Practical Religion — Eternity

"_The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

_"--2 Cor.

iv.

18. A subject stands out on the face of this text which is one of the most solemn and heart-searching in the Bible.

That subject is _eternity_.

[16] 16: The following pages contain the _substance_ of a sermon which I preached, by invitation, in the nave of Peterborough Cathedral, on the fourth Sunday in Advent, 1877,--the _substance_ and not the precise words.

The plain truth is, that the sermon was not intended for publication.

It was preached from notes, and was one of those popular addresses which will not bear close reporting.

A style of language which satisfies the ear when listened to, will seldom satisfy the mind when read.

On receiving a manuscript report from the publisher, I soon found that it would require far more labour to condense, correct, paragraph, punctuate, and prepare the sermon for the press, than to write it out roughly from my own notes and recollection.

From want of time I had no alternative but to adopt this course, or to object altogether to publication.

The result is that the reader has before him the matter, order, heads, arrangement, and principal thoughts of my sermon, but not, I repeat, the precise words.

The subject is one of which the wisest man can only take in a little.

We have no eyes to see it fully, no line to fathom it, no mind to grasp it;

and yet we must not refuse to consider it.

There are star-depths in the heavens above us, which the most powerful telescope cannot pierce; yet it is well to look into them and learn something, if we cannot learn everything.

There are heights and depths about the subject of eternity which mortal man can never comprehend; but God has spoken of it, and we have no right to turn away from it altogether.

The subject is one which we must never approach without the Bible in our hands.

The moment we depart from "God's Word written," in considering eternity and the future state of man, we are likely to fall into error.

In examining points like these we have nothing to do with preconceived notions as to what is God's character, and what _we think_ God ought to be, or ought to do with man after death.

[17] We have only to find out what is written.

What saith the Scripture?

What saith the Lord?

It is wild work to tell us that we ought to have "noble thoughts about God," independent of, and over and above, Scripture.

Natural religion soon comes to a standstill here.

The noblest thoughts about God which we have a right to hold are the thoughts which He has been pleased to reveal to us in His "written Word."

17: "What sentence can we expect from a judge, who at the same time that he calls in witnesses and pretends to examine them, makes a declaration that however, let them say what they will, the cause is so absurd, is so unjust, that no evidence will be sufficient to prove it?"

--_Horbery_, vol. ii.

p. 137. I ask the attention of all into whose hands this paper may fall, while I offer a few suggestive thoughts about eternity.

As a mortal man I feel deeply my own insufficiency to handle this subject.

But I pray that God the Holy Ghost, whose strength is made perfect in weakness, may bless the words I speak, and make them seeds of eternal life in many minds.

I.

The first thought which I commend to the attention of my readers is this:--_We live in a world where all things are temporal and passing away_.

That man must be blind indeed who cannot realize this.

Everything around us is decaying, dying, and coming to an end.

There is a sense no doubt in which "matter" is eternal.

Once created, it will never entirely perish.

But in a popular practical sense, there is nothing undying about us except our souls.

No wonder the poet says:-- "Change and decay in all around I see: O Thou that changest not, abide with me!"

We are all going, going, going, whether high or low, gentle or simple, rich or poor, old or young.

We are all going, and shall soon be gone.

Beauty is only temporal.

Sarah was once the fairest of women, and the admiration of the Court of Egypt; yet a day came when even Abraham, her husband, said, "Let me bury my dead out of my sight."

(Gen. xxiii.

4. )--Strength of body is only temporal.

David was once a mighty man of valour, the slayer of the lion and the bear, and the champion of Israel against Goliath; yet a day came when even David had to be nursed and ministered to in his old age like a child.

--Wisdom and power of brain are only temporal.

Solomon was once a prodigy of knowledge, and all the kings of the earth came to hear his wisdom; yet even Solomon in his latter days played the fool exceedingly, and allowed his wives to "turn away his heart."

(1 Kings xi.

2. ) Humbling and painful as these truths may sound, it is good for us all to realize them and lay them to heart.

The houses we live in, the homes we love, the riches we accumulate, the professions we follow, the plans we form, the relations we enter into,--they are only for a time.

"The things seen are temporal."

"The fashion of this world passeth away."

(1 Cor.

vii.

31. ) The thought is one which ought to rouse every one who is living only for this world.

