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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/21881-h.zip b/21881-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1fcf386 --- /dev/null +++ b/21881-h.zip diff --git a/21881-h/21881-h.htm b/21881-h/21881-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..145fe46 --- /dev/null +++ b/21881-h/21881-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2623 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Life of the Waiting Soul</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + TD { vertical-align: top; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">The Life of the Waiting Soul, by R. E. Sanderson</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Life of the Waiting Soul, by R. E. +Sanderson + + +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 Life of the Waiting Soul + in the Intermediate State + + +Author: R. E. Sanderson + + + +Release Date: June 20, 2007 [eBook #21881] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF THE WAITING SOUL*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1900 Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. +edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>THE LIFE<br /> +<span class="smcap">of</span><br /> +THE WAITING SOUL<br /> +<span class="smcap">in</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">the intermediate state</span>.</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +<i>R. E. SANDERSON</i>, <i>D.D.</i>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">st. michael</span>, <span +class="smcap">brighton</span>; <span class="smcap">canon +residentiary of chichester</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">cathedral</span>; <span +class="smcap">formerly head master of</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">lancing college</span>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">London:<br /> +<span class="smcap">wells gardner</span>, <span +class="smcap">darton & co.</span>,<br /> +3 <span class="smcap">paternoster buildings</span>, <span +class="smcap">e.c.</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><!-- page iv--><a +name="pageiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. iv</span><span +class="smcap">First Edition</span>, <span +class="smcap">May</span>, 1896.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Second</span> ,, <span +class="smcap">Sep.</span>, ,,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Third</span> ,, <span +class="smcap">Feb.</span>, 1897.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Fourth</span> ,, <span +class="smcap">Jan.</span>, 1898.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Fifth</span> ,, <span +class="smcap">Feb.</span>, 1900.</p> +<h2><!-- page v--><a name="pagev"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +v</span>PREFACE.</h2> +<p>These Addresses were delivered in Chichester Cathedral, and +subsequently, with slight alterations, at Hastings. They +would not have been printed but at the urgent request of very +many who heard them preached. It should be remembered that +they are not a theological treatise, but a course of plain words +addressed to an ordinary congregation. It seemed desirable +to awaken interest in a subject which has dropped out of English +Christian thought, and almost out of people’s +knowledge. The Addresses are an attempt to explain what can +be known about the Intermediate Life. There is nothing new +in them. If there were, probably what is new would not be +true.</p> +<p>The doctrines of so-called “Universalism” and +“Conditional Immortality” are not touched upon. +They do not belong to the period <!-- page vi--><a +name="pagevi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. vi</span>which is +covered by the Intermediate State. Moreover, I doubt +whether we can ever regard those doctrines as anything more than +speculations invented to answer modern and possibly ephemeral +objections.</p> +<p>How much I have unconsciously been indebted to those who have +dealt with this subject more fully, I hardly know. One +reads and remembers, and reproduces in preaching, often without +thought of the sources from which material has been drawn. +I gratefully acknowledge in the notes what I know to be debts +incurred. I can only express my regret if any have been +overlooked.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">R. E. S.</p> +<p><i>Easter</i>, 1896.</p> +<h2><!-- page 1--><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +1</span>I.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“I would not have you to be ignorant, +brethren, concerning them which are asleep.”—1 <span +class="smcap">Thess.</span> <span class="smcap">iv.</span> +13.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>There are moments in the lives of every one of us, when the +mind is irresistibly drawn on to wonder what our own personal +future shall be, as soon as life is over and death has overtaken +us. We cannot help the speculation. However bound by +present duties and absorbed in present interests, often, in quiet +hours, in times of solitude or bereavement, or under the sense of +failing hopes or failing health, in seasons of sorrow or of +sickness, the mood takes hold of us; and it may be, we know not +why, our eyes turn with an anxious and a wistful look towards +that inevitable end which is surely coming upon us.</p> +<p>At such moments we ask ourselves, what <!-- page 2--><a +name="page2"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 2</span>will my lot be +when the hand of death touches me—even <i>me</i>; when all +the light of life goes out, all thought of this world’s +cares, all pleasant joys and hopes and desires of time sink down +and fade into the chill gloom and shadow of the unknown? +Such questionings, brought close home to our very selves, cannot +but fill us with very anxious fears and misgivings, as we either +look back upon the past, or think upon what chiefly possesses our +minds and thoughts now. Indeed, many of us cannot bear this +forward glance, and refuse to face it. We would fain brush +the thought aside, and with some hasty utterance of vague trust, +of shadowy self-comforting hope that <span +class="smcap">God</span> will be merciful, we turn sharply round +and give ourselves again to the calls of the life which is about +us.</p> +<p>In this way, we Christians, we children of <span +class="smcap">God</span>, heirs of life and immortality, learn to +be terrified at death, which, as we are taught to believe, ushers +us into life; learn to associate it with trembling doubt <!-- +page 3--><a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 3</span>and +shuddering dismay. But is this dread of death nothing else +than the natural instinctive shrinking, which the warmth of life +feels at the touch of its cold hand? Or is it not rather, +in the case of most of us, due to some false imaginations with +which religion itself—that form, at least, of religion +which to-day encompasses us—has for many years possessed +and imbued the minds of men? Indeed, I believe it to be +so. The Christianity of to-day has too commonly accepted +two untruths, which yet it holds as truths.</p> +<p>1. One of them is this: That death ushers the soul +immediately and finally into the supreme condition which awaits +the souls of men; so that, at death, the souls of good men pass +at once into heaven, while the souls of bad men pass at once into +hell; in other words, that the final and irrevocable severance +between the just and the unjust takes place at death. +Believing this, men have lost all faith in an Intermediate State +between death and the Day <!-- page 4--><a name="page4"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 4</span>of Judgment. That intervening +sojourn of the soul has virtually dropped out of recognition in +the popular Christianity of the day, and is quite ignored. +If you walk through any resting place of the bodies of the dead, +into your own churchyards and cemeteries, you will, not seldom, +find inscriptions upon tombs, which express the confident +assurance that one, whose death is recorded, has already passed +into heaven; that another has now become an angel of Light, or is +singing the praises of <span class="smcap">God</span> before the +throne, is, in short, in the full present enjoyment of consummate +and final bliss. Thus it is that the Intermediate State +between death and the final condition of happiness in heaven, +which can only follow the Day of the Resurrection, is quite +forgotten and overlooked.</p> +<p>2. And the second untruth, which is closely connected +with the first, is this: That there are but two classes of those +who pass hence and are no more seen; <!-- page 5--><a +name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>classes sharply +distinguished, clearly outlined,—on the one hand, of those +who at death go straight to heaven, and, on the other, of those +who at death go straight to the place of final torment. If +then these are the only two clearly marked and sharply defined +alternatives, it follows that, whensoever we dare not be sure of +any one soul at death that it was good enough certainly for +heaven, there is nothing for it but to fear that the worse doom +awaits it and that it is lost. For if it is not, at the +moment of death, pure enough or good enough for heaven, into +which there “shall in no wise enter anything that defileth, +neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie,” +<a name="citation5"></a><a href="#footnote5" +class="citation">[5]</a> that soul, according to this false +belief, is lost. Yet, in fact, what do we see within us and +around us, as we honestly look into our own lives, and upon the +lives both of the best and of the worst among us? We see +this, and we are convinced that we are <!-- page 6--><a +name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 6</span>not mistaken, +that even among the most marked extremes of good men and evil +men, few even of the best are so free from stain or fault as, at +death, to be certainly fit for heaven, and few so vile and +degraded as not to have still some good in them. And +between these two extremes there are multitudes of mixed +characters, in part good and in part bad. Among these, of +whom we know that they are full of worth yet full of +imperfections too, we count so many who are most dear to us, many +the companions of our lives, our kindred, and acquaintances, and +cherished friends, whose failings and whose virtues we know so +well, of mixed and imperfect character, too frail for heaven, too +good, too lovable for hell, partly good and partly not good, +strong and also weak, marred with inconsistencies, and often for +these very inconsistencies the more dear to us, of whom, so truly +have we loved and even honoured them, it seems almost like an +outrage upon their memory to bring ourselves to think <!-- page +7--><a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>that +there was just so much of evil in them and just so little good, +as would suffice to turn the balance against them and thus fix, +at the moment of their death, their final doom.</p> +<p>What are we to think of such as these? Of some we +perhaps say within ourselves, “Would that there had been +but a little amendment of this blemish! A little more of +strength and purpose against that fault! If only this +besetting hardness had not been the spoiler of his life, that +great heedlessness, that fatal procrastination, this too frequent +sin! Oh! but for this or that which marred the fair and +well rounded character! But for this we should have been +full of hope: there was so much on the better side, that we +should have been full of trust, and even of confidence. +But, now, what are we to think? If only there were some fit +and fair proportion to be thought of, duly measured out, of +reward and punishment, a mixed destiny for a mixed character, +<!-- page 8--><a name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +8</span>partly good and partly evil for those who in this life +were in part good and in part were evil! But these two +awful and sharp alternatives, either reward or punishment, these +two separate issues, heaven or hell, and if not heaven then +necessarily and inevitably hell! What shall we think? +We dare not think. In the Bible we are encouraged to +believe that we shall receive the due reward of our deeds, +whether they be good or whether they be evil. <a +name="citation8"></a><a href="#footnote8" +class="citation">[8]</a> But how shall any receive in +heaven the due reward of evil deeds done on earth? and how, in +hell, shall any wretched soul receive in any truth the due +rewards of good deeds done on earth? Yet in each, there was +some good even in the worst, and some evil even in the +best.”</p> +<p>We see then what follows upon this false belief, that at death +an instant judgment assigns finally the destiny of all men, to +men of every degree of wickedness, without distinction, Hell; and +one final <!-- page 9--><a name="page9"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 9</span>and absolute Heaven to men of every +varying measure of goodness. Surely there is a great +perplexity in this. No wonder if such beliefs lead men to +dread the thought of death, of their own death, of the death of +their friends. No mere physical repulsion makes us shrink, +but rather the uncertainty and doubt of what may follow,</p> +<blockquote><p> “The dread of something +after death,<br /> +The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn<br /> +No traveller returns, puzzles the will,”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and makes us Christian men and women turn to find relief from +these bewildering fears by plunging deeply into the waters of +life’s amusements and ambitions. It is the +uncertainty of things, wearing to some the aspect of caprice, +which leads to recklessness, and sometimes to defiance.</p> +<p>I believe, from my heart, that Holy Scripture rightly +understood solves these confusing riddles. I believe that a +more sound and Scriptural grasp of what will be the future of +each of us after death, <!-- page 10--><a name="page10"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 10</span>the restoration of a right belief in +an Intermediate State, will go far to correct these unworthy and +most un-Christian fears. But it is said, at times, that +nothing can be really known about this Intermediate State, that +all that can be asserted of it is mere guess and vain conjecture, +and even that it betrays a too curious intrusion into things +unseen to speculate about the condition of souls after +death. Yes! if we only speculate, but not surely if we seek +humbly to find out what the Bible has taught us. S. Paul +did not think it a too presumptuous intrusion into things beyond +the reach of our knowledge to make this enquiry. “I +would not have you to be ignorant concerning them which are +asleep.” He would rather that the Thessalonians +should know all that can be known, to their edification. +And something can be known, or he would not have written +this. And to know it will be to our edification also. +Certainly to ignore what can be known has led, as we have seen, +<!-- page 11--><a name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +11</span>to loss and offence in these days. Therefore I +propose to try and set before you not idle speculations indeed, +but what has been actually revealed in Holy Scripture, or may be +drawn from it about the Intermediate State. It is upon Holy +Scripture that we must depend for our learning. At least I +shall make no attempt to build arguments upon any other +foundation than Holy Scripture. But let us, in <span +class="smcap">God’s</span> Name, get out of Holy Scripture +all that can, according to the proportion of the faith, be +deduced from it. It is as perilous, not to say as undutiful +towards <span class="smcap">God</span>, the Revealer, to neglect +what He has for our sakes revealed, as it would be to invent +speculations of our own about that which He has not revealed.</p> +<p>The unseen world is not easy to apprehend, and to our +matter-of-fact English mind and temper is especially +difficult. Yet, with the awful future in our mind, which +awaits not only those who are very dear to ourselves, but +ourselves also, we <!-- page 12--><a name="page12"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 12</span>must be dull indeed, if we have no +concern for it. Then if sober questioning may reveal more +clearly to us what Holy Scripture can tell us of things that +shall befall each of us, we may hope to gain fresh confidence, +and to renew our trust in Him Who launched us into time, that we +may live with Him in eternity through Jesus Christ our Lord.</p> +<h2><!-- page 13--><a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +13</span>II.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Jesus said unto him, Verily I say onto +thee, To-day shall thou be with Me in Paradise.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—S. <span +class="smcap">Luke</span> <span class="smcap">xxiii.</span> +43.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>If we should ask what happens to the soul of a good man when +he dies, the answer would probably be that he has gone to +heaven. Of a little child it would be said at his death, +that he has become an angel in heaven. But this would be +quite untrue, because it contradicts the Bible. The Bible +teaches that there will at the end of the world be a day when all +the dead shall rise and stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, +to be judged for the deeds done in the body, whether they be +good, or whether they be evil. But if a good man’s +soul goes straight to heaven at death, without waiting for the +Day of Judgment, he practically has no Day of Judgment at +all. He escapes it. The <!-- page 14--><a +name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>Bible also +teaches that before the Day of Judgment there will be a general +Resurrection of all, both of the just and of the unjust. <a +name="citation14"></a><a href="#footnote14" +class="citation">[14]</a> But how can one who is already in +heaven, while his body lies in the grave of corruption,—how +can he, being already glorified and even now beholding the vision +of <span class="smcap">God</span>, to any intelligible purpose, +or for any conceivable end, take part in the general +Resurrection? Why should he, as it were, come away from +heaven and rise from the dead, in order to be judged?</p> +<p>Thus the popular belief, that the souls of the righteous pass +straight to heaven, and the souls of the wicked go straight to +hell, is against the plain teaching of the Bible. But the +Bible not only contradicts this popular and careless fancy. +It asserts what is directly contrary to it: it asserts +positively, I mean, that there is an age-long period between +death and the final state of happiness or misery, during which +period the soul is separate from the body <!-- page 15--><a +name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>and remains +separate. We are, according to the Bible, destined to +undergo three great changes in the mode and nature of our +existence. In the first period, while we are here in this +our life on earth, the soul and spirit are united to a material +and tangible body of flesh and blood, suited to our life +here. The second stage begins at death, the name we give to +the separation which then takes place between this material +fabric of the body and the incorporeal part of us; and then the +soul and spirit dwell disembodied for a time. There follows +at the Resurrection the third period, when the soul and spirit +are reunited with the body, but with the body now so +spiritualized and refined as to suit the heavenly +existence. The second of these two periods, coming between +the first and the third, is therefore fitly called the +intermediate or middle state, the state in which the disembodied +soul dwells apart from its material tenement. <a +name="citation15"></a><a href="#footnote15" +class="citation">[15]</a></p> +<p><!-- page 16--><a name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +16</span>What has the Bible then to say about this Intermediate +State? I will not ask you to listen to the comments or +interpretations of the early Christian writers, although, of +course, very great respect is due to what they say. I will +only beg of you to pay common attention to what the Bible itself +says.</p> +<p>Now, first, I will point to the words which our Lord spoke +from the Cross, just before His Death, to the thief who was also +slowly dying at His side. “To-day,” He said, +“shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” So then +within a few hours,—it was then not yet mid-day—they +were both to be in Paradise. They both died before sunset, +and at their death both entered Paradise. Their dead bodies +were left behind upon the Cross. What then entered +Paradise? Not their bodies, but the spiritual or +incorporeal part of them. Was Paradise then another name +for heaven? It cannot be; our Lord did not go to heaven +until the day of His Ascension, <!-- page 17--><a +name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>forty-three +days after His death. For, after His Resurrection, He said +to S. Mary Magdalene, “I am <i>not yet</i> ascended to My +Father.” <a name="citation17"></a><a href="#footnote17" +class="citation">[17]</a> With His risen body, united again +to His human soul and spirit, He went to Heaven, His whole human +nature now being, by His Resurrection, again completely +one. But into Paradise only part of His human nature +passed, the spiritual part of it, along with the spiritual part +of the thief’s human nature. Our Lord’s soul +and spirit came back, as we know, from Paradise on the third +day. The soul and spirit of the thief remain there +still. So then this is what our Lord Himself teaches us as +to the state of the disembodied spirit, that at death a just +man’s spirit does <i>not</i> go to heaven, but into a +sphere of life which is called Paradise.</p> +<p>But, if this be so, why, it may be asked, did not our Lord +speak in plainer and more definite language? Such a truth, +it may be urged, a truth which so much <!-- page 18--><a +name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 18</span>concerns us, +ought not to depend upon a single text. I do not propose to +ask you to be content with an inference from a single text. +But it may be that our Lord did not say more than this about the +great truth with which we are dealing for this reason, that the +disciples whom He gathered round Him, being Jews, perfectly well +knew what He meant by Paradise. This single reference, +therefore, is enough to show that what was a common and prevalent +belief among the Jews was a true belief,—a belief which our +Lord not only recognized, but by recognizing established and +sanctioned. But if we are once clear on this point, we +shall find the belief more plainly set forth by our Lord in +another place. What then is the belief that we have learned +from this single passage? We have learned this, that the +human spirit of our Lord, and the spirit of the dying thief did +not pass at death to heaven, though if any spirit should ever be +fit to pass at death to heaven His spirit was fit, but to a state +which He called Paradise.</p> +<p><!-- page 19--><a name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +19</span>Now, there was another expression used in the ordinary +Jewish language of the day for the state to which the blessed +dead passed at death. They were spoken of as at rest +“in Abraham’s bosom.” Of a very holy man +they would say, “This day he rests in Abraham’s +bosom.” So that in the minds of the Jews and +therefore of the disciples the term “Paradise” meant +exactly the same thing as “Abraham’s +bosom.” We have learned what “Paradise” +meant. Therefore now we know what “resting in +Abraham’s bosom” meant. It meant the +Intermediate State. <a name="citation19"></a><a +href="#footnote19" class="citation">[19]</a> The scene then +in the narrative of the <!-- page 20--><a name="page20"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 20</span>rich man and Lazarus, which follows +the deaths of the two men, belongs not to the final state of +happiness and misery at all, but to the Intermediate State. +The joy is the joy of the Intermediate State. The +suffering, which is in such strong contrast to the joy as to be +divided from it by a deep gulf, so that the joy cannot be tinged +with the misery, nor the misery relieved by the joy,—this +suffering also is the suffering of the Intermediate State.</p> +<p>The reality then of the Intermediate State is confirmed by our +Lord in this narrative. Now observe the weight of this +testimony. If the Jews were wrong in believing that the +spirits of the just passed into Paradise or into Abraham’s +bosom our Lord would never have uttered words twice over which +sanctioned their mistake. We may observe further from these +two passages that the Intermediate State has two parts or +conditions. There are those in it who suffer, and there are +those who rejoice. At death, the spirits of those <!-- page +21--><a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>whose +lives have been evil pass to suffering and anguish, as we read of +the rich man that “in Hades he lifted up his eyes being in +torments”; and the spirits of the faithful pass to rest and +joy. But between these two representatives in the +narrative, the one of the evil, the other of the good, there are +the multitudes who are neither very good nor very evil, so varied +in the indeterminate tokens of good and evil which marked their +lives on earth, that it would seem to be impossible for us to +know on which side of “the great gulf” their position +ought to be. But if the extremes enter the Intermediate +State, and there is room for them in it, is it to be supposed +that there is no room for those who are between the +extremes? Rather do we learn that the spirits of all go +thither, not only of the faithful and of the wicked, but of the +wavering and uncertain also, of those who were weak and fell, of +those who, with unsteady and tottering steps, sometimes rising, +often <!-- page 22--><a name="page22"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 22</span>falling, now obeying, now rebelling, +now believing, now doubting, now walking in the light, now +plunged in darkness, at one time treading firmly the ground of +the narrow path, and then at times wandering into the quagmires +and morasses of sin and lust, passed through the pilgrimage of +life, and, at length, when their allotted span was completed, +were assigned to the place which awaited them, to the place which +was their own and was fitted for them.</p> +<p>We have seen what conclusions must be drawn from the express +language of our Lord Himself. Let us now examine the +evidence afforded by His Apostles, in the Epistles and in the +book of the Revelation. But first I would ask you to +consider what, according to the Bible, is the chief feature in +the conception of the happiness and glory of Heaven, what is its +essential nature. Is it not this, that being the dwelling +place of <span class="smcap">God</span> Himself, the glory and +happiness of Heaven will consist in the Presence itself of <span +class="smcap">God</span>, and therefore <!-- page 23--><a +name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>in the vision +of <span class="smcap">God</span>? As a great writer has +said, “It must be remarked by everybody that the glory of +the future state is always put before us not as an inner +consciousness or mental communion simply, not as an absorption +into ourselves within, but as a great spectacle without us, the +spectacle of a great visible manifestation of <span +class="smcap">God</span>. It is a sight, a picture, a +representation, that constitutes the heavenly state, not mere +thought and contemplation. The glorified saint of Scripture +is especially a beholder; he gazes, he looks, he fixes his eyes +upon something before him; he does not merely ruminate within, +but his whole mind is carried out towards and upon a great +representation. And thus Heaven specially appears in +Scripture as the sphere of perfected sight, where the faculty is +raised and exalted to its highest act, and the happiness of +existence culminates in vision.” <a +name="citation23"></a><a href="#footnote23" +class="citation">[23]</a> If this be so, all the most +entrancing spectacles <!