The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Gospel of the Hereafter, by J. Paterson-Smyth

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Title: The Gospel of the Hereafter

Author: J. Paterson-Smyth

Release Date: June 17, 2008 [eBook #25826]

Language: English

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOSPEL OF THE HEREAFTER***

E-text prepared by Al Haines

Transcriber's Note:

The Greek words in this e-book have been transliterated according to Project Gutenberg's Greek How-To. Such words are indicated with surrounding underscores. There are a couple of instances of author-transliterated Greek words. Those words are bracketed and not italicized. Underscores are also used to indicate italicization of words, but in this e-book such words are always English words.

THE GOSPEL OF THE HEREAFTER

by

J. PATERSON-SMYTH, B.D., LL.D., LITT. D., D.C.L,

Rector of St. Georges, Montreal, Late Professor of Pastoral Theology, University of Dublin

  Author of "How We Got Our Bible," "The
  Old Documents and the New Bible," etc., etc., etc.

New York —— Chicago —— Toronto
Fleming H. Revell Company
London And Edinburgh

Copyright, 1910, by
Fleming H. Revell Company

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street

To My Wife

Contents

PART I

THE NEAR HEREAFTER

I. "I" II. THE THREE STAGES OF EXISTENCE III. WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE NEAR HEREAFTER IV. WHAT THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH SAY ABOUT THE NEAR HEREAFTER V. THE CRISIS OF DEATH VI. "I" "MYSELF" AFTER DEATH VII. RECOGNITION VIII. THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS IX. GROWTH AND PURIFICATION X. PROBATION IN THIS LIFE XI. MINISTRY IN THE UNSEEN LIFE XII. CONCLUSION

PART II

THE FAR HEREAFTER

I. THE JUDGMENT II. HELL III. HEAVEN

Publishers' Note

This tenth American (and sixteenth British) edition has been carefully revised and where necessary rewritten by the author. We call special attention to an interesting note on page 108.

This year a Norwegian edition has been published, translated by Judge Hambro of the Supreme Court of Norway assisted by the Bishops of Christiania and Trondheim. Also request has been received for permission to translate the book for readers in Holland. But more interesting is a letter from a Brahmin gentleman in India asking permission to produce at his own cost an edition for his people and dedicated on the front page, "TO MY SON, SEREM ALI, WHO IS NOW IN THE NEAR HEREAFTER."

Foreword

The Lord is risen, but the people do not know it. There is no death, but the people do not believe it. Human life is the most exciting romantic adventure in the Universe, going on stage after stage till we are older than Methuselah and then on again through the infinite eternities—and yet men pass into the Unseen as stupidly as the caterpillar on the cabbage-leaf, without curiosity or joy or wonder or excitement at the boundless career ahead.

Instead of the thrill of coming adventure we have the dull grey monotony of aged lives drawing near the close, and the horror of this war is doubled and the torture of wife or mother as the beloved one crosses the barrier.

What is the matter with us, Christian people? Do we not know? Or have we lost our beliefs? or has imagination grown dulled by too frequent repetition of God's good news?

* * * * *

It was so different in early days when the world was younger, when Christ's revelation was fresh. Look at St. John, four-score years and ten, like an eager boy looking into the Great Adventure: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and IT DOTH NOT YET APPEAR WHAT WE SHALL BE."[1]

What we shall be! What we shall be! Is not that the chief delight of being young? Guessing and hoping and wondering what we shall be.

The dreariest thing in life is dulness—monotony. The brightest thing in life is outlook—vision. And God has given us that. Like St. John we too can stand on the rim of the world and look out over the wall.

* * * * *

Life is full of latent possibilities—of outlook, of romance, of exciting futures. God has made it so, if we would only see it. God's world of nature has its continuous progress, its ever new and fascinating stages. God's caterpillars in their next stage are going to be soaring butterflies—God's acorns are to become mighty oaks—God's dry little seeds in the granary to-day will in autumn be alive in the waving harvests. God's world of nature is full of romantic possibilities.

And God's world of men is infinitely more so, and one of life's delights is to know it and look forward to it guessing what we shall be. Outlook. Vision. That is what gives zest to life. That is what we need to make life bright and beautiful.

* * * * *

I see a group of small boys sitting at their play, and their eyes are bright looking into the future. They are going to be soldiers, and sailors, and circus riders, and travelers, and all sorts of things. Because they are boys with the enthusiasms of boyhood, they may be anything. All the possibilities of boyhood belong to them. It doth not yet appear what they shall be, but it is delightful to look forward and speculate about it.

* * * * *

I see them again a dozen years later. They are starting in life, just left college, young soldiers and lawyers and curates and business men—still with their visions and dreams of the future. It doth not yet appear what they shall be, but because they are young men, all that belongs to young manhood lies before them, as they look forward in their day-dreams. What countries they shall live in and what girl they shall marry, and what positions and what work, and what excitements, and what pleasure lie before them. Ah, it is delightful to be young, realizing the possibilities in front—dreaming of what we shall be.

* * * * *

I see a crowd of older people, men and women dull, uninterested. "We are no longer young," they say, "we are middle-aged or elderly. And we have ceased looking forward. We have lost the vision. We have not become as great as we expected, or as good as we expected. We are fairly comfortable. We have not much to complain of. But life is a bit dull. The path is a bit monotonous now. We have traversed most of it. We can see to the end. There are no more romantic possibilities to make life