“What use for the rope if it be not flung
Till the swimmer’s grasp to the rock has clung?
What help in a comrade’s bugle blast
When the peril of Alpine heights is past?
What need that the spurring paean roll
When the runner is safe beyond the goal?
What worth is eulogy’s blandest breath
When whispered in ears that are hushed in death?
No, no! If you have but a word of cheer,
Speak it while I am alive to hear.”
I have always been glad that there was one who brought out her alabaster vase and anointed the Lord beforehand for his burial. Most persons would have waited, keeping the vase sealed, till he was dead, and would then have broken it to anoint his body when it lay, torn, wounded and cold, wrapped in the garments of burial. But she did not wait. She opened the jar while he could enjoy its sweet perfume, and when his worn and weary feet could feel the delicious refreshment which it gave.
We have not to read between the lines to find the lesson. When one dies there is no lack of alabaster boxes to be brought from their hiding places and unsealed. The kindest words are spoken then. Not a voice of faultfinding is heard in the darkened room where the dead form reposes in silence. A thousand pleasant things are said. A gentle charity covers and hides all his mistakes, and even his follies and sins. His life is talked over, and memory is busy gathering out the beautiful things he has done, the self denials he has made and the kindnesses he has wrought for the poor along the years of his life. Every one that knew him comes and looks on his pale face and says some generous word about him, recalling some favor received from his hands or some noble deed wrought by him. Near friends go to the florist and order flowers, woven into anchors, crosses, harps, pillars or crowns, to be sent with their card and laid upon his coffin.
There is nothing wrong in all this. Flowers on the coffin are beautiful. When a Christian sleeps there they are fit symbols of the hope in which he rests. Then they seem to whisper sweet secrets of comfort for sorrowing hearts. They tell, too, of kindly feelings and gentle remembrances outside the darkened homes while hearts are breaking within. They are the tokens of love and respect for the dead. There can be nothing inappropriate in the placing of a few choice flowers upon a coffin or on the bosom of the dead.
Page 1