The Gospel of the Hereafter   By: J. Paterson (John Paterson) Smyth (1852-1932)

by

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

Rector of St. Georges, Montreal, Late Professor of Pastoral Theology, University of Dublin

Author of "How We Got Our Bible," "The Old Documents and the New Bible," etc., etc., etc.

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

Copyright, 1910, by Fleming H. Revell Company

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. London: 21 Paternoster Square 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

This tenth American (and sixteenth British) edition has been carefully revised and where necessary 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 we not know? Or have we lost our beliefs? or has imagination grown dulled by too frequent repetition 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 wall.

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.