Here and here after ...

Chapter I. Introductory

tTT HE Bible reveals comparatively little, in @) I (g> detail, concerning the future life. It does declare plainly and emphatically that " man dieth to live again," but gives no specific detail of what is meant by " living again," or of what shall be the special conditions, employments and pleasures of the life that succeeds this. Mention is made therein of heaven and of hades ; of " the Holy City, New Jerusalem," with gates of pearl and streets of gold, and of a " bottomless pit " and " outer darkness ; " of the blessedness of the saved and the wailings of "the lost ; " but all this is spoken in general terms, figurative in their use, and not in plain, specific language. Paul declares that the things which " God hath prepared for those who love Him," are wonderful beyond the power of description or the reach of imagination ; and John, the Revelator, exhausts language in his attempt to set forth the beauties of " the Holy City, New Jerusalem/' and the beatitudes of those who dwell therein; but neither Paul nor John goes into any detail of personal condition of powers, pleasures ojr employments. The Revelator assures us that in that city "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and death shall be no more ; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more ; and there shall be no curse any more ; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein ; and His servants shall do Him service ; and His name, shall be on their foreheads ; and they shall see His face ; and there shall be no more night ; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun ; for the Lord God shall give them light ; and they shall reign for ever and ever ; " but all this is simply bewildering to our limited comprehension and weak imagination. Out of it thousands have formed theories and drawn pictures of that city and its inhabitants unseen, but the theories have been as various as the men who formed them, and the pictures have always borne the coloring of the personal desires of those who drew them.

Even more vague and destitute of detail are Scripture statements concerning those who are "lost," whether as to their being cast into

" outer darkness " or engulfed in the " bottomless pit." The great Teacher, Jesus, speaks of this " outer darkness " as a place of " weeping and gnashing of teeth," but leaves it there without indicating its details if literal or its meaning if figurative ; and the Revelator refers to the " bottomless pit" — or " pit of the abyss," as it reads in the new version — rather as the prison-house of Satan, or the abyss out of which cometh evil to curse the world and its inhabitants, than as an abode for human souls ; but the figurativeness of the expression is too evident to require argument of the fa<5l. We also read in the Revelation that " the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone ; which is the second death ; " but the boldness of the figure only bewilders as to its meaning. Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, says : God *will render to every man according to his deeds ; to them that by patience in well doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life ; but unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek ; but glory and honor and peace to every one that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek ; for there is no respe6t of persons with God; " but there is no evidence that Paul is not here speaking of this life, or, at the most, is only laying down a principle that appertains to life everwhere. And thus we may search through the Scriptures, finding much of general statement, but not finding that definiteness of detail, specifically applied, which is essential to clear understanding. It is true, however, that many claim to find this definiteness of detail in the Scriptures, but the f a6t is that the detail is of their own construction, existing only in the theories which they have invented out of the general Scripture statements, and which they mistake for Scripture ; and these details bear far more traces of the peculiar ideas of the human inventor than they do of a divine revelation. The truth is that the Scriptures do not attempt any detailed statement of the life to come, and therein offer one of the strongest of arguments for the divineness of their origin ; for, had they been originated by the mere human, they would have been full of theories respe6ling the conditions, employments and pleasures of the soul in the great hereafter, like the pretended revelations of Mohammed.

That the Scriptures explicitly set forth the fa6l of a future state of existence is to be freely admitted. Especially is this true of the New Testament Scriptures. Jesus speaks of it in emphatic terms. He assured his disciples that in his " Father's house are many mansions," and that he would go and prepare a place for them, into which he would eventually receive them ; but he gave no detail of what those mansions are, nor of the life to be lived within them. Like all the Scripture writers, he contented himself with general terms ; and yet there are many things we desire to know concerning the future life ; things we must know before we can form any definite conception of it, or make befitting preparation for it. What bodies shall we have in that life? It signifies little, in answer to this question, to be told that we shall have spirit or spiritual bedies ; for we know nothing of such bodies and have nothing with which to compare them. Outside of these material bodies which we possess here, we can form no conception of bodily form for a human soul. Shall we, then, in spirit life still possess material bodies ? The nearest answer to this are the words of

Jesus, after his resurrection, to his terrified disciples, when he said to them: "Handle me, and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have ; " and yet all that Jesus really said here was that " a spirit hath not flesh and bones " as he had them ; not in the gross material form of this life ; but this does not preclude the possibility of a spirit having the equivalent for " flesh and bones '" in its bodily form, nor the possibility of that equivalent being of material substance, as will be shown in its proper place. It is neither wise nor befitting to crowd meaning into a passage of Scripture beyond what the plain meaning of the words convey. And yet we are desirous to know, and it is right that we should know, about spirit bodies more than the general terms of Scripture tell us.

