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 The 
 Blessedness of those who die in the Lord. 
 
 A SERMON, 
 
 Preached on Advent Sunday, December 1st, 1878, 
 at Westerfield Church. 
 
 BY T11E 
 
 EEV. CYPEIAN T. RUST, 
 
 Hector of Westerfield. 
 
 PRINTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION BY PERMISSION OP 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 With Extracts from Sermons by the 
 Dean of Westminster and Canon Farrar. 
 
 IPSWICH : WILLIAM HUNT & Co., TAVERN STREET.
 
 A SERMON. 
 
 REVELATION XIV. 13. 
 
 " And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, 
 
 Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord 
 
 from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest 
 
 from their labours ; and their works do follow them." 
 
 •JfWY text says, Happy are the dead. Doubtless 
 tf*** there are some ignorant people, and some, 
 alas, who are not ignorant, who say it is so : but 
 have they any reason for what they say ? or do 
 they really believe in their hearts the sentence 
 they pronounce with their lips ? Job tells us that 
 in the grave "The wicked cease from troubling 
 and the weary are at rest." No more hunger and 
 thirst, or toil and weariness; no more pain and
 
 Wxt hlzQszbxtz&z oi thost 
 
 suffering ; no more care by day, or weary sleepless 
 nights ; no more dread of evil, — NO : not for the 
 body, for " the dust has turned to the earth as it 
 was," and it remains insensible as the stone or 
 the turf that covers it. But do we call that 
 happiness? Do we call a rock, or a block of 
 wood happy? happy because it cannot see, or 
 taste, or feel, or know anything ? We mean not 
 the senseless body : we know there was something 
 more than this in the dear friend who a minute 
 before he fell asleep looked into our face with as 
 much intelligence as in the meridian of life, or 
 pressed our hand with as much sympathy and 
 love as a whole torrent of words could convey. 
 We know that spirit is not dead, — not lying in the 
 grave: it has simply gone away from us to live 
 somewhere else, and be alive for evermore. 
 
 But are we sure, then, that the dead are happy ? 
 True, they have no more pain of body ; but what 
 of that ? .Who does not know that the most 
 terrible bodily suffering is as nothing when com- 
 pared with anguish of mind ! There are thousands 
 
 uiuc 
 
 -• 
 
 V./
 
 who if they die as they lived can by no fancy or 
 perversion of thought be conceived of as happy. 
 They hated every thing that was pure and true, 
 and like God ; and they loved every thing that 
 was base and vile, — bad words, bad company, 
 falsehood, dishonesty, drunkenness, and unclean- 
 ness. Heaven is no place for them ; saints and 
 angels are no companions for them: it is impos- 
 sible but that they must go " to their own place," 
 to be with spirits like themselves. Brethren, we 
 need not say or think about what is called 
 material torment, — such as fire and brimstone, the 
 worm that never dies, the fire that is never 
 quenched,— though, remember, these are the words 
 of the Holy Ghost, and may not without sin be 
 lightly or irreverently turned aside ; but we need 
 not now refer to them'. It is certainly the most 
 horrible doom of itself for a man to be banished 
 from all that is pure and beautiful and good in the 
 universe of God, and to be shut up in prison with 
 all that are like himself, unholy and unclean, — 
 banished from God's fair earth, and from His
 
 6 ^rte bh$szb\us$ rrf iho&e 
 
 fairer heaven. I cannot picture to myself a sorer 
 punishment than this. It is this thought which 
 made David cry out with so much anguish, Oh, 
 "Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life 
 "with men of blood ! " Surely the bare thought of 
 such a doom should make you cry with real 
 earnestness, Oh Lord, save me from my sins, and 
 help me to escape them ; oh, save me, that I be 
 not drawn down by them to that terrible place of 
 torment ! I think you will see 'how idle it is to 
 say, Oh, how happy are the dead ! They may, for 
 aught we know, be in the most fearful state of 
 pain and misery. 
 
