transcendent disclosures of the spectrum +analysis; the conception of gravitation as a force which holds all +matter in unbroken union, and acts throughout the stellar universe +with timeless simultaneity. It is in entire keeping with +everything else in the workings of God, as demonstrated by +science, on every hand, both in nature and history. The atomic +theory and the nebular hypothesis, the chemical crucible and the +mathematical calculus, the microscope and the telescope discover +to our senses and our reason, wherever we look, facts as +mysterious to the understanding, and as baffling to the +imagination as any of the foregoing implications; showing us, in +every department of nature and experience, the bewildering +miracles of the infinitely little and the infinitely great exactly +balanced and perpetually passing into one another. + +There is a third way, in addition to the ghost world of the +primitive faith of barbarians, and the resurrection climax of the +Christian and Parsee and Hebrew and Moslem creeds, in which the +imagination of man, moved by his instinct and reason, has +concreted the idea of a future life; namely, by the doctrine of +transmigration. A striking feature and no slight recommendation of +the foregoing view of the true meaning of the dogma of the +resurrection is that it reconciles these two chief forms of the +belief in immortal life. For resurrection and transmigration agree +in the central point of a restoration of the disembodied soul to a +new bodily existence, only the former represents this as a single +collective miracle wrought by an arbitrary stroke of God at the +close of the earthly drama, the latter depicts it as constantly +taking place in the regular fulfillment of the divine plan in the +creation. This difference is certainly, to a scientific and +philosophical thinker, who reasons on the data of nature and +experience and not on the dicta of theologians, strongly in favor +of the Oriental theory. We have no experience whatever of any +general resurrection, but all experience is full of the constant +appearances of souls in freshly created bodies throughout the +scale of sentient being. If our final future life is to be a +bodily one there surely is a world of presumptive evidence, +therefore, in behalf of transmigration as opposed to resurrection. +Besides the various distinctive arguments of its own, every reason +for the resurrection holds with at least equal force for +transmigration. The argument from analogy is especially strong. It +is natural to argue from the universal spectacle of incarnated +life that this is the eternal scheme everywhere, the variety of +souls finding in the variety of worlds an everlasting series of +adventures, in appropriate organisms; there being, as Paul said, +one kind of flesh of birds, another kind of flesh of beasts, +another of men, another of angels, and so on. Our present lack of +recollection of past lives is no disproof of their actuality. +Every night we lose all knowledge of the past, but every day we +reawaken to a memory of the whole series of days and nights. So in +one life we may forget or dream, and in another recover the whole +thread of experience from the beginning. + +In every event, it must be confessed that of all the thoughtful +and refined forms of the belief in a future life none has had so +extensive and prolonged a prevalence as this. It has the vote of +the majority, having for ages on ages been held by half of the +human race with an intensity of conviction almost without a +parallel. Indeed the most striking fact, at first sight, about the +doctrine of the repeated existences of the soul incarnated in +different organisms, its form and experience in each successive +embodiment being determined by its merits and demerits in the +preceding ones, is the constant reappearance of the faith in it in +all parts of the world, and its permanent hold on certain great +nations. The ancient civilization of Egypt, whose contrasted +splendors and horrors awaken astonishment more and more with each +step in the progressive decipherment of its mysterious record, +seems largely to have grown out of this faith. The swarming +millions of India also, through the chief periods of their +history, have lain under its spell, suffered their lives, wrought +their great works of government, architecture, philosophy, and +poetry, and in its belief meditated, aspired, and exhaled their +souls. Ruder forms of it are reported among innumerable barbaric +tribes. It played an important part in the speculations of the +early Fathers of the Christian Church, and has often cropped out +in the works of later theologians. Men of the profoundest +metaphysical genius, like Scotus Erigena and Leibnitz, have +affirmed it, and sought to give it a logical or scientific basis. +And even amidst the predominance of skeptical and materialistic +influences in Europe and America, at the present time, we +constantly meet individuals with independent minds who earnestly +believe the alluring dogma. For, to a large and varied class of +minds, the doctrine holds a transcendent attraction as well as a +manifold plausibility. + +Another striking fact connected with this doctrine is that it +seems to be a native and ineradicable growth of the Oriental +world; but appears in the Western world only in scattered +instances, and rather as an exotic form of thought. In the growing +freedom and liberality of thought, which no less than its doubt +and denial, now characterize Christendom, it seems as if the full +time had come for a greater mental and asthetic hospitality on the +part of Christians towards Hindus. The advocates of the +resurrection should not confine their attention to the repellent +or the ludicrous aspects of metempsychosis, but do justice to its +claim and its charm. The Pantheistic tendency which possessed and +overwhelmed the Brahminic mind, shaping and tinging its views +opened the whole range of sentient existences to an indiscriminate +sympathy, and made the idea of transmigration natural, and more +pleasing than repugnant. Furthermore, the Brahminic thinkers and +sages were a distinct class of men whose whole lives were absorbed +in introspective reveries and metaphysical broodings calculated to +stimulate the imagination and arouse to the keenest consciousness +all the latent marvels and possibilities of human experience, thus +furnishing the most favorable conditions for exactly such a belief +as that of transmigration, an endless series of ever varying +adventures for the imperishable soul. And the vast swarms of the +common people in the East are the passive followers of this high +caste of thinkers, abjectly accepting what they teach. +Accordingly, the mysterious doctrine of the metempsychosis has +held the entire mind, sentiment and civilization of the East, +through every period of its history, as with an irreversible +spell. + +The persistent practice of various modes of profound and +rhythmical breathing by which the Brahmins perfect their +respiration, and the keen and sustained concentration of their +attention on their inner states, tend at the same time to heighten +the richness and intensity of the cerebral nerves, to unify the +connections of the lower nerve centres with them, and to fuse the +unconscious physiological processes with the conscious +psychological processes. Then the persevering disuse and +suppression of the action of their outer senses cause the objects +of the material world around them to seem more vague and dreamy +than the impressions of the ideal world within. And so the earth +with all its affairs seems an illusion, while their own unsought +trains of thought, feeling and imagery the rich mental panorama of +pictures and events, are taken for a series of substantial +revelations of the universe of being. An irresistible belief in +preexistence, immortality and transmigration, results. + +On the contrary, in the Western world, the characteristic +tendencies are all different. Pantheistic theories are rarely +held, and the dreams and emotions which those theories are fitted +to feed are foreign and repulsive. An impassible barrier is +imagined separating humanity from every other form of being. +Speculative reason, imagination and affection, are chiefly +employed in scientific studies and social pursuits, or personal +schemes, external rather than internal. This absorption in +material things and evanescent affairs engenders in the spirit an +arid atmosphere of doubt and denial, in which no efflorescence of +poetic and mystic faiths can flourish. Thus, while the outward +utilities abound, hard negations spread abroad; and living, +personal apprehension of God, of an all pervasive Providence, and +of the immortality of the soul in any form, dies out either in +open infidelity or in a mere verbal acceptance of the established +creed of society. Consequently, to the average mind of the modern +Western world, the doctrine of transmigration remains a mere +fancy, although, as we shall immediately see, it has a strange +poetic charm, a deep metaphysical basis, and a high ethical and +religious quality. + +The first ground on which the belief rests is the various strong +resemblances, both physical and psychical, connecting human beings +with the whole family of lower creatures. They have all the senses +in common with us, together with the rudiments of intelligence and +will. They all seem created after one plan, as if their varieties +were the gradulations of a single original type. We recognize +kindred forms of experience and modes of expression in ourselves +and in them. Now the man seems a travesty of the hog, the parrot, +the ape, the hawk, or the shark; now they seem travesties of him. +As we gaze at the ruminating ox, couched on the summer grass, +notice the slow rhythm of his jaw, and the wondering dreaminess of +his eyes, it is not difficult to fancy him some ancient Brahmin +transmigrated to this, and patiently awaiting his release. Nor is +it incongruous with our reason or moral feeling to suppose that +the cruel monsters of humanity may in a succeeding birth find the +fit penalty for their degradation and crime, in the horrid life of +a crocodile or a boa constrictor. + +The conception of a series of connected lives also furnishes a +plausible explanation for many mysteries in our present +experience. Reference is made to all that class of phenomena +covered by the Platonic doctrine of reminiscence. Faces previously +unseen, and localities unvisited, awaken in us a vivid feeling of +a long familiarity with them. Thoughts and emotions, not hitherto +entertained, come to us as if we had welcomed and dismissed them a +thousand times in periods long gone by. Many an experience, +apparently novel and untried, makes us start as at the shadowy +reminder of something often known before. The supposition of +forgotten lives preceding the present, portions of whose +consciousness reverberate and gleam through the veils of thought +and sense, seems to throw satisfactory light on this strange +department of experience. + +Much more weighty and penetrative, however, than the foregoing +considerations is the philosophical argument in behalf of +transmigration, drawn from the nature of the soul. Consciousness +being in its very essence the feeling of itself, the conscious +soul can never feel itself annihilated, even in thought it only +loses the knowledge of its being when it lapses into unconsciousness, +as in sleep or trance. The soul may indeed think of its own +annihilation but cannot realize the thought in feeling, +since the fainter emotional reflex upon the idea of its +destruction is instantly contradicted and over borne by the more +massive and vivid sense of its persistent being in immediate +consciousness. This incessant self assertion of consciousness at +once suggests the idea of its being independent of the changing +and vanishing body in which it is temporarily shrined. Then the +conception naturally follows that the soul, as it has once +appeared in human form, so it may reappear indefinitely in any of +the higher or lower forms of being which compose the hierarchy of +the universe. The eternity of the soul, past and future, once +accepted by the mind, leads directly to the construction of the +whole scheme of metempsychosis an everlasting succession of births +and deaths, disembodiments and reembodiments, with their laws of +personality and fortunes of time and space weaving the boundless +web of destiny and playing the endless drama of providence. + +But the strongest support of the theory of transmigration is the +happy moral solution it seems to give to the problem of the dark +and distressing inequality and injustice which otherwise appear so +predominant in the experience of the world. To the superficial +observer of human life the whole scene of struggle, sin and +sorrow, nobleness and joy, triumph and defeat, is a tangled maze +of inconsistencies, a painful combination of violent discords. But +if we believe that every soul, from that of the lowest insect to +that of the greatest archangel, forms an affiliated member of the +infinite family of God, and is eternal in its conscious essence, +perishable only as to its evanescent disguises of unconscious +incarnation; that every act of every creature is followed by its +legitimate reactions; that these actions and reactions constitute +a law of retribution absolutely perfect; that these souls, with +all their doings and sufferings are interconnected with one +another, and with the whole, all whose relationships copenetrate +and cooperate with mutual influences whose reports are infallible +and with lines of sequence that never break, then the bewildering +maze becomes a vindicated plan, the horrible discord a divine +harmony. What an explication it gives of those mysteries of evil, +pain, sorrow and retribution, which often wrap the innocent and +the wicked in one sad fate, if we but see that no individual +stands alone, but trails along with him the unfinished sequels of +all ancestral experience, and, furthermore, is so bound up with +his simultaneous race that each is responsible for all and all for +each, and that no one can be wholly saved or safe until all are +redeemed and perfected! Then every suffering we endure for faults +not our own, the consequence of the deeds of others, assumes a +holy light and a sublime dignity, associating us with that great +sacrament of atoning pain whereof the crucified Christ is not the +exclusive instance but the representative head. + +The above translation of the ecclesiastical doctrine of the +resurrection into a form scientifically credible, and reconciled +with the immemorial tenet of transmigration, may seem to some a +very fanciful speculation, a mere intellectual toy. Perhaps it is +so. It is not propounded with the slightest dogmatic animus. It is +advanced solely as an illustration of what may possibly be true, +as suggested by the general evidence of the phenomena of history +and the facts of experience. The thoughts embodied in it are so +wonderful, the method of it is so rational, the region of +contemplation into which it lifts the mind is so grand, the +prospects it opens are of such universal reach and import, that +the study of it brings us into full sympathy with the sublime +scope of the idea of immortality and of a cosmopolitan vindication +of providence uncovered to every eye. It takes us out of the +littleness of petty themes and selfish affairs, and makes it +easier for us to believe in the vastest hopes mankind have ever +known. It causes the most magnificent conceptions of human destiny +to seem simply proportional to the native magnitude and beauty of +the powers of the mind which can conceive such things. After +traversing the grounds here set forth we feel that if the view +based on them be not the truth, it must be because God has in +reserve for us a sequel greater and lovelier, not meaner than our +brightest dream hitherto. The worthiest theory of the fate of man +which the spirit of man can construct must either be a revelatory +divination of the truth, or an inadequate attempt to grasp the +design of the Creator in its true glory. It is impious and absurd +to hold that man can think out a scheme superior to the one God +has decreed. And it seems equally unreasonable to suppose that the +scheme of God for the future stages of our career is one which has +no hints in our present experience. Certainly it appears more +likely that the sequel will be discovered by the logical +completion of the inwrought order which has been slowly unfolding +from the first. And what do history and prophecy show more plainly +than the tendency to a convergence of all humanity in every man? +Spreading consanguinity in descent and growth of sympathetic +knowledge both point to this. Perfect this in each man, and +illuminate his whole organism and its relations with adequate +intelligence, and we have a true resurrection, not indeed of +decayed bodies from the grave, but of historic states of +consciousness from their latent embedment in the nervous system, +and their undulatory record in the dynamic medium of the creation. +Our senses now convert certain sets of undulations of the ethereal +medium into perceptions of light, heat, sound, and so interpret +their contents and extract their tidings. It is not impossible +that in a coming stage of development we may obtain additional +senses; our spirits may command the means of translating into +correspondent states of consciousness all the other modes of +vibration of the ethereal medium, and grasp the keys of unlimited +knowledge deciphering every secret wherever they go. The whole +universe may be a palimpsest preserving the inscriptions of all +deeds, and every soul may be a reagent gifted with the power to +recover and read its own. + +As each generation is the inheritor of the preceding ones, all of +which from the first prolong their existence into the last in +unbroken continuity of historic conduct and responsibility, +justice may at the ripened period be naturally summed up without +any miracle. We all are projections of our ancestors. They +properly in us suffer and enjoy in accordance with what has flowed +from their lives. The whole of this, lighted up with consciousness +at last, may be the real meaning of the burden of the spirit given +to the apostle Paul, but