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Untitled Article
minations being interred in the same spot . In towns , Dissenters are compelled either to appropriate a ground to the exclusive use of the members of their own body , or to bury their dead near churches . The latter alternative is disagreeable to them ; for however enlarged their views may be , the spot which they would choose for the final abode of their friends would Certainly not be close under the walls of a place of worship which they
never entered , and among those only in whose rites of homage they had never joined . Those who have a place of burial of their own , however sensible they may be , and ought to be , of their privilege , may yet lament that the exclusiveness to which they were compelled , by conscience , during life , should be continued after death . Though to the dead it matters not where , or among whom , they are laid , to their survivors it is as instructive as it is pleasing , to behold those who were separated in life , in death taking
their rest together , and all at length united in the same deep repose . It is sweet to look on their present involuntary union as an earnest of one more complete ; to hope that as they have been brought from far and near , one by one , into this wide fojd , to spend the long night in peace , they will , when the morning shall rise , with one heart and voice desire to part no more . If this union be attained , it can be only by burying the dead in ground unconnected with places of worship ; if in ground apart from places of worship , there can be no question that the country is preferable to the crowded city .
The grand difficulty which has hitherto been found in the establishment of such cemeteries as we have described , is , that no one will begin . The dread of novelty , the fear of failing in the observance due to the dead , deters tjie survivors from depositing the remains of a friend in solitude ; from depriving him of that companionship in death to which the heart clings with a superstitious affection . Such tenderness and such fear are natural , though they may be weak ; and we cannot wonder at this reluctance , however * strongly our reason may declare it to be unfounded . But may we not
consider it an honour to our departed friend , that he is the first to dedicate a new spot to holy thoughts and pious feelings ; the means by which a hew charm is spread over a scene which is now first distinguished from other scenes of equal beauty ; that at his call the angel of death first descends to lake up his abode and shed a peculiar calm within the sacred enclosure ? The holy influences which guard the place enter with the first funeral train ; they depart not with the mourners , but abide to watch awhile the solitary tomb , and then to welcome each new-comer to his Ions : home . To their
protection we may commend our treasure ; and if we are tempted to linger near the new-made grave , and dread to depart , let us remember that there may be a better guardianship than that of our scruples and "fears . If any object that our consolation is unfounded and superstitious , let him ask himself whether the reluctance we combat be not unfounded and superstitious also .
It is difficult to imagine any real objections to a plan which has already been tried , and met with entire success . Any rites of consecration which the scruples of some may require , any precautions against violation , which all are anxious to prevent , can be practised with as * little difficulty in 0 n 6 place as in another . * Reason and feeling both point out the neighbourhood * It can scarcely be supposed that Dissenters are very anxious to have their new feprial-grounds consecrated , when , for that ptupose , they are obliged to deliver < JVer
Untitled Article
232 . On Country Burial-Grounds .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 232, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/16/
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