THE Times, in its account of M. Renan’s fatal illness, says: ― “It followed on some weeks of debility and suffering. At 2 A.M. on Sunday (2nd Oct. 1892), four hours before death, he turned to his wife and said, ‘Why are you sad?’ ‘Because I see you suffer,’ she replied. ‘Be calm and resigned,’ replied the dying man. We undergo the laws of that nature of which we are a manifestation. We perish; we disappear; but heaven and earth remain, and the march of time goes on, forever. He soon lost consciousness, and in a few hours was dead.” These are the last reported sayings, of this famous French religious infidel. He wroth, besides many other less known works, the “Life of Jesus,” and was stigmatized, as the result, the, “Great European Blasphemer.”
A man of immense learning, Renan’s literary style was highly polished. Yet his life was chiefly spent in attacking Christianity, as commonly understood, and his “magnum opus” was an infidel assault on those four records in our precious New Testament which furnish us with details of the life of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. For that work he acquired far-reaching notoriety as a scholar and thinker. And yet, by many, his criticisms are condemned on account of their “want of gravity.” They were often light and flippant, and thus failed to carry conviction. Lightness, or flippancy, on the part of a religious critic, is not only highly culpable, but its presence indicates total spiritual inability to take so serious a task in hand. The Spirit of God is never light, nor flippant, nor trifling, and the last words of M. Renan betray the same gross flippancy that marked him all through.
He speaks of the “laws of nature,” and adds, “we perish; we disappear,” meaning evidently that, according to these laws, man comes to nothing―is annihilated. For he says, “but heaven and earth remain, and the march of time goes on forever!”
Heaven, earth, and time continue forever, but we (men) perish and disappear!!
He contrasts the temporary state of man with the eternal state of heaven, earth, and time! He would clearly have us believe in human annihilation.
But how does he know that heaven, earth, and time are eternal? Are they not also a manifestation of the laws of nature? Are these not quite as much in nature, and therefore contingent upon its laws, as man is? Most certainly! Yet, whilst they abide, man forsooth becomes extinct! The earth, which was made for man, continues; but man himself, its lord, must perish!
Is that not flippancy? How does he know that heaven, earth, and time go on forever? Who told him so, or that we perish and disappear? Whence the source of his knowledge? Now, in point of fact, the very opposite is the case! We read in Scripture, to which book M. Renan, doubtless, professed to appeal, that “heaven and earth shall pass away” (Matt. 24:3535Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Matthew 24:35)), and, again, “the things that are seen are temporal” (2 Cor. 4:1818While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)). Whilst, as to man, his resurrection from the dead―the opposite to annihilation―is plainly taught, ― “All that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:2929And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:29)).
“We disappear,” no doubt, from the present temporal scene by death, but that is not such a disappearance as would justify M. Renan in contracting it with the assumed permanence of heaven, earth, and time.
In the truest sense man is permanent (for death only changes his condition), and heaven, earth, and time (that is, the range of things temporal) are transitory, they “pass away”!
The last words of this flippant infidel are simply a turning of things upside down, and placing “darkness for light” and “bitter for sweet.”
Contemplate such a cloudy sunset! Think of dying with such a lie, such a perversion on the lips! What ray of light brightened that dying pillow? What word of comfort soothed the heart, or dried the tears of that poor weeping wife? M. Renan’s candle went out in darkness, as another loud and earnest warning to all that they should avoid the snares of religious infidelity, and infidelity more subtle (because profoundly hypocritical) than the bold and flagrant coarseness of one that denies all religion.
Reader, if you want a life of joy, a death of sunshine, and an eternity of glory, do, oh! do believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, whose atoning death alone, but fully expiates, whose life in glory is our security, and for whose advent we wait with girded loins, and burning lamps. Believe in, and live for Christ.
J. W. S.