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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 4
have known whether it would be ill or well for Amnon in the world
to come. What were the expressions of his heart?—‘The soul of
King David longed to go forth unto Absalom; for he was comforted
concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead.’
“And what is the inference to be deduced from this language? Is
it not that endless suffering formed no part of his religious belief?—
So we conceive; and here we discover a triumphant argument in
support of the more pleasing, more enlightened, more benevolent
hypothesis of ultimate universal purity and peace. He was comforted,
seeing his son was dead. And why so?—Because by the eye of
prophecy he could look forward into the glorious future, and see that
son far removed from all temptations, released from the bondage and
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purified from the corruptions of sin, and after being made sufficiently
holy and enlightened, admitted to the assembly of ascended and
rejoicing spirits. His only comfort was, that in being removed from
the present state of sin and suffering, his beloved son had gone where
the loftiest breathings of the Holy Spirit would be shed upon his
darkened soul; where his mind would be unfolded to the wisdom of
Heaven and the sweet raptures of immortal love, and thus prepared
with a sanctified nature to enjoy the rest and society of the heavenly
inheritance.
“In these thoughts we would be understood to believe that the
salvation of Heaven depends upon nothing which we can do in this
life; neither upon a present change of heart, nor upon present belief,
or a present profession of religion.”
Thus does the professed minister of Christ reiterate the falsehood
uttered by the serpent in Eden,—“Ye shall not surely die.” “In the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be
as gods.” The vilest of sinners,—the murderer, the thief, and the
adulterer,—will after death be prepared to enter into immortal bliss.
And from what does this perverter of the Scriptures draw his
conclusions?—From a single sentence expressing David’s submis-
sion to the dispensation of Providence. His soul “longed to go forth
unto Absalom; for he was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he
was dead.” The poignancy of his grief having been softened by time,
his thoughts turned from the dead to the living son, self-banished
through fear of the just punishment of his crime. And this is the
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evidence that the incestuous, drunken Amnon was at death imme-