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Whither Do I Go?

I (No. II of Series)

After

Death—

What?
by

J. F. N.



OeacfeHfie''



The “Great Unknown”
is sufficiently known

A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

A gentleman, styling himself “a young scientist ,
1

w

recently asked the writer what he thought of “Thor-

eau’s Philosophy of Life.” Now we always take pleasure

in conversing with a scientist who is also a philosopher.

Not all scientists, as you are well aware, are philoso-

phers. The world would be better off if they were. They

usually try to discover their philosophy of life, and their

theology of life through the microscope, or telescope,

or on the dissecting table, or by assembling bones

found under an accumulation of debris in remote

parts of the world. The microscope leads them to

take account of their bigness, which develops pride of

intellect. The telescope induces them to think of their

littleness, and moves them to conclude that the Infinite

cannot be interested in them. In their vivisections they

do not find an immaterial soul, and hence they conclude

that there is no such thing. The assembling of bones

leads them to trace their own origin to a natural rather

than to a supernatural source, and they conclude that

their destiny cannot be higher.

Now, Thoreau was not a very bad fellow, but he

was a singular fellow, whose life would not interest a

multitude of people. He believed in a life of retirement

from the world, and followed it to some extent.

We asked the young man why he does not look for
inspiration to One, Who is quite universally regarded as
the great Teacher and the great Philosopher; to Christ,

Who has been an inspiration to hundreds of millions

throughout nineteen centuries, in the light of Whose

teaching practically all riddles are solved, Whose doc-

trinal and moral codes are admitted even by His pro-

fessed enemies to be the most lofty which have ever been

promulgated.

The notion that it is a sign of progress and of in-

dependence to be a little singular, to relinquish time-

tried theories for something new, is philosophically un-

sound. Man is not to be perpetually groping in the dark



2 AFTER DEATH—WHAT?

after truth. It should be expected that most of it has

been discovered by this time, and that he can actually

come into possession of it.

Our “young scientist” believed in the continuance

of life after dissolution by death. Granting that there

is another life beyond the grave, that there is an eternal

life, it becomes clear that one’s philosophy of life here

must be based on that for which this is a preparation.

Means must always be related to their end. A matter
of paramount importance is, therefore, the correct an-

swers to the questions:

“What comes after death ?*
9

“What is the character of life after death if man

has an immortal soul which must continue to live?
99

FIVE-SIXTHS OF HUMAN RACE BELIEVE IN
IMMORTALITY

You may have heard your university professor ex-

press his doubts about immortality. But you certainly

are not disposed to build up your life on a doubt. You

may have read an article, or for that matter many arti-

cles, in the big magazines whose writers assailed the

philosophy of Christ. But did they refute Christ, or offer

a philosophy of life half as encouraging as His ?

Did they prove a theory which goes counter to the

common belief of nearly all people from the birth of

the human race?

Who are these men who, while being anything but

specialists in matters religious or moral, pretend to be

the great prophets of the day?

Do they claim that the disunity among Christians,

the contradictory teachings preached from pulpits of

the various religious sects, are responsible for skep-

ticism ?

It is very true that many who are tolerated as min-

isters of the Gospel of Jesus do call in question this or

that teaching of faith defended with great vehemence

by others of their cloth. But if we except those who

follow the new Humanist movement they do not ques-

tion the continuance of life after death. The ministry



AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 3

of souls would have absolutely no significance if immor-

tality were not its sum and substance.

Travel the world over today, turn over the pages

of the history which deals with any given people, civil-

ized or uncivilized, in any age of the past, and you will

discover that belief in immortality has been the con-

sistent, prevalent belief. You will find that it has al-

ways been held that life here is related to life hereafter,

and that the fate of any individual will be determined

by the sort of life he lives here.

Five-sixths of the population of the world at this

day profess adherence to some form of religion, and

whatever their religion may be, whether it be Catholi-

cism, Protestantism, Judaism, Mohammedanism, Con-

fucianism, Hinduism, Animism, Buddhism, Shintoism,

Spiritualism, they believe in a Supreme Being, Who must

be served in this world
;
and they believe in immortality.

