CHAPTER VIII

THE LIFE EVERLASTING

Let us now consider the life which we can look forward to withcertainty after death, and the moral government of the world hereon earth.

If we could hear the leaves complaining to one another that theymust die, and commiserating the hardness of their lot in havingever been induced to bud forth, we should, I imagine, despisethem for their peevishness more than we should pity them.Weshould tell them that though we could not see reason for thinkingthat they would ever hang again upon the same-or any at allsimilar-bough as the same individual leaves, after they had oncefaded and fallen off, yet that as they had been changingpersonalities without feeling it during the whole of theirleafhood, so they would on death continue to do this selfsamething by entering into new phases of life.True, death willdeprive them of conscious memory concerning their now currentlife; but, though they die as leaves, they live in the tree whomthey have helped to vivify, and whose growth and continued well- being is due solely to this life and death of its componentpersonalities.

We consider the cells which are born and die within us yearly tohave been sufficiently honoured [sic] in having contributed theirquotum to our life; why should we have such difficulty in seeingthat a healthy enjoyment and employment of our life will give usa sufficient reward in that growth of God wherein we may livemore truly and effectually after death than we have lived when wewere conscious of existence?Is Handel dead when he influencesand sets in motion more human beings in three months now thanduring the whole, probably, of the years in which he thought thathe was alive? What is being alive if the power to draw men formany miles in order that they may put themselves enrapport with him is not being so? True, Handel no longerknows the power which he has over us, but this is a small matter;he no longer animates six feet of flesh and blood, but he livesin us as the dead leaf lives in the tree.He is with God, and Godknows

him though he knows himself no more.

This should suffice, and I observe in practice does suffice, forall reasonable persons.It may be said that one day the treeitself must die, and the leaves no longer live therein; and so,also, that the very God or Life of the World will one day perish,as all that is born must surely in the end die.But they who fretupon such grounds as this must be in so much want of a grievancethat it were a cruelty to rob them of one: if a man who is fondof music tortures himself on the ground that one day all possiblecombinations and permutations of sounds will have been exhaustedso that there can be no more new tunes, the only thing we can dowith him is to pity him and leave him; nor is there any bettercourse than this to take with those idle people who worry them selves and others on the score that they will one day be unableto remember the small balance of their lives that they have notalready forgotten as unimportant to them-that they will one daydie to the balance of what they have not already died to.I neverknew a well-bred or amiable person who complained seriously ofthe fact that he would have to die.Granted we must all some times find ourselves feeling sorry that we cannot remain for everat our present age, and that we may die so much sooner than welike; but these regrets are passing with well-disposed people,and are a sine qua non for the existence of life at all. For if people could live for ever so as to suffer from no suchregret, there would be no growth nor development in life; if, onthe other hand, there were no unwillingness to die, people wouldcommit suicide upon the smallest contradiction, and the racewould end in a twelvemonth.

We then offer immortality, but we do not offer resurrection fromthe dead; we say that those who die live in the Lord whether theybe just or unjust, and that the present growth of God is theoutcome of all past lives; but we believe that as they live inGod-in the effect they have produced upon the universal life-whenonce their individual life is ended, so it is God who knows oftheir life thenceforward and not themselves; and we urge thatthis immortality, this entrance into the joy of the Lord, thisbeing ever with God, is true, and can be apprehended by all men,and that the perception of it should and will tend to make themlead happier, healthier

lives; whereas the commonly receivedopinion is true with a stage truth only, and has little permanenteffect upon those who are best worth considering.Neverthelessthe expressions in common use among the orthodox fit in soperfectly with facts, which we must all acknowledge, that it isimpossible not to regard the expressions as founded upon aprophetic perception of the facts.

