The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-04-21
THE PACIFIC
GommertialA0bertise
u APRIL 81

IN IL - 49,
RESPECT for the memory of the departed is a
solemn duty which the sentiment of their own
mortality should impose upon the living, if other
considerations of a higher and more noble char
acter did not concur to actuate US in bestowing a
suitable tribute on those who have gone before
US to the last home of humanity-the tomb.
The sublime religion of the Christ has alone had
power to remove from the solemn presence of
death those barbarous ideas which blind SUPER
stition crowded round the bier of the departed,
and the receptacles of their earthly dust. 1t
may truly be said that the Christian religion
first drew the line of demarcation in the inter
ments Of the dead between the superstitious bar
aritsIafIpa ganism, and the last respect due to
what was once the earthly tabernacle of a
human soul. The vain and empty pomp of
funeral ceremonies, amongst The pagan nations
of neutrality-suspicious., Greeks, and Romans,
had reached the climax of extravagance when the
Christ appeared in the midst of men, and one of
his miraculous actions, recorded in the gospel,
had reference to a mortuary ceremony on occa-
sion of the death of the daughter of a man of i'm
portance, when Jesus drove away the musicians
from the scene of death. The custom, amongst
pagan people, of interring with the dead objects
OF value, SUCH as LUG uFIHS uHu dIutOuE VI ut
parted warriors, the crown, the robes of state,
and often times the enormous treasures of royal
personages, seems to have given place in the
earliest times of Christianity to the simplest
covering for the %inanimate remains-a winding
sheet. In such a mortuary robe was the bleeding
body Of the Crucifed laid in the tomb of Geth-
semane. Even in Christian times and countries,
it unfortunately happens that the pride of the
living is disposed to introduce into the inter-
ments of the dead extravagances which the
due respect for the departed can not warrant.
Indeed, custom, go tyrannical IN its exigencies,
frequently forces upon society a ruinous system
of interment, owing to the mistaken notion of
the necessity of doing as others do. Of late
wears, in Great Britain, so much has this extra
Vagance in interments been felt to be, not merely
a mistake, but even q serious wrong to the
living, that q disposition now prevails, even
amongst the wealthiest classes, to inter the dead
in @ simple and unostentatious manner, without
pompous extravagance, and some or the highest
and wealthiest people of Great Britain have
Iatterly in their last will and testament re-
ouested their heirs to inter their remains I'M
ostentatiously. Grief for the departed may be
very poignant and sincere, without the necessity
of making an extravagant display of pomp in the
inteKment Of the inanimate remains. 1t is true,
in the case Of the death of exalted personages,
custom has heretofore peremptorily required a
funeral pomp and pagcantry in the ceremonies of
their interment which the Christian believer in
the Immortality Of the sonl is often times dis
posed to regard as an heirloom of pagan super
stition. At the present moment, when the
inanimate remains Of n Prince of the Royal
Family of this country are about to be consigned
to the canker-Worm Of the tomb, it can not be
out of place to remind the living that extrava-
gance in the interment Of the dead, so far from
being a tribute OF respect to their memory, is
rather an i~ndignity. Owing, perhaps, to the
comparatively recent Introduction of Christianity
into these Islands, it has been usual here to
expend extravagant sums in the interment of the
dead, amongst the high chiefs, according to the
traditional customs of pagan times. This in
Auence has pervaded all ranks and classes of
society, and it is felt that g too costly and ex-
trayaenpt system of funerals has become the
fashion With society here. As a check upon this
very foolish custom, quite irrelevant to due re-
spect for the depaEted-the funeral obsequies