Gather yourselves together It was his will that they should all be sent for to see their father die, and to hear his dying words. It would be a comfort to him, who had sometimes thought himself bereaved, to see all his children about him when he was dying, and he hoped it would be a blessing to them to attend him in his last moments, and witness his confidence and hope in God, the serenity and peace of mind in which he could quit this world and all its concerns, to enter the invisible and eternal state. It appears that what he said to each he said in the audience of all the rest, for we may profit by the reproofs, counsels, and encouragements which are principally intended for others. In the last days Or following times, when they should be settled in the land of promise. Hereby he signified that he was about to speak of things which concerned their posterity rather than themselves. “It is an opinion of great antiquity,” says Bishop Newton, on the Prophecies, “that the nearer men approach to their dissolution, their souls grow more divine, and discern more of futurity.
And what I conceive might principally give rise to this opinion, was the tradition of some of the patriarchs being divinely inspired in their last moments, to foretel the state and condition of the people descended from them; as Jacob summoned his sons together, that he might inform them of what should befall them in the latter days.” Vol. 1. p. 85, second edition. We cannot tell our children what shall befall them or their families in this world; but we can tell them, from the word of God, what shall befall them in the last day of all, according as they conduct themselves in this world.