The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-09
FUNERALs.

l
 ing yesterday there was some talk
 about funerals, and some interesting
 questions were asked. One of them
 was as to what should be done Qt the
 funeral of man of bad character.
 One minister wondered if 1t was entire
 ly appropriate for quartet to sing at such a funeral Asleep in the Arms of
 Jesus," and another thought it was if | the family wanted it done. We incline
 to the opinion of the latter Bad men
 die, and they must, as things go, have funerals. Ministers must attend them
 and be as generous as they can be. If called on to select what shall be sung
 they should not pick out Believing we rejoice to see the curse removed" or anything like that. They can select something that will be soothing and, if it doesn't exactly fit the case, the
 difference should be charged to that
 generosity which the living owe the
 dead, and which sometimes makes a
 queer but honest expression of itself.
 For instance, in those western funerals
 we read of where the deceased gets "a
 good send-off' regardless of cost or his
 character. Of course a New Haven
 minister wouldn't make himself ridic-
 ulous at the funeral of a. man of bad
 character, but he wouldn't and
 shouldn't hurt the feelings of the fami-
 ly and friends to point moral which
 perhaps ought to be pointed, but which
 cannot be decently pointed at a fune-
 ral. In his remarks he need not over
 do the matter, but he can find some
 thing good and comforting to say. If
 he can't do any better he may well inn itate that minister who couldn't consci- cautiously say much in favor of a dead man, but who did heartily commend him for the habit he had of getting up early in the morning.
 Another question asked was, Should ministers attend the funeral of a corpse that is to be cremated? The general opinion seemed to be that they should This opinion strikes Us as entirely sound. There have been objections to cremation on the ground that it is not a Christian practice, but those ob- jections have been very thoroughly and it is now seen that if cremation was a good thing for pagans it may reasonably be a good thing for Christians. It Is understood that the body can be as well resurrected after being burned as after being buried And it is seen that it is not unchris- tian to care for the health of the living by purifying by fire the bodies of the dead. There is steady and solid growth of sentiment in favor of crema- tion and many who share in that tainly no good reason can be given why proper respect should not be paid to remains" that are to be cremated and why Christian ministers should not conduct funeral services in such cases
 Another question which came up was, Should Christian minister attend the | funeral of man who commits sui | cide2 A minister who believes that all l men will be saved dealt with this ques- ton well by saying: 'T cannot see why minister should refuse to off1ciate l at any funeral. The presence of death | Itself should summon him without any reference to the character of the de- | Of course. Perhaps the | world doesn't owe any man living, but it does owe every man respectable funeral when he is dead. And if it's strain and stress have driven 8 weak pr unfortunate man to suicide the least and the most it can do is to say poor fellow and wish his soul better days than it had while, on earth. Espe- ,ialIy should the suicide have a respec- table and a sympathetic funeral. It may be morally worse to kill oneself suddenly by poison, knife, rope or pis- ,ol than it is to slowly kill oneself by ,verwork, overeating or any of the 5ther lowers" It is certainly more startling. But the man who kills him self quickly has as much right to a good funeral as the man who kills him. self by degrees.