Forms for Special Occasions
Written by Herrick Johnson in 1889, this Christian-focused guide outlines social practice for marriage, burial, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. Excerpted here are the sections on burial and preparation on death. Johnson highlights the need to comfort both the living and the dead/dying subject with verses from the Bible within these sections. Here there is no great disconnect between living and dead, they all need to benefit from the balm of faith to pass into the void. Yet again, however, the process of grief is regulated here for the masses, turning a private grief into a publically-read exercise in etiquette.