by Jonathan Meo
From one author to another and from one generation to the next, no topic is more widely alluded to than that of eternity. It captures our attention somehow. What is this uncertainty that it sould imprison our hearts to it and make us subject to its authority? Man has all things eternal imprinted on his heart. This mystery is the lens through which we see our lives; and it perplexes us. It has provided the author many a poem, and in this essay throgh three of them, I will meet out this mystery and how, though society has changed, this fundamental philosophy has not.
In order to better understand the eternal, we must first go to the One who is. God is the author and the perfection of everything that is eternal. In Him lie the foundational truths for both life and death and our eternal existence, which is undeniably written on the frame of our souls. Through Him all things consist and have their being, without Him nothing was made that has been made. In the words of John Piper, commenting on "The End for Which God Created the World" by Jonathan Edwards:
Since God is infinite, the creature cannot fathom the totality of his greatness or comprehend his infinite beauty or delight in all that he is. Rather it will take an eternity for us to know and to enjoy all that God is; that is, God will be progressively revealed to us. Thus, since the display of God's glory in our finite, creaturely experience of knowing and delighting in God is the aim of creation, the achievement of this aim will take all eternity -- there will never be a time when there is no more glory for the redeemed to discover and enjoy.
Therefore, in God man finds the ultimate standard of all things everlasting- and it is from this standard, (and the deviance from that standard therof), that many an author draws from when they contemplate eternity in their hearts. With, now, eternity defined I will discuss the two offshoots of it: Life and Death.
Life is the partaking of the very essence of God, for it is with His breath that we are formed. Since from creation God has made us eternal beings it is only natural that we continue to exist in His presence into eternity increasingly enjoying and partaking of His ever new and ever refreshing life.
However due to the effects of sin and the deviation from the purity and holiness that God is, we as a collective people all fall under His righteous judgment and must pay for the debt that we owe; manely, our life, "For the wages of sin is death..." Romans 6:23 yet because initially we were created eternal beings, we cannot cease to exist. Our existence will eternally be in separation from God in the decay and foulness of death. Death is the ultimate deviant fromt he ultimate Standard; therefore we cannot even comprehend the vastness of its grotesque and loathsome nature. The only foreshadowing and hint of the dread of death eternal is in the appearance of death temporal.
As what is said again by Jonathan Edwards from "Images or Shadows of Divine Things",
1.Death temporal is a shadow of eternal death. The agonies, the pains, the groans and gasps of death, the pale, horrid, ghastly appearance of the corpse, its being laid in the dark and silent grave, there putrifying and rotting and becoming exceedingly loathsome and being eaten with worms (Isaiah 66:24), is an image of the misery of hell. And the body's continuing in the grave, and never rising more in this world, is to shadow the eternity of the misery of hell.
From this perspective of eternity I will analyze and uncover the depth of the insight of Marianne Moor in the poem, "In Distrust of Merits", Robert Lowell in the poem, "Mr. Edwards and the Spider", and E.E. Cummings in the poem "[O sweet spontaneous]".
Marianne Moore wrote a line that portrays the truth of eternity in its purest form. "Beauty is everlasting and dust is for a time." How critical these words are for the reader to understand! Throughout the poem she makes reference to suffering and fightying and to the great vanity of it all. She obviously is against war and believes that the ultimate cause for war is in the hearts of men; "There never was a war that was not inward; I must fight till I have conquered in myself what causes war...". What is war in the hearts of men? Lust? Greed? Anger? Are not these thoughts that wage war in men's souls? Are not these the thoughts that lead to war? Lust is for power, Greed is for money, and Anger is for self-righteous gain. The supreme end of all of thes is chaos! Do we not see it in this world?
How will we, the dust of the earth, with the war that rages within our very hearts ever cease to live in sorrow and pain? Are we not in need of Beauty? Are we not in need of the One who can reconcile this heart of war to a heart of peace? The only way this world will ever change in favor of peace is if all men truly embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and worship Him, the Eternal voice- the pure summation- of all that is Beautiful. Notice that it is capitalized in the poem. Beauty is a part of the perfect nature of God, and thus is everlasting. Dust is part of the created nature of man; it represents his physical-ness and his ultimate dependence on that which is eternal.
