“ — until the day break and the shadows flee away.”

(Song of Solomon 3:17)

In George Eliot’s fanciful poem, The Legend of Jubal, death had never entered the world till an accident brought it. And there stretched out on the earth was the fair form all still and pale. Friends and relations gathered in puzzled silence wondering at the sudden slumber in broad daylight. And as the strange, new, long sleep came home to the human race, and the realization dawned that wakefulness would never open those eyes again, nor the body rise in glad motion, its effect was revolutionary. And the nature of the effect upon the human race was the more feverish energy, and an affection more tender because brief. “No form, no shadow, but new dearness took from the one thought that life must have an end.”

“Who does not feel the touching truth of this? Who has not clung with new tenderness to the dear one whose days are numbered? How many have recognized their angels only as they were leaving them? Even in health who has not stayed the impatient word, at the remembrance that the time together is at most so short, and might be shortened to an hour?” (P.T. Forsythe — This Life and the Next)

Yes, George Eliot’s fanciful poem dramatically sets before us something which we have all felt deeply — that our lives are tremendously influenced by the known fact of death —that one day we shall die.

But for Christians there is another factor in the experience of the human race which should be far more potently influential upon life, even than the knowledge of certain death; it is the Christian’s assurance of eternal life through Christ whom God raised from the dead.

Sometime we hear from Christian pulpits of the effect of this life upon the next — of how our choices and actions here and now determine our destiny hereafter; but what about the equally important subject of the effect of the next life upon this? If, as Christians, we know we are immortals, what influence, if any, should that have on our present life? What is the moral rebound of our faith in our immortality? What is, or should be, the reflex action on us in our present life, of the idea of immortality; or, to put it in a more Christian way: what is the power over us of an endless life in Christ, where the gain in dying is but more of our career in Christ?

First of all there is surely this: the Christian doctrine of immortality imparts courage and poise for living and dying. There is this positive moral rebound from the next life upon this. Death is stripped of its fearful, ghostly shrouds. It is shown up as only an episode, a crisis which opens a new phase of life, instead of the once feared finality.

With St. Paul the Christian confidently says: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (II Corinthians 5:1) If this earthly body of ours, the flimsy tent in which our spirit lives during the brief camping trip we make on this planet — if it is destroyed, or taken down, we know through the revelation God made in Christ’s resurrection and in his gracious promises that we have a new spiritual dwelling in the heavens.

A Christian woman in full strength of maturity became ill. After some weeks of treatment her physicians announced that to modern medicine she was ill with an incurable malady. But such was the strength of her Christian faith, such was the powerful influence of the next life upon this to impart to her and her family courage and poise that she, knowing only a few more weeks remained for her in this life, called in all her family and friends to give them her clothes, conducting in high good humor a style show to see which coat or dress would fit whom; discussed with her husband and son the boy’s educational plans; and requested that when services for her be held at church, the whole congregation stand and sing:

All hail the power of Jesus’ Name!

Let angel’s prostrate fall;

Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown Him Lord of all.

And those who knew her best said of this one who had always been a strong and influential character: “Truly she was more powerful in death than she ever had been in life.” So death is swallowed up in victory.

Yes, there is within the Christian faith this certain influence of the next life upon this life: it imparts courage and poise for living and dying.

But more also, faith in a life after death has this influence upon our present life — it gives us comfort in life’s darkest hours.

John Chrysostom in the early church said: “Consider to whom the departed has gone, and take comfort. He has gone to be where Paul is and Peter is, and the whole company of the saints. Consider that by mourning and lamenting thou canst not alter the event, which has occurred, and will in the end only injure thyself. We ought, therefore, to thank God not only for the resurrection, but also for the hope of it, which can comfort the afflicted soul, and bid us be of good cheer concerning the departed, for they will rise again and be with us. If we must have anguish, we should mourn and lament over those who are living in sin, not over those who have died righteously.”

Yes, there are those who can quietly say, as their faith follows their love into heaven’s unseen: “I know that land. Some of my people live there. Some have gone abroad on secret foreign service, which does not permit communications. But I meet from time to time the commanding officer. And when I mention them to Him, He assures me that all is well.” (Forsythe — Ibid.)

There is also this influence of the next life upon this one: a sharpening of our moral earnestness. It is sometimes charged that the reverse of this is true: that the Christian faith in a life after death has so heightened other worldly concern as to cut the nerve of concern for life in this world; that it has taken the monk and the nun out of their helping places in the world, and put them in their hiding places in monasteries and convents; that it has been the opiate of the people; that hope for heavenly rewards has persuaded oppressed mankind to endure unspeakable conditions now for a little while longer, till the morning break upon their eternal day, instead of bestirring themselves to carve out by struggle and hazard a better life for all now. So, it is sometimes argued.

