Words of Comfort by Geo A Brown pg 77 Bible Standard July 1878
“Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. iv. 18.
THE last enemy, death, which is to be destroyed at the judgment day is ever busy in his sphere of desolating the happy homes of loving families, and robbing the social circle of some of its brightest jewels, leaving kindred and friends behind to mourn their absence, and grieve while calling to mind reminiscences of brighter days gone by.
But to such, and to all such, we would say, “Concerning them (the absent ones) which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him… For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain (so, till Christ comes) shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort. one another with these words.” (1 Thess, iv. 13-18.)
Dear beloved ones, we have no cause to grieve: for the foregoing assurance has in it the greatest consolation that ever saluted the lost race of Adam. The fact that we are yet to behold those fair though lifeless forms, and press them to our bosom, real and tangible, all reanimated with life and vigour, but a thousand times brighter and lovelier: hear that same familiar voice in firmer, sweeter tones than when we last heard them, or listen to their sweeter accents while they join in singing the song of the redeemed as they stand with palms of victory in their hands: and while we gaze upon these lovely resurrected, immortalized ones who were’ as near and dear to us as the apple of our eye, that it is the same identical person that we followed to the burying ground, as literal as ever ill the world, and are again restored to us safe and sound, with all the life and beauty of a spiritual existence, far beyond the power of death and the grave, and to remain with us forever, and go no more out into the dismal night of death, to know these things is the greatest consolation and joy.
“Comfort ye one another with these words.” O blessed thought, to be assured of such a restoration! We shall know each other there. And the same familiar forms and faces, glorified. No shadow of immateriality that you never saw nor ever can see, will there be presented for you to recognize; but the same material organism that you can see with your eyes, and recognize with your understanding, This is the work of the resurrection, and is the substance of the Christian’s hope, and affords him the greatest comfort.
This was the hope that the two bereft sisters of Lazarus comforted themselves in when they made known to Jesus the sad story of their brother’s death. Said Martha, ” Lord, if Thou hadst been here my brother had not died. Jesus said unto her, “Thy brother shall rise again.” Mark the words, dear reader. Thy brother the same one, not another. Here we have strong proof that resurrection glory will bring back to us our own dear father, mother, sister, brother, wife, husband, child. Martha said unto Him, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said unto her, ” I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me though he were dead (as Lazarus was) yet (at the resurrection) shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on Me (When? At the time of the resurrection, 1 Thess, iv. 15) shall never die.” (John xi. 21-26.) Evidently they did not’ expect to see their brother alive again until the time to which Martha referred to, “the resurrection at the last day,” which seemed to them to be a long way off. But it is now nearer, thank God, and hastened greatly, and then we shall meet one another again, and greet each other with joy unspeakable and full of glory. It is but a little while” and He that is to come will come and will not tarry.” So weary ones, cheer up, soon will end, this dark night of sin and death of sorrow and crying, and soon will dawn the glorious morning of the resurrection and waken up all those loved ones who sleep in Jesus. Are we all ready for it ?
