Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1249
“The whole family in Hea ren and earth.” Ephesians 3:15.
BEREAVEMENTS are among the sorest griefs of this mortal life. We are permitted by God to love those whom He gives to us and our heart eagerly casts its tendrils around them and, therefore, when suddenly the beloved objects are withdrawn by death, our most tender feelings are wounded. It is not sinful for us to lament the departure of friends, for Jesus wept. It would be unnatural and inhuman if we did not mourn for the departed—we should be less feeling than the beasts of the field. The stoic is not a Christian, and his spirit is far removed from that of the tender-hearted Jesus.
The better the friend, the greater our regret at his loss, although there also lies within that fact more abundant sources of consolation. The mourning for Josiah was very sore because he was so good a prince. Because Stephen was so full of the Holy Spirit, and so bold for the faith, devout men carried him to his burial and made great lamentation over him. Dorcas was wept for and bewailed because of her practical care for the poor. Had they not been true saints, the mourning had not been so great.
Brethren, we cannot but sorrow this day, for the Lord has taken away a Sister in Christ, a true servant of the Church. She was a consecrated woman who’ll he honored above many, and to whom He gave many crowns of rejoicing. And we cannot but sorrow all the more because so loving a mother in Israel has fallen asleep, so useful a life has come to a close and so earnest a voice is hushed in silence. I have, this day, lost from my side one of the most faithful, fervent and efficient of my helpers. And the Church has lost one of her most useful members. Beloved, we need comfort! Let us seek it where it may be found.
I pray that we may view this source of grief, not with our natural, but with our spiritual eyes. The things external are for the natural eye and from that eye they force full many a tear, for in his natural life man is the heir of sorrow. But there is an inward and spiritual life which God has given to Believers—and this life has an inner eye—and to this inner eye there are other scenes presented than the senses can perceive. Let that spiritual vision indulge itself now. Close your eyes as much as your tears will permit you to the things which are seen, for they are temporal and shadowy, and look to the eternal, secret, Truths of God, for these are realities.
Take a steady look into the invisible, and the text, I think, sets before us something to gaze upon which may minister comfort to us. The saints in Heaven, though apparently separate from us, are, in reality, one with us! Though death seems to have made breaches in the Church of God, it is, in fact, perfect and entire. Though the inhabitants of Heaven and Believers on earth might seem to be two orders of beings, yet in truth they are “one family.”—
“Let all the saints terrestrial sing, With those to Glory gone; For all the servants of our King In earth and Heaven are one.”
So sings the poet. The text tells us that there is a “whole family.” It speaks not of a broken family, nor of two families, but of, “the whole family in Heaven and earth.” It is still one undivided household, notwithstanding all the graves which crowd the cemetery.
To this thought I shall call your attention, hoping that thereby you may enter into that “one communion,” in which saints above are bound up with saints below. I invite you to consider the ties which bind us to those who have gone before, and the indissoluble kinship in Christ which holds us as much as ever in one sacred unity.
I. First, let us think of THE POINTS OF THIS GREAT FAMILY UNION. In what respects are the people of our God in Heaven and earth our family? We answer, in very many, for their family relationship is so ancient, so certain and
so paramount, that it may be seen in a vast variety of ways. Let us note, first, concerning those in Heaven and earth whom the Lord loves that their names are all written in one family register.
That mystical roll which eye has not seen contains all the names of His chosen. They are born by degrees, but they are chosen at once—by one decree set apart from the rest of mankind—by one declaration, “They shall be Mine,” separated forever as hallowed things unto the Most High! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His Grace, in which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.”
We like to keep our own family registers. We are pleased to look back to the place where our parents recorded our names with those of our brothers and sisters. Let us gaze by faith upon that great Book of Life where all the names of the redeemed stand indelibly written by the hand of Everlasting Love. And as we read those beloved names, let us remember that they make but one record. The faithful of modern times are on the same page with the saints of the Old Testament, and the names of the feeblest among us are written by the same hand which inscribed the Apostles and the martyrs!