+I. Make it our meditation day and night and fill our minds with it.+
+II. Put our meditation into practice.+
+III. We must unlearn many things before we can be taught
this.+--1. _Cast out self-love._ 2. _Covetousness._ 3. _Pull back our
ambition._ 4. _Bind our malice._ 5. _Empty ourselves of all
suspicion, surmising, and discontent._
+IV. Mind our own business.+--1. _Because it is becoming._ 2. _Brings
advantage._ 3. _It is necessary._ 4. _We are commanded to do
so.--Farindon._
_Mind your own Business._
+I. The Bible contains little encouragement for the idler.+
+II. The text enjoins diligence not only in business, but in one's
own business.+
+III. The counsel of the apostle is supported by the best wisdom of
the world.+--"It becomes a man," said Herodotus, "to give heed
to those things only which concern himself."
+IV. The apostle takes it for granted that ours is a worthy
business.+
+V. Only by diligence in the care of your own souls will you be
able to do really effective work for Christ.+--_A. F. Forrest._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13, 14.
_Sorrow for the Dead._
The Thessalonians who cherished a vivid expectation of the near
approach of the second advent of Christ appear to have fallen into a
misconception as to the relation of their deceased friends to that
glorious event. While believing that the pious dead would ultimately
be raised again, they feared they would not be permitted to share in
the joy of welcoming Him back to His inheritance of the redeemed
earth and in the triumphant inauguration of His reign. "It was just
as if, on the very eve of the day of the expected return of some long
absent father, a cruel fate should single out one fond expectant
child and hurry him to a far distant and inhospitable shore." But all
their fears and perplexities were dissipated by the sublime
disclosures contained in this epistle.
+I. That sorrow is a merciful relief to a soul bereaved.+--Sorrow is
nowhere forbidden. It may be an infirmity, but it is at the same time
a solace. The soul oppressed and stricken by the weight of a great
calamity finds relief in tears.
"O ye tears! O ye tears! till I felt you on my cheek,
I was selfish in my sorrow. I was stubborn, I was weak;
Ye have given me strength to conquer, and I stand erect and
free,
And know that I am human, by the light of sympathy."
The religion of the Bible does not destroy human passions. We do not
part with our nature when we receive the grace of God. The mind that
is capable of a _real sorrow_ is capable of good. A griefless nature
can never be a joyous one.
+II. That sorrow for the dead is aggravated by ignorance of their
future destiny.+--"I would not have you to be ignorant concerning
them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have
no hope" (ver. 13). The radius of hope is contracted or expanded in
proportion to the character and extent of intelligence possessed.
Ignorant "sorrow is a kind of rust to the soul, which every new idea
contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of
stagnant life and is remedied by exercise and motion." The heathen,
who have no satisfactory knowledge of the future life, give way to an
excessive and hopeless grief. Du Chaillu describes a scene of wailing
for the dead among the Africans. "The mother of poor Tonda," he
writes, "led me to the house where the body was laid. The narrow
space of the room was crowded; about two hundred women were sitting
and standing around, singing mourning songs to doleful and monotonous
airs. As I stood looking, filled with solemn thoughts, the mother of
Tonda approached. She threw herself at the foot of her dead son and
begged him to speak to her once more. And then when the corpse did
not answer she uttered a shriek, so long, so piercing, such a wail of
love and grief that tears came into my eyes. Poor African mother! She
was literally as one sorrowing without hope, for these people count
on nothing beyond the present life." It was the dictum of an old
Greek poet--a man once dead there is no revival; and those words
indicated the dismal condition of unenlightened nature in all lands
and in all ages. What an urgent argument is here for increased
missionary efforts among the heathen!
+III. That sorrow for the dead in Christ is soothed and moderated by
the revelation of certain great truths concerning their present and
future blessedness.+--1. _That death is a sleep._ "Them also which
sleep in Jesus" (ver. 14). The only part of man to which the figure
of the text applies is the body. As to the soul, the day of death is
the day of our birth into a progressive and eternal life. It is
called a departure, a being with Christ--absent from the body,
present with the Lord. _Sleep is expressive of rest._ When the toil
of life's long day is ended, the great and good Father draws the dark
curtain of night and hushes His weary children to rest. "They enter
into rest." _Sleep is expressive of refreshment._ The body is laid in
the grave, feeble, emaciated, worn-out. Then a wonderful process goes
on, perceptible only to the eye of God, by which the body acquires
new strength and beauty, and becomes a fit instrument and suitable
residence for the glorified soul. _Sleep implies the expectation of
awaking._ We commit the bodies of the departed to the earth in sure
and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. They wait for "the
adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body" (Rom. viii. 23).
2. _That the dead in Christ will be roused from their holy slumber
and share in the glory of His second advent._--"Will God bring with
Him" (ver. 14). The resurrection of the dead is a Divine work. "I
will redeem them from the power of the grave" (Hos. xiii. 14). Christ
will own His people in their persons, their services, and their
sufferings. They shall receive His entire approval, be welcomed by
Him into His everlasting kingdom, and crowned by Him with glory and
the affluence of incorruptible bliss.
3. _That the resurrection of Christ from the dead is a pledge of the
restoration and future blessedness of all who sleep in Him._--"For if
we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which
sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him" (ver. 14). Christ Himself is
the resurrection, not only as revealed in His Word and exemplified in
His own person, but as specially appointed by the Father to effect it
by His own power (John v. 25, vi. 39). The Word of God sheds a light
across the darkness of the grave and opens a vista radiant with hope
and immortal happiness. "Let me penetrate into Thy heart, O God,"
said an afflicted saint, "and read the love that is there. Let me
penetrate into Thy mind, and read the wisdom that is there; then
shall I be satisfied--the storm shall be turned into calm." A vital
knowledge of Christ silences every murmur and prepares for every
emergency.
+Lessons.+--1. _An ignorant sorrow is a hopeless one._ 2. _To rise
with Jesus we must live and die to Him._ 3. _Divine revelations
regarding the future life greatly moderate the grief of the present._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._