If his conscience is not utterly seared, it should stir in him great searchings of heart.

Oh, take care what you are doing!

Awake to see things in their true light before it be too late.

The things you live for now are all temporal and passing away.

The pleasures, the amusements, the recreations, merry-makings, the profits, the earthly callings, which now absorb all your heart and drink up all your mind, will soon be over.

They are poor ephemeral things which cannot last.

Oh, love them not too well; grasp them not too tightly; make them not your idols!

You cannot keep them, and you must leave them.

Seek first the kingdom of God, and then everything else shall be added to you.

"Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth."

Oh, you that love the world, be wise in time!

Never, never forget that it is written, "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."

(Col. iii.

2; 1 John ii.

17. ) The same thought ought to cheer and comfort every true Christian.

Your trials, crosses, and conflicts, are all temporal.

They will soon have an end; and even now they are working for you "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

(2 Cor.

iv.

17. ) Take them patiently: bear them quietly: look upward, forward, onward, and far beyond them.

Fight your daily fight under an abiding conviction that it is only for a little time, and that rest is not far off.

Carry your daily cross with an abiding recollection that it is one of the "things seen" which are temporal.

The cross shall soon be exchanged for a crown, and you shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God.

II.

The second thought which I commend to the attention of my readers is this:--_We are all going towards a world where everything is eternal_.

That great unseen state of existence which lies behind the grave, is for ever.

Whether it be happy or miserable, whether it be a condition of joy or sorrow, in one respect it is utterly unlike this world,--it is for ever.

_There_ at any rate will be no change and decay, no end, no good-bye, no mornings and evenings, no alteration, no annihilation.

Whatever there is beyond the tomb, when the last trumpet has sounded, and the dead are raised, will be endless, everlasting, and eternal.

"The things unseen are eternal."

We cannot fully realize this condition.

The contrast between now and then, between this world and the next, is so enormously great that our feeble minds will not take it in.

The consequences it entails are so tremendous, that they almost take away our breath, and we shrink from looking at them.

But when the Bible speaks plainly we have no right to turn away from a subject, and with the Bible in our hands we shall do well to look at the "things which are eternal."

Let us settle it then in our minds, for one thing, that the _future happiness_ of those who are saved is eternal.

However little we may understand it, it is something which will have no end: it will never cease, never grow old, never decay, never die.

At God's "right hand are pleasures for evermore."

(Ps.

xvi.

11. ) Once landed in paradise, the saints of God shall go out no more.

The inheritance is "incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away."

They shall "receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

(1 Pet.

i.

4; v. 4. ) Their warfare is accomplished; their fight is over; their work is done.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.

They are travelling on towards an "eternal weight of glory," towards a home which shall never be broken up, a meeting without a parting, a family gathering without a separation, a day without night.

Faith shall be swallowed up in sight, and hope in certainty.

They shall see as they have been seen, and know as they have been known, and "be for ever with the Lord."

I do not wonder that the apostle Paul adds, "Comfort one another with these words."

(1 Thess.

iv.

17, 18. ) Let us settle it, for another thing, in our minds, that the _future misery_ of those who are finally lost is eternal.

This is an awful truth, I am aware, and flesh and blood naturally shrink from the contemplation of it.

But I am one of those who believe it to be plainly revealed in Scripture, and I dare not keep it back in the pulpit.

To my eyes eternal future happiness and eternal future misery appear to stand side by side.

I fail to see how you can distinguish the duration of one from the duration of the other.

If the joy of the believer is for ever, the sorrow of the unbeliever is also for ever.

If heaven is eternal, so likewise is hell.

It may be my ignorance, but I know not how the conclusion can be avoided.

I cannot reconcile the non-eternity of punishment with the _language of the Bible_.

Its advocates talk loudly about love and charity, and say that it does not harmonize with the merciful and compassionate character of God.

But what saith the Scripture?

Who ever spoke such loving and merciful words as our Lord Jesus Christ?

Yet His are the lips which three times over describe the consequence of impenitence and sin, as "the worm that never dies and the fire that is not quenched."

He is the Person who speaks in one sentence of the wicked going away into "everlasting punishment" and the righteous into "life eternal."

(Mark ix.

43--48; Matt.

xxv.

46. )[18]--Who does not remember the Apostle Paul's words about charity?

