Charles Kingsley - Out of the Deep: Words for the Sorrowful стр 4.

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 arewith Christ and in Christ for everand 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.

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?

What is the true everlasting lifethe life of God and Christbut 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 heavenin 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 in heaven are not idlethat they are eternally helping mankind, doing all sorts of good offices for those souls who need them.  I cannot see why they should not be right.  For if the saints delight was to do good on earth, much more will it be to do good in heaven.  If they helped poor sufferers, if they comforted the afflicted here on earth, much more will they be willing to help and comfort them, now that they are in the full power, the full freedom, the full love and zeal of the everlasting life.  If their hearts were warmed and softened by the fire of Gods love here, how much more there!  If they lived Gods life of love here, how much more there, before the throne of God and the face of Christ!

And if any one shall say that the souls of good men in heaven cannot help us who are here on earth, I answerWhen did they ascend into heaven to find out that?  If they had ever been there, let us be sure they would have had better news to bring home than this, that those whom we have honoured and loved on earth have lost the power which they used once to have of comforting us who are struggling below.

No, we will believewhat every one who loses a beloved friend comes sooner or later to believethat those whom we have honoured and loved, though taken from our eyes, are near to our spirits; that they still fight for us under the banner of their Master, Christ, and still work for us by virtue of His life of love, which they live in Him and by Him for ever.

Pray to them, indeed, we need not, as if they would help us out of any self-will of their own.  They do Gods will, and not their own; and go on Gods errands, and not their own.  If we pray to God our Father Himself, that is enough for us.  And what shall we pray?  Father, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Is not that one thought that our beloved ones sleep in Christ Jesus enough?  They sleep in Jesus, and therefore in infinite tenderness, sympathy, care, and love.  They sleep in Jesus; and He is the Life, and therefore they sleep in Life.  They sleep in Jesus; and He is the Light, and therefore they sleep in Light.  They sleep in Jesus; and He is Love, and therefore they sleep in Love.  And what better?  This is betterthat they who sleep in Jesus must surely awaken.  For, as it is written, His is a quickening, awakening, life-giving Spirit, and so to sleep in Him is to sleep in the very fount and core of life and power.  If from Jesus all our powers and talents come here on earth, surely He will give us more and nobler, when we sleep in Him, and wake in Him to a risen and eternal life.  And more, it is written that them that sleep in Jesus will He bring with Him.  At the last day we shall see face to face those we lovedand before thatoh! doubt it not.  Oftentimes when Christ draws near our spirits He comes not alone, but loving souls, souls whom we knew in the flesh on earth, bear up His train, and hover near our hearts and join their whispers to the voice and inspiration of Him who loved us, and who will guide us with counsel here, and after that receive us into glory, where we shall meet those beloved onesnot as our forefathers dreamed, as meagre shadows flitting through dreary and formless chaosbut as we knew them oncethe body of the flesh alone put off, but the real body, the spiritual body to which flesh and blood was but a husk and shell, living and loving more fully, more utterly, than even before, because it is in Christ who is the fount of life, and freed in Him for ever from hell and death.

And if you wish for a sign that this is so, come to holy communion and take the bread and wine as a sign that your bodies and theirs, your souls and theirs, are fed from the same fount of everlasting lifethe dead and risen and ever living body of Christ Jesus, which He has given to be the life of the world.

We know that afflictions do cometerrible bereavements, sorrows sad and strange.  There they are, God help us all.  But from whom do they come?  Who is Lord of life and death?  Who is Lord of joy and sorrow?  Is not that the question of all questions?  And is not the answer the most essential of all answers?  It is the Holy Spirit of God; the Spirit who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; the Spirit of the Father who so loved the world, that He spared not His only begotten Son; the Spirit of the Son who so loved the world that He stooped to die for it upon the Cross; the Spirit who is the Comforter, and says, I have seen thy ways and will heal thee, I will lead thee also, and restore comforts to thee and to thy mourners.  I speak peace to him that is near and to him that is afar off, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.  Is not that the most blessed news, that He who takes away, is the very same as He who gives?  That He who afflicts is the very same as He who comforts?

Oh! blessed news, that God Himself is the Comforter.  Blessed news, that He who strikes will also heal; that He who gives the cup of sorrow will also give the strength to drink it.  Blessed news, that chastisement is not punishment, but the education of a Father.  Blessed news, that our whole duty is the duty of a childof the Son who said in His agony, Father, not my will, but Thine be done.  Blessed news, that our Comforter is the Spirit who comforted Christ the Son Himself; who proceeds both from the Father and the Son, and who will tell us that in Christ we are really and literally the children of God, who may cry to Him in our extreme need, Father, with full understanding of all that that royal word contains.

II. OUT OF THE DEEP OF SIN

Innumerable troubles are come about me.  My sins have taken such hold upon me, that I am not able to look up; yea, they are more in number than the hairs of my head, and my heart hath failed me.

I acknowledge my faults, and my sin is ever before me.  Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.