The Christian Meaning of Cemetery
By Christian Union
THE word "cemetery" comes from the Latin word cæmeterium, which means a dormitory or sleeping room; in that sense the word was familiar to the ancients, but by Christians was used to designate the place of burial of their brethren in the faith. James Freeman Clarke, in his "Events and Epochs of Religious History," says this word cemetery is the exact equivalent in Greek to dormitory in Latin, and means sleeping place; it came into use with Christianity, and, like so many other words, contains a whole history of thought and feeling. It marks the advent of a new view of death; it regards it as a sleep—a view given it by Jesus, who loved always to speak of death as sleep: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." So the writer of the book of Acts, describing the death of Stephen, bruised with stones, says, "He falleth asleep." Thus, in the word cemetery, we have the whole history of the Christian view of death.—Christian Union.