The Gospel of the HereafterSmyth, J. Paterson (John Paterson)
Religion
The Gospel of the Hereafter
Smyth, J. Paterson (John Paterson)
Eschatology
Next I read on His authority that there is no break in memory. Of
course there could not be if I am still "I." But our Lord confirms
this. Lazarus remembers Dives. Dives remembers Lazarus so well that
he wants him to go back to convert his brothers. Aye, he remembers the
brothers in the old Jerusalem home, the five boys that grew up beside
him. He remembers sorrowfully that they have grown to be selfish men
like himself, perhaps through his fault. He is thinking about them and
troubling about them. And Abraham assumes this memory as a matter of
course. "My son, remember that thou in thy lifetime, etc."
Does not all this confirm our statement in Chapter I, that memory is
something more than impressions on the gray matter of the brain; that
memory is in the man himself who is behind the brain and, therefore,
must go on with him.
§ 6
I read on, "Now he is comforted and thou art tormented." That again is
just what I should expect. It is all quite natural. If "I" am still
the same "I" in full vivid conscious life, in full memory of the
past--if I have passed out of the mists of earth into the full light of
the Eternal, where everything is seen at its full value, where money
counts for nothing and love counts for everything, it is of course
natural that the good man should feel comforted and the bad man should
feel tormented.
Only more so. Only more so. That is the difference. The poor humble
follower of Christ, even on earth, is in the main happy--at his best
moments. But he is not always very happy. He has the inner comfort of
the peace of God. But there is much worry and distraction, about his
business and his sickness and his troubles of many kinds to spoil his
peace. All these earthly troubles are gone now. He sees Christ. He
knows of the boundless joy before him by and by. He is comforted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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