O the generations old,
Over whom no church-bells tolled,
Christless, lifting up blind eyes
To the silence of the skies !
For the innumerable dead
Is my soul disquieted.
Hear'st thou, 0 of little faith, What to thee the mountain saith. What is whisper'd by the trees ? — " Cast on God thy care for these ; Trust Him, if thy sight be dim : Doubt for them is doubt of Him.
Not with hatred's undertow Doth the Love Eternal flow; Every chain that spirits wear Crumbles in the breath of prayer; And the penitent's desire Opens every gate of fire.
Still Thy love, 0 Christ arisen, Yearns to reach these souls in prison! Through all depths of sin and loss Drops the plummet of Thy cross ! Never yet abyss was found Deeper than that cross could sound ! " ^
4. Can we say anything as to the result of Christ's preaching in Hades ? Whatever the effect of Christ's descent into Hades was for the ungodly, it would seem that His presence gave a
^ J. Parker, Hid<Un Sjyrings, 119, - Whittier.
I PETER III. 18-22 127
higher status and a more vivid consciousness of blessedness to the holy dead. This appears inevitable. The revelation of the Messiah must have been to them a revelation of the deeper meanings and glories of their immortal life. His coming would make them share in the new and splendid development of the Kingdom of God which that coming involved. In the twilight land they too were waiting for His glory, and in His redemptive presence in the might of His victory they would rise into richer life. The godly of the old dispensation would be splendidly lifted into the glory of the new. Those who had been gathered to the " bosom of Abraham " would now know the higher blessed- ness of " being with Christ."
^ In his Poem, " The Everlasting Mercy," John Masefield gives the autobiography of a soul that sank to the lowest depths of sin. But Divine mercy pursued him in the vilest haunts and, in the person of a Quaker girl, hurled this appeal at the bolted door of his heart.
Saul Kane, she said, when next you drink,
Do me the gentleness to think
That every drop of drink accursed
Makes Christ within you die of thirst,
That every dirty word you say
Is one more flint upon his way.
Another thorn upon his head,
Another mock by where he tread,
Another nail, another Cross,
All that you are is that Christ's loss.
Eesistance was useless. The bolt yielded, and the power of love conquered in the prison of his soul. And this is what he says —
I did not think, I did not strive.
The deep peace burnt my me alive; ■
The bolted door had broken in,
I knew that I had done with sin.
I knew that Christ had given me birth,
To brother all the souls of earth.
And every bird and every beast
Should share the crumbs broke at the feast.
5. Does the possibility of new opportunity beyond this world diminish the urgency for missionary effort ? If you object, as
128 DEPTHS OF MERCY
against this possible extension of mercy, that it will encourage sinners to go on as they are, in the hope of another chance by and by, the reply is that in exactly the same way you might object to the Gospel itself, that the death of Christ and pardon through His Cross is an encouragement to continue in sin that grace may abound. Men do argue that way, and St. Paul rebuked it by his solemn " God forbid."
Then it is said, if the offer of salvation is to be made to the ignorant on the other side of death, what special urgency is there for strenuous labour in the present? That is how many men have reasoned, and how many reason to-day. If the unenlightened heathen are not swept into hell, the burden of the situation is lightened, and the strain is relaxed. It is a terrific motive to conceive that the unillumined multitudes are dropping over the precipice of death into everlasting torment. And that has been the conception of many devoted followers of Christ. One writer makes the terrible declaration that three millions of the heathen and Mohammedans are dying every month, dropping over the precipice into the awful night, swept into eternity ! Swept into what? If they go out with unlit minds and hearts, are they never to see the gracious countenance of the Light of Life ? " He went and preached unto the spirits in prison." Does this destroy the urgency for foreign missions, and will it lull the heart of the Church to sleep ? One may well ask where are we if the motive of our missions and ministry is to save people from the fires of hell ?
The real missionary motive is not to save from hell, but to reveal Christ : not to save from a peril, but to proclaim and create a glorious companionship. Here is the marrow of the controversy, concentrated into one pressing question : Is it of infinite moment to know Christ now ?
^ The love of Christ will always create missionaries. Eaymund Lull was a gay and thoughtless courtier living a life of pleasure and of self-indulgence at the court of King James of Aragon. And one evening he was seated on his bed playing the zithern and trying to compose a song to a beautiful lady of the Court — a married lady, who rejected his addresses. While this gay, accomplished man was trying to compose the song, he thought he saw upon his right hand the crucified Saviour, and from the hands and the feet and the brow the blood was trickling down, and Christ looked at him reproachfully ; he put down his zithern