The one-sixth, unattached to any of these religions, is

not attached to Atheism, and does not pretend to have

any proof that the whole of man totally dies when he

breathes his last in death.

It is not fair that the believer in immortality should

be called on to prove the correctness of his faith. The

burden of disproving certainly belongs to the unbeliever.

The small minority should prove that the consciousness of

mankind is in error. The rule should not owe explana-

tions to the exception, but vice versa.

Science confesses that it has no opinion to offer;

that it deals purely with phenomena or material things.

The most that it can claim is that it has not come in

contact with the soul during its investigations. All who

believe in a soul hold it to be a spiritual, and therefore

an invisible, entity which cannot be reached in the lab-

oratory. However, science does hold that even matter

is indestructible
;
that it can be dissolved into the tiniest

atoms. But it professes ignorance concerning these

atoms. But if it be recognized that the common consent

of mankind is a criterion of truth
;
that truth is likely to

be found in the belief of five-sixths of the human race

today, then we are confronted with a situation which



4 AFTER DEATH—WHAT?

has a very practical bearing, which affects the weal or

woe of every human being.

Granting this, are the skeptics wise? Are they

playing safe? Are they not risking too much even by

remaining indifferent? Is there not too much at stake

to follow a “perhaps” theory?

II

LET HUMAN REASON JUDGE

But what answer does human reason, unhampered

by pronounced likes or dislikes, propose to the question

:

“WHAT COMES AFTER DEATH?” Human reason
offers many answers:

(1) Everyone knows that the human heart has

yearnings which are not, which cannot be altogether

gratified in this world. If these yearnings are common

to all people they must be natural. If they be natural,

they must have been implanted in the very nature of

man by God Himself. If God is responsible for these

yearnings, He is obligated to make their realization pos-

sible. But, as is generally conceded, they cannot be

gratified in this world.

The poor man wants riches
;
the richest man longs

for more; the sick crave for health, and the generality

of people desire longer life; the ignorant lament their

lack of knowledge, and the learned are restless for more.

We never find in one individual the enjoyment of all
the things for which the human heart longs. Suicide is

very common among the wealthy, and those who fill

high places have one disappointment after another.

The prospect of the termination of wealth, of honors, of

everything else by death itself takes away from one’s

complete happiness here. Solomon, who enjoyed every-

thing that the world prizes highly, such as immense

wealth, the plaudits of a whole nation, the pleasures of

appetite and sense, the greatest fund of wisdom and

knowledge, declared in his last days that he found “in

all things vanity and affliction of spirit.” St. Augustine,

who lived the live of the worldling and of the unbeliever

for many years, was wont to cry out, “0 God, too late



AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 5

have I known Thee, too late have I loved Thee! My

heart was created for Thee, 0 God, and it will never rest

until it rests in Thee.”

Reason would have every right to accuse God of

being inexcusably cruel, which would be tantamount to

the denial of God's very existence, if He filled the human

heart with all sorts of longings which would be utterly

impossible of realization. But granting that death does

not terminate the existence of man, granting that this

life is related to another which begins when this ends,

and God presents Himself to human reason as a good

God, as One Who would not want man's heart to be satis-

fied with any or all things of this world, so that it might

aspire higher and might not forget Him Who wishes to

be his “reward exceeding great,” Who wishes to fill the

heart and soul with happiness to its utter capacity, and

everlastingly.

(2) If there were not a life beyond the grave to

right the inequalities of this life, God would not be just,

which is another way of saying “there is no God.”

The inequalities in this life are apparent to everyone.

A child is born to a king and another is born to a poor
man living in a hovel on the same day. The one is reared

In luxury and is in a position to enjoy every creature-

comfort which this world is able to afford; the other

will feel the sting of poverty throughout youth, and be-

cause of the handicap will likely be deprived of educa-

tion, of the means of ever enjoying a decent livelihood.

