A Burial Scandal | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 18, 1878

A Burial Scandal.

The English papers contain an account of a burial scandal, which is said to have occurred at Tilton-on-the-Hill, and which, if true, illustrates the vulgarity of which a man may be capable under the influence of superstition. “A parishioner” writes to a local journal that the vicar recently refused to read the burial service of the Church of England over the body of a little child, two years of age, that had been drowned, on the plea that it had not been baptized; but he is charged with the cruelty of having coupled with the refusal, the assurance to the parents that the little one was undoubtedly lost; and that it was a judgment on them for their neglect of the rites of the church. The poor mother’s feelings may be imagined! It is said further that, not satisfied with this refusal, the vicar made a point of witnessing the burial, the management of which he had intrusted to the parish clerk. The funeral passed off quietly and in perfect order, till the people around the grave started the hymn, “Safe in the arms of Jesus,” when the vicar, who had been watching the proceedings from a distance, came to the grave, and endeavored to stop the singing, telling the parents and friends to go away, it was “all hypocrisy, the child was lost.” This naturally was a signal for an outburst of indignation, and the minister was hissed and hooted by the assembled parishioners.—Religious Intelligencer.