THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT

The Second Coming of Christ. This is the one subject in systematic theology which I would gladly avoid, were such a course possible in fairness, for the data are so dubious as to meaning in important places that I have been unable to reach such conclusions as amount to positive convictions. There are several discussions which I value very highly (notably Bishop Merrill's for its sanity and Dr. Terry's for its scholarship); but I have not found a discussion which fathoms and harmonizes the whole of the teaching of the New Testament. The best I can do for you is to outline the case as it now stands in my mind:

1. There are a number of Scripture passages often marshaled in this connection which have no bearing whatever upon the question in dispute. For they refer to the ordinary Christian event of the coming of Christ into the human heart by means of the Holy Ghost.

2. There are other Scripture passages where the reference is (probably) to the appearance of Jesus to his disciples immediately after his resurrection. Such a passage is that where our Saviour says, "A little while, and ye behold me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see me" (Saint John 16.16).

3. There is one passage which may be quite reasonably explained as a special coming of Christ to meet his disciples, each one at his death. I mean the passage in the gospel of John (14.3) where Jesus says, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

4. The effort to explain such passages as that of Saint Matt. 26.64 as the coming of our Lord in an event of judgment having no association with his personal advent, seems to me to be entirely unconvincing.

5. I find it impossible to get all the teaching of the synoptic gospels into one consistent view; but, on the whole, this seems to be the teaching: At the end of the gospel dispensation ("post-millennium") Jesus Christ will return to this world in person, visible and glorious, to raise the dead; to judge all men; to punish sinners and reward saints; and to complete the formation and placement of his everlasting kingdom. And, further, this synoptic teaching is entitled to the theological right of way, for it is not only exceedingly emphatic but also bound up with important Christian doctrines.

6. This brings us to what has been called "the passage of torment," in the twentieth chapter of the Revelation. All I can say personally about this passage is that all the attempts to fit it into the synoptic conception of our Lord's second coming seem to me to be forced and therefore inconclusive. But the fairest thing for me to do is to place two great specialists in biblical theology over against each other. Professor Salmond says: "However the circumstance is to be accounted for, and however it is to be related to the general teaching of the New Testament, it must be admitted that this remarkable paragraph in John's Apocalypse speaks of a real millennial reign of Christ on earth together with certain of his saints, which comes in between a first resurrection and the final judgment." Professor Terry, in commenting upon verses 7-10, says: "It is a great symbolic picture, and its one great teaching is clear beyond the possibility of doubt or misunderstanding, namely, that Satan and his forces must all ultimately perish. This is written for the comfort and confidence of the saints. But that final victory is in the far future, at the close of the Messianic age, and it is here simply outlined in apocalyptic symbols. Any presumption, therefore, of determining specific events of the future from this grand symbolism must be regarded as in the nature of the case a species of worthless and misleading speculation."

The New Race in Full Fact. This triumph of the church at the second coming of Christ is not the Christian culmination, but simply a final instrumental stroke unto that culmination. Christian history culminates only in the full fact of the new race in Jesus Christ. In different places and at different angles of vision, I have tried gradually to prepare your minds and hearts for this sublime racial culmination; but now that we are actually facing the culmination there are several things which should be brought out with the greatest possible stress. The first of these points for extreme emphasis is that in this new race there is guaranteed the immortality of the person. This new race is, indeed, conceivable only in terms of personality. The very organism is personal. The members are bound together as persons. The very glory of their wonderful social life is that all the interchange of blessing, all the interlacing in self-sacrifice, is self-conscious. Not only do they live for each other and in each other, but they want to. There is a sense in which the individual at last is an expressive feature of the divine life, but this does not come about by the pantheistic method, it comes about by a personal union with God. In all his earthly probation no saint was ever so intensely personal, so intensely self- conscious, so intensely self-decisive, as he is now in the new race. His whole being is filled with the realization of where he is and what he is and what he is doing for other men and what they are doing for him. He loses his life ethically only to find it personally.

