EXCERPT from INTO THE SILENT LAND: HISTORIC CEMETERIES & GRAVEYARDS IN ONTARIO  by Jennifer McKendry, copyright       home page

Chapter one, Introduction, page 8

.....Money spent for the rituals of death and burial and inscriptions and images selected for grave monuments were part of the desperate desire to perpetuate life in another realm. The living honoured the dead in hopes that the same would be done for them, when their turn came. The living looking at the deceased's marker were reminded of their fate: "Time was I stood as thou stand and viewed the dead as thou doth me; ere long thou lay as low as I, and others stand and gaze at thee."[1] The living were urged by those under the sod to live a moral life: "Go home dear friends, dry up your tears for I lie here for many years; repent you ought while time you have, there is no repentance in the grave."[2] Confidence also exuded from some headstones: "Death thou hast conquered us, and by thy dart hath slain; but Christ shall conquer thee, and we shall rise again."[3] ...[continued]