 But my text does not stop to say this : it says, 
 "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord" 
 That surely makes all the difference. But you 
 will say, Tell us what it means, — what is it to die 
 in the Lord ? The expression denotes the character 
 of the true believer. He is in the Lord: he is 
 one who belongs to the Lord ; his hope is in Him ; 
 his whole faith and trust are in Him, — nay, his 
 whole life is in Him, body and soul : and it is
 
 toho foie in the ^Corti. 
 
 because he thus lives in Him he cannot fail to die 
 in Him. He was given to the Lord at first, and 
 was baptized in Him : he was confirmed in this 
 surrender of himself to Him ; he remained all his 
 life a frequenter of the Lord's house, an associate 
 and companion of His people, a friend and bene- 
 factor to His cause. He was constantly at the 
 Lord's Table, eating His flesh and drinking His 
 blood in the Holy Sacrament of His death, living 
 a life of obedience to His holy will and command- 
 ments ; persevering and going on in the same course 
 to the very end, — for sixty, seventy, eighty years ; 
 and, therefore, as I said, he could not fail to die in 
 Him, as one of Christ's own children and faithful 
 servants, whom He will receive and welcome into 
 His arms, and give to him a place in His own 
 blessed home among those who have already arrived 
 there. 
 
 And for such as these there is in reality no 
 death. They who thus live and believe in Him, 
 do in fact never die. There is nothing in death 
 which can harm them. The sting of death is sin ;
 
 ^Olhe bks&tbxitss of those 
 
 but their sins have been repented and forsaken, 
 and therefore they are pardoned ; and when they 
 depart from this life, they are purified and cleansed 
 from all the sins which clung to them through the 
 infirmities of life. They enter into God's rest 
 without spot and blameless: they have washed 
 their robes and made them white in the blood of 
 the Lamb. Because they are thus without fault 
 and blameless, they are happy: no one can. tell 
 how happy ! No unholy thought, no desire after 
 evil, no fear of ever falling into it any more. They 
 are safe, and therefore they are happy. They 
 meet, too, there all those whom they loved best, 
 and who most deserved their love ; they can learn 
 and know all that they most wished on earth to 
 understand. When their desires are thus purified, 
 they find in heaven all that can fully satisfy them, 
 — all that which can gratify their most ardent 
 wishes and the deepest longings of their nature, 
 so that they are blessed and happy beyond all 
 expression and imagination. 
 
 Now j ust notice the wonderfully strong assurance
 
 toho bic in the gorb. 
 
 we have of this fact. It is asserted with almost as 
 much strength as if it were confirmed by those 
 two immutable things in which it is impossible for 
 God to lie, and it is done purposely that the heirs 
 of promise may have strong consolation and know 
 the unchangeableness of God's counsel, that when 
 death comes to them they may have no room for 
 doubt or fear, but be able to put their hand as it 
 were into their Father's hand and say, " Though I 
 walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I 
 will fear no evil : for Thou art with me ; Thy rod 
 and Thy staff they comfort me." Their feet are 
 fixed upon Him as the Rock of Ages, and they 
 have underneath them the everlasting arms. "I 
 heard a voice from heaven," from God Himself, 
 "saying unto me, Write!' Let this promise be 
 recorded in my Book of mercy, the pages of which, 
 however frail they appear, are graven as with an 
 iron pen, or as if with lead in the rock for ever : 
 "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." 
 That is the record: the decree of heaven which 
 has gone forth and cannot be changed. And 
 
 B
 
 then the Holy Ghost, who inspired this writer, 
 puts to it His seal, — His testimony: the witness 
 of God, His Amen. " Yea, saith the Spirit, for 
 they rest from their labours, and their works do 
 follow them." Theirs is indeed rest, — a rest worthy 
 to be so called ; not a dreamless sleep, not a state 
 of entire and perfect unconsciousness : you cannot 
 call that happiness. True, it is not suffering or 
 sorrow; but it is not blessedness. True rest is to 
 be fully alive and conscious of what the rest is, — 
 how full of peace, how free from fear and dread of 
 evil, how sure that it will never suffer diminution 
 or change, but go on growing and becoming more 
 peaceful and blessed for evermore. 
 
 Now just notice one more reason given for their 
 happiness. They rest from all their labours ; and 
 their works follow them. Not one thing of all 
 they did for God, or suffered for Him, is lost or 
 forgotten, or is fruitless in its results.- All their 
 works are treasured up and made to follow them. 
 Mark well, these doings of theirs, excellent as they 
 are, approved and accepted of God, do not go
 
 toko te in the ^orb. XI 
 
 before them. They do not open for them the 
 doors of heaven; they do not form their title of 
 admission there. Every one that comes to that 
 eternal rest disclaims all idea of merit or desert of 
 any kind, in anything they have themselves done. 
 Oh, no, they say : " Not' unto us, not unto us, but 
 unto Thy name be the glory." It is Christ, our 
 Leader and Captain, who goes before. What He 
 has done, what He has suffered, — His deeds, not 
 ours, have the right of entrance there ! We only 
 trod in His steps ; we only followed His example, 
 and have done nothing but as partakers of His 
 Spirit and His grace. To Him, to Him alone, be 
 all the glory. 
 
