[TO THE ED/TOR 01 THE " SPECTATOR.1
should very much like to know what is "the liberty allowed to Abraham and to Joseph of Arimathma " which Mr. Portal feels called upon to maintain. Mr. Blomfield has referred to the case of Abraham, but what of Joseph of Arimatbma ? We know that he had a new sepulchre in a garden. Was the garden his own ? And if so, is there any law, or is anybody trying to have a law enacted, to forbid the same arrangement now ? It is not customary, but is it illegal? And is it the liberty which Mr. Portal wants ?
Or was the garden a public one, or a cemetery ? In that case, was there any law to prevent a Sadducee from having a sepulchre in the same garden, and quite near that of Joseph, who was pro- bably a Pharisee? And did the law restrict both Pharisee and Sadducee to the same form of service at their funerals ? If so, then something else would follow. The form of service must have been prescribed before the New Testament was written, con- sequently when Joseph himself died, if, as we may suppose, he and his family had become Christians, they might very naturally wish to read the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians over his grave, but they would find themselves forbidden to do so. It is restrictions such as these which, as I understand him, Mr. Portal calls liberty, and which the advocates of the Burials
Bill seek to-abolish.—I am, Sir, &c., R. S. D.
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