misinterpreted by him into the mechanico +scenic scheme of the Judaized Christian Church. For when the +mighty influx struck the brain of the persecuting zealot, +revolutionizing his life, it came into connection with all the +inflamed theories and convictions so deeply drilled therein by his +Pharisaic education. These convictions, partly of a mere local and +transient character, associated with legends of Adam and Abraham +and the under world and Christ and the sky, mixed with the true +and universal import of the higher inspiration now given him, +caused his misconstrual of its message, and stamped the purely +human and providential meaning of the doctrine of the resurrection +with the rabbinical die of a politico mythological dogma. If this +were so, it is not the only instance in which the preexistent +discolorations in the mind of an inspired prophet have refracted +the truth of his burden into distorted error and bequeathed the +task of a future rectification when more light shall have come. + +In the next place, we come to the fourth reason for the growing +doubts and disbelief of our day in immortality. It is the +remarkable diffusion of the habits of thought engendered by the +study of materialistic science. The authority of physical science +has been rapidly encroaching on and displacing the authority of +the church theology and sectarian creeds. Belief in invariable +laws has undermined belief in miracle and supernatural revelation. +Those who had been taught that the resurrection of Christ was the +only adequate proof of the immortality of the soul, learning to +deny the former, have naturally proceeded to question the latter. +For in such matters the real implications of logic are little +noticed. The religious skepticism nourished by physical science is +in all respects really as irrational and baseless as it is actual. +For example, the resurrection of Christ, admitting it to be a +fact, did not create the immortality it was considered to +illustrate. If he rose, it was because men are immortal, and men +are not immortal because he rose. If he did not rise, men are +immortal all the same, provided human immortality be a truth; if +it be not a truth, the resurrection of Christ would be an isolated +abnormal event without any logical validity on the question. The +truth or falsity of human immortality, therefore, is a question of +the creative plan of God and the essential nature of man, to be +decided on the intrinsic evidences, and cannot logically be +affected one way or the other by any individual historic +occurrence limited to a certain time and place. Yet it is a +practical necessity that any great popular faith, if it rests on +authority, will be shocked and weakened by everything which shocks +and weakens that authority, no matter how adventitious it is. If +one cannot believe in the preternatural resurrection of Christ, +that surely is no valid reason for denying the natural immortality +of the soul, but only a good reason for seeking to learn if there +be not adequate grounds for this faith quite independent of +scripture text and priestly assertion. + +Precisely the same reasoning holds in relation to the doubts about +spiritual realities bred in the minds of those whose studies are +conversant exclusively with material realities. The professors of +physical science, thoroughly familiarized with things which +combine and dissolve, often come to fancy that everything is +phenomenal and evanescent, that there is no immaterial substance, +that spirit is not entity but process, that thought and feeling +and will are mere transient functions of transient matter. Thus +all faith in the individuality of mind is pulverized at the +fountain head. There can be no question but that such is the +common influence of a constant contemplation of the physical +aspects alone of physical things. Mentality, consciousness, is +regarded as the prismatic bow in the cloud, a spectral show that +appears and vanishes, with no permanent substance. At the present +time, in Christendom, the one conquering power in literature, the +one fascinating absorption of thought in society, is that +connected with the cultivation of physical science. Its prestige +is overwhelming. Its prevalent methods and results give a +materialistic turn of interpretation to the popular mind upon all +subjects. The direct consequence, among that class of minds who +put physical science above theology, is the spreading disavowal of +all belief in the immortality of the soul. The fallacy is obvious, +and the remedy is simple, if there be at hand but enough of modest +candor and patience fairly to weigh the facts of the case in the +scales of a sound logic. + +In the first place, by the very structure of our being, by the +very necessity of our experience, the universe is divided into two +irreconcilable classes of realities, namely, spiritual subjects +and material objects. Sensations, perceptions, emotions, thoughts, +volitions, all qualities of mind, all states of consciousness, are +absolutely immaterial. They are more real to us, that is to say, +they more inexpugnably assert and maintain themselves, than +material things do: and it is only hopeless vulgarity and +incompetence of thinking which can ever confuse or merge them with +material things. Matter is that which proves itself to spirit by +the effects it produces on spirit. Spirit is that which is its own +evidence. The center of consciousness in us is its own proof of +its own being, and all that occurs within it is its own proof, and +is unsusceptible of any other or foreign demonstration. Hope, +fear, love, imagination, reason, are absolutely unthinkable as +forms of material substance, however exquisitely refined and +exalted. There is no conceivable community of being between a +sentiment and an atom, a gas and an aspiration, an idea of truth +in the soul and any mass of matter in space. Each of these facts, +conscious thought and material extension, has its own incommunicable +and incomparable sphere of being and laws of action, which can be +confused only by ignorance and sophistry. + +So clear has this become to all profound reflection, that the ablest +supporters of the theory of evolution, with all their preponderant +bias in favor of physical science, declare, in the words of +Herbert Spencer, that if compelled to choose between thinking of +spirit in the terms of matter and thinking of matter in the terms +of spirit, they should take the latter alternative and give an +idealistic interpretation to nature rather than a materialistic +interpretation to the soul. It is logically clear, then, despite +the fallacious influences of habit to the contrary, that no +progress of the physical sciences, no conceivable amount of +induction and generalization as to the composition or decomposition +of material bodies, can throw any new light or darkness on the +nature and destiny of the immaterial soul. + +The incessant flux of phenomena constructing and destroying apparent +things, though studied till the observing eye sees nothing but +mirage anywhere, has nothing to do with the steady persistence of +spiritual identity. To force it to discredit our claim to a divine +descent and an endless inheritance is a glaring sophism. The +question must be snatched back from the assumption of the retort +and crucible, the observational and numerical methods of the +physical realm, and relegated to the legitimate tests of the moral +and metaphysical realm. + +Again, there is furnished in the results of the study of physical +science itself, as pursued by its most gifted masters, a glorious +overthrow and neutralization of the moral and religious doubts +called out in its shallower votaries by their absorption in its +more superficial phases. The scientific men of the most profound +intellectual power and the most brilliant original genius, the +supreme heads of chemistry, dynamics and mathematics, have applied +to the phenomena of the material creation modes of observation and +instruments of reasoning before whose compelling efficacy the +whole frowning vastitude of the outer universe melts into ideal +points of force and forms of law. Everything in time and space is +reduced to molecular vibrations, regulated by the mental +conceptions of number, weight and measure. The reasonings of such +men as Oersted and Faraday on electricity and magnetism; of Sir +William Thomson and Clerk Maxwell on thermodynamics; the theories +of the greatest mathematicians, grasping all things in heaven and +earth with their irresistible calculus, literally using infinites +as toys, creating imaginary quantities, and, going through certain +operations with them, actually discovering new truths in the solid +domain of reality yield conceptions of order, beauty and +sublimity, and emotions of wonder, awe and delight, nowhere else +surpassed. They exalt the spectacle of nature into a vision of +poetic intelligence, and show the theorizing mind of man to be +akin to the creating mind of God. Thus, if skepticism as to the +deathless royalty of soul is bred in the physicist who constantly +stoops with the scalpel and the microscope, it is offset in him +who, with as steady a