Funeral services bring the pastor into most tender and influential relations to the families of his congregation, but they are also among the most perplexing and difficult parts of his work. Warm sympathy must here be combined with wise discretion, or he may destroy at the funeral the effect of his most faithful teaching in the pulpit. Here I suggest:  
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.
 
[p. 107] 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.
 
3. The subject-matter of the address will often be suggested by the special circumstances connected with the deceased or the occasion. Apart from these, many general lines of thought will suggest themselves to the thoughtful pastor. Of these the following may serve as [p. 108] hints: The fulness of power in the Gospel to prepare for death, in its renewing, justifying, and sanctifying grace; The blessedness of the Christian beyond death, as admitted into the immediate presence of Christ and into the purity and associations of that holy place where He dwelleth; The glorious resurrection of the dead as the completing act of redeeming power and the ultimate goal of the Christian course; The certainty of the Christian’s hope, as based on the promises of an unchanging God, contrasted with the uncertainty of all earthly expectations. Or special phases of truth and sources of consolation may be presented in the informal development of some passage of Scripture. Thus: The sympathy of Christ with the sorrowing, as seen at the grave of Lazarus and on other occasions; The certainty that affliction is not accidental but is ordered in the infinite love and wisdom of God; The compassion and tenderness of God, as seen in that He doth not afflict willingly; The high and blessed results He intends in affliction; The brevity of earthly sorrow and the eternity of heavenly joy. Subjects adapted to such occasions will continually suggest thems............