THAT grave in the land of Canaan was the only piece of ground that Abraham actually possessed, although God had given it all to him by promise. He buried Sarah there in the certainty of resurrection when all that God had pledged will be his. In the meantime he was content to remain as a stranger and a pilgrim, for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God. Every time he gazed upon, or thought of that lonely grave in Machpelah, he must have recalled the words that God had spoken, and so he looked on in faith to their fulfillment in due time, and thus he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. He had dared to believe God when he was notified that in him and his seed all nations should be blessed. In the same faith he laid away the body of his beloved life-partner, assured that some day he would behold their children dwelling in peace in that land and enjoying all that God had promised. Later he himself was buried in the same tomb. They will rise together at the first resurrection.
“When the weary ones we love
Enter on their rest above,
When the words of love and cheer
Fall no longer on our ear.
Hush! be every murmur dumb
It is only ‘TILL HE COME?’”
—E. H. Bickerateth.