
BY CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH 




THE 



BURYING-GROUND 



BY CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH. 




> <fih : 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 

15 






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THE 

BURYING-GROUND. 



" What is that man going to do 
with the grass, aunt?" said a little 
boy, as he saw a laborer carrying 
away some fresh green sods that he 
had just dug from a piece of waste 
ground. 

"He is going, my dear," replied 
his aunt, u to do that for another per- 
son, which he may, perhaps, do both 
for you and for me before long." 

"What can that be, I wonder," 
said John, smiling. " Let us follow 
him, aunt." 

They did so. The man passed 
down a little alley of trees, and en- 



4 THE BURYING-GROUND. 

tered some large folding gates of iron, 
which led into a very spacious square, 
enclosed completely by a low wall, on 
which was an iron railing, forming a 
very strong and handsome fence. The 
lady and her little nephew soon found 
themselves within it. 

u Why, this is a churchyard," said 

John. 

"Not exactly, my dear, for the 
church is not in it; but this is the 
burying-ground, and a beautiful place 

it is.' ; 

John looked about him, and cer- 
tainly agreed with his aunt. The 
spot was completely surrounded by a 
grove of firs, that pointed their tall 
green heads far above the iron pali- 
sades. Just within the fence, a great 
number of laurels were planted, the 
richly shining leaves of which looked 
doubly bright, as they rested against 



THE BURYING-GROUND. 5 

the black railings, and so near to the 
dark firs. The short grass was soft 
as velvet, and green as an emerald ; 
and beautiful little flower-beds sur- 
rounded several of the tombs. Over 
one, hung a rich weeping- willow, an 
acacia shaded another, and a third 
was placed between two young cy- 
press-trees. At one end was a row 
of humble graves, each with its white 
headstone and simple inscription; 
and upon the last of these the laborer 
whom John had seen was carefully 
laying down the green sods that he 

had dug. 

To this grave they walked, and the 
lady asked her little nephew if he 
knew who was buried there. 

" I suppose it is the soldier's wife," 

said he. 

" Yes. One week ago that woman 
was as little likely, according to hu- 



6 THE BURYING-GROUND. 

man appearances, as you or I now 
seem, to become the inhabitant of a 
grave. Sudden illness seized her, and 
ended in death almost immediately. 
You know, my child, that we visited 
her only four days back, and you saw 
with what mingled hope and terror 
she listened when I spoke of judgment 
to come — of the Judge, who is like- 
wise the Saviour of every true peni- 
tent who clings to his cross, and casts 
his soul upon him. You saw the 
agony of that dying woman; you 
kneeled with us in prayer to the God 
of the spirits of all flesh, that he 
would be pleased to grant unto her 
repentance and forgiveness of sins; 
and you heard, in three hours after, 
that she had breathed her last. She 
is under our feet, John, shut up in a 
coffin, covered with the damp earth, 
there to remain till the trumpet shall 



/ 



THE BURYING-GROUND. 7 

sound, and the dead shall arise, and 
the books shall be opened, out of 
which the dead must be judged." 

John's heart was too full to allow 
of his speaking just then ; so, after a 
pause, his aunt went on : 

"I told you, my love, that the 
grave-digger might soon do for us 
what he is now doing for this poor 
woman. And oh, what a solemn — 
what an important question it is, 
Where will our souls be, when our 
bodies are committed to the dust? 
At all times important and solemn 
beyond any other subject whatever; 
but does it not appear even more so, 
standing as we here do, just over the 
lifeless remains of one whom we so 
lately saw able to ask the question 
which is now for ever set at rest, as 
concerns her soul ? If a voice could 
issue from these mounds of earth, 



Q THE BURYING-GROUND. 

surely — surely, every one of them 
would cry aloud, what now they si- 
lently seem to teach us, ' Prepare to 
meet thy God !' " 

"Let us come here very often, 
aunt," said John; "it will keep me 
thinking of death, and preparing for 
it." 

" It might, indeed, lead you daily 
to think of death, my dear child ; but 
it is very possible to do so, without 
rightly preparing for it. It is the 
office of the Holy Spirit, to keep alive 
in your heart such a sense of eternal 
things as shall enable you, accord- 
ing to the apostle's language, to 'die 
daily.' 

" The poor Roman Catholics, whom, 
whilst we lament their errors, we 
should pity and teach, have departed 
from the truth of the gospel, and 
made the commandment of God of 



THE BURYING-GROUND. 9 

no effect by their traditions and in- 
ventions ; they have many such ways 
of keeping themselves in what they 
vainly suppose to be a religions frame 
of mind. They have death's heads, 
and cross bones, and black garments, 
with a number of words and cere- 
monies to remind them of their end ; 
but neglecting to seek the great gift 
of God. the assistance of the Holy 
Ghost, and not reading the blessed 
Bible in order to be made wise unto 
salvation, their work is vain, their 
hope a delusion, and their light dark- 
ness. 

" It is easy to let our thoughts de- 
scend into the grave, and it is well so 
to do, for there our Lord descended, 
and there too our own bodies shall 
come; but our chief wisdom is to 
look up, where the risen Saviour has 
ascended, and now sits on the right 



10 THE BURYING-GROUND. 

hand of God — to consider the glories 
of that high and holy place, and what 
the Lord has declared concerning those 
who shall dwell there with him ; and 
then to examine ourselves, and try 
what fitness there is in us for such a 
state. 

