The funeral services over Mr. Spurgeon were practically as elaborate
as those over Cardinal Manning. The body lay in state in the Metropolitan Tabernacle on Tuesday and Wednesday, and was visited by sixty thousand persons, many of whom on Wednesday joined in the four memorial services. On Thursday the coffin was conveyed to Norwood Cemetery in a vast proces- sion, which included, we are glad to perceive, the Bishop of Rochester, and which was saluted at all points of the long journey by crowds even greater than those which attended the funeral of Cardinal Manning. The funeral ceremony was simple, but most impressive, from the vast crowd which attended it, and it was concluded by the Bishop of Rochester with a benediction. We have not an objection to offer to any of the arrangements, but we think our Nonconformist friends might acknowledge that pomp and form do not always choke or interfere with devotional feeling. Describe it how you will, Mr. Spurgeon was really buried, quite rightly, with as stately though not as highly coloured a ceremonial as any Prince of the Church.
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