140 FUNERAL FLOWERS. 



less it is good to be sometimes reminded of 

 Death, and the Grave ; not to fill them with 

 gloomy thoughts and forebodings, but to lead 

 them to the contemplation of higher and more 

 lasting enjoyments than this life affords. A 

 memento mori is not necessarily sad and for- 

 bidding, nor is the dirge-note always a fearful 

 sound, for to the mind rightly trained and con- 

 stituted, they speak of a blissful hereafter, and 

 a glorified existence, for which this is but a 

 state of preparation. Knowing and feeling this, 

 we may stand in the church-yard without awe 

 or dread, and looking through Death's open 

 portals, into the regions of everlasting happiness 

 beyond, exclaim : 



"The first tabernacle to HOPE we will build, 



And look for the sleepers around us to rise; 

 The second to FAITH, which ensures it fulfilled; 



And the third to the LAMB of the great SACRIFICE, 

 Who bequeathed us them both when He rose to the skies." 

 HERBERT KXOWLES. 



Let us ever remember, with EPHOX, that 

 " the flower sheds the same fragrance if it 

 blooms in Eden or on a grave, and the same 



