To dig the dust enclosed here:
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

The most eloquent exposition I know of the religious aspect of the
question, is contained in the concluding sentences of Mr. Melvill's
noble sermon on the 'Dying Faith of Joseph.' I believe my readers
will thank me for quoting it:--

It is not a Christian thing to die manifesting indifference as to
what is done with the body. That body is redeemed: not a particle
of its dust but was bought with drops of Christ's precious blood.
That body is appointed to a glorious condition; not a particle of
the corruptible but what shall put on incorruption; of the mortal
that shall not assume immortality. The Christian knows this: it
is not the part of a Christian to seem unmindful of this. He may,
therefore, as he departs, speak of the place where he would wish to
be laid. 'Let me sleep,' he may say, 'with my father and my mother,
with my wife and my children; lay me not here, in this distant land,
where my dust cannot mingle with its kindred. I would he chimed to
my grave by my own village bell, and have my requiem sung where I
was baptized into Christ.' Marvel ye at such last words? Wonder ye
that one, whose spirit is just entering the separate state, should
have this care for the body which he is about to leave to the worms?
Nay, he is a believer in Jesus as 'the Resurrection and the Life:'
this belief prompts his dying words; and it shall have to be said
of him as of Joseph, that 'by faith,' yea, 'by faith,' he 'gave
commandment concerning his bones!'

If you hold this belief, my reader, you will look at a neglected