Peerings into the future.
"Wilt thou show wonders unto the dead?" "It is both curious and instructive to mark how, throughout the psalm, whether it is his own infirmity which he bewails, or the loss of friends, the mind of this wise man is straining toward the great darkness in which so many of his lovers and companions have been swallowed up, and into which he is himself about to pass. He is forever speculating on the physical and moral conditions of the world which lies in or beyond that darkness. He cannot get away from the theme. He is forever fingering it, anal returning to it." "He was forever asking—Is the life beyond death a true life? is it a life worth living? Will it redress the wrongs of time, and vindicate the ways of God with men? Is the world to come a world of righteousness and charity and peace, in which Truth will lift her veil, and all alienations and enmities will be swallowed up in love?" Peerings into the future are natural; they may be healthy, they may be unhealthy; they depend very much on personal disposition, and quite as much on particular circumstances. Concerning the future, enough is known to prove a constant incentive to moral goodness; so much is unknown that faith may be kept in lively exercise. These points may be illustrated.
I. PEERINGS INTO THE FUTURE ARE NATURAL. Man has never been able to accept the idea that his life ends at death. Heathen and pagan religions meet the cry for light on the world beyond death. Our friends die, but we cannot think them lost. So many die young, just fitted for life; there must be life for them beyond. We must die, but we cannot admit the idea that our real life ends at death. We are consciously fitted, by our earth life, for something more.
II. PEERINGS INTO THE FUTURE MAY BE HEALTHY. They will be if they bring a vivid sense of the relation of the coming life to this life. If we see that the powers of that life are the powers gained in this.
III. PEERINGS INTO THE FUTURE MAY BE UNHEALTHY. They will be if they become time-consuming, vague, impractical speculations, which fritter away the powers of the soul, and make present duties seem dull. The sitting in a window seat and dreamily peering into the west may be all very well, supposing the dreamer has got no housework to do. She would be wise to do her duty and leave the future alone. Unhealthy speculation on the future is a modern religious epidemic, seriously injuring the vitality of our Churches.
IV. PEERINGS INTO THE FUTURE DEPEND ON DISPOSITION AND CIRCUMSTANCE. Some are speculative; they cannot live in the actual, they are always imagining the possible. They are always away yonder. No doubt they have their mission; but we are glad not to have too many of them, or the work of today would never get done. When men are in illness, or at gravesides, or set thinking by national calamities, then "peerings into the future" are befitting, and may be helpful things.—R.T.