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'Suffer the little children'
Loughborough Advertiser - 29th May 1873
Dear Sir
I failed to see any account in your last week's Advertiser of a certain act of unkindness (and this is putting a very fine point upon it) which occurred in our midst last week. It was simply this. A little child was buried in the church-yard without the funeral service having been read; it in fact received no greater observance than would have been accorded the carcase of a dog.
I understand the cause of this was that the clergyman, upon discovering that the child had not been christened, refused to proceed with the service; and it is only fair to him to say in that he was acting according to law, although the matter would have been treated in a different manner to this by 99% of the clergymen of the present day who would possess sufficient feeling and humanity to wink at this anomaly in law, and obey the dictates of their conscience.
The child (under one year) although not baptised, will be treated with more charity by its Creator, who will receive it into his fold, for hath he not said "suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven". For the comfort of the bereaved parents it is lamentable that they should have been denied the consolation afforded by the hope that is expressed on these mournful occasions "of the sure and certain hope of a joyful resurrection". For my part, I would rather endure the present suffering of the mother, than the reflection of knowing that I, as a minister of God, had denied Christian burial to one of his tenderest creatures.
SYMPATHISER.
This letter referred to the Reverend Stammers of Quorn. A similar case can be seen in artefact 546.
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Submitted on: |
2009-07-19 |
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Submitted by: |
Kathryn Paterson |
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Artefact ID: |
381 |
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Artefact URL: |
www.quornmuseum.com/display.php?id=381 |
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Print: |
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