XXIX. FUNERAL REFORM. THERE has recently been formed in this city a "Burial Reform Association," the principal aims of which are to secure simple funeral services, to promote inexpensive funerals, to discourage excessive display of flowers, the wearing of crape, especially of crape veils, which if worn over the head not only disguise the wearer, but put the eyes to a severe strain to look through its black meshes, and if worn thrown back pull so upon the hair that it is not uncommon for the wearer to suffer severely. Dark colors, even black, may be appropriately worn, but crape calls attention to the person in mourning, and you can almost detect for whom the mourning is, and often the length of time it has been going on-all of which is a satire on real grief, which mourns in secret. Paul's glad victory over death and the grave is muffled by the raven feathers of funereal plumes. The waving crape upon the door knob; the darkened windows; the body shrouded and coffined in the color of gloom; women and children veiled and draped in dispiriting black; men's hats banded with crape -what hopelessness all these things express! They symbolize doubt, despair, agony and gloom. They express no Christian comfort, breathe no heavenly consolation, suggest no immortal hope, inspire no sure confidence. I have seen the ultra-fashionable cover their pet dogs with crape, and crape-mounted horses, coachmen and footmen are used to further emphasize these negations of Christian truth. We have "full mourning," "mourning jewelry," "mourning visiting-cards," "mourning stationery," which by its gradual narrowing indicates that the days of mourning are approaching their end; but the ghastly humor of our mourning customs reaches its climax in "second mourning," followed by the full bloom of gorgeous colors, for the time appointed by the inexorable decree of fashionable society has passed, and now mourning may be laid aside with funereal garments. If you depreciate these practices, when death occurs in your family have the courage to do away with what good sense declares objectionable features. Dare to defy silly social customs. Take the matter of flowers. In many households there is a display offensive to refined taste, and among the poor the display is frequently sinful in its profusion; they put their last dollar into flowers. Funerals are nowadays so expensive that it costs more to die. than to live. I have known men who died solvent but became insolvent before they got under the ground. Our undertakers are frequently swindled. It is not only false reverence and mistaken affection, but downright dishonesty, if a man's family or friends indulge expenditures that cannot be met. Take the matter of funeral addresses. Generally the less good a man has done the more good the preacher is expected to say of him, and the preachers often discharge their duty in this particular in such a way as to bring their profession into ridicule. To hold the funerals of haters of churches `in the church is trying to do for their bodies what they would never do for their souls. It seems like taking a mean advantage of a man after he is dead, to take him by force where he could not be persuaded to go when he was alive. The most sacred place in which to hold the funeral service is the quiet home. Sunday funerals are rarely necessary; they nearly always assume a magnitude that amounts to Sabbath desecration. The Lord's day is for rest and divine worship, and not for great funeral pageants. XXX.. DANCING. DANCING in proper forms is healthy; it improves the bearing of our youth, tends to relieve their natural awkwardness in society, and is innocent. An amiable clergyman happened to be present one evening when some young ladies went through a quadrille. He looked on with great pleasure. The next morning he was called to account by some of his busy neighbors for having, by his presence, countenanced dancing. He emphatically denied the charge, and asserted that no dancing had taken place, but only, as he expressed it, "a most beautiful exercise." If stepping to music is innocent, I cannot see how skipping to music can be converted into sin. For one I am glad that nearly all the Christian families of the highest standing in all of our churches have asserted their right to act out their own convictions in this matter, and have shown that this much berated amusement can be elevated and refined. I am not a preacher of gloom, but of moderation. Harmless things may become sinful by excess. Dancing frequently leads to the sacrifice of health. The physical education of women is at the best too much disregarded in this country. Woman's dress is arranged with regard to looks rather than health. How small is the number of healthy women in the higher classes of society! How pale and languid are the young women when winter is over! Many of them look as if they had just recovered from a long illness. The objections I have to the dance are found in the excessive exercise in a heated and overcrowded room, in the late hours, insufficient apparel, in extravagance and gormandish indulgence at the supper-table. Remove or moderate these things, bring this amusement within the bounds of reason, and no sensible man will find fault. Instead of imitating the foolish customs of European society, let good sense-for the sake of novelty, if for nothing else—become fashionable. The dance takes too great a place and occupies too much time in modern society; it effectually stops intellectual improvement, and crowds out intelligent conversation. Conversation is one of the lost arts. Good talkers are almost extinct creatures. Many people's talk is merely an exercise of the tongue. No other human |