judgment, soars to the contemplation of the +ethereal medium with its lines of force traversing immensity and +vibrating timelessly along their whole length, loaded, for those +who can interpret them, with tidings of all that happens. Instead +of spirit being materialized, matter is spiritualized and nature +transfigured into the ideal home of ideal entities. Dumas, years +ago, asserted that hydrogen gas is but an etherealized metal. Just +now, it is said, Pictet has succeeded, under a pressure of six +hundred and fifty atmospheres, in actually crystallizing oxygen +and hydrogen. One has only to read such papers as those of Stallo +on the fundamental concepts of science to learn that if matter or +mind is ever to be lost, it will not be mind. + +But there remains a more direct and more important way of +correcting the dismal or defiant doubts of immortality caused by +the inferior phases of materialistic study; and that is, by +bringing up to a correspondent fullness and intensity the counter +activity of the ideal powers. Let justice be done to the subject +as well as to the object. Over against the watching of clouds and +waves, the sorting of herbs, the weighing of metals, the measuring +of quantities, bring up the exercise of the mind on the treasures +of qualitative substance in its own proper sphere of reason and +love and faith. Admire the beautiful, love the good, obey the +true, worship the right, aspire to the highest, subordinate or +sacrifice everything base or wrong in a generous service of duty, +and thus nourish a consciousness of those ontological relations by +which the soul is rooted in the Godhead, and stimulate that +intuitive efflorescence of faith which grows out of progressive +fulfillment and which prophecies perpetuity of fulfillment. To say +the least, the subject is as real as the object, the contemplating +faculty as valid as the phenomenon it confronts. The teachings of +the soul rightly construed are as authentic as the teachings of +nature. And, some day in the future, a complete system of truth +developed from the central principle of the one by the subjective +method will be found to correspond perfectly with the complete +system of truth developed by the objective method from the central +principle of the other. As the objective scientific principle is +the persistence of force, the subjective scientific principle is +the potential infinity of individual spirit, each one the +equivalent of the all. What else than this can be the ultimate +meaning of the primal, universal, indestructible antithesis or +dual classification of being, the ego and the non ego, self and +not self, the former including each individual in his own +apprehension, the latter including all besides? + +There is a philosophical authority which, for those incompetent to +judge for themselves, should properly take the place vacated by +the ecclesiastical authority, which, in our day, is plainly on the +wane. Multitudes no longer believe in the immortality of their +souls on the ground of the resurrection of Christ, or the +assertion of Scripture or creed. Shall they, then, deny it +altogether because the materialistic band clamor that it is a +delusion, and they themselves see no sufficient evidence for it? +There is a more appropriate alternative. Many theories in natural +philosophy have been exploded by the proof of their absurdity, and +the correct explanations are accepted on trust by the multitudes +incompetent to master their logical and mathematical grounds. Very +few understand the proofs of the chief laws of nature, but the +vast majority of men implicitly trust the assertions of those who +do know them. In like manner there is a legitimate sphere for +authority in moral and religious beliefs; only it should be the +authority of the competent and disinterested. Now, it is a fact +that the very greatest philosophers who have ever lived, the +preeminently imperial thinkers, such as Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, +Anselm, Hegel, and the resplendent group of their peers, have +asserted as a necessary principle the real being and eternal +substantiality of the soul. Besides all the combinations of matter +that dissolve, all the phenomena that pass, they affirm the +existence of enduring entities, individual spirits, thinkers +conscious of their thoughts. In central calm, far within the +struggle and vex of the rolling elements, throned in its own +serene realm of law, lives the free, conscious soul, and will live +eternally, actualizing its potentialities. Nothing can +disintegrate it, because it is not an aggregate but a unity, not a +quantitative mass of matter, but a spaceless monad of power. It is +a closed circuit of thinking activity, impenetrable to everything +else. Spirits are the only solids, matter being endlessly +penetrable and transmutable. + +We are all obliged to think of ourselves as entities, and not as +mere phenomenal series of states. There must be a substratum for +the affections of consciousness. All changes are changes of +something. It is true there is a mystery involved here which no +words can make clear; yet the more deeply one thinks and feels the +more intense will be his assurance that there is something in him +which thinks and feels, or rather that he himself is a something +which thinks and feels. The best conception we can get of the soul +is that it is a subject which is its own object and a mirror for +the inner reflection of all other objects. God is not an object, +because He is the actualized infinite Subject. His thoughts are +concrete creations, the objective realities of the universe +phenomenal and substantial. We are actually finite subjects, but +with a potential infinity, patterned in free correspondence with +Him. Our thoughts are subjective reflections of His, modified by +the contents of our facultative constitution and the peculiarities +of our historic experience. What constitutes my soul is the +potentiality of all states of consciousness, actual and latent, +past, present and future. It reveals itself to me, so to speak, in +my actual thoughts and feelings. So far as these are true and +good, they correspond with and represent the will of God, and must +share the fortunes of the Divine Reality with which they are +implicitly joined. Then my soul cannot be annihilated unless the +will of God is so far annihilated. But God is infinite being, and +there is nothing outside of or counter to infinite being to +destroy it. All evil is but defect or negation. I am only in so +far as I am positive reality. Nothing of me, therefore, can ever +perish, except my imperfections; and the thought of the perishing +of imperfections is a thought of joy. Welcome, then, be the +approach of death which shall cleanse and dislimit me into +unimprisonable divineness of being, the crystalline sphere of pure +intelligence and immortality! + +The only real proof of immortality in the sight of the intellect, +is the perception of the necessity of self determining entities as +the causes and grounds of the facts of experience. A series of +states implies something of which they are states. There seems to +be no possible explanation or understanding of the phenomena which +confront our experience without the conception of ultimate +individualities, indestructible subject objects, centers of +spiritual activity, monistic selfhoods, conscious egos, each of +which distinguishes itself from every other, and contrasts itself +with the All. Now it is claimed that every thinker who reaches the +maturest stage of thought attains to this insight. It is the +imperial mark of a certain stage of knowledge. Here the supreme +thinkers, sceptered with final perception of the truth of their +own eternity, sit at ease, enthroned in the serene and lucid realm +of law, beyond the reach of the dark tempest of cavils and doubts. +And there is a larger company who on easier terms have attained +the same result. For, without this wearisome metaphysical hewing +of conclusions from the quarries of ontology, the good and pure, +who, in their loving obedience and aspiration, keep the harmonic +quickness and innocence of their intuitions uninjured, also have +an unshaken assurance that they live in God and shall share his +life forevermore. The mystics of every period seem in feeling to +have an immediate grasp of all that the greatest philosophers have +painfully conquered by speculation. These two classes may claim to +possess direct certitude of eternal life. All others must either +attain to the stage of development and mount of vision of these, +or receive the faith on their authority, or else be subject to +doubt and unbelief. + +To accept the doctrine of the immortality of the soul on the +authority of the wisest philosophers and the purest saints, is a +legitimate procedure perfectly in keeping with what the human race +does in all other provinces of thought where it is incapable of +proving what its teachers have demonstrated, but can easily +appreciate and make practical application of the truths they have +affirmed. The great laws of science in all its domains are +scientifically mastered by very few, but their empirical rules are +implicitly followed by the common multitude. One form or +receptacle of authority after another may be superseded; but +authority itself always remains. And the true course for those to +pursue who have come to repudiate the authority of scripture, or +church creed, or the resurrection of Christ, as a proof of the +future life of man, is not at once to abandon all belief in a +future state, but to accept the guidance of the most competent +independent thinkers in place of that of the most arbitrary +dogmatists. For unto all who do not arrogate to themselves a +transcendent competency to judge, the general consensus of the +thought and feeling of the world, clarified and interpreted by the +fittest few, will always be a grateful ground of reliance and +trust. And the verdict thus revealed is unequivocally in favor of +the doctrine of immortality. + +There can be no changes independently of something which is +changed. Amidst all the changeable in us which passes and is +forgotten, there is something which stays and is inexpugnable. It +is our identity. That which appears in consciousness first, which +recurs oftenest, and which persists longest, is the most valid +object of belief. And what is that but the very consciousness, or +the subject as its own object? Surely, the one invariable +accompaniment of all the shifting states of consciousness is the +bare essential consciousness itself: this is, so to speak, the +unitary vessel containing all their varieties. This unquestionably +exists now. The burden of proof, then, as Bishop Butler long ago +showed, is on those who affirm its destruction in the article of +death. Consciousness is purely immaterial, as every one who has +passed beyond the most ignorant and childish stages of thought +must see. Merely because it is, in our present experience, +associated in time and space with a material organism, therefore +to declare that it is a dependent production of matter, or a +transient concomitant of the transient body, is a gratuitous +assertion with not one scintilla of evidence. + +Even, for the moment, admitting it to be true that no argument of +irresistible cogency has yet been advanced to prove the +immortality of the soul, it is certain that no proof has ever +been given of its mortality. The very utmost that can be claimed +by any skeptic who fairly understands the whole case, is that the +different arguments, for and against, offset one another, and +leave the question in a neutral balance of suspense, just where it +was before the debate began. Many persons hold that the counter +reasonings do thus balance and annul one another. For them the +problem remains to be decided on other grounds than those of the +logical disputation which has proved inadequate to its settlement. +These other grounds are considerations of congruity, probability, +the prophetic preparations and demands of present experience. What +sort of a figure would the segments which we now see, compose, if +they were completed? What in the hidden future portions of our +destiny would be harmonic and complementary as related with the +parts here experienced? When the other modes of inquiry are +abandoned this mode remains. Its teachings are rich and impressive +in proportion to the greatness of the faculties and the wealth of +knowledge and love brought to its consideration. And thus we come +face to face with the fifth and last cause of the failing faith in +immortality confessed to characterize the present day. + +That cause is the common inability to realize in the thoughts of +the mind, and to hold in the faith of the feelings, a conception +so vast, so mysterious, so remote from the usual routine of the +selfish trifles and petty notions which monopolize the powers and +fritter down the faculties of the average people of the nineteenth +century. The battle of sensualism, the scramble over material +interests, the wearing absorption in the small and evanescent +struggles of social rivalry, the irritated attention given to the +ever thickening claims of external things, the pulverizing +discussions of all sorts of opinions by hostile schools, are fatal +to that concentrated calmness of mood, that unity of passion, that +serene amplitude of intellectual and imaginative scope, that +docile religious receptiveness of soul, requisite for the fit +contemplation of a doctrine so solemn and sublime as that of +immortality. The grade of thought and scale of emotion ordinarily +characteristic of ordinary men are utterly out of keeping with the +inexpressible grandeur of themes like that of the divine kinship +and eternity of the soul. The reason and fancy, before they can be +competent to appreciate such truths, must be trained in the study +and worshipful meditation of subjects of commensurate mystery and +sublimity. It is no wonder that when minds and hearts familiar +only with houses and clothes and food, the trivial gossip and +vanity of the hour, are summoned to grasp the idea of spiritual +survival and an everlasting destiny of conscious adventures, they +are overwhelmed and helplessly fail to represent to themselves the +possibility of any such truth. This cause of doubt is very +prevalent and effective; for ever more and more in our age +conscious attention is turned away from states within and fixed +upon things without. The natural consequence is that the objective +world is arrogating the first place in consciousness, and the +subjective world is sinking into the secondary rank. Whatever +exalts the object at the expense of the subject tends to +materialism, unbelief in the separate being of the spirit. On the +other hand whatever gives the panoramic passage of subjective +states in the soul greater apparent vividness and tenacity than +belong to outer phenomena, tends to produce faith in the +independence and immortality of the spirit. Hence it is quite to +be expected that until our modern concentration on objective toil +and study and amusement reaches its destined climax and begins the +return career to subjective reason and feeling, the skepticism of +the age will increase. + +Meanwhile the remedy for the evil is, first, to perceive it, and +then, to cultivate the kinds of experience calculated to +neutralize it. For the logical invalidity and fallaciousness of +the doubts concerning immortality, arising from the immense +disparity of such a belief with the mental habits of ignorant +earthlings and social parasites, appear from the fact that there +are others with whose experience and thought the doctrine has no +such disparity, but for whose spiritual range and haunt it is as +natural to believe it as to breathe. And, in explaining the +destiny of man, it is legitimate to take the most finished and +furnished specimens, not the abortive ones. There are grounds of +knowledge, domains of imagination, heights of nobility, familiar +to the most exalted characters, perfectly cognate and harmonious +with the conception of eternal life, and making the faith in it +fully as credible as the transcendent truths of science and +philosophy which have been actually demonstrated. Those who are +familiar only with the little affairs of sense, in narrow bounds +of time and space, may well gasp in despair and denial when the +bewildering contents of the doctrine of immortality are held +before them; but for all who have mastered what science reveals of +the objective world of nature, and what literature records of the +subjective world of soul, both these spheres furnish ample +illustrative examples and data to make the faith in every way +congruous with what else they know, and as easy as it is pleasing +to receive. Assuredly the belief resulting in this latter class +from their positive perception and correspondent desire and +persuasion, are, on every ground of reason or moral fitness, more +than a counterbalance for the unbelief resulting in the former +class from their negative experience and incompetency. If we +sought to estimate the possibility and destined fulfillment of +human nature when all its conditions shall have been perfected, +should we choose for the basis of our judgment the incapacity of +the lower specimens of man? or the capacity of the higher? After +considering the chief achievements of human genius, the mysterious +powers of the human soul now, the doctrine of immortality does not +seem too great and wonderful for belief; but, on the contrary, it +appears the coherent complement of the facts of the present. + +Nothing can be more marvelous or imply greater glory for the +destiny of the individual being than the fact that each +consciousness is to itself the antithetical equivalent or balance +of the totality of being beside; since the whole universe, all +other beings, God himself, are known to the individual +consciousness only as revealed in itself through its personal +faculties. The slightest change in the subject is reported by a +correspondent change in objects. Heighten the internal activities +of the soul to a certain pitch, and the convictions they engender +will be so intense, and the experience so absorbing, as +irresistibly to sweep away all opposing doubts and fill every +craving with the triumphant flood of life. What