“Being confident of this very thing, that He which began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.”—Phil.i.6 (R.V.)
“Being confident of this very thing, that He which began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.”—Phil.i.6 (R.V.)
The ground is now cleared for an answer to the question,—How is the purification of the soul effected in the Intermediate Life, and what is the nature of the process? We have seen, 1st, that this waiting time is not an idle time, but a time when something has to be done which can only be done then; 2nd, that what has to be done then is the work of cleansing and purifying the soul, that it may be perfected for the Beatific Vision in heaven; 3rd, that the souls of those who die in grace do yet, although fully pardoned, retain frailties of character, the consequences of former sins; and, 4th, that dying in itself has no cleansingvirtue whatever. What, then, are the conditions on which we may rely as grounds for legitimate inferences?
1. First, then, memory survives death. In the narrative to which we have had occasion to refer more than once, Abraham is spoken of as bidding the rich man to remember. “Son, remember, that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things.” The survival of memory is involved in the soul’s consciousness of its own existence. And to be conscious of our own existence is to be conscious that we are still the same persons that we were. Therefore we must be able to remember each successive moment what and who we were in the moment previous: so that the continuance of life involves the continuance of the consciousness that it is ourselves that live. And this is memory. Bishop Butler, therefore, says, “There is no reason for supposing that the exercise of our present powers of reflection is even suspended by the act of dying.”
But if we grant this, we may go further. What is it which makes memory in this life so imperfect? What is it but the obtrusive hindrance of the body? The body is at the mercy of the disturbing assaults of present impressions. Through ear, and eye, and touch external objects invade the mind, and dispel and distract fixed and steadfast retrospect. The present blots out the past. When we look back, scenes, and events, and words, and names fade from our memory, and are dimmed by the haze of distance. The past is smothered by what has happened since. Only with a supreme effort, only in solitude, and then only imperfectly, can we recall what has gone by. But there, in the Intermediate State, when the soul dwells apart from the body, there, in the stillness of that “cloistered and secluded life,” the powers of memory will be undistracted and perfect. Even in this life, as we are told, some, in a great crisis, have seen at a single glance thewhole story of their past experience, and scenes and events, long since forgotten, have flashed in an instant before the mind, clear and vivid. Such clearness, we may well suppose, will the memory have in the Intermediate Life, as it recalls in that quiet stillness the actions of the past days on earth. Here is the first equipment then for the work of cleansing. All the evil things done in life, all the forgotten sins, in all their naked and uncouth colours, will stand undisguised before the mind. Nothing will escape the memory:—nothing. The days of childhood, of youth, of middle age, of elder years will give in their report. The soul will see things then as they are, no longer tricked out in false and flattering guise. There, in all their miserable littleness, and coarseness, and meanness, and cowardice, bygone sins will rise up before the stern tribunal of the unsparing memory, each as it was, each as it is, each asGodsaw it at the time, each asGodsees it now.
2. But this is not all. The souls of those who have received forgiveness in life, and have passed into the Intermediate State inGod’sfavour, are, we must remember, “with Christ”; with Christ, however imperfect their characters, however scarred with traces of former wounds of sin. The malefactor’s character at his death must have been full of blemishes, yet he was to be ushered and welcomed into Paradise by Christ Himself. S. Paul again and again spoke of his own departure at death as that which would lead him into the presence of Christ. It may, however, be suggested that to be with Christ is to be withGod, and that the vision of Christ must be the same thing as the vision ofGod. But the vision ofGodis specially reserved for the redeemed in heaven, while the vision of Christ is possible in Paradise; for where Christ is there is the vision of Christ. For Christ has assumed the form of man, and was seen as Man by men.But no man hath seen nor can seeGod. He dwells in the light which no man can approach unto. This is the vision of Him Who is to mortal eyes in His essence invisible. That vision will be granted to the pure in heart in the infinite glory of Heaven, granted to those who shall have become fitted to behold Him in Heaven. But He Who took our flesh was manifest in the flesh, and was seen, and touched, and handled. In that same body He rose from the dead; in that same glorified body He ascended into Heaven, to fill all things. And so after His Ascension He was seen by S. Stephen[63]and by S. Paul. That human nature, therefore, we are to believe is so present in Paradise that the sight of Him is vouchsafed even there to those who may be “with Him.”
What, then, follows from this? It follows that the soul will not only remember but also be able to judge of the past. For not only will it see its sins,but it will behold Christ also. It will see them, therefore, in the light of the perfect love, and most gracious sinlessness of Jesus Christ. It will look upon sin’s stains as they stand out in contrast with His purity, its ingratitude in contrast with His compassion. He will be the atmosphere of the soul’s existence. All the shame and dishonour, which in life the soul so complacently accepted, will then overwhelm it with self-reproach and very bitter compunction. This is what is meant by seeing sins asGodsees them. It is to see them as the soul will see them under the sense of the Presence of the Holy Christ. Then will the soul know its guilt as it never knew it before. The guilt of sin will then be no bare expression, no conventional formula, but a spiritual fact, not an abstract doctrine, but a concrete reality.
