The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-05-10

The destiny of souls IN the here
! after is a subject of persistent in
terest and concern In human belief
and speculation Even pagan litera-
ture and the languages of heathen-
, dom testify to general though oft
times vague conception OF two wide
IL separated places or strongly con-
trasted states of future existence,
which are in the main equivalent to
the heaven and the he'll of dogmatic
theology.
The Holy Scriptures generalize
the future estate of the righteous as
heaven, and the opposite as he'll,
without giving warrant, however, for
the belief that but two places or
kingdoms are provided, TO one or
the other of which every soul is to
be consigned according to the bal
Rnce-sheet of his LIES account, and
perhaps on very small margin of
merit or guilt Equally unscriptural
is the inference that the state of the
soul at death determines that souls
place and environment throughout
eternity, forever deprived of oppor-
tunity of progression.
out the guidance of revelation, man
conjures up a heaven and he'll to
suit his fancy Thus, TO the mind Of
the savage, heaven is a hunting
ground with game aplenty; to the
carnal, heaven promises perpetual
qualification of senses and passions;
70 the lover of truth and the devotee
Of righteousness, heaven is the as
surance of limitless advancement in
wisdom and achievement. And to
each of these, hell is the eternal re-
alization OF deprivation, loss, disap-
pointment and cons eGuent anguish.
Divine revelation is the only source
of sure knowledge as TO what awaits
man beyond the grave, and from this
we learn that at death the spirits of
all men pass 10 an intermediate
state, in which they associate with
their kind, the good with the good,
the wicked with the wicked, and so
shall endure in happiness or awful
suspense until the time appointed
for their resurrection. Paradise is
the dwelling place of relatively right
eous spirits awaiting the glorious
dawn of the resurrection. The final
H.
appear before the bar of God, is TO
follow their resurrection from the
dead. We shall stand in our resur-
rected bodies OF flesh and bones 10
receive from Jesus Christ, who shall
Judge the world, the sentence we in
dividually merit, whether it be
.1come ye blessed Of my Father" or
depart from me ye cursed" (See
Matt. %: 31-+6.)
In HIS solemn discourse 10 the
Apostles Immediately prior to the
betrayal our Lord sought to cheer
their saddened hearts with the as
surance, ain my Fathers house are
many mansions: if il were not so,
would have told you. | go to pre-
pare a place for you. And if 60 and
prepare a place for you, | will come
again and receive you unto myself;
that where ! am, there ye may be
also" John I4:2, 81
Here is con clusive proof of varied
conditions in the world beyond; and
the teachings of Paul are incisive as
to the state Of resurTected souls:
There are also celestial bodies, and
bodies terrestrial; but the glory of
the celestial is one, and the glory of
the terrestrial is another. There is
one glory Of the sun, and another
glcry Of the moon, and another glory
Of the stars: for one star differeth
from another star in glory. So also
is the resurrection Of the dead
q Cor f5:40-42)
Latterday revelation AYERS even
more explicitly the fact. of numerous