New Britain herald., 1919-12-11
ANCIENT BURIAL CUSTOMS DISCUSSED
MT. James Shepard Complies h. tereStin6 Information on Subject
( BN Jam eS Shepard )

The only point of the compass which has any religious significance to Christians is the East We turn to- ward the East in life and in death for the life which is to come. Because we believe in the resurrection of the body: and the life everlasting," we turn the face of those who sleep in death to the East whence the Sun of Righteousness shall "come: to be our judge"
 'WhN should 1t seem a thing inpOs-
 sible, Q man of many doubts, That God shall wake the dead and give
 this m Ortal imm ortality?''
 That the early Christians from the beginning used only burial seems cer- tain,' says the Church Cyclopedia The honora ble burial of our Lord S body by Joseph of -Arimathea was the pattern upon which the Christian based his care of the dead. * |" Two chief things should be made promi- nent, the faith in the future resurrec- ton, and the loving care which for Christs sake we shall show the dead"
 The word cemetery originally meant "a sleeping place. This name was used by Christians to denote the place of burial. It was a new and beautiful use Of a word that Christianity intro duced. It was in use before the year 222 A. b. " The word has long. since lost it's old sense and now means simply a burial place. Tn carly liter aturo it was used exclusive of the burial places of Jews and Christians
 According to the E.ncvclopedia Brittanica, The dead all over the world and from remote antiquity have Ia in ,,t1, and face toward the region in which their future will be spent: the Sa- moans and Fijians toward the far west Whither their souls have preceded them: the GuaraNos with head turned EastWard' because their "happy hunt ing grounds where the dead will meet again. lay in that quarter. In the Scandinavian barroWs skeletons have been found in a sitting posture, fac ing the opening which always looks south or east, never north.'
 The custom of the North American Indians as to the direction in which the dead were laid, differed according to the direction in which their happy hunting grounds lay. The SacS and Foxes always laid their head toward the East. thus facing tn" West. whither they will travel. Concerning
 
 port of the bureau of cthnOlOgN 1879, states that 'After the corpse was low cred into the grave some brave ad- dressed the daed. instructinS him to walk directly westward. that he would soon discover mCcCaSin tracks, which he must follow until he came to a great river, which is the river of :, death When there, he would find a pole across the river. which if he had been honest. upright and good would be straight and upon which he could easily cross 1o the other side. But if his life had been one of Wirkedness and sin. the pole would be very crook ed and in the attempt to cross upon it he would be precipitated into the tur bulent stream and lost forever"
 According to the Jewish Cyclopedia. the custom as to the direction in which the head was placed differed, some preferred it turned toward the East, others toward the West or South oth- CTS again toward the exit of the ceme- terv." such loving care was taken of their dead that the saNlhs became cur