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mtltir tamtmits.
A BURIAL SERVICE.
BY AUSTIN HOLYOAKE.
�I
�A BURIAL SERVICE.
The following is designed as one of the services for the little
Manual of Secular Ceremonies. Having lost the nearest and
dearest relatives a man can know—having passed, I may say,
through a baptism of bereavement, I know but too well the
agony of the grave side. I have endeavoured—but very
inadequately, I am sure—to produce a short service which
shall afford consolation and reconcilement to the sorrowing,
from a Secular point of view. The service as it now stands
is suitable to be said over the grave of an adult male; it
may, with slight effort, by altering the gender, be made
suitable for a female also. It is almost impossible to write
that which would be applicable to all persons of all ages. It
■can always be sufficiently individualised by some friend of
the deceased introducing a few remarks of a personal nature.
We this day consign to the earth the body of
our departed friend ; for him life’s fitful dream
is over, with its toils, and sufferings, and dis
appointments. He derived his being from the
bountiful mother of all ; he returns to her capa
cious bosom, to again mingle with the elements.
He basked in life’s sunshine for his allotted time,
and has passed into the shadow of death, where
sorrow and pain are unknown. Nobly he per-
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A Burial Service.
formed life’s duties on the stage of earth; the
impenetrable curtain of futurity has fallen, and
we see him no more. But he leaves to his
sorrowing relatives and friends a legacy in the
remembrance of his virtues, his services, his
honour, and truth. He fought the good fight
of Free Inquiry, and triumphed over prejudice
and the results of misdirected education. His
voyage through life was not always on tranquil
seas, but his strong judgment steered him clear
of the rocks and quicksands of ignorance, and
for years he rested placidly in the haven of selfknowledge. He had long been free from the
fears and misgivings of superstitious belief. He
worked out for himself the problem of life, and
no man was the keeper of his conscience. His
religion was of this world—the service of human
ity his highest aspiration. He recognised no
authority but that of Nature ; adopted no
methods but those of science and philosophy ;
and respected in practice no rule but that of
conscience, illustrated by the common sense of
mankind. He valued the lessons of the past,
but disowned tradition as a ground of belief,
whether miracles and supernaturalism be claimed
or not claimed on its side. No sacred Scripture
or ancient Church formed the basis of his faith.
By his example, he vindicated the right to think
and to act upon conscientious conviction. By a
career so noble, who shall say that his domestic
affections were impaired, or that his love for those
near and dear to him was weakened ? On the
contrary, his independent method of thought
�A Burial Service.
5
tended to develop those sentiments which have
their source in human nature—which impel and
ennoble all morality—which are grounded upon
intelligent personal conviction, and which mani
fest themselves in worthy and. heroic actions,
especially in the promotion of Truth, Justice,
and Love. For worship of the unknown, he sub
stituted Duty; for prayer, Work; and the record
of his life bears testimony to his purity of heart;
and the bereaved ones know but too well the
treasure that is lost to them for ever. If perfect
reliance upon any particular belief in the hour
of death were any proof of its truth, then in the
death of our friend the principles of Secularism
would be triumphantly established. His belief
sustained him in health ; during his illness, with
the certainty of death before him at no distant
period, it afforded him consolation and en
couragement ; and in the last solemn moments
of his life, when he was gazing as it were into
his own grave, it procured him the most perfect
tranquillity of mind. There were no misgivings,
no doubts, no tremblings lest he should have
missed the right path; but he went undaunted
into the land of the great departed, into the
silent land. It may be truly said of him, that
nothing in life became him more than the manner
of his leaving it. Death has no terrors for the
enlightened; it may bring regrets at the thought
of leaving those we hold dearest on earth, but
the consciousness of a well-spent life is allsufficient in the last sad hour of humanity. Death
is but the shadow of a shade, and there is noth-
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A Buriat Service.
ing in the name that should blanch the cheek
or inspire the timid with fear. In its presence,
pain and care give place to rest and peace. The
sorrow-laden and the forlorn, the unfortunate
and the despairing, find repose in the tomb—all
the woes and ills of life are swallowed up in
death. The atoms of this earth once were living
man, and in dying, we do but return to our
kindred who have existed through myriads of
generations.
