The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-02-21


and opinions as to the future life-as to
the state of man after death and the res
direction. have been interested in this
for more than forty years. l remember
that some forty-fve years ago | read
sermon by Bishop McTyeire, of the South
ern Methodist Church, an able divine and
writer, as his excellent History of
Methodism' clearly establishes, in which
he essays to prove that the soul does not
go to Heaven when separated from the
body, but into an intermediate state"
Tbs is my recollection of the sermon, and
the text was the last two verses IN
He brews, eleventh chapter. They read
And these all, having obtained good
report through faith, received not the
promise; God having provided some bet
ter thing for us, that they without US
should not be made perfect"
The Apostle had been writing of the
Fathers under the old Dispensation-thc
Dl;pensation of Law. In the text what
doss the author of Hebrews, whether
Paul or a disciple, mean to teach in the
words given? The Westminster Version
that of 1SS1-has this translation of the
text:
And these all, having had witness borne
to them through their faith, received not
the promise, God having provided" omar
ginal reading, "foreseen'O, some better
thing for us, that apart from us they
should not be made perfect
The good report of the James Trans
latlon is this, as l believe,--that these Old
Testament heroes and worthless are COM
meDded as good men, and their faith by
which they peresvered in duty is held UP
as worthy of imitation to all succeeding
generations and ages. They received
not the promise That Is, they received
metz the great thing promised, to wit, the
Messiah and the great blessings of His
Gospel. The reason Is given tor this:
God having provided or foreseen some
be tier thing for us, that they without us
or apart from us, should not be made per-
feet" That is, clear reference to the
fLlfiment of Gods promises IN the coming
of Christ and the blessings which he con-
fe.1ed-that they without US should not
be made perfect''-that without the full
filment of these promises, which We wit
ness and In the faith OF which they lived.
AMI died, and went to glory. The fuller,
completer Dispensation-that OF Love
the DispensatiNp of the Lord Jesus
Christ, was ndS yet come to these
worthless, but they lived in the faith of
Gods blessed promises, died and were
saved. 1 have no patience with dead
soulsm, or the sleep OF the soul, as hymns
and books teach. have light to Tighten
me in several places in the New Tesla
lnent Look at the TRANSPORTATION of
Christ when Moses and Elias came down
to Him, and talked with Him. They were
very much alive then, were evidently pro-
fou1dly interested and were not asleep
in Jesus" Then turn to the overwhelm-
ing Parable of Lazarus and the Rich
Man, (there is no such term as Dives in
the Book, and see for yourself how very
live the lost man was, and his profound
interest in his kinsmen to whom he wished
to send warning message. He is not
represented by the Divine Teacher, the
Son of God, as asleep or ghost" but
as the Rich Man who sinned, died and
was lost, and was undergoing the penal
fires of the damned. There are some So
called latter-day 'divines,' as they are
called, who do not believe in hell, ip
eternal punishment or in fire and brim-
stone. If they are correct in their scepti-
tisDl what is to be said of the Lord and
Master who taught it so directly, so force
fully, so repeatedly? The Rich Man look
ed up and saw what? He saw the poor
man-Lazarus-saved and in glory, repos-
ing securely and blissfully in Abraham's
bosom. There is no sleep or dead soulisn
or Ghost business in all this. It is very
real, very full of life, very true.
Then turn to the Crucifixon and hear
what the blessed Redeemer said to the
thlef on the cross-"This day thou shalt
be with Me in Paradise" Nothing dead
OF asleep in that promise. Then turn to
the great Apostle Paul--to his own conf
dence as to his future estate. He declar-
ed that for him to depart twas to DC
with Jesus Not to go into Hades or
Sheol (for they mean the same thing)--
net to go to sleep and keep on sleeping
until the Resurrection, which so far as
man knows may be ten thousand years
distant, or even longer time, but to be
alive and in glory, with his Crucified and
Risen Saviour. The New Version, already
quoted from, gives this translation-the
correct one-of Paul's conviction and de-
cifration-"To be absent from the body
is to be at home with the LORD Co.,
SIS. That great theologian of unsurpass-
ed power and learning among American
diyines and teachers of the last half cen
fury, Rev. Archibald A. Hodge, D. D.,
LII. D., of Princeton Theological Seminary,
has left paper of twenty-one pages on
tie subject of the future state, that is of
supreme excellence, and most lucid. 1t
would require too much space to outline
and cite from his argument at length It
is par excellence the best of all the dis
cussions of which 1 have knowledge.
viii, however, make a few brief extracts
from his paper, which Is to be found in
his superior volume of Popular Lectures
on Theological Themes"
l will first give, what regard as pre-
cisely correct, what is stated in the Pres
byterian Shorter Catachism as to the flu
ture state: "The souls of believers are
at their death made perfect in holiness.
and do Immediately pass into glory; and
their bodies, being still united to Christ,
do rest in their graves till the resurrce-
ton" The exception would make to
this is the statement that believers are
to await until death to be made 'holy."
do not believe that, and it is contrary
to the declarations of the New Testament
in many places as / understand them II
is true doubt not, that the souls of ~
levers do Immediately pass into glory"
The Catechism farther states and 1 have