CanTherebeUnity (continued)
earthly things." Oh, you that love the world, get wisdom! Never, never forget that it is written, "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." (Colossians 3:2; 1 John 2:17) The same thought ought to cheer and comfort every true Christian. Your trials, crosses, and conflicts are all temporary. They will soon come to an end; and even now they are working for you "an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." (2 Corinthians 4:17) Receive them patiently; bear them quietly; look upward, forward, onward, and far beyond them. Fight your daily fight under a steadfast conviction that it is only for a little while, and that rest is not far off. Carry your daily cross always remembering that "what is seen is temporary." The cross will soon be exchanged for a crown, and you will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God.
2. The second thought that I bring to your attention is this: We are all moving towards a world where everything is eternal That great unseen state of existence, which lies beyond the grave, is forever. Whether it is happy or miserable, whether it is a condition of joy or sorrow, we know that in one respect it will be utterly unlike anything in this world—it will be forever. There will be no change and decay, no end, no goodbye, no mornings and evening, no alteration, and no annihilation. Whatever there is beyond the tomb, when the last trumpet has sounded, and the dead are raised, we know it will be endless, everlasting, and eternal. "What is unseen is eternal." We cannot fully realize this condition. The contrast between now and then, between this world and the next, is so very great that our feeble minds cannot grasp it all. How we live our lives in this world brings consequences in the next, that are so tremendous, that they almost take away our breath, and we shrink back from looking at them. But when the Bible speaks plainly we have no right to turn away from a subject, and with the Bible in our hands we will do well to look at the "unseen things that are eternal." Let us settle it then in our minds, for one thing, that the future happiness of those who are saved is eternal. However little we may understand it, it is something that will have no end: it will never cease, never grow old, never decay, and never die. "God will fill us with joy in His presence, with eternal pleasures at His right hand." (Psalm 16:11) Once they arrive in paradise, the saints of God will never ever leave that wonderful place. Their inheritance "can never perish, spoil or fade." They will "receive the crown of glory that will never fade away." (1 Peter 1:4; 5:4) Their warfare is finished; their fight is over; their work is done. "Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst." They are traveling on towards an "eternal glory that far outweighs" all their struggles; towards a home which will never be broken up, a meeting without a parting, a family gathering without a separation, a day without night. Faith will be swallowed up in sight, and hope in certainty. They will see as they have been seen, and know as they have been known, and "be with the Lord forever." I am not surprised that the apostle Paul adds, "Encourage each other with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:17, 18) For another thing, let us settle it in our minds, that the future misery of the unbelievers who are lost is eternal. I am aware that this is an awful truth, and flesh and blood naturally shrink from the contemplation of it. But I am one of those who believe it is clearly revealed in Scripture, and I dare not keep it back in the pulpit. To my eyes eternal future happiness and eternal future misery appear to stand side by side. I fail to see how you can distinguish the duration of one from the duration of the other. If the joy of the believer is forever, then the sorrow of the unbeliever is also forever. If heaven is eternal, likewise so is hell. It may be my ignorance, but I do not know how the conclusion can be avoided. I cannot reconcile the concept of a "non-eternal" punishment with the language of the Bible. Its advocates talk loudly about love and kindness, and say that it does not harmonize with the merciful and compassionate character of God. But what does the Scripture say? Who ever spoke such loving and merciful words as our Lord Jesus Christ? Yet His are the lips which three times over describe the consequence of refusing to repent of sin, as "the worm that does not die, and the fire that is not quenched." He is the Person who speaks in one sentence of the wicked going away to "eternal punishment," and the righteous to "eternal life." (Mark 9:43-48; Matthew 25:46) Who does not remember the Apostle Paul's words about love? Yet he is the very Apostle who says, the wicked "will be punished with everlasting destruction." (2 Thessalonians 1:9) Who does not know the spirit of love that runs through all John's Gospel and Epistles? Yet the beloved Apostle is the very writer in the New Testament who dwells most strongly, in the book of Revelation, on the reality and eternity of future agony. What will we say to all these things? Will we be wiser than that which is written? Will we admit the dangerous principle that words in Scripture do not mean what they appear to mean? Is it not far better to put our hands over our months and say, "Whatever God has written must be true." "Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments." (Revelation 16:7) I cannot reconcile the "non-eternal" punishment with the language of our church's own prayer book. The very first petition in our matchless Litany contains this sentence, "From everlasting damnation, good Lord, deliver us." The Catechism teaches every child who learns it, that whenever we repeat the Lord's Prayer we desire our Heavenly Father to "keep us from our spiritual enemy and from everlasting death." Even in our Burial Service that we pray at the graveside, "Deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death." Once more I ask, "What will we say to these things?" Shall our congregations be taught that even when people live and die in sin we may hope for their happiness after death? Surely the common sense of many of our worshippers would reply, that if this is the case then Prayer-book words mean nothing at all.
