1. Ordinarily, it is better to avoid a formal sermon at funerals. It unnecessarily protracts the service, often to the serious discomfort of the people, while it overtasks the minister both in the preparation required and in the performance of the duty. In case of the death of some person occupying public station or official position in the church a sermon may be proper, but even then, it is usually better to deliver it on the following Sunday in the church. Sometimes also, in districts remote from the place of worship, where the people seldom hear preaching, there may be an advantage in a full sermon. But commonly a service at the house, brief, simple, tender, will secure the best results. This usually consists of the reading of a selection of Scriptures, an address, and a prayer. Singing is added, if desired by the bereaved family and singers are available. 2. Eulogies of the dead should be very sparingly indulged and should in no case be made a prominent feature. For much eulogy, even of confessedly good qualities in the deceased, will almost always provoke remembrance of any opposite qualities he may have had, and will thus fail of its object. Besides, if eulogy forms a marked feature in a minister's funeral addresses, the omission of it, when ministering at the funeral of one whom he cannot conscientiously eulogize, will be embarrassing to him, and will often give offense to the friends. An analysis of the character of the deceased at such a time is a very delicate and difficult task, and it should not be undertaken except in those comparatively rare cases where the character has been so conspicuous for its high qualities that the moral judgment of the community instinctively recognizes it as a fitting model. Great care should be exercised, also, in regard to expressing, in the address or prayer, an opinion as to the spiritual character and destiny of the deceased. A minister, in the fervid sympathy evoked by the occasion, is sometimes betrayed into forms of expression such as only Omniscience may rightfully use. It is, indeed, his right, at the interment of one whose Christian character has been well attested, to assume that God's promises have been fulfilled, and to speak gratefully and joyfully of the blessedness of the pious dead; but in so doing he should speak rather with the confidence of hope than with the assumption of an absolute knowledge of the secrets of the heart.