One child is born with a sound mind in a sound

body, while still another is born mentally defective or a

cripple, or blind, or deaf and dumb. Other inequalities

will readily suggest themselves to you, but do they not

all bring home the conviction that God would be “a re-

specter of persons” and be deserving of censure, as far

as human reason can determine, if He had not a time of

His own when the unfortunates here, reconciled to His

inscrutable will, and serving Him as best they knew

how, could be made everlastingly fortunate?

(3) If the human soul were not immortal, we would

be confronted with an inexplicable situation. The im-



6 AFTER DEATH—WHAT?

plication would be that most of the wicked would go

unpunished and most of the good unrewarded. While

the skeptic is frequently quoted as saying that people

have their purgatory or hell here on earth, everyone

knows as a matter of fact that the ones who have most

of it are the good. Virtue is not practiced, in any con-

siderable degree, by the generality of those who bend all

their efforts to secure their heaven here. Is not the

question frequently asked: “If there is a God why does

He allow the wicked to thrive and the righteous to be in

want?” If there were no life beyond the grave, no satis-

factory answer could be given to this question based, as

it is, on a very noticeable fact. But grant the existence

of a future life, and a very plausible answer immedi-

ately suggests itself. The man of faith sees God “chas-

tising those whom He loves” all through history. Para-

doxical as this seems to be, in the light of a never-ending

existence during which the Almighty can make happy

those whom He loves, afflictions in this world are a

blessing, because they tend to withdraw man’s affections

from things material and temporal and fasten them on

things spiritual and eternal.

From the standpoint of faith, who was more loved

by the Almighty than He Whom He calls “His well be-
loved Son”? Yet Who was more afflicted than He? Of
His own free will He suffered poverty to its lowest

depths; suffering the most agonizing; persecution, the

most unspeakable; death, the most shameful and painful.

He was never unhappy under all this affliction;

never disturbed in mind; never given to complaint, be-

cause He related it all to the glory in Heaven, of which

it was the purchase price. Referring to His lot in this

world, St. Paul says : “He became obedient unto death,

even the death of the cross, for which cause God also

hath exalted Him.” In other words even the humanity

of Christ came into possession of far greater glory than

it would have attained if it had not been subjected to

affliction in this world. To His followers Christ said:

“You shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be

turned into joy.” Like the Master His disciple Paul



AFTER DEATH—WHAT 7

was filled with comfort, “exceedingly abounding with

joy” as he says “in all our tribulations.” It was the

same Apostle who declared that the sufferings of this

world bear no comparison to the joy which they lead to

when accepted from God with the same love which mo-

tivates Him to send them.

(4) Our personality does not change despite the

fact that physicians tell us that our body undergoes

many changes. You have often heard that your body is

renovated every seven years. Yet there is a continuity

of the interior man from babyhood to old age. Your

memory is proof that you are the same person you were

back in early childhood. Is there not something inde-

pendent of your body which sees, hears, feels, thinks,

even when your body sleeps? By having his attention

called to this otherwise deep mystery, a physician of

Carthage told St. Augustine that he was converted from

unbelief to belief. He tells that he had a dream in which

he saw a handsome person standing in his presence who

said to him: “Dost thou see me?” He answered, “Yes,

I see you.” The young man rejoined, “Dost thou see me

with thine eyes?” “No,” answered the physician, “for

they are closed in sleep.” “With what, then, dost thou

see me?” “I know not.” The young man continued:

“Dost thou hear me?” “Yes.” “With thine ears?” “No,

for these too are wrapped in sleep.” “With what then

dost thou hear me?” “I know not.” “Are you speaking

to me?” was the next question. “Yes.” “With thy

mouth?” “No.” “With what then?” “I know not.”

Then the young man said: “See now, thou sleepest—

and yet thou seest, hearest, and speakest. The hour will

come when thou wilt sleep in death, and yet thou wilt

see and hear and speak and feel.”

When we observe the birthday of George Washing-

ton, or Abraham Lincoln, we certainly assume that their

spirits still live. When wreaths are placed on the grave

of the unknown soldier, in every country whose sons were

engaged in the late World War, who would dare say that

by common consent the people in these several countries

do not believe that his soul is still alive?



