Lord Selborne has given notice that he proposes in the
Burials Bill to define "the Christian and orderly service' which is to be permitted in the Churchyard, as any service used by any sect or any individual professing to be Christian,—a definition so wide and unmeaning as to prove beyond question that the restrictive word " Christian" ought not to be there at all.. What is wanted is to prevent in the Churchyard attacks by any Church or sect on the creed of any other Church or sect, and quite as much to prevent Christian attacks on non-Christians as non- Christian attacks on Christians. Why should not the Positivists, who can hardly call themselves Christians in any sense whatever, recite their melancholy atom of faith as to the endurance and fruc- tification of the good actions of men, and the elimination of their evil actions in the illimitable future, if they please ? Christians are not forbidden to enlarge on this theme, if they find it edify- ing, and why those who cannot conscientiously flavour it with any word of Christian hope, should not be permitted to enlarge on it,. too, it passes human understanding to know. The truth is, that the restriction to services positively Christian is unmeaning and mischievous. All that is wanted is to protect the reverence due to the precincts of the Church, to prevent controversy and strife beside the grave.
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