THE SCHOOL OF CHRIST—HEREAFTER.
By H. A. St. John
1. Who Will Enter?—(1) All saints. (2) All ages. (3) All conditions. All saints will be accounted worthy of admission, for the reason that in the final examination or judgment they are accounted worthy, having obtained good report through faith, and having been in the primary school of Christ here. All ages who have secured such a standing will be eligible to the higher school hereafter. All conditions will be provided with an abundant entrance, regardless of what their condition may be when the time for admission shall come. Thousands will be alive, many thousands more will be sleeping in the dust of the earth, multitudes in the depths of the sea, and other multitudes have been burned, or otherwise violently destroyed; but when the higher school opens, when admission day comes, not one will be forgotten, not one left out, all will be on hand, in eager expectancy of the great promotion. 2. How Will They Enter?—(1) By a resurrection. (2) A transformation. (3) An ascension. A mighty host, as numberless as the sands upon the seashore, in the state of death, will hear the voice of the Son of God, the great Teacher, and hearing, they will live again, and come forth from the dark domains of death, and once more stand upon the earth, halting but for a moment, awaiting the second step in their wonderful matriculation into the higher school of Christ. Suddenly, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the voice of the great Teacher, and the sounding of His trumpet, every soul is transformed, changed from mortality to immortality, their corruptible, dying bodies changed and fashioned like unto the glorious and glorified body of the Lord Jesus, henceforth to shine as the brightness of the firmament, as the stars, as the sun, forever and ever. Then comes the third and last step, ascension, and admission to the place the great Teacher has long been fitting up for His higher school hereafter. 3. What Are the Schoolrooms of the Hereafter?—(1) New Jerusalem. (2) New earth. (3) Universe. Eden, or Paradise, was the first schoolroom for the human race. Adam and Eve were the first and only pupils that ever saw the inside of that lovely place. They were expelled for disobedience. We were all in that Adam when he was expelled, and, hence, we find ourselves outside of, and out of the sight of, that beautiful schoolroom, in a schoolroom where good and evil are intermingled, with the evil generally prominent and dominant. But, praise the Lord, the higher school of the hereafter will begin with a thousand years' term in the same original and primeval schoolroom, greatly enlarged and beautified—Paradise restored—the New Jerusalem. Then all the redeemed of the Lord, accompanied by the first Adam, and led by the second Adam, will return and come to Zion, with songs and everlasting joy on their heads. The gates of that surpassingly glorious and beautiful schoolroom will be opened wide, and all successful students in the primary school of Christ on earth will have an abundant entrance, and there begin and prosecute continually and eternally a course of development and study, so pure, inspiring, elevating, and ennobling, that our most vivid conceptions here fall infinitely short of the reality. The writer wants to be there, the reader wants to be there, and we all want to be there. And we will be there, we will be there, if faithful, in a little while. And then, when the one thousand years' term in this higher school is ended, the schoolroom will be greatly enlarged by the addition of a new world, filled with all the diversified glories of a new creation, with only the handwriting of the Creator seen everywhere. No student will ever have occasion to say of anything he shall ever behold there, "An enemy hath done this." No evil will mingle with the good. And then the schoolroom will be further extended to take in the universe of God—the great university. No finite mind can measure the height and depth, the length and breadth, of man's opportunities for growth, that will be afforded him in the school of the hereafter.4 4. What Will Be the Scope of Education in the Higher School?—(1) Body. (2) Soul. (3) Spirit. Immortal body, immortal soul, immortal spirit, a glorious trinity in perfect unity and eternal harmony, each part ever developing in all that pertains to the highest good of itself and all the other parts, thus the life to come will be a life of uninterrupted progression. The path of the just is a path of ever-increasing light through all the "perfect day." 5. Who Teaches in the Higher School?—(1) Christ. (2) Angels. (3) Unfallen. To all, the primary school of Christ Jesus says, "Learn of Me." And so we may ever be learning of Christ, altho we see Him not. But in the higher school of Christ, where we shall be like Him, we will see Him as He is—personal and visible association with the glorified Jesus. And then the angels, too, will be our visible companions and teachers in that higher life. And there will not the unfallen of God's creatures take delight in opening up to the saved the treasures of knowledge which they have gathered in the long centuries of their blissful lives? 6. What Will Be the Studies?—(1) Creator. (2) Creation. (3) Cross. Who by searching can find out God? We may be ever learning more and more about God, but will never learn all. But ever, as the attributes of Deity are unfolded, there will be opened new springs of adoration and love in the souls of the redeemed. And every true science will be studied continually in order to grow in the knowledge of the creation. How delightful and how fascinating will be the study of God's wonderful works, when there is no more curse, but only the handiwork and handwriting of God in all things everywhere. And then the cross of Christ, which in itself is the crowning manifestation of God's infinite love, will be the science and the song of all students in the divinity university of the hereafter. 7. What Callings Pursued?—(1) Gardeners. (2) Priests. (3) Kings. How impossible it is for us to conceive the fulness of delight that will be found in the school of Christ on the immortal shore, in the outdoor exercise afforded in the homes of the redeemed. Every such home will be a veritable Garden of Eden, under the training and keeping of the happy dwellers in that shining land. And then they will all be priests. Not to offer sacrifices for sin, or perform any service as a reminder of shame and condemnation, but as musicians and singers they will constitute a grand orchestra to lead the universe in ascriptions of praise and thanksgiving to the loving Father and Saviour of all. The sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, the fruit of the lips, and the sacrifices of serving one another in love, the law of life for the universe, will be the blissful service of all the priest students in that higher school. And then they are kings, too. The Principal of that school will have "many crowns upon His head," and He will, indeed, be King of kings, for all His subjects will be His children by creation and redemption, and all will be kings, and each will be given a robe, and a crown of glory and immortality, that fadeth not away. As they have all suffered with Him, they shall all reign with Him. All may sit with Him in His throne. The long-lost dominion over all things in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, given to the first man, Adam, and his posterity, will be redeemed, and restored to the second Adam and His holy seed, never again to pass out of their hands. Thus we see that in that eternal school of the hereafter all the students will be forever occupied in the study of their glorious schoolroom,—how to keep and embellish it, how to enjoy and appreciate it, and how to reign in it and rule over it; and that glorious consummation is soon to be.