Two things stand out with sufficient clearness.The first is therarity of suicide even among those who rail at life mostbitterly.The other is the little eagerness with which those whocry out most loudly for a resurrection desire to begin their newlife.When comforting a husband upon the loss of his wife we donot tell him we hope he will soon join her; but we shouldcertainly do this if we could even pretend we thought the husbandwould like it.I can never remember having felt or witnessed anypain, bodily or mental, which would have made me or anyone elsereceive a suggestion that we had better commit suicide withoutindignantly asking how our adviser would like to commit suicidehimself.Yet there are so many and such easy ways of dying thatindignation at being advised to commit suicide arises more fromenjoyment of life than from fear of the mere physical pain ofdying.Granted that there is much deplorable pain in the worldfrom ill- health, loss of money, loss of reputation, misconduct ofthose nearest to us, or what not, and granted that in some casesthese causes do drive men to actual self-destruction, yetsuffering such as this happens to a comparatively small number,and occupies comparatively a small space in the lives of those towhom it does happen.

What, however, have we to say to those cases in which sufferingand injustice are inflicted upon defenceless [sic] people foryears and years, so that the iron enters into their souls, andthey have no avenger.Can we give any comfort to such sufferers?and, if not, is our religion any better than a mockery-a fillingthe rich with good things and sending the hungry empty away?Canwe tell them, when they are oppressed with burdens, yet thattheir cry will come up to God and be heard?The questionsuggests its own answer, for assuredly our God knows ourinnermost secrets: there is not a word in our hearts but Heknoweth it altogether; He knoweth our

down-sitting and ouruprising, He is about our path and about our bed, and spieth outall our ways; He has fashioned us behind and before, and "wecannot attain such knowledge," for, like all knowledge when ithas become perfect, "it is too excellent for us."

"Whither then," says David, "shall I go from thy Spirit, orwhither shall I go, then, from thy presence?If I climb up intoheaven thou art there; if I go down into hell thou art therealso.If I take the wings of the morning and remain in theuttermost parts of the sea; even there also shall thy hand leadme, and thy right hand shall hold me.If I say peradventure thedarkness shall cover me, then shall my night be turned into day:the darkness and light to thee are both alike.For my reinsare thine; thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.My bonesare not hid from thee: though I be made secretly and fashionedbeneath in the earth, thine eyes did see my substance yet beingunperfect; and in thy book were all my members written, which dayby day were fashioned when as yet there was none of them.Do Inot hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am I not grieved withthem that rise up against thee? Yea, I hate them right sore, asthough they were mine enemies." (Psalm CXXXIX.) There is not awordof this which we cannot endorse with more significance, aswell as with greater heartiness than those can who look upon Godas He is commonly represented to them; whatever comfort,therefore, those in distress have been in the habit of receivingfrom these and kindred passages, we intensify rather than not.Wecannot, alas! make pain cease to be pain, nor injustice easy tobear; but we can show that no pain is bootless, and that there isa tendency in all injustice to right itself; suffering is notinflicted wilfully, [sic] as it were by a magician who could haveaverted it ; nor is it vain in its results, but unless we are cutoff from God by having dwelt in some place where none of our kindcan know of what has happened to us, it will move God's heart toredress our grievance, and will tend to the happiness of thosewho come after us, even if not to our own.

The moral government of God over the world is exercised throughus, who are his ministers and persons, and a government of thisdescription is the only one which can be observed as practicallyinfluencing men's conduct.God helps those who help themselves,because in helping

themselves they are helping Him.Again, VoxPopuli vox Dei. The current feeling of our peers is what weinstinctively turn to when we would know whether such and such acourse of conduct is right or wrong; and so Paul clenches hislist of things that the Philippians were to hold fast with thewords, "whatsoever things are of good fame"-that is to say, hefalls back upon an appeal to the educated conscience of his age. Certainly the wicked do sometimes appear to escape punishment,but it must be remembered there are punishments from within whichdo not meet the eye.If these fall on a man, he is sufficientlypunished; if they do not fall on him, it is probable we have beenover hasty in assuming that he is wicked.