^ One of the later scientific reinforcements of the philosophic argument for immortality has been drawn from the principle of continuity. This principle has been used by the authors of the Unseen Universe as the basis for the construction of an elaborate argument for the continuation of our life after death ; and still further, with the help of other admitted physical truths, they have sought to render conceivable the possibility of another sphere of existence connected with this, yet superior to it, in which we have now our spiritual birthright, and into which after death our life shall without personal loss be transformed. According to this view, death would become a transference of individual existence from this visible universe to some other order of things intimately connected with it. The conclusion of their reasonings with regard to life in its connection with matter, they have expressed in this sentence : " In fine, we maintain that what we are driven to is not an under-life resident in the atom, but rather, to adopt the words of a recent writer, a Divine over- life in which we live and move and have our being."
5. As the sublime and beautiful conception of a loving spiritual God was built up slowly, age by age, tier upon tier, this was the foundation which ensured the stability of all, until the Head Stone of the Corner gave completeness to the vast design, until men saw and could believe in the very Incarnation of all love, unshaken amid anguish and distress and seeming failure, immovable, victorious, while they heard from human lips the awful words, "Before Abraham was, I AM." Then they learned to identify all this ancient lesson of trustworthiness with new and more pathetic revelations of affection : and the martyr at the stake grew strong as he remembered that the Man of Sorrows was the same yesterday and to-day and for ever ; and the great apostle, prostrate before the glory of his Master, was restored by the touch of a human hand, and by the voice of Him upon whose bosom he had leaned, saying. Fear not, I am the First and the Last and the Living One.
T The mysterious " I AM " who spake to Moses is the same
284 THE ETERNAL NAME
" I am," the ever-existent Christ, who speaks to us. He whom we adore as submitting to death was the Lord of Life. He whom men treated with such indignity was the Lord, the Creator of angels. He whom men falsely and unjustly judged was the Judge of quick and dead, the sole executor of judgment, for it is said by Him, that the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. He, the " I AM " who thus, as recorded in Exodus, at the bush, spake to Moses, and declared His intention of redeeming His people from Egyptian bondage, now redeemed them from another and far worse bondage, not by plaguing their oppressors, and physically destroying them, but by submitting Himself on their behalf, first to ignominy and tortures, and then to death. Not by power, not by might, but by My Spirit — the Spirit of love, meekness, gentleness, goodness — not by superhuman power, but by superhuman humility. " Thou art the king of glory, 0 Christ : thou art the Everlasting Son of the Father : when thou tookest upon thee to deliver man thou didst not abhor the virgin's womb ; when thou hadst over- come the sharpness of death thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers."
m.
The Kevelation in the Name.
1. When God wants a man to do some good and useful work, He gives him a fresh thought about Himself, His character, and His purposes, a thought which tells him what He is, what He has done, what He is now doing, and what He wills to be done ; and by that thought He not only illumines his mind, but also feeds his faith, sustains his patience, and fires his zeal, so that though he may never set foot in the land of promise, yets he keeps on, steadfastly climbing the slopes of Pisgah, and from its heights catches cheering glimpses of the lengthening issues of his toil.
1[ Somehow the revelation comes ! You see it written on the sheet let down from heaven to the startled gaze of the sleeper on the house-top at Joppa, assuring him that the creative energy of God cleanses all His work of commonness and makes it full of meaning and beauty ; that He condemns the narrowness that would shut out from His infinite love any Cornelius who fears God and works righteousness, and that therefore prejudiced and reluctant Peter must initiate a new era in the religious thought and life of the world.
EXODUS III. 13, 14 285
It comos to the perplexed Augustine, as, with wearied brain and agitated soul, eager to find pardon for his sin and freedom from the tyranny of his youthful lusts, he wanders in the gardens of his friend Alypius, at Tagaste, and says to him, " Tolle lege ; toUe lege ! " " Take and read ; take and read ! " And forthwith he opens the New Testament and reads the closing verses of Romans xiiL and at once dedicates himself to the life of purity revealed in Jesus Christ.