The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-18
IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH
What Becomes of the Immortal Spirit
of Man ON Leaving the Body?
Second Discourse in Series ON the Future
Life, by Rev. ]. Il. Gilbert, D. D., Pastor
of Meridian-Street NJ. E. Church.
New Testament Teachings of the States of the
Righteous and Wicked Dead.

course of his series, under the general head
of, docs Death End Allf' last evening. to o
large congregation. His text was:
Man dieth and wasteth away; yea man giveth up
the ghost and where is hel-Job xiv, 10.
This text is more than three thousand years
old, and yet its view Of mans nature is the same
as that now held by the orthodox Christian.
and an immateriar part. The former is subject
to death, and afterward it is wasted away, or re-
duced by chemical forces to the elements. The
latter does not die. 1t is not dissolved. 1t is
given up. that is. released from its union with
the body. It follows that if the spirit survives
the body it is superior to it, In all these re-
spects the patriarch is in full harmony with the
apostles
But here Job raises question: The two parts
of the man being torn asunder, and one part
having decayed, where is the man? By the
words following the text we shall see that he
does not expect extinction of being. He looked
forward to a resurrection, saying, "All the days
OF my appointed time will wait, till my change
come. Thou shalt call and will answer Thee"
But concerning the interval between death and
the resurrection he was in doubt. His ignorance
caused anxiety, and he prayed, 20 that Thou
wouldst hide me in the grave that Thou
woudst keep me IN secret; that Thou wouldst
appoint me set time. and remember me-" He
could not endure the thought of lying down in
uncertainty, not knowing what should befall
him. He would rather be confined, soul and
body in the narrow house, and there await the
summons of the Almighty.
The question of Job has come more or less
frequently to every thoughtful mind. If we go
to the cemetery and walk among the tombs, we
naturally inquire, where are the spirits that
once animated the bodies buried here9" Most of
us have stood at the bedside Of dying friend
The breathing became short and difficult; the
pulse futtering and feeble pallor spread over
the countenance Presently there was struggle.
A moment more, and the body was motionless-
All was over The spirit had departed. But
whittier! Who has not gazed upon the lifeless
form with intense desire to know something of
the fate of the real person who has thus passed
away. leaving behind only the deserted house to
show where he lived. Or, possibly, in reflective
moments each of US has inquired, ION the NOR
row, after my eyes have been closed for the last
time upon the scenes of earth. where shall be
and what will be my internal state and my exter
nal condition."
Dr. Gilbert then sketched the views of differ
ent peoples on the subject in hand. dwelling at
some length upon the doctrine of reconsideration
as held by various nations, and revived by a GER
tain school in France, and taught by Figuier and
his disciples. He also outlined the belief of some
that the spirit fingers in about the grave with
or near its old companion. the body. The theory
Of purgatory and of soul-sleep were also set forth
briefly. This done, he proceeded to set forth the
teaching of the New Testament remarking that
under the old economy men were ignorant of
many things Christ brought life and immor-
tality to light"
When Jesus left this world He assembled to
heaven, for He said: 81 ascend to my father"
and Peter testified that Christ is ''gone into
heaven, and is on the right hand of God" The
Christian at death goes To be with Jesus, because
the Master said II will come and receive you
unto myself" and, Paul wrote, whilst we are
at home in the body we are absent from the
Lord. We are willing to be absent from the
body and present with the Lord" But if Christ
went to heaven, and the believer is united with
Him at death, then the believer enters inn
mediately into heaven. The state OF the soul,
on entering heaven, Is made known by Pauls
words, Il am in strait betwixt two, having
desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is
far better" In another place he said, ITO die is
gain" These words indicate state Of conscious
ness and happiness.
That the wicked enter a separate place is evil
dent from the words of Jesus. Addressing the
Pharisies who sought his life, he said, ''Yet a
little while am with you, and then go unto
Him that sent me-. Ye shall seek me and shall
not find me, and where am thither ye can not
come" 1t was morally impossible for those
blood thirsty hypocrites to ascend to heaven.
The account of Dives and Lazarus-whether his
tory or parable does not matter here-illustrates
this point. Both men die They enter two sep
arate places, between which there was "a great
gulf fixed" One was in torments The other
was in Abraham's bosom. Both could think, re-
member. and reason.
If we desire fuller knowledge of the two
CT passages like these: Zone star differeth from
another star in glory;" He that is unjust let
him be unjust still; and he that is filthy let him
be filthy still and he that is righteous let him be
righteous still" The last passage teaches that
there is fixedness in each realm in this sense
that the good remain good. and the wicked re-
main wicked; that is, there is no reform on the
one side. and no detection on the other. The
first quotation shows that there are degrees of
excellence among the righteous, and we may
lv inf hat hara nf EoGp
among the ungodly.
Hence we may summarize the New Testament
doctrine thus
/. At death the spirit enters a disembodied
state. that is exists apart from any material
2 In that state it is conscious. exercising its
powers of memory, reflection and conscience.
3. Tie spirits of the righteous enter place
of b.essedness, entirely freo from the evil of this
world.
4 The spirits of the wicked are confined in a
place of suffering destitute of companionship
with the good.
5. The righteous and the wicked in their sep
arate state remain. the former in the service Of
God and the latter alienated from him.
The terms employed in the Scripture to denote
the places of departed spirits were next con-
sidered Sheol, used in the Old Testament, sig
nifed the unseen world in its entirety, without
regard to the separation of the good and bad.
The New Testament word, hades, was nearly
synonymous. 1t seems therefore, that in many
parts of Scripture the writers thought of the
souls of men after death in the aggregate This
has led some persons to suppose, and especially
since the revised version was published that the
distinction as to the fate of the good and the
wicked was not in the Scripture, and that all
souls go to one place. Whereas, sheol or hades,
is actually divided into two parts as is in
dlcated in the passages already quoted. That
part occupied by the wicked is called tartarus.
and that occupied by the good. paradise. There
is, in other words, tartarus hades and para
disc hades.
The jewellers in these two sections of the land
of spirits were next described. In paradise
hades are God, the holy angels, and the good of
all ages In tartarushades are satan, the
fallen angels. and the wicked of all ages. Mil
tons idea of the fallen angels, "who kept not
have been of that company whose home was
originally in paradise because sin cannot enter