tibvavy of <the Cheotygiccd gminavy 
 
 PRINCETON ■ NEW JERSEY 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 W.W. Woodward III 
 
 BT 125 
 
 .J68 
 
 1910 
 
 
 Jowett , 
 
 John Henry, 
 
 1864- 
 
 1923. 
 
 
 
 
 Our blessed 
 
 dead 
 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/ourblesseddeadOOjowe 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 ft--, ipsa 
 
 By 
 
 J. H. JOWETT 
 
 Author of "The Silver Lining " 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, 19 10, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York : 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
 Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. 
 London : 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh : 100 Princes Street 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 " Blessed are the dead which die in the 
 Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the 
 Spirit, that they may rest from their la- 
 bors : for their works follow with them." 
 — Revelation xiv. ij. 
 
 " r% LESSED are the dead 
 |j which die in the Lord." 
 It is one of the supreme 
 tokens of God's grace that we are 
 able to keep our thoughts away 
 from death. The boat of our life 
 is undeviatingly set for that mys- 
 terious shore — wind and tide and 
 [5] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 circumstance all conspiring — and 
 yet, we are able to pass whole 
 years of the voyage without a 
 thought of our destination. We 
 can lounge in a deck-chair and 
 read a light romance, and we can 
 enjoy the revel and the games 
 even when the unillumined mys- 
 tery is darkening on the horizon. 
 If it were otherwise the springs 
 of life would be poisoned at their 
 source. But it is a marvellous 
 mercy of Providence, a sacred 
 ability conferred by grace, that 
 we are able to sing, and laugh, 
 and work, and play, even in our 
 [6] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 swift passage to the black un- 
 known. 
 
 And yet, as the years increase, 
 we do occasionally lift our eyes 
 from the deck-games and scan 
 the horizon, or we let our book 
 lie open in the lap, while the soul 
 goes sounding its lonely way into 
 tracts and circumstances unre- 
 vealed. But even then the ruling 
 motive is not so much of fear as 
 of solemn and sobering wonder. 
 What shall we discover, and what 
 will it be like ? Will the voyage 
 end in an eternal sleep, or in a 
 short sleep and a great awaken- 
 [7] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 ing ? And when " the soul wakens 
 and the shadows flee," what will be 
 the consciousness at the dawning? 
 And such meditation is not 
 forbidden. Nay, the Christian 
 Scriptures, while they detach our 
 thoughts from death, seek to lure 
 them to the serene glory of the 
 emancipated life. To dwell upon 
 the gloaming might be crippling, 
 to dwell upon the dawning is en- 
 riching. And it is the dawning 
 which has been the light and in- 
 spiration of the Christian saints, 
 and which has made them brave 
 and songful in the dark and troub- 
 [8] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 led ways of time. "If spared 
 till to-morrow," sings one of these 
 children of the dawn, " I shall 
 have finished the eighty-second 
 year of my pilgrimage. Eighty- 
 two years He has been with me 1 
 It was in the year 1830 that I 
 found my Saviour, or rather, that 
 He found me, . . . and I have 
 never parted company with Him 
 all these sixty-two years. More 
 than that, He has given me ■ that 
 blessed hope,' the prospect of be- 
 ing forever in the kingdom with 
 Him who has redeemed me by 
 His blood." 
 
 [9] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 And listen again to the saints. 
 "For several days I have had 
 time and freedom in the forenoon 
 to spend two hours in prayer. 
 To-day, when thus engaged, I 
 was led forward in thought to 
 realize myself standing before the 
 Lamb, without a single sinful 
 tendency, and without one draw- 
 back in the way of the slightest 
 uncertainty. 'Forever with the 
 Lord ! ' Forever with all those 
 holy, happy friends! Forever 
 and forever, holy and without 
 blame, like the Lord Himself!" 
 
 Nothing you see of the sunset, 
 [10] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 but all of the sunrise 1 Nothing 
 about the divesting, but all about 
 the robing 1 Nothing about the 
 putting off of the corruptible, 
 but all about the putting on of 
 incorruption ! That is ever the 
 emphasis in the life of the tri- 
 umphant saints, and that is the 
 emphasis in this benediction from 
 the book of Revelation. 
 
 Now, the evangel arises in the 
 midst of a chapter of terrific up- 
 heaval and convulsion. It is like 
 some sweet and tender lyric sung 
 in the very thick of a grim and 
 awful tragedy. " Blessed are the 
 
 [»] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 dead " ! That in itself is some- 
 thing to think about, that the be- 
 atitude rises in the death-chamber, 
 and rings out its trumpet-peal by 
 the open grave. And yet I am 
 bound to say that this trumpet- 
 peal does not concern the entire 
 cemetery, but only sounds over 
 particular graves. The beatitude 
 is not for the dead, but for " the 
 dead who die in the Lord." Con- 
 cerning the merely dead we are 
 told little or nothing. All I can 
 say is that down that road the 
 Lord has lit no lamps, and I can 
 see no light, and I have no revela- 
 
 [12] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 tion. All the light is on the other 
 road, which " shineth more and 
 more even unto perfect day," and 
 it is there that this beatitude is 
 raising its unconquerable strains 
 — " Blessed are the dead which 
 die in the Lord." 
 
