That there is a way of salvation beyond the bound of time is strongly
suggested by the salvation of infants. We are all agreed about the
salvation of infants. Our heart refuses any other belief. In the case,
however, of very young infants, they go into the next life destitute of
all moral character. Either heaven must be a very large place, including
a place for infants--or else they must undergo some preparatory process
before entering. In either case their entire preparation for heavenly
blessedness is achieved beyond this life. Now the fact of them being so
prepared opens to our faith the possibility of adults being prepared
also. The process may differ; we know nothing of details; but it is
effective, and in certain cases may be entirely destitute of pain.
With the heathen the same argument holds. He would be a bold man who
would say that no heathen is saved. We know that some of them rose to a
high moral plane; indeed such as would largely, if not entirely, fit
them for the inheritance of the saints. But they had not knowledge of
the Saviour. That was all they needed. You will say, perhaps, that that
was everything. It was; but it could be supplied very quickly once they
crossed the boundary of time. They would meet angel friends there who
would soon give them the required information. We can conceive, from
what we know of them when here, that they would believe at once, and
very soon be fit for at least the beginning of eternal joy.
There have been those who by the light of nature, or by the illumination
of the divine Spirit, attained to marvellous perfection; yet, never
heard the Saviour's name. Just now I notice that an orthodox divine
names Socrates as a case in point. In cases not so marked we can believe
that disclosures of truth that they could not learn here, may transform
them into saints.
Surely this is a sane, as well as a brighter prospect than was
entertained not so very long ago. I recall those lines of the Hymn by
Dr. Watts, which I learned when quite young:
"There is a dreadful hell
Of everlasting pains;
Where sinners must with devils dwell,
In darkness, fire, and chains."
Happily the sentiment of the Hymn did not make much impression on me. It
is a great boon to children that sometimes they are not very thoughtful.
I wonder if Robert Browning ever learned such Hymns when a child. If he
did, he must later have had a revival of more hopeful ideas. He could
write that couplet that has been so often repeated:
"God's in His heaven;
All's right with the world."
But all is not right with the world if millions and millions of our
fellow creatures are in endless torment, and other millions on their
way. I fear Browning's words are often repeated with a glib optimism.
All is right with the world, or all will be right, when the whole race
is redeemed from suffering and sin; not otherwise. But the love and
power of God are equal to the task.