“Some religionists object to cremation because it might possibly throw obstacles in God’s way of collecting the particles which once formed the body. They seem to forget that the dispersion of the atoms which compose the human body is just as wide and perfect by inhumation as by cremation.”
Napoleon I., the Great, was a firm believer in cremation. On Dec. 14, 1816, five years before his death, he conversed freely with his surgeon, Barry O’Meara, on various topics.
Mr. O’Meara (“Napoleon in Exile; or, A Voice from St. Helena.” By Barry E. O’Meara. W. Gowans, New York, 1853, Vol. I. p. 277) says:—
“He afterwards spoke about funeral rites, and added, that when he died, he would wish that his body might be burned. ‘It is the best mode,’ said he, ‘as then the corpse does not produce any inconvenience; and as to the resurrection, that must be accomplished by a miracle, and it is easy to the Being who has it in his power to perform such a miracle as bringing the remains of the bodies together, to also form again the ashes of the dead.’”
During another talk with his medical adviser the ex-emperor said, “that he had ordered the slain burnt after the battle at Wagram.”
I clip the following from the Medical Herald, and commend it to the notice of opposers of cremation on the ground of religion:—
“The most prejudiced religionist cannot offer one valid objection, for if God is to call up the scattered remains of the dead from both land and sea on the day of final resurrection, the ashes shall be as easily resolved from the urn as from the débris of a building in which bodies may have been accidentally consumed by fire.”
I should like to see the Christian who believes that God will not take unto himself the soul of the brave fireman, who rushes courageously into a burning building to rescue his fellow-beings, and has the misfortune to fall and perish in the flames, while an indolent crowd is looking on below. Nay, nay! I believe that he will be twice as welcome in the kingdom of heaven.
At the opening of the Bolton cemetery in 1874, Bishop Fraser combated the anti-cremation movement, based upon the doctrine of the resurrection, with the sequent vigorous language:—
“The ancient Romans believed in immortality, and yet they believed in burning the bodies of their dead. Urn burial was certainly quite as decent as the practice of interment; and urns containing the ashes of the dead were more picturesque than coffins. Can any one suppose that it would be more impossible for God to raise up a body at the resurrection, if needs be, out of elementary particles which had been liberated by the burning, than it would be to raise up a body from dust, and from the elements of bodies which had passed into the structure of worms? The omnipotence of God is not limited, and he would raise the dead whether he had to raise our bodies out of churchyards or whether he had to call our remains, like the remains of some ancient Romans, out of an urn in which they were deposited 2000 years ago.”