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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 
slate 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 Knowles. 
Let us ever remember, with Ephon, that 
“ the flower sheds the same fragrance if it 
blooms in Eden or on a grave, and the same 
