Litchfield enquirer., 1851-09-18
For the Enquirer. The Village Funeral.


 from similar event in the city! There man goes to his iong hcme." and how few of all the busy multitude, save the near relatives and friends of the deceas. ed, note the event: how few lay it to heart that a soul has passed from Time into Eternity. "The mourners go about the streets, and how few mark the weary eyes and wan palled face, pale with night watchings. and days of anxious care; by how few is extended that heart>sympa- thy which takes away half the weight of woe. Its passing bell tells them that with thinking, sentient being, full of all the cares, and interests, and hopes that absorb their minds, lifs's conflict is at an end, and so the mirth and revelry goes on, and the lesson is unheeded. Mark similar occurrence in the country. There, when one whom we have met in the daily walks of life is prostrated by sickness, what sympathy is felt; what anxious in quiries as to the chances of recovery, sympathy that touches the electric chord wherewith we're darkly bound" bringing into activity holy and tender thoughts and feelings of whose exist ence perchance we may not have been aware. And there, when Death, the great destroyer comes, and snatches a. way the loved one, all with one accord go to the house of mourning, to join in the last solemn rites ere the body is con- signed to dust.
 These reflections were suggested after following 70 the grave the past week youth, pleasant and beloved, who was cut off in the morning of life. like a branch torn from the parent tree by untimely winds. And now as we revert to it, how wildly is the scene brought to mind. In imagination we go again to the house of death. What a solemn stiffness reigns around nought is heard save the half suppressed weeping of the mourners, or the voice of the pastor raised in earnest prayer, or eloquent speech, making ap. plicalion to the living the warning con> veyed by death.
 Death is here in spirit, watcher of marble That eye ir fixed, that heart is still, how dread-
 ful IS the stiffness,
 Death. new tenant of the house. pervadeth all Death, rigid lord. hath claimed the heir of clay, While joyously the youthful soul hath gone to
 take his heritage" F
 And now with a harsh grating sound, the coffin lid is closed. and tho loved face is shut out forev ,r from the view of sor~
 ssfd as the cohn" d is borne ,rnea out 1 and the procession slowly wends it's way to the |. last resting place appointed for all living. Reader, have you ever thought what lovely place is our burying ground? Not to be compared doubt. less with Greenwood or Auburn, but sucl apleasant sunny spot, that one feels whle within its hallowed precincts that they would not ask a better place where. ] in ' rest. when life's pilgrimage is at an | end1 All. around. far as the eye can reao'. what lovely prospect groves of no6e trees-great old fir trees that liave stod firm in their might and mai ,sty, whP generation after generation have passed away. and have been carried with. In fe portals of that burial place, around wlrh they have stood sentinel for 60 may years-and joining ttcse waving iels of grain. their light green hues ! coirasting beautifully with the darker ! shtes around, and pleasant cottages ne4ing down amid perfect wilderness l of liage. So t looked on tAis day, so brlht, so sunny, so peaceful. that we haalmost forgotten while enjoying the befties Of the scene, the sad duty that hacalled us hither. But see. tie pro- cespn enters the gate, slowly, mourn fuIl; and now turn we our eyes from the|ovely scene to the narrow resting pia( marked out for the cherished and beled one. who there will soon be laid q in tt " last dreamless sleep that knows S no aking," till the last trump shali il sou and the dead shall rise from these graP B. Now the coffin is lowered. and I maithe sob of anguish that break from acllk hearts. as the first earth is thrown a upd the coffin with deep and hollow h sou which seems to rend the hearts S of hds. who realize now that it is in. t deef' dust unto dust." thought that 0 is ahe alleviated by the assurance that ii 'thPirit has gone 70 God who gave it." ii Ay lay it to heart ye living even as a we laying this beloved youth in the ft 'old'ent tomb l; so in few years shall o we ss away. and the places that now h mo Jus shall know us no more forever; " orfWing friends ~ill weep over our v, rafs. for death has passed upon all-- O, efh--great and mysterious charge th eah. "that stern and silent usher, lead, 10 the judgmentfo for Eternity. after the sl scene oI Tims."
 ow inIl of dread. how full oi hope. Ioometh io inevitable death.
 dread i"T all have sinned. of hope for one SCI
 hath saved;
 dread 's drowned in joy, the hope is Rllsd " "
 with immortality" am