There will be revealed also to the soul the true meaning and significance ofGod’sprovidences in life, which at the time wereoverlooked, or slighted, or strangely misunderstood. Tokens ofGod’slove and care will then find their interpretation. The soul will see plainly why was this, wherefore was that, what that sorrow meant, what that loss, that parting from one who was more dear than life. The many perplexities which on earth misled the soul, of these the loving mercy and the gracious reason will then be seen.
And will there not be with the amazing surprise at these revelations a strange and unaccountable gladness? But, no less, at the thought of the soul’s past blindness and persistence in ill-doing, will there not be an exquisite pain? And the soul’s pain can be even more oppressive than the pain of the body. “Pain,” it may be asked, “in the Presence of Christ?” Yes, indeed! pain, because in the Presence of Christ; pain in remembering, and in the consciousness, new to the soul, of its utter unworthiness before Christ. The soul cannot fully feel it now, but itwill feel it then. The fire of His love will kindle a fire of loving self-reproach. The weight of a heavy shame to think of the past, and to know now of His beauty, and His love, and His care, care for so careless a soul, love for a soul so loveless,—this will sting with an extreme severity the soul humbled before Him. And here we should do well to remember that, as the characters of each differ almost infinitely, whereby there are innumerable shades and degrees of every conceivable distinction of merit and of sin, so the proportion and depth of the pains which the souls will feel will vary equally. The pains of no two souls will be exactly the same. They will be measured out, in subtle and exact aptness to each, according to its guilt or goodness, precisely as the process of its purification shall require. There will be nothing unjust, nothing capricious in them.
And thus the pain will surely be a very wholesome pain. What could more deepenpenitence? The pain of self-reproach for unworthiness, and the pain of the sense of goodness in the Presence of Jesus Christ,—these two pains will purify the soul. No work of sanctification has ever been wrought in any soul without suffering. And none ever will. Even Christ Himself was not made perfect, as Man, without suffering. But the suffering in Paradise will be accompanied with an exquisite delight and joy. Do we not know, even here on earth, how near to each other very often are joy and sorrow? He whose spirit is swelling with a great gladness has often a sense of an undercurrent of great pain along with it. How often tears and laughter go together! So, in that home of the disembodied soul, the very process of purification will be marked by an intensity of joy and an intensity of pain. They will be simultaneous. Nay! increasingly, it may be, they will deepen in the soul. The nearer the soul reaches its perfection the moreabounding may be its gladness, and the more piercing its compunction. Thus its very anguish will be a delight, and its very delight will be an anguish, and these will proceed, and advance, and increase until the soul is ripe for the Blessed Vision ofGodin Heaven. For He Which began the good work in the soul, here, in life, will, we may be very confident, never abandon it, nor suspend it, but will continue it and perfect it all through the after life, even until the day of Jesus Christ.
“Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit: in which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering ofGodwaited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.”—1Peter iii.18, 19, 20 (R.V.)
“Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit: in which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering ofGodwaited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.”
—1Peter iii.18, 19, 20 (R.V.)
So far we have considered the case of those who die in the favour ofGod, and, though as yet unfit for the vision ofGodin Heaven itself, are nevertheless capable of becoming so in the course of the Intermediate Life.
What, however, must be said of those who in life had light and knowledge ofGodand of His will, and yet hardened themselves againstGod; who were free, and in the exercise of their freedom rejectedGod? Of these unhappy souls, if there is no yielding of their will toGodin the Intermediate Life, if, and so far as,they have absolutely made themselves by the fixedness of their choice incapable of yielding, if after death they still hateGodand set the whole force of their determination against Him,—one can only fear that evenGodHimself cannot help them. On the supposition that the prerogative of free will, once for all given to man, must be respected byGod, we are driven to the belief thatGodcannot force the will. It is not thatGodchanges towards them. It is not necessary to suppose that He is even punishing them. He may still be in Himself all that He is to all, full of love towards them, full of pity, full of mercy. “His mercy is over all His works.” He can no more cease to be a Father to every man than He can cease to beGod. He hates nothing that He has made. But if the very knowledge and thought ofGod’slongsuffering patience serves only to harden and to exasperate, if it only stirs in the lost soul deeper pangs of inexorable hatred,then,—man being man andGodbeingGod,—what canGoddo? It is they who rejectGod, notGodWho is rejecting them. It is they who spurn Him, not He Who chastises them. He does not banish them from His Presence: it is they who banish Him from their presence. And if this defiance againstGodsurvives and lasts, if, as ages pass, it becomes more resolutely inveterate and set, what power can stop it, what love can soften it? And if it is never to be pacified, and never yields, what shall hinder it from going on up to and beyond the Day of Judgment? It may be said that such utter determination is a moral impossibility, that no will of man could finally defy and resist the love ofGod. If that be so, well! But on the assumption that it is not impossible, the inference which has been drawn is inevitable.
