Not infrequently science finds it necessary to determine the value of testimony. If any one can be found claiming to have seen an incorporeal soul, we are bound scientifically to give their words dispassionate consideration. There is some evidence of this nature, and it may be divided into two kinds, (a) spiritualistic, (b) non-spiritualistic. The former class is large; the latter we shall confine to the testimony of two persons—Jesus Christ and the apostle John.
As there are some things which purely physical science can not decide without the aid of revelation, and believing the value of spiritualistic evidence to be of this nature, we waive all such testimony, including the witch of Endor, until we come to the Scriptural argument. We can not, like Huxley, pass over with a sneer the phenomena of spiritism. They are facts, and a truly scientific method can not fail to deal with them. We shall therefore notice them later.
The evidence of Jesus and John, tho strictly a question of interpretation, is nevertheless testimony of persons well qualified to speak truthfully of what they had seen, and therefore we use it under the scientific heading rather than under the Scriptural.
As a matter of fact, John is the only person of the two who asserts positively that he saw the souls of certain dead men. That Jesus had such a view (let it be here remarked), is purely an inference from His words, based upon our belief that, being divine, He could look into the unseen world.
Souls under the Altar.
“When he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” Rev. 6:9.
This is the positive assertion of a truthful witness. That can not be denied.
“And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them,” etc. Verses 10, 11.
Here it is plainly stated,—
That these were souls;
Of dead men, because slain.
They speak, are answered, receive white robes.
This would certainly be decisive in favor of the survival of conscious souls after death, if we did not take into consideration the condition of the witness at the time, the purpose he had in view, and the nature of the language. Let us emphasize the importance of these three things.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, a man whose veracity no one questions, tells how one time a comet came near the earth. So hot did our atmosphere become, that the sea boiled, and forests were set on fire. The eye of a man who attempted to view through a glass the fiery thing, was burned out; the soldiers’ guns discharged with the heat, and magazines exploded. One man’s brain was literally fried. A poor cripple’s leg caught afire, and his hand was scorched. Birds flying through the air fell to the earth burned to death, and oxen in the field writhed in the blistering rays.
All this must be taken literally unless we ask what was his condition at the time of seeing these things, what his purpose, and what the kind of language used. But when we find that all this was merely a dyspeptic dream, the language poetry, the purpose stated thus,—
“Stranger! if through thy reeling brain
Such midnight visions sweep,
Spare, spare, O, spare thine evening meal,
And sweet shall be thy sleep!”
the reality of the scene dissolves into metaphoric teaching.
The whole Christian world has the firmest possible belief in the truthfulness of John Bunyan; but no one thinks of putting a literal interpretation upon his “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Now as to the apostle John, every one knows that his condition at the time he saw the vision of the souls was one of prophetic trance, or vision; his purpose to reveal the events of ages future to him; his language prophetic symbolism. These facts in themselves would deter any judicious person from attempting to build any theory of the soul, or to construct any other element of his creed, upon this language, until he was certain he understood the meaning of the symbols; but any person determined to know the truth of this matter, if he will possess himself of a little of the literature on the nature of man (which he can cheaply do, procurable of the house publishing this paper), may satisfy himself in a very short time that the apostle has no such idea in mind as even to suggest the inferences concerning the immortality of the soul usually drawn from this scripture.
Prophecy is full of symbolic figures; especially is this true of the books of Daniel and Revelation; beasts standing for kingdoms, horns for powers, eyes for intelligence, women for churches, and many others—dragons, serpents, candlesticks, horses, locusts, etc. Common sense suggests that no more irrational way of dealing with symbols and parables could be imagined than to found doctrine on their literal interpretation. Surely if one wished to establish for himself the reputation of a religious lunatic, no better method could be thought of than to spend even a few minutes a day for a week or so preaching to an ordinary audience a literal interpretation of just a few of the above symbols. Truly in symbolic prophecy a man conscious after death, is no less a monstrosity than a scarlet-colored beast “having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” Rev. 13:1.
Therefore without giving a detailed explanation, contenting ourself by referring the sincere truth-seeker to the works on this subject, let us rather try, by a retrospective vision, to deepen the interest of the reader in the true meaning of John’s proleptic prophecy.
A Retrospective Vision.
It is a high day in old Seville! a day of triumph and of exaltation! a day of victory for the cause of Christ and for the peace of the reign of his vicar on earth, our most blessed father, the pope! The Holy Inquisition is to hold a grand fete to-day.5
Let the church bells ring,
And the children sing,
And the heart of the saints be gay;
For we’ll offer the blood
Of heresy’s brood
In the flames of the auto da fé!
Let the people rejoice
With unanimous voice,
And gather in bright array;
For the pious friars
Shall fry the liars
In the flames of the auto da fé!
Let the mandate sound
To the kingdoms round;
Let all their rulers obey
The papacy’s word
To unsheathe the sword,
And kindle the auto da fé!
Let an altar stand
At divine command
From Rome to the farthest bay,
And the rebels that rise
We will sacrifice
In the flames of the auto da fé!
Then the smell shall be sweet,
Of this offering meet,
In the nostrils of God for aye;
Their bodies we’ll lave
(That their souls we may save)
In the flames of the auto da fé!
Then the land shall have rest
From this impious pest,
And the kingdom of Christ have sway,
And mercy will smile
On the heretics vile
In the flames of the auto da fé!
High carnival of our holy mother the church! See, there comes the procession now! Like the wild and ravenous beasts they are, the condemned heretics are driven along in chains. How fittingly the character and destiny of these base disturbers of our sacred doctrine are represented by the dragons and devils on their gowns and hats!
And now they are chained to the stake! How the merry flames gnaw at their quivering flesh!
“Come, my little daughter, look and see how the enemies of our holy religion perish.”
“But, mama, what have these poor men, women, and little children done?”
“They are haters of Mary, the blessed mother of God, and they despise the sacred images, and many other things. They are sinners exceedingly.” And the shuddering child wonders what kind of a being God is.
Sequel.
But time rolls on, as time has a habit of doing. The light of the Reformation pierces the gloom of the Dark Ages. Luther and his coadjutors tear the mask of piety from the face of diabolism.
“Time hath reward in store,
And the demons of our sires become
The saints that we adore.”
It may not be a special source of courage and inspiration to the martyr spirit; but we of coarser nature are glad to know that time has a memory; that an eternal Nemesis presides,—
“And ever the truth comes uppermost
And ever is justice done.”
Not now the blood of godless schismatics corrupting beneath the altar of sacrifice, but in this clearer light revealed to be the blood of holy martyrs, crying to heaven, like the blood of Abel. Now no longer clad in the ignominious garb of abandoned despisers of religion, but seen in their true character, saints and children of the Most High, to them are given white robes, which the Word declares is “the righteousness of saints.” Rev. 19:8.
Tho we shall have a word to say further on in regard to the literal interpretation of this prophetic vision, we trust that the above excursion may suggest to students of the sixth chapter of Revelation that it contains something more edifying and not less spiritual than the doctrine of incorporeal souls shivering or roasting in the mysterious recesses of hades.
[“The Rich Man and Lazarus” will be considered in the next article.]