-- page 24--><a name="page24"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 24</span>and scenes of earth shall appear dim +and coarse and uncouth in comparison with the sight on which the +ravished gaze of eternity shall be fastened. For then shall +our eyes see “The King in His Beauty.” <a +name="citation24a"></a><a href="#footnote24a" +class="citation">[24a]</a> They shall see <span +class="smcap">God</span>, see Him face to face,—<span +class="smcap">God</span>! No higher conception of happiness +is set before the heart of man, which ever craves for heaven and +for perfection, than <span class="smcap">God</span> Himself, the +sight of <span class="smcap">God</span>, the Presence of <span +class="smcap">God</span>, the Knowledge of <span +class="smcap">God</span>. “In Thy Presence is the +fulness of joy.” <a name="citation24b"></a><a +href="#footnote24b" class="citation">[24b]</a> But we must +not lose sight of the effect which this vision of <span +class="smcap">God</span> produces upon those who gaze. To +see Him is to become like Him. “Then,” says S. +John, “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He +is.” <a name="citation24c"></a><a href="#footnote24c" +class="citation">[24c]</a> “We all,” says S. +Paul, “with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory +of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to +glory.” This is what seeing <span +class="smcap">God</span> will do.</p> +<p>When, then, shall this vision be granted? <!-- page +25--><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>At +death to any? No! but only at the Second Coming of +Christ. All the great writers of the Epistles speak, as +with one voice, of this. What says S. Peter? +“When the chief Shepherd <i>shall appear</i>, ye shall +receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away.” <a +name="citation25a"></a><a href="#footnote25a" +class="citation">[25a]</a> Not therefore at death, but at +Christ’s Second Coming and appearance. What does S. +John say? “We know that <i>when He shall appear</i>, +we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” <a +name="citation25b"></a><a href="#footnote25b" +class="citation">[25b]</a> Not therefore until that +time. What again does the great S. Paul say? +“When Christ, Who is our life, <i>shall appear</i>, then +shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” <a +name="citation25c"></a><a href="#footnote25c" +class="citation">[25c]</a> Again to S. Timothy he writes, +“There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which +the Lord <i>the righteous Judge</i>, shall give to me <i>at that +day</i>: and not only to me, but also to all them that have loved +<i>His appearing</i>.” <a name="citation25d"></a><a +href="#footnote25d" class="citation">[25d]</a> There can be +no doubt what S. Paul means by “That Day.” It +is the day when “the Righteous Judge” <!-- page +26--><a name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>on +His Judgment throne shall award the crowns to those who have +fought the good fight and kept the faith. This is the +frequent meaning of the expressions, “That day,” +“The day of the Lord,” in the New Testament. +“We know it,” says Dr. Liddon, “by a more +familiar name given it on three occasions by our Lord Himself, +and on three at least by His Apostles after Him: it is the Day of +Judgment.” <a name="citation26"></a><a href="#footnote26" +class="citation">[26]</a> S. Paul, therefore, when he says, +“There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which +the Lord will give me on that day,” does not expect that +crown until the Day of Judgment.</p> +<p>These are a few out of many like passages, all showing that +heaven is not reached at death, but only after the Day of +Judgment. From all which it is clear that the Apostles had +in their minds the firm assurance that there was to be a waiting +time, how long they knew not, or how short they knew not, during +which the spirit without the <!-- page 27--><a +name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>body would +dwell in expectation. If it were otherwise, if at death the +spirit passes into the light which no man can approach unto, into +the Presence of <span class="smcap">God</span> and beholds the +Beatific Vision, which, as we saw, constitutes the consummation +of happiness and perfection in heaven, I would ask, how it can be +conceived that our Lord would have called Lazarus back from that +supreme happiness, which eye hath never seen nor ear ever heard, +nor heart of man ever conceived,—called him back to mingle +in the griefs and sorrows, the pains and failures, the doubts and +fears, the mists and confusions of this earthly life. Was +this the act of Him Who loved Lazarus? Was there no other +way of consoling the living sisters, than by so great a loss to +the vanished brother? Was it not to call him from life to +death, rather than from death to life?</p> +<p>One more passage must be quoted, the force of which cannot +well be missed. In the sixth chapter of the Book of the +Revelation, <!-- page 28--><a name="page28"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 28</span>S. John describes the vision which he +saw at the opening of the fifth seal. He saw, he said, +“under the altar the souls of them that had been slain for +the word of <span class="smcap">God</span>,—and they cried +with a great voice, saying, How long, O Master, the holy and +true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell +on the earth?—And it was said unto them, that they should +rest yet for a little while, until their fellow-servants also and +their brethren . . . should be fulfilled.” <a +name="citation28"></a><a href="#footnote28" +class="citation">[28]</a> Plainly these souls were not in +heaven, for they bemoaned the long delay, and were bidden to wait +for awhile until some great fulfilment. Where then could +they be, if not on earth, nor yet in heaven? They must have +been in the Middle State between the two, these martyred souls, +in Paradise. But they are not spoken of as in Paradise, or +in Abraham’s bosom, but as “under the +Altar.” Where was this? The Jews spoke of +departed souls <!-- page 29--><a name="page29"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 29</span>not only as in Paradise, and in +Abraham’s bosom, but also as “under the throne of +Glory.” By all these expressions they meant the same +thing. S. John, however, uses a different expression in +describing the Intermediate State, yet one so similar as to lead +us to think that in the change he substitutes a Christian formula +for the Jewish, giving it a Christian shape. As “the +throne of Glory” was associated with the Presence of <span +class="smcap">God</span> in the mind of a devout Jew, so the +Altar would be as naturally associated with the Presence of <span +class="smcap">God</span> in the mind of a devout Christian. +What, therefore, the “Throne of <span +class="smcap">God</span>” was to the Jew, that “the +Altar of <span class="smcap">God</span>” would be to a +Christian. For the Altar was to Christian thought the +Throne of <span class="smcap">God</span>. There, at the +Christian Altar was commemorated the one great sacrifice to which +all former sacrifices had pointed, and in which they were all +fulfilled. There the communion of Saints was, as in no +other way on earth, realized. There, <!-- page 30--><a +name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 30</span>as by one +simultaneous vibration thrilling through the saintly dead, and +the living communicants, the spiritual bond unites together in +one unbroken living Communion, those of the Church expectant who +are departed in the true faith of Christ’s Holy Name, and +those of us who are still striving in the Church militant on +earth to perfect our probation. These souls “under +the Altar” were still waiting, and their waiting wearied +them. “How long?” they cried. They were +not in the flesh, their bodies had been slain. They were +absent from the body and present with the Lord, with Christ, as +the crucified thief is still with Christ, in Paradise.</p> +<p>The consummation for them is yet to come. They are +waiting for it. It is postponed. <span +class="smcap">God’s</span> work on earth is yet +uncompleted. The number of the elect is not yet made +up. The Second Coming of Christ is yet delayed. All +things are not yet ready. A little while longer must they +wait, that they without us may not be made perfect.</p> +<h2><!-- page 31--><a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +31</span>III.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“To be carnally minded is death, but to be +spiritually minded is life and peace.”—<span +class="smcap">Rom.</span> <span class="smcap">viii.</span> 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>So far we have examined the witness which the Bible affords in +support of the truth that there is such a sphere as the +Intermediate State, in which the spirit dwells alone, apart from +the body, awaiting the Day of Judgment. We have now to see +what can be known as to the condition of the spirit in that +disembodied state. It is one thing to be assured on good +grounds that there is such a life, and quite another thing to be +assured what sort of life it is. Can we fully understand +what is meant by the life of the spiritual part of our being when +it is separated from the body? We cannot. We cannot +understand that of which we have had no experience. In +speaking, therefore, of the <!-- page 32--><a +name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>disembodied +spirit, we are speaking of that which we cannot explain. +Yet it does not in consequence follow that it is impossible to +believe it to be. For we are bound in reason to be assured +of many things of which we can form no conception. Reason +compels us to be assured of the reality of space, of eternity, of +the creation of the universe out of nothing, and, perhaps we may +add, of the being of <span class="smcap">God</span>; the being of +<span class="smcap">God</span>, I mean, considered apart from His +nature and attributes. Yet we cannot form any intelligent +conception of these realities. We cannot shape to our +apprehension the faintest rational conception of the Personality +of <span class="smcap">God</span>, of His Omniscience, of His +Omnipresence. Yet we are able, and indeed are forced to +believe, as Christians, in these attributes of His Nature, +although we cannot comprehend them.</p> +<p>In the same sense, we can be reasonably sure that the spirit +can still live after it has left the body, even though we are +<!-- page 33--><a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +33</span>unable to form to our minds any clear conception of the +existence of the disembodied spirit. We can do more. +On the assumption of the existence of the disembodied spirit, we +are able, to some extent also, to reason upon the laws and limits +of that separate and secluded life.</p> +<p>We are, no doubt, in so doing, dealing with a profoundly +mysterious subject. But it does not therefore follow that +we are thereby really intruding into things which ought not to be +enquired into. For the questions raised in the search +concern us very closely; and, moreover, it is a matter about +which <span class="smcap">God</span> has made a revelation. +And to know more about it than many people even care to know is a +safeguard against many an unwholesome fear, against many a +mischievous deceit.</p> +<p>On the very threshold of this enquiry we are confronted with +this question: “Is the soul the same thing as the +spirit? If not, what is the soul, and what is the +spirit?” That the Bible regards them <!-- page +34--><a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>as +distinct is sufficiently clear from the language used by S. Paul +in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians: “I pray <span +class="smcap">God</span> your whole spirit, soul, and body be +preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus +Christ.” <a name="citation34a"></a><a href="#footnote34a" +class="citation">[34a]</a> The same distinction is marked +in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “The word of <span +class="smcap">God</span> is quick, and powerful, and sharper than +any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of +soul and spirit.” <a name="citation34b"></a><a +href="#footnote34b" class="citation">[34b]</a> It is thus +that we understand the contrast which S. Paul enforces between +things of the spirit and things of the soul. “The +<i>natural</i> man,”—<i>i.e.</i>, the psychical man, +the man who yields to the sway of the +soul,—“receiveth not the things of the spirit of +<span class="smcap">God</span>.” <a +name="citation34c"></a><a href="#footnote34c" +class="citation">[34c]</a> And again, speaking of the +resurrection, he writes: “It is sown a natural +body,”—<i>i.e.</i>, literally a psychical body, a +<!-- page 35--><a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +35</span>body which is subject to the sway of the +soul,—“it is raised a spiritual +body,”—<i>i.e.</i>, a body subject to the sway of the +spirit. “There is a natural body, and there is a +spiritual body.” <a name="citation35a"></a><a +href="#footnote35a" class="citation">[35a]</a> When again +S. James says: “This wisdom . . . is earthly, +<i>sensual</i>, devilish,”—the word translated +“sensual” is the same word “psychical,” +<i>i.e.</i>, subject to the sway of the soul. <a +name="citation35b"></a><a href="#footnote35b" +class="citation">[35b]</a> S. Jude speaks of those who are +“sensual,” <i>i.e.</i>, psychical, “not having +the spirit.” <a name="citation35c"></a><a +href="#footnote35c" class="citation">[35c]</a> Enough has +been said to show that, according to the Bible, the soul is the +seat of the senses, the desires, the will, the reasoning and +intellectual faculties, the thoughts of the mind. What then +is the spirit in man? We seem to have the answer given to +us in the account of man’s creation, when we are told that +“<span class="smcap">God</span> formed man of the dust of +the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, +and man became a living soul.” <a name="citation35d"></a><a +href="#footnote35d" class="citation">[35d]</a> This breath +of <!-- page 36--><a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +36</span><span class="smcap">God</span> could be nothing less +than the spirit, which came from <span class="smcap">God</span> +Himself. It is that higher endowment by which man is a +spiritual being, and therefore has an affinity to <span +class="smcap">God</span>. It is that which makes him <span +class="smcap">God</span>-like, even by nature, at least by his +nature as it was before the fall. But even the fall did not +utterly dissolve that nature; man still remained a spiritual +being, although the spiritual part of him was subject to the sway +of the animal in him, and to the senses of the lower +nature. Until that creative act of <span +class="smcap">God</span>, man’s body and soul were scarcely +higher in the order and rank of being than the body and soul of +the brute. It was the gift of the divine spirit which +caused man’s soul truly to live, so that he became then +“a <i>living</i> soul.” Herein, henceforth, the +soul of man differs from the soul of the lower creature. In +man the soul is in contact with the spirit. The beast +shares with man the possession of an animal soul. It is the +prerogative of man to be endowed <!-- page 37--><a +name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 37</span>also with +spirit. By the spirit, man is capable of apprehending <span +class="smcap">God</span>, can commune with <span +class="smcap">God</span>, can long for Him. Herein lies his +capacity for religion. His soul is incorporeal no less than +his spirit. It is, as it were, midway between the body and +the spirit. It touches the body on the one side, on the +other side it touches the spirit. The desires and the +thoughts of the soul may become enslaved by the body, or they may +become the servants of the spirit. The soul is the prize, +for the mastery of which the spirit strives, and the flesh or +body strives. The spirit may gain the soul, or the flesh +may gain the soul. If the spirit loses the soul, it is a +loss fatal and irreparable. The soul is drawn now this way +by the baser longings of the flesh, now that way by the nobler +appeals of the spirit. It is the “debateable +ground” <a name="citation37"></a><a href="#footnote37" +class="citation">[37]</a> on which the real battle of life is +fought. “The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and +the spirit against <!-- page 38--><a name="page38"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 38</span>the flesh.” The gaining +of the soul is the gaining of the whole man. The losing of +the soul is the losing of the whole man. Those have +degraded and brutalized their life whose human spirit has yielded +up its supremacy, whose soul has been swept along in captivity by +the bodily desires. For as in some the spirit shapes the +whole soul, so in others the soul, enslaved by the flesh, shapes +the spirit.</p> +<p>Death at length steps in, and tears asunder the flesh from the +incorporeal part of us; and soul and spirit, still united, pass +together to the life which awaits them in the world unseen.</p> +<h2><!-- page 39--><a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +39</span>IV.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“And when he had said this he fell +asleep.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—<span +class="smcap">Acts</span> <span class="smcap">vii.</span> 60.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>At death, as we have seen, the spirit and the soul are +separated from the body, and, still united together, are launched +into the unseen world. For though the soul is not the +spirit, these two form the incorporeal parts of our compound +nature, are the two immaterial elements of that trinity of +life,—body, soul, spirit, which are united to make one +human being. They both survive death. For death is +the separation of the soul from the body, not of the soul from +the spirit. But it must be remembered that the spirit, when +at death it is, in company with the soul, withdrawn from the +body, passes into the Intermediate State, shaped and stamped with +the impress which the life on earth has fastened upon it. +The <!-- page 40--><a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +40</span>spirit enters the new life, either enslaved, disfigured, +degraded, dishonoured by the sensual soul, or else strong, free, +true, purified in its victory over the flesh. It carries +with it, in short, the character which in life it has +acquired.</p> +<p>It may be well to fall into the usage of ordinary speech, and +speak of that which survives death as the <i>soul</i>, so long as +we keep in mind what is really meant, viz., that it is the soul +<i>united with the spirit</i> which survives death.</p> +<p>When, then, we say that the disembodied soul enters the +Intermediate Life, we are bound to consider in what condition it +enters it. For people sometimes argue thus: “Yes! I +grant that there will be an interval or waiting time between +death and the Day of Judgment. But then, during that time, +is not the soul asleep? Surely the dying are said to fall +asleep. Then, if asleep, they are unconscious, and to the +unconscious soul the Intermediate State will seem to last but for +an instant, <!-- page 41--><a name="page41"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 41</span>and will no sooner be entered upon +than it will be practically at an end. For complete +insensibility to the passing and movement of time is one of the +effects of complete unconsciousness. And, in truth, is it +not the case that the Bible over and over again speaks of death +as a state of sleep or taking rest? <a name="citation41a"></a><a +href="#footnote41a" class="citation">[41a]</a> Thus the +Intermediate State is in fact a blank. The eyes close in +death, and they remain closed till they open to gaze upon the +glories of the Resurrection, and the terrors of the judgment seat +of Christ. Does not our own Prayer Book sanction this view +in her Service for the Burial of the Dead? <a +name="citation41b"></a><a href="#footnote41b" +class="citation">[41b]</a> And do we not in common language +ourselves express the same belief when we give to the resting +place of the bodies of the dead the name of +‘cemetery,’ or sleeping place?”</p> +<p>The answer to all this is that the language which represents +death as a <!-- page 42--><a name="page42"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 42</span>profound slumber is language +applicable enough to describe what befalls the body, but is quite +inapplicable when it is used of the soul. Sleep is +distinctly a physical and corporeal function. The soul +cannot be liable to or affected by corporeal influences when it +is separated from the body. The soul cannot sleep. It +is the body, in the hushed stillness of the chamber of death, +which seems, now that the last struggle is over, and the spasm of +dying leaves it motionless, to be sleeping. But even in +life, while the body sleeps, the soul is awake. It is +often, during the sleep of the body, even more active than during +the waking hours. In dreams the soul is busy with its +fancies. Thoughts flit this way and that through the mind +of the sleeper. Indeed, the body is more often a hindrance +rather than a help to the activities of thought. To lose +all consciousness of the existence of the body, to be as if the +body for the time were not,—this is to set the mind <!-- +page 43--><a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +43</span>thinking in freedom unrestrained. For the body and +the conscious sensation of the presence of the body seem to serve +to drag down and encumber the energy of thought. A sound +through the ear, a sight presented to the eye, a touch, an +ache,—these break off sustained thinking. No wonder, +when the body sleeps profoundly, the soul is often then most +active. And will not this be so when the profoundest sleep +of all falls upon the body?</p> +<p>It is clear that the disembodied soul, if we may again go back +to the Bible, is not by our Lord regarded as in a state of +lethargy and dull unconsciousness. “To-day,” +said He, “shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” +If this promise was meant to be a blessing and a solace it was +meant to be consciously <i>felt</i> as a blessing and a +solace. How else could the thief have been in any true +sense with Christ? S. Paul said, “For me to live is +Christ, to die is gain.” <a name="citation43"></a><a +href="#footnote43" class="citation">[43]</a> Gain! +Wherein could <!-- page 44--><a name="page44"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 44</span>it be a gain to him to die, if to die +was to exchange that eager, active vitality, so full of welcome +pain and happy suffering, so full of a service, whose fruits were +rich in blessing,—to exchange all this for dull heaviness +and blank oblivion?</p> +<p>In the narrative of the rich man and Lazarus, which, as we +saw, describes the Intermediate State, the rich man is said to +have “lifted up his eyes being in torments.” +So, then, his pain was felt. He was conscious; he +reflected; he remembered; he spoke. Once more, in a +remarkable passage in the First Epistle of S. Peter, to which, on +a future occasion, I shall again refer, our Lord is spoken of as +“having been put to death in the flesh, but +quickened,” <i>i.e.</i>, made alive, “in +spirit” <a name="citation44"></a><a href="#footnote44" +class="citation">[44]</a>; words which, whatever the context may +mean, can only have the force of bringing the effect of death in +its relation to Christ’s human body into sharp contrast +with its effect in relation <!-- page 45--><a +name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>to His human +spirit. In respect of His human body He was put to death; +but in respect of His human spirit He was quickened or lived, +lived still, in Paradise, though His body was dead. I need +not, I think, refer to other passages. It is abundantly +clear, both from the necessity of the thing, and from the obvious +testimony of the Bible, that the soul still lives, still is +awake, still is conscious.</p> +<p>What, then, follows from the soul’s consciousness in and +through the passage of death? Obviously this,—that +the life of the soul goes on, and is therefore the life of the +same soul, sustained without break or interruption, after death, +by an unsuspended continuity of the consciousness of personal +identity. For of what is the soul still conscious? Of +itself. The life therefore of the soul after death is one +with the life of the soul before death. The same soul lives +on. The only change to it is the absence of the body, which +has been withdrawn from it, and is laid in the <!-- page 46--><a +name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>ground, and +dissolves into dust. And this continuous consciousness of +identity means that the soul’s character is preserved +unchanged and unaffected by the shock of the separation. +For a character it had been contracting during its sojourn in the +body, a character of its own. The spiritualized soul before +death is a spiritualized soul after death. The animalized +soul before death remains after death an animalized soul. +The righteous is righteous still. The holy, the pure, the +faithful, the devout, the true, are true, and devout, and +faithful, and pure, and holy still. The wicked and tainted +soul is still wicked and tainted when it enters the unseen, and +begins its life in the Intermediate State. It is on the +other side what it was on this side. Death,—the +crisis and shock of death,—makes no change, no other change +than this, that it strips off the outer clothing which enveloped +the soul. It leaves the soul the same, no better, no <!-- +page 47--><a name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +47</span>worse. This is what is implied in the personal +identity of the soul. It means the continuity of +consciousness, and therefore continuity of character.</p> +<p>Do we cling to some vague and fanciful expectation that the +mere act of dying, so to call it, will itself work a great change +upon the soul, will blot out our sins, will clear away our +imperfections, will in an instant heal the wounds and scars, +which evil habits, long inured in us, have wrought upon the +soul? It will do nothing of the sort. We shall be no +better, no holier on the other side than we were on this, no more +fitted for heaven than when we died. If this be +so,—and, so far as we can see, it must be so,—how +much does it behove us to fear greatly the peril we incur by a +careless and <span class="smcap">God</span>-forgetting +life! “Israel doth not know,” said the prophet, +“My people doth not consider.” <a +name="citation47"></a><a href="#footnote47" +class="citation">[47]</a> That was the pity of it. It +was the thoughtlessness, <!-- page 48--><a +name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>and the +ignorance which came of it, that ruined the nation.</p> +<p>Oh! that in life we would look things in the face more +steadily! Would that we were ready to take heed how surely +we are, day by day, shaping and moulding our character for good +or for evil, a character which no shock of dissolution will +affect, which will be ours when the crisis comes to end our +probation here, and to usher us, as we are and have become, into +that unseen life beyond!</p> +<h2><!-- page 49--><a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +49</span>V.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Being confident of this very thing, that He +which began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of +Jesus Christ.”—<span class="smcap">Phil.</span> <span +class="smcap">i.</span> 6 (<i>R.V.</i>)</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Intermediate Life is not a state of sleep, but a waiting +time. But is it a time of mere waiting, and of unemployed +quiescence? This would be no better than sleep. There +must be a reason for the waiting. And what other reason can +there be than that, during it, there is something to be done +which can only be done then? S. Paul speaks, in the text, +of work which he is confident will be carried on till it is +brought to completion on the Day of Judgment. What is this +work? We have seen that the Scriptural conception of the +happiness of heaven is that it consists in the sight of <span +class="smcap">God</span>, the Beatific Vision. But there +can <!