THE MODERN CEMETERY^ 
Funeral Reform. 
Extracts from a paper read by Rev. G. P. Fulton before the 
Indiana Funeral Directors’ Association . 
In the last two decades there have been some 
important reforms in the appointments and the 
conduct of funerals. The old-time shroud has given 
place to the more appropriate burial suit; and the 
sensible casket has generally been substituted for 
the hideous coffin. The hour-and-a-half funeral 
sermon is a thing of the past; and the people are 
now dismissed from the open grave, so the sexton 
may do his work without the nervous anxiety occa- 
sioned by a hundred critical eyes watching every 
shovelful of earth which he handles. There ought 
to be entire absence of everything like stiffness in 
the undertaker and all who assist him. Everything 
should be done in a natural way. Men can con- 
duct themselves with that serious dignity befitting 
the solemn occasion without those mysterious looks 
and actions which seem to be expecting the corpse 
to rise up and speak, and which cause timid, nervous 
souls to lie awake for hours during the following 
night, dreaming of the funeral with its solemnities 
increased a hundred fold, and think more of the 
lifeless body in the grave than of the deathless spirit 
which has gone into the presence of its Maker. 
Why should every funeral service be conducted 
with a public parade around the casket? Can any 
one give a reason, founded either in respect for the 
dead or in common sense, for the custom of expos- 
ing the dead body for fifteen or twenty minutes to 
the critical gaze of the populace that is prompted 
by morbid curiosity? And the tired, sorrowing 
family must submit to the cruel ordeal, because 
from time immemorial it has been the custom. 
But, you say, the friends want to see? Then let 
them do so, but in a way to spare the family. Let 
it be understood that the face of the dead will be 
exposed for an hour, or longer if need be, and if 
possible in a room where the relatives will not be 
annoyed by those who come and go; there let kind 
friends come and say their silent farewell to the 
dead. Then when all the members of the fam’ily 
have taken their last leave of the loved body, close 
the casket, and let the religious services follow. 
After a short service, the character of which must 
be determined by the convictions of the minister 
officiating, the wishes of the family, and the circum- 
stances of the occasion, quietly bury the dead and 
leave the re-opening of the casket to the agent of 
Him who has said, “I am the resurrection and the 
life.” 
A Sunday funeral may be a necessity; but there 
are sufficient reasons why funerals should occur on 
Saturday, or be postponed until Monday if it can 
reasonably be done. 
The Sunday funeral that monopolizes the regular 
monthly, or semi-monthly, hour of worship in the 
rural district, is a great inconvenience to the pastor 
and a disappointment to the congregation. In the 
city the Sunday funerals have become a great bur- 
den upon the ministers. This is his hardest day. 
Body, brain and spirit are taxed to the utmost. A 
funeral on that day means, for him, an extra service 
in addition to the four or fiv(,‘ which he dare not 
neglect. 
Recently I conducted a funeral service on a 
Sunday when I was already booked for five ser- 
vices. After leaving the house, I said to a member 
of the family: “A large company this.” “Yes,” he 
answered, “that’s why we waited till Sunday. We 
wanted everybody to come.” 
Now, gentlemen, I am free to say to you that 
such a funeral is not only an unjust burden upon 
the minister, but a flagrant violation of the fourth 
commandment. 
A funeral service, from its beginning to its 
close, should never occupy more time than twenty 
to thirty minutes; and oftener, I think, ten to fifteen 
minutes would be better. Reading some portions 
of the scriptures, with some well chosen words of 
comment, or a very brief talk upon some appropri- 
ate text, and prayer, should be a sufficient funeral 
service. 
Sorrow, deep and pungent, often finds its best 
expression in verse; but the soul of poetry is one 
thing, and the music to which the words are set is 
quite another thing. Song is not the natural voice 
of grief, but of joy. Often the hymn selected is so 
untimely, or the music so inappropriate or badly 
rendered, that the singing misleads or jars upon the 
finer sensibilities of the sorrowing ones and results 
in more harm than good. An appropriate and 
favorite hymn would be more powerful to comfort 
if well read by the minister than it could be when 
indifferently sung by a hastily summoned choir. 
Would it not be well to discourage the custom of 
singing at funerals by encouraging the omission 
of it. 
The enormous cost of funerals, especially in the 
cities, may be greatly reduced by a reform that is 
within easy reach. The hire of carriages, while the 
men who furnish them may be reasonable in their 
charges, is often oppressive. Why should a poor 
man pay ten or twenty dollars, perhaps more, to 
convey a large number of people to the cemetery? 
Would it not be better to conclude the services with 
the benediction before the corpse is carried from 
the house, and only the family, accompanied by 
such friends as they have chosen for that purpose, 
follow it to the cemetery? If others wish to go 
along let them do so, but at their own expense. 
