Gathered to his People.
By H. A. St. John
We heard it argued in a funeral discourse recently, that the above expression, found in Gen. 25:8, could not relate to Abraham's being gathered to the bodies of his people at death, or in the grave, for his people were buried in one country and he in another, alone with his wife; but that it must mean that his immortal soul was gathered to theirs, in Heaven. To this we might reply, that it could not mean that Abraham's immortal soul was gathered to the immortal souls of his people; for, from Josh. 24:2, and other Scripture facts, we learn that his fathers were gross idolaters, and, according to the popular notion, their souls were in the burning hell. Does any one believe that Abraham went to the regions of the damned? Surely, if this is the import of God's promise, it could not have been very comforting to the father of the faithful. The truth is, manifestly, this: Abraham's people had gone to the grave, the house for all the dead, and the promise to him was, that in peace, and in a good old age, he would go the grave also. That this is the way the patriarchs understood such expressions is further evident from Gen. 37:35. Here it is said Jacob wept for Joseph, whom he supposed to have been devoured by an evil beast, and said, “I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning.” How plain and simple is truth when unmixed with the error and traditions of men?