Fallen Asleep

Yes, the companions of Jesus died one by one.

Consider the great value of such men and of all good men to the church, and the loss caused by their removal.

Yet no word of lamentation is used. It is not said that they have perished, or passed into the land of shades, but that “they are fallen asleep.”

The spirit is with Jesus in glory: the body rests until his appearing.

“Fallen asleep” suggests a very different idea from that which distressed the minds of the heathen when they thought of death.

I. THE FIGURE HERE USED.

1. An act of the most natural kind: “fallen asleep.”

   • It is the fit ending of a weary day.
   • It is not painful, but the end of pain.
   • It is so desirable that, if denied, we should pray for it.
   • It is most sweet when the place of our sleep is Jesus.

2. A state of which rest is the main ingredient.

3. A position of safety from a thousand dangers, such as beset the pilgrim, the worker, the warrior.

4. A condition by no means destructive.

   • Neither sleep nor death destroys existence, nor even injures it.
   • Neither sleep nor death should be viewed as an evil.

5. A posture full of hope.

   • We shall awake from this sleep.
   • We shall awake without difficulty.
   • We shall arise greatly refreshed.

II. THE THOUGHTS AROUSED BY THAT FIGURE.

1. How did we treat those who are now asleep?

   • Did we value their living presence, work, and testimony?
   • Ought we not to be more kind to those who are yet alive?

2. How can we make up for the loss caused by their sleep?

   • Should we not fill their vacant places?
   • Should we not profit by their examples?

3. How fit that we also should be prepared to fall asleep!

   • Is our house in order?
   • Is our heart in order?
   • Is our Christian work in order?

4. How much better that the faithful should fall asleep than that the wicked should die in their sins!

5. How patiently should we bear up under the labors and sufferings of the day, since there remains a rest for the people of God!

III. THE HOPES CONFIRMED BY THAT FIGURE.

1. The sleepers are yet ours, even as those in the house who are asleep are numbered with the rest of the inhabitants.

   • They have the same life in them which dwells in us.
   • They are part of the same family. “We are seven.”
   • They make up one church. “One church above, beneath.”

2. The sleepers will yet awake.

   • Their Father’s voice will arouse them.
   • They shall be awake indeed: full of health and energy.
   • They shall have new clothes to dress in.
   • They shall not again fall asleep.

3. The sleepers and ourselves will enjoy sweet fellowship.

   • Sleep does not destroy the love of brothers and sisters now.
   • We shall arise as one unbroken family, saved in the Lord.

Let us not hopelessly sorrow over those asleep.

Let us not ourselves sleep until bed-time comes.

Let us not fear to sleep in such good company.

Night Thoughts

A pious Scotch minister being asked by a friend during his last illness whether he thought himself dying, answered: “Really, friend, I care not whether I am or not; for if I die, I shall be with God; if I live, he will be with me.”—Arvine.

God’s finger touched him, and he slept.—Tennyson.

S. T. Coleridge speaking of a dear friend’s death, said, “It is recovery, and not death. Blessed are they that sleep in the Lord; his life is hidden in Christ. In his Redeemer’s life it is hidden and in his glory will it be disclosed. Physiologists hold that it is during sleep chiefly that we grow; what may we not hope of such a sleep in such a bosom?”

There must be life in Christ before death can become sleep in him. “Louis, the beloved, sleeps in the Lord,” said the priest who announced the death of Louis the Fifteenth. “If,” was Thomas Carlyle’s stern comment, “if such a mass of laziness and lust sleeps in the Lord, who, think you, sleeps elsewhere?”