-- page 50--><a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +50</span>enter the heavenly city nothing that defileth, nothing +imperfect. It is the pure in heart who shall see <span +class="smcap">God</span>. Isaiah dare hardly approach the +vision of <span class="smcap">God’s</span> glory on earth, +because he felt himself to be a man of unclean lips. The +very heavens, the stars themselves, are not clean in <span +class="smcap">God’s</span> sight. And at death, who +is pure? Who is free from stain? Who is perfect, that +he should be fit to look upon <span +class="smcap">God</span>? Then, if no one that is imperfect +can enter heaven, and none are perfect at death, can we not see +what the work is that has to be done between death and the +Resurrection? It is this work of purification, that the +soul may be fitted for the vision of <span +class="smcap">God</span> in heaven. And this is what S. +Paul is speaking of in the text. The work begun in life, +under the conditions of earth’s life, shall not stop at +death, but, under new conditions, shall be carried on to +perfection until the day of Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>So far, then, we may say that we are <!-- page 51--><a +name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>treading on +sure ground. But when we go on to ask how shall this work +and process of purification be effected, and what is the nature +and method of it, we are approaching a stage in our enquiry about +which, it may be thought, nothing but conjecture remains, because +nothing has been revealed. But let us see what light may be +thrown upon this question. And, that we may narrow our +enquiry within manageable limits, let us confine our attention +for the present to the condition of those of whom it may with +truth and reason be said that they died in the favour and grace +of <span class="smcap">God</span>, died in good hope of +salvation, surely trusting that their sins had been forgiven +through the blood of Jesus Christ, and that, however imperfect +and blemished with sin their lives had been, there was an assured +forgiveness for them and a good hope of eternal mercy. We +will not define the exact limits of this reasonable hope, nor +attempt to show who are within or beyond <!-- page 52--><a +name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>those +limits. We will only, in general terms, speak of those who +have entered upon the Intermediate Life in a condition such as +would make them capable of perfect purification. Certainly +it is impossible for any of us ever to say of any one absolutely +that he is incapable of such progressive purification. It +is not possible, in Christian charity, to pronounce sentence upon +any. And it may be, and we may indeed hope, that a vast +number, a much larger proportion than many now imagine, will +prove on their entrance into the Intermediate Life to be capable +of such progress of effective purification as may fit them, each +according to his measure, for the final salvation for which he +may be qualified in that home where “there are many +mansions.”</p> +<p>When then does this purification begin? Does it begin +with dying? That has been already disproved. But so +prevalent is the popular belief that dying has a kind of +cleansing power in itself, that it is well <!-- page 53--><a +name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>to touch upon +it once more. What is dying? It is simply the parting +of the soul from the body. The soul, up to the moment of +death, dwells in the body. At death, in a moment it ceases +to dwell in the body. But have not the pain, it may be +asked, and the very agony of dying a chastening and purifying +force, serving in themselves to crown repentance, and to achieve, +in the instant, the complete cleansing of the soul? Why +should it be so? The pains which precede death are distinct +from dying, from what we may call the act of dying. The act +of dying is instantaneous. It is the moment, the crisis at +which the soul takes its flight. The pains and agony which +accompany the process leading up to death are not the pains and +agony of dying at all. They are felt while the sick man is +still living. They belong to his life, not to his +death. At the moment of dying the sufferings are probably +over. The body has just felt its last throb of sensible +anguish, and, in the <!-- page 54--><a name="page54"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 54</span>crisis of the soul’s departure, +is incapable of feeling pain, and therefore is incapable of the +discipline of pain. And it is the discipline of pain alone +that has any cleansing power. And the discipline of pain +went on in life up to the moment, if it be so, of the dying, and +then ceased. But it belonged, as the pain belonged, to the +life, and not to the death. During the life, at many times +in the life past, the wholesome discipline of pain may or may not +have been working a salutary change in the character, up to the +very moment, perhaps, of death. But it ceased, as the pain +ceased, at death.</p> +<p>This then we conclude, that the act of dying in itself, apart +from the pain which may have preceded it, can have no moral +effect, or work any moral change. Moral change, that is to +say change of character, can only go on in life. Dying is a +physical operation, not a moral act. At death the +possibility of change of character has stopped, so far as this +life can be the <!-- page 55--><a name="page55"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 55</span>sphere of it. Life, not death, +may be accompanied by cleansing, life on this side of death, and +life on the other side of death, but not death, which is between, +the mere transition from life to life, from one mode of life to +another.</p> +<p>The soul, therefore, after death begins just where it left +off, just as life left it, no better, no worse. It passes +into the unseen world, pardoned, it may be, by <span +class="smcap">God’s</span> mercy, but yet no other than it +was before it left the body. Even <span +class="smcap">God’s</span> pardon does not change the +character, nor yet remove the tendency to sin. That still +remains, alas! even in the penitent. The consequences of +our acts follow upon our acts, and form our character. As +there is uniformity in the law of cause and effect in the realm +of nature, so, in morals, is it the case with what we do. +Let a man yield to a temptation:—is he as strong against +that temptation after he has yielded to it as he would have been +if he had not yielded to it? We know that <!-- page 56--><a +name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 56</span>he is +not. We know, by our own experience, that it needs a far +greater and more strenuous effort to withstand the same +temptation after previous yielding, than it did before. A +man may repent and be pardoned, but he is what his sin has made +him, weak and frail and prone to sin again. <span +class="smcap">God’s</span> pardon has cancelled his guilt, +but it has not removed his tendency, nor the moral consequences, +which sin has wrought upon his character.</p> +<p>This then is what is meant when it is said that the soul, +which has received the gracious pardon of <span +class="smcap">God</span> before it left the body, is still, when +it is launched into the Intermediate Life, clouded and disfigured +with the stains and imperfections which it had contracted in this +life. But <span class="smcap">God</span>, Who has begun the +good work of cleansing in this life, will carry it on in the life +unseen, until the soul be made perfect in the day of Jesus +Christ.</p> +<p>Who of us, the best of us, does not feel within him the +bitterness of the lingering <!-- page 57--><a +name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>poison, which +sin has deposited in his heart? The holier a man is, the +more he is conscious of his sinfulness. To the end of life +this must be so; for there is no reaching perfection here. +Those, chiefly, who have made most progress in the struggle +against sin here, know how hateful it is. The higher men +rise here in the divine life, the more they discern their +imperfections, because they can better measure them by the +measure of <span class="smcap">God’s</span> +perfections. Each loftier level is but a new standpoint +from which to lift the eyes, and view the peaks which soar upward +towards infinite elevations. For <span +class="smcap">God</span> is holiness itself; and holiness is +infinite, because <span class="smcap">God</span> is infinite.</p> +<h2><!-- page 58--><a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +58</span>VI.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Being confident of this very thing, that He +which began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of +Jesus Christ.”—<span class="smcap">Phil.</span> <span +class="smcap">i.</span> 6 (<i>R.V.</i>)</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The ground is now cleared for an answer to the +question,—How is the purification of the soul effected in +the Intermediate Life, and what is the nature of the +process? We have seen, 1st, that this waiting time is not +an idle time, but a time when something has to be done which can +only be done then; 2nd, that what has to be done then is the work +of cleansing and purifying the soul, that it may be perfected for +the Beatific Vision in heaven; 3rd, that the souls of those who +die in grace do yet, although fully pardoned, retain frailties of +character, the consequences of former sins; and, 4th, that dying +in itself has no cleansing <!-- page 59--><a +name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>virtue +whatever. What, then, are the conditions on which we may +rely as grounds for legitimate inferences?</p> +<p>1. First, then, memory survives death. In the +narrative to which we have had occasion to refer more than once, +Abraham is spoken of as bidding the rich man to remember. +“Son, remember, that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy +good things.” The survival of memory is involved in +the soul’s consciousness of its own existence. And to +be conscious of our own existence is to be conscious that we are +still the same persons that we were. Therefore we must be +able to remember each successive moment what and who we were in +the moment previous: so that the continuance of life involves the +continuance of the consciousness that it is ourselves that +live. And this is memory. Bishop Butler, therefore, +says, “There is no reason for supposing that the exercise +of our present powers of reflection is even suspended by the act +of dying.”</p> +<p><!-- page 60--><a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +60</span>But if we grant this, we may go further. What is +it which makes memory in this life so imperfect? What is it +but the obtrusive hindrance of the body? The body is at the +mercy of the disturbing assaults of present impressions. +Through ear, and eye, and touch external objects invade the mind, +and dispel and distract fixed and steadfast retrospect. The +present blots out the past. When we look back, scenes, and +events, and words, and names fade from our memory, and are dimmed +by the haze of distance. The past is smothered by what has +happened since. Only with a supreme effort, only in +solitude, and then only imperfectly, can we recall what has gone +by. But there, in the Intermediate State, when the soul +dwells apart from the body, there, in the stillness of that +“cloistered and secluded life,” the powers of memory +will be undistracted and perfect. Even in this life, as we +are told, some, in a great crisis, have seen at a single glance +the <!-- page 61--><a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +61</span>whole story of their past experience, and scenes and +events, long since forgotten, have flashed in an instant before +the mind, clear and vivid. Such clearness, we may well +suppose, will the memory have in the Intermediate Life, as it +recalls in that quiet stillness the actions of the past days on +earth. Here is the first equipment then for the work of +cleansing. All the evil things done in life, all the +forgotten sins, in all their naked and uncouth colours, will +stand undisguised before the mind. Nothing will escape the +memory:—nothing. The days of childhood, of youth, of +middle age, of elder years will give in their report. The +soul will see things then as they are, no longer tricked out in +false and flattering guise. There, in all their miserable +littleness, and coarseness, and meanness, and cowardice, bygone +sins will rise up before the stern tribunal of the unsparing +memory, each as it was, each as it is, each as <span +class="smcap">God</span> saw it at the time, each as <span +class="smcap">God</span> sees it now.</p> +<p><!-- page 62--><a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +62</span>2. But this is not all. The souls of those +who have received forgiveness in life, and have passed into the +Intermediate State in <span class="smcap">God’s</span> +favour, are, we must remember, “with Christ”; with +Christ, however imperfect their characters, however scarred with +traces of former wounds of sin. The malefactor’s +character at his death must have been full of blemishes, yet he +was to be ushered and welcomed into Paradise by Christ +Himself. S. Paul again and again spoke of his own departure +at death as that which would lead him into the presence of +Christ. It may, however, be suggested that to be with +Christ is to be with <span class="smcap">God</span>, and that the +vision of Christ must be the same thing as the vision of <span +class="smcap">God</span>. But the vision of <span +class="smcap">God</span> is specially reserved for the redeemed +in heaven, while the vision of Christ is possible in Paradise; +for where Christ is there is the vision of Christ. For +Christ has assumed the form of man, and was seen as Man by +men. <!-- page 63--><a name="page63"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 63</span>But no man hath seen nor can see +<span class="smcap">God</span>. He dwells in the light +which no man can approach unto. This is the vision of Him +Who is to mortal eyes in His essence invisible. That vision +will be granted to the pure in heart in the infinite glory of +Heaven, granted to those who shall have become fitted to behold +Him in Heaven. But He Who took our flesh was manifest in +the flesh, and was seen, and touched, and handled. In that +same body He rose from the dead; in that same glorified body He +ascended into Heaven, to fill all things. And so after His +Ascension He was seen by S. Stephen <a name="citation63"></a><a +href="#footnote63" class="citation">[63]</a> and by S. +Paul. That human nature, therefore, we are to believe is so +present in Paradise that the sight of Him is vouchsafed even +there to those who may be “with Him.”</p> +<p>What, then, follows from this? It follows that the soul +will not only remember but also be able to judge of the +past. For not only will it see its sins, <!-- page 64--><a +name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>but it will +behold Christ also. It will see them, therefore, in the +light of the perfect love, and most gracious sinlessness of Jesus +Christ. It will look upon sin’s stains as they stand +out in contrast with His purity, its ingratitude in contrast with +His compassion. He will be the atmosphere of the +soul’s existence. All the shame and dishonour, which +in life the soul so complacently accepted, will then overwhelm it +with self-reproach and very bitter compunction. This is +what is meant by seeing sins as <span class="smcap">God</span> +sees them. It is to see them as the soul will see them +under the sense of the Presence of the Holy Christ. Then +will the soul know its guilt as it never knew it before. +The guilt of sin will then be no bare expression, no conventional +formula, but a spiritual fact, not an abstract doctrine, but a +concrete reality.</p> +<p>There will be revealed also to the soul the true meaning and +significance of <span class="smcap">God’s</span> +providences in life, which at the time were <!-- page 65--><a +name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>overlooked, +or slighted, or strangely misunderstood. Tokens of <span +class="smcap">God’s</span> love and care will then find +their interpretation. The soul will see plainly why was +this, wherefore was that, what that sorrow meant, what that loss, +that parting from one who was more dear than life. The many +perplexities which on earth misled the soul, of these the loving +mercy and the gracious reason will then be seen.</p> +<p>And will there not be with the amazing surprise at these +revelations a strange and unaccountable gladness? But, no +less, at the thought of the soul’s past blindness and +persistence in ill-doing, will there not be an exquisite +pain? And the soul’s pain can be even more oppressive +than the pain of the body. “Pain,” it may be +asked, “in the Presence of Christ?” Yes, +indeed! pain, because in the Presence of Christ; pain in +remembering, and in the consciousness, new to the soul, of its +utter unworthiness before Christ. The soul cannot fully +feel it now, but it <!-- page 66--><a name="page66"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 66</span>will feel it then. The fire of +His love will kindle a fire of loving self-reproach. The +weight of a heavy shame to think of the past, and to know now of +His beauty, and His love, and His care, care for so careless a +soul, love for a soul so loveless,—this will sting with an +extreme severity the soul humbled before Him. And here we +should do well to remember that, as the characters of each differ +almost infinitely, whereby there are innumerable shades and +degrees of every conceivable distinction of merit and of sin, so +the proportion and depth of the pains which the souls will feel +will vary equally. The pains of no two souls will be +exactly the same. They will be measured out, in subtle and +exact aptness to each, according to its guilt or goodness, +precisely as the process of its purification shall require. +There will be nothing unjust, nothing capricious in them.</p> +<p>And thus the pain will surely be a very wholesome pain. +What could more deepen <!-- page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 67</span>penitence? The pain of +self-reproach for unworthiness, and the pain of the sense of +goodness in the Presence of Jesus Christ,—these two pains +will purify the soul. No work of sanctification has ever +been wrought in any soul without suffering. And none ever +will. Even Christ Himself was not made perfect, as Man, +without suffering. But the suffering in Paradise will be +accompanied with an exquisite delight and joy. Do we not +know, even here on earth, how near to each other very often are +joy and sorrow? He whose spirit is swelling with a great +gladness has often a sense of an undercurrent of great pain along +with it. How often tears and laughter go together! +So, in that home of the disembodied soul, the very process of +purification will be marked by an intensity of joy and an +intensity of pain. They will be simultaneous. Nay! +increasingly, it may be, they will deepen in the soul. The +nearer the soul reaches its perfection the more <!-- page 68--><a +name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>abounding may +be its gladness, and the more piercing its compunction. +Thus its very anguish will be a delight, and its very delight +will be an anguish, and these will proceed, and advance, and +increase until the soul is ripe for the Blessed Vision of <span +class="smcap">God</span> in Heaven. For He Which began the +good work in the soul, here, in life, will, we may be very +confident, never abandon it, nor suspend it, but will continue it +and perfect it all through the after life, even until the day of +Jesus Christ.</p> +<h2><!-- page 69--><a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +69</span>VII.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Being put to death in the flesh, but +quickened in the spirit: in which also He went and preached unto +the spirits in prison, which aforetime were disobedient, when the +longsuffering of <span class="smcap">God</span> waited in the +days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—1 <span class="smcap">Peter +iii.</span> 18, 19, 20 (<i>R.V.</i>)</p> +</blockquote> +<p>So far we have considered the case of those who die in the +favour of <span class="smcap">God</span>, and, though as yet +unfit for the vision of <span class="smcap">God</span> in Heaven +itself, are nevertheless capable of becoming so in the course of +the Intermediate Life.</p> +<p>What, however, must be said of those who in life had light and +knowledge of <span class="smcap">God</span> and of His will, and +yet hardened themselves against <span class="smcap">God</span>; +who were free, and in the exercise of their freedom rejected +<span class="smcap">God</span>? Of these unhappy souls, if +there is no yielding of their will to <span +class="smcap">God</span> in the Intermediate Life, if, and so far +as, <!-- page 70--><a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +70</span>they have absolutely made themselves by the fixedness of +their choice incapable of yielding, if after death they still +hate <span class="smcap">God</span> and set the whole force of +their determination against Him,—one can only fear that +even <span class="smcap">God</span> Himself cannot help +them. On the supposition that the prerogative of free will, +once for all given to man, must be respected by <span +class="smcap">God</span>, we are driven to the belief that <span +class="smcap">God</span> cannot force the will. It is not +that <span class="smcap">God</span> changes towards them. +It is not necessary to suppose that He is even punishing +them. He may still be in Himself all that He is to all, +full of love towards them, full of pity, full of mercy. +“His mercy is over all His works.” He can no +more cease to be a Father to every man than He can cease to be +<span class="smcap">God</span>. He hates nothing that He +has made. But if the very knowledge and thought of <span +class="smcap">God’s</span> longsuffering patience serves +only to harden and to exasperate, if it only stirs in the lost +soul deeper pangs of inexorable hatred, <!-- page 71--><a +name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +71</span>then,—man being man and <span +class="smcap">God</span> being <span +class="smcap">God</span>,—what can <span +class="smcap">God</span> do? It is they who reject <span +class="smcap">God</span>, not <span class="smcap">God</span> Who +is rejecting them. It is they who spurn Him, not He Who +chastises them. He does not banish them from His Presence: +it is they who banish Him from their presence. And if this +defiance against <span class="smcap">God</span> survives and +lasts, if, as ages pass, it becomes more resolutely inveterate +and set, what power can stop it, what love can soften it? +And if it is never to be pacified, and never yields, what shall +hinder it from going on up to and beyond the Day of +Judgment? It may be said that such utter determination is a +moral impossibility, that no will of man could finally defy and +resist the love of <span class="smcap">God</span>. If that +be so, well! But on the assumption that it is not +impossible, the inference which has been drawn is inevitable.</p> +<p>But there are others who in life have never heard of Christ, +the millions of heathen in all ages and all lands since <!-- page +72--><a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 72</span>the +world began, of whom it may truly be said that they never had a +chance of salvation. To these may be added many who have +indeed fallen in with Christianity, but with a Christianity of +such a sort, presented to them in such a way, in such a form, and +under such circumstances as almost naturally to create in their +minds a really honest doubt and distrust of it. What shall +be said of these honest unbelievers, and, scarcely through their +own fault, blind? As to these, let us ask whether the +doctrine of the Intermediate State can help to give us some +better hope.</p> +<p>In the text, <a name="citation72"></a><a href="#footnote72" +class="citation">[72]</a> we are told that Christ was put to +death upon the Cross in the flesh, but was quickened in His human +<!-- page 73--><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +73</span>Spirit, that is to say, that after His human Spirit left +His Body it was still quick or alive. We know, from the +Gospel of S. Luke, whither His human Spirit went. It went +to Paradise. S. Peter now tells us what His Spirit did +there. He tells us that it preached unto other spirits, and +he names the spirits of those who for 120 years, while Noah was +building the ark, were disobedient. They had rejected Noah, +“the preacher of righteousness” <a +name="citation73"></a><a href="#footnote73" +class="citation">[73]</a> as S. Peter calls him; and now a +greater Preacher went to preach to them. Further, we are +told, that they were “in prison.” The word +should rather be rendered “in safe keeping,” that is +to say, still waiting, under <span +class="smcap">God’s</span> care, for this visit of +Christ’s human Spirit, when He should preach to them. +Why the spirits of these men, who lived before the flood, are +singled out for special mention, is a question that does not +really bear upon the point which we have in hand. <!-- page +74--><a name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 74</span>And +we had better keep to that point, and not be tempted to +digress. What then follows from this? Two things are +clear,—first, that from as far back as the days before the +flood, that is to say, from the very beginning of human life on +earth, souls in the Intermediate State had been waiting in safe +keeping all these many thousand years; and, secondly, that the +disembodied soul of our Lord Jesus Christ visited them there and +preached to them. Assuming that these souls had repented, +however late, before they died, still we learn that something +more than repentance was needful to them. In this case, it +is clear that instruction was given to them. It would not +have been given if it had not been necessary. And what +instruction? Christ “proclaimed,” we are told, +to them. What did He proclaim? Surely the good news +of the Gospel, <a name="citation74"></a><a href="#footnote74" +class="citation">[74]</a> which He had been proclaiming <!-- page +75--><a name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>on +earth by the voice of the Apostles. What else did He make +known than the mystery of His Incarnation and the Atonement which +He had wrought out upon the Cross, in bearing the sins of men, +and their sins, too, who had so long been waiting in the +Intermediate State, to hear it to their salvation? S. +Peter, therefore, in another place, says, “For this +cause,” that is, because Christ will Himself be the Judge +of the living and the dead,—“for this cause was +<i>the Gospel</i> preached even to the dead.” <a +name="citation75"></a><a href="#footnote75" +class="citation">[75]</a></p> +<p>Here, then, we have a set of facts which throw light upon some +of the dark places of that unknown and unseen land, the +Intermediate State. If we do justice to our Bibles we must +regard these as facts, whether we can fully explain them or +not. Scriptural facts they certainly are. What, then, +can we learn from them? First, we seem to learn +this,—that some provision is made in the Intermediate <!-- +page 76--><a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +76</span>State for the salvation of those souls who in this life +never heard of Christ, never had a chance, as we say, of +salvation. And when we think of it, does it not seem to +belong to <span class="smcap">God’s</span> eternal justice +that souls should not be condemned for that which they could not +help? Every human soul must have had a chance of knowing +Christ, before it can justly be punished for the consequences of +not knowing Him. Countless millions in all ages, since the +world began, in our own land, and in other lands, have never +heard the good news of Jesus Christ in life. It is not so +with us. With them it is and has been so. Christ +preached to those who in safe keeping had been waiting +long. Then is it not possible for such as those in all ages +to receive the teaching in the Intermediate Life which they never +received in this? Why should Christ preach to those and not +to these?</p> +<p>This hope helps to solve that harassing enigma which perplexes +and oppresses so <!-- page 77--><a name="page77"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 77</span>many of us,—I mean, as to the +condition and future destiny of the heathen, and the outcast, and +the blind, and the ignorant. There, in that stillness of +the disembodied life, souls may be taught and trained to know +what they never could know in this life on earth, the wonders and +the blessings of the life in Christ.</p> +<p>And, besides, do we not at least learn this from +Christ’s preaching to these souls, that intercourse and +communication is <i>possible</i> in the life after death, and +will take place? And this suggests another aspect of the +work in that life, besides the work of progressive cleansing and +perfecting. The souls of the faithful rest from their +labours. Yes! but they have also a work to do which can +only be done then, the work of the soul’s +purification. The work, however, which they can do for +others is better than that which can be done for +themselves. What can they do for the souls of others? +Can they not do what Christ’s human spirit <!