AFTER DEATH—WHAT?8

The contention of the materialist that belief in im-

mortality had its origin in fear, or even that it is the re-

sult of education, is not worthy of consideration. All the

people, all the time could not have been fooled, and belief

in immortality is prevalent in every nation today and

traces may be found even among the most barbarous

people of the past. The little child, in whom the light of

reason is only budding, shows an intense interest in the

subject of God and eternity, as every mother will tell you,

as every Sunday school teacher will tell you.

Everyone knows that for nine-tenths of the trans-

gressions of law, whether human or divine, there is no

punishment save the lashings of conscience; and con-

science is disturbed because it cannot altogether rid itself

of the conviction of accountability, and therefore of im-

mortality.

The late Cardinal Manning, a convert to the Catho-

lic religion, refers in the following beautiful language

to reason’s verdict

:

“Finally, ‘Non omnis moriar’ is a consciousness of

my rational nature. It clings to me at every moment.

It is confirmed by my hopes and by my fears, by the dic-

tates of my reason and by the instincts of my heart, by

my conscious relation to a Supreme Law-Giver, by my

whole sense of moral responsibility to Him, and by a

sleepless anticipation of an account, a balancing, and a

completion hereafter of my moral life and state now.

And this consciousness is not derived from sense, nor

dependent upon sense. I am more sure of its truth than

of any reports of sense, and of any syllogisms of logic.

Moreover, what I find in my own consciousness I find to

exist in the consciousness of others; and not of one or

two here and there, but of all men, at all times, and in

all places. And this communis sensus of men is a cer-

tain evidence of truth, not so much by reason of the

number of multitude or witnesses, as by the universal

voice of human nature, which is the voice of its Maker

and of its Judge.”

He, who teaches that this life is the beginning and

complete end of every human being, degrades his race



AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 9

and deprives humanity of its only great incentive to hon-

esty, morality, and self-culture. Conversely, therefore,

he who believes in immortality and responsibility to a

Creator, is stimulated to avoid evil, to do good, and to cul-

tivate all the finer traits of the human heart.

Ill

REVELATION ENLIGHTENS REASON

While reason has made it clear enough to the

people of all nations that man will survive after death,

reason is not competent to determine the character of

our existence in the other world. Having only reason to

guide them, the Egyptians believed in the transmigration

of souls. The Hindus believed that they were to be ab-

sorbed in Nirvana. The Chinese and other Orientals

have always worshipped their ancestors, believing them

to be still living happily in the great beyond. The Greeks

and Romans believed in a Tartarus or hell, and in

Elysium, a Paradise of joy.

But divine revelation has clarified the sort of fate

the soul will have in eternity. It will be either with God

or separated from God. “Come ye blessed of My Father,

take possession of the Kingdom prepared for you” ex-

presses the reward of faithful service to the Creator.

“Depart from Me, ye cursed” expresses the fate of those

who ignored the Creator and His commandments while

they were on trial or probation in this world. “Enter

thou into the joy of thy Lord” is the invitation to the

good; “cast them into outer darkness” is the sentence

pronounced against the wicked.

It should be evident that those who love and serve

God well in this world should be rewarded for their

loyalty; and just as evident that those who shut Him

out of their lives here should be shut out of His king-

dom there.

It is not conceivable that Almighty God would leave

us in the dark concerning the manner of attaining unto

our eternal destiny. The infidel’s assumption that the

Almighty is too great to concern Himself with human-

land, infinitely beneath Him, is not philosophically



10 AFTER DEATH—WHAT?

sound. If it was not beneath the Almighty to create us

and to provide in a thousand ways for our temporal

well-being, it is not beneath Him to show an interest in

our eternal well-being. If He created us incorruptible

He did so for a very definite purpose.

Because of its nature the human soul is vastly su-
perior to any amount of material bigness. Therefore

the whole universe, before which each one of us feela

his littleness, is actually inferior to the tiniest babe.

