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.
GEORGE ELIOT'S IDEA.
And if the fate of extinction would thus cause everlasting regret how
much more would the knowledge that our friends are in everlasting
torment. Surely our knowledge of such a fate would be unendurable. Would
there not be everlasting distress in that world of joy? In fact it would
be no world of joy. We shall have the same nature then as now. It will
be only ennobled and purified. Certainly sympathy--which is one of the
noblest of our feelings--will be more tender and intense than now.
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