The Life of the Waiting Soul Part 3

{103b} And the earliest Christian writers, as well as the inscriptions on tombs bear such witness to the existence of this primitive practice, that it cannot be disputed. It is true that our English Prayer Book neither expressly sanctions nor yet expressly forbids these intercessions. But in the Liturgy, in the Litany, and in the Burial Service, prayers occur which appear to have been purposely so worded, as to lend themselves to a reference in the minds of wors.h.i.+ppers to the faithful dead, if any should desire so to apply them. Bishop Cosin, one of the chief compilers of our present Prayer Book, writes that the words, "that we and Thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of His Pa.s.sion," occurring in our Liturgy, are to be understood to refer as well to "those who have been here before," that is to say, who have died in the Lord, as to those "that are now members of it," that is, who still are living. {104}

And is not the custom reasonable? Are we to pray for those whom we dearly love up to the very last moment of their life, and then for ever to refrain? We could understand this on the supposition that death was the end of all things, or that at death there followed an immediate heaven or an instant h.e.l.l; but not if the process of purification and of real Church life are continuing after death. And Christian instinct urges it. G.o.d is a Father. As children we ought to tell Him all that is in our heart. Whatever we may rightly desire we may rightly pray for. It is only that which we ought not to desire that we ought not to pray for.

It is not right to pray that they may, as by a miracle, be restored to us; that is not the will of G.o.d. Nor is it right that we should seek by occult and forbidden ways to hold converse with them. But we may surely ask for them what S. Paul asked for his friend, that they may find mercy in that day, that they may have rest and peace and light and refreshment, the joy of Christ's Presence, and the gladness of a blessed Resurrection.

And now these words must be brought to a close. The arguments which have been urged rest upon the very language of Holy Scripture, or upon legitimate inferences from it. What then? If they are worthy of trust, to accept them is to rob death of half its fears and alarms. It is the unknown that inspires terror. To know but a little more than we before knew of the land in which those who have gone before now sojourn, is to gather fresh courage to face it with less misgiving for them and for ourselves. They have pa.s.sed on, but they await us there. They are only hidden from us for a little while. Their voices are silent. But their life is as real a life as ours. No dull oblivion weighs them down. They live and think and see and know,--know, it may be, more of us than we think, know as much of us as it is for their happiness to know. A little while and we also shall know as they know, and see as they see, in the home and resting place of vision and of peace.

Footnotes:

{5} Rev. xxi. 27.

{8} 2 Cor. v. 10.

{14} Acts xxiv. 15.

{15} See Luck.o.c.k, "The Intermediate State," pp. 14, 15.

{17} S. John xx. 17.

{19} The expression is borrowed from the custom among the Jews of reclining instead of sitting at a banquet. The guest was stretched upon a couch, his left elbow resting upon a cus.h.i.+on close to the table, his feet being towards the outer side of the couch, which was away from the table. By slightly bending back his head he could touch with it the breast of the guest on his left hand, and speak to him in a low voice.

Thus S. John bent back upon our Lord's breast at the Last Supper to ask Him, "Lord, who is it?" and is therefore spoken of as "he who leant upon His breast at supper." To sit therefore, or to rest in the bosom of Abraham, represented the happy lot of those who had pa.s.sed to Paradise.

{23} Mozley, Univ. Serm., p. 155.

{24a} Isaiah x.x.xiii. 17.

{24b} Psalm xvi. 11.

{24c} 1 John iii. 2.

{25a} 1 Peter v. 4.

{25b} 1 John iii. 2.

{25c} Col. iii. 4.

{25d} 2 Tim. iv. 3.

{26} Advent Sermon, "The Day of the Lord."

{28} Rev. vi. 9, 10, 11 (_Revised Version_).

{34a} 1 Thess. v. 23. But the A.V. hardly brings out the full force of the distinction. The definite article has a possessive force, as if it were "_your_ spirit, _your_ soul, _your_ body"; as though the spirit was as distinct from the soul as each of them is distinct from the body.

{34b} Heb. iv. 12.

{34c} 1 Cor. ii. 14.

{35a} 1 Cor. xv. 44.

{35b} S. James iii. 15.

{35c} Jude 19.

{35d} Gen. ii. 7.

{37} Mason, "Faith of the Gospel," p. 85.