MAN’S IMMEDIATE FATE AFTER DEATH

According to Catholic belief, which means the uni-

versal belief of all Christians for fifteen centuries, the

belief not only of 325,000,000 Catholics in union with

Rome today, but of 100,000,000 Greeks who are not in

union with Rome, and of the remnants of early Chris-

tian schismatics of the fourth and fifth centuries, still

extant in the Near East (therefore the belief of more

than three-fourths of all the Christians in the world at

this time) the human soul is either admitted directly

into Heaven, or sentenced to Hell, or consigned for a

time in Purgatory, following death and judgment.

This teaching is most consonant with human reason.

Those who died as saints, who were God’s faithful and

loyal children throughout their lives here, should be im-

mediately admitted into the realm of His bliss. Those

who despised Him during life, ignored His laws, lived

shamefully even according to the estimation of men,

and died unrepentant, are never entitled to the holy

company of the saints, and therefore must be separated

from God forever. Those who loved God and neighbor

in a moderate way, who strove to avoid serious evil, yet

did not worry over the frequent commission of minor

offenses, and who died in that state; as well as those

who, after falling seriously, turned to God in repent-

ance, but died without having made complete atonement

for their guilt, must undergo a temporary expiation in a

middle state, which we call Purgatory.

The justice and even propriety of the three realms

beyond the grave is readily granted if one takes account



AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 11

of the three classes into which one would always think

of dividing Christians here on earth. No one would

dare to divide mankind into two classes only, but would

group people in at least three divisions, constituted

respectively of the very good, the very bad, and of those

who do not fit into either of these extreme groups.

According to the general proposition “as a man

lives so shall he die,” if man lives in a state of separa-

tion from God here, separation from Him in the other

world should clearly be his lot. If he lives in the closest

union with God here, immediate union with God here-

after should be his reward. If he lives imperfectly and

dies imperfectly, he must be prepared for Heaven by a

“purging” process. Does not human justice deal with

man in a similar manner? It punishes the one guilty of

gross crimes by death, or by imprisonment as long as it

is possible to inflict it; but it punishes the petty criminal

a given number of days, or months, or years, and then

liberates him.

WHAT IS THE CHARACTER OF HEAVEN'S
REWARD AND HELL'S PUNISHMENT?

Heaven's reward is first of all a state of super-

natural bliss, which consists in the vision of God. St.

John (1 Ep. Ill, 2) : “We are now the sons of God, and

it hath not yet appeared what we shall be; we know that

when He shall appear, we shall be like to Him, because

we shall see Him as He is.”

Every faculty of the soul, every sense of the body,

will be rewarded to its fullest capacity. The intellect

of man will be illuminated by the “light of glory.” so

that he will understand a thousand things which he

could not grasp on earth. The will of man will be per-

fectly conformed to the divine will, so that there could

be no possible dissatisfaction. The heart of man will

love God wtth an intensity not experienced by any saint

while living in this world.

Heaven, being God’s own home, the masterpiece of

an Architect Who is omnipotent, must be a place of in-
expressible beauty. St. Paul refers to its grandeur, even



12 AFTER DEATH—WHAT?

as it will appear to the senses of man, when he declares:

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered

into the heart of man what things God has prepared for

those that love 11™.”

In addition to all this the blessed in Heaven will

enjoy the company of the myriads of angels, whom God

created to assist at His throne, and of all the holy per-

sonages who ever lived in this world, the patriarchs and

prophets of the Old Law; Mary, the Apostles, the

martyrs, the virgins, the “righteous made perfect,” of

the New Law. The happiness of those in Heaven will

be enhanced by the consideration that “their joy no man

will take from them;” it will be theirs forever.

The fate of those who are sentenced to Hell will

be the opposite to that possessed by those whose good

fortune it was to attain Heaven. They will be separated

from God, their Creator, “their first beginning and last

end.” They were made for Him, and hence cannot pos-

sibly be permanently happy without Him, yet they must

live on, banished from His presence. They will be pun-

ished in their wills, which will be turned away from God

in hatred
;
and there will be nothing for their hearts to

love.

They will be punished in the senses of their bodies.

