Individual Immortality
“To every seed its own body.” — i Cor. xv. 38.
Paul is speaking of the soul in the future state. It is the boldest assertion of individualism I have met with in all literature. What is it that makes you and me individuals? It is not the fact that each of us has a body, but that each of us has “his own body” — a body different from others. It is our difference that makes us individuals. I heard an eminent theologian once say that, in his opinion, when we get to heaven we shall all think the same thing at the same time. This was his notion of reconciling the individual with the universal. I should call it the killing of the individual by the universal. In such a state we might have communion with God, but we should never have communion with one another. What is it that makes the communion between any two souls? It is their mutual exchange of ideas. To think the same thing at the same time is not to exchange ideas. You may set your clocks so as to strike the same hour at precisely the same moment. That is exactly what such a heaven 251 would be. If the living timepieces in the many mansions of our Father’s house are to strike the hours uniformly and simultaneously, we shall all be harmonious, but we shall cease to be individuals. What constitutes me a separate man is just the fact that the clocks do not sound uniformly nor simultaneously. Our separateness is not our sameness, but our communion. Communion demands diiference — individuality. If you and I meet on the road some day and both exclaim in a breath, ‘’ It is very fine weather,” what have we given to each other? Nothing; we have simply expressed ourselves, uttered our united opinion. There is a great deal too much of this in the present world — union without communion. God says He will make it different yonder — a man will keep his own. Heaven will restore the individuality which earth has broken; we shall all be self-revealing in the sweet by-and-by.
Lord, I have heard men say that death will rob me of my personal life. But Thou hast told me it is this world that robs me and that death will restore it. Here, I have not my own body; I have the body of the community; I am wound up to speak the same words that the world speaks. But yonder, I shall be an individual soul — unconventional, spontaneous, free. I shall have my 252
own body — not another’s. I shall not merely accompary the stroke of a neighbouring timepiece; my own hour will have come — the hour for self-revealing. The fashion of this world is conformity; but the fashion of Thy world will be difference. Thy conformity is not a united hour-stroke but a united song. It takes many different notes to make a song; to be a member of Thy choir invisible I must sing my own part. Let me practise that part now, O Lord! Let me find, on earth, my place in the choir above! Let me not be distressed though I strike not the key of another! If I have failed to walk upon Peter’s sea, let me not be discouraged thereby! — Thy part for me may be the inland lake. If I have failed to flash Elijah’s fire, let me not be downcast thereby! — Thy part for me may be the still small voice. If I have failed to climb the Mount with Moses, let me not be ashamed thereby! — Thy part for me may be the modest vale. I ask not the note of my brother; I ask the power to blend with it. May the lark keep its morn and the nightingale its eve! May the wise men meet their star and the shepherds their flock! May Cana yield Thee her wine, and Bethany her domestic joy, and Nain her ministry to tears! The varied sounds will make one harmony in the song of Thy redeemed. 253