THE BISHOP OF RIPON AND " REQUIESCAT IN PACK." - [To
TER EDITOR OF Tam “SPICT47031:1 Sirt,—Before the Bishop of Ripon so positively asserted that an "true Protestants " reject the doctrine of prayer for the dead, he- should have visited some of the Lutheran "God's acres" in Ger- many. On many tombstones there he would find the pious hope- that the dead may rest in peace inscribed. I will give one exam- ple, from the inscription on the grave of good Johannes Falk, the philanthropist and friend of destitute children at Weimar, the latter part of which is as follows :— " Kinder, die aus fremden Stadten
Diesen ertillen Ort betreten, Solon also ffir ihn beton : Ew'ger Vater, dir befehle Ich des Vaters arme Seale Hier in dunkler Grabeshille!
Well or Kinder aufgenommen, Lass ihn ja nit alien Frommen Als dein Kind such zu dir kommen."
The strength of the prejudice which exists in a certain party among ourselves against any expression which hints that the state- of the departed is not irrevocably fixed at the moment of death in by the fact that, in an article which appeared some years ago in Good Words, on John Falk, the author, who does not give the original, states, "his epitaph remains in his own words, quaint as Baxter's," and then presents the following as a translation, and a very free translation indeed it may be called, as all who under- stand German will agree with me :— " When the little children round Stand beside this grassy mound, Asking who lies underground,— ' Heavenly Father,' let them say, 'Thou hest taken him away,— In the grave is only clay."
There is little doubt that the translation would meet with the- episcopal sanction,—not so the original.—I am, Sir, &c., JAMES F. COBB.
Previous page
