Out of the Deep | Page 6

up, and having to say, "Now I am the
root, I stand self-supported, with no other older stature to rest on." {30}
But this one must believe that God is the God of Abraham, and that all
live to Him, and that we are no more isolated and self-supported than
when we were children on our mother's bosom.
Letters and Memories.
Believe that those who are gone are nearer us than ever; and that if, as I
surely believe, they do sorrow over the mishaps and misdeeds of those
whom they leave behind, they do not sorrow in vain. Their sympathy is
a further education for them, and a pledge, too, of help, and, I believe,
of final deliverance for those on whom they look down in love.
Letters and Memories.
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; for they rest from their
labours, and their works do follow them."
They rest from their labours. All their struggles, disappointments,
failures, backslidings, which made them unhappy here, because they
could not perfectly do the will of God, are past and over for ever. But
their works follow them. The good which they did on earth--that is not
past and over. It cannot die. It lives and grows for ever, following on in

their path long after they are dead, and bearing fruit unto everlasting
life, not only in them, but in men whom they never saw, and in
generations yet unborn.
Good News of God--Sermons.
"A little while and ye shall not see me, and again a little while and ye
shall see me, because I go to the Father," said our Lord when speaking
of His own death to His sorrowing disciples. And if it be so with Christ,
then is it so with those who are Christ's, with those whom we love.
They are the partakers of His death, therefore they are the partakers of
His resurrection. Let us believe that blessed news in all its fulness, and
be at peace. A little while and we see them, and again a little while and
we do not see them. But why? Because they are gone to the Father--to
the source and fount of all life and power, all light and love, that they
may gain life from His life, power from His power, light from His light,
love from His love--and surely not for nought. Surely not for nought.
For, if they were like Christ on earth, and did not use their powers for
themselves alone, if they are to be like Christ when they shall see Him
as He is, the more surely will they not use their powers for themselves,
but as Christ uses His, for those they love? Surely, like Christ they may
come and go even now unseen. Like Christ they may breathe upon our
restless hearts and say, "Peace be unto you." And not in vain--for what
they did for us when they were yet on earth they can do more fully now
that they are in heaven.
They may seem to have left us, and we may weep and lament. But the
day will come when the veil shall be taken from our eyes and we shall
see them as they are--with Christ and in Christ for ever--and remember
no more our anguish, for joy that another human being has entered into
that one true, real, and eternal world, wherein is neither disease,
disorder, change, decay, nor death, for it is none other than the bosom
of the Father.
All Saints-Day Sermons.
And what if earthly love seems so delicious that all change in it would
seem a change for the worse, shall we repine? What does reason (and

faith, which is reason exercised on the invisible) require of us, but to
conclude that if there is change, there will be something better there?
Letters and Memories.
What is the true everlasting life--the life of God and Christ--but a life of
love, a life of perfect active, self-sacrificing goodness, which is the one
only true life for all rational beings, whether on earth or in heaven--in
heaven as well as on earth. Form your own notions as you will about
angels and saints in heaven, (for every one must have some notions
about them,) and try to picture to yourself what the souls of those
whom you have loved and lost are doing in the other world; but bear
this in mind, that if the saints in heaven live the everlasting life, they
must be living a life of usefulness, of love, and of good works.
There are those who believe what we are too apt to forget, and that is
that the everlasting life cannot be a selfish and idle life, spent only in
being happy oneself. They believe that the saints