Evening star., 1905-11-07
IGNORANCE OF FUTURE LIFE.
Imaginings of One Age Not Satisfac-
tory to Another.
From the London Spectator.

From the London Spectator.
We know nothing whatever about tho
next world. Even those who accept the
Christian revelation most heartily ana
most compIetely must admit with St. John
that "it doth not yet appear what we shall
he" Christ taught and His disciples be-
lieyed that the soul of man is eternal, and
does not die with the body. st. Paul sum
med up Christ's teaching on the subject OF
immortality when he said that lie had
abolished death" Against this ignorance
man has forever chafed. Upon the dark
background of the future the religious
imagination, helped by the inner light OF
conscience throws beautiful and terrible
pictures But with each succeeding age
the pictures dissolve and change. knowl-
edge cannot pierce the visible darkness
which divides this world from the next.
AS the years grow on we gain wisdom, but
not certainty
Wisdom that becoming wise meant making slow
and advance
From a knowledge proved In error to acknowledged
ignorance.
All popular ideas of heaven and hell are
lust now fading away The conventional
heaven failed to satisfy the aspirations OF
man. and all conceptions of the everlasting
tortures of the damned fade before new
consistency of thought which cannot recon-
ellie eternal punishment with the knoWi-
edge and love of God.
Our forefathers looked forward in some
moods 10 everlasting rest and never-ending
worship, in others to happy and prosper
Gus life in a perfectly governed and per-
fectly healthy city. At times, inspired by
the love of nature, they Christianized the
classic picture of the Elysian fields. To
day the normal man does not desire rest
when he asks himself what life he would
choose Rest suggests death, and We desire
more abundant life. To most healthy bod
les and healthy minds effort is in itself de-
lightful. If men do not need to make an
effort for their living, they will do ii for
their pleasure. Successful effort brings
more happiness than anything else. taking
life as a whole. The thought of everlasting
worship satisfies fewer and fewer people
today. 1t belongs to an age when men
thought of God kind of king, who took
perpetual pleasure in homage. We still
sing OF sweet fields beyond the swelling
food" and find refreshment in the thought,
but no one desires to live forever wander
ing amid the beauties of nature. The
thought of an ideal civic life is still attrac-
tive, but the heavenly Jerusalem brings
thoughts of Utopia now rather than of the
everlasting.
We still pray against everlasting dam
nation" and desire to get rid of the worm
of remorse that dieth not, but our prayers,
however earnest, no longer bring visions
OF the burning pit. Such visions would be
called up nowadays rather by the divine
comedy than by the church service. Other
hopes charm us today and other fears re-
strain. These, again, will change their
form in the next generation The condi-
tions of this life alter, and. consequently,
the conceptions of that life to which We in
stinctively look for consolation and ex-
planation, reward and retribution change,
also. Nevertheless, these pious opinions OF
the past, the outcome as they are of spir-
itual preoccupatiOn more concentrated than
anything of which the present age is cap
able. are not without their value Imagl-
nary they may have been, but
God is also in sleep, and dreams advise,
Which He hath sent propitious, some great good
presaging.
We smile reverently as we look back
Crowns and cities. feasts and sweet fields.
all melt away together. Still. the words of
Christ. which cannot pass away while hu-
man nature remains. sound In our hearts.
"It Is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh
profiteth nothing"
That men Will cease to dream OF wat