Listen now to a great promise of Jesus: "Blessed are those who mourn: for they shall be comforted." The comfort of God--how desperately we need it. Our loss is stark and painful and the future looks uncertain, and this blessing Jesus gives becomes a reality in our mourning as we trust in Him.

COMFORT COMES FROM KNOWING AN ETERNAL MERCY AND LOVE THROUGH JESUS. If we come to know his mercy and love personally in this life, we will know it on into eternity. So will our loved ones who die in Him. Jeremiah said, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end." And Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of my hand." Paul declares in Romans, "Nothing in all creation shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Comfort comes from being assured that we and our loved ones are in Christ with all His love and mercy always.

In his book THE BEST IS YET TO BE, Henry Durbanville told of an elderly lady who lived in southwest Scotland. She wanted very much to see the city of Edinburgh. However, she was afraid to take the train because it had to go through a long tunnel to get there.

One day circumstances arose that forced her to journey to Scotland''s capital. She was filled with fear as the trip began, and her anxiety increased as the train sped along. Before the express reached the tunnel, however, she fell asleep. When she awoke, she discovered that she was already in the city. The author commented, "It is even so with the dying saint. He closes his eyes on earth, passes into what he thinks of as the tunnel of death, and opens them immediately in the celestial land." Comfort comes from knowing the eternal love of Christ.

COMFORT ALSO COMES FROM FRIENDS WHO SHARE OUR LOSS, OUR MEMORIES OF OUR LOVED ONE, AND OUR HOPE IN JESUS CHRIST. Their presence and acts of love say, "You are not alone. In some way, great or small, we share in your loss." Life lived to its fullest can only be lived in the company of others. Their presence means so much in times of sorrow.

A little girl came home from a neighbor''s house where the neighbor''s little girl had died. "Why did you go?" questioned her father.

"To comfort her mother," said the little one.

"What could you do to comfort her?" asked the skeptical father.

"I climbed into her lap and cried with her."

Friends share sorrows, loss and pain. After we have cried together, we can laugh and rejoice together again. Comfort comes from friends.

COMFORT COMES FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD HIMSELF WHO SHARES OUR SORROW AND GRIEF. Jesus sat at the grave of Lazarus, his friend, and wept. Christ grieves over the sorrow and pain of earth, but he is not a spectator, he is a participant. He knows all earth''s sorrow and pain and loss. He has first place in the ranks of sufferers because of his scars. But unlike us, he conquered sorrow and death. Thus he is able to enter into our pain and give us power in our sufferings. "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you," he promised.

The hymn asks, "Can we find a friend so faithful, Who will all our sorrows share?" We know there is only one. His wonderful invitation draws us to his arms of comfort when he says, "Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Comfort comes from the presence of the shepherd who suffered for us and suffers with us now.

It was a dark night in Marshfield, October 24, 1852. Daniel Webster was dying. He was ready. His physician, a very sensitive man named Dr. Jeffries had ministered as much medicine as he could and as was practically possible. He realized that death was near and he chose to be a friend rather than a physician at that moment. He picked up an old, rather well-worn hymn book that Webster had often sung from and he chose to read the words of one of his favorite hymns:

"There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel''s veins And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains." He read every stanza. When he got to the last one, Webster''s lips were moving, though no sound came:

"When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave, then in a nobler, sweeter song,

I''ll sing thy power to save.

I''ll sing thy power to save,

I''ll sing thy power to save.

And he looked at Webster, their eyes met, and Webster uttered three final words: "Amen, Amen, Amen!" (1)

Comfort comes from the presence of the Good Shepherd.

FINALLY, COMFORT COMES FROM THE ASSURANCE OF AN ETERNAL HOME AND THE JOY OF MEETING AGAIN WITH OUR LOVED ONES IN THE LORD. Jesus said, "Let not your hearts be troubled; you believe in God, believe in me; in my father''s house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will surely come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also."

The Apostle Paul speaks of the new resurrection body that will be ours. John tells of the home eternal where God dwells with His people--where all of our sins and sorrows and pains and decay will be removed. "Blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted."

Professor William J. Kirkpatrick wrote the music to several favorite hymns, such as "Jesus Saves," "Redeemed, How I Love to Proclaim It," "''Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus," and "He Hideth My Soul."

One evening in 1921, he told his wife that a song had been running through his mind all day, and he was going to retire to his study to put it on paper before he forgot it. And since his wife was accustomed to her professor husband working very late in his study, she went to bed. Later, after midnight, she awoke. Seeing the lights still burning in the study, she went to investigate. She found him at his desk--dead! A pencil was still clutched in his lifeless hand. Spread before him were some pages of paper upon which he had penned these lines:

"Coming home, coming home, never more to roam.
Open wide Thine arms of Love, Lord, I''m coming home."

We conclude with this benediction--to Him who is to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Saviour, the glory, majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen.