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THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
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reward. The idea of a general rising of the dead on a certain day, at the end of the world-cycle, however, was never implied in any of these ancient creeds, though some of the passages of the exoteric teaching are liable to yield that interpretation, if twisted out of their strict sense, to suit the whims of the reader. What was meant was that as each individual died his future was determined by the operation of the Law of karma, personified as the Lord of Death, and he was sent to the region most suitable for his abode, according to the emotions evolved out by him. The sojourn of the soul in any particular region depended on the nature of its karmas, stored up in the form of tendencies or forces of a subtle type, so that when the particular tendency which secured a residence for it in a particular region was exhausted, and another one which had remained latent all along became active, it was entitled to be sent to other regions suitable for its development or growth. The idea of a perpetual punishment or reward was altogether out of the question, except in the case of Nirvana; for that meant an absorption of all traces of personality in the blissfulness of Being itself. Such was the mythological explanation of the post-mortem experiences of the soul. The Sadducees, however, understood it in the sense in which Haeckel so vehemently attacks it, and, finding it unreasonable in that sense, rejected it altogether. Coming to test the wisdom of Jesus, they propounded the problem of the woman with the seven successive husbands, which was probably a favourite and tried 'weapon' against those who believed in resurrection. in its popular sense. Jesus, in his reply, deals with both
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