DISCOURSE XXVIII. ETERNAL LIFE. John vi. 54. WHOSO EATETH MY FLESH, AND DRINKETH MY BLOOD, 1 John v. 13. THAT YE MAY KNOW THAT YE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. It has been said, that the single word eternity could not be justly pronounced in a congregation of persons, without its sensibly affecting them; the human soul having a native attraction to its vast and solemn significance. It first instantly lifts the mind to God, translates it from this fleeting scene to a calm and solid state beyond the waves of earthly tumult, shaken no more by human passions than the upper air and the silent stars are by the dust and turmoil of the earth. Yet eternal life is not in the Scriptures limited to God as an incommunicable attribute or essence, nor to the angels even, as a possession shut up within the walls of heaven; but is spoken of as something that may be conveyed to and shared with men. What, then, is this eternal life which we are called to lay hold on"? To most persons, the chief meaning of eternal seems to be continuance without end, simply lasting through a limitless succes sion of seasons and times. But surely it is not because God has lived, or is to live, through such a succession; because he has passed over an immense series of ages, and sees other huge intervals stretching before him, that he is eternal. No such accumulation of years or centuries could make eternity. It is not made up of time. The very idea of time is suggested by what is material, changeful, and perishing. On precisely the opposite account, God is eternal, because his life is not measured by days or years, but "a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years." He lives in "the dateless and irrevoluble circle of eternity." So, again, we believe that, to the blessed spirits before Him, there is no such change as our day and night, summer and winter. Our measures of existHeaven is an eternal ence do not hold with them. morning; heaven is an unfading spring. Birth and death, outward growth and decay, waxing and waning moons, mark not that glorious life, nor break that peaceful, soul-felt progress. Should we reach that holy rest, we shall need no more the hands of the clock, or the shadows on the dial-plate, to mark the divisions and periods of our existence. We shall live, not the life of mere time, but of eternity. What, then, the question again arises, is this life of eternity, if it be not simply a life ever extending in unlimited degrees? I answer, that eternal life is the life of the spiritual nature, the life of sentiment and affection, of moral and religious principle. Indeed, in the New Testament, many phrases might equally well be translated either eternal or spiritual life; as, for example, "No murderer hath eternal life," hath spiritual, holy, religious, divine life, "abiding in him." No murderer hath the life of love, of God, of duty, abiding in him. This evidently is the meaning. It is remarkable how often eternal life is spoken of in the present tense. Moreover, that eternal life is not simply enduring, or literally and only everlasting life, is plain, because we never speak of the devil and his angels as having eternal life, though it is supposed in our theology they have a life that endures through all the future, contemporaneously with that of Divinity and seraph. The bad surely do not live the eternal life, though they have before them the same unbounded prospect of existence with the good. Theirs is a state of eternal or spiritual death. When the good affections shall be waked up in them towards God and man, when a pure rectitude shall have become their law, and disinterested desires for purity and peace their inspiration, then only will they have that eternal life. No otherwise could they have it, though countless æons of duration should circle over their heads, till the sun's lamp were burned out, and every measure and instrument of time were broken. (Eternal life in God is the life of absolute goodness, purity, rectitude, and truth. Eternal life in man is the life of justice and love, of fidelity in all his relations. It is a right, holy, and becoming life. There is thus deeper meaning than is commonly suspected in that ancient sentence of the Bible, "Honorable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years; but wisdom is the gray hair to man, and an unspotted life is old age." When we are elevated above selfish and trifling cares into noble thought and generous feeling, our life, so far from having the character of a life that simply endures or is to endure for a long succession of time, seems no longer concerned with time at all, but to have risen above it. In this exalted frame, when we are contemplating the Infinite Excellence, when the wings of adoration bear us up, when a pure flame of devotion to the will of God and to the good of man burns in our breast, and when righteous purposes of magnanimity and self-sacrifice form in this inner sanctuary, the hours hang not heavy on our hands, but pass unnoted by. Time, which, when we steadily regard it, moves slowly, now flies and disappears. Eternity is present; and eternal life, the life of God, stirs and glows in the heart. Days and weeks are no longer the terms of our existence; but thoughts, emotions, dictates of conscience, impulses of kindness, and aspirations of worship,these make the eternal life, because we feel there is something really fixed and impregnable in them, which neither time can alter, nor age wrinkle, nor the revolutions of the world waste, nor the grave bury, but the eternity of God alone embrace and preserve. In the language of the beloved apostle, "We know that we have eternal life," not look forward to and expect it, but already possess the principle that cannot die. As God chooses for the most expressive title by which he can be described, "I AM," and required his servant to say, "I AM hath sent thee," showing forth his eternity not as a mere prolongation of time, but as existing every instant; as He is not to be, but ever is eternal; so the eternal life in the souls of his children has a present and immediate character. It is felt every moment. Time, whose intervals of weeks and years, to the little child with undeveloped powers, seem very long, and one day of which may to the insect be as considerable as our whole life, as our energies of thought and affection are brought out more and more,― continually contracts its spaces, and threatens wholly to vanish away. We are possessed with those realities which "have power to make Our noisy years seem moments in the being Of the Eternal Silence. Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Can in a moment travel thither, And see the children sport upon the shore, It is true, that in that life, as in the absolute and perfect Spirit of God, is involved also the quality of permanence. The pure, loving, righteous, and devoted heart feels its own imperishableness. Its immortality is secretly whispered to it in a great assurance. The Spirit bears witness with it to its incorruptible nature. The dust claims no kindred with it. The elements ask not to dissolve it. In |