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A FUNERAL ADDRESS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 12, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 79, No. 7.

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A FUNERAL ADDRESS

By S. N. Haskell

S. N. HASKELL
Sister Minnie Hall left her home about two months ago to visit her friends in Pennsylvania, and there was taken sick and died. Those who remain to mourn do not mourn as those who have no hope. In the first part of her sickness she was led to give her heart to God; and there is every reason to believe that God forgave her sins, and accepted her as His child. She therefore sleeps in Jesus.
It is fitting and appropriate on an occasion like this to meet together and read certain Scriptures which God has given for comfort and consolation, with appropriate remarks. To introduce some thoughts I would like to present, I will call your attention to Ps. 116:15: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” When we consider that death is an enemy, that it is a child of sin, and sin is a child of Satan, introduced by him, and that Christ came into this world to destroy death and him that has the power of death, which is the devil, these are wonderful words. Notwithstanding this relationship of death to sin, and sin to death, and their relationship to Satan himself, God says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”
This expression at once robs death of the impression often left upon the mind of the friends, that God does not regard, and there is no hope in death. There is something connected with the death of God’s people that reveals the sympathy of heaven. It is different from the ordinary death of the wicked. God has reasons, purposes, to be worked out when His people die. They do not die by mere accident. It is not simply by chance. Worldly wisdom and unbelief would often conclude this to be the case; but from God’s standpoint this is not true. There never was a child of God who died by mere accident, or chance. The infinite wisdom of God had some purpose in view, which could be accomplished better in the death of the righteous, and in the manner in which they die, than in their life. God’s providence is over all.
In Isa. 57:1 the prophet gives one reason why the righteous die: “The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.” Do you ask why the righteous are taken away? Here is God’s answer, and it is as true to-day as it ever was: “The righteous is taken away from the evil to come.” As long as the world stands in the present condition, the righteous as well as the wicked will die. And as long as they die, here is a reason for their death. God knows the hearts of all men. He alone knows what is before us. And when death comes to His people, He who sees the future has a reason for permitting it: it is to take them away from the evil to come. But the question might be asked, Could not God keep His people from the evil to come, without their dying? Doubtless He could. There are thousands of ways God could accomplish His own purpose besides the way He chooses; but we can only say, God knows best, and He is too wise to err, and too good to be unkind. He never chooses for us a way that we ourselves would not choose if we knew the future as He knows it. What that evil is, the character and nature of it, which might have come to His child, God knows; and shall we not trust Him?
The next expression is, “He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each walking in his uprightness.” Let this thought ever be remembered, God does not condemn them because they die. That is Satan’s work. God says they rest in peace, they rest in their beds. They are taken away from the evil that is to come. Can there be words more comforting to the Christian than this?
When the apostle first preached to the Thessalonians, he set forth the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the translation of the living, in such a vivid manner that they drew the conclusion that they would live to see Him coming. Some therefore thought that if any died, it was because they had sinned, or in some way grieved the Spirit of God. So in writing to them, the apostle said, upon this point: “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.” The Lord did not say it was wrong for them to sorrow; He did not intimate that it is wrong to weep; for “Jesus wept.” The weeping of Christ at the grave of Lazarus was not simply because of His sympathy for Mary and Martha, but His infinite mind took in the ravages of death all along the line. He saw His people weeping because of the loss of friends, even us here to-day, and His tears were in sympathy with these mourning friends. Christ’s sympathy is not like man’s, confined to times and places; but His great heart of love took in this occasion to-day, as much as that one at the grave of Lazarus in Bethany. The apostle presents thoughts of comfort to the afflicted: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so [or in like manner] them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”
As Christ arose from the dead, and was recognized by His friends, so will those who sleep in Jesus arise from the dead, and be recognized by their friends. Not only will they come forth real beings, as Christ came forth and made it manifest when He said, “Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have;” but they will bear the same characteristics of themselves that Christ bore of himself.
There were three distinct ways in which Christ made himself known to His disciples. When the righteous come forth from their graves, they will be recognized in the same manner; for they will come forth “in like manner.” First, Christ was known by the tone of His voice. Second, by His personal appearance. Third, by those habits which were peculiar to Him while He was alive with the disciples.
In John 20 we read: “Jesus saith unto her [Mary], Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing Him to be the gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto Him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.”
What caused her to recognize the Saviour? She had not ceased weeping. When He spokethe second time, she recognized that voice she had heard so many times before He was crucified. He was identified by His voice. Her eyes were full of tears, but He was at her side. She supposed Him to be the gardener, and did not look up. But when that voice came in the same natural tone, “Mary,” she at once said, “It is my Lord,” and turning, was about to fall at His feet to worship Him, when He said, “Touch me not.”
The righteous will be raised in like manner as Christ was raised. They will be identified in like manner. We knew them by their voice in this world; in the resurrection of the dead we shall know them in like manner. It will be the same tone by which we recognized them while upon the earth. A mother’s ear can detect the voices of her children from scores of other voices in this world; and so it will be in the world to come.
Thomas was not with them when He first appeared to the disciples, and he said: “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Thomas was present when the Saviour appeared the second time; and after Thomas saw Him, “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed.” It was His personal appearance that convinced Thomas. The saints will not come forth emaciated with disease, but they will possess the bloom of eternal health. Yet in their personal appearance they will be recognized by their friends from whom they were parted by death. Children will be gathered by the angels of God, and will be borne to their mothers’ arms.
In the Christian’s hope there is a close relation between the future state and the present. Christ is our head, and by Him and through Him we shall be united.
Again; we turn to Luke 24:30, 31. Here we have something interestingly touching,—a recognition by former habits, or ways peculiar to the One spoken of. I read from the circumstance that took place at Emmaus: “And it came to pass, as He sat at meat with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their sight.” In verse 35 we read that after they had returned to Jerusalem, “they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.” There was something in the manner in which the Saviour was accustomed to break the bread and ask the blessing by which they recognized that He was the Son of God.
He had His individuality, like all whom He had created. No two are just alike in their appearance, or tone of voice, or in their ways. A harmony in a variety is a characteristic of divinity. So Christ, in a way peculiar to himself, placed His hands on the bread, and asked the blessing. They recognized Him by His manner of doing it. And as they saw His hand upon the bread, they also saw the nail marks in His hands. In like manner shall we recognize our friends in the kingdom of God. Their peculiar way of doing things or of speaking will be as marked as their personal appearance.
(To be concluded.)