 Nevertheless, saith the Spirit, " their works do 
 follow them." They follow them upon earth. The 
 truths they taught, the example they set, the 
 charities they have given, their earnest prayers, — 
 God will never suffer them to die. They live on 
 after they are dead, pointing out to others the good 
 way, and drawing others on in the road to heaven. 
 And they follow them into heaven itself; to the
 
 12 ^Ite ble00ebne00 of tko0e 
 
 very tribunal and judgment bar of Almighty God. 
 The Lord Himself, who laid down His life for 
 them, when He puts the diadem on their brow 
 which His own fingers have woven, when He 
 pronounces them free from all sentence of judgment, 
 will say, before all those who are standing by, " I 
 was hungry, and ye fed Me : I was thirsty, and ye 
 gave Me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took Me 
 in : naked, and ye clothed Me : sick, and in prison, 
 and ye came unto Me." "I adjudge you the 
 reward of grace, not of debt, — eternal life with Me 
 in heaven." 
 
 I must, however, just notice two little words 
 which I have omitted, — from henceforth. There is 
 a contrast here between the state of those who die 
 in sin and those who die in the Lord. Of such as 
 suffer the punishment of sinners, it is said, " They 
 have no rest day nor night." There is no suspense, 
 no alleviation in their sufferings. On the contrary 
 of these beloved ones, it is said, They rest. And it 
 is not a thing they have to wait for ; it comes upon 
 them in a moment, at the very instant of their
 
 toho tic in the JJorb. 13 
 
 release : " Absent from the body, present with the 
 Lord." In that context (2 Cor. v.) St. Paul com- 
 pares our mortal body to a tent; the cloth or 
 covering of it especially. The stakes are all drawn 
 out of the earth, the cords are untied, then the 
 ring is loosened from the top of the pole, and in a 
 moment it is dissolved ; it drops down in an instant 
 on to the ground. And the soul within ! — What of 
 it ? Is it naked ? Is it houseless, homeless ? Oh, 
 no : it looks about, and behold it is in heaven ! 
 It has no change of place or state to be conscious 
 of. It is at home. It is in heaven. Do you 
 suppose that if this were not the case St. Paul 
 would have said, " To be with Christ is far better," 
 — better than to serve Him here below ? Surely 
 working for Christ is better than slumbering in 
 the grave. St. Paul did not think of sleeping in 
 the grave ; he thought of being with Christ, and 
 reigning with Him ; and that from the moment he 
 fell asleep on earth, from that very moment he 
 was to be with Christ, awake in heaven. 
 
 You all know why I have taken this text this
 
 14 Wat bh&szbnzs& oi those 
 
 morning. It is on purpose that I might give you 
 a faithful and true picture of 'the life and death of 
 one so recently and suddenly taken from us. 
 Happy is she who has thus died in the Lord, from 
 henceforth, for she rests from her labours, and her 
 works do follow her. The Lord was pleased to 
 endow her with gifts and graces to occupy and 
 adorn the position to which, step by step, He was 
 pleased to elevate her. As her sphere was raised 
 and extended, so was more grace given her to fill 
 it, and to use her influence for good towards 
 relatives, friends, and acquaintances innumerable. 
 These charities and gifts for usefulness began, as 
 they always should do, at home ; so that those who 
 were closest to her and knew her best could not 
 fail to love her and prize her the most. Nor was 
 all this an outside show of life without true 
 devotion to inspire and fill it. It sprung from 
 genuine love to God and His cause. The spirit of 
 humility and devotion breathed about her a 
 fragrance, which satisfied all who came in contact 
 with it of its vitality and truth. How much
 
 more I might say and be within the limits of 
 sober truth, and without (what she would have so 
 earnestly deprecated) a grain of mere compliment 
 or flattery! but there is no need for it. Only I 
 think when we see one whom Christ has made so 
 comely, through the comeliness which He has put 
 upon her, we ought to admire His workmanship, 
 and to give Him the glory of it. He has taken 
 her to Himself, — a loss to us all; but to some, 
 such a loss as only the sight of her in heaven can 
 ever make up again. Well, if we have patience, 
 God will not fail to give us, in this life, all the 
 support necessary for our journey, till the time 
 comes when we too shall go into rest ; and there 
 shall be no more sorrow, nor sighing, nor parting, 
 and no more death, for the former things shall 
 have passed away. 
 
