mind. He teaches that faith and hope by which the bruised reed is bound, the broken heart healed; and as fragrance, which in its perfectness was unknown, emanates from a herb when it is crushed, so does sorrow develop virtues and consolations undreamt of in gay and happy hours.

Thus does the faithful mourner learn that sorrow, and pain, and suffering-those 'many waters' which threatened but did not overwhelm-passed, the purified and renewed spirit will emerge on that happier shore where sin and sorrow are unknown, where tears are wiped from every eye, and where the toilworn, griefworn, stricken but contrite denizen of earth, shall stand blessed, pure, and happy as a little child in presence of his Creator.

And so, chastened and subdued, and passing

Cheerly on

Through prayer unto the tomb,

the true mourner looks beyond that solemn vestibule to reunion with those deeply and enduringly loved on earth, who are not lost-but gone before.

Read Bishop Mant's beautiful exposition of this hope :

There is a void in torn affection's heart

That yearns to be supplied, on God's high will
Though it repose submissively. Yet still

Of those who bore of its regards a part,

The cherished forms it holds as in a chart
Depicted-hoping He will yet fulfil
Their restitution. Pardon it, if ill

Lurk in this hope.

Thou sayest the just

Great Father! true Thou art,
shall bliss in fulness prove;

And what Thou sayest, Thy goodness will provide.
But yet, meseems, the blissful souls above,
The sense of earth's sweet charities denied,
Would feel a yearning in those realms of love,
By patriarch hosts and angels unsupplied.

CHAPTER XIII.

FUNERAL DOLES FUNERAL TAPERS THE FIRST

N all

IN

FUNERAL AFTER THE REFORMATION.

and countries it seems to have been

ages usual to provide some specific feast or refreshment on the occasion of a funeral. Among the Jews it appears to have been doubly beneficent in its purpose, the neighbours and friends of the deceased providing these refreshments, so that there should be no trouble of preparation added to the burden of grief in the domestic dwelling of the mourner. 'Pour out thy bread,' says Tobit, 'on the burial of the just ;' and there are other references in Scripture which sufficiently indicate the prevalence of this custom among the Jews. It was by them beautifully termed the 'bread of consolation.'

Among the Greeks and Romans these funeral refreshments became sumptuous banquets; and at the funeral of Scipio all who followed were additionally refreshed with wine at the Capenian Gate. It was usual to place a portion of the banquet on the tomb for the behoof of the poor and starving, who afterwards carried it away; and this redeeming cir

cumstance is said to have reconciled the early fathers of the Church to the continuance of the mortuary feasts in Christian practice.

That it was customary to add more substantial alms to the food we learn from one in early Christian times, who wrote to his mother that the alms to be given on his death should be bestowed on those who had never seen the miseries of this world, and who had never lost those who were dear to them. The mother, as we may suppose, sought such objects in vain ; and eventually applied the lesson, as it was intended, to her own consolation.

From the first institution of Christianity, it was the custom to bestow food and other alms on the poor at a funeral. Saint Chrysostom says in one of his homilies, Would you honour the dead? Give alms.'

The early Christians were accustomed to observe several especial days of mourning with psalms, lessons, and prayers offered up at the grave of the dead man.

The third day, because on that our Saviour rose from the dead; the ninth day was often especially kept also. The fortieth, from the precedent of the Israelites mourning for Moses forty days; and finally the anniversary, called not his death but his birth day, because on that he entered a brighter and better world.

This festival was quite of a religious character,

generally at the tomb of the deceased. There was Divine Service; the Holy Sacrament was administered, and a collection of alms made for the poor. Then was a feast shared both by clergy and people, but more especially bestowed on the poor and needy, on the widow and orphan. The softening influence of grief was ever directed by the Church into the heartopening channels of charity and good will. In time the amount and quality of such DOLES came to be specifically described and appointed in the Will of a dying person.

Nothing with the taint of this earth upon it can

escape

desecration-abuse-however

pure and proper in origin and intention. It has ever been so. And in no circumstance perhaps has this desecration been more openly displayed than in the perversion of the original usage of Jewish 'bread of consolation,' where friends not only supplied the family with that material food, which in no circumstances can human nature quite disregard, but which is often so painful 'to see about,' but also provided requisite refreshment for those who often with toil and inconvenience assembled to the burial.

That this requisite refreshment degenerated into superb festivals among the Greeks and Romans, we can hardly wonder; but it is very sad to read of and see such in our own Christian world.

Y