1 Thessalonians 4:13

THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS*

‘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.’

1 Thessalonians 4:13

The way in which Saints’ days appeal to different individuals must depend upon individual disposition. But however we regard the ordinary Saints’ day, there is surely one festival that must appeal to any one who thinks at all, and that is the festival of All Saints.

I. The communion of Saints.—All Saints’ Day is a day on which we show whether those words ‘I believe in the communion of Saints’ have any meaning at all. There is probably not one of us who has not somebody beyond the veil, some one in Paradise, some one we strive, though but with a feeble longing, to get into closer communion with, some we have ‘loved long since and lost a while.’

II. Life after death.—Where is the soul? Where shall I go when I die? I know I shall not merely sleep. I have heard the text ‘where the tree falls there shall it lie,’ but God has spoken louder than that: He has said He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And my Lord and Master, when He came down to earth to reveal my Father’s mind to me, knew I should want to know something of the life after death. He did not tell me much, but He told that little very clearly. You remember the parable of Dives and Lazarus, you remember the conversation which Jesus represented as taking place between two men. There is not only a conversation, which of course means life, but there is an appeal to memory of the things in this world. And then we know that our Lord did not go to heaven on His death, but to ‘preach to the spirits in prison’—in a place of safe keeping. You do not preach to people who are incapable of hearing—who are asleep. So our Lord would have us clearly understand that those loved ones whom we think of individually and collectively on All Saints’ Day are alive in the full sense of the word.

III. In God’s safe keeping.—How, then, shall we think of those who are dead? A family never gets smaller. It has some of its members behind the veil, but all are to be joined together again. Scripture does not reveal very much, but we have very sound ground to go on. Surely we may understand this: the very word life means progress, development in one direction or another. Those in Paradise gain a clearer knowledge, a closer communion with God. We do not know what the saints are doing, we know nothing about Paradise, but we know that God has them in safe keeping. And one day we hope to join them. What are you and I doing to prepare for the fuller life beyond the veil?

Rev. R. M. Carrick.