The Gospel of the Hereafter

THhere ePafrtoejre,c tb yG Ju.t ePnabteerrsg oenB-Soomky, thThe Gospel of the

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at
no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the
terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Gospel of the Hereafter

Author: J. Paterson-Smyth

Release Date: June 17, 2008 [eBook #25826]

Language: English

*E**BSOTOAKR TT HOEF GTOHES PPERL OOJEF CTTH EG UHTEERNEBAEFRTEGR***

E-text prepared by Al Haines

Transcriber's Note:

The Greek words in this e-book have been
transliterated according to Project Gutenberg's
Greek How-To. Such words are indicated with
surrounding underscores. There are a couple
of instances of author-transliterated Greek
words. Those words are bracketed and not
italicized. Underscores are also used to
indicate italicization of words, but in this e-book
such words are always English words.

THHEER EGAOFSTPEERL OF THE

yb

J. PATERSON-SMYTH, B.D., LL.D., LITT. D.,
D.C.L,

oRf ePctaosrt oorf alS tT. hGeeoloorggye,s ,U nMivoenrtrsietya l,o fL aDtue blPirnofessor

AOuldt hDoro couf "mHeontws Waned Gthote ONuerw BBibiblele,", "" Tethce., etc.,

.cte

New York —— Chicago —— Toronto
Fleming H. Revell Company
London And Edinburgh

FCloepmyirnigg htH,. 1R9e1v0e,l l bCyompany

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
LCohnicdaogno: : 2117 PNaotretrhn oWstaebr aSsqh uAavree.
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street

To My Wife

Contents

PART I

THE NEAR HEREAFTER

I. "I" II. THE THREE STAGES OF EXISTENCE III.
WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE NEAR
HEREAFTER IV. WHAT THE BIBLE AND THE
CHURCH SAY ABOUT THE NEAR HEREAFTER
V. THE CRISIS OF DEATH VI. "I" "MYSELF"
AFTER DEATH VII. RECOGNITION VIII. THE
COMMUNION OF SAINTS IX. GROWTH AND
PURIFICATION X. PROBATION IN THIS LIFE XI.
MINISTRY IN THE UNSEEN LIFE XII.
CONCLUSION

PART II

THE FAR HEREAFTER

I. THE JUDGMENT II. HELL III. HEAVEN

Publishers' Note

Thahiss bteenetnh cAarmeefruillcya rne (vaisnedd siaxntde ewnthhe rBer intiesche) sesdaitriyon
rewritten by the author. We call special attention to
an interesting note on page 108.

This year a Norwegian edition has been published,
translated by Judge Hambro of the Supreme Court
of Norway assisted by the Bishops of Christiania
and Trondheim. Also request has been received for
permission to translate the book for readers in
Holland. But more interesting is a letter from a

Brahmin gentleman in India asking permission to
produce at his own cost an edition for his people
and dedicated on the front page, "TO MY SON,
SEREM ALI, WHO IS NOW IN THE NEAR
HEREAFTER."

Foreword

The Lord is risen, but the people do not know it.
There is no death, but the people do not believe it.
Human life is the most exciting romantic adventure
in the Universe, going on stage after stage till we
are older than Methuselah and then on again
through the infinite eternities—and yet men pass
into the Unseen as stupidly as the caterpillar on the
cabbage-leaf, without curiosity or joy or wonder or
excitement at the boundless career ahead.

Instead of the thrill of coming adventure we have
the dull grey monotony of aged lives drawing near
the close, and the horror of this war is doubled and
the torture of wife or mother as the beloved one
crosses the barrier.

What is the matter with us, Christian people? Do
iwmea ngiont aktinoon wg?r oOwr nh dauvlele dw eb lyo tsot oo furre bqeuleienfts r?e opre thitaiosn
of God's good news?

* * * * *

It was so different in early days when the world

was younger, when Christ's revelation was fresh.
Look at St. John, four-score years and ten, like an
eager boy looking into the Great Adventure:
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and IT
DOTH NOT YET APPEAR WHAT WE SHALL
BE."[1]

What we shall be! What we shall be! Is not that the
chief delight of being young? Guessing and hoping
and wondering what we shall be.