If this conception of personal immortality in the new race is thoroughly before you, I will ask you to throw it into sharp contrast with Herbert Spencer's benumbing view of the outcome of human life. In his last book Mr. Spencer wrote: "And then the consciousness itself -- what is it during the time that it continues? And what becomes of it when it ends? We can only infer that it is a specialized and individualized form of that Infinite and Eternal Energy which transcends both our knowledge and our imagination; and that at death its elements lapse into the Infinite and Eternal Energy whence they were derived."

Another point which should receive extreme emphasis is that the social intercourse is ethically achieved. It is precisely at this point that our modern imagination has most widely gone astray. We cannot imagine what the life of the redeemed is like without sentimentalizing the scene out of its pure ethical quality. To illustrate what I mean take John Milton's famous lines:

"There entertain him all the saints above

     In solemn troops and sweet societies,

That sing, and singing in their glory move,

    And wipe the tears forever from his eyes."

Here we have a most beautiful social scene surely, but it is too soft, too empty of moral quality, to represent the final life of our Lord's people. If you do not feel the force of my criticism, read the last part of the seventh chapter of the book of the Revelation, the very passage which probably suggested to Milton his lines. Saint John's picture is strongly ethical, as every truly Christian thing always is. In the new race, the whole motive of action is moral love. The saint serves another saint not because he loves him, but because he morally loves him. That is, the love itself is a flaming passion for righteousness. And the peculiarity of the social enlargement of the one man is that it is his moral ideal itself which more and more deeply drives him into the lives of the saints about him, until he is in living intercourse with every person of the new race. And so the size of the social experience of any one saint is the size of his moral experience as well as the size of the entire race. Nor does this mean a dead level in experience, for every person is rigidly himself with his own native and acquired individuality, which was completely personalized in the intermediate state; and the vast social life is caught up in thousands of points of individual peculiarity in self- consciousness.

As to the question of special individual friendships within the new race, we need to speak carefully. But our Saviour's relation to Saint John furnishes a hint; and our principle of human complement or supplement furnishes another hint; and our philosophy of probation furnishes yet another hint. Putting together all there is of such suggestion, I have reached this speculation: The social life of the new race is to be a large network of special friendships. Some of these friendships begin in this life. Perhaps a mother gradually transfigures her natural relation to her child into a moral fellowship which can go on forever because it is worthy of the eternal life. Perhaps a pastor becomes so much to a young man that their spiritual intercourse can never wear out. Indeed, I dare to think that every right natural relation is an invitation, an opportunity, for an eternal transaction; that, inside of a man's supreme probation, are many subordinate probations, where the voice of the situation is: "Will you let this thing fly away with time? or will you pack it full of everlasting riches?" Other special friendships may be rapturous discoveries of the eternal life. I like to dream of two men doing their work here faithfully, but with lonely person and starving heart, suddenly meeting on some highway of heaven, and finding out their mutual adaptation for intimate friendship, and exclaiming in one celestial explosion, "I have found you at last!" But these special friendships do not weaken the service and the joy of the larger social life of the whole race; rather do they strengthen it. Just as now and then we see a Christian home where every secret gladness in the home circle inspires every member of it into a more generous concern for all the town, all the nation, all the world -- so all the little points of special heavenly joy shall only help the whole race to live and rejoice in one another.

The main point, however, for extreme emphasis is that the dominating center of all this morally achieved social life is Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Already I have urged upon you in several ways this supreme position of v Christ in the everlasting racial and social organism of the redeemed; but now let us dwell upon it with lingering love. When I try to put into a sufficient symbol our Saviour's final relation to his own people, I find nothing quite so grandly suggestive as Dante's figure of the many lamps all enkindled by the one blazing sun:

"In bright preeminence so saw I there

O'er million lamps a sun, from whom all drew

Their radiance."

