“Ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:1313But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (1 Thessalonians 4:13)). These words have struck me this morning forcibly; not so much with regard to those to whom the apostle writes, but to those to whom he refers, in the words, “Others which have no hope.” How well some of us have learned in measure the sweet tempering of the sorrow in parting with a beloved one, whose affections were bound up with our own, when death came and snapped them asunder—those tender ties which God formed in the heart, and which should be broken, as all must be broken here! How the words and scattered portions of the indication of the life of Christ in the loved one are treasured up, and the clear testimony from such of the certainty of their portion with Christ remembered, as that which tempers the sorrow, and makes the heart, when the keenness of the sorrow is past, rejoice in the eternal portion of the beloved one who has gone to be “with Christ,” the “far better” of the aged apostle!
But, is there not a pang that never has any easement in this world, which the heart must feel, and hardly dares to think of but for a moment, which must ever be there while here? It is when one has passed away from the home circle, when the chain of the affections is broken and torn asunder by death’s entrance into a house, removing one who had “no hope,” for whom those who stood around could not console their breaking hearts with a tinge of hope, however faint, that such a one had any portion in Him! What must be the sorrow of those who sorrow as having no hope? It leaves behind a dark spot in the heart’s history, which time never wears away.
My beloved reader, are you one of those who have “No hope,” and are “without Christ,” “in this world”? Oh, turn to Him who is the God of hope, to “Christ who is our hope,” and rest not until you find that blessed rest in His eternal salvation! Remember, it is your eternal future which is at stake. How small are the sorrows of those whom you might be called upon to leave behind, if you died “without hope,” when compared with that portion which must be yours forever— “weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth,” if you die in your sins, and are consigned to that place where hope is lost forever!