_Burial of the Dead_.
By far the most important section of this Resolution is the one
providing for the insertion of special features when the office
is used at the burial of children. The provision, or at least the
suggestion, of a more appropriate Lesson would be wise, but for
the rest, the office is almost all that could be wished.
A recent critic[88] raises the question, "Why single out infants
alone for a special service? Why not forms for rich men and poor
men--old men and maidens--widows and orphans?" And yet our Lord
Jesus Christ did single out little children in a very striking and
wonderful manner, and drew a distinction between them and us which
may well justify our treating their obsequies with a peculiar
tenderness. Even Rome, _Mater dura infantum_ as she has been
sometimes thought, is studious to consult in this point the natural
affections of the bereaved, and appoints a funeral mass distinct
from that appointed for the dead in general.
Bishop Seabury felt the need of a rite of this sort and prepared
one, but whether it was ever in actual use among the clergy of
Connecticut the writer is not informed. Many, very many, since
Seabury's day, have felt the same need, and it is safe to say that
no one feature of _The Book Annexed_ has enjoyed so universal a
welcome as this rightful concession to the demands of the parental
heart.