LECTURE XVII.

THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD.

Ecclesiastes xii. 7.

THEN SHALL THE EARTH RETURN TO THE EARTH AS IT WAS; AND THE SPIRIT SHALL RETURN UNTO GOD WHO GAVE IT.

AFTER the fatal events that occurred in Paradise, when man fell from that happy state of innocence and holiness in which God originally created him, we find him, and all his posterity, sentenced to misery, disease, and death—the place which once knew him was to know him no more, and he was to return to the dust from whence he came.

Accordingly, as if there were some general tradition of the first origin of man's body, viz. the earth, and of the original sentence passed upon him, after the fall, of his being to return to his native dust, we find that the worshippers of the true God have from the earliest ages been

desirous of consigning their dead bodies to their mother earth; while heathen nations have generally burnt them, and scattered or collected their ashes, or very frequently left their dead to be devoured by the beasts of the field, or the fowls of the air. Abraham, on the contrary, Isaac, Jacob, the patriarch Joseph, and the Jewish people after them, as we read in the Scriptures, and in ancient histories, deposited their dead in the earth; as perhaps more suitable to the nature of the case, more decent, and more in consistency with the original sentence of God-" dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

Christian nations also have followed the same practice, and have besides, from a very early period of the Church, consecrated, or set apart, certain places in the immediate neighbourhood of their Churches, where they have been accustomed to inter the bodies of their deceased relatives, and friends. An awful, and affecting, and edifying practice, my brethren. In these spots are committed to the silent dust the bodies of generation after generation of the sons of men. Here the high and the low, the rich and the poor, lie down together in one common bed of their original dust, and await the final blast of that mighty Archangel that shall summon them all

once more to life eternal before the bar of the Infinite Judge of all flesh.

And as Christians have very properly retained the ancient and scriptural practice of burying their dead, so they have usually provided some religious mode of performing the ceremony. To inter the body of a Christian man, or of a Christian woman, bodies once the temples of the Holy Ghost, which will one day be reanimated to endless existence, without any religious observance whatever, would be treating the dead without any regard or respect. Accordingly, as I said, most Christian Churches have had a religious service for the Burial of the Dead; and that, in particular, contained in the Liturgy, I am desirous of making the subject of my present discourse.

Our Service for this solemn occasion proceeds on the supposition of its being used over the body of a Christian only, and therefore directs that it is not to be used for " any that die unbaptized, or excommunicated, or have laid violent hands upon themselves." As it is a Christian Service, it would of course be an absurdity to adopt it in the case of those who give us no reasonable grounds to believe them to be Christians. A second Rubric directs the Priest and clerks to go before the corpse either "into the church or towards the

grave," and to repeat three solemn and affecting sentences of Holy Scripture, which, as every one will see, are extremely applicable to the purpose.

The reason why the going either" into the Church, or towards the grave," appears to be left to the discretion of the Minister, is because the deceased person may have died of some infectious and pestilential disease; and it would not be right to expose a whole congregation to infection by carrying the Corpse always into the Church. It is provided therefore, in such a case, for the body to be immediately deposited in the earth; and thereby the Psalms and the Lesson appointed for the occasion appear to be neglected. This has, to my own knowledge, very frequently distressed the surviving friends, who very naturally wish their deceased brother to be interred in the same way that other Christians usually are.

Now that there should ever occur instances in which the parts of the Service in question, viz. the Psalms and Lesson, are omitted, must originate in a complete mistake and misunderstanding altogether. As far as I am able to understand from the ancient authorities and practices of the Church, it was always intended that in cases of pestilential or infectious disease, when it is considered desirable that the Corpse should not be brought into the Church, it should first be de

posited in the grave, at which the appointed sentences are to be read-that then the Congregation should repair to the Church, and the Psalms, Lesson, and other parts of the service should be read as usual. This appears to be perfectly reasonable; as far as I can judge, no one need object to it; no part of the service is thereby omitted; the danger of communicating an infectious disease is avoided; and, if you will look over the Service, I think you will find that it is quite as orderly and consistent used one way, as

the other.

After these few remarks then I would observe, 1. That the Office commences, as it ought to do, with the Gospel of mercy, in that affecting declaration of our Lord, "I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Glorious and comforting words, my brethren, for all the wretched and afflicted race of men, and more particularly when about to consign a beloved brother to the tomb! Sentences of a similar nature follow; and then either the 39th or the 90th Psalm, or both of them, are appointed to be read-being both most suitable to the occasion, and being prescribed because it has been the custom of Christians either to say or sing