Many mansions : sermons on the future life

Front matter

Se a aS

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JOHN MacNEILL

Foreword

The sermons contained in this volume constitute a series, delivered in the ordinary course of my ministry, on successive Sunday evenings during the first three months of the present year. They were prepared from week to week amid the pressing duties of a heavy pastorate. Retaining as they do the form of direct, spoken messages, whatever appeal they carry is quite apart from any literary excellence for which they make no claim. The _ preacher’s aim, in their delivery, was rather to bring the mighty sanctions of the unseen world to bear upon the minds and hearts of his hearers. ‘That this aim was achieved, he had abundant proof in that the Holy Spirit blessed these sermons in the conversion of men and women, and in the comforting of many sorrowing and uncertain souls. If similar blessing shall come to his readers through this printed page, he will be well content, though no one more clearly recognizes how many questions have been left unanswered. Vi vill FOREWORD

It was fitting that the series should culminate on Easter Sunday with the message of Christ’s resurrection, and though the resurrection of Jesus is not an event of the future, it may justly be included in this discussion since His empty grave is the chief pledge of all our future hope.. Wide reading over many years on the subject of the future life has made me debtor to more minds than one is consciously aware. ‘To the obligations of which I am aware, and which herein are recognized, let me add my grateful acknowledgment of those of which, like every other preacher, I am unaware. To the known and to the unknown — my thanks alike are due.

Let me add that this volume would never have taken form but for the urgent demands of my people at Walmer Road who desired, first of all, to repeat these messages to a wider congregation and, in the second place, to commemorate in this way the twenty happy and abundant years we have had together in the fellowship of the gospel.

JOHN MacNEILL.

Contents

I

Is Tuoere a Furure Lire?. .. ....

“If a man die shall he live again?”—Job 14:14

II

“And spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem”—Luke 9:31

IIl

“And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise”—Luke 23: 43

“That they without us should not be made perfect”— Heb. 11:40

IV

“And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him.”—Matt. 17:3

Vv

Do THe Dwrap Serve Use ici eS ewes

“But ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to ys CONTENTS an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.”—Heb. 12: 22-23

VI

“Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.”—Acts 1:11

VII

“But some man will say: How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?—l1l Cor. 15:35

Vill

Is THere a RECKONING? Le Vioke

“When the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.”—Matthew 25: 31-32

IX

“Then said one unto Him, ‘Lord, are there few that be saved?’ ”—Luke 13:23

Xx

“And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”—Matt. 25: 46

PAGE

CONTENTS XI

XI Wuat ann Wuere Is Heaven?. . . .. 1.) 198

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”’—Reyv. 21:2