But there are others who in life have never heard of Christ, the millions of heathen in all ages and all lands sincethe world began, of whom it may truly be said that they never had a chance of salvation. To these may be added many who have indeed fallen in with Christianity, but with a Christianity of such a sort, presented to them in such a way, in such a form, and under such circumstances as almost naturally to create in their minds a really honest doubt and distrust of it. What shall be said of these honest unbelievers, and, scarcely through their own fault, blind? As to these, let us ask whether the doctrine of the Intermediate State can help to give us some better hope.
In the text,[72]we are told that Christ was put to death upon the Cross in the flesh, but was quickened in His humanSpirit, that is to say, that after His human Spirit left His Body it was still quick or alive. We know, from the Gospel of S. Luke, whither His human Spirit went. It went to Paradise. S. Peter now tells us what His Spirit did there. He tells us that it preached unto other spirits, and he names the spirits of those who for 120 years, while Noah was building the ark, were disobedient. They had rejected Noah, “the preacher of righteousness”[73]as S. Peter calls him; and now a greater Preacher went to preach to them. Further, we are told, that they were “in prison.” The word should rather be rendered “in safe keeping,” that is to say, still waiting, underGod’scare, for this visit of Christ’s human Spirit, when He should preach to them. Why the spirits of these men, who lived before the flood, are singled out for special mention, is a question that does not really bear upon the point which we have in hand.And we had better keep to that point, and not be tempted to digress. What then follows from this? Two things are clear,—first, that from as far back as the days before the flood, that is to say, from the very beginning of human life on earth, souls in the Intermediate State had been waiting in safe keeping all these many thousand years; and, secondly, that the disembodied soul of our Lord Jesus Christ visited them there and preached to them. Assuming that these souls had repented, however late, before they died, still we learn that something more than repentance was needful to them. In this case, it is clear that instruction was given to them. It would not have been given if it had not been necessary. And what instruction? Christ “proclaimed,” we are told, to them. What did He proclaim? Surely the good news of the Gospel,[74]which He had been proclaimingon earth by the voice of the Apostles. What else did He make known than the mystery of His Incarnation and the Atonement which He had wrought out upon the Cross, in bearing the sins of men, and their sins, too, who had so long been waiting in the Intermediate State, to hear it to their salvation? S. Peter, therefore, in another place, says, “For this cause,” that is, because Christ will Himself be the Judge of the living and the dead,—“for this cause wasthe Gospelpreached even to the dead.”[75]
Here, then, we have a set of facts which throw light upon some of the dark places of that unknown and unseen land, the Intermediate State. If we do justice to our Bibles we must regard these as facts, whether we can fully explain them or not. Scriptural facts they certainly are. What, then, can we learn from them? First, we seem to learn this,—that some provision is made in the IntermediateState for the salvation of those souls who in this life never heard of Christ, never had a chance, as we say, of salvation. And when we think of it, does it not seem to belong toGod’seternal justice that souls should not be condemned for that which they could not help? Every human soul must have had a chance of knowing Christ, before it can justly be punished for the consequences of not knowing Him. Countless millions in all ages, since the world began, in our own land, and in other lands, have never heard the good news of Jesus Christ in life. It is not so with us. With them it is and has been so. Christ preached to those who in safe keeping had been waiting long. Then is it not possible for such as those in all ages to receive the teaching in the Intermediate Life which they never received in this? Why should Christ preach to those and not to these?
This hope helps to solve that harassing enigma which perplexes and oppresses somany of us,—I mean, as to the condition and future destiny of the heathen, and the outcast, and the blind, and the ignorant. There, in that stillness of the disembodied life, souls may be taught and trained to know what they never could know in this life on earth, the wonders and the blessings of the life in Christ.
And, besides, do we not at least learn this from Christ’s preaching to these souls, that intercourse and communication ispossiblein the life after death, and will take place? And this suggests another aspect of the work in that life, besides the work of progressive cleansing and perfecting. The souls of the faithful rest from their labours. Yes! but they have also a work to do which can only be done then, the work of the soul’s purification. The work, however, which they can do for others is better than that which can be done for themselves. What can they do for the souls of others? Can they not do what Christ’s human spiritdid? Here on earth men are charged, not only with the care of their own souls, but with the care of the souls of others also. And why should they not be ambassadors for Christ there, if Christ’s work has to be done there? Here on earth He uses imperfect men to proclaim His Gospel. There, in that after life, if His Gospel is to be proclaimed to those that never heard it in this life, why should He not employ souls also, not yet perfected, upon the same happy task?
