Sermons to the Natural Man | Page 9

sympathy with
it, has now become everlasting. That distinct and accurate knowledge
of God's character has now become his only knowledge. That flash of
lightning has become light,--fixed, steady, permanent as the orb of day.
The rational spirit cannot for an instant rid itself of the idea of God.
Never for a moment, in the endless cycles, can it look away from its
Maker; for in His presence what other object is there to look at? Time
itself, with its pursuits and its objects of thought and feeling, is no
longer, for the angel hath sworn it by Him who liveth for ever and ever.
There is nothing left, then, to occupy and engross the attention but the
character and attributes of God; and, now, the immortal mind, created
for such a purpose, must yield itself up to that contemplation which in
this life it dreaded and avoided. The future state of every man is to be
an open and unavoidable vision of God. If he delights in the view, he
will be blessed; if he loathes it, he will be miserable. This is the
substance of heaven and hell. This is the key to the eternal destiny of
every human soul. If a man love God, he shall gaze at him and adore; if
he hate God, he shall gaze at him and gnaw his tongue for pain.
The subject, as thus far unfolded, teaches the following lessons:
1. In the first place, it shows that a false theory of the future state will
not protect a man from future misery. For, we have seen that the eternal
world, by its very structure and influences, throws a flood of light upon
the Divine character, causing it to appear in its ineffable purity and
splendor, and compels every creature to stand out in that light. There is
no darkness in which man can hide himself, when he leaves this world
of shadows. A false theory, therefore, respecting God, can no more
protect a man from the reality, the actual matter of fact, than a false

theory of gravitation will preserve a man from falling from a precipice
into a bottomless abyss. Do you come to us with the theory that every
human creature will be happy in another life, and that the doctrine of
future misery is false? We tell you, in reply, that God is _holy_, beyond
dispute or controversy; that He cannot endure the sight of sin; and that
in the future world every one of His creatures must see Him precisely
as He is, and know Him in the real and eternal qualities of His nature.
The man, therefore, who is full of sin, whose heart is earthly, sensual,
selfish, must, when he approaches that pure Presence, find that his
theory of future happiness shrivels up like the heavens themselves,
before the majesty and glory of God. He now stands face to face with a
Being whose character has never dawned upon him with such a
dazzling purity, and to dispute the reality would be like disputing the
fierce splendor of the noonday sun. Theory must give way to fact, and
the deluded mortal must submit to its awful force.
In this lies the irresistible power of death, judgment, and eternity, to
alter the views of men. Up to these points they can dispute and argue,
because there is no ocular demonstration. It is possible to debate the
question this side of the tomb, because we are none of us face to face
with God, and front to front with eternity. In the days of Noah, before
the flood came, there was skepticism, and many theories concerning the
threatened deluge. So long as the sky was clear, and the green earth
smiled under the warm sunlight, it was not difficult for the unbeliever
to maintain an argument in opposition to the preacher of righteousness.
But when the sky was rent with lightnings, and the earth was scarred
with thunder-bolts, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up,
where was the skepticism? where were the theories? where were the
arguments? When God teaches, "Where is the wise? where is the scribe?
where is the disputer of this world?" They then knew as they were
known; they stood face to face with the facts.
It is this inevitableness of the demonstration upon which we would
fasten attention. We are not always to live in this world of shadows.
We are going individually into the very face and eyes of Jehovah, and
whatever notions we may have adopted and maintained must all
disappear, except as they shall be actually verified by what we shall see
and know in that period of our existence when we shall perceive with
the accuracy and clearness of God Himself. Our most darling theories,

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