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their barrenness, or a shrub to spread a grateful shade 

 over the new-made hillock. 



These things were not always so among christians. 

 They are not worthy of us. They are not worthy of 

 Christianity in our day. There is much in these 

 things, that casts a just reproach upon us in the past. 

 There is much, that demands for the future a more 

 spiritual discharge of our duties. 



Our Cemeteries rightly selected, and properly ar- 

 ranged, may be made subservient to some of the high- 

 est purposes of religion and human duty. They may 

 preach lessons, to which none may refuse to listen, 

 and which all, that live, must hear. Truths may 

 be there felt and taught in the silence of our own 

 meditations, more persuasive, and more enduring, 

 than ever flowed from human lips. The grave 

 hath a voice of eloquence, nay, of superhuman 

 eloquence, which speaks at once to the thoughtless- 

 ness of the rash, and the devotion of the good ; which 

 addresses all times, and all ages, and all sexes ; which 

 tells of wisdom to the wise, and of comfort to the 

 afflicted ; which warns us of our follies and our 

 dangers ; which whispers to us in accents of peace, 

 and alarms us in tones of terror ; which steals with 

 a healing balm into the stricken heart, and lifts up 

 and supports the broken spirit ; which awakens a 

 new enthusiasm for virtue, and disciplines us for its 

 severer trials and duties ; which calls up the images 

 of the illustrious dead, with an animating presence for 

 our example and glory ; and which demands of us, as 

 men, as patriots, as christians, as immortals, that the 



