Reunion in Heaven
MUCH of deep and positive joy will spring
M from the reunion of the broken and
wasted loves and friendships of earth. We shall see our friends and associate with them in stronger and more hallowed ties, because we had been partners in the tears and toils of earth. The society of heaven stands out conspicuous, and in an intense manner. Its crowds, its multitudes, its city, all express association; and doubtless, while there will be no selfish and exclusive circles, there will be narrow, closer, select ones within the larger. Paul checks our sorrows and modifies our grief for our dead with these words:
“But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which 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 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. 4: 13-18).
What does Paul mean? That we are not to weep in despair over the graves of our loved ones who have left us) Why? Because we have hope. Hope of what? Of meeting them again; and with them, to meet the Lord and be forever with Him, and forever with them. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” We shall see them again. We shall know them again. We shall be with them forever. ‘These are the points of comfort in the apostle’s words. Divine comfort! which even here on earth makes us victors over death, takes his sting away, wipes the tears from our eyes, and wreathes our hearts with fadeless hopes.
Many are the attractions of heaven, all of which should win us from the vain and perishing things of earth. First of all, Jesus, our Great High Priest, is there, the sun and center of that heavenly world. ‘Then the absence of so many things which make earth undesirable — sickness and sorrow, pain and death, with earth’s privations, its discomforts, its disappointments. But added to all these glorious things which should draw us as a strong magnet to heaven, is the blessed hope of a glorious reunion with loved ones who left us and have gone on before.
Not only does Paul give us an intimation of this pleasing prospect, but John, in Revelation, seventh chapter, in showing us the things he saw, when “a door was opened in heaven” to his gaze. He tells us who are in heaven — God, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the angels, and those who “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
Who are among these last named? ‘Think a moment. Look back over life and see in imagination the faces of friends once loved, who broke away from us, and disappeared from view, and now are “before the throne.” Some of these were of our own households. Some whose vacant chairs are but sad reminders of them, “absent from the body, but now present with the Lord.”
Where are they? “Before the throne of God,” in His presence in intimate association with their Redeemer, in heaven itself; where “they serve him day and night.” Their faces peer at us over the walls of the Celestial City, their eyes look at us in imagination as we gaze heavenward, and their hands beckon us on in our heavenward journey.
Shall we ever see them again? Yes, if faithful amid tribulation, and if our robes are washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Will we know them in that unseen land of light and liberty and fulness of joy? By every token. For if Moses and Elijah were recognized on the Mount of Transfiguration; if Stephen knew his Lord as they were stoning him; if Dives in hell recognized Lazarus and Abraham though far off in heaven; if we do not lose our identity in heaven; and are in heaven the same identical persons we were here in this world; with the same peculiarities, the same specific make-up in our entire moral being; if memory holds its sway and performs its functions; then there need be no doubt whatever that we shall know one another in that land, where there is no death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither any more pain, nor separations, “for the former things are passed away.”
O, the blessed hope of a glad reunion with departed saints in the glory world! How they do attract us when we look that way!
What vision of glory! What ecstasy came to the Apostle Paul, this saintly man, from his association with Jesus Christ!
Almost unnumbered are the illustrations of a truth so resonant of grace that Jesus Christ, even in this life, is the greatest treasure, the profoundest joy, the most gracious influence that can come to man.
What earthly good can give joy like this? Death robs of.every crown of joy but this! Gold, fame, honor, empire, earthly success, all are silenced in the presence of death, which robs of all, separates from all! Jesus Christ only can give triumph over death. He holds the keys of death. Joy in Jesus Christ is unwithered by death’s touch.
Come, let us anew Our journey pursue, With vigor arise, And press to our permanent place in the skies: Of heavenly birth, Though wand’ring on earth, This is not the place, But strangers and pilgrims ourselves we confess.
At Jesus’s call We gave up our all;
And still we forego,
For Jesus’s sake, our enjoyments below:
No longing we find For the country behind;
But onward we move,
And still we are seeking a country above. — Charles Wesley.
Frinted in the United States of America
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PHILIP MAURO Author of “God’s Present Kingdom” Ruth: The Satisfied Stranger
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F. B. MEYER, D.D. Author of Old Testament
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The Kingdom in Mystery A Study of the Parables of Our Lord Concerning the Kingdom of God. 12mo,
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STUDIES AND ADDRESSES
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i oe WILLIAM E. BIEDERWOLF, D.D. Lectures Delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary
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Songs of the Spirit
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Can the Dead Communicate with
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Quiet Talks About
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Spiritism and the Fallen Angels
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A Study in Religious Pedagogy
Our Lord’s Interview with the Woman of
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