A SPIRITUALIST'S FUNERAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 226, 30 May 1872, Page 8

A SPIRITUALIST'S FUNERAL.

One of the most remarkable ceremonies ever witnessed in Victoria is described in the " Pleasant Creek News." The ceremony in question was the funprnl of a Mr. Wakehain, a spiritualist, who was interred on Sunday last with Spiiitualistic rites: — " The order of the procession was — Odd-fellows, progressive Spiritualists, aud about 1,500 on foot, including tiadesman and miners, also a number of crowded carriagea. Jn all there were from 2,000 to 3,000 persons present. On the coffin,, being laid on the top of the vault, Mr. James M'Lean president of the Stawell. branch of the Progressive Spiritualists, addressed the assemblage as. follows: — 'Friends, I think it is a commendable custom that, as to funeral ceremonies, the wishes of the departed on that subject should, as far as possible, be carried out when those wishes are known. Our departed brother during his last hours of earthly life, and whilst perfectly . conscious, urgently requested that the friends connected with the religious body to which he belonged — viz., tbe Progressive Spiritualists — should perform his burial service.' Mr. M'Lean engaged in prayer, commencing as follows: — ' Come ye holy spirits who have been purged from the sms and follies of .ife, come, and by thy sacred presence dispel the shadows that linger round human hearts. Come and say to the mother who hath yielded up her own jewel, "It is well with the — child it is well!" After singing a hymn commencing with " Death is the fading of a cloud," the coffin was lowered into the vault, whilst Mr. M'Lean spoke follows: — ''Forasmuch as, it hath pleased God of his great' mercies to call our dear brother from earth life, we therefore commit his material body to the earth, in the sure and certain hope that he still lives.' A large number of choice flowers were thrown on the coffin, and Mr. A'Lean delivered an address rejoicing that a 'spirit was born again."