Sinfulness of Repining
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began to regard her as yours and felt that you had a right to this good
gift. God heard your murmurings. If there was a cloud in sight, you
seemed to forget that the sun ever shone; and clouds and darkness were
ever about you. God sent you affliction; He removed your treasure
from you that you might discern between prosperity and real sorrow.
But you did not subdue your hearts before Him and repent of the great
sin of ingratitude which had separated you from His love. Like Job,
you felt that you had cause for grief, and would not be comforted.
Was this reasonable? You know that death is a power that none can
resist; but you have made your lives nearly useless by your unavailing
grief. Your feelings have been little less than rebellion against God. I
saw you all dwelling upon your bereavement, and giving way to your
excitable feelings, until your noisy demonstrations of grief caused
angels to hide their faces and withdraw from the scene.
While thus giving way to your feelings, did you remember that
you had a Father in heaven who gave His only Son to die for us that
death might not be an eternal sleep? Did you remember that the Lord
of life and glory passed through the tomb and brightened it with His
own presence? Said the beloved disciple: “Write, Blessed are the
dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that
they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” The
apostle well knew what he was talking about when he wrote these
words; but when you give way to uncontrollable grief, is your conduct
consistent with the comfort which they express?
The Lord is gracious, merciful, and true. He has permitted the
one of your household band who was the most innocent and the best
prepared to rest through the perils of the last days. Oh! do not shut up
your souls against melody and joy, mourning as though there were to
be no resurrection of the dead, but praise God that for her there is no
more death, no more trial, no more sorrow. She rests in Jesus until the
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Life-giver shall call forth His sleeping saints to a glorious immortality.
F has a work to do, through the grace of God, to control her feelings.
She knows that she is not in heaven, but in a world where death reigns
and where our loved ones may be removed from us at any moment.
She should feel that the great burden of life is to prepare for a better
world. If she has a right hold on eternal life, it will not disqualify her
for living in this world and nobly bearing life’s burdens, but it will
help her in the performance of self-denying, self-sacrificing duties.