Yet he is the very Apostle who says, the wicked "shall be punished with everlasting destruction."

(2 Thess.

i.

9. )--Who does not know the spirit of love which runs through all St. John's Gospel and Epistles?

Yet the beloved Apostle is the very writer in the New Testament who dwells most strongly, in the book of Revelation, on the reality and eternity of future woe.

What shall we say to these things?

Shall we be wise above that which is written?

Shall we admit the dangerous principle that words in Scripture do not mean what they appear to mean?

Is it not far better to lay our hands on our mouths and say, "Whatever God has written must be true."

"Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments."

(Rev. xvi.

7. ) 18: "If God had intended to have told us that the punishment of wicked man shall have no end, the languages wherein the Scriptures are written do hardly afford fuller and more certain words than those that are used in this case, whereby to express a duration without end; and likewise, which is almost a peremptory decision of the thing, the duration of the punishment of wicked men is in the very same sentence expressed by the very same word which is used for the duration of happiness of the righteous."

--_Archbishop Tillotson on Hell Torments.

_ See _Horbery_, vol. ii.

p. 42. I cannot reconcile the non-eternity of punishment with the _language of our Prayer-book_.

The very first petition in our matchless Litany contains this sentence, "From everlasting damnation, good Lord, deliver us."

--The Catechism teaches every child who learns it, that whenever we repeat the Lord's Prayer we desire our Heavenly Father to "keep us from our ghostly enemy and from everlasting death."

--Even in our Burial Service we pray at the grave side, "Deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death."

--Once more I ask, "What shall we say to these things?"

Shall our congregations be taught that even when people live and die in sin we may hope for their happiness in a remote future?

Surely the common sense of many of our worshippers would reply, that if this is the case Prayer-book words mean nothing at all.

I lay no claim to any peculiar knowledge of Scripture.

I feel daily that I am no more infallible than the Bishop of Rome.

But I must speak according to the light which God has given to me; and I do not think I should do my duty if I did not raise a warning voice on this subject, and try to put Christians on their guard.

Six thousand years ago sin entered into the world by the devil's daring falsehood,--"Ye shall not surely die."

(Gen. iii.

4. ) At the end of six thousand years the great enemy of mankind is still using his old weapon, and trying to persuade men that they may live and die in sin, and yet at some distant period may be finally saved.

Let us not be ignorant of his devices.

Let us walk steadily in the old paths.

Let us hold fast the old truth, and believe that as the happiness of the saved is eternal, so also is the misery of the lost.

[19] 19: "There is nothing that Satan more desires than that we should believe that he does not exist, and that there is no such a place as hell, and no such things as eternal torments.

He whispers all this into our ears, and he exults when he hears a layman, and much more when he hears a clergyman, deny these things, for then he hopes to make them and others his victims."

--_Bishop Wordsworth's Sermons on Future Rewards and Punishments_, p. 36. (_a_) Let us hold it fast _in the interest of the whole system of revealed religion_.

What was the use of God's Son becoming incarnate, agonizing in Gethsemane, and dying on the cross to make atonement, if men can be finally saved without believing on Him?

Where is the slightest proof that saving faith in Christ's blood can ever begin after death?

Where is the need of the Holy Ghost, if sinners are at last to enter heaven without conversion and renewal of heart?

Where can we find the smallest evidence that any one can be born again, and have a new heart, if he dies in an unregenerate state?

If a man may escape eternal punishment at last, without faith in Christ or sanctification of the Spirit, sin is no longer an infinite evil, and there was no need for Christ making an atonement.

(_b_) Let us hold it fast _for the sake of holiness and morality_.

I can imagine nothing so pleasant to flesh and blood as the specious theory that we may live in sin, and yet escape eternal perdition; and that although we "serve divers lusts and pleasures" while we are here, we shall somehow or other all get to heaven hereafter!

Only tell the young man who is "wasting his substance in riotous living" that there is heaven at last even for those who live and die in sin, and he is never likely to turn from evil.

Why should he repent and take up the cross, if he can get to heaven at last without trouble?

(_c_) Finally, let us hold it fast, _for the sake of the common hopes of all God's saints_.

Let us distinctly understand that every blow struck at the eternity of punishment is an equally heavy blow at the eternity of reward.