And may not this charge, laid on ministering souls in the Intermediate Life, help to solve another mystery—the mystery of many an early and, as we might think, untimely death? How often do we see a life cut short at the very climax of its best powers, in the very midst of its noblest service! All the earlier days had been directed, and had contributed to the perfection of the instrument, and then, just when its work was doing, came the sudden end. Was it not so to our BlessedLord Himself? May it not be said with due reverence that, if only His human life on earth had been prolonged, His teaching, and His miracles, and His sinlessness, and His love must have swayed and melted the hearts of men, even of those who so long and so stubbornly withstood Him? We might so think. But, just when His young life was at its prime of human excellence, He died, and His human Spirit passed to preach salvation to souls in the spirit land. So are souls, it may be, taken from us at the summit of their ripeness, but only to be transferred to another scene, and to be employed upon other work. Their labours change, but their works indeed do follow with them to that land where other souls of those who knew not Christ here may learn to know Him there, and knowing Him may choose Him, and choosing Him may be His and He theirs even to the end.
“Not handling the word ofGoddeceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight ofGod.”—2Cor.iv.2.
“Not handling the word ofGoddeceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight ofGod.”
—2Cor.iv.2.
The Scriptural doctrine of the Intermediate Life, as I have tried, so far, to set it forth, is a very different thing from what our Twenty-second Article calls “The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory.” The word “purgatory” simply means the sphere or life of cleansing. The Intermediate State, therefore, during which the soul is being purified and fitted for the vision ofGodin Heaven may be legitimately called “a purgatory.” But “The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory” means much more than this. It is a belief which, originating in what was true and Scriptural, gradually became so overlaid with subsequent additions, that the originaltruth was at length buried and lost sight of. What the Twenty-second Article condemns is not any and every conceivable doctrine concerning Purgatory, but the Romish doctrine only. And here it is well to note that all false beliefs which have had for any length of time a wide currency among men have been founded upon and have retained in them some element of truth. This it is which enabled them to survive: this and nothing else gives to error its vitality. These false beliefs are not mere error, but contain truth and error mixed together. The error perverts and makes void the truth; but without the truth the error could not live.
In the case of the doctrine of Purgatory, the true and Scriptural doctrine of the progressive purification of the soul in the Intermediate State is the element of truth on which has been based the Romish Doctrine of Purgatory. Wherein then lies the error of it?
1. In the first place, whereas the Bibleteaches, as we have seen, that every soul at death enters the Intermediate State, the souls of the greatest saints as well as the souls of the greatest sinners, “the Romish Doctrine” teaches that the souls of very many never enter the Intermediate State at all. The souls of the holy patriarchs of old, of Christian martyrs, and of canonized Saints, it is held, pass straight to heaven. On the other hand, the souls of those who die in mortal sin, and of excommunicated persons are believed to go straight to hell. Thus practically the Intermediate State is cancelled for these two classes. There remains, therefore, only one class which is supposed to enter the Intermediate State, those namely, who have died in venial sin. And since it is part of the Romish doctrine to regard Paradise as the same thing as Heaven, and to hold that the souls which alone enter Purgatory, after suffering due torments, pass direct out of Purgatory into Paradise or Heaven, it follows that in theIntermediate State are only those who are actually undergoing, for the time appointed, the pains of Purgatory. For all, therefore, eventually the Intermediate State is terminated at some time on this side of the Day of Judgment. Hence it came about that those who rejected the Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory rejected along with it the doctrine of the Intermediate State, since, virtually, Purgatory and the Intermediate State had been regarded as practically one and the same thing, as indeed they were in duration conterminous. In rejecting the one therefore, men unhappily but almost naturally rejected the other also.
2. Further, the pains which are felt in the process of purification, as has been shown, spring from within the soul itself, and are not necessarily or for all inflicted as a torment or punishment from without. Rather they arise from the soul’s own action upon itself, from its own pangs of shame and self-abasement, all deepenedand made more poignant by the ever increasing sense of the love of Jesus Christ, then as never before apprehended, and by the holy vision of His perfections. Thereby, as they gaze on Him, they are changed by the influence of the sight of Him, into greater likeness to Him. On the other hand, contrast with these the nature of the pains which the Romish Doctrine assigns to the souls in Purgatory. They are held in all cases to be penal, that is to say, inflicted byGodas punishment. The souls are said to suffer torments![84]Moreover these torments, as is taught in Roman Catholic treatises on the subject, are caused by literal and material flames, by actual fires which would feed on and consume corporeal substances such as the human body. But what enters the Intermediate State is the soul only, not the body: and, in the nature of things, the sufferings of the incorporeal part of our being can onlybe themselves incorporeal. The pains of the spirit can only be spiritual pains.
3. Again, the “Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory” is closely bound up with what are called in the Thirty-first Article “the Sacrifices of Masses,” and with the sale of “Pardons” or Indulgences, named in the Twenty-second Article. The character of the Romish doctrine, as of every other doctrine, must be tested by what has grown with its growth. It was held that by these “Sacrifices of Masses” and “Indulgences” souls, one by one, were released from Purgatorial fires sooner than, without their aid, they could be delivered, and thus were at once admitted to Paradise or Heaven.