Other equally important questions come up for an answer. Shall we know each other in the future life, love each other, live singly or in family groups, cultivate social ties and associations, or find in ourselves an individual sufficiency that leaves no demand or place for outside relations ? Jesus said : " In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels ; " but who can or will tell us how the angels "are?" This answer of Jesus leaves us as much in ignorance as it found us. General in statement, it leaves all detail to speculation. And then, too, what language shall we use in the spirit land ? What means of communication shall we possess there ? What facilities for movement, what opportunities for intellectual culture, what aids for spiritual growth, what occupations and what sources of enjoyment ? Where shall we find the answers to these questions ? It is true the Scriptures give hints and passing allusions from which we may draw conclusions or upon which we may build theories, but they offer us no plain and positive declarations upon these points. Nor is this surprising,' when rightly understood. The Scriptures do not profess to teach us science nor those facts of daily life which we can easily find out for ourselves. Their aim is to teach us moral and religious truth ; to deal mainly with the moral and religious phases of human life ; to touch chiefly upon the spiritual condition and wants <pf the human soul ; to point out the way of happiness for time and for eternity ; and hence they lay stress only upon such human relations and duties as bear directly upon our obligations toward God and •our fellow-men. All the rest they pass over in comparative silence, touching them only incidentally with hints and passing allusions.

Is it asked, why do not the Scriptures, if of divine origin, go more into detail of those things which concern every day-life, and especially of those things relating to the life to come ? The answer is simple : There is no need of it. The Scriptures were not given to teach us what we already know, or may know for the asking. All the questions we have raised or can raise concerning the future life find their answers written unmistakably plain in the fa6ls of this life. The reason these answers have not been found is that they have not been sought after where they could be found. Believers in the Bible as an infallible revelation from God, have a6led upon the supposition that outside of the Bible nothing could be learned concerning a future state of existence ; disbelievers in the Bible as a divine revelation, have sought to demonstrate a future existence by purely scientific methods ; and hence each party has built a one-sided structure and, therefore, neither has built wisely or well. Human life is so broad and comprehensive, embracing body, mind and spirit, and having to do with the material and the immaterial, living through eternity in sections of time, that both the seen and the unseen, the natural and the supernatural, must enter into any theory which is to corre6tly set forth its career. Hence we need a revelation of the unseen to aid and supplement the seen in order to detail life here and hereafter. With the Bible in one hand and the book of this life in the other hand, we are prepared to sit down for the solution of the entire problem of human life.

It is well for us, therefore, to enter upon an inquiry into the Here and the Hereafter. If, by any means, we can lift mankind out of the crude thinking of the past, and by a simple,, plain setting forth of the truth, plant their feet upon a foundation approved by their judgment and satisfying to their cravings for immortality, we shall have done a good work. Mankind have a right to an answer to every question that legitimately concerns their future state of existence. Even divine wisdom could not be justified in making us immortal beings, sending us into time for a brief period in the formation of character, and then ushering us into the wider scenes of eternity, without any positive knowledge in detail of what that eternity has in store for us. Still less. can we see of wisdom in any arrangement in.

which this life is to mould and shape our character for that eternity and decide our happiness or misery, while it is impossible for us to know beforehand the conditions and possibilities of experiences which await us there. But divine wisdom is guilty of no such mistakes or unfairness. Ample provisions have been made for answering reasonable questions concerning life in the great hereafter. The curtain which seems to shrowd the future can easily be lifted, and lifted so high that our gaze may penetrate down the ages of that future. We can get clear, distinct, detailed, Scripturally-scientinc conception of ■" the land unseen." And then shall we learn that Scripture and science are leaves out of the same book, and life here and hereafter one unbroken chain of continued existence. To-day is the prelude of to-morrow, and the now is the full and complete prophesy of the then.