"The world's an orphans home." Thank the Lord God I will not have to stay here. Instead of an orphan lost and alone, I have become a child of the Most High, a son of the King! What a marvelous joy to know that one day the war in my heart will have been won over completely to Christ Jesus my Redeemer, and that now, though I still battle the nature of sin within me, I can daily have victory through His forgiveness of sin by His blood and live in holiness and purity by the power of His Spirit! There is truly no greater Way.
The enduring aspect of the eternal can be clearly seen in the change of the seasons- through the beginning freshness of spring; of new creation, into the maturity of summer and the fullness of the potential of life, into the slow decay of autumn, and the death and cleansing of creation in winter when the purity of white covers the earth. But just as it is certain that life will reign supreme over death, so spring erupts out of winter after the process of cleansing has become complete. And so the earth refreshes itself. In this way we who are of the Lord's, will one day be refreshed.
In "[O sweet spontaneous]" by E. E. Cummings, the speaker mentions how philosophy, science, and religion have often upset the natural beauty of creation in the earth. He mentions how "philosophers pinched and poked", how, "the naughty thumb of science prodded thy beauty", and how, "religions have taken thee upon their scraggy knees squeezing and buffeting thee that thou mightest concieve gods". Though the harsh doctrine of insensitive men pull and prod on the beauty of the earth, it answers back with spring, swallowing up completely all the distractions of philosophy, science, and religion in the fullness of its life and beauty. In this, eternity is understood by the forever triumph of life over death and the victory of God over the evil one. God puts to death all other gods besides himself in the display of his glory in creation. The height of all of the most beautiful works of God is shown during springtime. Philosophy, scienc, and religion all fade in the shadows as God demonstrates just a part of His overflowing life through nature. True Christianity is not a religion, but a personal relationship, and that to God through Jesus Christ. True Christians likewise focus not on working to achieve salvation through religion, but through salvation demonstrate what real religion is defined as, "to visist orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." (James 1:27)
"Mr. Edwards and the Spider" shows potent warning with regard to hell. With the analogy of a spider alluding to a few of Jonathan Edwards' sermons, Robert Lowell Manages to capture the eternal nature of death and its sharp unquenchable pain. What a price to pay for foolishness and pride!
"What are we in the hands of the great God?
It was in vain you set up thorn and briar
In battle array against the fire"
What a longing they must have, those who are now dwelling in eternal death to warn those quickly passing through this life into the coming torture, to dissuade them from their vain pursuit of selfish gain. What a delight it would bring the heart of God to welcome us into His kingdom if we would but repent of our ways and seek with all our hearts the Lord Jesus Chris, His Son! What woe to those who fail to repent- those whom have received warning beforehand! The will not only be forever tortured by their own decay and destruction but more so by the thought that they once had a chance to evade this destiny but willingly and foolishly chose against it.
"How long would it seem burning! Let ther pass
A minute, ten, ten trillion; but the blaze
Is infinite, eternal: this is death,
To die and know it. This is the Black Widow, death."
Eternity is imbedded in the hearts of men, because they know- willingly or unwillingly- they will have to face an eternal existence. If this life is lived in the pursuit of God and that through faith in Jesus Christ His Son- that He died for our sins and was raised to life for our redemption- then it will be continued in the pure enjoyment and satisfaction and rest of life eternal. If however this life is lived in the pursuit of self- that which usurps the creature of its life, trying to find the source of life in itself, a stagnant, festering pool, rather than the Fountain of Life- it will ultimately end (though never cease) in the dreary dark dungeon cold of death eternal. In the two extremes of severe cold and hot- the standards for temperature in this world by the human body, man finds the pain when put together of being without God. The cold is the unsympathetic frozenness of being alone and unwanted and the hot is the agonizing torture of being eternally burned and never consumed. May we choose life and be spared from this terrible outcome!
With light to the matter of eterntity, these authors have displayed their own knowledge of the eternal and sought to understand through their own contemplation its meaning and significance. We would do well to learn from them, continue in our pursuit of God, and look away from the tempting but deadly lusts of this temporal world. In the words of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning eternity from John 16:33, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but take heart! I have overcome the world." What a promise you can be assured of that if you take your place in eternity at the hands of the One who created you to be eternal, you will surely be saved from death and live with Him in pure, refreshing life that only grows newer and brighter as eternity progresses. It is His unteilding love for you that drove Him to the cross, and it is in that taking for your death upon Himself that He gives you freedom from all that destroys- all to you if you believe in the One He has sent, Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.