PARK AND CEMETERY. 
219 
SUNDAY FUNERALS.* 
The Law of the Sabbath we will not undertake to 
discuss ; we are not Puritans or narrow. We have come 
to believe rhat it is just, that it is “lawful to do good on 
the Sabbath day,” that necessity erases all edicts, and 
is the supreme law of the individual and of society ; and 
if the Sunday funeral was a necessity (and it possibly 
may be in some cases), we will concede how very fitt ng 
it would be, under the hw of necessity, to accommodate 
the survivors, in assisting in the Sunday funeral as we 
do; but we have come to know that it is not a frequent 
necessity. There is no case now, when we know the un- 
dertaker’s art and their ability to hold back the finger of 
dissolution, it is not a necessity that the funeral should 
be held on the Sabbath day, and so we speak against it 
and I bespeak the unity of the opinions of my auditors’ 
W e are all one way. 
I do not like the idea of the Sunday funeral on the 
basis of first principles It is in contradiction of the 
traditions of the day. If there is an inappropriate day 
in the calendar to have a funeral on, it is Sunday. The 
day is not one erected in token of interment; it is a 
memorial of liberation and resurrection. The text for 
the Sabbath is: “He is not here. He is risen.” The 
Sunday funeral contradicts not only the tradition and 
the institution, but also the purpose of the Sabbath ; it 
is a day given us for holy rejoicing and worship ; not a 
day for dirge and requiems. If we have a funeral day, 
it ought to be Friday. Sunday ought not to hear the 
tolling knell, but the peal of triumph, for that is its me- 
morial. The origin and spirit of the Sabbath is wholly 
against the Sunday funeral, and therefore anybody di- 
recting a Sunday funeral is 01. t of joint with the origin 
of the day. * * * Neither is it right to 
diffuse the congregation — because in our congregation, 
when there is a funeral on Sunday, there are some that 
do not go to the regular services because they “must at- 
tend the funeral.” It is apparent that you who have, 
upon an average, five or six or eight funerals daily, it is 
not right that you should be compelled to double your 
forces on Sunday, and make yourselves captains of op- 
erations to break the Sabbath. Neither do I think Sun- 
day funerals should break in upon the calm and sweet- 
ness of the cemetery, where some have set aside the day 
to rest and visit the graves of the departed ones. I do 
not think the quietude of the cemetery should be broken 
in upon by the throngs and the din of the Sunday fun- 
eral. To come home to myself, if it were my funeral, I 
should not like for my people to plan and postpone the 
occasion so that it would come on the Lord’s day to be 
“convenient for so many who would choose to attend.” 
I do not know whether they would choose to attend or 
not; but they would almost be compelled to, it being 
made so “ convenient.” It seems to bring in the com- 
mercial thought to arrange to have the interment made 
between the days we can work, or do business, or go 
“on ’change,” or travel ; to take the day closed to bus- 
ness, when we can do nothing else, and go “between 
times,” and then come back and take up the matters of 
business, or commerce, or frivolity. It seems to me that 
it takes away the respect that ought to be shown to our 
dear departed. Surely we would all better enjoy the 
thought that when we came to receive the last 
ministrations — they will rather be few and fervent — a 
few parting tears from eyes that shed them because they 
feel the g'oom of the light from our eyes gone out for- 
ever. I can think of nothing in my ministry that is 
more a mutilation upon the memory of the departed 
than some of the Sunday funerals in which I have been 
compelled to be a sinner, desecrating the Sabbath with 
others. When I recall the throngs of men who belong 
to “ brotherhoods ” (and I belong to about all the broth- 
erhoods they will take me into— I believe in fraternities, 
and I am going to leave here to enjoy the association of a 
fraternity tonight); when I think of the braying of bands, 
the rustle and bustle, shouting of policemen making way 
through the ranks and crowds, the warning gongs of 
trolley cars, the interruption of travel and all that — and 
then know through all the throng there have been few 
who really had sorrow in their souls, save five or six or 
eight or ten who gather around the open casket ; then I 
think of you “Cemetery Superintendents,” who through 
the week have looked upon the well-kept hillocks, the 
trim trees, and cleaned walks until Sunday came, and 
then when on Monday you look over the wreck and ruin, 
the debris on the walks, and trodden border flowers, 
and then your loneliness as, with your help, you 
straighten up after that great seething mass of people is 
gone, who came because it was a “ Sunday funeral.” 
I am sure I need not advance to you any arguments; 
they are enti ely patent to you. In order to correct and 
restrain this abuse, we shall have to be consistent. It is 
hardly becoming of us to inveigh against the “ Sunday 
funeral,” when we have the “ Sunday picnic,” the “Sun- 
day theater,” the “ Sunday excursion,” the “ Sunday 
baseball,” and all that. To be consistent we will have 
to go the whole way, and I do feel, indeed, that the 
Sunday funeral is among the least of the desecrations. 
Let us all try to bring back the Sabbath, once sacred as 
a day of rest. I am sure that the first part of my ad- 
dress will remain mostly in your memory, and you will 
recall my reminder of what tender ministration! you 
serve, and what precious deposits you keep watch over, 
what sweet solace you visit upon hearts that are broken, 
and upon eyes that are weeping, and trust — that beyond 
the vocation of your life, and beyond the dormitories 
where we shall all lie down to sleep, as the brother said, 
“ We shall all go pretty soon,” beyond it all, we shall 
pass through the city of the dead to the city of the 
eternally living, and meet in convention there in the 
great Exposition, where there will be the wondrous works 
of our Creator and Father to explore, and where there 
shall be gathered “ out of all nations and kindreds,” 
those who have fitted themselves to be at Home. Then 
I know it will not be ;s an association of “Cemetery 
Superintendents," but as Children of our Father, we 
shall meet, not to discuss or consider the question of 
“ Sunday funeral-,” but to enjoy the eternal, unending 
Sunday rest, and unlimited gladness in our “ Long, Long 
Home.” 
‘Extract from an address by the Rev. S. Wright Butler, Omaha, 
before the Annual Convention of the Association of American Cemetery 
Superintendents 
