with Himself, and finish what He has begun. He must honour His own government. As to the future beyond this world and life, the argument of the text holds. If God meant to annihilate us, would He have dealt with us after the wonderful fashion with which we are so familiar? What immense ages He took to prepare this earth for our habitation! How infinitely vast and magnificent is the universe which inspheres us! How inexhaustible are the treasures which mainly design our welfare! If God proposed to annihilate us, would He have shown us all these things and lavished upon us such endless gifts? Is it like Him to do so? Is it like His wisdom? Scientists tell us of a law of nature that they describe as the law of parsimony; that is, nature does not permit any waste of material, time, or energy, the means to any given end being always regulated by stern economy. But what becomes of this law of parsimony if after Heaven has lavished so much upon us it extinguishes us? Annihilation does not correspond with the wisdom of God as reflected in nature. Is it like His goodness to destroy us? Life is positively cruel if nothing more than a tantalizing flash. When the Aztecs managed to capture several of the Spanish invaders, the captives were surprised to find that they were treated most hospitably; abundant provision was forthcoming, and they were regaled with every delicacy; but when they discovered that they were being fattened for sacrifice, they lost their appetite, and could no longer touch the luxuries spread before them. All the pride of life is gone, all the sweetness and glory and joy of things vanish the moment we really believe that we are reserved for the carnival of the worms. Fearing annihilation, we are all our lifetime in bondage to the fear of death, and can know nothing of the goodness of God and the preciousness of living. Is it like the divine faithfulness to destroy us? Does nature implant instincts it does not mean to gratify? Does God excite hopes in us that He does not intend to fulfil? "He satisfieth the desire of every living thing." Will He then mock the sublimest desire of all-the instinct of immortality? No; He does not mean to destroy us. The grandeur of the world, of which we are the chief aim; the splendour of our faculties; the costliness of our education; the munificence of our treatment, these, one and all, are prophecies and pledges of great things prepared for faithful souls. We shall not die like dogs; the grass of the churchyard shall not cover our great being and hope. When grim Death doth take me by the throat "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, would He have told such things as these?" God has not only shown us many wonderful things; He has also spoken many wonderful words. The great silence of eternity has been broken, and we have listened to mighty messages of love and hope. Seers have risen in all nations and ages, teaching doctrines which stretch far beyond this life and its interests. In Egypt, Assyria, Persia, India, China, Greece, and Rome poets and philosophers taught truths which transcend the trivial and mortal, and assume a vaster world and destiny than the pres ent. In Judea patriarchs, lawgivers, psalmists, and prophets enforced high and holy doctrines which are foolishness if this life is all. Last of all in this circle God spake to us by His Son, spake words pulsating with eternity. And in each generation since then great teachers have appeared protesting against animalism and materialism; warning their contemporaries that they are men not beasts, and eloquently conjuring them to live for higher ends than those of terrestrial advantage and indulgence. Our own age has been illuminated by Carlyle, Emerson, Ruskin, and Tennyson, who have appealed to our spirituality and aroused us from sordid life to grasp the prizes of a higher world. We may not always be able to distinguish very clearly between a sky-sign and a star, between the fancies of men trusting to the heavens and the authorized messages of eternity; but, whatever falsities and errors may cloud and confuse our vision, God has never permitted us to lose sight of immortal ideas, beliefs, and hopes the truths of eternity have been kept before us high, clear, solemn, like the Milky Way in the midnight heaven. Has God spoken all these words in vain? There is more truth in the nature of things than this. He would not have addressed us thus had we been worms of the earth, moths of a moment. He would not have told us such things about Himself, about ourselves, about the world above us, about the ages of the past, about the ages to come. And when God speaks these great words we grasp His meaning. We are constantly being told of the sagacity of animals, of their marvellous intelligence and cleverness, the intention being to humble us by the thought that we are at last one with the beasts which perish. But we may easily reassure ourselves. Read Plato to your parrot, try the Iliad on the gorilla, declaim Shakespeare to swine, or attempt to disclose the visions of Isaiah and St. John in the kennels, and you elicit no response, or a very coarse one. But the great words of God find us, thrill us, alarm us; they inspire us with fear, wonder, or delight. There is a measureless gulf between us and the brute. Surely God would not thus have spoken to us, we should not thus have comprehended Him, had we been only creatures of a day. Let us not say, "We shall die because we have seen God"; but rather, "We shall live because we have seen Him, and because He has spoken to us the words of eternal life." If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have revealed His grace as He has done. The fear of Manoah arose out of the sense of sin; but, in so many words, his wife replies, "True we are sinners, yet God has accepted our sacrifice, and shown us tokens for good, and He would not have done this had He meant to destroy us." Does not this argument hold with us? A great sacrifice comes between us and God-the accepted Sacrifice of Calvary; and does not this avail on our behalf? "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things." By virtue of this offering God has assured us of forgiveness, vouchsafed the sense of His favour, kindled in our heart, love, peace, and hope; and is it likely that He will abandon us? In our Christian experience we find the prophecy and promise of immortality. |