It is impossible to separate the two things.

No ingenious theological definition can divide them.

They stand or fall together.

The same language is used, the same figures of speech are employed, when the Bible speaks about either condition.

Every attack on the duration of hell is also an attack on the duration of heaven.

[20] It is a deep and true saying, "With the sinner's fear our hope departs."

20: "If the punishment of the wicked is only temporary, such will also be the happiness of the righteous, which is repugnant to the whole teaching of Scripture; but if the happiness of the righteous will be everlasting (who will be equal to the angels, and their bodies will be like the body of Christ), such also will be the punishment of the wicked."

--_Bishop Wordsworth's Sermon on Future Rewards and Punishments, p. 31. _ I turn from this part of my subject with a deep sense of its painfulness.

I feel strongly with Robert M'Cheyne, that "it is a hard subject to handle lovingly."

But I turn from it with an equally deep conviction that if we believe the Bible we must never give up anything which it contains.

From hard, austere, and unmerciful theology, good Lord, deliver us!

If men are not saved it is because they "will not come to Christ."

(John v. 40. ) But we must not be wise above that which is written.

No morbid love of liberality, so called, must induce us to reject anything which God has revealed about eternity.

Men sometimes talk exclusively about God's mercy and love and compassion, as if He had no other attributes, and leave out of sight entirely His holiness and His purity, His justice and His unchangeableness, and His hatred of sin.

Let us beware of falling into this delusion.

It is a growing evil in these latter days.

Low and inadequate views of the unutterable vileness and filthiness of sin, and of the unutterable purity of the eternal God, are fertile sources of error about man's future state.

Let us think of the mighty Being with whom we have to do, as he Himself declared His character to Moses, saying, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression and sin."

But let us not forget the solemn clause which concludes the sentence: "And _that will by no means clear the guilty_."

(Exod.

xxxiv.

6, 7. ) Unrepented sin is an eternal evil, and can never cease to be sin; and He with whom we have to do is an eternal God.

The words of Psalm cxlv.

are strikingly beautiful: "The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.

The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works.

--The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.

--The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.

The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.

--The Lord preserveth all them that love Him."

Nothing can exceed the mercifulness of this language!

But what a striking fact it is that the passage goes on to add the following solemn conclusion, "_All the wicked will He destroy_."

(Psalm cxlv.

8-20. ) III.

The third thought which I commend to the attention of my readers is this:--_Our state in the unseen world of eternity depends entirely on what we are in time_.

The life that we live upon earth is short at the very best, and soon gone.

"We spend our days as a tale that is told."

--"What is our life?

It is a vapour: so soon passeth it away, and we are gone."

(Psalm xc.

9;

James iv.

14. ) The life that is before us when we leave this world is an endless eternity, a sea without a bottom, and an ocean without a shore.

"One day in Thy sight," eternal God, "is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

(2 Pet.

iii.

8. ) In that world time shall be no more.

--But short as our life is here, and endless as it will be hereafter, it is a tremendous thought that eternity hinges upon time.

Our lot after death depends, humanly speaking, on what we are while we are alive.

It is written, God "will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: but to them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath."

(Rom.

ii.

6, 7. ) We ought never to forget, that we are all, while we live, in a state of probation.

We are constantly sowing seeds which will spring up and bear fruit, every day and hour in our lives.

There are eternal consequences resulting from all our thoughts and words and actions, of which we take far too little account.

"For every idle word that men speak they shall give account in the day of judgment."

(Matt.

xii.

36. ) Our thoughts are all numbered, our actions are weighed.

No wonder that St. Paul says, "He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."

(Gal.

vi.

8. ) In a word, what we sow in life we shall reap after death, and reap to all eternity.

There is no greater delusion than the common idea that it is possible to live wickedly, and yet rise again gloriously; to be without religion in this world, and yet to be a saint in the next.

When the famous Whitefield revived the doctrine of conversion last century, it is reported that one of his hearers came to him after a sermon and said,--"It is all quite true, sir.

I hope I shall be converted and born again one day, but not till after I am dead."

I fear there are many like him.

I fear the false doctrine of the Romish _purgatory_ has many secret friends even within the pale of the Church of England!

However carelessly men may go on while they live, they secretly cling to the hope that they shall be found among the saints when they die.

