MAY. 7i) 



eaten by the Eomans and Greeks \\itli lettuce, 

 and "were used," says Baxter, "to decorate 

 the graves of our ancestors." " So indispen- 

 sable," adds this writer, " Avere they deemed 

 to each domicile of the li'V'iug, that as a matter 

 of ill omen, the poet exclaims : — 



' Alas when rnailows in the garden die ! ' " 



This planting the grave with flowers Avas al- 

 luded 'to not only by profone writers, but may 

 also be inferred from the Scripture. Job spoke 

 of the clods of the valley Avhich should be 

 sweet about him. This beautiful practice, of 

 high antiquity, is supposed to have originated 

 in the belief of the" resurrection of the body, 

 a doctrine, which, if not so plainly taught in 

 the Old as in the New Testament, yet is in 

 various passages plainly indicated in the former 

 part of the vokmie. " Thy dead men shall live, 

 together with my dead body shall they arise. 

 Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy 

 dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall 

 cast out her dead."* This Avas the promise 

 uttered by the evangelical Isaiah ; and the Eev. 

 Samuel Burder thinks that the custom of 

 decking the grave with flowers, was likely to 

 have its origin from this passage ; or, if prac- 

 tised earlier, suggests that this custom might 

 have been present to the mind of the projjhet, 

 when, directed by the Holy Spirit, he thus 

 taught the consoling doctrine, that in the flesh 

 we shall see God. 



• Isa. xxvi. ly. 



