NOVELTIES FOR SERMONS.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1786, 23 September 1874, Page 3

NOVELTIES FOR SERMONS.

•*" n Sunday, the,sth July, the ; sermon nt the We tminster Abbey special service was preached by the Bishop of Lincoln, Di\ W ordsworth,-from-the 12th verses of the 26th chapter of St. Matthew—" She did it for my burial." After referring with sorao minuteness to the affectionate and reverential care with which, tfye burial of the dlad was cared for, as shown in |he Scriptures, from the days of the patriarchs down- to the burial pf ; Christ, his lordship denounced in indignant terms the attempt which was now being made to introduce the customof burning the dead.He could not conceive anything more barbarous and unnatural, and one of thevery first fruits of its adoption would be to undermine the faith of mankind in the: doctrine of the resurrection of the body, and so bring about a most disastrous social revolution, the "end of which it was not easy to foretell. . More than 1400 years had passed away:since the flames of funeral piles, which blazed in all parts of the lioinan Empire, had been extinguished, and nqw in the nineteenth century after Christ, it was proposed to rekindle those funeral piles in the metropolis and all the great Cities of Europe and Christendom. It was true the custom prevailed among the Pagans of old, but in times, of war it was done so that the bodies of their freinds should not be exposed to outrage by being buried among strangers and foes, such outrage being'very prevalent in those days. But this barbarous custom of burning the dead disappeared altogether , under the silent influence of Christianity in the early part of the fifth century, and burial of the body became universal. One eminent physical philosopher of our time had come forward with an appeal to Government to make the burning of■bodies after death compulsory by the law, and another eminent man had asserted that burning the body was -making triumphant progress throughout the civilised world, and on grounds of public health, and in the interests of the nation, we should be compelled to accept the custom not only as expedient; but as necessary. These men defended their theory by reference to the supposed injury which was inflicted on the living by the noxious and deadly gases and vapours emitted from the dead body during the process ofVcorruption} but they overlooked the fact that all these gases were absorbed by the trees and shrubs, which were and ought to be planted in our cemeteries and graveyards. He defended the practice of the burial of pur great departed in such noble buildings as the venerable abbey of Westminster and St. Paul's Cathedral as being productive of the greatest public good by consecrating -national virtue, genius, knowledge, art, and skill, and by cherishing in the minds of the living an heroic spirit of enlightened patriotism, just as was the case with the burial of the illustrious dead who were laid in olden days in those magnificent tombs in the Campus Martius and along the banks of the Tiber at Eome. In all civilised ages burning the dead had been regarded with horror- as an;act of barbarism^ and' he could not contemplate its introduction here without a feeling of very grave apprehension. Another ground on which the custom of burning was defended, and on which great stress had been laid, was that of economy. He freely admitted that the enormous cost of funerals in great cities was a subject deserving of attention, and that something ought to be done to reduce it. The annual cost of funerals was estimated at a million of money ; but he would ask if that fact was sufficient to. justify the startling proposal which had been made, in the interest of national economy, to.utilise; the ashes of the dead after burnirigthem; by scattering thenu over the land as a fertilising agent. There was no conceivable ground on which the, custom could be d^fendedi The persecutor* of the martyrs in the second century burnt their bodies and cast the ashes into the Tiber, but this they did to refute the doctrine of Resurrection and to prevent it from spreading through the world. The extinction 1 of that great doctrine would be fraught with the most ruinous consequences.' As it was, we could not close our eyes io the widespread licentiousness and immorality which prevailed in all the great capitals of the world, against which philanthropists were contending aimoss in vain—a state of things ; which Would be confirmed and increased by the introduction of a custom from .which men's better natures shrunki-f-Home News.