overwhelming +revelations of the providence of God and eternal life, crowding +the cosmos at every point with the workings of poetic justice, may +thus be made to prepared spirits, only those who receive them +know. Paul said he was caught up into the third heaven and heard +unspeakable words. It is to be believed that such visions, while +often illusory, are sometimes genuine. A test to discriminate the +spurious and the authentic will one day be secured. Meanwhile it +is either a faithless faintheartedness or a vulgar arrogance to +omit from the data of our expected fate those thoughts, which, +though beyond the reaches of our souls, nevertheless irresistibly +allure our attention and enchain our affection; ideas belonging to +our nature, though transcending our experience, and, while +surpassing our faculties, still attracting us to our destiny. What +are presentiments but divine wings of the spirit fluttering toward +our unseen goal? + +Again, the great metaphysicians, who have elaborated the +idealistic philosophy in so many forms, exhibit the mind of man to +us as superior to the cosmic spectacle it contemplates projected +in immensity. They portray the material creation as a phantasmal +show of mind, a phenomenal process and aspect of spirit, +indissoluble centers of consciousness alone having solid verity +and stay, while matter and force and times and places whirl and +pass, combine and dissolve. + +Likewise the mathematicians, with their mighty calculus, translate +all quantities and qualities, all objects and operations, into +numerical symbols, and with these intellectual toys play the same +miraculous tricks that the Creator himself plays with the +originals. They symbolize purely imaginary quantities, bring them +into relations and pass them through certain operations, and +thereby discover truths which are found to have permanent +objective validity. It demonstrates, as said before, that the +filial mind which thus wanders in thought through the house of the +Father, and, everywhere making itself familiarly at home, disports +among His treasures, is of the same type with the parental Mind. + +And now, still farther, that the cultivators of physical science +are pushing their discoveries and their theories to ultimates, we +begin to see the adamantine structure of material nature melting +into a system of ideal equivalents, vaporizing into an undulatory +ether, vanishing before our microscopes in immaterial bases of +thought, reason, law and will. The gases have just been first +liquified and then actually solidified, confirming the speculative +announcement long before made that oxygen and hydrogen are metals +volatilized. Many valuable and strange discoveries have been +reached in physical science by following prophetic declarations +made a priori on grounds of pure reason. The same proofs of +intellectual design and purpose are discerned in the order of +atomic combination, in the beauty of crystals and dewdrops and +snowflakes, in the perfect geometrical symmetry of minerals and +flowers, and in the same spiral adjustment of the leaves on a tree +and of the orbits of the planets in the sky, as in the artistic +works of man. Intellect and will are as much shown in the +production of a palm tree as they are in the production of a poem +And so, before the gaze of the accomplished and devout scientist, +matter is translated into terms of mind, rather than the reverse, +and the whole cosmos is transmuted into a divine laboratory of +ideal powers, a divine gallery of ideal pictures, a divine theater +for the eternal adventures of conscious spirits. + +In mental conception man deals with mathematical infinites as +easily as with the pettiest objects, dilates a point to the +universe and shrinks the universe to a point, condenses eternity +into a moment or stretches a moment to eternity. It has been shown +that if correspondent diminution or enlargement in the faculties +of sense and intelligence and in all the forces concerned were +made, the whole stellar system and its contents might be dwarfed +into the bulk of a grain of sand, or so magnified that each grain +would fill the space now occupied by the whole, and no one would +perceive any change whatever in the scale. In reply to the +statement that nothing can act where it is not, it has been proved +that every atom is virtually omnipresent. It takes the entire +universe to constitute an atom, since the forces centered in each +atom are connected with the whole by the insunderable continuity +of all the laws of being. The science of molecular physics as +expounded by its latest masters is not less astounding than the +wildest soarings of transcendental metaphysics. For instance, it +is proved that if there be ultimate atoms their size must be so +small that it would require at least five hundred millions of them +to an inch in length. In a cubic inch of hydrogen gas, then, for +example, there are 125,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 one hundred +and twenty five septillions of atoms, moving with the inconceivable +velocity that is implied by their making thousands of millions +of changes of direction every second. The view of the dynamic s +tructure of the universe opened in this direction is as +appalling as that unveiled in the opposite direction by the +largest extension of the nebular hypothesis. He who can gaze here +with steady reason need not be staggered by the sublimest doctrine +of religion. Amazed at the spectacle of creative power and wisdom, +equally amazed at the discovering faculty of man, we feel it to be +incredible that he should have been made capable of such thoughts +only to be annihilated after a brief tantalization. Confronting +the immeasurable wilderness of divine glory, strewn all through +with prizes before which his soul burns with the unconsumable fire +of a god like ambition, man lifts his eye to worship and reaches +out his hand to receive. Is he merely taunted with the starry sky, +and mocked with an infinite illusion of progress, suddenly barred +with endless night and oblivion? Behold him emerging out of +nothingness, mastering his self conscious identity, climbing over +the rounds of symbolic experience and language through the heights +of knowledge and love. Strange, helpless, sublime prince of the +universe, beggar of God, when he has attained the summit of +illimitable perception, holding immortal joys in full prospect, +shall he be dashed back into nonentity? Is it not fitter that he +be welcomed by triumphant initiation into the family of the +deathless Father? + +Think of the advancement man has made since the time when he was a +cannibal cave dweller, shivering out of the glacial epoch, and +contending with wild beasts for a foothold on the earth, till now +that he enjoys the idealism of Berkeley, wields the quaternions of +Hamilton, uses the lightnings for his red sandaled messengers, +holds his spectroscope to a star and tells what elements compose +it, or to an outskirting nebula and declares it a mass of +incandescent hydrogen. From such a background of accomplished fact +he seems really to have a right to peer forth into the unbounded +future and promise himself an unbounded destiny. The repetition of +such a progress, nay much less, it may not unreasonably be +imagined would raise the curtains from unsuspected secrets, bring +the family of intelligences scattered over all worlds into +conscious communication, and accomplish the deliverance of the +whole creation travailing and groaning together unto this day for +the redemption of the creature. What a splendid, almost incredible +task man has already achieved in disentangling the apparent +astronomic motions and converting them into the real ones. How +immensely sublimer and more complex is the position of man on this +planet than it seemed to the primitive savage, who knew only what +his crude senses taught him, although, all the while, the moon was +circling about him twenty five hundred miles an hour, and he was +whirling with the revolving earth a thousand miles an hour, and +spinning around the sun over thirty thousand miles an hour, and +swooping with the whole solar system through the blue void with a +still swifter gyre in a yet vaster cycle! This is demonstrated +physical fact. Its harmonic correlate in the spiritual sphere +would be nothing less than a lease of eternal existence for the +soul which sees endless invitations ahead, and exults at the +prospect of an eternal pursuit of them, its reason and affection +affiliated with those of the whole divine household of immortals. +Two or three generations ago it would have been more inconceivable +that men a hundred miles apart could audibly converse together, as +they now do by means of the telephone, than it is at this day to +believe that communication may at some future time be opened +between the inhabitants of the earth and the inhabitants of Sirius +through the vibrations of the ethereal medium. + +Futhermore, the idea of the infinite God, in possession of which +man finds himself, is a warrant for his immortality. There cannot +be more in an effect than was in its cause, though there may be +less. We perceive intelligence, orderly