Yes, that is it, all the countless little lamps of friendship throughout the society of the new race catch their flame from the Lord Jesus Christ! But just what do we mean by this figure here? We mean that the very motive for all this friendship, the motive which urges the saint out into social interlacing is his love for Jesus Christ. It is because the saint loves Christ supremely that he can love this or that man specially, and then give himself to all the redeemed. The saint's capacity for holy friendship is actually made by his love for his Lord. But -- you are thinking it -- did I not say that in the new race the whole motive of action is moral love? I certainly did say that; but the redeemed man's love is moral, not because he has gone back to Mount Sinai, or because he is seeking to be conscientious; but simply because he loves Jesus Christ with all his soul. It is Christ who creates the ethical passion and makes righteousness to the glorified an element of their spontaneous life. Let me say, then, that for the new race Jesus Christ amounts to the whole significance of eternity. Take him away, and everything would lose its attraction, and immortality itself would not be worth the having. It is only your Christian longing to be with Him "whom not having seen ye love" -- it is only that boundless gratitude which Christ gives you in the supernatural experience of salvation -- it is only that foretaste of glory which you now have in communion with your Lord -- brethren, brethren, it is not the endless years but our blessed Redeemer that draws us on toward the eternal scene!

But are there not purely natural desires for the life beyond the grave? Yes, there are. Several such natural desires belong to the very nature of personality itself. One of these is a normal person's quick interest in self- assertion. In the clear vision of self-consciousness no normal person can tolerate the thought of ceasing to exist. He wants to assert himself and then to keep at it. He is bound to live forever. He wills at immortality as immediately as ten thousand creatures in the air will themselves into continued and swifter flight. Now they are flying they like to keep on flying.

Then, there is the motive of personal curiosity. There are times when, however much we may wish to remain here, we become impatient to find out what the eternal life is. In this case the further world is attractive to us not so much because it is a continuation of existence as because it is an unexplored realm.

     "What a strange moment will that be

    My soul, how full of curiosity,

When winged and ready for thy eternal flight

    On the utmost edges of thy tottering clay,

    Hovering and wishing longer stay,

Thou shalt advance and have eternity in sight!

    When just about to try that unknown sea,

    What a strange moment will that be!"

In this way we could go on, and out of our personal life, and out of our personal relations, especially those relations which yield our finest earthly friendships, we could bring into position quite a convincing series of natural desires to live beyond bodily death. And often this series is brought into striking position, in book or sermon, and is allowed to stand in place alone, as if there were no other side to the matter. But there is another side, the individual side. The man as an individual is not yet altogether personal. Many times he is in a state of consciousness far below self-consciousness. Many times he is but an individual dimly remembering his higher personal experiences. And many times he is an individual altogether exhausted by the intense personal and moral conflict out of which he has dropped. Now, this individual man, this man only partly personalized but realizing in long, dreary reaction all the weakness and sense of failure following the personal battle -- this tired individual, I say, does not want to live forever. Grant him no supernatural reenforcement, no memory of association with God, no word from God, no habit of prayer, no church ministry, no Christian fellowship; and, in his weariness, he would be quite inclined to vote for annihilation. Well does he understand the fascination which certain forms of pantheism have for men; for he himself craves rest in the absolute extinction of all consciousness, he himself longs to fall back into the silent, meaningless abyss, even as a restless, storm-driven, foam-crested wave becomes quiet at last as it falls back into the deeps of the sea.

We are told that the men of our day are losing their interest in the question of immortality, "that the tide of human interest is steadily ebbing away from the shores of another life." This waning concern is just what we should expect as a consequence of the perpetual exploitation of the individual at the expense of the person, which has taken place since the publication of Charles Darwin's epoch-making book. In natural science, in psychology, in ethics, and even in theology there have not been (taking the four together) more than ten writers of influence who have given encouragement for the serious cultivation of a personal life and a keen sense of moral responsibility. And over against this, our dire poverty, Mr. Spencer has had hundreds of able helpers in making men believe that personal experience itself is an automatic deception. Has there been anything quite so pathetic and quite so enervating in the entire history of human opinion? I think not. We must -- we must find some way to turn this tide, and to bring into general appreciation the majestic meaning of man's personality, and with that the tremendous responsibility of man's moral life. Such appreciation will tend to banish the present lethargy of the individual and so to recreate an interest in immortality.