What, however, does the Thirty-first Article precisely mean by “Sacrifices of Masses”? The expression is peculiar, and appears to have been designedly so shaped in order to be clearly distinguished from what is meant by the Sacrifice in the Mass, or Holy Communion. For thatthe Holy Communion has been held and taught by our chief English Divines to be a Sacrifice cannot well be disputed.[86]But the term “Sacrifices of Masses” was intended to signify what were called, at the time when the Article was drawn up, “Private Masses,” which were offered chiefly for souls in Purgatory, and in return for money payment. The Article refers to modes of speaking prevalent on the lips of men at the time. It condemns that which was “commonly said.” And what was it that was “commonly said”? It was commonly said that, while Christ’s death onthe Cross was indeed a propitiation for original or birth sin, on the other hand for daily sins, committed after Baptism, another propitiatory sacrifice was needed,viz., the “Sacrifice of the Mass.” Thus the Sacrifice of the Mass, which is not the same thing as the Sacrificeinthe Mass, was regarded as an addition to and distinct from the Sacrifice on the Cross, as indeed a repetition of it, having a propitiatory value of its own, which the Sacrifice on the Cross had not; just as though it were what Bishop Gardiner, in repudiating it, described as “a new Redemption.”[87]Hence it came about that the belief arose that Masses offered for specific purposes had more virtue for those purposes thanwhat was called “a Common Mass.” The practice, therefore, of offering “private Masses” for souls in Purgatory, as it was very lucrative, so it became very prevalent. Thus spiritual things were used for the purpose of bringing large money gains to the Chantry Priests, and what should be, and we may surely affirm was meant to be, for the common benefit of all became the narrow privilege of the few. For rich men could provide Masses for their dead friends and for themselves after death, which it was quite out of the power of the poor to provide.[88]
4. But a word also must be said about “Indulgences.” An Indulgence was an abatement or remission granted by the Church’s authority of some part of the temporal penance imposed by that authority upon an evil doer. If the guilty person should show sincere proofs of penitence, or by liberal giving of alms made satisfactory recompense for wrongs done, his penance might be eased, or the term of his excommunication shortened, and his Church privileges partly or wholly restored. It may well be understood how all this might be very wisely and fitly done. The authority which inflicted the penance may rightly have been entrusted with the power also of mitigating or removing it. But gradually this remission of the temporal punishment for sins done in the past became applicable, not seldom, to future sin also: and it soon was no uncommon thing to grant Indulgences for 500, or 10,000, and even for 50,000 years. And, since these long periods ofyears would, of course, extend beyond any man’s term of life on earth, it was obvious that they were intended to secure the remission, not indeed of the guilt of the sin, but of the temporal punishment of sin during all these years in Purgatory. Thus it was supposed that the best possible provision was made whereby the duration of the long years of torments due for sin in Purgatory might be curtailed. But worse remained. The Papal Court needed treasure. And in an evil moment permission was given that these Indulgences might be sold for money. Thus grew up an unholy traffic, which, as we all know, first roused in Germany the storm of the Reformation. Subsequently, the Papal authorities so far yielded as to forbid all taking of money for these Indulgences. But the system itself had meantime taken deep root. It continued, and continues to this day. It was, however, at its worst when the Twenty-second Article was drawn up.Can we be surprised that it sternly condemned it? It is all a pitiful history. But it was necessary to refer to it in order both to show how the growth of the Romish Doctrine of Purgatory gradually gathered round it mischievous accretions, and also to prove how little the belief, that in the Intermediate State there is a progressive advance of the soul in holiness towards perfection, is like the Romish teaching and practice.
But it would be an act of disloyalty to the truth, and of cowardice into the bargain, if we should abandon or minimize a truth because it has been by some corrupted and perverted. Many a truth which has come down to us may have lost some of the fresh lustre of its early purity. But all the same, if it is the truth we cannot let it go. And that truth which tells us something of the land, now beyond our sight, to which our dear ones have already passed, which we shall each of us ourselves soon enter—the truth whichGodhas made known to us in Holy Scripture about this land, we cannot afford to ignore and disregard. Nothing is easier than to discredit such a truth by raising the cry of Popery. It is one of the penalties which those have to pay who seek to disentangle the truth which He has in His Church revealed from the untruth which has wrapped it round.
But we must not shrink from this duty. In days when principles are questioned, and almost all truths disputed, we must, at all hazards, learn to keep our sight clear and our footing steady. For the Lord is our Light and our Salvation. Whom then shall we fear? The Lord is the strength of our life: of whom then shall we be afraid?[92]
“The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.”—2Tim.i.18.
“The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.”—2Tim.i.18.
We must now bring to a close the discussion which has been occupying our attention: not that everything has been said that can or ought to be said about it; for the interest of the subject grows with the handling of it, as the various features of it open out to view.
