The Foundation, Construction, 2
Back to John Angell James
III. But this leads on to the third part of this lecture, which is to consider the ETERNITY of moral and pious character. It is not in the power of the human intellect, or of the divine one either, to conceive of anything in relation to this subject more momentous or more sublime than this; the declaration of which I almost wish I could make with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God. I shall not here enter into any proof of the immortality of the soul, and a future state of reward and punishment. I shall take those momentous and solemn truths for granted. Nor shall I dwell long on the ineffably sublime idea of eternity, that endless duration of existence which mocks the power of arithmetic to calculate, and of the human or angelic mind to grasp it. Eternity is an idea which can find no room to expand to all its height, and depth, and length, and breadth, but in the infinite mind of Him, who only in the full sense of the term is eternal, or from everlasting to everlasting. The future eternity, if I may be allowed the paradox of thus speaking of what has no relation to time, belongs to man, and is the measure of his existence. What do I look round upon, in surveying the audience which is before me? Not the ephemeral beings, the flitting shadows, which, as dying creatures, they may appear to be. No! There is upon every man the stamp of immortality! There is a spirit which will fly beyond the flaming bounds of space and time.
"The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years,
But you shall flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,
The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds."
This is not merely a noble effusion of poetry, but the declaration of that precious volume which abolishes death and brings life and immortality to light—a declaration which raises the subject of immortality above the dreams of imagination, the speculations of philosophy, and the yearnings after existence inseparable from the nature of man—to place it among the realities of truth, the objects of faith, and the anticipations of hope.
Such is the glorious possession, young men, of which infidelity and false philosophy would rob you—and by this dreadful felony would reduce you to its own miserable beggary, with no prospect but the grave, and no object of hope but annihilation. Such the dignity from which it would cast you down to the degradation of dying like a dog, after living like a man. Eternal God, on what are your enemies and the foes of our race intent! How insane a project! How parricidal a zeal! To cover your throne and our grave with the funeral pall of perpetual death, to bury your Divinity and our humanity together in one everlasting grave, and hush your name and our praises of it, in the unbroken silence of eternal night. Vain attempt! let them endeavor to extinguish the sun, and annihilate the planets—this would be an easy task compared with their endeavor to tear from the soul of man his convictions of the existence of God, and his hope of his own immortality.
Now through eternity there must be some character. No one can be a mere blank there, any more than here. We are always to be rational creatures, and of course are forever to partake of some moral qualities; and these qualities are acquired in this world. All the positive information we can acquire upon this subject must be obtained from Scriptural revelation. Yet even reason suggests the probability of an eternity of character; or in other words, the perpetuity through eternity of the character we acquire in this world. We should entertain a presumption of this, if we reasoned only from analogy. It is true, that death separates the two states, and some may think will make a considerable and radical difference in the condition of the soul. But why? Death is wholly a physical change, operating only, as far as we know, upon the material part of our nature, the throwing down of the walls of the prison to let the captive escape. Disease of itself effects no moral change, and why should death? The moral consciousness remains in continuous and unchanged existence. Not only the same faculties continue, but the same moral qualities.
But what reason renders probable, revelation renders certain. Every part of the sacred volume represents this world as a state of discipline and probation for the next, as bearing the same relation to a future world that boyhood and youth do to manhood. God has put us here on earth, to acquire an eternal moral character. And he gives us the opportunity to do so. And we in reality do it. We may, if we so choose, obtain a bad one; there are incentives and temptations which will lead to it if we yield to them. But there are also opportunities and facilities, if we will avail ourselves of them, of an opposite nature. Time decides for eternity. The probation ends with life, and death sets the seal not only on destiny, but on character. From that moment the good are good, and the bad are bad—forever! The one are removed, as they are, into a state where moral excellence will have no more check to its development, nor any more temptations to corrupt it. And those who are bad, to a state where sin will have no means for its resistance or suppression. All then pass under the sentence, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still."
The image of the heavenly is thus stamped upon the soul on earth, and the likeness of the eternal in time. The ultimate moral purpose of Christianity is to produce an everlasting character, and for that end to confer the elements of it in this world, to originate in each man's history and moral being, an infinite series of moral actions; to commence an endless progression in holy conduct, and an eternal practice and enjoyment of all that is true, and beautiful, and good. The present is thus the parent of the future: character on earth is the bud of character in heaven. All the moral elements of eternity are acquired and found in the soul during its temporary sojourn here. Each man walks the earth an incipient seraph—or a commencing fiend. Every moral thing we do stretches far beyond the sphere of its doing—it is a causation for eternity. Eternal issues are the result of every action, the embodiment of every thought, the echo of every word. What we are now, is the prediction of what we shall be forever. Every action partaking of moral quality, whether of a good or a bad man, leaves upon the tablet of the soul, a mark which will be legible there, millions of ages hence. Moral character works out its own outcomes—digs its own hell, or builds its own heaven. In each case it is in another world, the natural and necessary consummation of man's present self in this. He puts off the mortal and puts on the immortal; but as is the mortal—such also is the immortal. Man is called a shadow as to his transient existence, but as to his character, he is the shadow which coming eternity casts before it.
How much is there in man's history that is not eternal; gifts, wealth, rank, fame, connections—are all of the earth, earthly, and perish in the using. They form part of the fashion of this world, that mirthful and glittering pageant which passes away. But character remains! Whatever is not eternal, character is. Whatever else we may drop on the borders of the grave, this we shall carry with us, in us, into whatever state we then enter. It cannot be separated from ourselves, for it is ourselves. If we love and respect it, we shall retain the object of our affection forever—and if we loathe and despise it, we must still retain it forever. How instructive and impressive is this to every man, of every age and every condition of life; but especially to the young. For as it is in youth that character is formed for manhood and all future life, so of course youth is the period of forming it for eternity.