Chapter II. Independent Searchers After The Truth

fN the discussion of this subject, no attempt: will be made to produce an exhaustive treatise. Nothing further will be sought than to awaken thought, stimulate research, and, so far as possible, induce the reader to think and to investigate for himself. To prove everything beyond the need of further investigation is not the most helpful to mankind; for we neither fully master nor appreciate what we receive without thought or the necessity of research. He is the wisest and best leader, who points out the way, throws out helpful hints, gives the required fa6ls, and then lays the burden of working out the problem upon those who are to be benefited by it. The teacher who follows this rule will succeed best in making scholars out of his pupils, as also will the preacher by it succeed in building up an intelligent congregation. What the world needs to-day is stimulators of thought, rather than exhaustive writers.

Men of small mental development and of smaller understanding are clamoring for complete works, where all is thought out, demonstrated, arranged and indexed so that the reader will have no need of thought and no place for raising a query; and they do this without realizing that whatever is thus received will be neither mentally digested nor pra6lically assimilated; for, only what we think over, and, more or less, think out, really enters into and helps build up and strengthen our mental structure. This is fully shown in many of our schools, into which young men and young women enter, study for a series of years, and then graduate with a memorized accumulation of what others have written about art and science, but with no real perception themselves of what art and science are in principle and pra6tice. Others have done the thinking, and these students have only been furnishing storage. Hence we have hosts of school graduates, but comparatively few real scholars. So in the school of religion, comparatively few can "give a reason for the hope within them," or an intelligent explanation of the creed to which they subscribe; and the reason for this is that for years they have been fed, from the pulpit, with religious food, cooked, seasoned and served by the minister, Sabbath after Sabbath, without any special thought on their part, or any critical analysis of what they have taken in, and, therefore, have been wholly unable to mentally digest or spiritually assimilate. Such a course may seem to enhance the importance of the teacher and the preacher by attaching authority to their words, but it does not make such scholars as the duties of this world require, nor such Christians as God demands for the setting up •of the Kingdom of righteousness among men We ask, therefore, that those who follow us in this investigation, shall take the attitude of independent thinkers and sincere inquirers after the truth. _Nor should they heed or fear the charge of heterodoxy, which is so freely hurled at any man who dares to step out of the beaten track of religious teaching.

Shrewd religious teachers, in all ages of the world, have clearly perceived that the only means by which a se6l is to be kept inta6l, and unquestioned adherence to a formulated creed maintained, is to keep the people from thinking for themselves, or from attempting to forge their own opinions out of the ore of truth; and lest there might be revolt, the stigma of heterodoxy was invented to stamp with opprobrium, all who dare call in question the creed and tenets these religious teachers have laid down. But who is. to determine what is orthodox and what is. heterodox? Among the so-called orthodox teachers of the world there is no agreement. They have broken the religious world into sedrts, with creeds widely at variance and often antagonistic. All can not be right, in an orthodox sense: for Webster defines orthodoxy as " a belief in the genuine doctrines taught in the Scriptures;" and it is evident that all these varying and antagonistic church creeds can not be "genuine do6lrines taught in the Scriptures." How, then, shall we know which is orthodox and which is heterodox, unless we examine for ourselves? And, since good men, learned men, honest men, differ so widely and so antagonistically, may it not be that all are mistaken in some particulars, and that the real, unadulterated truth remains to be found out? This thought seems to give us warrant for fresh investigation, even along new lines of thought, if we pursue it in modesty and sincerity. It is yet to be shown who are the true orthodox teachers of Bible truth, and it becomes us all to be modest in our claims to orthodoxy. In the mean time, we should accept whatever comes to us with convincing power; for to be honest with ourselves we must accept as truth whatever impresses us with its truthfulness, even though this maycompel us to cut loose from some old moorings of belief.

In investigating a subject like this,, we are not to expe6l to demonstrate with the clearness and positiveness of a mathematical problem, or with exactness of a chemical analysis. Aside from the statements given us in the Scriptures, our investigation into a future life must rely mainly upon analogy; and analogy, while lacking in the definiteness and conclusiveness of some other kinds of argument, is abundantly able to furnish grounds for an intelligent and reasonable belief. Bishop Butler, Arch-deacon Paley and other eminent thinkers and writers have used it with convincing effect. In all our systems of logic it holds an important place, while in theological discussions it has ranked second only to the positive declarations of Scripture. With Jesus, the greatest, wisest and best teacher this world has ever known, it was a favorite method of teaching, illustrating and enforcing truth.. We shall, therefore, use it freely in our further investigation of this subje6t, and confidently rely upon its conclusions. And we here begin