 My friends do not go away from this place 
 without asking yourselves, If I die, shall I be 
 happy ? Yes : if your sins be repented of, — 
 forsaken and forgiven, — if your lives be holy and 
 devout. If not, remember it is a fearful thing to
 
 16 |5l£<50£btt£00 of thost fcohxr Jbu in the Jorfc. 
 
 fall into the hands of the living God. In spite of 
 all men may say, " It is appointed unto all men 
 once to die, and after death the judgment:" hear 
 this and rejoice, or hear it and tremble. Re- 
 member that your position in this world and the 
 next is your own choice. God has said, " I have 
 no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. Why 
 will ye die, house of Israel; therefore return 
 ye, repent and live."
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 Extract from a Sermon hy the Dean of Westminster. 
 
 Novkmbke 24th, 1878. 
 »♦ 
 
 MALACHI III. 16. 
 
 " Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another : 
 and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remem- 
 brance -was -written before him for them that feared the Lord, 
 and that thought upon His name." 
 
 HOW largely is the power of His presence felt in 
 the silence which falls upon a household, or a 
 neighbourhood, when a soul which has w r rought its 
 v;ork amongst us takes its flight from this earthly 
 .-cene ! How often has this silence descended 
 upon us during the past year ! How proloDged is 
 the echo of such a rent in the social and spiritual 
 fabric of this our little circle here, even since I 
 last preached within these walls ! 
 
 And now how dark the void which has fallen on 
 this neighbourhood in the last few days ! One 
 familiar face — the inseparable companion of the 
 good white head which all Westminster knows so
 
 t8 Extract frxrm n §nmon. 
 
 well: the partner in all his good works, in this 
 Abbey and its surrounding parishes, for more than 
 forty years — has been withdrawn from the congre- 
 gation with which she so often joined in the 
 daily prayers, — from the schools, the missions, the 
 poor, the sick, where her presence was so long and 
 so dearly valued. 
 
 Such a long life of beneficent Christian useful- 
 ness is indeed a succession of angel foot-falls, quiet 
 and unobserved at the time ; but when they cease 
 to tread our thresholds, their remembrance sounds 
 in our ears like the voice of a trumpet. 
 
 We know that there was here something which 
 the Lord has heard, and which was worth His 
 hearing. God grant that these sacred echoes may 
 be treasured up by those who feel that no music is 
 so sweet as the memory of past good deeds ! God 
 grant that this memory may bring peace and con- 
 solation to those who in such a dear remembrance 
 can find the pledge of future blessedness, because 
 it is the pledge of reunion in the presence of Him 
 who is the Fountain of all light and of all life !
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 Extract from a Sermon at St. Margaret's, Westminster, 
 by the Rector, Canon Farrar. 
 
 November 24nr, 1878. 
 
 AND here, my brethren, I must pause for one 
 moment, to speak of one such liie which has just 
 passed away. 
 
 Lady Hatherley, who died since last Sunday, 
 had been for very many years a member of this 
 congregation, and I know not where it would have 
 been more possible to find an example of the quiet 
 beauty, the holy attractiveness of a life which 
 walked in the Spirit, — a life which was hid with 
 Christ in God. Blessed with wealth and rank, 
 how easy it would have been, how natural it would 
 have seemed for her, to live as so many others live 
 who having received these gifts from God are so 
 keenly aware of their privileges, so little conscious 
 of their duties, of their responsibilities.
 
 20 Jtppenbtx. 
 
 How easy it would have been for her to live 
 haughtily aloof from the miseries of the unhappy 
 and the struggles of the poor; — how easy to join 
 the crowd of useless sentimentalists, who even if 
 they go so far as to sigh for wretchedness, but shun 
 the wretched, 
 
 ' ' Nursing in some delicious solitude 
 Their dainty loves and slothful sympathies." 
 