purpose, as well as power, +in nature. We find in ourselves all the explicit attributes and +treasures of consciousness. Reasoning back by indubitable steps we +come to an uncaused, unlimited, infinite Being, the underived and +eternal source of all that is. This idea in our minds of a Being +of absolute perfection, whose boundless consciousness as being +necessarily indivisible must be totally present at every point of +infinitude, is the charter of our own divine nature and heirship. +For we can become, even here, friends and companions of this +omnipresent One, of whose essence and attributes everything below +is but a defective transcript or dimmed revelation. This idea of +Himself is the gift of God to us. To suppose that we are capable +of originating it implies a greater miracle than the one it seeks +to account for, and really puts ourselves in the place of God. Can +we imagine that we are the creators of God? If the absolute +noumenal Power beyond all phenomena be unknowable, it cannot +contain less, but must contain more than all the attributes of the +material and spiritual creation which has proceeded thence. The +noblest and best spirits of all lands and ages have walked in full +fellowship with this Being, seeking supremely to serve and love +Him in the subjection of self will and in the doing of good. Many +a nameless saint, in a pure consecration, has heroically thought +and suffered and aspired, worn out life in slow toils or offered +it up in sharp sacrifice, for the good of fellow creatures, as a +tribute to God, and exhaled the last breath in a prayer of love +and trust. Such faithful servants and comrades must be dear to the +Infinite Spirit, and it is natural to believe that He will keep +them with him forever. When Christ, in self sacrificing love, +submitted to death on the cross, saying, "Father, into Thy hands I +commit my spirit," he who can believe that the magnanimous +sufferer was disappointed, blotted out and extinguished, thus +reveals the grade of his own insight, but does not refute the +greater hope of nobler seers. It seems as if the idea of God, with +loving faith and obedience to its requirements, planted in a soul +which had not inherited immortality would straightway begin to +develop it there. The atmosphere of eternity alone befits a nature +which feels itself living in the companionship of God. Everything +subject to decay cowers into oblivion from before the idea of that +august, incorruptible presence. The fear of death is but the +recoil of the immortal from mortality. When man voluntarily faces +death without fear, even courting martyrdom with a radiant joy, it +is because there is in him, deeper than consciousness, a mystic +knowledge that he is essentially eternal and cannot perish. He who +freely sacrifices anything thereby proves himself superior to that +which he sacrifices. Man freely sacrifices his life. Therefore he +is immortal. + +The ancient Semitic philosopher and poet who wrote the book of +Job, brooding on the strange problem of life and death, murmured, +"Man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" With each successive +generation, for many ages, countless millions have dissolved and +vanished into the vast, dumb mystery. Now, the spectator, +remembering all this, stands beneath the dome of midnight, +imploringly breathes the mystic sigh, "Man giveth up the ghost, +and where is he?" The only responses is the same dread silence +still maintained as of old. And, in a moment more, he who breathed +the wondering inquiry is himself gone. Whither? Into the vacant +dark of nothingness? Into the transparent sphere of perfect +intelligence? The sublimity of the demand seems to ally the finite +questioner with the infinite Creator; and, with a presentiment of +marvelous joy, we look beyond the ignorant veil at the close of +earth, and hold that eternity itself will not exhaust the +possibilities of the soul, whose career shall be kept from +stagnation by constant interspersals of death and birth, +refreshing disembodiments from worn out forms and reincarnations +in new. + +If this life on the earth, where man feels himself a stranger, be +his all, how superfluously he is equipped with foresights and +longings that outrun every conceivable limit! Why is he gifted +with powers of reason and demands of love so far beyond his +conditions? If there be no future for him, why is he tortured with +the inspiring idea of the eternal pursuit of the still flying goal +of perfection? Is it possible that the hero and the martyr and the +saint, whose experience is laden with painful sacrifices for +humanity, are mistaken? and that the slattern and the voluptuary +and the sluggard, whose course is one of base self indulgence, are +correct? Is it credible that, with no justifying explanation +hereafter, it should be ordained that the more gifted and +disinterested a man is the more he shall uselessly suffer, from +his sympathetic carriage of the greater share in the sin and +sorrow of all his race? No, far back in the past there has been +some dark mystery which yet flings its dense shadows over our +history here; and in the obscurity we cannot read its solution. +But there is a solution. And when in some blessed age to come +mankind shall outgrow their discords and be reconciled, so that +their divinest living member can become the focalizing center of +their collective inspiration, through him the truth will be +revealed. The most inspired individual can only in a degree +anticipate his age. At a certain distance he is tethered by his +connections with the race. They must be near the goal before he +can deliver the final message. Inspiration and revelation are as +real as the sensuous method of outer knowledge. Spirit or +consciousness, as that which is its own evidence, has a more than +mathematic validity. When men purely love one another, and, with +supreme loyalty, seek truth, ignorance and delusion will melt away +before the encroaching illumination from God, and the dominion of +death will be abolished. + +That the human mind shall be the victim of death is incongruous +with its rank. The atheistic scientist who imagines that the +energy of the stellar creation is gradually dissipating, so that +the whole scheme must at last perish; and who sees the soul, then, +like a belated butterfly, fall frozen on the boundary of a dead +universe, refutes his own dismal creed by the grandeur of the +power shown in thinking it. The might of love, the faculty of +thought, the instinct of curiosity, are insatiable; and that which +remains wooing them to grasp it, is infinite. And, after all is +said, it seems certain that we are either discerpted emanations +and avatars of God suffering transient incarnations for a purpose, +and then to be resumed, immortal in his immortality; or else we +are separate and inherent entities, immortal in ourselves. The +former faith ought to satisfy the proudest ambition. The latter +faith yields every motive for contentment and aspiring obedience. +Man, forever feeding on the unknown, is the mysterious guest of +God in the universe. We cannot believe that, the hospitality of +the infinite Housekeeper becoming exhausted, He will ever blow out +the lights and quench the guests. + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE TRANSIENT AND THE PERMANENT IN THE DESTINY OF MAN. + +A COMPANION of Solomon once said to him, "Give me, O king of +wisdom, a maxim equally applicable on all occasions, that I may +fortify myself with it against the caprices of fortune." Solomon +reflected a moment, then gave him, in these words, the maxim he +sought: "This, too, shall pass away." The courtier at first felt +disappointed, but, meditating awhile, perceived the pertinent and +profound meaning hidden in the transparent simplicity of the +words. Are you afflicted? Be not despondent or rash, This, too, +shall pass away. Are you blessed? Be not elated or careless, This +too shall pass away. Are you in danger? in temptation? in glory? +Still, for your proper guidance, in relation to each one, +remember; This too shall pass away. And so on, under every +diversity of situation in which man can be placed. Whatever +restraint, whatever encouragement, whatever consolation he needs, +it is all contained in the profound thought, This too shall pass +away. + +This maxim for all times needs to be supplemented by a +corresponding maxim for all persons. There is a truth constantly +suited for the variety of immortal souls, as the foregoing one is +for the variety of temporal changes. Let us see what that truth is +and set it in a fitting aphorism. + +The desires of the human soul are boundless. Nothing can satisfy +its wishes by fulfilling them and circumscribing there a fixed +limit. It would devour the whole creation, and hungrily cry for +more. Whatever extension of power or fruition it can conceive, it +wants for its own, and frets if deprived of it. Now, if the spirit +of the Creator is in the creature, this illimitable passion of +acquisition cannot be a mere mockery. It must be a hint of the +will of God and of the destiny of his child in whom He has +implanted it. It is prophetic of something awaiting