B with it as a warrant for our hope of finding a fuller knowledge of the conditions, associations, employments and enjoyments of the future life than has heretofore been attained. No one supposes that we have reached the ultimatum of science. Though the keenest, brightest, most clearsighted minds this world has ever produced, have been searching, testing, drawing conclusions and putting forth their proclamations, for centuries, still new light is breaking in, new discoveries are being made, leading to corrections, emendations and sometimes entire changes in what previously was supposed to be true. Nor is the end of these yet reached; they are going on every day; and we style this " scientific advancement," and arrogate glory to this nineteenth century as a consequence. Without hesitation we hail each new scientific discovery with delight, and rejoice in the thought that thus we are being brought nearer to the real truth.

Well, here are the great truths referred to in the Scriptures, taking in time and eternity, God and humanity, life and death, existence here and hereafter, powers angelic and divine, the eternal welfare of that soul which we can neither see nor comprehend, the attributes of the infinite Sovereign of the universe with all

His plans, purposes and provisions of mercy and justice, and that sublimest of manifestations of the Christ of God among men, a manifestation so unfathomable that Paul says angels can not comprehend it, and because some finite, fallible man or set of men has written out a statement of what they understand to be the sum and substance of these truths, we are called upon to subscribe to their statement or be branded as heretics! If absurdity has sounded a deeper depth than this, the human mind has failed to perceive it! No science is so far-reaching, so all-embracing, so interwoven with man's destiny for time and for eternity, as the spiritual science set forth in the Bible. To suppose that, as yet, any man has comprehended it in its fullness, or that any set of men has fathomed ail its depths, is beyond all reasonable belief. If any science, in this world or in the next, is to be progressive in its comprehension by the human mind, certainly this science must be chief in that respect; and no greater folly can be committed than to pin one's faith to a creed made two or three centuries ago. Either the intellectual advancement of an hundred years has brought us an hundred years nearer to a correct understanding of Scripture teaching and spiritual truth, or else the religious world has fallen immeasurably behind the scientific. No age has ever been so well prepared to formulate creeds and write commentaries on the Scriptures as is this ; and in doing so it is reasonable to expe6t, not only new statements but also new ideas, with copious corrections and emendations of the old. Already our conceptions of God, of His fatherhood and attitude toward mankind, are materially changed from those held a century ago ; and corresponding changes are taking place in our conceptions of the possibilities and destiny of the human soul.

Now, these changes are taking place, not because the Scriptures are untrue, but because we are coming to a better understanding of their meaning; nor will these changes set aside the Scriptures, but rather verify and utilize them. As yet we are in the dawn of theological truth ; we have only entered the vestibule of its temple ; and the revelations yet to come will transcend immeasurably those of the present. With increased capacity for mental conception, and enlarged power of comprehension, and intensified sensibility of spiritual intuition, we shall reach out into the deeper things of God's eternal truth and find that Paul spoke advisedly as he looked down the future and prophetically said : " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." The analogy of unfolding scientific knowledge fully warrants this, and we may confidently expe6l it. By this, however, it is not meant that the fundamentals will change any more than they do in other sciences ; for the underlaying principles are eternal and never change ; but the theoretical edifices we build out of those principles may be, more or less, consumed, because so intermixed with " hay, wood or stubble " as to be unable to stand the testing fire of truth. It ought to content us to know that out of the ashes of the consumed will arise other .and more beautiful ones.

Analogy will be found especially useful and reliable in searching out the methods of God as seen in His laws. He is one, " the same yesterday, to-day and forever," working out a plan without change or variableness. Finding what He does to-day, we find what He will always do in like circumstances. Ascertaining a principle or law of His government, we have ascertained what is eternal. And what is especially pertinent in the present inquiry is the fa6t that though the divine government embraces the three kingdoms of the material, intellectual and spiritual, yet in all He follows one model, so that each may be a school for the other. Hence analogy will carry us from the material to the intellectual, and from the intellectual to the spiritual. This facSl greatly simplifies our iniquiry and facilitates our research. It enables us to reason from this life concerning the life to come ; and in the end we shall find, laying all along our earthly pathway, answers to all the questions legitimately arising out of our inquiries into facSls and possibilities which lie wrapped up in a future state of existence.

