A General view ...

Salvos Online continues a new series of unexpected and decidedly prescriptive teachings that General William Booth gave to his soldiers 124 years ago, excerpting the 1902 publication Letters to Salvationists on Religion for Every Day (volume 1). We are publishing General Booth’s thoughts on everyday topics, including sickness and bereavement, sleep, hygiene, life challenges, conversation, clothing, poverty, the Bible and the Sabbath, industrial relations and more.

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“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”

 

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

 

BY GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH Salvation Army co-founder

(The article below is General William Booth’s original transcript.)

Let me share some thoughts on Bereavement, by which I mean the loss of dear ones, whether kindred or precious friends, through death.

Many of my readers will have been called, already, to pass through this experience, and they will know it to be one of the most painful that can possibly come … Others have yet to feel that mysterious sense of helplessness, that inner agony and grief, which seize us as we watch our loved ones die.

Money, reputation, health and a great many other valuable things, when lost, may often be recovered, but the companions of our hearts and homes and lives, when summoned by the inevitable silent Visitor, can never be restored to us in this world. They cannot be brought out of the grave, or given back to our fond embrace, until the Resurrection morning. They “are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again”.

Death is a painful visitor. The poet sings, ‘Why do we mourn departing friends, Or shake at deaths alarms? ’Tis but the voice that Jesus sends To call them to His arms.’ That is a beautiful sentiment, and as true as it is beautiful; nevertheless, after all has been said that can be said, to stand on the banks of the River, and watch your best-beloved struggle through its dark and stormy waters, even though you may catch some ray of brightness from the other shore, is a painful and agonising experience.

Still, God can, and does, wonderfully strengthen the hearts of His faithful children for those gloomy hours. Many years ago, I spent six weeks in the house of a friend, who appeared to me to be one of the holiest men I had yet been privileged to meet. He has long since passed away to his reward. I hope to see him again in the Glory-land.

This friend told me that his young wife died after they had lived together only a short time; that he loved her with all his heart, but he was so assured of the glorious state of existence to which God, in His love, had taken her, and was so comforted by the consolations of His Holy Spirit, that he was filled, as never before, with unspeakable triumph as he stood by her open grave. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

Many of my readers will acknowledge assurance and acceptance as being some distance beyond them. Although full of confidence as to the safety of their loved ones, their hearts were nonetheless sorrowful when they bade them a last farewell, and daily and hourly they mourn their absence.

What can I say to these sufferers?

Accept your sorrow without murmuring. There is an important difference between being weighed down under the burden of a great affliction and fighting against it. To rebel against a Divine decree will not help you. One of my Officers tells of a man who said to him, one day, in a railway train, that he believed in God till he lost his child; but when the baby died, he gave up that belief. Whereupon the Officer asked him, what has often seemed to me a wise and tender question: had giving up his faith in God made him feel any better about his loss? With tears in his eyes, he admitted that such was not the case.

To readers whose hearts may be breaking on account of some painful Bereavement, let me say that, while God will not condemn you for your sorrow, to rebel against His Providence, instead of making you feel better, will only make you feel worse.

Thank God for having favoured you with such precious companions. Better to have loved and been loved again, even though only for a little while, than never to have known such love at all. Rejoice, amid your sorrow, that your dear ones are safely landed on the Eternal Shore.

If you had a son journeying on the wide seas to some distant land, and you received tidings that the vessel had struck upon some sunken rock on some desolate coast, or had been destroyed by fire in mid-ocean, your first enquiry would be, “What about the passengers? What about my son?”

If, for a time, you could get no information, the suspense would add to your distress; and, on the supposition that he had been drowned, you would probably feel, even if you did not say, that it would be a comfort to you if his poor body could be found and have a decent burial.

But supposing, that in the midst of your distress, the news reached you that, although the vessel was lost, the young man was saved, and that he had landed in a beautiful country among a friendly people, that his health was good, his surroundings agreeable, and that he had started an excellent business, with every promise of lasting prosperity. How great would be your joy! Now, I feel that all comparisons between the earthly and the Heavenly are poor, indeed; but may not those who mourn the loss of departed friends, comfort themselves somewhat after this fashion?

Their loved ones have suffered a shipwreck, but they have not perished. No, they have been rescued and carried away to the Celestial shores. Their wants are abundantly supplied; their companions are the multitudes of the redeemed; their employments and felicities are beyond the power of our words to tell, or our minds to imagine; they are doing the will of our God and will live in His presence forever.

They have entered into the infinite bliss of those of whom it is written: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”

Encourage yourself with the prospect of meeting again those who have passed away from you, and that before very long. This was King David’s consolation on the loss of his child. He seems to have loved it very tenderly indeed, and there were few things in his kingdom so precious that he would not have given to have kept the babe. But when it was gone, after the first agony of his grief, he bowed to the Divine will, saying: “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

If the father I have just referred to, on hearing that his boy was safe and sound, happy and prosperous, although unable to return to his native land, had been informed that arrangements had been made for the emigration of himself and all his comrades, kindred, and friends to the same country, to participate in all the luxuries of which the young man was already the possessor, I am sure the father would have been still further comforted in his loss. I think he would have been likely to say, “Praise God; it is well with my boy; although he cannot come to us, we can go to him. We may have to wait a while, but it will not be very long before we see him again and share in the delights of this new land.”

So, my Comrades, your wife or your husband, or some companion of your heart, a part of yourself as it were, or your darling, the flower of your flock, has suffered shipwreck on the ocean of time. The vessel in which that dear one sailed went to pieces; perhaps it was worn out by old age, or it struck, perchance, upon some fever rock, or mayhap it was overtaken by some stormy epidemic, and after battling bravely for a time, went down to rise no more till the resurrection of the dead. But your loved one is safe.

NEXT WEEK: General William Booth’s thoughts on industrial relations

*This series has been compiled by Barry Gittins, The Salvation Army Australia Museum Specialist (Melbourne)