ST. JOHN XIV. 2 69
hath seen and heard, that he testifieth." How different is Plato's dimness of perception, his merely hopeful conjecture respecting another life, from the calm and authoritative utterance of Him who said to Nicodemus : " We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." How different is the utterance of the human philosopher from that of Him who said to the cavilling Jews : " Ye are from beneath, I am from above ; I go my way, and whither I go, ye cannot come ; I proceeded forth, and came from God ; Doth this offend you ? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before ? " How different are the words of Socrates from the language of Him who in a solemn prayer to the Eternal God spake the words, blasphemous if falling from the lips of any merely finite being : " 0 Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." Christ, then, speaks of heaven and immortal life as an eye-witness. The eternal world was no " dim, undiscovered country " for Him ; and therefore His words and tones are those of one who was " native, and to the manner born."i
^ I am persuaded that Tennyson and Lightfoot were right when they said that the doctrine of the New Testament is the doctrine of the other life. Many are the blessings that spring up, flower-like, in the track of faith. Here, by fidelity and by love, we may enjoy God as well as glorify Him ; but the hope of the New Testament is beyond the years of time. As Bunyan put it, " Children, the milk and honey are beyond this wilderness." ^
^ Yes ! of all words that have been spoken upon earth, these have done the most to dispel the darkness beyond the grave, aud to give secure expectations to men as they approach it.*
For ever since from the portal
Of chaos came forth man, The longing for life immortal
Hath coloured every plan.
Yes, life, new life, is ever
The surety that nature shows, And to this one law for ever
The infinite system goes.
^ W. G. T. Shedd, Sermons to the Spiritual Man, 171. ' W. Robertson Nicoll, The Lamp of Sacrifice, 166. • Bernard.
70 THE HOUSE OF MANY MANSIONS
So close up your ranks, my brothers, And with hearts too high to fail.
Let us say " Farewell" while the others On the other side cry, "Hail I"
(2) Again, the words tell us that we may conceive of heaven as a place. The disciples watched Jesus disappearing into the cloud which received Him out of their sight, and stood for a long time gazing up into the sky after Him as if expecting to catch another glimpse or see Him come back. Where did He go ? We believe that He took with Him our human form, bearing even the marks of the crucifixion. He must be somewhere, and God's house in some sense must be a place. Doubtless we are usually too crass in our conception both of Christ and of heaven, and before it can be a place, heaven must be first a state ; yet we can scarcely resist the conclusion that in some sense it must be a place also. If we, at least, are to live again and be clothed upon with our body which is from heaven, we must have some place to live in. God is a spirit, for Him a house seems not so neces- sary ; but as for us, we must live somewhere, and the Father's house, into which at the last we are to be gathered, must be a place. Somewhere in His great universe, in the infinite realms of space, God must have a place which He calls His home — a house of many mansions to which, one by one, He welcomes His children.
^ It is here distinctly implied that heaven is a place, a definite locality. I do not contend, indeed, that the phrase, " I go to pre- pare a place for you," of necessity involves the assertion of locality ; for the word " place " may simply mean here, as elsewhere, space or room. But the whole description of heaven here given implies locality. It is a father's house, and there are many mansions, i.e., residences in it ; and the disciples are to have a place in it ; and, what is equally suggestive, Christ has to go away from the earth to get to it, and to come back again to the earth to fetch His people to it. The whole of the discourse seems built upon the idea of definite locality.^
(3) But the words of Jesus tell us also that if heaven is a place, it is before that a state ; it is the knowledge of heavenly things ; it is communion with God, the vision of God as Father,
> W. Roberts.
ST. JOHN XIV. 2 71
and consciousness of ourselves as His children. He manifests Himself in many ways. The whole earth is full of His glory, but some of the manifestations are higher than others. From nature up to Christ He reveals Himself, and in heaven that manifestation will be perfected.