Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1868-10-30
Flowers at Funerals.
BY HENRY W. BEEcHER.

"Oous'oiheu W sce HoWers employed Tree
ly at funerals, writes to us to say that he
had brought down upon himself severe
animadversion by following this beauti.
full custom, on recent funeral occasion,
and he asks us to explain some opinion
of the use of flowers at the burial of our
dead.
About fifteen years ago / was called
to officiate at the burial of sweet girl,
about sixteen years of age. Her pa
rents stood high in society, and she was
their only child. When l entered the
spacious parlors, and went to the coffin,
the face was so fair that it seemed to me
as if the world ON the other side was
shining through it. But she seemed
lonely. In her narrow chamber she lay,
in pure white, without a single flower
could not bear it, and without saying a
word to any one left the room. There
was, within block, garden and nur-
sery, whose proprietor we'll knew.
fairly ran to his greenhouse, and without
salutation cried out, Davidson, cut me
everything choice, that is white, that you
have got"
With my hands full of white roses,
tuberoses, orange-blossoms, sweet alys-
sum, &c, returned and entered the
parlor. The moment ! passed she door,
every one seemed moved by the same i'm
pulse. The father and mother rose up
in tears and came to the coffin. Friends
took them from me and began dressing
the coffin with them, and the mother,
with deep sigh, said, "Oh, this is Just
what we wanted. But we were too full
of sorrow to think of them"
Will any one tell me why those flow
ers ought not TO have been there? Can
any one refuse flowers to dying bodies of
those who are disciples of Him of whom
it is said, Now in the place where he
was crucified there was garden, and in
the garden new sepulchre.
There laid they Jesus"
For my own part, shall never cease
to be thankful that John Che only of all
the Evangelists,) mentioned that COM
forting fact
After the grim horror Of the arrest
night, the fierce cruelties Of the trial,
and the burden and anguish of the cru
cifixion, it is inexpressibly soothing to
follow the sacred form to the quietude of
garden and lay him down in a cool
rock chamber, around which flowers
hung. There, in the morning, flowers
dropping with the weight Of dew, leaned
their heads against the stone, not know
ing whose sepulchre they made beauti-
full, nor that the perfume which they ex-
hailed was nobler offering than all the
incense of the sanctuary There, in
garden, among green leaves, and fra
grant vines, and spicy blossoms, and
leaves murmuring in the gentle wind, he
rested, and waited for the auspicious day
when, lifting his head with renewed life,
hC ohouiu iiip up w uCW uOpc uuu suu>
lime destiny every man on earth
IF there were no other reason, it is
enough. that friends are comforted. What
mother but is glad to see her innocent
child, never SO dear and beautiful as in
death, lying amidst fragrant Aowers9--
Who that has true sentiment but feels
that something is taken away Of the
earthiness of death by the presence Of
flowers?
Must we forever regard death from
the heather standpoint? Shall we for
ever give way to grief without restraint
Shall we studiously endeavor to make
sadness yet sadder, and grief yet moro
anguishful? Shall we muffle ourselves
in black and funeral smelling Grape, and
sing doleful hymns, and weep out mourn
full prayers, and meanwhile refuse all
sense of victory, all hope of immortali-
ty, all knowledge that there is no death
to true soul, but only exaltation into
better life?
81 will not leave you comfortless,"
said the Saviour. Yet, ten thousand
Christians have SO gloomily borne their
bereavements that the young and men Of
the world look upon death as the one av-
full catastrophe of life. They have
dressed their houses in weeds, and left
the corse SO bold and bare, in the bodily
dishonor of death, that men have no rea-
son to believe that Christ walks with his
disciples in the valley and shadow Of
death, or that he plucks heavenly flow
ers and dresses Herewith the hearts Of
his followers, so that their griefs, like
his own suffering body, shall rest in .
garden.
The GREAT VICE OF Our AGE.-Dr.
Kirkbridge, Superintendent of the Penn
sylvania Insane Hospital, in his last re-