[Here introduce any personal matters relating to the
deceased.]
Now our departed brother has been removed,
death, like a mirror, shows us his true reflex.
We see his character undistorted by the pas
sions, the prejudices, and the infirmities of life.
And how poor seem all the petty ambitions
which are wont to sway mankind, and how
small the advantages of revenge. Death is so
genuine a fact, that it excludes falsehood, or
betrays its emptiness; it is a touchstone that
proves the gold, and dishonours the baser metal.
Our friend has entered upon that eternal rest,
that happy ease, which is the heritage of all.
The sorrow and grief of those who remain,
alone mar the thought that the tranquil sleep
of death has succeeded that fever of the brain
called living. Death comes as the soothing
anodyne to all our woes and struggles, and we
inherit the earth as a reward for the toils of life.
The pain of parting is poignant, and cannot for
�A Burial Service.
7
a time be subdued; but regrets are vain. Every
form that lives must die, for the penalty of life
is death. No power can break the stern decree
that all on earth must part; though the chain
be weaved by affection or kindred, the beloved
ones who weep for us will only for a while re
main. There is not a flower that scents the
mountain or the plain, there is not a rose-bud
that opes its perfumed lips to the morning sun,
but, ere evening comes, may perish. Man
springs up like the tree: at first the tender plant,
he puts forth buds of promise, then blossoms for
a time, and gradually decays and passes away.
His hopes, like the countless leaves of the forest,
may wither and be blown about by the adverse
winds of fate, but his efforts, springing from
the fruitful soil of wise endeavour, will fructify
the earth, from which will rise a blooming
harvest of happy results to mankind. In the
solemn presence of death—solemn, because a
mystery which no living being has penetrated—
on the brink of that bourne from whence no
traveller returns, our obvious duty is to emu
late the good deeds of the departed, and to
resolve so to shape our course through life, that
when our hour comes we can say, that though
our temptations were great—though our educa
tion was defective—though our toils and priva
tions were sore—we never wilfully did a bad
act, never deliberately injured our fellow-man.
The reward of a useful and virtuous life is the
conviction that our memory will be cherished
by those who come after us, as we revere the
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A Burial Service.
memories of the great and good who have gone
before. This is the only immortality of which
we know—the immortality of the great ones of
the world, who have benefitted their age and
race by their noble deeds, their brilliant thoughts,
their burning words. Their example is ever
with us, and their influence hovers round the
haunts of men, and stimulates to the highest
and happiest daring Man has a heaven too,
but not that dreamed of by some—far, far away,
beyond the clouds ; but here on earth, created by
the fireside, and built up of the love and respect
of kindred and friends, and within the reach of
tlie humblest who work for the good of others
and the perfectibility of humanity. As we drop
the tear of sympathy at the grave now about
to close over the once loved form, may the
earth lie lightly on him, may the flowers bloom
o’er his head, and may the winds sigh softly as
they herald the coming night. Peace and re
spect be with his memory. Farewell, a long
farewell!
LONDON":
AUSTIN & Co., 17, JOHNSON’S COUBT, FLEET STBEET, E.C.
PEICE ONE PENNY.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Secular ceremonies. A burial service.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Holyoake, Austin [1826-1874]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 8 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Inscription in ink on the title page: "M.D. Conway for P. Truelove Dec 2/74". From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by Austin & Co., Fleet Street, London. Tentative date of publication from KVK.
Publisher
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[Austin & Co]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1869?]
Identifier
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CT19
Subject
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Death
Secularism
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Secular ceremonies. A burial service.), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Burial
Ceremonies
Conway Tracts
Funerals
Secularism