 I think, therefore, it will be well 
 worth our while to let our thoughts 
 consider the inheritance of the 
 blessed dead. And first of all, 
 we are told that they " die in the 
 Lord." Now, this little preposi- 
 tion " in " signifies a vital union 
 as distinguished from a superficial 
 connection. The superficial con- 
 
 [13] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 nection with the Lord may be 
 credal, or formal, or ecclesiastical, 
 or denominational, and in all these 
 there may be a fatal absence of 
 all vital fellowship with the Lord. 
 Vital union with Christ is essen- 
 tially an incorporation. It is not 
 a connection effected by some ec- 
 clesiastical knot, some denomina- 
 tional tie, some ritualistic liga- 
 ment ; it is the living union of the 
 branch with the vine ; it is a com- 
 munion in whose mystic channels 
 there flows the deepest life of men 
 and God. It is a union so vital 
 and so immediate that if Christ 
 CM] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 be alive the soul must live in 
 Him. 
 
 When I had got thus far I 
 thought it might be helpful to 
 get away from my phraseology 
 and to hear the fresher expres- 
 sions of another. And so I turned 
 to John Pulsford, one of the deep- 
 est and rarest mystics of the last 
 generation, a man who suffused 
 the common road with divine ra- 
 diance, and who was endowed with 
 exquisite spiritual discernment. 
 Well, let me give you a little pas- 
 sage from an assumed dialogue 
 between the creature and the Lord. 
 [IS] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 The Creature ; " But, O my 
 Lord, if I drink Thy life into my 
 soul, will it not work a great 
 change in the very nature of my 
 soul?" 
 
 The Lord: "A great change 
 indeed. Thou hast seen the 
 change from night to day and 
 the change from winter to sum- 
 mer. But the change in thee will 
 be still greater, and more wonder- 
 ful. My life will do away with 
 death in thee. . . ." 
 
 The Creature: "May I hear, 
 
 my Saviour, how it will do away 
 
 with death in me?" 
 [16] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 The Lord: " My life will re- 
 move death by putting all evil 
 from thee. Silently and grad- 
 ually, as winter is changed into 
 summer, will my life steal upon 
 thee, until there is no other life in 
 thee." 
 
 The Creature : " My holy, 
 gracious Lord, ... if Thy life 
 goes on changing the nature and 
 form of my inner man, what will 
 the successive changes come to 
 at last?" 
 
 The Lord: " At last, in virtue 
 of the kindred nature which My 
 life will generate and perfect in 
 E*7] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 thee, thou wilt be able to dwell 
 with Me and to see Me as I am." 
 
 Such is life "in Christ "; and 
 11 Blessed are the dead " who so 
 " die in the Lord." 
 
 And now our beatitude still 
 
 further unfolds the inheritance of 
 
 the blessed dead. " They rest 
 
 from their labors" A word which 
 
 by no means implies that they 
 
 settle down to a life of passive 
 
 idleness. Quite the contrary. 
 
 At the very heart of this word 
 
 " labors " there is a sense of faint- 
 
 ness and exhaustion ! It is a word 
 
 of burdensomeness, wan and 
 [18] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 drooping, like a stricken plant. 
 The outstanding significance of 
 the word is not the work, but the 
 weariness of the work. Yes, it is 
 a tired word, which has lost its 
 spring! "And Jesus, being 
 wearied with His journey " ! 
 There you have it, the identical 
 word, carrying the sense of " spent- 
 ness," of limitation, of exhaustion. 
 And therefore when we are told 
 that "the dead in Christ" "rest 
 from their labors," we are not to 
 take it as meaning that they rest 
 from their work, but from the 
 weariness of work, which is a far 
 [«9] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 nobler emancipation. To take 
 away the faintness is infinitely 
 more gracious than to take us out 
 of the crusade. The redemption 
 of our blessed dead is redemption 
 from tiredness, redemption from 
 the limitations which arise from 
 small capital; it is redemption 
 from the drooping and the wither- 
 ing ; it is entry into the tireless life. 
 
 " There everlasting spring abides, 
 And never-withering flowers ! " 
 
 That is the word which carries 
 the grace of the evangel — " never- 
 withering " — the land where the 
 
 [20] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 inhabitants never say, " I am 
 sick." And so we might very ac- 
 curately paraphrase the familiar 
 sentence in our beatitude as fol- 
 lows : " They rest from the labor- 
 iousness of labor," and great serv- 
 ices become their native delight. 
 " They serve Him day and night 
 in His temple." 
 
