O Easter! full of healing, no longer dim with tears,
Our eyes may glimpse the beauty of the eternal years—
O Day of Resurrection: what promises you hold!
The joy of life immortal each flower doth enfold!
@onzider the
| lilies of the
| field, how they
nro; they toil
not, neither do
they spin: aud
yet J say unto
you, that Sol- |
ony in all his |
glory was not
arrayed like |
one of these.” |
Matthew 0i.; 28 !
HE iily is the Easter flower be:
cause it is the glorious bloom
of Christ’s country. It is abun-
dant on the hills of Nazareth,
and in the later winter the regions
over which he walkec glowed and
radiated with entrancing color, while |
the air was fragrant with perfume.
The Hebrew word for the flower is
shushan, shoshan or shoshannah, and
though there is little doubt the word
denotes some plant of the lily species,
it is by no means certain what class
it specially designates. In the Holy
Land there are lilies that hold the
purpling blue of eastern skies; that
glow with the blood-red fire of the !
desert’s dusty sunset; that have the
pure white of spiritual appeal and the
grace in curve and line that touch
the senses like a strain of exquisite
music.
As we of the West know the lily,
the more cultivated species are the
white or Madonna lily, the tiger or
tiger-spotted lily, and the golden lily.
A white lily in art and heraldry sym-
bolizes purity, and in the pictures of
the Annunciation is often placed ‘in
the hands of the Angel Gabriel. “Lilies
choir the golden way to Paradise,”
says a medieval -writer; which, in the |
values of the present, is given in the ;
appreciation of a Canadian woman on
first beholding the soul-stirring bloom |
of a Bermuda field—“This is simply
heavenly!” i
It is very probable that the term lily
as used in the Holy Land was general,
not referring to any particular spe-
cies, but to a large class of flowers
growing in Palestine, and resembling
the lily, as the tulip, iris, gladiolus
and the like. Thompson, for instance,
in his “Land of the Book,” describes
& magnificent iris, which he calls the
Huich lily, a view of which gives sa-
lient point to the passage: ‘Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like
one of these.”
“This Huleh lily,” says the writer,
“4s very large, and three of the inner
petals meet above and form a gor-
geous canopy such ae art never ap-
AMONG EAS TLR LILIES
i %
FES DET
PL ETs 211
Helen Elizabeth Coolidge.
proached and the king never sat under |
even in his utmost glory. When I met
this incomparable flower in all its |
loveliness, among the oak woods |
around the north base of Tabor and |
on the hills of Nazareth where our
Lord spent his youth, I felt assured
that it was to this he referred.”
That the lily must have been a con- |
spicuous plant along the shores of |
the Lake of Gennesaret is indicated
in Matthew, 6:28: “consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow,” and Luke |
12:27, which bears the same admoni
tion. It flourished in the broad, deer
valleys of Palestine. The Song of
Songs tells: “I am the rose of Sharon
and the lily of the valley,” and alsc
| among the thorny shrubs, for the
same book has it, “As the lily among
the thorns, so is my love among the
daughters;” and among the pastures
of the desert, as is shown by this pas:
sage from the inspiration of Solomon: i
I “My beloved is mine, and I am his;
In many |
he feedeth among the lilies.”
other passages of the Bible the flower
is mentioned.
And that the lily must have been
remarkable for its rapid and luxuriant
growth is evidenced in Hosea 14:5
| “I will be as the dew unto Israel; he |
| shall grow as the lily and cast forth
his roots as Lebanon.” And that the
flower was brilliant in color is indi
| cated in Matthew, where it has fa
miliar comparison with the gorgeous
robes of Solomon. And that the col
ors of the royal investiture were pur
ple and scarlet is also implied in the
Songs of Songs.
There were many species of lila
ceous blossoms in Palestine, some ex:
ceedingly gorgeous in color and some
exceedingly fragrant. It is Dr. Isaac
Hall who noted the late winter carpet:
ing of Christ’s way by this widespread
color and entrancing fragrance.
“Most conspicuous, perhaps, are the
great red and blue flowers of the order
Ranunculaceae, where the anemone
and the ranunculus grow together,”
says he. “They are not small things,
like our buttercups, but great wide
flowers of two inches or more in di:
ameter, carpeting the ground with
patches as gorgeous as masses of our
brilliant verbenas. They grow every-
where; and, like the other herbs, are
glorious one day and the next day
literally cast into the oven to bake
the peasant’s bread.”
Easter Sermon.
Love your enemies. Understand
them. See their burdens, their be-
wilderment, their perplexities, their
obstacles and handicaps and thwart-
ings. Let the Christ of you strike
with pity upon the locked gates of the
vaults of their ignorance, and cry
Lazarus, come forth! to the sleeping
gouls of them within, Let the Moses
in you, the Pioneer, the Darer, the Ad.
venturer, the All-Believer, strike with
love upon the rock of their hardness
and asperity; let him will that living
water, kindness, shall gush forth, crys
talline, sparkling. And this day, so
shall it be.—Nautilus.
asters
| :
MM
} essage
i
fH
oJ £10pe
| HREE days have passed since
the death of Jesus on Calvary.
