Besides the principle of animal life (psyche) which man partakes of in common with the creatures of a lower order, there is within him a spirit (pneuma) which is being formed, educated, and built up, all the time that it is the tenant of a corporeal "vessel." On account of this law of progressiveness, the spirit of a child, as we can all see, differs in its feelings and its understanding from that of a man. In short, spirit perfected is the principle of immortal life. Now, during our waking hours our spirits are replete with consciousness and thought, which, however, at the moment of falling asleep depart from us. The spirit is then taken into the keeping of the angels of God, to be by them restored into its place in the body at the moment of waking up and of return to consciousness. In like manner at death the spirits of all men, good and wicked, pass into the custody of the Creator of spirits, to wait for the return to consciousness by being on the morning of their resurrection again united with body,—not, however, with the same natural body, but with a spiritual body (1 Cor. xv. 44). The union of spirit with bodily essence appears to be a {51} necessary condition of human consciousness, and to have been ordained for the special reasons that we are destined to live hereafter not only individually, but in social relations also, and that only through the medium of body is there communion between one man's spirit and that of another.
This being understood, it is next to be observed that in the forming and building up ("edification") of spirit, the human will is concerned, and that, according to a man's choice of action, his spirit may be educated for being good or for being wicked, may be sanctified or defiled. There is, in short, no act or experience in human life which in this respect is indifferent. But what the spirit is thus made during its passage through this life, such it is when it is taken into the hands of its Creator, and such, as we may conclude from the teaching of Scripture and from its having in the mean time existed apart from body, it will be, with all its imperfections, on the day of its resurrection. It has already been maintained that, because of imperfection, it is necessary that even the elect should be judged, to the end that by this means their spirits may be made perfect. But our concern now is with the effect of judgment on those who are not of the number of the elect. For the purpose of illustrating what I am about to say on this head, I shall begin with making an application of the argument in a particular instance.
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I have recently seen it stated, among the news of the day, that it is the practice of a barbarous African king to cut off the heads of twelve or more of his subjects, merely to pay a compliment to a distinguished visitor. Are we to think that this transaction both begins and ends here? Although we have no ground for asserting that the victims in this case are to be counted among God's elect, inasmuch as they must be supposed to be devoid of the faith and righteousness which are necessary to constitute a title to that high privilege, we may yet believe that the bodily suffering they endured was contributory to the formation of their spirits for their future destiny. If even those who have "understanding"—elect saints—have undergone sufferings and been "beheaded" in order that thus they might be "purified and made white," (compare Dan. xi. 33-35, and xii. 10, with Rev. xx. 4), why should we not believe that the sufferings of those poor Africans, who are equally children of God, had like effect? That suffering is in this manner efficacious is proved by the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross, who, after having proved by his miracles that he had all human ills under control, voluntarily submitted to be made perfect by enduring shame and pain, that thus he might both exemplify and justify the ways of God in the creation of immortal spirits. This sacrifice is a full and sufficient explanation of all the evil in the world. When, therefore, in the time of the {53} resurrection of the unjust the slayer and the slain, in this instance, appear before the judgment-seat of God, and are condemned, as not being among those who are saved in the first resurrection, to undergo the second death, is it not reasonable to conclude that the tribulation and pain of that event will fall much more heavily on the murderer than on those he slew, and that the punishment and sufferings that have still to be endured in order that the final purpose of the judgment may be accomplished, will be inflicted with far greater severity on him than on them? (See on this point what is said concerning the future judgment in the Wisdom of Solomon vi. 3-6.)
On this principle many apparent anomalies in the present age of the world admit of explanation. Why, for instance, is so large a proportion of mankind condemned, irrespective of their deserts, to be poor, and to labour with their hands in anxiety for the maintenance of themselves and their families? We have reason from Scripture to say that such conditions of life, if united with the faith that looks for better things to come, may be counted among means ordained by God for preparing the spirits of His elect for their destined inheritance ("Hate not laborious work, neither husbandry, which the Most High hath ordained" [Ecclesiasticus vii. 15]). And where such faith is absent, may we not still say that conditions of the present life to which the great mass of mankind are {54} subject must be contributory to forming their spirits for their future existence? Leaving out of consideration who are the elect, and who not, which God only knows, can we think that the patience of the labourer and artisan, the endurance of the seafaring man, and the devotedness of the soldier, who at the call of duty, and in spite of the promptings of self-preservation, exposes himself to almost certain death on the field of battle, have no relation to their future destiny? As regards, especially, the spirit of self-sacrifice of the soldier, so opposed to all the calculations of personal interest, it seems to me that the desire of glory, or the expectation of reward, will not wholly account for it, but rather that it is indicative of there being in the warrior's breast an undefined conviction that he better fulfils the purpose of life by braving a painful death than by living at home in ease. It is worthy of remark that although in Scripture war is spoken of as a calamity, the occupation of a soldier is nowhere condemned, but is rather commended on account of its disciplinary effect and abstractedness from the affairs of life (see 2 Tim. ii. 3, 4). It should be observed that the different kinds of human experience adverted to above are all supposed to stand apart from personal acts done in violation of the dictates of conscience. Such acts will doubtless be tried by the course of the general judgment, and will have effect in the condemnation of the offenders, and {55} in punishment awarded according to the guiltiness of their deeds.