The dreariest thing in life is dulness—monotony.
The brightest thing in life is outlook—vision. And
God has given us that. Like St. John we too can
stand on the rim of the world and look out over the
.llaw

* * * * *

Life is full of latent possibilities—of outlook, of
romance, of exciting futures. God has made it so,
if we would only see it. God's world of nature has
its continuous progress, its ever new and
fascinating stages. God's caterpillars in their next
stage are going to be soaring butterflies—God's
acorns are to become mighty oaks—God's dry little
seeds in the granary to-day will in autumn be alive
in the waving harvests. God's world of nature is full
of romantic possibilities.

And God's world of men is infinitely more so, and
one of life's delights is to know it and look forward
to it guessing what we shall be. Outlook. Vision.
That is what gives zest to life. That is what we
need to make life bright and beautiful.

need to make life bright and beautiful.

* * * * *

I see a group of small boys sitting at their play, and
their eyes are bright looking into the future. They
are going to be soldiers, and sailors, and circus
riders, and travelers, and all sorts of things.
Because they are boys with the enthusiasms of
boyhood, they may be anything. All the possibilities
of boyhood belong to them. It doth not yet appear
what they shall be, but it is delightful to look
forward and speculate about it.

* * * * *

I see them again a dozen years later. They are
starting in life, just left college, young soldiers and
lawyers and curates and business men—still with
their visions and dreams of the future. It doth not
yet appear what they shall be, but because they
are young men, all that belongs to young manhood
lies before them, as they look forward in their day-
dreams. What countries they shall live in and what
girl they shall marry, and what positions and what
work, and what excitements, and what pleasure lie
before them. Ah, it is delightful to be young,
realizing the possibilities in front—dreaming of what
we shall be.

* * * * *

I see a crowd of older people, men and women
dull, uninterested. "We are no longer young," they
say, "we are middle-aged or elderly. And we have
ceased looking forward. We have lost the vision.

We have not become as great as we expected, or
as good as we expected. We are fairly
comfortable. We have not much to complain of.
But life is a bit dull. The path is a bit monotonous
now. We have traversed most of it. We can see to
the end. There are no more romantic possibilities
to make life exciting, no more visions of 'what we
shall be.'"

* * * * *

Don't believe it! Not a word of it. The visions are
there all right. Look out over the wall. This life of
yours is only one of the stages in your career, and
not the first stage, either. The first came to you,
silent, unconscious, "where the bones do grow in
the womb of her that is with child." There you grew
and developed for the next move forward. One day
came the crisis of birth and you passed into the
second stage, the training stage for life and for
God. Then through a new crisis you pass on again
to new adventures. For God has revealed that
what you call death, the end of this career, is but
birth into a new and more wondrous career which
again passes you forward into still nobler
adventures, and that again, perhaps—who knows?
Who shall fix the limit?

* * * * *

TNhaey,s ey oaur ea rbeu tn coto melpdaerrlayt.i vYe otue ramres . nAo t hmoiudsdel-ef-lya gised.
ealftdeerr lya ihnu tnwderentdy -yfeoaurrs .h oAunrds . yAonu , ocahkil-dtrreeen iosf yeoteurnngity

with ages and millenniums before you—you are not
even one year old babies in the light of your great
future.

Now do you see why the old apostle of Ephesus
did not feel aged or elderly—why he looked out like
an eager boy into the adventure before him?
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God but we don't
know yet what we shall be." Aye, we don't know
yet. No more than did the small boys laughing in
their play and going to be soldiers and sailors and
wonderful people. We don't know yet. But it is all
before us. And it is all going to be good because it
is in the Father's presence.

So I bid you do what I sometimes do myself, look
out into the void and guess like the children what
you shall be when you are older than Methuselah.

Shake off the dulness and monotony from your life.
Don't talk as if old or middle-aged any more. Be
children again in the presence of the Father, and
with happy child hearts keep guessing what you
shall be.

* * * * *

I see a woman with the deep pain in her eyes, one
of the many mothers whom I have met in these
terrible four years…. They were afraid to tell her
when the War Office telegram came…. He had
crept out in the night to bring in a wounded chum,
and the German sniper got