The Undertaker Understood!

Most clergymen in preaching a funeral sermon place the deceased either in heaven or in purgatory, depending upon whether he is Protestant or Catholic, for according to them the deceased is not really dead. But not so Jehovah’s witnesses. Last January, a Detroit, Michigan, 90-year-old man of good will made a dying request that his funeral be conducted by Jehovah’s witnesses, even though all his relatives were Catholic. His relatives saw to it that his request was complied with and so a minister of Jehovah’s witnesses gave the funeral discourse. As usual, he quoted Bible texts showing that “the dead know nothing,” that “the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other,” and that the hope of man lies in the resurrection, not in a supposedly immortal soul. (Eccl. 9:5; 3:19; Ezek. 18:4, RS) After the funeral the undertaker was heard to remark: “I have buried a lot of people but this is the first time I have buried a dead man.”