-- page +78--><a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +78</span>did? Here on earth men are charged, not only with +the care of their own souls, but with the care of the souls of +others also. And why should they not be ambassadors for +Christ there, if Christ’s work has to be done there? +Here on earth He uses imperfect men to proclaim His Gospel. +There, in that after life, if His Gospel is to be proclaimed to +those that never heard it in this life, why should He not employ +souls also, not yet perfected, upon the same happy task?</p> +<p>And may not this charge, laid on ministering souls in the +Intermediate Life, help to solve another mystery—the +mystery of many an early and, as we might think, untimely +death? How often do we see a life cut short at the very +climax of its best powers, in the very midst of its noblest +service! All the earlier days had been directed, and had +contributed to the perfection of the instrument, and then, just +when its work was doing, came the sudden end. Was it not so +to our Blessed <!-- page 79--><a name="page79"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 79</span>Lord Himself? May it not be +said with due reverence that, if only His human life on earth had +been prolonged, His teaching, and His miracles, and His +sinlessness, and His love must have swayed and melted the hearts +of men, even of those who so long and so stubbornly withstood +Him? We might so think. But, just when His young life +was at its prime of human excellence, He died, and His human +Spirit passed to preach salvation to souls in the spirit +land. So are souls, it may be, taken from us at the summit +of their ripeness, but only to be transferred to another scene, +and to be employed upon other work. Their labours change, +but their works indeed do follow with them to that land where +other souls of those who knew not Christ here may learn to know +Him there, and knowing Him may choose Him, and choosing Him may +be His and He theirs even to the end.</p> +<h2><!-- page 80--><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +80</span>VIII.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Not handling the word of <span +class="smcap">God</span> deceitfully, but by the manifestation of +the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in +the sight of <span class="smcap">God</span>.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">—2 <span +class="smcap">Cor.</span> <span class="smcap">iv.</span> 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Scriptural doctrine of the Intermediate Life, as I have +tried, so far, to set it forth, is a very different thing from +what our Twenty-second Article calls “The Romish Doctrine +concerning Purgatory.” The word +“purgatory” simply means the sphere or life of +cleansing. The Intermediate State, therefore, during which +the soul is being purified and fitted for the vision of <span +class="smcap">God</span> in Heaven may be legitimately called +“a purgatory.” But “The Romish Doctrine +concerning Purgatory” means much more than this. It +is a belief which, originating in what was true and Scriptural, +gradually became so overlaid with subsequent additions, that the +original <!-- page 81--><a name="page81"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 81</span>truth was at length buried and lost +sight of. What the Twenty-second Article condemns is not +any and every conceivable doctrine concerning Purgatory, but the +Romish doctrine only. And here it is well to note that all +false beliefs which have had for any length of time a wide +currency among men have been founded upon and have retained in +them some element of truth. This it is which enabled them +to survive: this and nothing else gives to error its +vitality. These false beliefs are not mere error, but +contain truth and error mixed together. The error perverts +and makes void the truth; but without the truth the error could +not live.</p> +<p>In the case of the doctrine of Purgatory, the true and +Scriptural doctrine of the progressive purification of the soul +in the Intermediate State is the element of truth on which has +been based the Romish Doctrine of Purgatory. Wherein then +lies the error of it?</p> +<p>1. In the first place, whereas the Bible <!-- page +82--><a name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +82</span>teaches, as we have seen, that every soul at death +enters the Intermediate State, the souls of the greatest saints +as well as the souls of the greatest sinners, “the Romish +Doctrine” teaches that the souls of very many never enter +the Intermediate State at all. The souls of the holy +patriarchs of old, of Christian martyrs, and of canonized Saints, +it is held, pass straight to heaven. On the other hand, the +souls of those who die in mortal sin, and of excommunicated +persons are believed to go straight to hell. Thus +practically the Intermediate State is cancelled for these two +classes. There remains, therefore, only one class which is +supposed to enter the Intermediate State, those namely, who have +died in venial sin. And since it is part of the Romish +doctrine to regard Paradise as the same thing as Heaven, and to +hold that the souls which alone enter Purgatory, after suffering +due torments, pass direct out of Purgatory into Paradise or +Heaven, it follows that in the <!-- page 83--><a +name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>Intermediate +State are only those who are actually undergoing, for the time +appointed, the pains of Purgatory. For all, therefore, +eventually the Intermediate State is terminated at some time on +this side of the Day of Judgment. Hence it came about that +those who rejected the Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory +rejected along with it the doctrine of the Intermediate State, +since, virtually, Purgatory and the Intermediate State had been +regarded as practically one and the same thing, as indeed they +were in duration conterminous. In rejecting the one +therefore, men unhappily but almost naturally rejected the other +also.</p> +<p>2. Further, the pains which are felt in the process of +purification, as has been shown, spring from within the soul +itself, and are not necessarily or for all inflicted as a torment +or punishment from without. Rather they arise from the +soul’s own action upon itself, from its own pangs of shame +and self-abasement, all deepened <!-- page 84--><a +name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 84</span>and made more +poignant by the ever increasing sense of the love of Jesus +Christ, then as never before apprehended, and by the holy vision +of His perfections. Thereby, as they gaze on Him, they are +changed by the influence of the sight of Him, into greater +likeness to Him. On the other hand, contrast with these the +nature of the pains which the Romish Doctrine assigns to the +souls in Purgatory. They are held in all cases to be penal, +that is to say, inflicted by <span class="smcap">God</span> as +punishment. The souls are said to suffer torments! <a +name="citation84"></a><a href="#footnote84" +class="citation">[84]</a> Moreover these torments, as is +taught in Roman Catholic treatises on the subject, are caused by +literal and material flames, by actual fires which would feed on +and consume corporeal substances such as the human body. +But what enters the Intermediate State is the soul only, not the +body: and, in the nature of things, the sufferings of the +incorporeal part of our being can only <!-- page 85--><a +name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 85</span>be themselves +incorporeal. The pains of the spirit can only be spiritual +pains.</p> +<p>3. Again, the “Romish Doctrine concerning +Purgatory” is closely bound up with what are called in the +Thirty-first Article “the Sacrifices of Masses,” and +with the sale of “Pardons” or Indulgences, named in +the Twenty-second Article. The character of the Romish +doctrine, as of every other doctrine, must be tested by what has +grown with its growth. It was held that by these +“Sacrifices of Masses” and “Indulgences” +souls, one by one, were released from Purgatorial fires sooner +than, without their aid, they could be delivered, and thus were +at once admitted to Paradise or Heaven.</p> +<p>What, however, does the Thirty-first Article precisely mean by +“Sacrifices of Masses”? The expression is +peculiar, and appears to have been designedly so shaped in order +to be clearly distinguished from what is meant by the Sacrifice +in the Mass, or Holy Communion. For that <!-- page 86--><a +name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>the Holy +Communion has been held and taught by our chief English Divines +to be a Sacrifice cannot well be disputed. <a +name="citation86"></a><a href="#footnote86" +class="citation">[86]</a> But the term “Sacrifices of +Masses” was intended to signify what were called, at the +time when the Article was drawn up, “Private Masses,” +which were offered chiefly for souls in Purgatory, and in return +for money payment. The Article refers to modes of speaking +prevalent on the lips of men at the time. It condemns that +which was “<i>commonly said</i>.” And what was +it that was “commonly said”? It was commonly +said that, while Christ’s death on <!-- page 87--><a +name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 87</span>the Cross was +indeed a propitiation for original or birth sin, on the other +hand for daily sins, committed after Baptism, another +propitiatory sacrifice was needed, <i>viz.</i>, the +“Sacrifice of the Mass.” Thus the Sacrifice of +the Mass, which is not the same thing as the Sacrifice <i>in</i> +the Mass, was regarded as an addition to and distinct from the +Sacrifice on the Cross, as indeed a repetition of it, having a +propitiatory value of its own, which the Sacrifice on the Cross +had not; just as though it were what Bishop Gardiner, in +repudiating it, described as “a new Redemption.” <a +name="citation87"></a><a href="#footnote87" +class="citation">[87]</a> Hence it came about that the +belief arose that Masses offered for specific purposes had more +virtue for those purposes than <!-- page 88--><a +name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>what was +called “a Common Mass.” The practice, +therefore, of offering “private Masses” for souls in +Purgatory, as it was very lucrative, so it became very +prevalent. Thus spiritual things were used for the purpose +of bringing large money gains to the Chantry Priests, and what +should be, and we may surely affirm was meant to be, for the +common benefit of all became the narrow privilege of the +few. For rich men could provide Masses for their dead +friends and for themselves after death, which it was quite out of +the power of the poor to provide. <a name="citation88"></a><a +href="#footnote88" class="citation">[88]</a></p> +<p><!-- page 89--><a name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +89</span>4. But a word also must be said about +“Indulgences.” An Indulgence was an abatement +or remission granted by the Church’s authority of some part +of the temporal penance imposed by that authority upon an evil +doer. If the guilty person should show sincere proofs of +penitence, or by liberal giving of alms made satisfactory +recompense for wrongs done, his penance might be eased, or the +term of his excommunication shortened, and his Church privileges +partly or wholly restored. It may well be understood how +all this might be very wisely and fitly done. The authority +which inflicted the penance may rightly have been entrusted with +the power also of mitigating or removing it. But gradually +this remission of the temporal punishment for sins done in the +past became applicable, not seldom, to future sin also: and it +soon was no uncommon thing to grant Indulgences for 500, or +10,000, and even for 50,000 years. And, since these long +periods of <!-- page 90--><a name="page90"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 90</span>years would, of course, extend beyond +any man’s term of life on earth, it was obvious that they +were intended to secure the remission, not indeed of the guilt of +the sin, but of the temporal punishment of sin during all these +years in Purgatory. Thus it was supposed that the best +possible provision was made whereby the duration of the long +years of torments due for sin in Purgatory might be +curtailed. But worse remained. The Papal Court needed +treasure. And in an evil moment permission was given that +these Indulgences might be sold for money. Thus grew up an +unholy traffic, which, as we all know, first roused in Germany +the storm of the Reformation. Subsequently, the Papal +authorities so far yielded as to forbid all taking of money for +these Indulgences. But the system itself had meantime taken +deep root. It continued, and continues to this day. +It was, however, at its worst when the Twenty-second Article was +drawn up. <!-- page 91--><a name="page91"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 91</span>Can we be surprised that it sternly +condemned it? It is all a pitiful history. But it was +necessary to refer to it in order both to show how the growth of +the Romish Doctrine of Purgatory gradually gathered round it +mischievous accretions, and also to prove how little the belief, +that in the Intermediate State there is a progressive advance of +the soul in holiness towards perfection, is like the Romish +teaching and practice.</p> +<p>But it would be an act of disloyalty to the truth, and of +cowardice into the bargain, if we should abandon or minimize a +truth because it has been by some corrupted and perverted. +Many a truth which has come down to us may have lost some of the +fresh lustre of its early purity. But all the same, if it +is the truth we cannot let it go. And that truth which +tells us something of the land, now beyond our sight, to which +our dear ones have already passed, which we shall each of us +ourselves soon enter—the truth which <!-- page 92--><a +name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span><span +class="smcap">God</span> has made known to us in Holy Scripture +about this land, we cannot afford to ignore and disregard. +Nothing is easier than to discredit such a truth by raising the +cry of Popery. It is one of the penalties which those have +to pay who seek to disentangle the truth which He has in His +Church revealed from the untruth which has wrapped it round.</p> +<p>But we must not shrink from this duty. In days when +principles are questioned, and almost all truths disputed, we +must, at all hazards, learn to keep our sight clear and our +footing steady. For the Lord is our Light and our +Salvation. Whom then shall we fear? The Lord is the +strength of our life: of whom then shall we be afraid? <a +name="citation92"></a><a href="#footnote92" +class="citation">[92]</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 93--><a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +93</span>IX.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“The Lord grant unto him that he may find +mercy of the Lord in that day.”—2 <span +class="smcap">Tim.</span> <span class="smcap">i.</span> 18.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>We must now bring to a close the discussion which has been +occupying our attention: not that everything has been said that +can or ought to be said about it; for the interest of the subject +grows with the handling of it, as the various features of it open +out to view.</p> +<p>So far we have been dealing with the condition of the faithful +dead as it affects themselves, with the mode of their own +conscious life in the Intermediate State, and with the nature of +their own progressive advance towards perfection. But there +is another aspect of the question, about which nothing has +hitherto been said, I mean, their relation to us who are still +living on earth. A few words, and <!-- page 94--><a +name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 94</span>they must be +very few, must be said on this point. It is asked, for +example, whether the veil has completely shut out all knowledge +of what is passing on earth from those who have gone to their +rest. No doubt, we can know very little about this. +But, at all events, we do not know enough to warrant us in saying +with any confidence that they are aware of nothing that is going +on here. It is true that, as has been said, the door that +opens between this life and that life only “open +inwards,” and that none have come back to tell us what in +that after life they knew about us and about our doings on +earth. Yet this ignorance of ours is not the same thing as +knowledge of the contrary, any more than silence is always +equivalent to denial. Because we cannot see with our eyes, +nor hear with our ears, and cannot, by our actual senses, put the +question to the test, we are not on this account justified in +denying. Do we not know almost nothing as to the limits of +the powers of the <!-- page 95--><a name="page95"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 95</span>spirit world? All we can say, +so far as reason can be our guide, is this, that it is +<i>possible</i> that souls in the Intermediate State, if they are +conscious of themselves and of their present condition, if they +retain memory, if they have means of holding intercourse with one +another, may have means of knowing what goes on here: I say that +reason will tell us that this is at least possible, and that it +is quite impossible to prove the contrary.</p> +<p>But does the Bible throw any light upon this mysterious +subject? I think it does. It will be remembered how, +in the narrative of the rich man and Lazarus, Abraham is made to +say to the rich man, “They have Moses and the Prophets, let +them hear them.” We may ask, how could Abraham, who +lived more than 400 years before the birth of Moses, have known +of the existence of Moses, if there were no possible means of +communication, by which occurrences on earth could be made known +in the unseen <!-- page 96--><a name="page96"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 96</span>world where Abraham was? What +could he know of the prophets who lived more than a thousand +years after his time, if no possible communication could find its +way to that other world? <a name="citation96"></a><a +href="#footnote96" class="citation">[96]</a> And we may +trust this inference because, in a narrative of this kind, +whether it be historical or not, it is not to be supposed that +our Lord would have introduced a false detail.</p> +<p>Let us, however, turn to another passage. In the scene +on the Mount of the Transfiguration there appeared, talking with +Christ, Moses and Elijah. In what condition were they +present? They were <!-- page 97--><a +name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 97</span>still in the +Intermediate State. The general Resurrection had not, and +has not yet, come. “In glory” they +appeared. Yes! some outward clothing, as of a bodily form, +gloriously radiant was thrown round them, so that they became +visible for the time to the eyes of the three disciples. +But in no resurrection bodies did they come; for in those they +could not yet present themselves, since they had not yet received +them. And what was the theme of their conversation? +They spoke, we are told, with Christ concerning the exodus or +“death, which He should accomplish at +Jerusalem.” But how could they speak fitly of this +great theme, if they had no knowledge of the circumstances which +were leading to it, of the nature of Christ’s Incarnate +Life on earth, and something at least or the real significance, +known fully to the mind of <span class="smcap">God</span> only, +of His approaching death? They must have known not only of +each other, who and what they had been historically <!-- page +98--><a name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 98</span>in +their own generation, but also what was now passing on earth, the +course and connection of prophecies and types, and the succession +of events in history which had led up to this climax of the +fulness of time.</p> +<p>Thus we see that the hearts of these two +visitants,—visitants not from Heaven, but from +Paradise,—were fastened with a keen interest and strained +attention upon the unfolding of that wondrous Life of +Christ. His works and words were the theme of their adoring +contemplation. May we not learn then, that what these two +great Saints could do was, therefore, at least a possible thing +to do, and, according to the will of <span +class="smcap">God</span>, a thing which others might also do? <a +name="citation98"></a><a href="#footnote98" +class="citation">[98]</a> If so, the barrier <!-- page +99--><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +99</span>between Paradise and earth is so far transparent on that +further side, that what <span class="smcap">God</span> permits +souls in the Intermediate Life to know, that they do actually see +and know of the occurrences that are passing here. <a +name="citation99"></a><a href="#footnote99" +class="citation">[99]</a></p> +<p>But I must hasten to the answer of another question. Do +they pray for us? Surely that question is as good as +answered by what has just been said. If those who have gone +from our sight are still permitted to know what it may be good +for them to know of the trials and sorrows, the hopes and fears, +the temptations and the warfare to which we, whom they loved so +well and still love, are exposed on earth, we are sure that they +take thought of us and pray for us. Shall not they whose +eyes are opened, <!-- page 100--><a name="page100"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 100</span>now that they are with Christ, care +for and pray for those whom they have left behind, tossing still +upon the troubled seas, and buffeted by the vexing winds and +storms of this earthly life?</p> +<p>They are, moreover, “with Christ.” What does +this really imply,—to be “with Christ”? +It must mean at least this, that, where Christ is, there is the +Church. And Christ, though He has ascended to the Right +Hand of <span class="smcap">God</span>, is still in a true sense +in Paradise also. For “He filleth all in all.” +<a name="citation100a"></a><a href="#footnote100a" +class="citation">[100a]</a> S. Stephen, before his death, +prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Our +Lord, therefore, must have been there in Paradise to receive +it. S. Paul, long after our Lord’s Ascension, knew +that to die was better than to live, because it was to be absent +from the body and present with the Lord. <a +name="citation100b"></a><a href="#footnote100b" +class="citation">[100b]</a> But if Christ is there, He must +be the object of the worship of those who are also there. +So then if Christ be there, and the Church <!-- page 101--><a +name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>is there, +and worship is offered there, then it follows that the whole +energy of Church life is there. The souls in Paradise are +not so many isolated and individual units. The Church +unites them. They are organised in the exercise of worship, +sustained, as it surely is, in unfailing and perpetual +intensity. As the incense of our worship rises here, it +blends with the incense that ascends to Christ there. The +Church is militant on earth, it is expectant in Paradise, it will +be hereafter triumphant in Heaven. Yet these are not three +Churches, but one Church. And this helps us to see more +clearly what is meant by the Communion of Saints. The +Church on earth and the Church in Paradise are one, and one +thrill of spiritual communion vibrates through its members there +and here.</p> +<p>But is prayer to be one sided? Communion is not one +sided. And communion implies that what they do for us, we +should also do for them. This brings us to one <!-- page +102--><a name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +102</span>more question. May we, then, pray for those who +have passed on before us? Let us plainly say that there is +every reason for and none against the practice. We have in +favour of it the sanction of Bible witness, of primitive Church +custom, of Christian and human instinct.</p> +<p>In the Jewish synagogues in our Lord’s time, prayers for +the dead formed part of the service. <a name="citation102"></a><a +href="#footnote102" class="citation">[102]</a> Our Lord +therefore, Who regularly frequented the synagogue worship, must +have been present at times when prayers for the dead were +used. If He had disapproved of such prayers, He must have +condemned the use of them. But did He? He did +not. We have then His tacit sanction of them. S. Paul +again, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, must have warned the Gentiles +against the practice, unless he approved of it. But so far +from that, there is every reason to suppose that he himself +prayed for Onesiphorus. According to the best commentators, +Onesiphorus <!-- page 103--><a name="page103"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 103</span>was dead when S. Paul wrote the +words quoted in the text, “The Lord grant unto him that he +may find mercy of the Lord in that day,” <i>viz.</i>, in +the Day of Judgment. <a name="citation103a"></a><a +href="#footnote103a" class="citation">[103a]</a> He does +not pray for temporal blessings, for health, or even for +grace. If it was too late to pray for these things, this +omission is quite intelligible.</p> +<p>The earliest Church Liturgies contained in them prayers for +the dead. <a name="citation103b"></a><a href="#footnote103b" +class="citation">[103b]</a> And the earliest Christian +writers, as well as the inscriptions on tombs bear such witness +to the existence of this primitive practice, that it cannot be +disputed. It is true that our English Prayer Book neither +expressly sanctions nor yet expressly forbids these +intercessions. But in the Liturgy, in the Litany, and in +the Burial Service, prayers occur which appear to have been +purposely so worded, as to lend themselves to a reference in the +minds of worshippers to the faithful dead, if any should desire +so to <!-- page 104--><a name="page104"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 104</span>apply them. Bishop Cosin, one +of the chief compilers of our present Prayer Book, writes that +the words, “that we and Thy whole Church may obtain +remission of our sins, and all other benefits of His +Passion,” occurring in our Liturgy, are to be understood to +refer as well to “those who have been here before,” +that is to say, who have died in the Lord, as to those +“that are now members of it,” that is, who still are +living. <a name="citation104"></a><a href="#footnote104" +class="citation">[104]</a></p> +<p>And is not the custom reasonable? Are we to pray for +those whom we dearly love up to the very last moment of their +life, and then for ever to refrain? We could understand +this on the supposition that death was the end of all things, or +that at death there followed an immediate heaven or an instant +hell; but not if the process of purification and of real Church +life are continuing after death. And Christian instinct +urges it. <span class="smcap">God</span> is a Father. +As children we ought to tell Him all that is <!-- page 105--><a +name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 105</span>in our +heart. Whatever we may rightly desire we may rightly pray +for. It is only that which we ought not to desire that we +ought not to pray for. It is not right to pray that they +may, as by a miracle, be restored to us; that is not the will of +<span class="smcap">God</span>. Nor is it right that we +should seek by occult and forbidden ways to hold converse with +them. But we may surely ask for them what S. Paul asked for +his friend, that they may find mercy in that day, that they may +have rest and peace and light and refreshment, the joy of +Christ’s Presence, and the gladness of a blessed +Resurrection.</p> +<p>And now these words must be brought to a close. The +arguments which have been urged rest upon the very language of +Holy Scripture, or upon legitimate inferences from it. What +then? If they are worthy of trust, to accept them is to rob +death of half its fears and alarms. It is the unknown that +inspires terror. To know but a little more than we before +<!