" When I talk of fitness, my dear 
child, I do not mean to say that it is 
possible for us to be, or to do, any 
thing deserving of such blessedness. 
No, we are all as an unclean thing, 
and all our righteousnesses are as 
filthy rags . But if we be indeed wash- 
ed in the blood of Christ Jesus, we are 
also justified in God's sight, through 
him • and if we be so washed and jus- 
tified, we shall be sanctified too by 
the power of the Holy Ghost : though 
in ourselves, that is, in our flesh, 
dwelleth no good thing, yet we shall 
both see and hate our sinfulness, and 



THE BURYING-GROUND. 



11 



constantly be praying, ' Create in me 
a clean heart, Lord, and renew a 
right spirit within me.' We shall he 
growing in grace, loving God with a 
more perfect love, and hating sin 
with a more perfect hatred, every day. 
We shall take that delight in the 
ways of holiness, which the world 
takes in the ways of folly and wick- 
edness, and devote onr whole selves, 
mind, body, and estate, to the service 
of onr heavenly Lord and Master; 
doing all possible good to onr fellow- 
creatures, not by way of deserving 
heaven, but because, c if God so loved 
us, we ought also to love one another.' 
Do you understand what I mean by 
fitness for the presence of God?' 

"Yes, aunt, I think I do. God must 
love me, and make me love him, and 
then I shall always try to do what 
pleases him." 



12 THE BURYING-GROUND. 

" True, my dear ; "but God cannot 
love any thing unholy, like us ; there- 
fore we must be ' accepted in the Be- 
loved.' Our sins must all be blotted 
out by the blood of the Lamb, and our 
hearts changed by the Holy Spirit; 
and we must be numbered among the 
little nock to whom the Lord Jesus 
says, c It is your Father's good pleasure 
to give you the kingdom.' 

•'Neither do we love God, until we 

behold him, 'in Christ, reconciling 

the world unto himself, not imputing 

their trespasses unto them.' Let us 

but have this sweet assurance of the 

Lord's power and willingness to save, 

and find in ourselves a heart softened 

and renewed by him, and then I know 

not what can be more profitable than 

to look upon a scene like this. For 

not only will it make our own troubles 

seem lighter, as the traveller bears 



THE BURYING-GROUND. 



13 



the storm more patiently after he has 
got within sight of his home ; but it 
must, if we use it rightly, fill us with 
greater zeal for the conversion of 
others, when we look on the graves 
of many to whom the sweet sound of 
the gospel can never more come— 
many, perhaps, who despised and re- 
jected it for the wretched pleasures of 
a sinful world, and who would now 
give millions of worlds, could the offer 
be once more made them to repent and 

be saved. 

"Oh, what a dreadful thought it 
is, that through our neglect, any soul 
should perish ! How cruel, how base, 
how ungrateful to our Redeemer, if 
we let pass one opportunity of trying 
to take a prey from Satan, and to add 
another to the family of Jesus Christ ! 
From these graves must every mould- 
ering body arise at the judgment-day ; 



14 THE BTJRYING-GROUND. 

and would you not be indeed rejoiced 
to think that every one of them should 
awake to the resurrection of life ?" 

" Yes, indeed, aunt j I do hope that 
they all will be saved. J; 

"We cannot tell. Their state is 
now unchangeable. But look around 
you among the living, and see if there 
be none to whom you may become an 
instrument of mercy • that, if it should 
be your lot to look down on their 
graves also, you may reflect with joy, 
on having done what you could to 
bring them to Jesus. 

" Come now to the opposite corner, 
John. Here is a row of little mounds, 
of which the longest must be the rest- 
ing-place of a child no bigger than 
yourself. What a lesson is here ! 
Surely this smaller spot must enclose 
an infant, which only just opened its 
eyes on the world, and then took flight 



THE BURYING-GROUND. 15 

to a better. The Scripture is very 
full of consolation respecting such : 
we are assured that they partake in 
Adam's sin by nature, but grace be- 
stows on them eternal life, through 
the redemption that is in Christ Je- 
sus. Sleep, little babe, in your cold 
dark bed ; your spirit is with Him who 
gave it, and there too shall your body 
be, in his own good time." 

" Aunt," said John, " here is a daisy 
growing on the grave that belongs to 
a child like me. It is just my length. 
I will keep the daisy to remind me that 
little children die;" and he plucked 
the flower. 

" That daisy will soon wither too, 
my dear, however carefully you keep 
it, and will then more powerfully 
show you how fading are all earthly 
things. I would wish you to be as 
humble, as simple, and unpretending 



16 THE BURYING-GROUND. 

among men, as that daisy is among 
flowers. Like it, you are of the earth, 
and must wait all the days of your 
appointed time thereon • but may your 
eye also he turned to heaven, and 
may you preserve as cheerful a com- 
posure among all mortal changes, as 
does that little flower, smiling amid 
the mansions of the dead. You are 
now nearer to your last hour than 
when we began this conversation. 
May the Spirit of holiness so increase 
your growth in grace, that no single 
hour shall be passed in vanity. All 
is vanity that draws us not nearer to 
God : the very thought of foolishness 
is sin. But c draw nigh unto God. 
and he will draw nigh unto you. ? ' In 
all thy ways acknowledge him, and 
he shall direct thy paths.' ?; 



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