Matthew 7:9

Matthew 7:9

Sham Immortality.

I. So much is there in the Christian doctrine of immortality that captivates the imagination and touches the heart, that the apostles of unbelief are constrained to find a substitute for it, and they preach an immortality in words which are anointed with the unction of the pulpit. But all that is true in their doctrine has been a conscious Christian possession, and I may say a human possession, since men became capable of reflection; and all that is new is the sight of infidelity strutting in garments stolen from Christianity. They teach that the dead live on in those who come after them, that the dead have a real place in succeeding generations, and make them what they are; that the dead are the true rulers of the present, and are often more powerful than when they were alive. When they say that "the dead are still living round us, and are as active as ever they were in life," they do not mean by living what men usually mean. For they do not believe in the immortality of the soul that is, in the continued existence of the conscious, rational being, of that unity we call the ego or self. Their "raptures conjured up to serve occasion of poetic pomp" simply come to this conduct of every kind has its consequences, and these consequences reach to future generations. If there is no other immortality than this, that a man's conduct will continue to have its effects in the future, it is for the greater part of mankind an immortality which is uninspiring, and for many an immortality of hopeless night.

II. How insignificant must be the effect of a single life such as that lived by thousands and millions of human beings, on the next generations. When we remember that if every act has its persisting effects, then our bad acts, our silly acts, our mean acts, have their effects, their immortality, just as our good ones have. There cannot be much inspiration in the immortality of our vices and follies. If this is to be the life to come, we may well wish for a great sword long enough to smite the future, and strong enough to strike off the heads of the offspring which will bear our names.

W. Page Roberts, Liberalism in Religion,p. 112.

References: Matthew 7:9. J. H. Jellett, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 158; J. Burton, Sermons on Christian Life and Truth,p. 121.