^ A little child whose angel still beholds the face of the Father, does not repine over the past, or sigh for the future. The very law of innocence and perfection, whether in child or angel or God or perfect man, tends to exclude the sense of time. Continuance becomes a mere incident ; the main and absorbing thought is quality of life. When Christ speaks of eternal life. He does not mean future endless existence ; this may be involved, but it is an inference or secondary thought; He means instead fulness or perfection of life. That it will go on for ever is a matter of course, but it is not the important feature of the truth.^
^ Dr. Young of Kelly (the famous chemist who first extracted paraffin oil from shale) died on 13th May 1883. On the Sunday following his funeral. Dr. Eobertson preached at the evening service in Skelmorlie United Presbyterian Church, Dr. Goold oi Edinburgh preaching in the forenoon. Mr. Boyd, the minister of the church, writes : " In the course of his sermon Dr. Goold insisted strongly that the doctrine of immortality is taught in the Old Testament, and quoted a number of passages in support of his position. Dr. Eobertson had arranged to preach in the evening from the text, ' Christ hath brought life and immortality
' T. T. Munger, The Freedom of Faith, 265. JOB-PS. XXX. — 5
66 LIFE BEYOND DEATH
to light through the gospel,' and the psalms, hymns, and anthem had been chosen with this text in view. But after the forenoon service he came to me in anxiety and said, ' I must change my subject ; if I preach the sermon I intended, Dr. Goold will think I am controverting his teaching.' All afternoon he was restless, evidently thinking over other sermons, but unable to fix on one. When the hour of evening service had come he told me that he was still undecided. I replied, ' Keep to your subject, the choir cannot now change the hymns.' He consented to do so. It was evident that he had taken the position that immortality was not clearly taught in the Old Testament. With great tact he succeeded in avoiding the appearance of contradiction between him and the morning preacher, by saying in well- chosen words, which I cannot reproduce, something to this effect : ' Doubtless there are references to the doctrine of immortality in the Old Testament, as was so well put before you in the forenoon. But just as he whose death we are this day remembering with sorrow found embedded in the caverns of the earth the dark substance by which he has illuminated the homes of rich and poor in many lands, so did Christ bring to light the doctrine of a future life. The shale was in the earth long before, but it was Dr. Young who revealed its illuminating power. Even so the doctrine of immortality, embedded in Old Testament passages, was practically unrevealed until He came who brought life and immortality to light.'
" I can give you no idea of the beautiful touches by which Dr. Kobertson wrought out the thought I have only indicated ; but so skilfully was it done that I think no one in the church ever dreamt of anything but comj)letest harmony between the two preachers." ^
2. Christ put the copestone on the doctrine of immortality by illustrating it in His own person. He could point to Himself as the living embodiment of His teaching. He came and entered into the living stream of our life. He was linked on to the past ; human experience moulded His human character ; He goes to the marriage feast ; He meets sin, and disease, and death and sorrow ; He is buffeted by the waves of this troubled world ; He is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And then, as He passed through death, sin and sorrow have no power to leave their marks upon His nature ; He corresponds now to all that is spiritual, peaceful, heavenly in human nature. He dwells with ^ Dr, James Brown, in Life, of W. B, Robertson of Irvine, 428,
JOB XIV. 14 67
the spirit of man, and passes out of our sight ever to live to make intercession for us. So it has been, so it is with each of us. God puts each individual soul into this wide-reaching life, whose tides sweep by us out of a past lost in the mists of history, and which eddy away into eternity. We are attached as it were to this great life and we never can cease to be, or lose our personality. To this life we correspond as natural bodies ; to the life hereafter we shall correspond as spiritual bodies. And so we draw life from our surroundings.
^ Christ makes poetry of the suggestions we see in the world. The demands we see in human nature He sets to Divine music. We know simply the letters of the alphabet of life ; some lofty souls can see certain notes of music. He arranges the letters and the notes in such marvellous melody that the angels burst into anthems, and the singers by the crystal sea sing a new song, and the earth hears the echo of heaven's triumph. Death is abolished. In Christ immortality is revealed. He was dead, and behold, He is alive for evermore. Because He lives, we shall live also. His resurrection involves ours. Our continuity is implied in His. We cannot die while He lives.^