My second text comes in here. Beauty, intellect, power, goodness; all
go down into the dark. The sun sets, and there is left a sad and
fading glow in the darkening pensive sky, which may recall the
vanished light for a little while to a few faithful hearts, but
steadily passes into the ashen grey of forgetfulness.
But 'then shall the righteous blaze forth like the sun, in their
Heavenly Father's kingdom.' The momentary setting is but apparent. And
ere it is well accomplished, a new sun swims into the 'ampler ether,
the diviner air' of that future life, 'and with new spangled beams,
flames in the forehead of the morning sky.'
The reason for that inherent brightness suggested in our second text
is that the soul of the righteous man passes from earth into a region
out of which we 'gather all things that offend, and them that do
iniquity.' There are other reasons for it, but that is the one which
our Lord dwells on. Or, to put it into modern scientific language,
environment corresponds to character. So, when the clouds have rolled
away, and no more mists from the undrained swamps of selfishness and
sin and animal nature rise up to hide the radiance, there shall be a
fuller flood of light poured from the re-created sun.
That brightness thus promised has for its highest and most blessed
character that it is conformity to the Lord Himself. For, as you may
remember, the last use of this emblem that we find in Scripture refers
not to the servant but to the Master, whom His beloved disciple in
Apocalyptic vision saw, with His 'countenance as the sun shining in
his strength.' Thus 'we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He
is.' And therefore that radiance of the sainted dead is progressive,
too. For it has an infinite fulness to draw upon, and the soul that is
joined to Jesus Christ, and derives its lustre from Him, cannot die
until it has outgrown Jesus and emptied God. The sun will one day be a
dark, cold ball. We shall outlast it.
But, brethren, remember that it is only those who here on earth have
progressively appropriated the brightness that Christ bestows who have
a right to reckon on that better rising. It is contrary to all
probability to believe that the passage from life can change the
ingrained direction and set of a man's nature. We know nothing that
warrants us in affirming that death can revolutionise character. Do
not trust your future to such a dim peradventure. Here is a plain
truth. They who on earth are as 'the shining light that shineth more
and more unto the perfect day,' shall, beyond the shadow of eclipse,
shine on as the sun does, behind the opaque, intervening body, all
unconscious of what looks to mortal eyes on earth an eclipse, and
'shall blaze out like the sun in their Heavenly Father's kingdom.' For
all that we know and are taught by experience, religious and moral
distinctions are eternal. 'He that is righteous, let him be righteous
still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still.'