The time of this meeting is his coming ; not till then. Before that there is distance and imperfection. I know that in the disembodied state there will be greater nearness and fuller enjoyment than now. And this the apostle longed for when he had the " desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better." Even before the resurrection there is a " being with Christ," more satisfying than what we enjoy here ; a " being with Christ " which is truly " far better." Nor would I disparage this blessedness. But still this is not to be compared with resurrection -nearness, and resurrection-fellowship, when, in a way up till that time unknown, we shall be intro- duced into the very presence of the King, all distance annihilated, all fellowship com-
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pleted, all joy consummated, all coldness done away, all shadows dissipated, and "so we shall ever be with the Lord."
But, for the better understanding of this subject, let us look to the way in which the apostle handles it in administering comfort to the Thessalonian church, some of whom had been giving way to immoderate grief for the dead.
The grief of the heathen was immoderate, and their expressions of it equally so. No wonder. Their hearts beat with as firm a pulse as ours, and natural affection was as strong with them as with us. The husband mourned the wife, the wife the husband ; the parent mourned the child, the child the parent ; friends wept over the grave of friends. The breaking of these ties was bitter ; and the special sting was, that they had no hope of reunion. Death to them was a parting for ever ; not as when one parts in the morning to meet at even, or as when one parts this year to meet a few
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years hence. It was hopeless separation. At the best it was a vague uncertainty, to which deep grief gives no heed ; more commonly it was despair. Their sorrow was desperate, their wound incurable.
The Thessalonian saints were sorrowing as those that had no hope, as if they had buried their beloved brethren in an eternal tomb. For this the apostle reproves them. He points out the hope, — a sure hope, a blessed hope, a hope fitted to bring true comfort. " Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." They are not lost; they have only been laid to sleep by Jesus, and he will awake them when he returns, and bring them up out of their tombs. Their departure cannot be called dying ; it is only sleeping. It has nothing of the despair of death about it. Death has lost its sting ; the shroud its gloom ; the grave its terrors. It is an end of pain ; it is a ceasing from toil. " Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours."
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But the apostle looks beyond the rest- ing-place. " Thy brother shall rise again." God himself will uncover their tomb and call them up, at the return of Him who is the resurrection and the life. And this, says he, " we say unto you by the word of the Lord." He gives this consolation to them as a certainty ; having in it nothing vague or doubtful ; a certainty proclaimed by himself and resting on the Lord's own words to his disciples ere he left the earth, regarding his advent, and the gathering of his elect to him.
The Lord is to come ! This is the cer- tainty. The Lord is to come ! And in that coming are wrapt up all the hopes of his saints.
Of these saints there will be two classes when he comes. (1.) Those that are alive and remain ; the last generation of the church. For, says the apostle elsewhere, " We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." (1 Cor. xv. 51.) (2.) Those
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that have fallen asleep ; these forming the larger number, doubtless ; for the sleeping ones of all ages shall be there. It might be supposed that the living ones would have the advantage, as being alive when the Lord arrives. But, no. It is not so. They may have some advantages. They never taste death. They are like Enoch and Elijah. They know not the grave. They see no corruption. In their case soul and body are never separated. They do not meet the king of terrors, nor fall under his power.*
* Thus Richard Baxter wrote : " Would it not re- joice your hearts if you were sure to live to see the coming of the Lord, and to see his glorious appearing and retinue ? If you were not to die, but to be caught up thus to meet the Lord, would you be averse to this ? Would it not be the greatest joy that you could desire ? For my own part, I must confess to you that death, as death, appeareth to me as an enemy, and my nature doth abhor and fear it. But the thoughts of the coming of the Lord are most sweet and joyful to me, so that if I were but sure that I should live to see it, and that the trumpet should sound, and the dead should rise, and the Lord appear, before the period of my age, it would be the joyfullest tidings to me in the world, Oh that I
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