So far we have been dealing with the condition of the faithful dead as it affects themselves, with the mode of their own conscious life in the Intermediate State, and with the nature of their own progressive advance towards perfection. But there is another aspect of the question, about which nothing has hitherto been said, I mean, their relation to us who are still living on earth. A few words, andthey must be very few, must be said on this point. It is asked, for example, whether the veil has completely shut out all knowledge of what is passing on earth from those who have gone to their rest. No doubt, we can know very little about this. But, at all events, we do not know enough to warrant us in saying with any confidence that they are aware of nothing that is going on here. It is true that, as has been said, the door that opens between this life and that life only “open inwards,” and that none have come back to tell us what in that after life they knew about us and about our doings on earth. Yet this ignorance of ours is not the same thing as knowledge of the contrary, any more than silence is always equivalent to denial. Because we cannot see with our eyes, nor hear with our ears, and cannot, by our actual senses, put the question to the test, we are not on this account justified in denying. Do we not know almost nothing as to the limits of the powers of thespirit world? All we can say, so far as reason can be our guide, is this, that it ispossiblethat souls in the Intermediate State, if they are conscious of themselves and of their present condition, if they retain memory, if they have means of holding intercourse with one another, may have means of knowing what goes on here: I say that reason will tell us that this is at least possible, and that it is quite impossible to prove the contrary.
But does the Bible throw any light upon this mysterious subject? I think it does. It will be remembered how, in the narrative of the rich man and Lazarus, Abraham is made to say to the rich man, “They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them.” We may ask, how could Abraham, who lived more than 400 years before the birth of Moses, have known of the existence of Moses, if there were no possible means of communication, by which occurrences on earth could be made known in the unseenworld where Abraham was? What could he know of the prophets who lived more than a thousand years after his time, if no possible communication could find its way to that other world?[96]And we may trust this inference because, in a narrative of this kind, whether it be historical or not, it is not to be supposed that our Lord would have introduced a false detail.
Let us, however, turn to another passage. In the scene on the Mount of the Transfiguration there appeared, talking with Christ, Moses and Elijah. In what condition were they present? They werestill in the Intermediate State. The general Resurrection had not, and has not yet, come. “In glory” they appeared. Yes! some outward clothing, as of a bodily form, gloriously radiant was thrown round them, so that they became visible for the time to the eyes of the three disciples. But in no resurrection bodies did they come; for in those they could not yet present themselves, since they had not yet received them. And what was the theme of their conversation? They spoke, we are told, with Christ concerning the exodus or “death, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.” But how could they speak fitly of this great theme, if they had no knowledge of the circumstances which were leading to it, of the nature of Christ’s Incarnate Life on earth, and something at least or the real significance, known fully to the mind ofGodonly, of His approaching death? They must have known not only of each other, who and what they had been historicallyin their own generation, but also what was now passing on earth, the course and connection of prophecies and types, and the succession of events in history which had led up to this climax of the fulness of time.
Thus we see that the hearts of these two visitants,—visitants not from Heaven, but from Paradise,—were fastened with a keen interest and strained attention upon the unfolding of that wondrous Life of Christ. His works and words were the theme of their adoring contemplation. May we not learn then, that what these two great Saints could do was, therefore, at least a possible thing to do, and, according to the will ofGod, a thing which others might also do?[98]If so, the barrierbetween Paradise and earth is so far transparent on that further side, that whatGodpermits souls in the Intermediate Life to know, that they do actually see and know of the occurrences that are passing here.[99]
But I must hasten to the answer of another question. Do they pray for us? Surely that question is as good as answered by what has just been said. If those who have gone from our sight are still permitted to know what it may be good for them to know of the trials and sorrows, the hopes and fears, the temptations and the warfare to which we, whom they loved so well and still love, are exposed on earth, we are sure that they take thought of us and pray for us. Shall not they whose eyes are opened,now that they are with Christ, care for and pray for those whom they have left behind, tossing still upon the troubled seas, and buffeted by the vexing winds and storms of this earthly life?
They are, moreover, “with Christ.” What does this really imply,—to be “with Christ”? It must mean at least this, that, where Christ is, there is the Church. And Christ, though He has ascended to the Right Hand ofGod, is still in a true sense in Paradise also. For “He filleth all in all.”[100a]S. Stephen, before his death, prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Our Lord, therefore, must have been there in Paradise to receive it. S. Paul, long after our Lord’s Ascension, knew that to die was better than to live, because it was to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.[100b]But if Christ is there, He must be the object of the worship of those who are also there. So then if Christ be there, and the Churchis there, and worship is offered there, then it follows that the whole energy of Church life is there. The souls in Paradise are not so many isolated and individual units. The Church unites them. They are organised in the exercise of worship, sustained, as it surely is, in unfailing and perpetual intensity. As the incense of our worship rises here, it blends with the incense that ascends to Christ there. The Church is militant on earth, it is expectant in Paradise, it will be hereafter triumphant in Heaven. Yet these are not three Churches, but one Church. And this helps us to see more clearly what is meant by the Communion of Saints. The Church on earth and the Church in Paradise are one, and one thrill of spiritual communion vibrates through its members there and here.