Chapter III. The Testimony Of Science And Of Scripture

f. N order to enter upon an intelligent inquiry ; into those facT:s concerning the future life which we greatly desire to know, it is important to have a clear understanding of the testimony of science and of revelation. What proof do these afford us? Each gives us hints, and awakens speculation, and points to the fa6ls, but does enter into specific detail. Science tells us that nothing is ever lost in the sum total of created forces; that when a material organization dies or is destroyed, it is only disintegrated as to its elements, which are thus set free for other uses ; that these set-free elements will continue intacT: and will be reorganized into new animate or inanimate forms ; and that thus nothing is annihilated, lost or destroyed. Here is an immortality of elemental substances but not of organized bodies or bodily forms ; an immortality in the midst of life and death, and running through successive changes.

Science, therefore, teaches a kind of immortality or, more properly, an indestructibility of matter, but deals not with spirit. It furnishes, however, some basis for the old idea of transmigration of souls, or rather the transmigration of the elements of which souls are made, by assuring us that the indestru6lible atoms of matter are constantly going the round of disintegration and reorganization. One bodily form disappears only to furnish materials for the appearance of other bodily forms. If this be true of matter, it would be easy to infer that the like is true of spirit ; and so the do6lrine of the transmigration of souls would be reached. But this do6lrine, whatever of scientific basis it may possess, does not meet and satisfy the demands of our longings for continued existence. We desire a continued personality. All the deeper affe6lions of our nature crave this. The child of our heart, the friend of our love, the companions of earth-life, are bound to us by a personality, a self-hood, without which affecftion would be a myth and a delusion. Indeed, we can form no conception of love disconne6ted with the personality of the being loved. Hence, our desire for immortality, either for ourselves or for our friends, embraces the idea of continued personality, which means' personal identity. We can conceive of no pleasure in existence aside from this. If we are to exist at all beyond this life, we must continue to be sentient beings, with body, intellect and spirit, in definite organization, capable of knowing and being known, of loving and being loved, and of reproducing in associated intercourse all that is good, noble and desirable in this life, or existence, from our present power of appreciation, would be wholly undesirable. It would be a virtual disruption and casting away of all that made this life worth the living.

Is there, then, a future life for us in which all that is true or good or desirable in this life will be continued or reproduced? To this question science offers no conclusive answer. It stands between two sections of eternity, the past and the future, without power to penetrate either. Its torch shines brilliantly in the present, but cannot pierce the mists of the future nor dispel the darkness of the past. Along the vale of time, dealing with the visible and the tangible, it walks with the tread of a master and speaks with authority, but on either side are mountains it cannot scale. What was before the visible beginning of things, and what will be after them, can only be known by a dire6l revelation, or be inferred by the teachings of analogy. Wise men may talk of life's birth in a protoplasm or bioplasm, and display great learning and ingenuity therein, but they are dumb when inquiry is made concerning the origin of the plasm, and the source from whence it derives its power to give birth to life. Science may trace the career of life down to what is called death, but its investigation stops at the grave, with no power to trace life beyond. And so science is practically dumb respecting personal existence in the great hereafter, or whether there be any hereafter of sentient, organized being for mankind beyond the grave.

To supplement science comes in revelation. What science cannot ascertain by research, revelation declares. Where science is dumbrevelation speaks. The two are mutual helpers ; for where revelation is silent science speaks ; and it is the united voice of the two which brings to us the full truth. Of this we shall have fuller knowledge as we pursue our investigation into the life to come. But here we may be met with the inquiry, so often raised^ as to the possibility of such a revelation being given to men. Can truth, beyond the reach of human investigation, be impressed upon human minds, and through those minds be revealed to mankind? The answer does not seem, difficult to any student of psychology ; for such well know that one mind can put another mind so completely under its control as to determine its thoughts, words, and the consequent bodily a6tion. Psychologize a person, by the proces s more generally known as mesmerism, and that person will do, say or a6l out whatever his mesmerizer commands ; and this command need not be spoken orally; it can be equally well conveyed by the silent a6l of the will. The condition is that of one mind in complete submission to another, so that the will of the controlling mind is carried out in thought and a6l by the submissive mind. If, then, a human mind can thus control another human mind, and_ that, too, in perfect accord with the law of mental a6lion, how much more fully ought the. divine mind to do this. The divine is immeasurably more powerful than the human, and, by the operation of psychological force, can control to any extent desired. It can take possession of the human, so fully and completely, as to determine the thoughts and words, and bring forth a revelation of higher truth in such a way that the human shall be only the instrument of the divine utterance. Hence.