While Holy Scripture is very plain in its declaration

that they will be punished by fire, and the Church be-

lieves that the Bible is to be understood literally in this

particular, there has never been a definite pronounce-

ment by the Church concerning the character of the tor-

ments by which the senses will be punished. Usually a

judge uses very clear language, and language which is

to be understood literally, when he pronounces sentence.

When Christ speaks of the sentence which is to be pro-

nounced against the wicked, He uses the word “fire,” and

He calls the affliction of the damned by the same name

on other occasions. Even if He spoke figuratively, there

could be no consolation for the wicked, because even

figuratively understood the pain would be akin to fire.

The company of the wicked will be constituted en-

tirely of reprobates, a class the very antithesis of that



AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 13

which fills Heaven, namely, the fallen angels, and the

criminals, who infested human society on earth.

Despair will dishearten them as much as the perma-

nent possession of Heaven heartens the saved, for the

affliction of Hell will be as eternal as the joy of Heaven.

Just as the glory of Heaven cannot be described by

human language, neither can the misery of Hell.

HOW RECONCILE THIS TEACHING WITH GOD’S
GOODNESS?

Do not say that God would not be good if He sen-

tenced a creature to Hell. You could not conceive of

Him being good if He received criminals into Heaven,

and treated them as He treats those who loved Him on

earth “with their whole hearts, with their whole minds,

and with all their strength.” Remember that God’s

goodness and His justice cannot be in conflict. Did you

ever hear of human justice rewarding those whose lives

were an habitual affront to the law? Heaven is not

only a reward, but an endless reward, and of the great-

est conceivable magnitude.

Why do you not apply your idea of goodness to
human policy? A man is guilty of murder, or of burg-
lary, or of fraud, or of arson, or of rape, and he is

brought before the court and sentenced by a jury and

judge to the penitentiary. Who is to blame, the judge
or the criminal? Would society tolerate any different

procedure? Does society accuse the judge of being cruel

because he metes out punishment in accordance with the

law? Do you honestly believe that every jail and prison

should be closed, and that the criminal should not only

not be punished on the score of “goodness,” but that he

should be rewarded? Now the same justice which de-
mands the punishment of the criminal for the violation

of human law, demands his punishment even more for

the violation of the divine law. The existence of peni-

tentiaries, and the fact that everyone of them is filled

beyond capacity, does not incite fear in me or you, be-

cause we know that it is in our power to keep out of

them. If people were arrested indiscriminately and



14 AFTER DEATH—WHAT?

sentenced to the penitentiary when not guilty, the law

would be blamable. So also would God be blamable if

He punished creatures who are loyal. But such is not

the case either on earth or where eternity begins.

God would also be blamable if He punished people

for the violation of laws which it would not be possible

for them to observe.

But why does God create a man who, He foreknows,

will lose his soul ? God created every human being for

Heaven, and while He does foreknow who will fail to

attain Heaven, His foreknowledge is not the cause of the

man’s eternal rejection. His foreknowledge is depen-

dent on the free will of the human being. If the man

who now stands at the brink of Hell should resolve to

repent of his past, and to “walk in the way of God’s

Commandments,” he would still be saved. Hence every

human individual, who still has the briefest lease on

life, may save his soul. God is always willing to “turn

to him if he will turn to God.” Therefore, no matter

how mysterious may be to you the reconciliation of God’s

foreknowledge with your changing attitude towards

Him, it is something theoretical. The fact remains that

nobody will be lost if he will comply with the terms of

salvation. The fact remains also that it is within every-

one’s power to render such compliance. God’s fore-

knowledge and predestination are two different things.

The goodness of God towards man is outstandingly

prominent. It was God’s goodness, which moved Him

to create mankind at all
;
it was His goodness, which led

Him to create you and me in preference to millions of

other possible persons who would have served Him much

better than we do. It was His goodness, which moved

Him to share His eternal glory with us
;
it was His good-

ness, which prevailed on Him to reveal His will to us so

that we should not be in the dark concerning the re-

quirements for salvation
;
it was His goodness, which led

Him “for us and for our salvation” to become Incarnate,

to be our Teacher, and to redeem fallen humanity by

Calvary’s Atonement. It was His goodness, which led

Him to found a Kingdom here on earth, co-extensive



AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 15

with the world, intended for every human being, where-

in the means of salvation are placed within the reach of

all people and dispenseed to them.

