Hope at the Grave

(This was e-mailed to me. I do not know the author or much about it, but it touched me greatly.)

BELOVED:--"Farewell" is a sad word. The young whisper it with tears, the aged speak it with a heavy heart; and yet while tears flow fastest and the heart is heaviest, hope whispers "you will meet again." These are earthly partings. These are oft recurring worldly separations, a part of life's checkered history of sunshine and of tears. We parted and we meet again, and so hope rises over all, and our trusting hearts say "the thing which has been, is the thing which shall be;" as ye parted, so will ye meet again.

There is another "farewell" which spoils all earthly ties and snaps assunder every bond which affection weaves around the heart. The loved had been with us until they seemed a part of our very self. And while life was without a cloud, there came a messenger with no sound of footfall to call them away. . .There is no cloud which so shuts out the sunshine from an earthly scene as that cloud of the shadow of death.

We meet to-day around a new made grace. It is a Christian grace. It has no darkness or gloom for it is the place where JESUS laid. It is a grave; a grave which we shall water with our tears. In the quiet hour of evening you will go there to weep. It must needs be. The grave is the only path heavenward. The way JESUS trod is the only way that leads His ransomed children home. For a little while the body will sleep where "dust is changed to dust," but JESUS made such graves the seed beds of immortal beauty. "It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." [I Corinthians 15:42-44] He is now with that vast company of sainted ones who have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. Now he knows face to face those of whom he had heard by the hearing of the ear. Now he is of the cloud of witnesses who watch our warfare, and who wait for our coming that in the Resurrection morn, they, with us, may be made perfect. . . It ought to be joy to know that one we call our own has escaped out of the fowler's snare to be with JESUS forevermore, and that "nothing shall be able to pluck them out of His hand." [John 10:28-29] We weep for the dead; rather might we weep for the fainting, tempted weary pilgrim. Weep not for the one who has won the race and received the prize; weep not for the weary child who has entered the rest of the people of GOD. There shall be no more battling with temptation, no more bitterness of repentance, no more doubting faith. There shall be no more bleeding feet and weary heart. The world shall no more be a hard task master to make broad the furrows and bow the heart in weakness. All this is passed, the last battle is fought and the victory won; they have entered into rest. Rest with JESUS, where " . . . He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain . . ." [Rev. 21:4] Blessed rest with JESUS, to be with the Shepherd and lack nothing. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." [Rev. 7:16, 17] Eternal rest with the people of GOD. "And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps" [Rev. 14:2]. Faith shall build upon it, hope shall cherish it. They are for you, for me, for all who have loved and lost. Call this sorrow? All is darkened but the cross, and this is a way of sunlight now, the light from heaven shines where JESUS trod to guide His children home. It is a Christian grave.

"We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that JESUS died and rose again, even so GOD will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in JESUS. For this we say to you by the word of the LORD, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the LORD, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the LORD Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of GOD, and the dead in CHRIST will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air, and so we shall always be with the LORD. Therefore comfort one another with these words." [I Thess. 4:13-18]

So, dear friends, with faith and love we shall lay him in the grave to sleep till the world's last Easter, when he will awake in the likeness of his risen LORD.

Beloved, a few days more and there will be another grave. It is not every grave that is a homeward path to heaven. It is only theirs who reach it by the cross, for whom JESUS, their SAVIOUR, is their Judge. There will be a next summons and another grave. Are you ready? The road, be it longer or be it shorter, leads there. Will it be for you the Christian's grave? Oh, how many warnings cluster around this one grave! Of our little company it makes a large vacant place when one is called. It ought to knit our hearts as one; it should deepen love and quicken faith; it should awaken zeal and earnest work. What lessons for you all, in these parted ties. Will you not write them on your hearts? Will you not gain closer fellowship with CHRIST? If you only live for Him, when He calls He will lead you home. Scholars, pupils, teachers, see in this coffin how soon our work is done. What a dark grave this would be without its hope! What sorrow in this grave if it had no shadow of the cross! Let us be wise to betake ourselves to JESUS; together there all we call our own, that so, though our home may be broken, we may know that they who sleep in JESUS shall be one in heaven.

Author unknown