The calamities of human life may be put generally under the two heads of "tribulation" and "slaughter"—different kinds of sorrow and trouble, and different kinds of death. These constitute the groaning and travailing of the whole creation unto the time being (a chri tou nun), spoken of by St. Paul in Rom. viii. 22 and called in St. Mark xiii. 8, the beginnings of sorrows (ôdinôn). But in the time of the world to come, the same forms of suffering have their consummation and ending. In Rev. vii. 14, mention is made of "the great tribulation," and at the same time of "a countless multitude who come out of it." This can be no other than that "great tribulation" respecting which our Lord said, according to St. Matt. xxiv. 21, that it will be "such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be," and according to St. Mark xiii. 19, that "those days shall be affliction such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be." The identity of the events spoken of in the Gospels and in the Apocalypse may also be inferred from the words cheimônos (tempest-time) and sabbatô (on the sabbath) contained in Matt. xxiv. 20, the former referring to the storm of indignation and wrath which proceeds from "the Lamb" when he comes to execute Judgment, and the latter to the time in which the {56} judgment takes place, which is designated the sabbath, or seventh day, as following upon the termination of the present age of the world, and also as being that sabbath of which, as said in Luke vi. 5, "the Son of man is Lord."
Again, in proof of the doctrine that the process, or effect, of the general judgment is characterized in Scripture as "slaughter," Isa. xxxiv. 1-6 may be cited, it being said in that passage that "the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations," that "he hath delivered them to the slaughter," and in connection therewith that "all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll" (compare Rev. vi. 18-14). Of the same import is the prophecy in Rev. xiv. 14-20, at the end of which the treading of "the great winepress of the wrath of God" is described in terms closely agreeing with those in Isa. lxiii. 1-4. We have, besides, the remarkable passage, Rev. xix. 17-21, which represents the fowls of heaven as being called together to feast on the flesh of the slain, after great slaughter had been wrought by "the sharp sword" which proceeds out of the mouth of him who is called "The Word of God." This sword represents the cutting and destructive effect of the words of judgment and condemnation which the Son of God will pronounce on sinners when he comes to judge the whole world. It is not necessary for my purpose to interpret particularly the symbolism {57} contained in the passages just quoted; it suffices to draw from them the general inference that, as regards all men, trouble and pain and death in the present age of the world are the beginnings of an [oe]conomy for forming spirits for immortality, which is destined to be consummated in the age to come.
To complete the argument from Scripture it only remains now to take into consideration those passages which expressly reveal the effect of the general judgment, and to ascertain what relation the revelations have to the question of immortality. These passages are of two kinds, some being composed entirely of symbolic language requiring interpretation, while others are expressed in terms that may be readily understood. The former must be supposed to admit of being interpreted consistently with the plain meaning of the other kind. Accordingly, for the purpose above mentioned, I proceed now to offer an interpretation of Rev. xx. 11-15, this passage evidently giving a synoptical account, in symbolic terms, of the process and the effect of the general judgment.
I have already adverted (p. 48) to the contents of vv. 11 and 12, so far as they refer to the Person of the Judge, and to His judging the dead, according to their works, "out of the things written in the books." "The great white throne" (v. 11) is evidently the seat of righteous judgment. The inspired writer, in order {58} to account for his seeing in vision the dead, "small and great, standing before the throne," reveals, besides, that "the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them" (v. 13). Now, the context hardly allows of taking "the sea" here in its literal objective sense, requiring rather the interpretation that the natural sea symbolizes by its invisible depths the incognizable state of the dead before resurrection. In the "new heaven and earth," which is the end of all creation, "sea exists no longer" (Rev. xxi. 1). Hades, as apparently might be inferred from the proper sense of the word, signifies that invisible state of departed spirits which, as just said, is symbolized as being concealed in the depths of "the sea," and also, as I have already pointed out, has to death a necessary relation of sequence ("Hades followed with him" [Rev. vi. 8]). This explains why Death and Hades are represented as a conjoint power having possession of the dead. In Rev. i. 18, as well as in Rev. vi. 8, they are mentioned in close connection, and in the latter passage power is said to be given to them in common.
I take occasion to make some remarks here on 1 Peter iii. 19, as the sense of this passage might be thought to be contradictory to the meaning assigned above to Hades. It affirms that "in spirit Christ went and preached to the spirits in custody {59} (en phylakê)." Now, the literal meaning of the concrete terms, "went and preached" (poreutheis ekêruxen), is excluded by "in spirit" going before, and they consequently require an abstract interpretation. It has already been argued (p. 50) that the word "custody" applies to departed spirits in the sense of their being in the keeping of the Creator of spirits; whence it follows that "spirits in custody" and "spirits in Hades" have the same meaning. But neither of these expressions signifies anything as to locality, for the simple reason that locality cannot be predicated of spirit apart from body. The abstract interpretation of the passage of St. Peter may, I think, be reached by the following argument. The word ekêruxen above cited is not that ordinarily used with respect to preaching the Gospel, and therefore it is the more to be noticed that where Noah is called "a preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter ii. 5), the Greek word is kêruka. May we not hence infer that Noah, by "the spirit of Christ" which was in him (compare 1 Peter i. 11), preached to the unbelieving and "disobedient" of his day, and that their spirits, although the world in which they lived was so long since destroyed by the Flood, are, together with all other departed spirits, still in God's custody, to be hereafter raised up and judged? We are farther informed respecting Noah's preaching, which consisted apparently of deeds rather than of words, that "by preparing an ark for the {60} saving of his house, he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith" (Heb. xi. 7).