CONCERNING THE FUTURE LIFE.

IN approaching the teachings of the Savior himself concerning the
future fate of man, we should throw off the weight of creeds and
prejudices, and, by the aid of all the appliances in our power,
endeavor to reach beneath the imagery and unessential particulars
of his instructions to learn their bare significance in truth.
This is made difficult by the singular perversions his religion
has undergone; by the loss of a complete knowledge of the
peculiarities of the Messianic age in the lapse of the ages since;
by the almost universal change in our associations, modes of
feeling and thought, and styles of speech; and by the gradual
accretion and hardening of false doctrines and sectarian biases
and wilfulness. As we examine the words of Christ to find their
real meaning, there are four prominent considerations to be
especially weighed and borne in mind.

First, we must not forget the poetic Eastern style common to the
Jewish prophets; their symbolic enunciations in bold figures of
speech: "I am the door;" "I am the bread of life;" "I am the
vine;" "My sheep hear my voice;" "If these should hold their
peace, the stones would immediately cry out." This daring
emblematic language was natural to the Oriental nations; and the
Bible is full of it. Is the overthrow of a country foretold? It is
not said, "Babylon shall be destroyed," but "The sun shall be
darkened at his going forth, the moon shall be as blood, the stars
shall fall from heaven, and the earth shall stagger to and fro as
a drunken man." If we would truly understand Christ's
declarations, we must not overlook the characteristics of
figurative language. For "he spake to the multitude in parables,
and without a parable spake he not unto them;" and a parable, of
course, is not to be taken literally, but holds a latent sense and
purpose which are to be sought out. The greatest injustice is done
to the teachings of Christ when his words are studied as those of
a dry scholastic, a metaphysical moralist, not as those of a
profound poet, a master in the spiritual realm.

Secondly, we must remember that we have but fragmentary reports of
a small part of the teachings of Christ. He was engaged in the
active prosecution of his mission probably about three years, at
the shortest over one year; while all the different words of his
recorded in the New Testament would not occupy more than five
hours. Only a little fraction of what he said has been