-- page 106--><a name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +106</span>knew of the land in which those who have gone before +now sojourn, is to gather fresh courage to face it with less +misgiving for them and for ourselves. They have passed on, +but they await us there. They are only hidden from us for a +little while. Their voices are silent. But their life +is as real a life as ours. No dull oblivion weighs them +down. They live and think and see and know,—know, it +may be, more of us than we think, know as much of us as it is for +their happiness to know. A little while and we also shall +know as they know, and see as they see, in the home and resting +place of vision and of peace.</p> +<h2>Footnotes:</h2> +<p><a name="footnote5"></a><a href="#citation5" +class="footnote">[5]</a> Rev. xxi. 27.</p> +<p><a name="footnote8"></a><a href="#citation8" +class="footnote">[8]</a> 2 Cor. v. 10.</p> +<p><a name="footnote14"></a><a href="#citation14" +class="footnote">[14]</a> Acts xxiv. 15.</p> +<p><a name="footnote15"></a><a href="#citation15" +class="footnote">[15]</a> See Luckock, “The +Intermediate State,” pp. 14, 15.</p> +<p><a name="footnote17"></a><a href="#citation17" +class="footnote">[17]</a> S. John xx. 17.</p> +<p><a name="footnote19"></a><a href="#citation19" +class="footnote">[19]</a> The expression is borrowed from +the custom among the Jews of reclining instead of sitting at a +banquet. The guest was stretched upon a couch, his left +elbow resting upon a cushion close to the table, his feet being +towards the outer side of the couch, which was away from the +table. By slightly bending back his head he could touch +with it the breast of the guest on his left hand, and speak to +him in a low voice. Thus S. John bent back upon our +Lord’s breast at the Last Supper to ask Him, “Lord, +who is it?” and is therefore spoken of as “he who +leant upon His breast at supper.” To sit therefore, +or to rest in the bosom of Abraham, represented the happy lot of +those who had passed to Paradise.</p> +<p><a name="footnote23"></a><a href="#citation23" +class="footnote">[23]</a> Mozley, Univ. Serm., p. 155.</p> +<p><a name="footnote24a"></a><a href="#citation24a" +class="footnote">[24a]</a> Isaiah xxxiii. 17.</p> +<p><a name="footnote24b"></a><a href="#citation24b" +class="footnote">[24b]</a> Psalm xvi. 11.</p> +<p><a name="footnote24c"></a><a href="#citation24c" +class="footnote">[24c]</a> 1 John iii. 2.</p> +<p><a name="footnote25a"></a><a href="#citation25a" +class="footnote">[25a]</a> 1 Peter v. 4.</p> +<p><a name="footnote25b"></a><a href="#citation25b" +class="footnote">[25b]</a> 1 John iii. 2.</p> +<p><a name="footnote25c"></a><a href="#citation25c" +class="footnote">[25c]</a> Col. iii. 4.</p> +<p><a name="footnote25d"></a><a href="#citation25d" +class="footnote">[25d]</a> 2 Tim. iv. 3.</p> +<p><a name="footnote26"></a><a href="#citation26" +class="footnote">[26]</a> Advent Sermon, “The Day of +the Lord.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote28"></a><a href="#citation28" +class="footnote">[28]</a> Rev. vi. 9, 10, 11 (<i>Revised +Version</i>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote34a"></a><a href="#citation34a" +class="footnote">[34a]</a> 1 Thess. v. 23. But the +A.V. hardly brings out the full force of the distinction. +The definite article has a possessive force, as if it were +“<i>your</i> spirit, <i>your</i> soul, <i>your</i> +body”; as though the spirit was as distinct from the soul +as each of them is distinct from the body.</p> +<p><a name="footnote34b"></a><a href="#citation34b" +class="footnote">[34b]</a> Heb. iv. 12.</p> +<p><a name="footnote34c"></a><a href="#citation34c" +class="footnote">[34c]</a> 1 Cor. ii. 14.</p> +<p><a name="footnote35a"></a><a href="#citation35a" +class="footnote">[35a]</a> 1 Cor. xv. 44.</p> +<p><a name="footnote35b"></a><a href="#citation35b" +class="footnote">[35b]</a> S. James iii. 15.</p> +<p><a name="footnote35c"></a><a href="#citation35c" +class="footnote">[35c]</a> Jude 19.</p> +<p><a name="footnote35d"></a><a href="#citation35d" +class="footnote">[35d]</a> Gen. ii. 7.</p> +<p><a name="footnote37"></a><a href="#citation37" +class="footnote">[37]</a> Mason, “Faith of the +Gospel,” p. 85.</p> +<p><a name="footnote41a"></a><a href="#citation41a" +class="footnote">[41a]</a> For example, Acts vii. 60; S. +John xi. 11, 14; 1 Thess. v. 14; 1 Cor. xv. 18, 20.</p> +<p><a name="footnote41b"></a><a href="#citation41b" +class="footnote">[41b]</a> Rev. xiv. 13.</p> +<p><a name="footnote43"></a><a href="#citation43" +class="footnote">[43]</a> Phil i. 21.</p> +<p><a name="footnote44"></a><a href="#citation44" +class="footnote">[44]</a> 1 Peter iii. 18.</p> +<p><a name="footnote47"></a><a href="#citation47" +class="footnote">[47]</a> Isaiah i. 2.</p> +<p><a name="footnote63"></a><a href="#citation63" +class="footnote">[63]</a> See p. 100 <i>infra</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote72"></a><a href="#citation72" +class="footnote">[72]</a> In the A.V. the words in v. 18 +are printed differently from the R.V. In the former the +reading is “quickened by the Spirit,” as though S. +Peter meant to assert, that it was by the special operation of +<span class="smcap">God</span> the Holy Ghost that our Lord, +after He died upon the Cross, still lived. But this +rendering entirely destroys the evident antithesis which is +marked in the contrast between “put to death” and +“quickened,” and between “flesh” and +“spirit.” That antithesis limits the effect of +Christ’s death to His human Body, while His human Spirit +was still alive.</p> +<p><a name="footnote73"></a><a href="#citation73" +class="footnote">[73]</a> 2 Peter ii. 5.</p> +<p><a name="footnote74"></a><a href="#citation74" +class="footnote">[74]</a> The same word is used constantly +in the N.T. for the special proclamation of the Gospel.</p> +<p><a name="footnote75"></a><a href="#citation75" +class="footnote">[75]</a> 1 Peter iv. 6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote84"></a><a href="#citation84" +class="footnote">[84]</a> Thus the Catechism of the Council +of Trent states that “There is a Purgatorial Fire where the +souls of <i>the righteous</i> being tormented are +purified.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote86"></a><a href="#citation86" +class="footnote">[86]</a> In the Holy Communion the priest +and the people offer to the Father “the one full, perfect, +and sufficient Sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins +of the whole world.” The Christian Society is called +in 1 Peter ii. 9, a “royal <i>priesthood</i>,” +(Βασίλειου +ιερατευμα), +and in Rev. i. 6 “kings and <i>priests to +God</i>.” +(Βασιλεις +και +ιερεις); and as +ιερατευμα and +ιερεις are sacrificial +terms, it is to be inferred that a Sacrifice is really offered by +them. As Christ perpetually, being a “Priest +forever,” and therefore “having of necessity +something to offer” for ever (Heb. viii. 3), presents in +the Holy Place not made with hands, in Heaven itself, the +Sacrifice of Himself before the eyes of the Father, so, at every +Altar on earth, the “kings and priests” being a +sacrificing priesthood, represent and commemorate the same +sacrifice and none other, a sacrifice which never can be +repeated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote87"></a><a href="#citation87" +class="footnote">[87]</a> See Dr. Maclear on the Articles, +p. 368. If the Sacrifice on the Cross served one purpose +and effected one propitiation, and the Sacrifice of the Mass +another, then the inference is that they were themselves, so far, +different things. It was the same Body of Christ which was +offered in each case, but the sacrifices of the same Body were +different. Therefore the Sacrifice of the Mass was a +repetition of the Sacrifice on the Cross for a distinct object +and a distinct purpose. It was supplementary, and supplied +a defect which the Sacrifice on the Cross failed to supply!</p> +<p><a name="footnote88"></a><a href="#citation88" +class="footnote">[88]</a> What has been said on the subject +of “The Sacrifices of Masses” for souls in Purgatory +must not be understood as implying that the Sacrifice in the Holy +Communion has no efficacy, when pleaded in behalf of the souls in +the Intermediate State. To use the words of Bishop Forbes, +“The application of the Blessed Eucharist to the departed +must in our Church stand and fall with the practice of prayers +for the dead. In its aspect of the great oblation, the Holy +Communion may be considered as prayer in its most intense and +highest form. If it is unlawful to pray for the faithful +departed, it must be unlawful to remember them in the sacred +mysteries; but, if the first be permitted, the second must be so +likewise.” (Article XXXI., p. 63.) The subject +of Prayers for the Dead is dealt with in the next Address, page +101 <i>sq.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote92"></a><a href="#citation92" +class="footnote">[92]</a> Psalm xxvii. 1.</p> +<p><a name="footnote96"></a><a href="#citation96" +class="footnote">[96]</a> A friend has suggested that Moses +and the prophets may, one after the other, have reported to +Abraham the occurrences on earth in which they had severally +themselves taken part, and that, therefore, we have in this +narrative no more than an illustration of the mutual intercourse +which exists in the Intermediate Life. To this it may be +replied that this suggestion, so far from discrediting, really +confirms the argument in the sermon. The suggestion is an +attempt to explain the mode by which knowledge of what passes +here is attained, which is certainly no disproof of the existence +of such knowledge. But it is safer to say that, some how or +other, the denizens of the Intermediate State do probably know, +as Abraham certainly knew, occurrences on earth.</p> +<p><a name="footnote98"></a><a href="#citation98" +class="footnote">[98]</a> Both these illustrations are, I +find, referred to by Canon McColl in his “Life Here and +Hereafter,” pp. 105, 106. But may I presume to +question the value of his illustration of our Lord’s +knowledge of what was said, in His absence, on the way to Emmaus, +and by S. Thomas? Our Lord’s knowledge after His +Resurrection, and indeed at any time, is scarcely on a level with +the knowledge possessed by souls in the Intermediate State of +what passes on earth.</p> +<p><a name="footnote99"></a><a href="#citation99" +class="footnote">[99]</a> There is so much doubt as to the +bearing upon this point of the words in Hebrews xii. 1, that I +have not referred to it. Yet I would suggest that the +comparison of our life on earth to the endeavours of the runners +in the games of the amphitheatre implies that those efforts are +made under the gaze of a cloud of spectators. The existence +of the spectators, and their interest in the contests, are +integral facts in the similitude, and essential elements in +it.</p> +<p><a name="footnote100a"></a><a href="#citation100a" +class="footnote">[100a]</a> Eph. i. 23.</p> +<p><a name="footnote100b"></a><a href="#citation100b" +class="footnote">[100b]</a> 2 Cor. v. 8.</p> +<p><a name="footnote102"></a><a href="#citation102" +class="footnote">[102]</a> See 2 Macc. xii. 44, 45.</p> +<p><a name="footnote103a"></a><a href="#citation103a" +class="footnote">[103a]</a> See Plummer, Expositor, +Pastoral Epp., p. 324.</p> +<p><a name="footnote103b"></a><a href="#citation103b" +class="footnote">[103b]</a> Forbes on 39 Articles, p. +612.</p> +<p><a name="footnote104"></a><a href="#citation104" +class="footnote">[104]</a> See the note on p. 88, Address +viii. <i>supra</i>.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF THE WAITING SOUL***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 21881-h.htm or 21881-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/8/8/21881 + + + +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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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 Life of the Waiting Soul + in the Intermediate State + + +Author: R. E. Sanderson + + + +Release Date: June 20, 2007 [eBook #21881] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF THE WAITING SOUL*** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1900 Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +THE LIFE +OF +THE WAITING SOUL +IN +THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. + + +BY +_R. E. SANDERSON_, _D.D._, +ST. MICHAEL, BRIGHTON; CANON RESIDENTIARY OF CHICHESTER +CATHEDRAL; FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF +LANCING COLLEGE. + +London: +WELLS GARDNER, DARTON & CO., +3 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C. + +FIRST EDITION, MAY, 1896. +SECOND ,, SEP., ,, +THIRD ,, FEB., 1897. +FOURTH ,, JAN., 1898. +FIFTH ,, FEB., 1900. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +These Addresses were delivered in Chichester Cathedral, and subsequently, +with slight alterations, at Hastings. They would not have been printed +but at the urgent request of very many who heard them preached. It +should be remembered that they are not a theological treatise, but a +course of plain words addressed to an ordinary congregation. It seemed +desirable to awaken interest in a subject which has dropped out of +English Christian thought, and almost out of people's knowledge. The +Addresses are an attempt to explain what can be known about the +Intermediate Life. There is nothing new in them. If there were, +probably what is new would not be true. + +The doctrines of so-called "Universalism" and "Conditional Immortality" +are not touched upon. They do not belong to the period which is covered +by the Intermediate State. Moreover, I doubt whether we can ever regard +those doctrines as anything more than speculations invented to answer +modern and possibly ephemeral objections. + +How much I have unconsciously been indebted to those who have dealt with +this subject more fully, I hardly know. One reads and remembers, and +reproduces in preaching, often without thought of the sources from which +material has been drawn. I gratefully acknowledge in the notes what I +know to be debts incurred. I can only express my regret if any have been +overlooked. + +R. E. S. + +_Easter_, 1896. + + + + +I. + + + "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which + are asleep."--1 THESS. IV. 13. + +There are moments in the lives of every one of us, when the mind is +irresistibly drawn on to wonder what our own personal future shall be, as +soon as life is over and death has overtaken us. We cannot help the +speculation. However bound by present duties and absorbed in present +interests, often, in quiet hours, in times of solitude or bereavement, or +under the sense of failing hopes or failing health, in seasons of sorrow +or of sickness, the mood takes hold of us; and it may be, we know not +why, our eyes turn with an anxious and a wistful look towards that +inevitable end which is surely coming upon us. + +At such moments we ask ourselves, what will my lot be when the hand of +death touches me--even _me_; when all the light of life goes out, all +thought of this world's cares, all pleasant joys and hopes and desires of +time sink down and fade into the chill gloom and shadow of the unknown? +Such questionings, brought close home to our very selves, cannot but fill +us with very anxious fears and misgivings, as we either look back upon +the past, or think upon what chiefly possesses our minds and thoughts +now. Indeed, many of us cannot bear this forward glance, and refuse to +face it. We would fain brush the thought aside, and with some hasty +utterance of vague trust, of shadowy self-comforting hope that GOD will +be merciful, we turn sharply round and give ourselves again to the calls +of the life which is about us. + +In this way, we Christians, we children of GOD, heirs of life and +immortality, learn to be terrified at death, which, as we are taught to +believe, ushers us into life; learn to associate it with trembling doubt +and shuddering dismay. But is this dread of death nothing else than the +natural instinctive shrinking, which the warmth of life feels at the +touch of its cold hand? Or is it not rather, in the case of most of us, +due to some false imaginations with which religion itself--that form, at +least, of religion which to-day encompasses us--has for many years +possessed and imbued the minds of men? Indeed, I believe it to be so. +The Christianity of to-day has too commonly accepted two untruths, which +yet it holds as truths. + +1. One of them is this: That death ushers the soul immediately and +finally into the supreme condition which awaits the souls of men; so +that, at death, the souls of good men pass at once into heaven, while the +souls of bad men pass at once into hell; in other words, that the final +and irrevocable severance between the just and the unjust takes place at +death. Believing this, men have lost all faith in an Intermediate State +between death and the Day of Judgment. That intervening sojourn of the +soul has virtually dropped out of recognition in the popular Christianity +of the day, and is quite ignored. If you walk through any resting place +of the bodies of the dead, into your own churchyards and cemeteries, you +will, not seldom, find inscriptions upon tombs, which express the +confident assurance that one, whose death is recorded, has already passed +into heaven; that another has now become an angel of Light, or is singing +the praises of GOD before the throne, is, in short, in the full present +enjoyment of consummate and final bliss. Thus it is that the +Intermediate State between death and the final condition of happiness in +heaven, which can only follow the Day of the Resurrection, is quite +forgotten and overlooked. + +2. And the second untruth, which is closely connected with the first, is +this: That there are but two classes of those who pass hence and are no +more seen; classes sharply distinguished, clearly outlined,--on the one +hand, of those who at death go straight to heaven, and, on the other, of +those who at death go straight to the place of final torment. If then +these are the only two clearly marked and sharply defined alternatives, +it follows that, whensoever we dare not be sure of any one soul at death +that it was good enough certainly for heaven, there is nothing for it but +to fear that the worse doom awaits it and that it is lost. For if it is +not, at the moment of death, pure enough or good enough for heaven, into +which there "shall in no wise enter anything that defileth, neither +whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie," {5} that soul, +according to this false belief, is lost. Yet, in fact, what do we see +within us and around us, as we honestly look into our own lives, and upon +the lives both of the best and of the worst among us? We see this, and +we are convinced that we are not mistaken, that even among the most +marked extremes of good men and evil men, few even of the best are so +free from stain or fault as, at death, to be certainly fit for heaven, +and few so vile and degraded as not to have still some good in them. And +between these two extremes there are multitudes of mixed characters, in +part good and in part bad. Among these, of whom we know that they are +full of worth yet full of imperfections too, we count so many who are +most dear to us, many the companions of our lives, our kindred, and +acquaintances, and cherished friends, whose failings and whose virtues we +know so well, of mixed and imperfect character, too frail for heaven, too +good, too lovable for hell, partly good and partly not good, strong and +also weak, marred with inconsistencies, and often for these very +inconsistencies the more dear to us, of whom, so truly have we loved and +even honoured them, it seems almost like an outrage upon their memory to +bring ourselves to think that there was just so much of evil in them and +just so little good, as would suffice to turn the balance against them +and thus fix, at the moment of their death, their final doom. + +What are we to think of such as these? Of some we perhaps say within +ourselves, "Would that there had been but a little amendment of this +blemish! A little more of strength and purpose against that fault! If +only this besetting hardness had not been the spoiler of his life, that +great heedlessness, that fatal procrastination, this too frequent sin! +Oh! but for this or that which marred the fair and well rounded +character! But for this we should have been full of hope: there was so +much on the better side, that we should have been full of trust, and even +of confidence. But, now, what are we to think? If only there were some +fit and fair proportion to be thought of, duly measured out, of reward +and punishment, a mixed destiny for a mixed character, partly good and +partly evil for those who in this life were in part good and in part were +evil! But these two awful and sharp alternatives, either reward or +punishment, these two separate issues, heaven or hell, and if not heaven +then necessarily and inevitably hell! What shall we think? We dare not +think. In the Bible we are encouraged to believe that we shall receive +the due reward of our deeds, whether they be good or whether they be +evil. {8} But how shall any receive in heaven the due reward of evil +deeds done on earth? and how, in hell, shall any wretched soul receive in +any truth the due rewards of good deeds done on earth? Yet in each, +there was some good even in the worst, and some evil even in the best." + +We see then what follows upon this false belief, that at death an instant +judgment assigns finally the destiny of all men, to men of every degree +of wickedness, without distinction, Hell; and one final and absolute +Heaven to men of every varying measure of goodness. Surely there is a +great perplexity in this. No wonder if such beliefs lead men to dread +the thought of death, of their own death, of the death of their friends. +No mere physical repulsion makes us shrink, but rather the uncertainty +and doubt of what may follow, + + "The dread of something after death, + The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn + No traveller returns, puzzles the will," + +and makes us Christian men and women turn to find relief from these +bewildering fears by plunging deeply into the waters of life's amusements +and ambitions. It is the uncertainty of things, wearing to some the +aspect of caprice, which leads to recklessness, and sometimes to +defiance. + +I believe, from my heart, that Holy Scripture rightly understood solves +these confusing riddles. I believe that a more sound and Scriptural +grasp of what will be the future of each of us after death, the +restoration of a right belief in an Intermediate State, will go far to +correct these unworthy and most un-Christian fears. But it is said, at +times, that nothing can be really known about this Intermediate State, +that all that can be asserted of it is mere guess and vain conjecture, +and even that it betrays a too curious intrusion into things unseen to +speculate about the condition of souls after death. Yes! if we only +speculate, but not surely if we seek humbly to find out what the Bible +has taught us. S. Paul did not think it a too presumptuous intrusion +into things beyond the reach of our knowledge to make this enquiry. "I +would not have you to be ignorant concerning them which are asleep." He +would rather that the Thessalonians should know all that can be known, to +their edification. And something can be known, or he would not have +written this. And to know it will be to our edification also. Certainly +to ignore what can be known has led, as we have seen, to loss and offence +in these days. Therefore I propose to try and set before you not idle +speculations indeed, but what has been actually revealed in Holy +Scripture, or may be drawn from it about the Intermediate State. It is +upon Holy Scripture that we must depend for our learning. At least I +shall make no attempt to build arguments upon any other foundation than +Holy Scripture. But let us, in GOD'S Name, get out of Holy Scripture all +that can, according to the proportion of the faith, be deduced from it. +It is as perilous, not to say as undutiful towards GOD, the Revealer, to +neglect what He has for our sakes revealed, as it would be to invent +speculations of our own about that which He has not revealed. + +The unseen world is not easy to apprehend, and to our matter-of-fact +English mind and temper is especially difficult. Yet, with the awful +future in our mind, which awaits not only those who are very dear to +ourselves, but ourselves also, we must be dull indeed, if we have no +concern for it. Then if sober questioning may reveal more clearly to us +what Holy Scripture can tell us of things that shall befall each of us, +we may hope to gain fresh confidence, and to renew our trust in Him Who +launched us into time, that we may live with Him in eternity through +Jesus Christ our Lord. + + + + +II. + + + "Jesus said unto him, Verily I say onto thee, To-day shall thou be + with Me in Paradise." + + --S. LUKE XXIII. 