 How easy would it have been for her to live as 
 such multitudes of others live, — in the small selfish- 
 ness of small and vulgar aims ; to join in all the 
 gossip and malice, in all the folly and fashion, in 
 all the intrigue and jealousy of what calls itself 
 society; to live the commonplace worldly life, 
 merging into the dull, apathetic end,— the youth 
 of fashion followed by the age of cards. • When 
 these die, how small is the difference, except some- 
 times, alas, for the evil that they have made to the 
 world ! They have died, but never lived ; for 
 "she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she 
 liveth." 
 
 What a iest, — what a poor play, — what a dance
 
 (Extract from a jSermon. 21 
 
 of bubbles on a stained and shallow stream, — what 
 a godless, empty, meaningless frivolity their day on 
 earth has been ! And how little it matters, — how 
 little it matters to any one, — when they end their 
 useless, self-indulgent, unprofitable lives ! 
 
 It was not thus, as many of you know, my 
 friends, — it was not thus that Lady Hatherley lived. 
 Far other, unspeakably nobler, transcendently more 
 worthy of a Christian, were her aims ! In one 
 word, she strove to do good. She lived, not for 
 herself, but for others. She loved the poor, and 
 was kind to them. She felt, and she tried, to her 
 best power, to alleviate the miseries of the world. 
 She worked for them, — not with the indifferent 
 almsgiving, which is always useless, and often 
 injurious, — but with the loving, thoughtful, sym- 
 pathizing, self-denying charity, which does more 
 good by giving a cup of cold water with a word of 
 kindly sympathy, than by carelessly flinging a 
 purse of gold. 
 
 My brethren, such a life, and all the more 
 because it is so rare, — a life, adorned not with gold
 
 22 Jtpjmtfctx. 
 
 and apparel of the latest fashion, but as becometh 
 women professing godliness, with good works, — even 
 as the holy women of old adorned themselves, 
 such a life, precious to England, precious to the 
 Church, is precious most of all to us, among whom 
 she lived and laboured. Of her, it was as true, 
 as it is idly said of many, that "when the ear 
 heard her, it blessed her ; and when the eye saw 
 her, then it gave her witness." The blessing of 
 Him that was ready to perish came upon her, and 
 she caused "the widow's heart to sing for joy." 
 
 In an age of pride and luxury, hers was that 
 " ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in 
 the sight of God of great price." 
 
 Because her thoughts were with things above, 
 — with whatsoever things are true, and pure, and 
 lovely, and honest, and of good report, — therefore 
 the sullied wave of the world's ungodliness — its 
 prurience, its malice, its self seeking, and its 
 greed — scarce touched her feet. 
 
 My brethren, from such an example, — so pure, 
 so sweet, so kind, — we all may learn what that
 
 Extract from ;t (Sermon. 23 
 
 meaneth: "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 
 fulfil the lusts of the flesh." And, my brethren, 
 for such a death we cannot greatly mourn. 
 
 We can mourn for ourselves, — that one of the 
 very few who are really good is no longer in the 
 midst of us. We can mourn for him who is left 
 alone, after well-nigh half a century of happy 
 union, — mourn for that good white head, which 
 all well know, now bowed in the touching resigna- 
 tion of an old man's grief. But for her we cannot 
 mourn, because we know that it is far happier for 
 Christ's redeemed when, after life's trials and 
 sorrows, " God hath given His beloved sleep." 
 Nay, rather let us all, — above all, let every 
 Christian woman here, who desires to live not a 
 mean and a vulgar and a self-seeking, but a true, 
 sweet, noble, life, — let us all try to learn from her 
 example that the end of the commandment is 
 "love out of a pure heart and a good conscience, 
 and faith unfeigned : " not fashion, or comfort, or 
 party religionism, or selfish domesticity, or a 
 brawling assertion of rights.
 
 24 JtpptnMx. 
 
 Little is the voice of human eulogy to an ear on 
 which has broken the angels' song. But this we 
 know of her, — and in this, my sisters in Christ, 
 may you all learn to follow her, as she followed 
 Christ, — that 
 
 1 ' Her care was fixed, and zealously attent 
 To fill her odorous lamp with deeds of light, 
 And hope that reaps uot shame." 
 
 IISWICH : WILLIAM HUNT AND CO., TAVERN" SfREET.

 
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