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I. THE SORROW WHICH CHRISTIANS MAY LAWFULLY INDULGE FOR DEPARTED FRIENDS. Feel your griefs, bereaved and desolate believers; you are permitted to sorrow. Away with the sentiments of those who teach that we should evidence an utter insensibility, a stupid unconcern, under affliction! Such is not the command of that God, "who knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust:" nor of that Redeemer who, "in all the afflictions of His people was afflicted." Look at the Scriptures, ye who cruelly chide those tears that relieve the wounded heart, and say if Abraham violated his duty when he came to Kirjarth-arba to mourn for Sarah, and weep there. The lustre of Joseph's character was not obscured when he grieved for his father at the threshing floor of Atad "with great and sore lamentation." Jeremiah was not forgetful of his elevated office when his prophetical harp sounded such mournful tones over the corpse of the good Josiah. We do not feel less attached to the Christians of Asia because they wept sore on parting from Paul, "most of all, because they should see his face no more." We sympathize with the pious widows who stood by the body of Dorcas weeping, and "showing the coats and garments which she had made for the poor while she was yet with them." Those "devout men" were not less devout when "they carried Stephen to the grave, and made great lamentation." There is nothing inconsistent with the high character of that Mary who sat delightedly at the feet of Jesus, and yet poured out big bitter tears at the door of her brother's sepulchre. But why mention inferior cases? Behold Jesus — our law giver and model, authorizing a submissive grief by His emotion and tears at the tomb of Lazarus. An unlamented death is divinely represented as a judgment and a curse (Jeremiah 16:5, 6; 12:18). But we may mourn as Christians over our departed; and where can the soul that is bowed and overwhelmed better flee than to its Father? Where find more comfort than in the bosom of its God? Christianity does not destroy our nature; it only regulates it. In giving us a heart, God has permitted us to exercise its emotions, and sensibility, instead of being a weakness in the Christian, is one of his noblest prerogatives, since it is one great source of his virtues. No; it is not the soul of a Christian which can be callous and insensible while standing by the corpse or the grave of a departed friend.

II. THE SORROW WHICH CHRISTIANS ARE FORBIDDEN TO EXERCISE.

1. When in their hearts, or by their lips, they murmur against the disposals of God, and blame Him for unkindness and cruelty to them. Jacob was faulty in this respect when, on the reported death of his favourite son, he exclaimed, "All these things are against me!" In our severest griefs we must be persuaded that God acts not only with infinite wisdom, but also with infinite goodness; and that not only are His general dispensations merciful, but the particular dispensation which has afflicted us is the fruit of covenant love.

2. When the grief of Christians unfits them for holy duties, and prevents the exercise of religious devotion. What, because one we loved is dead, shall our heart also become dead and lifeless in all spiritual employments, and as cold as is his inanimate body? What, shall our tears be ever flowing over a mouldering form, and our affections never be raised to a living God?

3. When sorrow does not lead Christians to inquire what was the design of God in afflicting them. As Christians, instead of being "swallowed up in over much sorrow," we should study by each bereavement to feel more deeply the vanity of earth, the importance of eternity, and the preciousness of Christ.

4. When Christians follow not their departed friends beyond the grave. They are not in the grave, their bodies only are there; they, as emancipated spirits, are with "the spirits of just men made perfect." Sorrow is criminal, therefore, if it relates only to the outer covering laid aside for a little while.

5. Sorrow is also criminal when Christians have no well-grounded hope of reunion and fellowship with their departed in heaven. Heaven is the glorious rendezvous of all saintly men (John 14:1-3).

(H. Kollock, D. D.)

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KJV: But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

WEB: But we don't want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don't grieve like the rest, who have no hope.