But is prayer to be one sided? Communion is not one sided. And communion implies that what they do for us, we should also do for them. This brings us to onemore question. May we, then, pray for those who have passed on before us? Let us plainly say that there is every reason for and none against the practice. We have in favour of it the sanction of Bible witness, of primitive Church custom, of Christian and human instinct.
In the Jewish synagogues in our Lord’s time, prayers for the dead formed part of the service.[102]Our Lord therefore, Who regularly frequented the synagogue worship, must have been present at times when prayers for the dead were used. If He had disapproved of such prayers, He must have condemned the use of them. But did He? He did not. We have then His tacit sanction of them. S. Paul again, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, must have warned the Gentiles against the practice, unless he approved of it. But so far from that, there is every reason to suppose that he himself prayed for Onesiphorus. According to the best commentators, Onesiphoruswas dead when S. Paul wrote the words quoted in the text, “The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day,”viz., in the Day of Judgment.[103a]He does not pray for temporal blessings, for health, or even for grace. If it was too late to pray for these things, this omission is quite intelligible.
The earliest Church Liturgies contained in them prayers for the dead.[103b]And the earliest Christian writers, as well as the inscriptions on tombs bear such witness to the existence of this primitive practice, that it cannot be disputed. It is true that our English Prayer Book neither expressly sanctions nor yet expressly forbids these intercessions. But in the Liturgy, in the Litany, and in the Burial Service, prayers occur which appear to have been purposely so worded, as to lend themselves to a reference in the minds of worshippers to the faithful dead, if any should desire so toapply them. Bishop Cosin, one of the chief compilers of our present Prayer Book, writes that the words, “that we and Thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of His Passion,” occurring in our Liturgy, are to be understood to refer as well to “those who have been here before,” that is to say, who have died in the Lord, as to those “that are now members of it,” that is, who still are living.[104]
And is not the custom reasonable? Are we to pray for those whom we dearly love up to the very last moment of their life, and then for ever to refrain? We could understand this on the supposition that death was the end of all things, or that at death there followed an immediate heaven or an instant hell; but not if the process of purification and of real Church life are continuing after death. And Christian instinct urges it.Godis a Father. As children we ought to tell Him all that isin our heart. Whatever we may rightly desire we may rightly pray for. It is only that which we ought not to desire that we ought not to pray for. It is not right to pray that they may, as by a miracle, be restored to us; that is not the will ofGod. Nor is it right that we should seek by occult and forbidden ways to hold converse with them. But we may surely ask for them what S. Paul asked for his friend, that they may find mercy in that day, that they may have rest and peace and light and refreshment, the joy of Christ’s Presence, and the gladness of a blessed Resurrection.
And now these words must be brought to a close. The arguments which have been urged rest upon the very language of Holy Scripture, or upon legitimate inferences from it. What then? If they are worthy of trust, to accept them is to rob death of half its fears and alarms. It is the unknown that inspires terror. To know but a little more than we beforeknew of the land in which those who have gone before now sojourn, is to gather fresh courage to face it with less misgiving for them and for ourselves. They have passed on, but they await us there. They are only hidden from us for a little while. Their voices are silent. But their life is as real a life as ours. No dull oblivion weighs them down. They live and think and see and know,—know, it may be, more of us than we think, know as much of us as it is for their happiness to know. A little while and we also shall know as they know, and see as they see, in the home and resting place of vision and of peace.
[5]Rev. xxi. 27.
[8]2 Cor. v. 10.
[14]Acts xxiv. 15.
[15]See Luckock, “The Intermediate State,” pp. 14, 15.
[17]S. John xx. 17.
[19]The expression is borrowed from the custom among the Jews of reclining instead of sitting at a banquet. The guest was stretched upon a couch, his left elbow resting upon a cushion close to the table, his feet being towards the outer side of the couch, which was away from the table. By slightly bending back his head he could touch with it the breast of the guest on his left hand, and speak to him in a low voice. Thus S. John bent back upon our Lord’s breast at the Last Supper to ask Him, “Lord, who is it?” and is therefore spoken of as “he who leant upon His breast at supper.” To sit therefore, or to rest in the bosom of Abraham, represented the happy lot of those who had passed to Paradise.
[23]Mozley, Univ. Serm., p. 155.
[24a]Isaiah xxxiii. 17.
[24b]Psalm xvi. 11.
[24c]1 John iii. 2.
[25a]1 Peter v. 4.
[25b]1 John iii. 2.
[25c]Col. iii. 4.
[25d]2 Tim. iv. 3.
[26]Advent Sermon, “The Day of the Lord.”
[28]Rev. vi. 9, 10, 11 (Revised Version).
[34a]1 Thess. v. 23. But the A.V. hardly brings out the full force of the distinction. The definite article has a possessive force, as if it were “yourspirit,yoursoul,yourbody”; as though the spirit was as distinct from the soul as each of them is distinct from the body.
[34b]Heb. iv. 12.
[34c]1 Cor. ii. 14.
[35a]1 Cor. xv. 44.
[35b]S. James iii. 15.