43. + +If we should ask what happens to the soul of a good man when he dies, the +answer would probably be that he has gone to heaven. Of a little child +it would be said at his death, that he has become an angel in heaven. But +this would be quite untrue, because it contradicts the Bible. The Bible +teaches that there will at the end of the world be a day when all the +dead shall rise and stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, to be +judged for the deeds done in the body, whether they be good, or whether +they be evil. But if a good man's soul goes straight to heaven at death, +without waiting for the Day of Judgment, he practically has no Day of +Judgment at all. He escapes it. The Bible also teaches that before the +Day of Judgment there will be a general Resurrection of all, both of the +just and of the unjust. {14} But how can one who is already in heaven, +while his body lies in the grave of corruption,--how can he, being +already glorified and even now beholding the vision of GOD, to any +intelligible purpose, or for any conceivable end, take part in the +general Resurrection? Why should he, as it were, come away from heaven +and rise from the dead, in order to be judged? + +Thus the popular belief, that the souls of the righteous pass straight to +heaven, and the souls of the wicked go straight to hell, is against the +plain teaching of the Bible. But the Bible not only contradicts this +popular and careless fancy. It asserts what is directly contrary to it: +it asserts positively, I mean, that there is an age-long period between +death and the final state of happiness or misery, during which period the +soul is separate from the body and remains separate. We are, according +to the Bible, destined to undergo three great changes in the mode and +nature of our existence. In the first period, while we are here in this +our life on earth, the soul and spirit are united to a material and +tangible body of flesh and blood, suited to our life here. The second +stage begins at death, the name we give to the separation which then +takes place between this material fabric of the body and the incorporeal +part of us; and then the soul and spirit dwell disembodied for a time. +There follows at the Resurrection the third period, when the soul and +spirit are reunited with the body, but with the body now so spiritualized +and refined as to suit the heavenly existence. The second of these two +periods, coming between the first and the third, is therefore fitly +called the intermediate or middle state, the state in which the +disembodied soul dwells apart from its material tenement. {15} + +What has the Bible then to say about this Intermediate State? I will not +ask you to listen to the comments or interpretations of the early +Christian writers, although, of course, very great respect is due to what +they say. I will only beg of you to pay common attention to what the +Bible itself says. + +Now, first, I will point to the words which our Lord spoke from the +Cross, just before His Death, to the thief who was also slowly dying at +His side. "To-day," He said, "shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." So +then within a few hours,--it was then not yet mid-day--they were both to +be in Paradise. They both died before sunset, and at their death both +entered Paradise. Their dead bodies were left behind upon the Cross. +What then entered Paradise? Not their bodies, but the spiritual or +incorporeal part of them. Was Paradise then another name for heaven? It +cannot be; our Lord did not go to heaven until the day of His Ascension, +forty-three days after His death. For, after His Resurrection, He said +to S. Mary Magdalene, "I am _not yet_ ascended to My Father." {17} With +His risen body, united again to His human soul and spirit, He went to +Heaven, His whole human nature now being, by His Resurrection, again +completely one. But into Paradise only part of His human nature passed, +the spiritual part of it, along with the spiritual part of the thief's +human nature. Our Lord's soul and spirit came back, as we know, from +Paradise on the third day. The soul and spirit of the thief remain there +still. So then this is what our Lord Himself teaches us as to the state +of the disembodied spirit, that at death a just man's spirit does _not_ +go to heaven, but into a sphere of life which is called Paradise. + +But, if this be so, why, it may be asked, did not our Lord speak in +plainer and more definite language? Such a truth, it may be urged, a +truth which so much concerns us, ought not to depend upon a single text. +I do not propose to ask you to be content with an inference from a single +text. But it may be that our Lord did not say more than this about the +great truth with which we are dealing for this reason, that the disciples +whom He gathered round Him, being Jews, perfectly well knew what He meant +by Paradise. This single reference, therefore, is enough to show that +what was a common and prevalent belief among the Jews was a true +belief,--a belief which our Lord not only recognized, but by recognizing +established and sanctioned. But if we are once clear on this point, we +shall find the belief more plainly set forth by our Lord in another +place. What then is the belief that we have learned from this single +passage? We have learned this, that the human spirit of our Lord, and +the spirit of the dying thief did not pass at death to heaven, though if +any spirit should ever be fit to pass at death to heaven His spirit was +fit, but to a state which He called Paradise. + +Now, there was another expression used in the ordinary Jewish language of +the day for the state to which the blessed dead passed at death. They +were spoken of as at rest "in Abraham's bosom." Of a very holy man they +would say, "This day he rests in Abraham's bosom." So that in the minds +of the Jews and therefore of the disciples the term "Paradise" meant +exactly the same thing as "Abraham's bosom." We have learned what +"Paradise" meant. Therefore now we know what "resting in Abraham's +bosom" meant. It meant the Intermediate State. {19} The scene then in +the narrative of the rich man and Lazarus, which follows the deaths of +the two men, belongs not to the final state of happiness and misery at +all, but to the Intermediate State. The joy is the joy of the +Intermediate State. The suffering, which is in such strong contrast to +the joy as to be divided from it by a deep gulf, so that the joy cannot +be tinged with the misery, nor the misery relieved by the joy,--this +suffering also is the suffering of the Intermediate State. + +The reality then of the Intermediate State is confirmed by our Lord in +this narrative. Now observe the weight of this testimony. If the Jews +were wrong in believing that the spirits of the just passed into Paradise +or into Abraham's bosom our Lord would never have uttered words twice +over which sanctioned their mistake. We may observe further from these +two passages that the Intermediate State has two parts or conditions. +There are those in it who suffer, and there are those who rejoice. At +death, the spirits of those whose lives have been evil pass to suffering +and anguish, as we read of the rich man that "in Hades he lifted up his +eyes being in torments"; and the spirits of the faithful pass to rest and +joy. But between these two representatives in the narrative, the one of +the evil, the other of the good, there are the multitudes who are neither +very good nor very evil, so varied in the indeterminate tokens of good +and evil which marked their lives on earth, that it would seem to be +impossible for us to know on which side of "the great gulf" their +position ought to be. But if the extremes enter the Intermediate State, +and there is room for them in it, is it to be supposed that there is no +room for those who are between the extremes? Rather do we learn that the +spirits of all go thither, not only of the faithful and of the wicked, +but of the wavering and uncertain also, of those who were weak and fell, +of those who, with unsteady and tottering steps, sometimes rising, often +falling, now obeying, now rebelling, now believing, now doubting, now +walking in the light, now plunged in darkness, at one time treading +firmly the ground of the narrow path, and then at times wandering into +the quagmires and morasses of sin and lust, passed through the pilgrimage +of life, and, at length, when their allotted span was completed, were +assigned to the place which awaited them, to the place which was their +own and was fitted for them. + +We have seen what conclusions must be drawn from the express language of +our Lord Himself. Let us now examine the evidence afforded by His +Apostles, in the Epistles and in the book of the Revelation. But first I +would ask you to consider what, according to the Bible, is the chief +feature in the conception of the happiness and glory of Heaven, what is +its essential nature. Is it not this, that being the dwelling place of +GOD Himself, the glory and happiness of Heaven will consist in the +Presence itself of GOD, and therefore in the vision of GOD? As a great +writer has said, "It must be remarked by everybody that the glory of the +future state is always put before us not as an inner consciousness or +mental communion simply, not as an absorption into ourselves within, but +as a great spectacle without us, the spectacle of a great visible +manifestation of GOD. It is a sight, a picture, a representation, that +constitutes the heavenly state, not mere thought and contemplation. The +glorified saint of Scripture is especially a beholder; he gazes, he +looks, he fixes his eyes upon something before him; he does not merely +ruminate within, but his whole mind is carried out towards and upon a +great representation. And thus Heaven specially appears in Scripture as +the sphere of perfected sight, where the faculty is raised and exalted to +its highest act, and the happiness of existence culminates in vision." +{23} If this be so, all the most entrancing spectacles and scenes of +earth shall appear dim and coarse and uncouth in comparison with the +sight on which the ravished gaze of eternity shall be fastened. For then +shall our eyes see "The King in His Beauty." {24a} They shall see GOD, +see Him face to face,--GOD! No higher conception of happiness is set +before the heart of man, which ever craves for heaven and for perfection, +than GOD Himself, the sight of GOD, the Presence of GOD, the Knowledge of +GOD. "In Thy Presence is the fulness of joy." {24b} But we must not +lose sight of the effect which this vision of GOD produces upon those who +gaze. To see Him is to become like Him. "Then," says S. John, "we shall +be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." {24c} "We all," says S. +Paul, "with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, +are changed into the same image from glory to glory." This is what +seeing GOD will do. + +When, then, shall this vision be granted? At death to any? No! but only +at the Second Coming of Christ. All the great writers of the Epistles +speak, as with one voice, of this. What says S. Peter? "When the chief +Shepherd _shall appear_, ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth +not away." {25a} Not therefore at death, but at Christ's Second Coming +and appearance. What does S. John say? "We know that _when He shall +appear_, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." {25b} Not +therefore until that time. What again does the great S. Paul say? "When +Christ, Who is our life, _shall appear_, then shall ye also appear with +Him in glory." {25c} Again to S. Timothy he writes, "There is laid up +for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord _the righteous Judge_, +shall give to me _at that day_: and not only to me, but also to all them +that have loved _His appearing_." {25d} There can be no doubt what S. +Paul means by "That Day." It is the day when "the Righteous Judge" on +His Judgment throne shall award the crowns to those who have fought the +good fight and kept the faith. This is the frequent meaning of the +expressions, "That day," "The day of the Lord," in the New Testament. "We +know it," says Dr. Liddon, "by a more familiar name given it on three +occasions by our Lord Himself, and on three at least by His Apostles +after Him: it is the Day of Judgment." {26} S. Paul, therefore, when he +says, "There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord +will give me on that day," does not expect that crown until the Day of +Judgment. + +These are a few out of many like passages, all showing that heaven is not +reached at death, but only after the Day of Judgment. From all which it +is clear that the Apostles had in their minds the firm assurance that +there was to be a waiting time, how long they knew not, or how short they +knew not, during which the spirit without the body would dwell in +expectation. If it were otherwise, if at death the spirit passes into +the light which no man can approach unto, into the Presence of GOD and +beholds the Beatific Vision, which, as we saw, constitutes the +consummation of happiness and perfection in heaven, I would ask, how it +can be conceived that our Lord would have called Lazarus back from that +supreme happiness, which eye hath never seen nor ear ever heard, nor +heart of man ever conceived,--called him back to mingle in the griefs and +sorrows, the pains and failures, the doubts and fears, the mists and +confusions of this earthly life. Was this the act of Him Who loved +Lazarus? Was there no other way of consoling the living sisters, than by +so great a loss to the vanished brother? Was it not to call him from +life to death, rather than from death to life? + +One more passage must be quoted, the force of which cannot well be +missed. In the sixth chapter of the Book of the Revelation, S. John +describes the vision which he saw at the opening of the fifth seal. He +saw, he said, "under the altar the souls of them that had been slain for +the word of GOD,--and they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O +Master, the holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on +them that dwell on the earth?--And it was said unto them, that they +should rest yet for a little while, until their fellow-servants also and +their brethren . . . should be fulfilled." {28} Plainly these souls were +not in heaven, for they bemoaned the long delay, and were bidden to wait +for awhile until some great fulfilment. Where then could they be, if not +on earth, nor yet in heaven? They must have been in the Middle State +between the two, these martyred souls, in Paradise. But they are not +spoken of as in Paradise, or in Abraham's bosom, but as "under the +Altar." Where was this? The Jews spoke of departed souls not only as in +Paradise, and in Abraham's bosom, but also as "under the throne of +Glory." By all these expressions they meant the same thing. S. John, +however, uses a different expression in describing the Intermediate +State, yet one so similar as to lead us to think that in the change he +substitutes a Christian formula for the Jewish, giving it a Christian +shape. As "the throne of Glory" was associated with the Presence of GOD +in the mind of a devout Jew, so the Altar would be as naturally +associated with the Presence of GOD in the mind of a devout Christian. +What, therefore, the "Throne of GOD" was to the Jew, that "the Altar of +GOD" would be to a Christian. For the Altar was to Christian thought the +Throne of GOD. There, at the Christian Altar was commemorated the one +great sacrifice to which all former sacrifices had pointed, and in which +they were all fulfilled. There the communion of Saints was, as in no +other way on earth, realized. There, as by one simultaneous vibration +thrilling through the saintly dead, and the living communicants, the +spiritual bond unites together in one unbroken living Communion, those of +the Church expectant who are departed in the true faith of Christ's Holy +Name, and those of us who are still striving in the Church militant on +earth to perfect our probation. These souls "under the Altar" were still +waiting, and their waiting wearied them. "How long?" they cried. They +were not in the flesh, their bodies had been slain. They were absent +from the body and present with the Lord, with Christ, as the crucified +thief is still with Christ, in Paradise. + +The consummation for them is yet to come. They are waiting for it. It +is postponed. GOD'S work on earth is yet uncompleted. The number of the +elect is not yet made up. The Second Coming of Christ is yet delayed. +All things are not yet ready. A little while longer must they wait, that +they without us may not be made perfect. + + + + +III. + + + "To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life + and peace."--ROM. VIII. 6. + +So far we have examined the witness which the Bible affords in support of +the truth that there is such a sphere as the Intermediate State, in which +the spirit dwells alone, apart from the body, awaiting the Day of +Judgment. We have now to see what can be known as to the condition of +the spirit in that disembodied state. It is one thing to be assured on +good grounds that there is such a life, and quite another thing to be +assured what sort of life it is. Can we fully understand what is meant +by the life of the spiritual part of our being when it is separated from +the body? We cannot. We cannot understand that of which we have had no +experience. In speaking, therefore, of the disembodied spirit, we are +speaking of that which we cannot explain. Yet it does not in consequence +follow that it is impossible to believe it to be. For we are bound in +reason to be assured of many things of which we can form no conception. +Reason compels us to be assured of the reality of space, of eternity, of +the creation of the universe out of nothing, and, perhaps we may add, of +the being of GOD; the being of GOD, I mean, considered apart from His +nature and attributes. Yet we cannot form any intelligent conception of +these realities. We cannot shape to our apprehension the faintest +rational conception of the Personality of GOD, of His Omniscience, of His +Omnipresence. Yet we are able, and indeed are forced to believe, as +Christians, in these attributes of His Nature, although we cannot +comprehend them. + +In the same sense, we can be reasonably sure that the spirit can still +live after it has left the body, even though we are unable to form to our +minds any clear conception of the existence of the disembodied spirit. We +can do more. On the assumption of the existence of the disembodied +spirit, we are able, to some extent also, to reason upon the laws and +limits of that separate and secluded life. + +We are, no doubt, in so doing, dealing with a profoundly mysterious +subject. But it does not therefore follow that we are thereby really +intruding into things which ought not to be enquired into. For the +questions raised in the search concern us very closely; and, moreover, it +is a matter about which GOD has made a revelation. And to know more +about it than many people even care to know is a safeguard against many +an unwholesome fear, against many a mischievous deceit. + +On the very threshold of this enquiry we are confronted with this +question: "Is the soul the same thing as the spirit? If not, what is the +soul, and what is the spirit?" That the Bible regards them as distinct +is sufficiently clear from the language used by S. Paul in his first +Epistle to the Thessalonians: "I pray GOD your whole spirit, soul, and +body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." +{34a} The same distinction is marked in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "The +word of GOD is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, +piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." {34b} It is +thus that we understand the contrast which S. Paul enforces between +things of the spirit and things of the soul. "The _natural_ +man,"--_i.e._, the psychical man, the man who yields to the sway of the +soul,--"receiveth not the things of the spirit of GOD." {34c} And again, +speaking of the resurrection, he writes: "It is sown a natural +body,"--_i.e._, literally a psychical body, a body which is subject to +the sway of the soul,--"it is raised a spiritual body,"--_i.e._, a body +subject to the sway of the spirit. "There is a natural body, and there +is a spiritual body." {35a} When again S. James says: "This wisdom . . . +is earthly, _sensual_, devilish,"--the word translated "sensual" is the +same word "psychical," _i.e._, subject to the sway of the soul. {35b} S. +Jude speaks of those who are "sensual," _i.e._, psychical, "not having +the spirit." {35c} Enough has been said to show that, according to the +Bible, the soul is the seat of the senses, the desires, the will, the +reasoning and intellectual faculties, the thoughts of the mind. What +then is the spirit in man? We seem to have the answer given to us in the +account of man's creation, when we are told that "GOD formed man of the +dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, +and man became a living soul." {35d} This breath of GOD could be nothing +less than the spirit, which came from GOD Himself. It is that higher +endowment by which man is a spiritual being, and therefore has an +affinity to GOD. It is that which makes him GOD-like, even by nature, at +least by his nature as it was before the fall. But even the fall did not +utterly dissolve that nature; man still remained a spiritual being, +although the spiritual part of him was subject to the sway of the animal +in him, and to the senses of the lower nature. Until that creative act +of GOD, man's body and soul were scarcely higher in the order and rank of +being than the body and soul of the brute. It was the gift of the divine +spirit which caused man's soul truly to live, so that he became then "a +_living_ soul." Herein, henceforth, the soul of man differs from the +soul of the lower creature. In man the soul is in contact with the +spirit. The beast shares with man the possession of an animal soul. It +is the prerogative of man to be endowed also with spirit. By the spirit, +man is capable of apprehending GOD, can commune with GOD, can long for +Him. Herein lies his capacity for religion. His soul is incorporeal no +less than his spirit. It is, as it were, midway between the body and the +spirit. It touches the body on the one side, on the other side it +touches the spirit. The desires and the thoughts of the soul may become +enslaved by the body, or they may become the servants of the spirit. The +soul is the prize, for the mastery of which the spirit strives, and the +flesh or body strives. The spirit may gain the soul, or the flesh may +gain the soul. If the spirit loses the soul, it is a loss fatal and +irreparable. The soul is drawn now this way by the baser longings of the +flesh, now that way by the nobler appeals of the spirit. It is the +"debateable ground" {37} on which the real battle of life is fought. "The +flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh." The +gaining of the soul is the gaining of the whole man. The losing of the +soul is the losing of the whole man. Those have degraded and brutalized +their life whose human spirit has yielded up its supremacy, whose soul +has been swept along in captivity by the bodily desires. For as in some +the spirit shapes the whole soul, so in others the soul, enslaved by the +flesh, shapes the spirit. + +Death at length steps in, and tears asunder the flesh from the +incorporeal part of us; and soul and spirit, still united, pass together +to the life which awaits them in the world unseen. + + + + +IV. + + + "And when he had said this he fell asleep." + + --ACTS VII. 60. + +At death, as we have seen, the spirit and the soul are separated from the +body, and, still united together, are launched into the unseen world. For +though the soul is not the spirit, these two form the incorporeal parts +of our compound nature, are the two immaterial elements of that trinity +of life,--body, soul, spirit, which are united to make one human being. +They both survive death. For death is the separation of the soul from +the body, not of the soul from the spirit. But it must be remembered +that the spirit, when at death it is, in company with the soul, withdrawn +from the body, passes into the Intermediate State, shaped and stamped +with the impress which the life on earth has fastened upon it. The +spirit enters the new life, either enslaved, disfigured, degraded, +dishonoured by the sensual soul, or else strong, free, true, purified in +its victory over the flesh. It carries with it, in short, the character +which in life it has acquired. + +It may be well to fall into the usage of ordinary speech, and speak of +that which survives death as the _soul_, so long as we keep in mind what +is really meant, viz., that it is the soul _united with the spirit_ which +survives death. + +When, then, we say that the disembodied soul enters the Intermediate +Life, we are bound to consider in what condition it enters it. For +people sometimes argue thus: "Yes! I grant that there will be an interval +or waiting time between death and the Day of Judgment. But then, during +that time, is not the soul asleep? Surely the dying are said to fall +asleep. Then, if asleep, they are unconscious, and to the unconscious +soul the Intermediate State will seem to last but for an instant, and +will no sooner be entered upon than it will be practically at an end. For +complete insensibility to the passing and movement of time is one of the +effects of complete unconsciousness. And, in truth, is it not the case +that the Bible over and over again speaks of death as a state of sleep or +taking rest? {41a} Thus the Intermediate State is in fact a blank. The +eyes close in death, and they remain closed till they open to gaze upon +the glories of the Resurrection, and the terrors of the judgment seat of +Christ. Does not our own Prayer Book sanction this view in her Service +for the Burial of the Dead? {41b} And do we not in common language +ourselves express the same belief when we give to the resting place of +the bodies of the dead the name of 'cemetery,' or sleeping place?" + +The answer to all this is that the language which represents death as a +profound slumber is language applicable enough to describe what befalls +the body, but is quite inapplicable when it is used of the soul. Sleep +is distinctly a physical and corporeal function. The soul cannot be +liable to or affected by corporeal influences when it is separated from +the body. The soul cannot sleep. It is the body, in the hushed +stillness of the chamber of death, which seems, now that the last +struggle is over, and the spasm of dying leaves it motionless, to be +sleeping. But even in life, while the body sleeps, the soul is awake. It +is often, during the sleep of the body, even more active than during the +waking hours. In dreams the soul is busy with its fancies. Thoughts +flit this way and that through the mind of the sleeper. Indeed, the body +is more often a hindrance rather than a help to the activities of +thought. To lose all consciousness of the existence of the body, to be +as if the body for the time were not,--this is to set the mind thinking +in freedom unrestrained. For the body and the conscious sensation of the +presence of the body seem to serve to drag down and encumber the energy +of thought. A sound through the ear, a sight presented to the eye, a +touch, an ache,--these break off sustained thinking. No wonder, when the +body sleeps profoundly, the soul is often then most active. And will not +this be so when the profoundest sleep of all falls upon the body? + +It is clear that the disembodied soul, if we may again go back to the +Bible, is not by our Lord regarded as in a state of lethargy and dull +unconsciousness. "To-day," said He, "shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." +If this promise was meant to be a blessing and a solace it was meant to +be consciously _felt_ as a blessing and a solace. How else could the +thief have been in any true sense with Christ? S. Paul said, "For me to +live is Christ, to die is gain." {43} Gain! Wherein could it be a gain +to him to die, if to die was to exchange that eager, active vitality, so +full of welcome pain and happy suffering, so full of a service, whose +fruits were rich in blessing,--to exchange all this for dull heaviness +and blank oblivion? + +In the narrative of the rich man and Lazarus, which, as we saw, describes +the Intermediate State, the rich man is said to have "lifted up his eyes +being in torments." So, then, his pain was felt. He was conscious; he +reflected; he remembered; he spoke. Once more, in a remarkable passage +in the First Epistle of S. Peter, to which, on a future occasion, I shall +again refer, our Lord is spoken of as "having been put to death in the +flesh, but quickened," _i.e._, made alive, "in spirit" {44}; words which, +whatever the context may mean, can only have the force of bringing the +effect of death in its relation to Christ's human body into sharp +contrast with its effect in relation to His human spirit. In respect of +His human body He was put to death; but in respect of His human spirit He +was quickened or lived, lived still, in Paradise, though His body was +dead. I need not, I think, refer to other passages. It is abundantly +clear, both from the necessity of the thing, and from the obvious +testimony of the Bible, that the soul still lives, still is awake, still +is conscious. + +What, then, follows from the soul's consciousness in and through the +passage of death? Obviously this,--that the life of the soul goes on, +and is therefore the life of the same soul, sustained without break or +interruption, after death, by an unsuspended continuity of the +consciousness of personal identity. For of what is the soul still +conscious? Of itself. The life therefore of the soul after death is one +with the life of the soul before death. The same soul lives on. The +only change to it is the absence of the body, which has been withdrawn +from it, and is laid in the ground, and dissolves into dust. And this +continuous consciousness of identity means that the soul's character is +preserved unchanged and unaffected by the shock of the separation. For a +character it had been contracting during its sojourn in the body, a +character of its own. The spiritualized soul before death is a +spiritualized soul after death. The animalized soul before death remains +after death an animalized soul. The righteous is righteous still. The +holy, the pure, the faithful, the devout, the true, are true, and devout, +and faithful, and pure, and holy still. The wicked and tainted soul is +still wicked and tainted when it enters the unseen, and begins its life +in the Intermediate State. It is on the other side what it was on this +side. Death,--the crisis and shock of death,--makes no change, no other +change than this, that it strips off the outer clothing which enveloped +the soul. It leaves the soul the same, no better, no worse. This is +what is implied in the personal identity of the soul. It means the +continuity of consciousness, and therefore continuity of character. + +Do we cling to some vague and fanciful expectation that the mere act of +dying, so to call it, will itself work a great change upon the soul, will +blot out our sins, will clear away our imperfections, will in an instant +heal the wounds and scars, which evil habits, long inured in us, have +wrought upon the soul? It will do nothing of the sort. We shall be no +better, no holier on the other side than we were on this, no more fitted +for heaven than when we died. If this be so,--and, so far as we can see, +it must be so,--how much does it behove us to fear greatly the peril we +incur by a careless and GOD-forgetting life! "Israel doth not know," +said the prophet, "My people doth not consider." {47} That was the pity +of it. It was the thoughtlessness, and the ignorance which came of it, +that ruined the nation. + +Oh! that in life we would look things in the face more steadily! Would +that we were ready to take heed how surely we are, day by day, shaping +and moulding our character for good or for evil, a character which no +shock of dissolution will affect, which will be ours when the crisis +comes to end our probation here, and to usher us, as we are and have +become, into that unseen life beyond! + + + + +V. + + + "Being confident of this very thing, that He which began a good work + in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ."--PHIL. I. 6 + (_R.V._) + +The Intermediate Life is not a state of sleep, but a waiting time. But +is it a time of mere waiting, and of unemployed quiescence? This would +be no better than sleep. There must be a reason for the waiting. And +what other reason can there be than that, during it, there is something +to be done which can only be done then? S. Paul speaks, in the text, of +work which he is confident will be carried on till it is brought to +completion on the Day of Judgment. What is this work? We have seen that +the Scriptural conception of the happiness of heaven is that it consists +in the sight of GOD, the Beatific Vision. But there can enter the +heavenly city nothing that defileth, nothing imperfect. It is the pure +in heart who shall see GOD. Isaiah dare hardly approach the vision of +GOD'S glory on earth, because he felt himself to be a man of unclean +lips. The very heavens, the stars themselves, are not clean in GOD'S +sight. And at death, who is pure? Who is free from stain? Who is +perfect, that he should be fit to look upon GOD? Then, if no one that is +imperfect can enter heaven, and none are perfect at death, can we not see +what the work is that has to be done between death and the Resurrection? +It is this work of purification, that the soul may be fitted for the +vision of GOD in heaven. And this is what S. Paul is speaking of in the +text. The work begun in life, under the conditions of earth's life, +shall not stop at death, but, under new conditions, shall be carried on +to perfection until the day of Jesus Christ. + +So far, then, we may say that we are treading on sure ground. But when +we go on to ask how shall this work and process of purification be +effected, and what is the nature and method of it, we are approaching a +stage in our enquiry about which, it may be thought, nothing but +conjecture remains, because nothing has been revealed. But let us see +what light may be thrown upon this question. And, that we may narrow our +enquiry within manageable limits, let us confine our attention for the +present to the condition of those of whom it may with truth and reason be +said that they died in the favour and grace of GOD, died in good hope of +salvation, surely trusting that their sins had been forgiven through the +blood of Jesus Christ, and that, however imperfect and blemished with sin +their lives had been, there was an assured forgiveness for them and a +good hope of eternal mercy. We will not define the exact limits of this +reasonable hope, nor attempt to show who are within or beyond those +limits. We will only, in general terms, speak of those who have entered +upon the Intermediate Life in a condition such as would make them capable +of perfect purification. Certainly it is impossible for any of us ever +to say of any one absolutely that he is incapable of such progressive +purification. It is not possible, in Christian charity, to pronounce +sentence upon any. And it may be, and we may indeed hope, that a vast +number, a much larger proportion than many now imagine, will prove on +their entrance into the Intermediate Life to be capable of such progress +of effective purification as may fit them, each according to his measure, +for the final salvation for which he may be qualified in that home where +"there are many mansions." + +When then does this purification begin? Does it begin with dying? That +has been already disproved. But so prevalent is the popular belief that +dying has a kind of cleansing power in itself, that it is well to touch +upon it once more. What is dying? It is simply the parting of the soul +from the body. The soul, up to the moment of death, dwells in the body. +At death, in a moment it ceases to dwell in the body. But have not the +pain, it may be asked, and the very agony of dying a chastening and +purifying force, serving in themselves to crown repentance, and to +achieve, in the instant, the complete cleansing of the soul? Why should +it be so? The pains which precede death are distinct from dying, from +what we may call the act of dying. The act of dying is instantaneous. It +is the moment, the crisis at which the soul takes its flight. The pains +and agony which accompany the process leading up to death are not the +pains and agony of dying at all. They are felt while the sick man is +still living. They belong to his life, not to his death. At the moment +of dying the sufferings are probably over. The body has just felt its +last throb of sensible anguish, and, in the crisis of the soul's +departure, is incapable of feeling pain, and therefore is incapable of +the discipline of pain. And it is the discipline of pain alone that has +any cleansing power. And the discipline of pain went on in life up to +the moment, if it be so, of the dying, and then ceased. But it belonged, +as the pain belonged, to the life, and not to the death. During the +life, at many times in the life past, the wholesome discipline of pain +may or may not have been working a salutary change in the character, up +to the very moment, perhaps, of death. But it ceased, as the pain +ceased, at death. + +This then we conclude, that the act of dying in itself, apart from the +pain which may have preceded it, can have no moral effect, or work any +moral change. Moral change, that is to say change of character, can only +go on in life. Dying is a physical operation, not a moral act. At death +the possibility of change of character has stopped, so far as this life +can be the sphere of it. Life, not death, may be accompanied by +cleansing, life on this side of death, and life on the other side of +death, but not death, which is between, the mere transition from life to +life, from one mode of life to another. + +The soul, therefore, after death begins just where it left off, just as +life left it, no better, no worse. It passes into the unseen world, +pardoned, it may be, by GOD'S mercy, but yet no other than it was before +it left the body. Even GOD'S pardon does not change the character, nor +yet remove the tendency to sin. That still remains, alas! even in the +penitent. The consequences of our acts follow upon our acts, and form +our character. As there is uniformity in the law of cause and effect in +the realm of nature, so, in morals, is it the case with what we do. Let +a man yield to a temptation:--is he as strong against that temptation +after he has yielded to it as he would have been if he had not yielded to +it? We know that he is not. We know, by our own experience, that it +needs a far greater and more strenuous effort to withstand the same +temptation after previous yielding, than it did before. A man may repent +and be pardoned, but he is what his sin has made him, weak and frail and +prone to sin again. GOD'S pardon has cancelled his guilt, but it has not +removed his tendency, nor the moral consequences, which sin has wrought +upon his character. + +This then is what is meant when it is said that the soul, which has +received the gracious pardon of GOD before it left the body, is still, +when it is launched into the Intermediate Life, clouded and disfigured +with the stains and imperfections which it had contracted in this life. +But GOD, Who has begun the good work of cleansing in this life, will +carry it on in the life unseen, until the soul be made perfect in the day +of Jesus Christ. + +Who of us, the best of us, does not feel within him the bitterness of the +lingering poison, which sin has deposited in his heart? The holier a man +is, the more he is conscious of his sinfulness. To the end of life this +must be so; for there is no reaching perfection here. Those, chiefly, +who have made most progress in the struggle against sin here, know how +hateful it is. The higher men rise here in the divine life, the more +they discern their imperfections, because they can better measure them by +the measure of GOD'S perfections. Each loftier level is but a new +standpoint from which to lift the eyes, and view the peaks which soar +upward towards infinite elevations. For GOD is holiness itself; and +holiness is infinite, because GOD is infinite. + + + + +VI. + + + "Being confident of this very thing, that He which began a good work + in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ."--PHIL. I. 6 + (_R.V._) + +The ground is now cleared for an answer to the question,--How is the +purification of the soul effected in the Intermediate Life, and what is +the nature of the process? We have seen, 1st, that this waiting time is +not an idle time, but a time when something has to be done which can only +be done then; 2nd, that what has to be done then is the work of cleansing +and purifying the soul, that it may be perfected for the Beatific Vision +in heaven; 3rd, that the souls of those who die in grace do yet, although +fully pardoned, retain frailties of character, the consequences of former +sins; and, 4th, that dying in itself has no cleansing virtue whatever. +What, then, are the conditions on which we may rely as grounds for +legitimate inferences? + +1. First, then, memory survives death. In the narrative to which we +have had occasion to refer more than once, Abraham is spoken of as +bidding the rich man to remember. "Son, remember, that thou in thy +lifetime receivedst thy good things." The survival of memory is involved +in the soul's consciousness of its own existence. And to be conscious of +our own existence is to be conscious that we are still the same persons +that we were. Therefore we must be able to remember each successive +moment what and who we were in the moment previous: so that the +continuance of life involves the continuance of the consciousness that it +is ourselves that live. And this is memory. Bishop Butler, therefore, +says, "There is no reason for supposing that the exercise of our present +powers of reflection is even suspended by the act of dying." + +But if we grant this, we may go further. What is it which makes memory +in this life so imperfect? What is it but the obtrusive hindrance of the +body? The body is at the mercy of the disturbing assaults of present +impressions. Through ear, and eye, and touch external objects invade the +mind, and dispel and distract fixed and steadfast retrospect. The +present blots out the past. When we look back, scenes, and events, and +words, and names fade from our memory, and are dimmed by the haze of +distance. The past is smothered by what has happened since. Only with a +supreme effort, only in solitude, and then only imperfectly, can we +recall what has gone by. But there, in the Intermediate State, when the +soul dwells apart from the body, there, in the stillness of that +"cloistered and secluded life," the powers of memory will be undistracted +and perfect. Even in this life, as we are told, some, in a great crisis, +have seen at a single glance the whole story of their past experience, +and scenes and events, long since forgotten, have flashed in an instant +before the mind, clear and vivid. Such clearness, we may well suppose, +will the memory have in the Intermediate Life, as it recalls in that +quiet stillness the actions of the past days on earth. Here is the first +equipment then for the work of cleansing. All the evil things done in +life, all the forgotten sins, in all their naked and uncouth colours, +will stand undisguised before the mind. Nothing will escape the +memory:--nothing. The days of childhood, of youth, of middle age, of +elder years will give in their report. The soul will see things then as +they are, no longer tricked out in false and flattering guise. There, in +all their miserable littleness, and coarseness, and meanness, and +cowardice, bygone sins will rise up before the stern tribunal of the +unsparing memory, each as it was, each as it is, each as GOD saw it at +the time, each as GOD sees it now. + +2. But this is not all. The souls of those who have received +forgiveness in life, and have passed into the Intermediate State in GOD'S +favour, are, we must remember, "with Christ"; with Christ, however +imperfect their characters, however scarred with traces of former wounds +of sin. The malefactor's character at his death must have been full of +blemishes, yet he was to be ushered and welcomed into Paradise by Christ +Himself. S. Paul again and again spoke of his own departure at death as +that which would lead him into the presence of Christ. It may, however, +be suggested that to be with Christ is to be with GOD, and that the +vision of Christ must be the same thing as the vision of GOD. But the +vision of GOD is specially reserved for the redeemed in heaven, while the +vision of Christ is possible in Paradise; for where Christ is there is +the vision of Christ. For Christ has assumed the form of man, and was +seen as Man by men. But no man hath seen nor can see GOD. He dwells in +the light which no man can approach unto. This is the vision of Him Who +is to mortal eyes in His essence invisible. That vision will be granted +to the pure in heart in the infinite glory of Heaven, granted to those +who shall have become fitted to behold Him in Heaven. But He Who took +our flesh was manifest in the flesh, and was seen, and touched, and +handled. In that same body He rose from the dead; in that same glorified +body He ascended into Heaven, to fill all things. And so after His +Ascension He was seen by S. Stephen {63} and by S. Paul. That human +nature, therefore, we are to believe is so present in Paradise that the +sight of Him is vouchsafed even there to those who may be "with Him." + +What, then, follows from this? It follows that the soul will not only +remember but also be able to judge of the past. For not only will it see +its sins, but it will behold Christ also. It will see them, therefore, +in the light of the perfect love, and most gracious sinlessness of Jesus +Christ. It will look upon sin's stains as they stand out in contrast +with His purity, its ingratitude in contrast with His compassion. He +will be the atmosphere of the soul's existence. All the shame and +dishonour, which in life the soul so complacently accepted, will then +overwhelm it with self-reproach and very bitter compunction. This is +what is meant by seeing sins as GOD sees them. It is to see them as the +soul will see them under the sense of the Presence of the Holy Christ. +Then will the soul know its guilt as it never knew it before. The guilt +of sin will then be no bare expression, no conventional formula, but a +spiritual fact, not an abstract doctrine, but a concrete reality. + +There will be revealed also to the soul the true meaning and significance +of GOD'S providences in life, which at the time were overlooked, or +slighted, or strangely misunderstood. Tokens of GOD'S love and care will +then find their interpretation. The soul will see plainly why was this, +wherefore was that, what that sorrow meant, what that loss, that parting +from one who was more dear than life. The many perplexities which on +earth misled the soul, of these the loving mercy and the gracious reason +will then be seen. + +And will there not be with the amazing surprise at these revelations a +strange and unaccountable gladness? But, no less, at the thought of the +soul's past blindness and persistence in ill-doing, will there not be an +exquisite pain? And the soul's pain can be even more oppressive than the +pain of the body. "Pain," it may be asked, "in the Presence of Christ?" +Yes, indeed! pain, because in the Presence of Christ; pain in +remembering, and in the consciousness, new to the soul, of its utter +unworthiness before Christ. The soul cannot fully feel it now, but it +will feel it then. The fire of His love will kindle a fire of loving +self-reproach. The weight of a heavy shame to think of the past, and to +know now of His beauty, and His love, and His care, care for so careless +a soul, love for a soul so loveless,--this will sting with an extreme +severity the soul humbled before Him. And here we should do well to +remember that, as the characters of each differ almost infinitely, +whereby there are innumerable shades and degrees of every conceivable +distinction of merit and of sin, so the proportion and depth of the pains +which the souls will feel will vary equally. The pains of no two souls +will be exactly the same. They will be measured out, in subtle and exact +aptness to each, according to its guilt or goodness, precisely as the +process of its purification shall require. There will be nothing unjust, +nothing capricious in them. + +And thus the pain will surely be a very wholesome pain. What could more +deepen penitence? The pain of self-reproach for unworthiness, and the +pain of the sense of goodness in the Presence of Jesus Christ,--these two +pains will purify the soul. No work of sanctification has ever been +wrought in any soul without suffering. And none ever will. Even Christ +Himself was not made perfect, as Man, without suffering. But the +suffering in Paradise will be accompanied with an exquisite delight and +joy. Do we not know, even here on earth, how near to each other very +often are joy and sorrow? He whose spirit is swelling with a great +gladness has often a sense of an undercurrent of great pain along with +it. How often tears and laughter go together! So, in that home of the +disembodied soul, the very process of purification will be marked by an +intensity of joy and an intensity of pain. They will be simultaneous. +Nay! increasingly, it may be, they will deepen in the soul. The nearer +the soul reaches its perfection the more abounding may be its gladness, +and the more piercing its compunction. Thus its very anguish will be a +delight, and its very delight will be an anguish, and these will proceed, +and advance, and increase until the soul is ripe for the Blessed Vision +of GOD in Heaven. For He Which began the good work in the soul, here, in +life, will, we may be very confident, never abandon it, nor suspend it, +but will continue it and perfect it all through the after life, even +until the day of Jesus Christ. + + + + +VII. + + + "Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit: in + which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which + aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering of GOD waited in + the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing." + + --1 PETER III. 18, 19, 20 (_R.V._) + +So far we have considered the case of those who die in the favour of GOD, +and, though as yet unfit for the vision of GOD in Heaven itself, are +nevertheless capable of becoming so in the course of the Intermediate +Life. + +What, however, must be said of those who in life had light and knowledge +of GOD and of His will, and yet hardened themselves against GOD; who were +free, and in the exercise of their freedom rejected GOD? Of these +unhappy souls, if there is no yielding of their will to GOD in the +Intermediate Life, if, and so far as, they have absolutely made +themselves by the fixedness of their choice incapable of yielding, if +after death they still hate GOD and set the whole force of their +determination against Him,--one can only fear that even GOD Himself +cannot help them. On the supposition that the prerogative of free will, +once for all given to man, must be respected by GOD, we are driven to the +belief that GOD cannot force the will. It is not that GOD changes +towards them. It is not necessary to suppose that He is even punishing +them. He may still be in Himself all that He is to all, full of love +towards them, full of pity, full of mercy. "His mercy is over all His +works." He can no more cease to be a Father to every man than He can +cease to be GOD. He hates nothing that He has made. But if the very +knowledge and thought of GOD'S longsuffering patience serves only to +harden and to exasperate, if it only stirs in the lost soul deeper pangs +of inexorable hatred, then,--man being man and GOD being GOD,--what can +GOD do? It is they who reject GOD, not GOD Who is rejecting them. It is +they who spurn Him, not He Who chastises them. He does not banish them +from His Presence: it is they who banish Him from their presence. And if +this defiance against GOD survives and lasts, if, as ages pass, it +becomes more resolutely inveterate and set, what power can stop it, what +love can soften it? And if it is never to be pacified, and never yields, +what shall hinder it from going on up to and beyond the Day of Judgment? +It may be said that such utter determination is a moral impossibility, +that no will of man could finally defy and resist the love of GOD. If +that be so, well! But on the assumption that it is not impossible, the +inference which has been drawn is inevitable. + +But there are others who in life have never heard of Christ, the millions +of heathen in all ages and all lands since the world began, of whom it +may truly be said that they never had a chance of salvation. To these +may be added many who have indeed fallen in with Christianity, but with a +Christianity of such a sort, presented to them in such a way, in such a +form, and under such circumstances as almost naturally to create in their +minds a really honest doubt and distrust of it. What shall be said of +these honest unbelievers, and, scarcely through their own fault, blind? +As to these, let us ask whether the doctrine of the Intermediate State +can help to give us some better hope. + +In the text, {72} we are told that Christ was put to death upon the Cross +in the flesh, but was quickened in His human Spirit, that is to say, that +after His human Spirit left His Body it was still quick or alive. We +know, from the Gospel of S. Luke, whither His human Spirit went. It went +to Paradise. S. Peter now tells us what His Spirit did there. He tells +us that it preached unto other spirits, and he names the spirits of those +who for 120 years, while Noah was building the ark, were disobedient. +They had rejected Noah, "the preacher of righteousness" {73} as S. Peter +calls him; and now a greater Preacher went to preach to them. Further, +we are told, that they were "in prison." The word should rather be +rendered "in safe keeping," that is to say, still waiting, under GOD'S +care, for this visit of Christ's human Spirit, when He should preach to +them. Why the spirits of these men, who lived before the flood, are +singled out for special mention, is a question that does not really bear +upon the point which we have in hand. And we had better keep to that +point, and not be tempted to digress. What then follows from this? Two +things are clear,--first, that from as far back as the days before the +flood, that is to say, from the very beginning of human life on earth, +souls in the Intermediate State had been waiting in safe keeping all +these many thousand years; and, secondly, that the disembodied soul of +our Lord Jesus Christ visited them there and preached to them. Assuming +that these souls had repented, however late, before they died, still we +learn that something more than repentance was needful to them. In this +case, it is clear that instruction was given to them. It would not have +been given if it had not been necessary. And what instruction? Christ +"proclaimed," we are told, to them. What did He proclaim? Surely the +good news of the Gospel, {74} which He had been proclaiming on earth by +the voice of the Apostles. What else did He make known than the mystery +of His Incarnation and the Atonement which He had wrought out upon the +Cross, in bearing the sins of men, and their sins, too, who had so long +been waiting in the Intermediate State, to hear it to their salvation? S. +Peter, therefore, in another place, says, "For this cause," that is, +because Christ will Himself be the Judge of the living and the dead,--"for +this cause was _the Gospel_ preached even to the dead." {75} + +Here, then, we have a set of facts which throw light upon some of the +dark places of that unknown and unseen land, the Intermediate State. If +we do justice to our Bibles we must regard these as facts, whether we can +fully explain them or not. Scriptural facts they certainly are. What, +then, can we learn from them? First, we seem to learn this,--that some +provision is made in the Intermediate State for the salvation of those +souls who in this life never heard of Christ, never had a chance, as we +say, of salvation. And when we think of it, does it not seem to belong +to GOD'S eternal justice that souls should not be condemned for that +which they could not help? Every human soul must have had a chance of +knowing Christ, before it can justly be punished for the consequences of +not knowing Him. Countless millions in all ages, since the world began, +in our own land, and in other lands, have never heard the good news of +Jesus Christ in life. It is not so with us. With them it is and has +been so. Christ preached to those who in safe keeping had been waiting +long. Then is it not possible for such as those in all ages to receive +the teaching in the Intermediate Life which they never received in this? +Why should Christ preach to those and not to these? + +This hope helps to solve that harassing enigma which perplexes and +oppresses so many of us,--I mean, as to the condition and future destiny +of the heathen, and the outcast, and the blind, and the ignorant. There, +in that stillness of the disembodied life, souls may be taught and +trained to know what they never could know in this life on earth, the +wonders and the blessings of the life in Christ. + +And, besides, do we not at least learn this from Christ's preaching to +these souls, that intercourse and communication is _possible_ in the life +after death, and will take place? And this suggests another aspect of +the work in that life, besides the work of progressive cleansing and +perfecting. The souls of the faithful rest from their labours. Yes! but +they have also a work to do which can only be done then, the work of the +soul's purification. The work, however, which they can do for others is +better than that which can be done for themselves. What can they do for +the souls of others? Can they not do what Christ's human spirit did? +Here on earth men are charged, not only with the care of their own souls, +but with the care of the souls of others also. And why should they not +be ambassadors for Christ there, if Christ's work has to be done there? +Here on earth He uses imperfect men to proclaim His Gospel. There, in +that after life, if His Gospel is to be proclaimed to those that never +heard it in this life, why should He not employ souls also, not yet +perfected, upon the same happy task? + +And may not this charge, laid on ministering souls in the Intermediate +Life, help to solve another mystery--the mystery of many an early and, as +we might think, untimely death? How often do we see a life cut short at +the very climax of its best powers, in the very midst of its noblest +service! All the earlier days had been directed, and had contributed to +the perfection of the instrument, and then, just when its work was doing, +came the sudden end. Was it not so to our Blessed Lord Himself? May it +not be said with due reverence that, if only His human life on earth had +been prolonged, His teaching, and His miracles, and His sinlessness, and +His love must have swayed and melted the hearts of men, even of those who +so long and so stubbornly withstood Him? We might so think. But, just +when His young life was at its prime of human excellence, He died, and +His human Spirit passed to preach salvation to souls in the spirit land. +So are souls, it may be, taken from us at the summit of their ripeness, +but only to be transferred to another scene, and to be employed upon +other work. Their labours change, but their works indeed do follow with +them to that land where other souls of those who knew not Christ here may +learn to know Him there, and knowing Him may choose Him, and choosing Him +may be His and He theirs even to the end. + + + + +VIII. + + + "Not handling the word of GOD deceitfully, but by the manifestation of + the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight + of GOD." + + --2 COR. IV. 2. + +The Scriptural doctrine of the Intermediate Life, as I have tried, so +far, to set it forth, is a very different thing from what our +Twenty-second Article calls "The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory." +The word "purgatory" simply means the sphere or life of cleansing. The +Intermediate State, therefore, during which the soul is being purified +and fitted for the vision of GOD in Heaven may be legitimately called "a +purgatory." But "The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory" means much +more than this. It is a belief which, originating in what was true and +Scriptural, gradually became so overlaid with subsequent additions, that +the original truth was at length buried and lost sight of. What the +Twenty-second Article condemns is not any and every conceivable doctrine +concerning Purgatory, but the Romish doctrine only. And here it is well +to note that all false beliefs which have had for any length of time a +wide currency among men have been founded upon and have retained in them +some element of truth. This it is which enabled them to survive: this +and nothing else gives to error its vitality. These false beliefs are +not mere error, but contain truth and error mixed