No sorrow nor mourning in the final kingdom of the Redeemer.
The promise here set forth with all brevity is graciously expanded in the revelation of St. John, and is inexpressibly comforting to grieved and harassed souls. "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men," says the apostle, "and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Revelation 21:3, Revelation 21:4). It may be well to consider—
I. THE CAUSES OF THE CHANGE. The apostle notes two causes of the change.
1. There is no more death. The "first death" is past, and the "second death" is not for those who have attained to the glories of the Redeemer's final kingdom. They are secure of "life for evermore"
2. There is no more pain. No bodily pain, since the resurrection-body shall not be liable to any of those pains and sufferings which cause our present body to be a burden to us here below. No mental pain, since the mind shall be at rest, securely stayed upon him who has given it life, and who is its Life. To these causes we may add two more:
3. There is no more parting: no more separation of loving souls, no more loss of friends, or parents, or children, or wife, or brother. or sister; no more tearing of heartstrings through such separation; no more giving or receiving of last adieus.
4. And there is no more sin. "Old things have passed away; all things have become new." New hearts have been given to the redeemed—hearts that are "from sin set free;" hearts sprinkled with the blood of Christ, and so made clean and pure. The sense of sin is gone; shame is gone; remorse, regret, are gone; and so the worst of all the pains of which man is susceptible are fled away.
II. THE GREATNESS OF THE CHANGE. This world is well called "a vale of tears." Pain and suffering cling to us throughout the whole course of our lives from our first breath to our last. We enter life with a cry. All the bodily functions are painful, till use dulls the pain. Life is little but "labour and sorrow," disappointment and illusion. Hunger, thirst, toil, weariness, cold, heat, desire, passion, accompany us through the whole of our worldly existence, and are all of them pains. All of us experience sickness at times, and many of us have chronic ailments which never quit us, and from which we suffer constantly, more or less. There is so much misery in life that numbers quit it voluntarily, at, d thousands more would do the same were they not restrained by a religious motive. Can a greater change be imagined than a transfer from "the miseries of this sinful world" to the glories of the heavenly kingdom?
"There is a blessed home
Beyond this hind of woe,
Where trials never come,
Nor tears of anguish flow;
Where faith is lost in sight,
And patient hope is crown'd,
And everlasting light
Its glory throws around.
"Look up, ye saints of God,
Nor fear to tread below
The path your Saviour trod
Of daily toil and woe.
Wait but a little while
In uncomplaining love,
His own most gracious smile
Shall welcome you above."
III. THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE CHANGE. It is scarcely necessary to enlarge on this—it is involved in all that has been said. On the one hand, pain, grief, labour, sickness, partings, tears, qualms of conscience, fear of coming evils, sense of sin; on the other, rest, peace, the sense of pardon, of security, of God's favour, of God's love; no more vicissitudes, no more partings, no more lapses into sin—one constant, unending life of perfect peace and restful joy, in the midst of those we love, and in the continual presence and sight of him who so loved us as to die for us!
"O Paradise, O Paradise,
'Tis weary waiting here;
We long to be where Jesus is,
To feel and see him near—
Where loyal hearts and true
Stand ever in the light,
All rapture through and through,
In God's most holy sight."