Excerpt from Faith and Immortality: A Study of the Christian, Doctrine of the Life to Come Reat events in history have always had a pro found effect on the development of religious as well as philosophical thought; and there can be no doubt that the present war, which is shaking the fabric of modern civilisation to its foundations, will issue in many as yet undreamt-of changes of perspective and emphasis in Theology. It is too soon to forecast the issue in many directions; but already many pressing problems are demanding fresh treatment. Among these none is more urgent than the question of human destiny in the world to come. Among the reasons for the decay of the influence of the Christian pulpit during the past generation, one is undoubtedly the fact that the doctrine of immortality has so largely lost its place at the heart of the Christian message. Preachers nowadays do not concern them selves so much with what happens after death as with what happens to us here and now. The pains of Hell, the bliss of Heaven, the penalties and rewards which await us in the Unseen, have largely disappeared from amongst the incentives and warnings of the religious life, nor have any other taken their place. Life is dealt with as though it found its sanctions, rewards and pun ishments within the circle of our earthly experience, and needed no future life to round off its incompleteness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.