THE THEOLOGICAL IDEA COMPARED

In a theological sense eternal life is a gift from God to those who accept the Christian scheme of salvation. It means one-ness with God. Primarily the word eternity and its derivatives imply infinite duration in the past as well as future, but in the common use of the word it relates only to the future. The word when—used by Spiritualists has no such signification. It simply means the spirit life, which is regarded as everlasting. It must be ever held in mind that all words which attempt to express eternity of time, infinitude of space, are limited by the narrow bounds of human understanding. If life or time is prolonged beyond our horizon we say it is eternal. If space extends beyond our conception of distance we say it is infinite. We might as correctly say that a bird that flies into the horizon beyond our sight has started on an eternal flight.

Yet there are evidences beyond that of the senses, that of the life of a spirit, conclusions are not to be drawn from the limitations of the human mind. Thus if two lines extend into space at converging angles at however slight degree, we know that they somewhere meet, but if they go out diverging, then it is demonstrably impossible. The spirit is evolved and goes forward in increasing individuality and energy corresponding to the diverging lines, and hence more than a comparative eternity may be predicated for its duration.