Jeremiah 31:16-17

Refrain thy voice from weeping.

Bereaved parents comforted

I. It is not sinful for parents to be grieved and sorrowful for the death of their children. If we do not grieve when we are thus stricken of God, it is an evidence that we do not feel the heavy calamity which His providence hath inflicted, and how can there be any probability that we shall be profited by it? It is by the sadness of the countenance that the heart is made better. It is in consequence of the affliction being for the present not joyous, hut grievous, that, through the Divine blessing, it bringeth forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness in them that are exercised thereby.

II. Parents should refrain from immoderate and excessive grief for the death of their children, when they consider that this event flows from God’s wise and sovereign appointment. If our children be interested in that covenant which is ordered in all things and sure, let no one say that their death is premature or unseasonable. God hath a method, which we cannot explain, of ripening those for heaven whom He gathers into it in the beginning of their days.

III. Disconsolate parents should moderate their grief for the death of their children, when we consider that our loss is their unspeakable gain. Infant children, born as it were into this world only to suffer and to die, are striking evidence of the dreadful effects of sin. They are objects of compassion to the human heart, much more to the Father of mercies. It is natural, when our children are taken away, if their faculties have begun to unfold themselves, to review the little history of their lives, and to reflect with melancholy pleasure on many passages unheeded by others, but carefully marked and remembered by parents; and if any good thing towards the Lord was found in our child, the remembrance is full of comfort. If we found their hearts grateful and affectionate for our care, and submissive to our will, these were the seeds of an amiable and humble spirit. If they had a tenderness of conscience, so far as they knew good and evil, and stood in awe of offending; if they loved and hearkened to instruction; if they had a deep veneration for the Bible, as containing the revelation of God’s mercy and goodness to His children; if they had some views, however faint, of a state of blessedness into which pious and good children enter after death; in a word, if to the last they grew in favour with God and man, this is an anchor of hope to disconsolate and afflicted parents.

IV. Parents should moderate their grief for the death of their children, when they look forward to a joyful and blessed resurrection. Our children shall “come again from the land of the enemy.” The husbandman doth not mourn when he casteth his seed into the ground, because he soweth in hope. He commits it to the earth with the joyful expectation of receiving it again with great improvement; so when we commit the precious dust of our relations to the earth, we are warranted to exercise a joyful hope that we shall receive them again unspeakably improved at the resurrection.

V. Parents should moderate their grief for the loss of their children, when they consider what beneficial effects this is calculated to produce in their own souls. David thankfully acknowledges it is “good for me that I have been afflicted.” God deals with us as a wise parent deals with froward and undutiful children. When counsels and admonitions produce no effect, He finds it necessary to correct us with the rod; and when the strokes of providence inflicted on other families have been slightly regarded by us, He finds it necessary to smite us in our own bone and flesh. It would be highly ungrateful, then, to murmur against God when He acts a father’s part toward us, and is chastening and correcting us for our spiritual profit and advantage. The impatience with which we bear the stroke, is an evidence that our affections were rooted many degrees deeper in the creature than we were aware of. Our merciful Father doth not measure out one drop from the cup of affliction, nor inflict one stripe with His correcting rod, more than He sees indispensably necessary for His children’s profit and happiness. We should take in good part every trial with which we are visited, as coming from a parent’s hand and a parent’s heart. Conclusion--

1. Let us learn resignation to Divine providence under our affliction.

2. From the death of our children, let us learn to exercise a lively faith on that state of life and immortality which is brought to light by the Gospel.

3. The death of our children should teach us to live mindful of our own death. (J. Hay, D. D.)

There is hope in thine end, saith the Lord.

Good hope

There are some who cannot endure the thought of looking forward to the end; and this in a great variety of particulars. None but Christians contemplate with delight the end of their woes, and the reason is, that they have no well-grounded hope as to the end. If a hope exists, it becomes us closely to examine on what it is founded.

I. If I were asked what constitutes my hope as a child of God, as a Christian, as an heir of glory, I should not hesitate for one moment to state that it consists of three things--the constancy of my Father’s love, the official faithfulness of my Elder Brother to His engagements, and the ministerial operations of the Comforter, pledged for the eternal salvation of my soul

II. Notice how this is owned by Jehovah Himself. “Saith the Lord.” This is a phrase of personal importance. He hath not only said it here in the volume of inspiration, but He saith it repeatedly, continually, powerfully unto the souls of His people when He speaks to them. What paternal tenderness is here! what paternal condescension! There are numbers of little children in different families who would, in many instances, be disposed to disregard a great deal that a servant might say, or that a stranger or a visitor might say; but when the father speaks, his voice has some weight and authority. Moreover, when Jehovah thus speaks with paternal tenderness, there is hope in His name. Suppose the case of crosses and cares, trials and anxieties, difficulties and perplexities, threatened ruin or discomfort, or the loss of domestic harmony; only let the Lord speak, and “there is hope in the end, saith the Lord.” In the next place, just mark, that when Jehovah speaks, when Jehovah Himself comes with His “Thus saith God,” it is by revealing the hope of Israel. This is the express business and ministry of God the Holy Ghost, to reveal the glorious Person of the Redeemer, under the appellation of “the hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble.” I beseech you to mark one more point in connection with the Lord’s owning this hope to exist in reality in the soul; I refer to the testimony of the internal witness of the Holy Ghost. “The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.” His testimonies have always a sanctifying tendency. (J. Irons.)