But most of the evidence, unfortunately for such contenders, is on the other side. The great social reformers, the towering moral characters of the ages, have been for the most part in the Christian camp.  Why? Because they believe in the life everlasting. For always in the Christian revelation the concept of eternal life is set in close juxtaposition with the concept of moral judgment. In our scripture lesson of the morning St. Paul is dealing with the Christian doctrine of immortality and he begins with the believers assurance for life after death, saying: “We know that our bodies are like tents that we live in here on earth.  But when these tents are destroyed, we know that God will give each of us a place to live. . in heaven that will last forever.” That’s how Paul begins, but Paul ends his statement on the note of a sure judgment, saying: “After all, Christ will judge each of us for the good or the bad that we did while living in these bodies.” (II Corinthians 5:1, 10 — Contemporary English Version)

Always in the Christian doctrine of immortality there is the element of divine judgment, “but the Christian hope is not clouded by the judgment seat of Christ, it is sustained by the holy height that befits it.”

For, “If death be dissolution, self knows that it has but a short time, and makes the most of it. And there is no power to forbid or limit. So it piles gain on gain, power on power, pleasure on pleasure, with an energy that nothing abates or deflects, and with a deep sense of the resources of money to neutralize consequences, still pain and avert death. So duty easily becomes a negligible quality. And the man is ruled by the will to live with all his might the little span on which he can count.” (Forsythe – Ibid.)

But, if death be not dissolution, if there be a life after death, and with that afterlife there comes an inevitable judgment, where we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of how we have lived by His precepts and examples — Oh, how that fact sharpens our moral earnestness now!

When Dr. John Rood Cunningham was President of Davidson College he liked to tell of one of the Negro janitors at the college, a devout Christian who was getting quite ancient. Sometimes folks would say to the venerable old saint: “Aren’t you getting tired of living? Wouldn’t you like to go on to your heavenly home?” “No, sir,” the old man would say with stouthearted conviction. “No, I’m going to be at home in my home here, till I go to my home over yonder.”

Yes, the right appreciation of the Christian doctrine of immortality instead of cutting the nerve of moral action, instead of canceling out concern for bettering conditions in this world, rather sharpens and quickens moral earnestness, and helps us to see that all the moments of this mortal life flash with eternal meaning.

After St. Paul had plumbed the depths in his magnificent exposition of the Christian doctrine of immortality in I Corinthians 15, he concludes the whole business with this exhortation: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

It is as though the inspired Apostle was saying: “Now since all this is so, that Christ rose from the dead to eternal glory, that since through our relationship to Him we have eternal life, since all this is so, therefore, my brethren, the meaning of it for you is: to be steadfast, courageous, poised, always doing the Lord’s work, for you know its eternal worth, that none of your labor is in vain in the Lord.”

“It is much to live for eternity, to live eternity is more. And the longer we dwell on this new life and dispose ourselves to it, so much the more we inhabit another world. And the change, the reaction on our life is great as we live such another world into this. We acquire both the devout life and the brotherly.” (Forsythe — Ibid)

Powerful as is the possible influence of the next life upon this, we Christian people are sometimes reticent to give this influence full sway, especially with our young people and children. I remember how I was a bit shocked at the commencement service at Flora MacDonald College in North Carolina many years ago. I was standing with the college faculty and graduates, waiting to march into the auditorium when I heard the first notes of the Processional Hymn from the chapel organ. I was shocked because I recognized the hymn was one I had always associated with funerals – Vaughan Williams arrangement – For All the Saints Who from their Labors Rest.  How unfortunate a selection, I thought to myself as the procession began the seniors in cap and gown marched in stately cadence, two by two, singing:

For all the saints who from their labors rest

Who thee by faith before the world confessed

Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest,

Alleluia, Alleluia. 

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,

Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host.

Singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Alleluia, Alleluia.

Then, as my heart warmed and thrilled to those triumphant strains, it slowly dawned on me: “How fitting, how appropriate, that these young women, schooled in a Christian College, marching forth to life, to marriage and motherhood, to teach in church and home and school in the faith of the Risen Redeemer — how gloriously appropriate that they be sent out into the world under the conscious compelling influence of the Christian faith in the life everlasting.

And so, may it be with each of us, also, that we, too, may live daily under the lifting and invigorating influence of our eternal life in Christ, till at last the morning breaks eternal and the shadows flee away.

• Scripture Reference: Song of Solomon 3:17-0 • Secondary Scripture References: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 • Subject : Immortality; Resurrection; Righteousness; Discipleship; 807; 632 • Special Topic: n/a • Series: n/a • Occasion: n/a • First Preached: 1/16/1949 • Last Preached: 5/25/1997 • Rating: 2 • Book/Author References: This Life and The Next, P. T. Forsythe