I lay no claim to any unusual knowledge of Scripture. I daily feel that I am no more infallible than the Bishop of Rome. But I must speak according to the light that God has given to me; and I do not think I would be doing my duty if I did not raise a warning voice on this subject, and try to put Christians on their guard. Six thousand years ago sin entered into the world by the devil's daring lie— "You will not surely die." (Genesis 3:4) At the end of six thousand years the great enemy of mankind is still using his old weapon, and trying to persuade men that they may live and die in sin, and yet at some distant time in the future they will finally be saved. Let us not be ignorant of his schemes. Let us walk steadily in the old paths. Let us hold on tight to the old truth, and believe that just as the happiness of the saved is eternal, so also is the misery of the lost. "There is nothing that Satan desires more than that we should believe that he does not exist, and that there is no such a place as hell, and no such things as eternal torments. He whispers all this into our ears, and he rejoices when he hears a layman, and much more when he hears a clergyman, deny these things, for then he hopes to make them and others his victims." —Wordsworth's Sermons on Future Rewards and Punishments, p. 36. (a) Let us be faithful because of the truths revealed in Christianity. What was the use of God's Son becoming incarnate, agonizing in Gethsemane, and dying on the cross to make atonement, if men can ultimately be saved without believing on Him? Where is the slightest proof that saving faith in Christ's blood can ever be achieved after death? Where is the need of the Holy Spirit, if sinners are can enter heaven without conversion and renewal of heart? Where can we find the smallest evidence that after a person dies in an unregenerate state, that later he can still be born again, and have a new heart? If a man, without faith in Christ or sanctification of the Spirit, can escape eternal punishment, then sin is no longer an infinite evil and there was no need for Christ making atonement.
(b) Let us be faithful because of holiness and morality. I can imagine nothing so pleasant to our flesh and blood as the deceptive theory that we may live in sin, and yet escape eternal damnation; and that although we are "enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures" while we are here, we will somehow all eventually get to heaven! Just tell the young man who "squandered his wealth in wild living" that heaven is available even for those who live and die in sin, and he is never likely to turn from it. Why should be repent and take up the cross, if he can get eventually get to heaven without repenting? (c) Finally, let us be faithful because of the common hopes of all God's saints. Let us distinctly understand that every blow struck at eternal punishment is an equally heavy blow at the eternity of heaven's bliss. It is impossible to separate the two things. No ingenious theological definition can divide them. They stand or fall together. The same language is used, the same figures of speech are employed, when the Bible speaks about either condition. Every attack on the duration of hell is also an attack on the duration of heaven. It is true that if we take away the fear of hell from sinners, then we also have taken away our own hope. I turn from this part of my subject with a deep sense of its painfulness. I strongly agree with Robert McCheyne, that "it is a hard subject to handle lovingly." But I turn from it with an equally deep conviction that if we believe the Bible, then we must never give up anything that it contains. Dear Jesus, deliver us from hard, austere, and unmerciful theology! If men are not saved it is because they "refuse to come to Christ." (John 5:40) But we must not be wise above that which is written. No morbid love of liberality, so called, must induce us to reject anything that God has revealed about eternity. Men sometimes talk exclusively about God's mercy and love and compassion, as if He had no other attributes, and leave out His