The Life of the Waiting Soul in the Intermediate State | Page 6

Heaven, what is its essential nature. Is it not this, that being the
dwelling place of GOD Himself, the glory and happiness of Heaven
will consist in the Presence itself of GOD, and therefore in the vision of
GOD? As a great writer has said, "It must be remarked by everybody
that the glory of the future state is always put before us not as an inner
consciousness or mental communion simply, not as an absorption into
ourselves within, but as a great spectacle without us, the spectacle of a
great visible manifestation of GOD. It is a sight, a picture, a
representation, that constitutes the heavenly state, not mere thought and
contemplation. The glorified saint of Scripture is especially a beholder;
he gazes, he looks, he fixes his eyes upon something before him; he
does not merely ruminate within, but his whole mind is carried out
towards and upon a great representation. And thus Heaven specially
appears in Scripture as the sphere of perfected sight, where the faculty

is raised and exalted to its highest act, and the happiness of existence
culminates in vision." {23} If this be so, all the most entrancing
spectacles and scenes of earth shall appear dim and coarse and uncouth
in comparison with the sight on which the ravished gaze of eternity
shall be fastened. For then shall our eyes see "The King in His Beauty."
{24a} They shall see GOD, see Him face to face,--GOD! No higher
conception of happiness is set before the heart of man, which ever
craves for heaven and for perfection, than GOD Himself, the sight of
GOD, the Presence of GOD, the Knowledge of GOD. "In Thy Presence
is the fulness of joy." {24b} But we must not lose sight of the effect
which this vision of GOD produces upon those who gaze. To see Him
is to become like Him. "Then," says S. John, "we shall be like Him, for
we shall see Him as He is." {24c} "We all," says S. Paul, "with open
face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into
the same image from glory to glory." This is what seeing GOD will do.
When, then, shall this vision be granted? At death to any? No! but only
at the Second Coming of Christ. All the great writers of the Epistles
speak, as with one voice, of this. What says S. Peter? "When the chief
Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth
not away." {25a} Not therefore at death, but at Christ's Second Coming
and appearance. What does S. John say? "We know that when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." {25b}
Not therefore until that time. What again does the great S. Paul say?
"When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear
with Him in glory." {25c} Again to S. Timothy he writes, "There is laid
up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous
Judge, shall give to me at that day: and not only to me, but also to all
them that have loved His appearing." {25d} There can be no doubt
what S. Paul means by "That Day." It is the day when "the Righteous
Judge" on His Judgment throne shall award the crowns to those who
have fought the good fight and kept the faith. This is the frequent
meaning of the expressions, "That day," "The day of the Lord," in the
New Testament. "We know it," says Dr. Liddon, "by a more familiar
name given it on three occasions by our Lord Himself, and on three at
least by His Apostles after Him: it is the Day of Judgment." {26} S.
Paul, therefore, when he says, "There is laid up for me the crown of

righteousness which the Lord will give me on that day," does not
expect that crown until the Day of Judgment.
These are a few out of many like passages, all showing that heaven is
not reached at death, but only after the Day of Judgment. From all
which it is clear that the Apostles had in their minds the firm assurance
that there was to be a waiting time, how long they knew not, or how
short they knew not, during which the spirit without the body would
dwell in expectation. If it were otherwise, if at death the spirit passes
into the light which no man can approach unto, into the Presence of
GOD and beholds the Beatific Vision, which, as we saw, constitutes the
consummation of happiness and perfection in heaven, I would ask, how
it can be conceived that our Lord would have called Lazarus back from
that supreme happiness, which eye hath