The Gospel of the Hereafter

God's caterpillars in their next stage are going to be soaring butterflies—God's acorns are to become mighty oaks—God's dry little seeds in the granary to-day will in autumn be alive in the waving harvests. God's world of nature is full of romantic possibilities. And God's world of men is infinitely more so, and one of life's delights is to know it and look forward to it guessing what we shall be.

That is what gives zest to life. That is what we need to make life bright and beautiful.

I see a group of small boys sitting at their play, and their eyes are bright looking into the future. They are going to be soldiers, and sailors, and circus riders, and travelers, and all sorts of things.

Because they are boys with the enthusiasms of boyhood, they may be anything. All the possibilities of boyhood belong to them.

It doth not yet appear what they shall be, but it is delightful to look forward and speculate about it. I see them again a dozen years later. They are starting in life, just left college, young soldiers and lawyers and curates and business men—still with their visions and dreams of the future.

• How to Put A Pet Rock to Sleep: Poems.
• The gospel of the hereafter.
• Hard-boiled Wonderland und Das Ende der Welt: Roman (German Edition);
• The Gospel of the Hereafter by J. Paterson Smyth.
• The Gospel of the Hereafter - J. Paterson (John Paterson) Smyth - Littérature.

It doth not yet appear what they shall be, but because they are young men, all that belongs to young manhood lies before them, as they look forward in their day- dreams. What countries they shall live in and what girl they shall marry, and what positions and what work, and what excitements, and what pleasure lie before them. Ah, it is delightful to be young, realizing the possibilities in front—dreaming of what we shall be.

I see a crowd of older people, men and women dull, uninterested. And we have ceased looking forward. We have lost the vision. We have not become as great as we expected, or as good as we expected. We are fairly comfortable. We have not much to complain of. But life is a bit dull.

The path is a bit monotonous now. We have traversed most of it. We can see to the end. There are no more romantic possibilities to make life exciting, no more visions of 'what we shall be. Not a word of it. The visions are there all right. Look out over the wall. This life of yours is only one of the stages in your career, and not the first stage, either. The first came to you, silent, unconscious, "where the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child. One day came the crisis of birth and you passed into the second stage, the training stage for life and for God.

Then through a new crisis you pass on again to new adventures. For God has revealed that what you call death, the end of this career, is but birth into a new and more wondrous career which again passes you forward into still nobler adventures, and that again, perhaps—who knows? Who shall fix the limit? TNhaey,s ey oaur ea rbeu tn coto melpdaerrlayt.

Now do you see why the old apostle of Ephesus did not feel aged or elderly—why he looked out like an eager boy into the adventure before him? No more than did the small boys laughing in their play and going to be soldiers and sailors and wonderful people. We don't know yet. But it is all before us. And it is all going to be good because it is in the Father's presence.

So I bid you do what I sometimes do myself, look out into the void and guess like the children what you shall be when you are older than Methuselah. Shake off the dulness and monotony from your life. Don't talk as if old or middle-aged any more.

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Be children again in the presence of the Father, and with happy child hearts keep guessing what you shall be. I see a woman with the deep pain in her eyes, one of the many mothers whom I have met in these terrible four years…. They were afraid to tell her when the War Office telegram came…. He had crept out in the night to bring in a wounded chum, and the German sniper got him. Please choose whether or not you want other users to be able to see on your profile that this library is a favorite of yours.

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The Gospel of the Hereafter

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