Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-01-05
&eaaina TIT the $abbath.
CONDUCTED BY
REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
(Orlginal ]
FUNERALS.

From time memorial 1t has been custom
ary to perform certain ceremonies in connec-
ton with the burial of the dead. These are
appropriately named burial or funeral SER
vices. In the Scriptures no form of burial
services is laid down. During the patriarch
al age the dead were generally, if not always,
when circumstances would permit it, deposit.
ed in caves. Abraham buried or deposited
Sarah in cave, and in the same cave was
buried Abraham himself, Isaac, his son, Re-
bekah, Leah and Jacob. The bones of 10.
seph, probably, were also buried in the same
cave Jacob, however, buried Rachel at
Bethlehem, and Deborah, Rebekah's nurse,
"was buried beneath Bethel, under an oak" I"
Upon the grave of Rachel Jacob set up pill.
lar.
The cave Of Machpelah was bought by
Abraham, that he might possess, in bis own
name, a place in which he might bury his
dead out of his sight How many lifeless
bodies we're deposited in that burial ground
we are unable to tell. Probably vast mu).
ttude. This lisa reasonable supposition when
we remember that every Jew desired to be
buried with his fathers. Except among say.
ages of the lowest order and those in whom
all the instincts of humanity are annihilated,
all men desire that their lifeless remains may
sleep in the embrace of the dust of their de-
parted ancestors. The funeral services of the
Jews, before "they mingled with the heather
and learned Of them their way" was exceed.
ingly simple. The eyes of the dead we're
closed by some one of the near kin. This
was regarded as peculiar privilege. Hence
among the encouragements which God gave
Jacob to 60 down into Egypt, he promised
that "Joseph shall put his hand upon thine
eyes, The simple meaning is, "Joseph shall
be permitted to close the eyes of your lifeless
body" No doubt this was regarded both by
Joseph and Jacob as a remarkable providence
and Distinguishing honor.
After the eyes we're closed the body was
then washed, dressed in burial clothes and
laid out in an upper chamber. Between the
completion Of these simple ceremonies and
the depositing of the corpse "out Of sigh" "
only a short time intervened-a few days at
farthest
From the Egyptians the Jews learned to
practice number of heather rites and
foolish, if not wicked ceremonies, in connec.
ton with the burial Of their dead. The body
of Jacob was embalmed and mourning of
seventy days was observed. By the ancient
Jews. as it is yet by all civilized nations, to
be deprived of burial was regarded as a
dreadful calamity. One Of the judgments
which God declared he would send upon Je.
hoakim, King of Judah, was that he should
not be lamented, but should be buried with
the burial of an ass. To mind not devoid
of all the better feelings of humanity, there
is something shocking in this. Letus picture
to ourselves community dragging the lifeless
corpse of fellow.being away from its former
abode, and leaving it in some out.of-the.way
place, to be devoured by birds and beasts.
We are horri6ed. We are shocked, and hu.
manity prompts us to beg, as last request,
that we be buried with our fathers.
Among some of the heathens dead bodies
were burned. Some in our day are anxious
that cremation, as it is called, be adopted by
Christian nations. Between this mode of dis
posing of the dead and that of dragging the
dead body out into N old field or thicket as
men drag out the carcass of dead mule there
is no difference.
Funeral services and funeral ceremonies
should be simple. Funeral sermons, like the
inscriptions upon tomb.stones, are of question
able propriety. A large number of the most
precious promises contained in the Scri ptures
may be found inscribed on the marble slabs
which mark the spot where the lifeless bodies
of the past generations of men mouldered in
to dust Why is that ? For whose benefit
we're these quotations from the Bible made ?
Surely not for the benefit of the dead. At
death God ceases both to promise blessings
and threaten judgments. Then the righteous
are forever saved and the wicked forever lost.
To the former faith is merged into fruition,
and to the latter hope has forever expired.
Hence it is useless, to say no more, to inscribe
Scripture promises on tombstones. They do
not, in many instances, indicate the affection
of the living for the dead. What has been
said of tombstone inscriptions may be repeat.
ed as applicable to funeral sermons. 1t is
certainly pleasant to weeping friends to hear
the virtues of their dead lauded and extolled,
but to those who can see things as they are,
such laudations are often in miserably bad
taste. Such funeral sermons rarely do any
good and should be avoided.
One of the dangerous tendencies of funeral
services is that they beget and foster the un.
scriptural notion that in some way or other
these services affect the eternal destiny Of
the dead. A demonstration of this tendency
is furnished by the fact that there are not
few persons who live in avowed neglect of
all Christian duties, yet these same persons
desire funeral sermon preached over the
dead bodies of their friends. These persons
seem to say, Call that is necessary in order to
be saved in heaven, is to have funeral SER