A SHORT time since, as I was passing by a dwelling-house with a shop attached to it, my attention was arrested by observing that both house and shop were closed. I also saw that a written notice was fastened upon the shop door. I therefore drew near, that I might read what was written, and found that it was to this effect: “This house is closed today, in consequence of the funeral of a member of the family.” Although I was not personally acquainted with them, I knew them sufficiently to take an interest in the sorrow which had befallen them, and to feel a sympathy with them in their loss.
The family is a large one, consisting of a father and mother, of mature age, and of several sons and daughters, some of whom are young men and women, though others are but children. The one who died, and on whose account the house was closed, was the eldest of the daughters. I had sometimes seen upon the Lord’s Day, the whole troop going to, and returning from, some place where the Word of God is read, and Christ is preached as His salvation; and I was attracted by the comfortable family appearance which they presented.
On their return home from the funeral, how painful and solemn, one would suppose, would be the feelings both of the parents and of the brothers and sisters of the departed young woman. When they assembled in the family circle, or sat down to the social meal, there would be the vacant chair, and the absence of the one who had departed from their midst. When they walked abroad, she would no longer accompany them. And wherever they wept, her presence would be missed. The words are true, as one has written “Friend after friend departs, Who has not lost a friend?”
And how near to the literal truth is the language of another:
“There is no fireside, howsoe’er defended,
But has one vacant chair.”
Beloved reader, young or old, have you not lost a friend? Has not a dear son or daughter, brother or sister, father or mother, or intimate friend, passed away from you and from this scene forever? And whither is that soul gone? Have you confidence, based upon the Word of God, that he, or she, was resting in Christ, and is therefore in the presence of God? And have you, for yourself, the knowledge of that salvation as your own present and eternal portion, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? How precious, in this connection, is the eleventh chapter of the gospel of John, where we read that death, or sleep, fell upon one of a godly household, of whom it is recorded, that “Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.” The survivors had their sorrow, but they had likewise the sympathy and resurrection power of Christ with them. It is a blessed circumstance when one departs to be with Christ, out of a family in which is known the love and fear of God. For the one who departs, it is “far better;” while those who are left here a little longer, have the joy and comfort of being assured of the blessing of the one who has been taken from their midst, and of the certain coming of the Lord to take all His own to be forever with Himself. That was a sweet word of comfort which was uttered by a boy whom I knew, who said to his godly mother when they were weeping over her departed, believing daughter, “Mother, don’t let us cry any more. We should not cry, if we only knew what she is enjoying.”
T.