387. So that, even in a worldly sense, the position of a Christian is not worse, but better, than that of the non-Christian. Seek ye first His truth and all the rest will be added unto you" signifies that the earthly joys of life are not shut off from the Christian, but are quite accessible to him, only with this difference,— that whereas the joys of the non-Christian may be artificial and pass into satiety, and his sufferings appear to be unnecessary and without escape, for a Christian, joys are more simple and natural, and therefore more intense and never productive of satiety, and sufferings can never be so painful nor appear so meaningless as they do to the non-Christian. Such is the position of a Christian in the present life. But what can he expect in the future? WHAT AWAITS MAN IN THE FUTURE? 388. Man cannot, while living in this world in a bodily form, picture life to himself otherwise than in space and time; he therefore naturally asks where he will be after death. 389. But this question is wrongly put. When the divine essence of the soul, which is spiritual, independent of time and space, enclosed in the body in this life-when this divine essence leaves the body it ceases to be conditioned by time or space, and therefore one cannot say of this essence that it will be. It is. As Christ said, Before Abraham was, I am." So also with us all. If we are, we always have been, and shall be. We are. 66 390. It is precisely the same with the question, Where shall we be? When we say where, we speak of a place. But the idea of place is only caused by that condition of separation from all else, in which we have been placed. At death this separation will cease, and thus, for those still living in this world, we shall be everywhere and nowhere. For us locality will not exist. 391. There have been many different conjectures as to what we shall be and where we shall be after death. But none of these conjectures, from the coarsest to the most refined, can satisfy reasonable man. The voluptuous bliss of Mohammed is too coarse and is evidently incompatible with the true idea of man and God. The ecclesiastical representation of heaven and hell is also incompatible with the idea of a God of love. The transmigration of souls is less coarse, but it also retains the idea of the separateness of individual existence; the common conception of Nirvana removes all the coarseness of this representation, but transgresses the de e mand of reason—the reasonableness of existence. 392. Therefore, no representation of what will be after death gives such an answer as will satisfy a reasonable man. 393. Nor can this be otherwise. The question is wrongly formulated. Human reason, which can work only in the conditions of time and space, seeks to give an answer concerning that which is outside of these conditions. One thing only is known to reason: that the divine essence does exist, that it has been growing while in this world and that, having attained a certain extent of growth, it has passed out of these conditions. 394. Will this essence still continue its functions in a separate form? Will the increase of love produce a new accumulation ? These are but guesses, and of such guesses there may be many; but none of them can give certainty. 395. One thing alone is certain and indubitable, that which Christ said when he was dying: "Into Thy hands I commend my spirit "—that is to say, at death I re |