The Sleep of the Faithful Departed.
St. Paul, in the text, speaks of the saints unseen as of those that "sleep in Jesus"; and Christians are wont to call their burial-grounds cemeteries or sleeping-places, where they laid up their beloved ones to sleep on and take their rest. Let us therefore see why we should thus speak of those whom we call the dead.
I. First, it is because we know that they shall wake up again. What sleep is to waking, death is to the resurrection. It is only a prelude, a transitory state ushering in a mightier power of life; therefore death is called sleep, to show that it has a fixed end coming. It is a kindly, soothing rest to the wearied and world-worn spirit: and there is a fixed end to its duration. There is a waking nigh at hand, so that the grave is little more than the longest night's sleep in the life of an undying soul.
II. Again, death is changed to sleep, 'because they whom men call dead do really live unto God. When the coil of this body is loosed death has done all, and his power is spent; thenceforth and for ever the sleeping soul lives mightily unto God.
III. And once more, those whom the world calls dead are sleeping, because they are taking their rest. Their rest is not the rest of a stone, cold and lifeless, but of wearied humanity. They "sleep in Jesus." Theirs is a bliss only less perfect than the glory of His kingdom when the new creation shall be accomplished. Consider a few thoughts which follow from what has been said. (1) We ought to mourn rather for the living than for the dead. The passing of the soul is awful even to the saints. Wherefore let no man weep for the dead; that awful change for them is over. They have fulfilled their task, ours tarrieth. (2) It is life, rather than death, that we ought to fear. For life and all it contains thought and speech and deed and will is a deeper and more awful mystery. Let us fear life and we shall not be afraid to die; for in the new creation of God death walks harmless.
H. E. Manning, Sermons,vol. i., p. 308.
References: 1 Thessalonians 4:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:14. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ix., p. 278; Homilist,3rd series, vol. ii., p. 390.