PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1440, 15 May 1912, Page 6

PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD.

JUDGE'S REMARKS -RKCATXED.

In connection with tho telegraphed r*i port from Auckland of Bishop Crossley , * sermon on prayiiig tor the dead, it is in- ! foresting to recall some remarks mails »r Mr. Justice Cooper in the Supreme Court nearly two years ayo. Tli» remarks were made in the course of his Honour's judgmctit in the ca«o of Corrignn v. Kedwosd, an orißinatiriß sammons jesuod for the purpose of deeming the validity or otherwise of a bequest for masses for the dead. The learned Judge said, inter alia:— It is interesting here to notice that, although the doctrine of pur<w(ory was aoclarcd by the statute of Edward VI to be 'vain and superstitious,' and it deuounced in Article 22 of (he Articles of tho Church of England as unwarranted by and contrary to the Word of God, prayers for the dead wore held in Brceke v. Wfoifrey not to be prohibited by the Church of Knglnnd. In that case, decided in 1838, the Dean of Arches, after a comprehensive examination of judicinl and ecclesiastical authority or canon by which the practice of praying for the dead ivas prohibited, ami that prayers for the dead, although discouraged by tnnnr divines of the Church, had never been treated as forbidden. They were disoouraged because they ere inconsistent with the statute of Kdwnrd and with the article concerning purgatory, and bocause tliijy form no part of the recognised service of tho Church. The Dean of Arches, therefore, sustained tho legality of an inscription upon a tombstone erected in the parish churchyard of Carisbreok. Isle of Wight, which inscription was in the following terms:—'Pray for the sou! of J. Woolfrov. It is a holy and wholesome thought hi pray for the dead.'"