MAN’S PERVERSITY

On the other hand it is man’s perversity which leads

him to ignore God’s goodness, to despise His love, to

reject His sovereignty, to decline His invitation to enter

His Kingdom on earth.

Surely there is more sound philosophy in this pro-

cess of reasoning than there is in all the pretended argu-

ments of infidelity. There is not an honest disbeliever

in this world. There may be w/ibelievers and skeptics,

or doubters; but is he a wise man who will follow the

program of doubt or uncertainty when a great issue is

at stake?

Few people really stand in need of mental convic-

tion in this matter of supremest importance. They do

stand in need of prayer to attain the grace of conver-

sion. They do stand in need of a greater measure of

good will, evidence of which will be a humble and pray-

erful attitude towards God, and the disposition, with

God’s grace, to relinquish a life which produces no merit

for Heaven.

If your soul is immortal, and there can be abso-

lutely no question about it, it must live throughout eter-

nity. If it will not have won Heaven and the possession

of God, can you conceive of any alternative than separa-

tion from Heaven and from God? This is the worst

form of the Hell of divine revelation, and of the Hell

which the human mind, reasoning sanely, postulates.

YOUR JOURNEY NEAR ITS END

A great part of your journey towards death has

been made, probably the greater part. How does your

account stand with God? You will come into posses-

sion of happiness and riches eternal only after you will

have earned them on earth. If your debit account will



16 AFTER DEATH—WHAT?

be greater than your credit account you can expect no

reward. As the word itself implies, reward is bestowed

only in return for service rendered. If you have been

an habitual criminal rather than a devoted child of God,

evidently you can expect nothing from your Creator and

Heavenly Father. His infinite sanctity and justice must

compel Him to “reward or punish according to your

works.” This thought runs all through Holy Scripture,

and is based on common sense as well as on the eternal

fitness of things. “For what a man soweth, that also

shall he reap.”

A consoling consideration is that it is never too late
to turn from inaction to action for the salvation of your

soul. God has said through His prophet, “If I shall say

to the wicked, thou shalt surely die, and he does penance

for his sins . . . none of his sins, which he hath com-

mitted, shall be imputed to him ... he shall surely live,

and not die” (Ezech. XXXIII, 15, 16). The Almighty

also says: “If today you shall hear His voice, harden not

your hearts.” You are hearing His voice at this moment

through the most effective means of wide communica-

tion. If anyone should be interested in your particular

soul’s interest, you should be. Not the one who

is addressing you, but you yourself will be the gainer.

Even if your prejudices obscure the light of your reason

so that you are not yet altogether convinced of the im-

mortality of your soul, you cannot afford to run a risk.

“Play safe” is the motto which governs men in practi-

cally every other effort and transaction. This motto is

particularly emphatic in the matter under consideration.

Therefore, resolve, not sometime, but today, to turn to

your God in prayer, in repentance, and in a decision to

begin forthwith to walk the road which leads to life

eternal.





Q|| HIM MIIIIIM I II 1 1111 III 1 1 iiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiniiiiiiniiimmiii.[7|

1
This is No. II in a series of pamphlets pre- \

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pared by J. F. N. and published by OUR SUN-

{

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DAY VISITOR, of Huntington, Indiana.

{

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No. I is entitled “Sanity Applied to Evolution.” §

[ No. II is entitled “After Death—What?”
j

j
No. Ill is entitled “God’s Way Is the Only

\

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Right Way.” !

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No. IV is entitled “God’s Kingdom There

j

e Reached Through His Kingdom Here.”
j

[
These and others are recommended for serial

j

{
reading to the agnostic, skeptic, and to the pros-

f

[
pective convert.

\

j
The price of single copies, postpaid is 10c. Spe- =

I cial low price in quantity.

m unimi |f|

Imprimatur:

4, JOHN FRANCIS NOLL
A

Bishop of Fort Wayne