Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1886 — Preachers Approving Cremation. [ARTICLE]

Preachers Approving Cremation.

It is a significant fact that the Protestant clergymen of Milwaukee are almost a unit in favor of cremation rather than a burial as a method of disposing of the dead. Their attitude is probably representative of the attitude of their fraternity throughout the land. The chief obstacle in the way of the adoption of cremation, in large cities at least, has been the latent and rarely exp: essed religious superstition against ii. In all communities are revealed now and then the of a ridiculous belief almost universal a century ago, that resurrection meant a literal raising up of the mortal body—a mending and making anew of the old, worn-out fetter of flesh “which the soul had broken and thrown away.” In this view the mere destruction of the human body by the fire of a crematory could not be otherwise than abhorrent. With professional religious teachers now declaring against this belief as an absurd superstition, the last valid objection to cremation is removed. The question of the disposition of the dead is reduced to a mere matter of sanitary well-being. An avowal by preachers in general such as has been made by several preachers of Milwaukee, that it is a matter of entire indifference so far as the religious belief and the Christian church are concerned whether the bodies of men and women are buried or burned, would have the effect .speedily to establish cremat on as the accepted method. Often heretofore it has been the clergy of the church rather than its laity who were most reluctant to let go and repudiate senseless superstitions which the church has held. But in this case, the preachers ard clearly in the lead of the laymen. It is a good sign, and confirms a truth which becomes more and more apparent, to wit —that the pulpit of to-day, wholly unlike the pulpit ©f the past, is abreast of the times.— Milwaukee Wisconsin.