An Everlasting Pang--David and Absalom--Strained Ideas of Late
Momentary Repentance--King Solomon--King Saul--The Gracious Character
of Sympathy--George Eliot's View--A strong Argument for Restoration
--Heresy of a Minister's Wife--The Minister's Orthodox View--Wonderful
Goodness of a Criminal--Where Will He Finally Go?--Our Very Imperfect
Friends--Glossing Over Their Faults When They Are Gone--Our
Instinctive Hope for the Worst--Restoration the True Solution--A Final
Era of Joy.
We might glance here at another difficulty which is solved by the theory
of Restoration. Apart from this theory, those who are saved we think
must have everlasting regret that friends whom they have known and loved
are not with them. Suppose those friends are annihilated. Will not the
knowledge of that fact be an everlasting pang to the friends who have
attained eternal joy? To think that those who were so dear to them were
worthy of no better fate! To think of the honor and glory which might
have been eternally theirs, which now they have forever missed! What a
joy it would be, too, to have their companionship! But that joy is
eternally forfeited. We think that if regret in heaven can be, it would
arise from the fact that those whom we hoped to meet there we shall
never see.
Take one case as an illustration. Is it to be conceived that David would
not have an everlasting regret in regard to his son Absalom? We know how
his heart was broken when he received the tidings of Absalom's death;
yes, though Absalom was utterly opposed to him, and was trying to wrest
the kingdom from him. It is one of the most pathetic scenes in Scripture
history, when the king received the news of his son's death. We see him
going up the stairs to the chamber over the gates, and we hear his sobs
and cries, and his broken words: "O Absalom, my son, my son Absalom;
would God I had died for thee; O Absalom, my son, my son."
Now can it be supposed that David will have no regret for his son
Absalom if he does not meet him in the abodes of bliss? The tenderness
of heart that characterized him here will surely not be suppressed
there. Will not the absence of his son be an everlasting pang?
It may be supposed--it has been supposed--that somehow at the last
moment, Absalom repented, and was saved. We put no limit on the grace of
God; but such a supposition is entirely gratuitous. It is a far-fetched
invention to square with the idea of supposed final perseverence. The
difficulty is, to believe that Absalom died in a state of grace. How
much more likely it is that Absalom came to himself in the next life;
and that his father could endure--yea, rejoice in--his absence for a
time, knowing that the result would be everlasting reunion.
And so with Solomon. We read of the high hopes that David cherished
about Solomon, and how Solomon so terribly declined in character in his
later life, and died, so far as the record goes, in apostasy from God.
If he is absent from heaven, will not his absence cause David an
everlasting pang?
And so with King Saul, and many more whom we recall, both in Bible
history, and in our own experience. The unsolved difficulty stares us in
the face; but it is no longer a difficulty, but everlasting harmony,
when we believe in Restoration.