[35c]Jude 19.
[35d]Gen. ii. 7.
[37]Mason, “Faith of the Gospel,” p. 85.
[41a]For example, Acts vii. 60; S. John xi. 11, 14; 1 Thess. v. 14; 1 Cor. xv. 18, 20.
[41b]Rev. xiv. 13.
[43]Phil i. 21.
[44]1 Peter iii. 18.
[47]Isaiah i. 2.
[63]See p. 100infra.
[72]In the A.V. the words in v. 18 are printed differently from the R.V. In the former the reading is “quickened by the Spirit,” as though S. Peter meant to assert, that it was by the special operation ofGodthe Holy Ghost that our Lord, after He died upon the Cross, still lived. But this rendering entirely destroys the evident antithesis which is marked in the contrast between “put to death” and “quickened,” and between “flesh” and “spirit.” That antithesis limits the effect of Christ’s death to His human Body, while His human Spirit was still alive.
[73]2 Peter ii. 5.
[74]The same word is used constantly in the N.T. for the special proclamation of the Gospel.
[75]1 Peter iv. 6.
[84]Thus the Catechism of the Council of Trent states that “There is a Purgatorial Fire where the souls ofthe righteousbeing tormented are purified.”
[86]In the Holy Communion the priest and the people offer to the Father “the one full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.” The Christian Society is called in 1 Peter ii. 9, a “royalpriesthood,” (Βασίλειου ιερατευμα), and in Rev. i. 6 “kings andpriests to God.” (Βασιλεις και ιερεις); and as ιερατευμα and ιερεις are sacrificial terms, it is to be inferred that a Sacrifice is really offered by them. As Christ perpetually, being a “Priest forever,” and therefore “having of necessity something to offer” for ever (Heb. viii. 3), presents in the Holy Place not made with hands, in Heaven itself, the Sacrifice of Himself before the eyes of the Father, so, at every Altar on earth, the “kings and priests” being a sacrificing priesthood, represent and commemorate the same sacrifice and none other, a sacrifice which never can be repeated.
[87]See Dr. Maclear on the Articles, p. 368. If the Sacrifice on the Cross served one purpose and effected one propitiation, and the Sacrifice of the Mass another, then the inference is that they were themselves, so far, different things. It was the same Body of Christ which was offered in each case, but the sacrifices of the same Body were different. Therefore the Sacrifice of the Mass was a repetition of the Sacrifice on the Cross for a distinct object and a distinct purpose. It was supplementary, and supplied a defect which the Sacrifice on the Cross failed to supply!
[88]What has been said on the subject of “The Sacrifices of Masses” for souls in Purgatory must not be understood as implying that the Sacrifice in the Holy Communion has no efficacy, when pleaded in behalf of the souls in the Intermediate State. To use the words of Bishop Forbes, “The application of the Blessed Eucharist to the departed must in our Church stand and fall with the practice of prayers for the dead. In its aspect of the great oblation, the Holy Communion may be considered as prayer in its most intense and highest form. If it is unlawful to pray for the faithful departed, it must be unlawful to remember them in the sacred mysteries; but, if the first be permitted, the second must be so likewise.” (Article XXXI., p. 63.) The subject of Prayers for the Dead is dealt with in the next Address, page 101sq.
[92]Psalm xxvii. 1.
[96]A friend has suggested that Moses and the prophets may, one after the other, have reported to Abraham the occurrences on earth in which they had severally themselves taken part, and that, therefore, we have in this narrative no more than an illustration of the mutual intercourse which exists in the Intermediate Life. To this it may be replied that this suggestion, so far from discrediting, really confirms the argument in the sermon. The suggestion is an attempt to explain the mode by which knowledge of what passes here is attained, which is certainly no disproof of the existence of such knowledge. But it is safer to say that, some how or other, the denizens of the Intermediate State do probably know, as Abraham certainly knew, occurrences on earth.
[98]Both these illustrations are, I find, referred to by Canon McColl in his “Life Here and Hereafter,” pp. 105, 106. But may I presume to question the value of his illustration of our Lord’s knowledge of what was said, in His absence, on the way to Emmaus, and by S. Thomas? Our Lord’s knowledge after His Resurrection, and indeed at any time, is scarcely on a level with the knowledge possessed by souls in the Intermediate State of what passes on earth.
[99]There is so much doubt as to the bearing upon this point of the words in Hebrews xii. 1, that I have not referred to it. Yet I would suggest that the comparison of our life on earth to the endeavours of the runners in the games of the amphitheatre implies that those efforts are made under the gaze of a cloud of spectators. The existence of the spectators, and their interest in the contests, are integral facts in the similitude, and essential elements in it.
[100a]Eph. i. 23.
[100b]2 Cor. v. 8.
[102]See 2 Macc. xii. 44, 45.
[103a]See Plummer, Expositor, Pastoral Epp., p. 324.
[103b]Forbes on 39 Articles, p. 612.
[104]See the note on p. 88, Address viii.supra.