I have dealt with the plainer passages of Scripture especially, and chiefly with those that combine with reason. This is a common sense treatise. I deemed it better, therefore, to make essential matters plain, even to repetition, than to indulge in long disquisitions about mistranslations, and such like matters, which in the case of many would only leave the question in a haze. Besides; we have to remember that truth is truth, and will never contradict itself. It is for opponents, therefore, to controvert the positions I have taken, rather than to criticise what I have omitted. If the latter course would hold in argument, it would be easy enough to make out a case for anything.
I would ask you personally then to think over the entire question for yourself. Do not suppose that the matter is too high for you. I think it is, in the main, quite on the level with any ordinarily intelligent mind. Of course, it involves some deep problems; but these can be postponed for the present; it is the main question that claims paramount attention.
Some preachers delicately approach the idea with hints and inuendos and mild threatenings, which are really worse than utter silence. I heard a preacher speaking lately of men as "utter failures, going out into the darkness." Now what did he mean, or did he mean anything? Again; preachers speak of "eternal death," which might mean eternal extinction or eternal fire. And yet that vague phrase is actually proposed as one of the bases of union of the churches.
A short time ago I wrote The Toronto Star somewhat along these lines. The editor wrote a most responsive article, concluding with these strong words:
"This question and all that hangs upon it must be faced. A man has a right to know what his church teaches. The man in the pew—the man even who is not in the pew but who might be—has a right to expect that the man in the pulpit not only believes what he preaches, but preaches what he believes. A religion made up of hidden folds and mental reservations, a creed marked by evasions and ambiguities, cannot reach and warm the heart of the world."
There is hardly a more vital truth known to us than the one I have tried to commend. For its candid consideration we need the illumination of the Holy Ghost. But we have the promise that if we ask for Him He will be given. We have also the Word of God. And then we have reason. It is a divine gift, never to be despised. With these sources of illumination we have the twilight now. Yes; but it is the twilight of the eternal morning!
XX.
THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN.
Beauty Evolved from Chaos—Future Capacity of Motion—Gleams of the Invisible—Changing into the Divine Image—Crying Out for God—From Barrenness to Beauty—The Glow of the Firefly—The Effulgent Divinity —Sunset on the Prairie—Universal Sense of Beauty—Guardian Angels —Death as Seen from This Side and That—Sunset on the Yellowstone River—A Drop of Dew—Reality of Heaven—The Literal and the figurative—The Spiritual Body—Expanding Glory of Creation—Sunset in Dakota—Lights Dim and Clear—Christ's Unsullied Purity—A Rent in the Cloud—An Imprisoned Lark.
We have been dealing with matters that are related chiefly to the next life. But let us not forget that such matters have a close relation to us now. There can be no doubt that there are correspondences between this world and the world unseen. I would notice a few of these correspondences, so that we may realize how closely we are related to both worlds. If we keep our mind and our heart open to see such correspondences, we shall often be surprised at the vividness of their suggestion. But they are suggestion only. They are not proof. That is not their function. But when an idea is seen in itself to be probable, a vivid illustration will confirm it.