together. The error +perverts and makes void the truth; but without the truth the error could +not live. + +In the case of the doctrine of Purgatory, the true and Scriptural +doctrine of the progressive purification of the soul in the Intermediate +State is the element of truth on which has been based the Romish Doctrine +of Purgatory. Wherein then lies the error of it? + +1. In the first place, whereas the Bible teaches, as we have seen, that +every soul at death enters the Intermediate State, the souls of the +greatest saints as well as the souls of the greatest sinners, "the Romish +Doctrine" teaches that the souls of very many never enter the +Intermediate State at all. The souls of the holy patriarchs of old, of +Christian martyrs, and of canonized Saints, it is held, pass straight to +heaven. On the other hand, the souls of those who die in mortal sin, and +of excommunicated persons are believed to go straight to hell. Thus +practically the Intermediate State is cancelled for these two classes. +There remains, therefore, only one class which is supposed to enter the +Intermediate State, those namely, who have died in venial sin. And since +it is part of the Romish doctrine to regard Paradise as the same thing as +Heaven, and to hold that the souls which alone enter Purgatory, after +suffering due torments, pass direct out of Purgatory into Paradise or +Heaven, it follows that in the Intermediate State are only those who are +actually undergoing, for the time appointed, the pains of Purgatory. For +all, therefore, eventually the Intermediate State is terminated at some +time on this side of the Day of Judgment. Hence it came about that those +who rejected the Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory rejected along with +it the doctrine of the Intermediate State, since, virtually, Purgatory +and the Intermediate State had been regarded as practically one and the +same thing, as indeed they were in duration conterminous. In rejecting +the one therefore, men unhappily but almost naturally rejected the other +also. + +2. Further, the pains which are felt in the process of purification, as +has been shown, spring from within the soul itself, and are not +necessarily or for all inflicted as a torment or punishment from without. +Rather they arise from the soul's own action upon itself, from its own +pangs of shame and self-abasement, all deepened and made more poignant by +the ever increasing sense of the love of Jesus Christ, then as never +before apprehended, and by the holy vision of His perfections. Thereby, +as they gaze on Him, they are changed by the influence of the sight of +Him, into greater likeness to Him. On the other hand, contrast with +these the nature of the pains which the Romish Doctrine assigns to the +souls in Purgatory. They are held in all cases to be penal, that is to +say, inflicted by GOD as punishment. The souls are said to suffer +torments! {84} Moreover these torments, as is taught in Roman Catholic +treatises on the subject, are caused by literal and material flames, by +actual fires which would feed on and consume corporeal substances such as +the human body. But what enters the Intermediate State is the soul only, +not the body: and, in the nature of things, the sufferings of the +incorporeal part of our being can only be themselves incorporeal. The +pains of the spirit can only be spiritual pains. + +3. Again, the "Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory" is closely bound up +with what are called in the Thirty-first Article "the Sacrifices of +Masses," and with the sale of "Pardons" or Indulgences, named in the +Twenty-second Article. The character of the Romish doctrine, as of every +other doctrine, must be tested by what has grown with its growth. It was +held that by these "Sacrifices of Masses" and "Indulgences" souls, one by +one, were released from Purgatorial fires sooner than, without their aid, +they could be delivered, and thus were at once admitted to Paradise or +Heaven. + +What, however, does the Thirty-first Article precisely mean by +"Sacrifices of Masses"? The expression is peculiar, and appears to have +been designedly so shaped in order to be clearly distinguished from what +is meant by the Sacrifice in the Mass, or Holy Communion. For that the +Holy Communion has been held and taught by our chief English Divines to +be a Sacrifice cannot well be disputed. {86} But the term "Sacrifices of +Masses" was intended to signify what were called, at the time when the +Article was drawn up, "Private Masses," which were offered chiefly for +souls in Purgatory, and in return for money payment. The Article refers +to modes of speaking prevalent on the lips of men at the time. It +condemns that which was "_commonly said_." And what was it that was +"commonly said"? It was commonly said that, while Christ's death on the +Cross was indeed a propitiation for original or birth sin, on the other +hand for daily sins, committed after Baptism, another propitiatory +sacrifice was needed, _viz._, the "Sacrifice of the Mass." Thus the +Sacrifice of the Mass, which is not the same thing as the Sacrifice _in_ +the Mass, was regarded as an addition to and distinct from the Sacrifice +on the Cross, as indeed a repetition of it, having a propitiatory value +of its own, which the Sacrifice on the Cross had not; just as though it +were what Bishop Gardiner, in repudiating it, described as "a new +Redemption." {87} Hence it came about that the belief arose that Masses +offered for specific purposes had more virtue for those purposes than +what was called "a Common Mass." The practice, therefore, of offering +"private Masses" for souls in Purgatory, as it was very lucrative, so it +became very prevalent. Thus spiritual things were used for the purpose +of bringing large money gains to the Chantry Priests, and what should be, +and we may surely affirm was meant to be, for the common benefit of all +became the narrow privilege of the few. For rich men could provide +Masses for their dead friends and for themselves after death, which it +was quite out of the power of the poor to provide. {88} + +4. But a word also must be said about "Indulgences." An Indulgence was +an abatement or remission granted by the Church's authority of some part +of the temporal penance imposed by that authority upon an evil doer. If +the guilty person should show sincere proofs of penitence, or by liberal +giving of alms made satisfactory recompense for wrongs done, his penance +might be eased, or the term of his excommunication shortened, and his +Church privileges partly or wholly restored. It may well be understood +how all this might be very wisely and fitly done. The authority which +inflicted the penance may rightly have been entrusted with the power also +of mitigating or removing it. But gradually this remission of the +temporal punishment for sins done in the past became applicable, not +seldom, to future sin also: and it soon was no uncommon thing to grant +Indulgences for 500, or 10,000, and even for 50,000 years. And, since +these long periods of years would, of course, extend beyond any man's +term of life on earth, it was obvious that they were intended to secure +the remission, not indeed of the guilt of the sin, but of the temporal +punishment of sin during all these years in Purgatory. Thus it was +supposed that the best possible provision was made whereby the duration +of the long years of torments due for sin in Purgatory might be +curtailed. But worse remained. The Papal Court needed treasure. And in +an evil moment permission was given that these Indulgences might be sold +for money. Thus grew up an unholy traffic, which, as we all know, first +roused in Germany the storm of the Reformation. Subsequently, the Papal +authorities so far yielded as to forbid all taking of money for these +Indulgences. But the system itself had meantime taken deep root. It +continued, and continues to this day. It was, however, at its worst when +the Twenty-second Article was drawn up. Can we be surprised that it +sternly condemned it? It is all a pitiful history. But it was necessary +to refer to it in order both to show how the growth of the Romish +Doctrine of Purgatory gradually gathered round it mischievous accretions, +and also to prove how little the belief, that in the Intermediate State +there is a progressive advance of the soul in holiness towards +perfection, is like the Romish teaching and practice. + +But it would be an act of disloyalty to the truth, and of cowardice into +the bargain, if we should abandon or minimize a truth because it has been +by some corrupted and perverted. Many a truth which has come down to us +may have lost some of the fresh lustre of its early purity. But all the +same, if it is the truth we cannot let it go. And that truth which tells +us something of the land, now beyond our sight, to which our dear ones +have already passed, which we shall each of us ourselves soon enter--the +truth which GOD has made known to us in Holy Scripture about this land, +we cannot afford to ignore and disregard. Nothing is easier than to +discredit such a truth by raising the cry of Popery. It is one of the +penalties which those have to pay who seek to disentangle the truth which +He has in His Church revealed from the untruth which has wrapped it +round. + +But we must not shrink from this duty. In days when principles are +questioned, and almost all truths disputed, we must, at all hazards, +learn to keep our sight clear and our footing steady. For the Lord is +our Light and our Salvation. Whom then shall we fear? The Lord is the +strength of our life: of whom then shall we be afraid? {92} + + + + +IX. + + + "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that + day."--2 TIM. I. 18. + +We must now bring to a close the discussion which has been occupying our +attention: not that everything has been said that can or ought to be said +about it; for the interest of the subject grows with the handling of it, +as the various features of it open out to view. + +So far we have been dealing with the condition of the faithful dead as it +affects themselves, with the mode of their own conscious life in the +Intermediate State, and with the nature of their own progressive advance +towards perfection. But there is another aspect of the question, about +which nothing has hitherto been said, I mean, their relation to us who +are still living on earth. A few words, and they must be very few, must +be said on this point. It is asked, for example, whether the veil has +completely shut out all knowledge of what is passing on earth from those +who have gone to their rest. No doubt, we can know very little about +this. But, at all events, we do not know enough to warrant us in saying +with any confidence that they are aware of nothing that is going on here. +It is true that, as has been said, the door that opens between this life +and that life only "open inwards," and that none have come back to tell +us what in that after life they knew about us and about our doings on +earth. Yet this ignorance of ours is not the same thing as knowledge of +the contrary, any more than silence is always equivalent to denial. +Because we cannot see with our eyes, nor hear with our ears, and cannot, +by our actual senses, put the question to the test, we are not on this +account justified in denying. Do we not know almost nothing as to the +limits of the powers of the spirit world? All we can say, so far as +reason can be our guide, is this, that it is _possible_ that souls in the +Intermediate State, if they are conscious of themselves and of their +present condition, if they retain memory, if they have means of holding +intercourse with one another, may have means of knowing what goes on +here: I say that reason will tell us that this is at least possible, and +that it is quite impossible to prove the contrary. + +But does the Bible throw any light upon this mysterious subject? I think +it does. It will be remembered how, in the narrative of the rich man and +Lazarus, Abraham is made to say to the rich man, "They have Moses and the +Prophets, let them hear them." We may ask, how could Abraham, who lived +more than 400 years before the birth of Moses, have known of the +existence of Moses, if there were no possible means of communication, by +which occurrences on earth could be made known in the unseen world where +Abraham was? What could he know of the prophets who lived more than a +thousand years after his time, if no possible communication could find +its way to that other world? {96} And we may trust this inference +because, in a narrative of this kind, whether it be historical or not, it +is not to be supposed that our Lord would have introduced a false detail. + +Let us, however, turn to another passage. In the scene on the Mount of +the Transfiguration there appeared, talking with Christ, Moses and +Elijah. In what condition were they present? They were still in the +Intermediate State. The general Resurrection had not, and has not yet, +come. "In glory" they appeared. Yes! some outward clothing, as of a +bodily form, gloriously radiant was thrown round them, so that they +became visible for the time to the eyes of the three disciples. But in +no resurrection bodies did they come; for in those they could not yet +present themselves, since they had not yet received them. And what was +the theme of their conversation? They spoke, we are told, with Christ +concerning the exodus or "death, which He should accomplish at +Jerusalem." But how could they speak fitly of this great theme, if they +had no knowledge of the circumstances which were leading to it, of the +nature of Christ's Incarnate Life on earth, and something at least or the +real significance, known fully to the mind of GOD only, of His +approaching death? They must have known not only of each other, who and +what they had been historically in their own generation, but also what +was now passing on earth, the course and connection of prophecies and +types, and the succession of events in history which had led up to this +climax of the fulness of time. + +Thus we see that the hearts of these two visitants,--visitants not from +Heaven, but from Paradise,--were fastened with a keen interest and +strained attention upon the unfolding of that wondrous Life of Christ. +His works and words were the theme of their adoring contemplation. May +we not learn then, that what these two great Saints could do was, +therefore, at least a possible thing to do, and, according to the will of +GOD, a thing which others might also do? {98} If so, the barrier between +Paradise and earth is so far transparent on that further side, that what +GOD permits souls in the Intermediate Life to know, that they do actually +see and know of the occurrences that are passing here. {99} + +But I must hasten to the answer of another question. Do they pray for +us? Surely that question is as good as answered by what has just been +said. If those who have gone from our sight are still permitted to know +what it may be good for them to know of the trials and sorrows, the hopes +and fears, the temptations and the warfare to which we, whom they loved +so well and still love, are exposed on earth, we are sure that they take +thought of us and pray for us. Shall not they whose eyes are opened, now +that they are with Christ, care for and pray for those whom they have +left behind, tossing still upon the troubled seas, and buffeted by the +vexing winds and storms of this earthly life? + +They are, moreover, "with Christ." What does this really imply,--to be +"with Christ"? It must mean at least this, that, where Christ is, there +is the Church. And Christ, though He has ascended to the Right Hand of +GOD, is still in a true sense in Paradise also. For "He filleth all in +all." {100a} S. Stephen, before his death, prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive +my spirit." Our Lord, therefore, must have been there in Paradise to +receive it. S. Paul, long after our Lord's Ascension, knew that to die +was better than to live, because it was to be absent from the body and +present with the Lord. {100b} But if Christ is there, He must be the +object of the worship of those who are also there. So then if Christ be +there, and the Church is there, and worship is offered there, then it +follows that the whole energy of Church life is there. The souls in +Paradise are not so many isolated and individual units. The Church +unites them. They are organised in the exercise of worship, sustained, +as it surely is, in unfailing and perpetual intensity. As the incense of +our worship rises here, it blends with the incense that ascends to Christ +there. The Church is militant on earth, it is expectant in Paradise, it +will be hereafter triumphant in Heaven. Yet these are not three +Churches, but one Church. And this helps us to see more clearly what is +meant by the Communion of Saints. The Church on earth and the Church in +Paradise are one, and one thrill of spiritual communion vibrates through +its members there and here. + +But is prayer to be one sided? Communion is not one sided. And +communion implies that what they do for us, we should also do for them. +This brings us to one more question. May we, then, pray for those who +have passed on before us? Let us plainly say that there is every reason +for and none against the practice. We have in favour of it the sanction +of Bible witness, of primitive Church custom, of Christian and human +instinct. + +In the Jewish synagogues in our Lord's time, prayers for the dead formed +part of the service. {102} Our Lord therefore, Who regularly frequented +the synagogue worship, must have been present at times when prayers for +the dead were used. If He had disapproved of such prayers, He must have +condemned the use of them. But did He? He did not. We have then His +tacit sanction of them. S. Paul again, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, must +have warned the Gentiles against the practice, unless he approved of it. +But so far from that, there is every reason to suppose that he himself +prayed for Onesiphorus. According to the best commentators, Onesiphorus +was dead when S. Paul wrote the words quoted in the text, "The Lord grant +unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day," _viz._, in the +Day of Judgment. {103a} He does not pray for temporal blessings, for +health, or even for grace. If it was too late to pray for these things, +this omission is quite intelligible. + +The earliest Church Liturgies contained in them prayers for the dead. +{103b} And the earliest Christian writers, as well as the inscriptions +on tombs bear such witness to the existence of this primitive practice, +that it cannot be disputed. It is true that our English Prayer Book +neither expressly sanctions nor yet expressly forbids these +intercessions. But in the Liturgy, in the Litany, and in the Burial +Service, prayers occur which appear to have been purposely so worded, as +to lend themselves to a reference in the minds of worshippers to the +faithful dead, if any should desire so to apply them. Bishop Cosin, one +of the chief compilers of our present Prayer Book, writes that the words, +"that we and Thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins, and all +other benefits of His Passion," occurring in our Liturgy, are to be +understood to refer as well to "those who have been here before," that is +to say, who have died in the Lord, as to those "that are now members of +it," that is, who still are living. {104} + +And is not the custom reasonable? Are we to pray for those whom we +dearly love up to the very last moment of their life, and then for ever +to refrain? We could understand this on the supposition that death was +the end of all things, or that at death there followed an immediate +heaven or an instant hell; but not if the process of purification and of +real Church life are continuing after death. And Christian instinct +urges it. GOD is a Father. As children we ought to tell Him all that is +in our heart. Whatever we may rightly desire we may rightly pray for. It +is only that which we ought not to desire that we ought not to pray for. +It is not right to pray that they may, as by a miracle, be restored to +us; that is not the will of GOD. Nor is it right that we should seek by +occult and forbidden ways to hold converse with them. But we may surely +ask for them what S. Paul asked for his friend, that they may find mercy +in that day, that they may have rest and peace and light and refreshment, +the joy of Christ's Presence, and the gladness of a blessed Resurrection. + +And now these words must be brought to a close. The arguments which have +been urged rest upon the very language of Holy Scripture, or upon +legitimate inferences from it. What then? If they are worthy of trust, +to accept them is to rob death of half its fears and alarms. It is the +unknown that inspires terror. To know but a little more than we before +knew of the land in which those who have gone before now sojourn, is to +gather fresh courage to face it with less misgiving for them and for +ourselves. They have passed on, but they await us there. They are only +hidden from us for a little while. Their voices are silent. But their +life is as real a life as ours. No dull oblivion weighs them down. They +live and think and see and know,--know, it may be, more of us than we +think, know as much of us as it is for their happiness to know. A little +while and we also shall know as they know, and see as they see, in the +home and resting place of vision and of peace. + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{5} Rev. xxi. 27. + +{8} 2 Cor. v. 10. + +{14} Acts xxiv. 15. + +{15} See Luckock, "The Intermediate State," pp. 14, 15. + +{17} S. John xx. 17. + +{19} The expression is borrowed from the custom among the Jews of +reclining instead of sitting at a banquet. The guest was stretched upon +a couch, his left elbow resting upon a cushion close to the table, his +feet being towards the outer side of the couch, which was away from the +table. By slightly bending back his head he could touch with it the +breast of the guest on his left hand, and speak to him in a low voice. +Thus S. John bent back upon our Lord's breast at the Last Supper to ask +Him, "Lord, who is it?" and is therefore spoken of as "he who leant upon +His breast at supper." To sit therefore, or to rest in the bosom of +Abraham, represented the happy lot of those who had passed to Paradise. + +{23} Mozley, Univ. Serm., p. 155. + +{24a} Isaiah xxxiii. 17. + +{24b} Psalm xvi. 11. + +{24c} 1 John iii. 2. + +{25a} 1 Peter v. 4. + +{25b} 1 John iii. 2. + +{25c} Col. iii. 4. + +{25d} 2 Tim. iv. 3. + +{26} Advent Sermon, "The Day of the Lord." + +{28} Rev. vi. 9, 10, 11 (_Revised Version_). + +{34a} 1 Thess. v. 23. But the A.V. hardly brings out the full force of +the distinction. The definite article has a possessive force, as if it +were "_your_ spirit, _your_ soul, _your_ body"; as though the spirit was +as distinct from the soul as each of them is distinct from the body. + +{34b} Heb. iv. 12. + +{34c} 1 Cor. ii. 14. + +{35a} 1 Cor. xv. 44. + +{35b} S. James iii. 15. + +{35c} Jude 19. + +{35d} Gen. ii. 7. + +{37} Mason, "Faith of the Gospel," p. 85. + +{41a} For example, Acts vii. 60; S. John xi. 11, 14; 1 Thess. v. 14; 1 +Cor. xv. 18, 20. + +{41b} Rev. xiv. 13. + +{43} Phil i. 21. + +{44} 1 Peter iii. 18. + +{47} Isaiah i. 2. + +{63} See p. 100 _infra_. + +{72} In the A.V. the words in v. 18 are printed differently from the +R.V. In the former the reading is "quickened by the Spirit," as though +S. Peter meant to assert, that it was by the special operation of GOD the +Holy Ghost that our Lord, after He died upon the Cross, still lived. But +this rendering entirely destroys the evident antithesis which is marked +in the contrast between "put to death" and "quickened," and between +"flesh" and "spirit." That antithesis limits the effect of Christ's +death to His human Body, while His human Spirit was still alive. + +{73} 2 Peter ii. 5. + +{74} The same word is used constantly in the N.T. for the special +proclamation of the Gospel. + +{75} 1 Peter iv. 6. + +{84} Thus the Catechism of the Council of Trent states that "There is a +Purgatorial Fire where the souls of _the righteous_ being tormented are +purified." + +{86} In the Holy Communion the priest and the people offer to the Father +"the one full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice, oblation, and +satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." The Christian Society is +called in 1 Peter ii. 9, a "royal _priesthood_," ([Greek]), and in Rev. +i. 6 "kings and _priests to God_." ([Greek]); and as [Greek] and [Greek] +are sacrificial terms, it is to be inferred that a Sacrifice is really +offered by them. As Christ perpetually, being a "Priest forever," and +therefore "having of necessity something to offer" for ever (Heb. viii. +3), presents in the Holy Place not made with hands, in Heaven itself, the +Sacrifice of Himself before the eyes of the Father, so, at every Altar on +earth, the "kings and priests" being a sacrificing priesthood, represent +and commemorate the same sacrifice and none other, a sacrifice which +never can be repeated. + +{87} See Dr. Maclear on the Articles, p. 368. If the Sacrifice on the +Cross served one purpose and effected one propitiation, and the Sacrifice +of the Mass another, then the inference is that they were themselves, so +far, different things. It was the same Body of Christ which was offered +in each case, but the sacrifices of the same Body were different. +Therefore the Sacrifice of the Mass was a repetition of the Sacrifice on +the Cross for a distinct object and a distinct purpose. It was +supplementary, and supplied a defect which the Sacrifice on the Cross +failed to supply! + +{88} What has been said on the subject of "The Sacrifices of Masses" for +souls in Purgatory must not be understood as implying that the Sacrifice +in the Holy Communion has no efficacy, when pleaded in behalf of the +souls in the Intermediate State. To use the words of Bishop Forbes, "The +application of the Blessed Eucharist to the departed must in our Church +stand and fall with the practice of prayers for the dead. In its aspect +of the great oblation, the Holy Communion may be considered as prayer in +its most intense and highest form. If it is unlawful to pray for the +faithful departed, it must be unlawful to remember them in the sacred +mysteries; but, if the first be permitted, the second must be so +likewise." (Article XXXI., p. 63.) The subject of Prayers for the Dead +is dealt with in the next Address, page 101 _sq._ + +{92} Psalm xxvii. 1. + +{96} A friend has suggested that Moses and the prophets may, one after +the other, have reported to Abraham the occurrences on earth in which +they had severally themselves taken part, and that, therefore, we have in +this narrative no more than an illustration of the mutual intercourse +which exists in the Intermediate Life. To this it may be replied that +this suggestion, so far from discrediting, really confirms the argument +in the sermon. The suggestion is an attempt to explain the mode by which +knowledge of what passes here is attained, which is certainly no disproof +of the existence of such knowledge. But it is safer to say that, some +how or other, the denizens of the Intermediate State do probably know, as +Abraham certainly knew, occurrences on earth. + +{98} Both these illustrations are, I find, referred to by Canon McColl +in his "Life Here and Hereafter," pp. 105, 106. But may I presume to +question the value of his illustration of our Lord's knowledge of what +was said, in His absence, on the way to Emmaus, and by S. Thomas? Our +Lord's knowledge after His Resurrection, and indeed at any time, is +scarcely on a level with the knowledge possessed by souls in the +Intermediate State of what passes on earth. + +{99} There is so much doubt as to the bearing upon this point of the +words in Hebrews xii. 1, that I have not referred to it. Yet I would +suggest that the comparison of our life on earth to the endeavours of the +runners in the games of the amphitheatre implies that those efforts are +made under the gaze of a cloud of spectators. The existence of the +spectators, and their interest in the contests, are integral facts in the +similitude, and essential elements in it. + +{100a} Eph. i. 23. + +{100b} 2 Cor. v. 8. + +{102} See 2 Macc. xii. 44, 45. + +{103a} See Plummer, Expositor, Pastoral Epp., p. 324. + +{103b} Forbes on 39 Articles, p. 612. + +{104} See the note on p. 88, Address viii. _supra_. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF THE WAITING SOUL*** + + +******* This file should be named 21881.txt or 21881.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/8/8/21881 + + + +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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