Happy will it be for you, my young friends, if this night your attention shall be drawn to this momentous subject. Character, as regards this world, is of unspeakable importance to yourself. Can you possess any self-respect without it? How terrible is it to be self-despised, to be vile in our own estimation, to be an object of scorn to ourselves! But on the other hand, how delightful is it to possess that self-esteem which is as far from pride and self-conceit on the one side, as it is from a spurious and affected modesty on the other! It is not humility but ignorance which deprives a man of the enjoyment of conscious uprightness. True humility consists in thinking of ourselves neither higher nor lower than we ought to do. Nor is it necessary to the exercise of this virtue that we should deprive ourselves of all the enjoyments of a good conscience.
Character will be a shield in some instances against temptation, for where it is very eminent, the seducer will think it too high too reach, or too impregnable to be stormed. In other cases, it has constituted a defense against slander, by placing its possessor above suspicion. Oftentimes it is taken at once as a guarantee for innocence against defamation. A man of well-established reputation is safe in the confidence of those who know him. They acquit him without a trial, and believe his innocence without the judgment of a court. Slander may indeed fix its fangs for a moment upon a spotless character; but such a character has within itself an antidote to the poison, and rises from the temporary wound with invigorated strength and brightened beauty.
Character secures the esteem of the wise and the good; and even bad men pay it the tribute of their admiration, and the compliment of their 'envy'. An inordinate craving after applause is a morbid condition of the soul, the feverish thirst of disease; but a just appreciation of the unsought esteem of those whose discriminating and judicious praise is never bestowed but upon what deserves it, is at once an exercise and reward of virtue. Character will aid you in your endeavor to do good and to obtain your proper standing in society. "Character is power. Character is influence." Men are moved not only by what is said, but by the people who say it. Reputation gives weight to advice, inspires confidence, and attracts cooperation. Success in life depends upon it. Character, if not capital, often supplies the place of it. Godly character is one of the ladders of ascent to wealth and respectability. It is not only a benefit to yourselves, but to others. It is a rich contribution to domestic comfort; an essential to the smooth and easy working of the great commercial system; the breakwater which resists the tidal waves and ocean-storms of moral evil, that are ever threatening to inundate the interests of society; a rebuke to the bad, an encouragement to the good, a model for imitation to the present generation, and a rich legacy and a posthumous benefit to the generation to come. A man's character outlives himself and lasts as long as his name. It is his most enduring monument and his truest history—and therefore everyone is under solemn obligation to consult his posthumous power to do good or harm. The reminiscences of his virtues or his vices may be withering or fostering the interests of society when he is sleeping in his grave.
But to return, in conclusion, to the eternal aspect of character. How concerned, how careful, and how laborious have been some men, to build up a reputation which posterity shall know and admire! When the poet was reproached for the slowness of his verses, how impressive and dignified was his reply: "I write for immortality." Young men, you are living, speaking, acting for immortality, always and everywhere building up a character that is to last through eternity. It is a solemn thought, under the weight of which the strongest mind might stagger, in the contemplation of which the boldest might tremble, and in the comprehension of which the most ambitious might find a boundless scope for its aspirations and its pursuits.
It is wise sometimes to ask ourselves the question, "What we shall be hereafter?" How soon this is spoken, but who shall reply? Think how profoundly this question, this mystery, concerns us; in comparison with this, what are all the other questions which curiosity or science may ask? What to us the future career of events, or the progress of states and empires, or the history of our globe, or of our whole material universe? What we shall be, we ourselves, is the matter of infinite and surpassing interest. How overpowered are we in attempts to realize to our thought, what nevertheless will be! "I that am the man, who is here, who is thus—what shall I be, and where, and how, when this vast system of nature has passed away? What shall I be—after ages more than there are leaves or blades of grass on the whole surface of this globe, or atoms in its enormous mass, shall have expired? Through all that inconceivable period, that infinite, eternal duration, there will still be the conscious I am. Can it be possible then we should not now ask—What shall I be? What character shall I bear?" (See Foster's lecture on our ignorance of our future mode of existence.)
It surely cannot be too sermonic, before the members of a Young Men's Christian Association, to recommend for such an object the devout study of the Holy Scriptures, and earnest prayer for the aid of the Holy Spirit! That precious volume is the best mold in which the character can be cast, even for time; and it is the only one in which it can be cast for eternity. Be much in converse with your Bible. It is the seal of the Spirit of God. Yield your mind to the faith of its doctrines. Yield your heart, softened by the power of prayer to the impression of its precepts. Yield your life to the influence of its examples—for in so doing you will receive a character, which after having procured many of the advantages and much of the happiness of earth, and after having constituted your richest honor and noblest distinction among your fellow-mortals, will accompany you to the Paradise of God—where the bud of every virtue, now often exposed to hostile blasts and nipping frosts, shall blossom in unfailing beauty, beyond the reach of temptation, and the taint, of corruption.
Or, to change the figure, where that character, here now copied, though but imperfectly, from the moral attributes of God, will be perfect even as He is perfect. And by flourishing in immortal loveliness, will realize the subject of this lecture—that eternity will be the duration of that character which is founded on pious principle, and constructed of Christian virtues.
Back to John Angell James