STRENGTH AND RESOURCE IN SORROW
E. C. Muggleton
Ecclesiastes 7: 8; Philippians 1: 23; Psalm 84: 5–7
In the hymn that we sang (Hymn 452) the great objective before us is the glory. The verse in Ecclesiastes was read because it says, “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning”, and the end of every Christian, the ending of the path of suffering and testing, and even the tasting of the very article of death, as our sister has faced it, is to be with Christ which is “very much better”. This is the portion of our beloved sister now.
There is that which is “better” to the Christian, for the end of God’s work is glory. Our brother and sister have been together through a long life of over fifty-four years, and great testing has entered into their life and circumstances. While the portion of our sister is very much better, our beloved brother, with us all, is passing through the valley of Baca, but we are to make it a well-spring. Our brother referred to Jesus as the One who has been through the valley Himself; He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief when here.
We have grief, we have sorrow, yet as we think of death and all its terror, the sting has been taken out of it. We love to think of our Saviour and how He is acquainted with our grief today, so that we can enter into the real joy of our links with Christ on the other side of death.
Although we are passing through this valley of Baca, Jesus who has gone before has made a way through. It is a valley of tears that we might gain the experience and overcome through the wellspring, and we are not to despise those tears.
Our brother and sister have had tears over the years; we recall those bitter days of the thirties when they went through great testing and trial, but they have come through and our brother knows where his strength is. “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee—they, in whose heart are the highways”.
We need strength today, beloved brethren, to go through this valley of Baca, but God is our strength. We often sing, ‘Sing aloud to God our strength’, and He is our strength today.
“Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee—they, in whose heart are the highways”; that is the saints being led into the very presence of God. How wonderful it is that passing through this valley of Baca they make it a well-spring. Can we not make it a well-spring in the light of the great victory of Christ and how He has triumphed over death and broken its power so that we can enjoy the victory that He has won?
It says that “They go from strength to strength”, and today we go from strength to strength. As we go from this meeting to the grave, beloved brethren, we, with our beloved brother, will need strength, but we know the source of that strength and will prove again today that God is our strength.
It then says, “each one will appear before God in Zion”—what a triumph for God that He can bring us through this valley. It is a valley of tears, the tears of righteous persons which have been put into God’s bottle. Those tears are never to be despised. Beloved Mr. Taylor once said in referring to this Psalm that if there were no tears, there would be little joy, and it is so, beloved brethren. We are reminded of the tears of Jesus, how He wept in regard of the death of Lazarus, so we experience His feelings as He goes with us today bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows so that we rise above them in the strength that He gives.
Well, just that impression, that we need strength as going through with the testimony. Our brother and sister have gone through many sorrows in the testimony and today we need strength to carry us right through. Every one appearing before God in Zion—what a triumph for God Himself it is that He is able to bring us through. Well may we sing, ‘Sing aloud to God our strength’! and we all shall appear before God in Zion. We are part of the spoil—the vast host which has been secured through that grain of wheat falling into the ground, as we have been reminded.
May we experience, too, the strength of the blessed Spirit, the Comforter, who is with us and in us. The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed they that mourn, for they shall be comforted”, Matthew 5: 4. There is comfort in the presence of the Holy Spirit. May we know the joy of it and experience it now as we go forward.
Words at the burial of Mrs. E. M. Wakefield of Sunbury, at Richmond
16 November 1984
(The other word on this occasion was printed in the November 1985 issue)