But I should say much more. The natural personal desires for eternal life, even when they are at their best, are not capable of long resistance under strong attack. And in an experience of profound sorrow they are almost certain to fail. We need the Christian hope, and we need this hope in its apostolic purity. An urgent thing to do is to lead the church of our Lord out of all feeble sentimentalities concerning the life beyond. Let us stamp out every trace of spiritism. Our blessed dead should be so related to Jesus Christ that our thoughts of them are but tender repetitions of our thoughts of him. Our Lord must be in all and over all. Let us not have any longing for anything which can exist outside of him. Let us not only in our thinking and in our imagination build the entire company of the redeemed into a solid race of which Christ is center and source, but also find our interest in eternity itself, as Saint Paul did, through our desire to be forever with our Lord and those who love him supremely. Such an interest in eternity will resist any attack; will penetrate every affliction with consolation; will inspirit the individual even in his lowest mood; and will make the Christian fearless in life or death. While so many are seeking a "scientific demonstration of immortality," I would urge the whole church to seek that kind of certainty which comes only through an apostolic passion for Jesus Christ.

The Entire Sweep of the Plan of Redemption

Now that in our thinking the church of our Lord is made glorious by becoming the new race in full fact, we are ready to place together all the points of Christian attainment, and thus to have before us the entire sweep of the plan of redemption.

1. Starting with free personality and the moral nature of man, the plan first secures, under the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, the loyal person. This loyalty to Christ makes a positive connection between the old moral ideal and all the new possibilities in Christ. That is, by becoming a Christian no truly moral thing is thrown away.

2. The compound motive of loyalty is turned into the simple motive of moral love, and thus is secured the holy person. By this method a perfect moral organization is obtained, by which I mean that in self-consciousness there is harmony under the new moral ideal. A holy Christian does not violate the standard given by his moral judgment.

3. In the intermediate state the total individuality is personalized. And as the person is already holy the result is the holy personal individual.

4. By means of the resurrection this perfect personal individual obtains a glorified body, which is a perfect instrument of expression; and the result now is the perfect man, body and personal soul, capable of an objective life equal to his subjective life. This is the completed new man in Christ.

5. Here we make an important turn to obtain the final Christian point of view. The perfect man is not to exist alone. The glorified body is not furnished merely to finish out manhood, it is furnished for actual social life. Nor is social life the idea to stop at. The glorified body is a racial body. It is made and given precisely to connect this complete man, having all this social possibility, with the whole race of redeemed men. Thus the plan of salvation sweeps on and on until it provides a great racial outcome for every man saved by means of our Lord's death.

Having now this more comprehensive racial point of view, let us for an inspiring moment look back and quickly trace the preparatory stages for the racial consummation. These preparatory stages are five, and may be outlined as follows:

First, the free moral person becomes the person loyal to Jesus Christ.

Second, the loyal person becomes the holy person, loving his Lord supremely.

Third, in all the Christian life, from its beginning on to death, there is provision for a probational training in brotherhood. This training is by means of the holy catholic church, which, if not the new race in full fact, is the new race in tentative expression.

Fourth, in the intermediate state the holy person, alone with his Saviour, is utterly made ready for all the fellowship and service of the ultimate brotherhood in Christ. The intermediate state is the university, where the education for eternal brotherhood is completed. And our Master is the whole Faculty!

Fifth, by means of the glorified body of the resurrection this completed saint actually enters into the vast community of the redeemed, not only a perfect man, but also a perfect brother, capable of perfect fellowship and service. This vast community of perfect brothers, all saved by Jesus Christ, all completed by Jesus Christ, all organized by Jesus Christ, all living in union with Jesus Christ, is his race in full fact.

Is there possible in all human thinking a more sublime conception of destiny than this plan of redemption when taken in its entire sweep? And if we add the stupendous price paid for its possibility, what shall we say?