[Feb. 2d, 1862.]
The doctrine of this passage, of the context and of the Scriptures is that believers at death being made perfect in holiness do immediately pass into glory.
This stands opposed, 1. To the doctrine that there is no future state of blessedness, that in this life only we have hope in Christ. 2. To the doctrine of a state of unconsciousness between death and the resurrection. 3. To the doctrine of purgatory, or a state of expiation and purification after death. The apostle found his consolation in the assurance that as soon as he was absent from the body he would be present with the Lord; that he would at death immediately enter heaven. This is the greatest encouragement and support to the suffering believer.
The first remark we make on this subject is that we cannot enter into Paul’s experience or share his exulting expectation of heaven unless we share in his labors and sufferings. We who have access at any moment to cooling water, can have no idea of the intense longings of those perishing from thirst on the sands of the desert, or on the battle-field. We often wonder at the strong language of the sacred writers and endeavor to force ourselves up to their standard of doctrine and desire. We cannot do it. It is impossible while we are at ease and satisfied. We must suffer if we would rejoice.
Our second remark is that this suffering need not be that of external afflictions as were those of Paul. They may be from inward conflicts, the burden of sin, the violence of our spiritual enemies. Paul felt this burden and cried, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The great truth is that we cannot have strong aspirations after holiness, longings after heaven, and joy in hope of the glory of God, unless we have a proportionate experience of the evil of sin and the unsatisfying nature of all creature good.
Thirdly, even on the low level of the ordinary Christian experience the doctrine of the text is of unspeakable consolation. To revert to the figure before used. Although we cannot drink water with the intense delight of those perishing from thirst, it is nevertheless to us a pure, constant, and indispensable refreshment. Every man has enough to dissatisfy him with the present, to make him look forward with desire, and that he is not called to look on blank vacuity or utter darkness, but on the bright prospect of eternal blessedness, is an infinitely precious but unappreciated support and comfort.
Fourthly, the design of the revelation of heaven as immediately consequent on death is not merely to support believers under their afflictions or to comfort them on the loss of dear friends, but to wean them from the world. God has opened to them the prospect of a state of existence in which holiness shall be attended with glory and blessedness, in order that they should not be worldly-minded. As the desire and pursuit of things of the world is degrading and leads the soul away from God, so the desire of heaven has the opposite tendency. To be heavenly-minded includes two things which are inseparably connected. 1. Having heaven constantly present to the mind as a subject of thought and object of desire. 2. Having that state of mind, those feelings and affections which are congenial with heaven. It is an approximation to that state of mind which those have who are already in heaven. Sanctification, then, as well as consolation is the end contemplated in this assurance of a heavenly state after death.
Fifthly, religious, or rather Christian experience is ever and must ever be essentially the same, because Christian experience is only the effect produced by Christian doctrine on the soul, by the Holy Spirit. As therefore Christian doctrine is a fixed quantity, always the same and always essentially the same in the apprehension of believers, Christian experience must always be the same. The only true standard of that experience is to be found in the Scriptures. Ours must correspond with that. We must feel as Paul and John felt about sin, Christ and heaven. If we have faith, it must overcome the world; it must be to us the evidence of things not seen and the substance of things hoped for; it must purify the heart, it must set our affections on things above; it must make us long for heaven and for the revelation of the Son of God.
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