 Now, it is not difficult to name 
 some of the things which make 
 present labor so laborsome, and 
 from which the blessed dead have 
 found their freedom. There are 
 the limitations of the body. We 
 so soon begin to encroach upon 
 
 [21] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 our physical capital, and the 
 laboring body becomes a drag 
 upon the eager spirit. "The 
 spirit indeed is willing, but the 
 flesh is weak." Even the evan- 
 gelization of the world must tarry 
 while " Jesus, being wearied, sat 
 thus by the well. ,, How much 
 more we could presumably do for 
 the kingdom if the vital flame did 
 not so speedily smoulder and 
 flicker down into its socket ! But 
 it is evident that here our very 
 tiredness is a necessary factor in 
 the campaign, and that the frailty 
 of the body is the mysterious 
 
 [22] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 servant of the spirit. But our 
 blessed dead "drop the robe of 
 flesh," because its ministry is 
 ended, and "they rest from the 
 labor " and travail of physical in- 
 firmity. 
 
 But there is a second element of 
 laboriousness which burdens our 
 temporal service, and that is the 
 seeming fruitlessness of present 
 labor. We toil at the wilderness 
 for years, and it appears a wilder- 
 ness still. And because we can- 
 not see flowers and fruits we be- 
 come despondent about growth. 
 Because we are not always seeing 
 
 [23] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 results we become dubious about 
 processes. And we grow faint 
 and weary, and the song goes 
 out of our work, and the gay 
 service becomes a humdrum task. 
 Such despair is ever our peril, but 
 it need never be our necessity. 
 There have been men who have 
 toiled and toiled at their desert- 
 patch, and even when no green 
 blade has appeared to cheer the 
 grim waste they have "endured 
 as seeing Him who is invisible." 
 But, apart from this, we have not 
 the eyes as yet to see the sure 
 ministries of spiritual processes 
 [24] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 going on in the secret place. Our 
 eyes are holden, there are neces- 
 sary veils, earth-clouds form about 
 us, and " we walk by faith and 
 not by sight." But our blessed 
 dead, when they pass behind the 
 veil, become superior to the veil, 
 and every veil becomes transpar- 
 ent. They look " with other eyes 
 than ours," they see the first 
 awakenings of mighty destinies, 
 they trace the river from its spring, 
 they " know even as also they are 
 known," they have the open 
 vision, and they rest from the 
 laboriousness of uncertain service. 
 [25] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 And there is one further ele- 
 ment in the burdensomeness of 
 present labors, and that is our 
 broken correspondence with God. 
 God is not always real enough to 
 be impressive. Sometimes He 
 seems so gloriously real and im- 
 mediate that the intervening veil 
 is only like a bridal-veil, and we 
 can almost see His face! "In 
 the year that King Uzziah died I 
 saw the Lord." But the alien 
 season returns, and the bridal-veil 
 becomes a fog, and the soul cries 
 out, " O that I knew where I 
 might find Him!" And the 
 [26] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 seeming nearness or distance of 
 the Lord makes all the difference 
 to the buoyancy or the weariness 
 of our work. But our blessed 
 dead know neither bridal-veil nor 
 fogc They have died into the 
 open glory, into the fellowship 
 where there is no night, the land 
 of which " the Lamb is the light 
 thereof," and where service is al- 
 ways in the sunshine, "and sor- 
 row and sighing have passed 
 away." They see God, and they 
 rest from the laboriousness of 
 broken communion. 
 
 And one word on the remaining 
 [27] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 strain in the beatitude : " Their 
 works follow with them." They 
 enter the land of glory like mon- 
 archs with princely retinues, and 
 their retinue is the radiant as- 
 semblage of good works which 
 they have done in their pilgrim- 
 age through time. Those chival- 
 rous doings reappear at the gates 
 of day, and like manifested spir- 
 itual presences they accompany 
 the soul into " the burning bliss " 
 of the presence of God. " Their 
 works follow with them." And 
 the glorious retinue of some of 
 our earthly obscurities will be 
 
 [28] 
 
Our Blessed Dead 
 
 matter of great surprise when the 
 secrets of men are revealed. And 
 so " Blessed," aye, thrice blessed, 
 "are the dead which die in the 
 Lord ; yea, saith the Spirit, that 
 they may rest from their labors, 
 for their works follow with them." 
 
 u O blest communion I Fellowship 
 divine ! 
 We feebly struggle, they in glory 
 
 shine : 
 Yet all are one in Thee, for all are 
 Thine. 
 
 Alleluia ! " 
 
 [29] 
 
DATE DUE 
 
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Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer 
 
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