fulfillment. +But what is the prophecy, and how is it to be fulfilled? The +answer to this question will give us that maxim of eternal +humanity which accords with the maxim of transient fortune. And +thus it reads: Over all the things for which men struggle with +each other, there is one thing, out of the sphere of struggle, +which indivisibly belongs to every man, and that one thing is the +whole universe! Be not baffled by the appearance of transcendental +mysticism in this maxim, as the ancient inquirer was by the +appearance of commonplace in his, but seek its significance. + +A son is an heir of his father. All men are sons of God, though +only a few, and that in varying degree, are distinctly conscious +as yet of their sonship. But, despite their ignorance, all are +tending, more or less swiftly, toward the goal of their nature and +inheritance. + +There are exclusive prizes which men can monopolize: and they +fight with one another for these, because the more some have the +less others can obtain. There are also inclusive prizes, or modes +of holding and enjoying property which do not interfere with +universal participation, with universal, undivided ownership. In +these no one need have any the less because every one has all. +This is the region of reason, imagination, affection, the empire +of the soul. The more one knows of mathematical truth, poetic +beauty or moral good, the easier it is, not the harder, for others +to know and enjoy as much or more. In this divine domain no +monopoly or conflict is possible, because the outward moving fence +of each consciousness, retreating and vanishing before its +conquests of experience, is a vacuum with respect to that of every +other. They overlap and penetrate one another as if they were +mutually nonexistent. For example, the pleasure any one takes in a +picture, or in a play, does not lessen the pleasure which remains +for the other spectators; but, on the contrary, adds to it if they +have sympathy. + +Now, the all inclusive prize of desire, the very secret of the +Godhead namely, the power of taking a full pure joy in every form +of being, in every substance and phenomenon of the creation is +forever wooing every soul; and every soul, in proportion to its +advancement, is forever embracing it just as freely as if no other +soul existed, yet has the zest of its enjoyments endlessly varied +and heightened by mutual contemplations and reflections of those +of all the rest. Such is the superiority of the disinterested +spirit over the selfish flesh, of the inner world over the outer +world, of good over evil. + +Mental ownership is sympathetic and universal, physical +appropriation antagonistic and individual. We hate and oppose our +fellows that with hand and foot we may monopolize some wretched +grains of good, while God is inviting every one of us with our +mind and heart to accept as fast as we can his whole undivided +infinitude of good. The universe is the house of the Father; the +true spirit of the family is disinterested, and consequently every +child is heir of the whole even as the apostle Paul said, joint +heir with Christ. Register, then, deeply in memory, side by side +with the historic maxim for all times, This too shall pass away! +the religious maxim for all souls. Over those things for which men +struggle with each other, there is one thing, out of the sphere of +struggle, which belongs indivisibly to every man, and that one +thing is the whole universe! Then, should you ever feel vexed or +disheartened by the irritations and failures you meet in your +journey through the evanescent masquerade of this world, pause and +say to yourself, Is it worthy of me, while the entire realm of +existence asks me to appropriate it in ever expansive possession, +to be angry or sad because some infinitesimal speck of it does not +grant me as much of itself as I crave? + +The more things we love the richer we are. The fewer things we +care for the freer we are. O blessed wealth and wretched freedom, +how shall we perfect and reconcile them? This is the secret: If we +love the divine and eternal in everything, and care not for the +limiting and perishable evil connected with it, then we shall at +once be both rich and free. The former practice educates our +powers; the latter emancipates them. The true use of renunciation +is as a means for larger fulfillment. Detach from lower and lesser +objects in order to attach to higher and greater ones. Be always +ready to renounce the meaner at the invitation of the nobler. The +soul, like a grand frigate, may be loosely tied by a thousand +separate strings, but should be held firm by one cable. Our +relations to fellow creatures are those threads; our supreme +relation to God, that cable. Those are the gossamer of time; this +the adamant of eternity. + +The lame man cries, O, that I could walk! He who can walk says, O, +that I could fly! If he could soar, he would sigh, O, that I were +omnipresent, and therefore had no need to move! The end of one +wish is but the beginning of another; and the craving of every +human soul, let loose in sincere expression, is absolutely +illimitable. It always comes, in the last analysis, to this; every +one really longs to be God. Therefore, unless the rational +creation is mendacious, to be deified, is, in some mystical but +true sense, the final destiny of all souls. Every one, in its +consciousness fully developed and harmonized, shall become a focus +of universal being, a finite reflex of God, the infinite God +himself remaining eternally the same unescapable and incomprehensible +mystery as ever. + +There are, therefore, two supreme maxims for souls conditioned in +time and space but destined for eternity and infinity a maxim of +comfort for those who suffer, and a maxim of impulse for those who +aspire. The one, to be used in view of every fear, every evil or +limit. This, too, shall pass away! The other, to be used in view +of every insatiable desire, Over all those things for which men +struggle with each other, there is one thing, out of the sphere of +struggle, which indivisibly belongs to every man, and that one +thing is the whole universe! + +Nothing but the Absolute Good is everlasting: and that must belong +to all who, being essential personalities, are superior to death. +Blessed, blessed, then, are they who hunger and thirst after God; +for, by a real transubstantiation assimilating Him, they shall as +divinely live forevermore. They shall cease to say any more of +anything, This, too, shall pass away! because the infinite God +shall have said to each of them, Son, thou art ever with me, and +all that I have is thine! + +If the view above marked out, a view in many respects so sublime +and satisfactory, a view which goes so far to explain the +mysteries, reconcile the contradictions, and transfigure the evils +of our transient life and lot below be not true, it must either be +because some other higher and better view is the truth in which +case we certainly ought to be contented or else the creative and +providential plan of God is inferior to the thought of one of his +creatures. It is not possible for me to suppose that a speculative +theory of my brain can transcend in harmony and beneficence the +design of the infinite God. Could it do so, then, in reality, I +should be a higher being than He. I should veritably have +dethroned Him and vaulted into his place. Is not that a pitch of +impiety and absurdity too great even for the pride of man, +insurgent atom of criticising assumption, set, baffled at every +point, amidst the awful immensity of existence? Here, then, is +rest. Either our highest view is the truth, or the truth is higher +and better than that. For to think that his thought is superior to +the purpose of God, thus making himself the real God, is too much +for the extremist human egotist within the limits of sanity. + +Therefore, until a better theory is propounded, we hold that the +destiny of the soul is to become, through the progressive +actualization of its potential consciousness, a free thinking +center of the universe, an infinitesimal mirror of God. The +adventures of the different souls, full of inexhaustible curiosity +and relish in the mutually revealing contacts of their degrees of +development and originalities of personal character and treasure, +constitute the endless drama of spiritual existence within the +phenomenal theater of the material creation. And still the +infinite One serenely smiles on the troubled play of the eternal +Many; because the psychological kaleidoscope of their experience +is a continuous improvisation of justice, weaving the fate of Each +with the fates of All, and transfusing the monotonous unity of the +Same with the zestful variety of the Other. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Destiny of the Soul, by +William Rounseville Alger + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DESTINY OF THE SOUL *** + +***** This file should be named 19082.txt or 19082.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/8/19082/ + +Produced by Edmund Dejowski + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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