For us, as for Job, it is the greatest of all the supports of spiritual life to believe in the rational character of the system of things in which we are placed, or, in other words, in the wisdom and goodness of the power which manifests itself in our own life and in the life of the world. For us, as for him, the essence of religion lies in the simple elementary creed that there is a Divine purpose in our existence, and that, if we make ourselves its servant and instrument, it will be well with us, but, if not, it will be ill with us. Now, as then, the great source of religious energy is to feel that the cause we serve is the good cause, and that the good cause is the cause of God. The simple consciousness expressed already in the song of Deborah, that the " stars in their courses fought against Sisera," that is, that the whole system of things is leagued against evil, and makes its ultimate triumph impossible, has been the great solace and support of religious men in all ages.
^ The ideal end for man, as it exists in the mind of God, is only gradually being revealed to him, so that every height he attains to discloses a higher yet behind it :
We climb, life's view is not at once disclosed To creatures caught up, on the summit left. Heaven plain above them, yet of wings bereft ; But lower laid as at the mountain's foot.
We press on towards a phantom light that for ever flies before us, bidding us aspire, but not suffering us to attain ; or perhaps
JOB XIII. 15 53
we should rather say that the goal of our jourriey is, as it were, a to-morrow that never comes, or the last of all the lamps upon a winding road, where each appears the last until the traveller draws near it, and sees another coming into view. We pass therefore, not merely from what seems bad to what seems good, but also " from what once seemed good, to what now seems best," not merely, that is, from what we are, towards what we think we ought to be, but also from what we once thought we ought to be towards a more recent ideal of ourselves.^
* A. C. Pigou, Robert Brotoning as a Religious Teacher, 73.
Life Beyond Death.
55
Literature.
Albertson (C. C), Death and Afterwards, 31.
Barton (G. A.), Christian Teaching in the Old Testament, 209.
Campbell (R. J.), City Temple Sermons, 161.
Cooper (T. J.), Love's Unveiling, 106.
Denney (J.), The Way Everlasting, 175.
Jerdan (C), Pastures of Tender Grass, 408.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Esther, Job, 43
Hunger (T. T.), The Freedom of Faith, 237.
Newton (J.), The Problem of Personality, 116.
Peck (G. C), Ringing Questions, 31.
Wilson (P.), Tlte Great Salvation, 263.
The Christian World Pulpit, xlii. 105 (Varley); xlvii. 259 (Fielding);
Ixxi. 249 (Ruth). The Church of England Pulpit, Ixii. 251 (Synnott).
Life beyond Death.
If a man die, shall he live? — Job xiv. 14.
Job has just given utterance to an intense longing for a life beyond the grave. His abode in Sheol is thought of as in some sense a breach in the continuity of his consciousness, but even that would be tolerable, if only he could be sure that, after many days, God would remember him. Then that longing gives way before the torturing question of the text, which dashes aside the tremulous hope with its insistent interrogation. It is not denial, but it is a doubt which palsies hope. But though he has no certainty, he cannot part with the possibility, and so goes on to imagine how blessed it would be if his longing were fulfilled. He thinks that such a renewed life would be like the " release " of a sentry who had long stood on guard ; he thinks of it as his swift, joyous "answer" to God's summons, which would draw him out from the sad crowd of pale shadows and bring him back to warmth and reality. His hope takes a more daring flight still, and he thinks of God as yearning for His creature, as His creature yearns for Him, and having " a desire to the work of his hands," as if His heaven would be incomplete without His servant. But the rapture and the vision pass, and the rest of the chapter is all clouded over, and the devout hope loses its light. Once again it gathers brightness in the nineteenth chapter, where the possibility flashes out starlike, that " after my skin hath been thus destroyed, yet from my flesh shall I see God."
^ When standing in the shadows, the words of Ingersoll seem none too melancholy : " Life is a narrow vale between the mountain peaks of two eternities. . . . The skies give back no sound. . . . We cry aloud and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry." Such were the great infidel's words at his brother's open grave. 0, how many anguished hearts, like his, have cried
58 LIFE BEYOND DEATH
up into the skies and for answer caught only the echo of their own lamentation ! In the " narrow vale " how many pilgrims have lost their way ! Against those unyielding peaks how many souls have bruised and broken their wings ! Earth's most fevered search and bitterest agonies are in that ancient phrase : " If a man die, shall he live again ? " ^