{41a} For example, Acts vii. 60; S. John xi. 11, 14; 1 Thess. v. 14; 1 Cor. xv. 18, 20.

{41b} Rev. xiv. 13.

{43} Phil i. 21.

{44} 1 Peter iii. 18.

{47} Isaiah i. 2.

{63} See p. 100 _infra_.

{72} In the A.V. the words in v. 18 are printed differently from the R.V. In the former the reading is "quickened by the Spirit," as though S. Peter meant to a.s.sert, that it was by the special operation of G.o.d the Holy Ghost that our Lord, after He died upon the Cross, still lived. But this rendering entirely destroys the evident ant.i.thesis which is marked in the contrast between "put to death" and "quickened," and between "flesh" and "spirit." That ant.i.thesis limits the effect of Christ's death to His human Body, while His human Spirit was still alive.

{73} 2 Peter ii. 5.

{74} The same word is used constantly in the N.T. for the special proclamation of the Gospel.

{75} 1 Peter iv. 6.

{84} Thus the Catechism of the Council of Trent states that "There is a Purgatorial Fire where the souls of _the righteous_ being tormented are purified."

{86} In the Holy Communion the priest and the people offer to the Father "the one full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." The Christian Society is called in 1 Peter ii. 9, a "royal _priesthood_," ([Greek]), and in Rev.

i. 6 "kings and _priests to G.o.d_." ([Greek]); and as [Greek] and [Greek]

are sacrificial terms, it is to be inferred that a Sacrifice is really offered by them. As Christ perpetually, being a "Priest forever," and therefore "having of necessity something to offer" for ever (Heb. viii.

3), presents in the Holy Place not made with hands, in Heaven itself, the Sacrifice of Himself before the eyes of the Father, so, at every Altar on earth, the "kings and priests" being a sacrificing priesthood, represent and commemorate the same sacrifice and none other, a sacrifice which never can be repeated.

{87} See Dr. Maclear on the Articles, p. 368. If the Sacrifice on the Cross served one purpose and effected one propitiation, and the Sacrifice of the Ma.s.s another, then the inference is that they were themselves, so far, different things. It was the same Body of Christ which was offered in each case, but the sacrifices of the same Body were different.

Therefore the Sacrifice of the Ma.s.s was a repet.i.tion of the Sacrifice on the Cross for a distinct object and a distinct purpose. It was supplementary, and supplied a defect which the Sacrifice on the Cross failed to supply!

{88} What has been said on the subject of "The Sacrifices of Ma.s.ses" for souls in Purgatory must not be understood as implying that the Sacrifice in the Holy Communion has no efficacy, when pleaded in behalf of the souls in the Intermediate State. To use the words of Bishop Forbes, "The application of the Blessed Eucharist to the departed must in our Church stand and fall with the practice of prayers for the dead. In its aspect of the great oblation, the Holy Communion may be considered as prayer in its most intense and highest form. If it is unlawful to pray for the faithful departed, it must be unlawful to remember them in the sacred mysteries; but, if the first be permitted, the second must be so likewise." (Article x.x.xI., p. 63.) The subject of Prayers for the Dead is dealt with in the next Address, page 101 _sq._

{92} Psalm xxvii. 1.

{96} A friend has suggested that Moses and the prophets may, one after the other, have reported to Abraham the occurrences on earth in which they had severally themselves taken part, and that, therefore, we have in this narrative no more than an ill.u.s.tration of the mutual intercourse which exists in the Intermediate Life. To this it may be replied that this suggestion, so far from discrediting, really confirms the argument in the sermon. The suggestion is an attempt to explain the mode by which knowledge of what pa.s.ses here is attained, which is certainly no disproof of the existence of such knowledge. But it is safer to say that, some how or other, the denizens of the Intermediate State do probably know, as Abraham certainly knew, occurrences on earth.

{98} Both these ill.u.s.trations are, I find, referred to by Canon McColl in his "Life Here and Hereafter," pp. 105, 106. But may I presume to question the value of his ill.u.s.tration of our Lord's knowledge of what was said, in His absence, on the way to Emmaus, and by S. Thomas? Our Lord's knowledge after His Resurrection, and indeed at any time, is scarcely on a level with the knowledge possessed by souls in the Intermediate State of what pa.s.ses on earth.