They seem to hug the idea that there is some cleansing, purifying effect produced by death, and that, whatever they may be in this life, they shall be found "meet for the inheritance of the saints" in the life to come.

But it is all a delusion.

[21] 21: "The Scripture never represents the state of future misery, as a state of purgation and purification, or anything like analogous to a state of trial, where men may fit and qualify themselves for some better state of existence: but always as a state of retribution, punishment, and righteous vengeance, in which God's justice (a perfection of which some men seem to render no account) vindicates the power of His majesty, His government, and His love, by punishing those who have despised them."

--_Horbery_, vol. ii.

p. 183. "Life is the time to serve the Lord, The time to insure the great reward."

The Bible teaches plainly, that as we die, whether converted or unconverted, whether believers or unbelievers, whether godly or ungodly, so shall we rise again when the last trumpet sounds.

There is no repentance in the grave: there is no conversion after the last breath is drawn.

Now is the time to believe in Christ, and to lay hold on eternal life.

Now is the time to turn from darkness unto light, and to make our calling and election sure.

The night cometh when no man can work.

As the tree falls, there it will lie.

If we leave this world impenitent and unbelieving, we shall rise the same in the resurrection morning, and find it had been "good for us if we had never been born."

[22] 22: "This life is the time of our preparation for our future state.

Our souls will continue for ever what we make them in this world.

Such a taste and disposition of mind as a man carries with him out of this life, he shall retain in the next.

It is true, indeed, heaven perfects those holy and virtuous dispositions which are begun here; but the other world alters no man as to his main state.

He that is filthy will be filthy still; and he that is unrighteous will be unrighteous still."

--_Archbishop Tillotson's Sermon on Phil.

iii.

20. _ (See _Horbrey_, vol. ii.

p. 133. ) I charge every reader of this paper to remember this, and to make a good use of time.

Regard it as the stuff of which life is made, and never waste it or throw it away.

Your hours and days and weeks and months and years have all something to say to an eternal condition beyond the grave.

What you sow in life you are sure to reap in a life to come.

As holy Baxter says, it is "now or never."

Whatever we do in religion must be done now.

Remember this in your use of all the means of grace, from the least to the greatest.

Never be careless about them.

They are given to be your helps toward an eternal world, and not one of them ought to be thoughtlessly treated or lightly and irreverently handled.

Your daily prayers and Bible-reading, your weekly behaviour on the Lord's day, your manner of going through public worship,--all, all these things are important.

Use them all as one who remembers eternity.

Remember it, not least, whenever you are tempted to do evil.

When sinners entice you, and say, "It is only a little one,"--when Satan whispers in your heart, "Never mind: where is the mighty harm?

Everybody does so,"--then look beyond time to a world unseen, and place in the face of the temptation the thought of eternity.

There is a grand saying recorded of the martyred Reformer, Bishop Hooper, when one urged him to recant before he was burned, saying, "Life is sweet and death is bitter."

"True," said the good Bishop, "quite true!

But eternal life is more sweet, and eternal death is more bitter."

IV.

The last thought which I commend to the attention of my readers is this:--_The Lord Jesus Christ is the great Friend to whom we must all look for help, both for time and eternity_.

The purpose for which the eternal Son of God came into the world can never be declared too fully, or proclaimed too loudly.

He came to give us hope and peace while we live among the "things seen, which are temporal," and glory and blessedness when we go into the "things unseen, which are eternal."

He came to "bring life and immortality to light," and to "deliver those who, through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage."

(2 Tim.

i.

10; Heb.

ii.

15. ) He saw our lost and bankrupt condition, and had compassion on us.

And now, blessed be His name, a mortal man may pass through "things temporal" with comfort, and look forward to "things eternal" without fear.

These mighty privileges our Lord Jesus Christ has purchased for us at the cost of His own precious blood.

He became our Substitute, and bore our sins in His own body on the cross, and then rose again for our justification.

"He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God."

He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we poor sinful creatures might have pardon and justification while we live, and glory and blessedness when we die.

(1 Peter ii.

24; iii.

18; 2 Cor.

v.

21. ) And all that our Lord Jesus Christ has purchased for us He offers freely to every one who will turn from his sins, come to Him, and believe.

"I am the light of the world," He says: "he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

--"Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

--"If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink."

--"Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out."