“Gray dawn is streaking the
sky as they who so lovingly
| watched him to his burying are mak:
| ing their lonely way to the rock-hewn
tomb in the garden.” All is still as
their sandaled feet sweep through the
dew-wet grass, the sweet spices in
their arms perfuming the chill air.
| As they go they say one to the other:
“Who ' shall roll the stone from the
sepulcher?”
That question many hearts in every
age since have asked. Sooner or lat
er we all make the pilgrimage these
| loving women made to the place
_where rests all that is mortal of our
i loved ones, and there arise in our
hearts the great questions about what
is beyond the tomb. These questions
: lie like heavy stones between us and
our departed dear ones, and we say:
“Who shall roll away the stone?”
The message of Easter is an an-
swer. The inspiration of Easter is
| that we, too, find the stone rolled
| away. We are often told that we err
to sorrow for our loved ones gone,
| but this, is not true. Jesus sorrowed
i greatly with those who had met such
. losses as ours. He would not have
| us sorrow as those who have no
hope, but he recognized that it would
' be unnatural not to grieve, and un-
| kind not to remember. Let us re-
have us live as though they had
never been with us. “They are not
dead; they are just away.”
sepulchers.
which the limitations of the flesh
prevent.
ory, our aspiration, our results of rich
experience,
do and to be. One of the highest in-
|
Eon ’
\2.¥
The IW to
Nolongertobe
i mind ourselves that Jesus would not
have us put away ‘all signs of those |
gone out of sight; that he would not |
This is |
one stone rolled away from our!
Here we desire to do many things
But when the fleshly limi- |
tation is removed our love, our mem: |
all those real qualities |
| which make us ourselves, are free to
ducements to a spiritual life now is |
TE 75 6 BACAR
of Mankind.thrll ans-
thou be with me in paradise,” he wat
opening the door of heaven to all the
wide, storm-tossed world; and as the
angel of God came and rolled away
the stone on that Easter morning ofl
long ago, £0 he comes to every worn,
bodily casket and sets the soul free
to find glory, perfect life, perfect hap
piness in some fair haven of God.
And we vex our souls with wonder
ing where that haven may be. We
reach out eager hands and cry: “What
is immortal life?”
Friend, it is that live, vital spark
that spells life to you and to me; that,
for us, shall rise, free and untram
meled, to enter the city of God.
We are living in eternity today—
you and I. We are so close to heaven
that at times faint echoes of its music
reach us—faint, far-off, wafted by
some close, sweet vibration between
God—faint, but sure!
our souls in wonder and in awe, fo1
born of God that we have caught a
and spotless, pushes its way from the
dark earth and unfolds into glorious
fold itself into broader life.
ed from heaven, and came and rolled
back the stone’—rolled
burst from the darkness which .holds
us, pointing the way to a clearel
vision and a truer faith; and the
music that started in heaven and in
earth when Christ came forth—victoz
over sin, death and the grave—has
never ceased, and will never cease,
but go rolling on, grandly triumphant,
| as long as earth shall last.
L. D. Stearns.
Message of Easter.
ASTER again proclaims its mes
E sage to the world. Nature lends
her enchantment to the day.
and makes all things bright with
| her unfclding promise of the res
urrection. The wooded hills, the
mystic canyons, the flowered mead
ows, the home-building birds, the
sparkling dewdrops on grass and flow-
er awaken, under the warming rays
our heart and the heart of the eternal
And we still |
we understand with a knowledge
tune from the heavenly choir, and:
have for a holy instant, verily felt the - §
touch of God. And as the lily, pure
life, so one day, from out all these J
earth environments, shall the soul un )
“For the angel of the Lord descend |
it back |
friend, for you—me—that light might |
when the angel rolls away the stone |,
| ‘of the rising sun, into a world beauti-
ful, made sweeter by the presence of
Ay
os ovpriand an sin
foe ings
bs t he € a
d an sea~—
Jorn morn!
lid 1s gone
ids up its saintly
ra [and oppressed.
Sohymanyeld to Is Qwn, |
| or earthly love Sis heav- | |
| Rrlove > thine ¢andmi e- [BH
| Forloveofus, thas :
His lifted hips touched deat of ee | \
| OUL of Myrend Hevales- i
| He hives once more?
3 O goubwi heart apd voice }
Sing! sing!~the Stang ro chor- \ g
\) gta fie rer
od Rejoice O gamlen-apd of ond song an ¥
this fact that we are making here our
status there. Death is the commence-
ment of greater effectiveness for life.
That stone is rolled away from our
sepulchers.
It is also true that Christ gave
ground for believing that our loved
ones gone are still with us.
his disciples that where they were,
there he would be in the midst of
them. He spoke of a home he had
gone to prepare and of coming to take
them to it. Enframe this as one may,
the picture is the same—reunion with
the loved ones gone. You come home
from a trip abroad. As you draw near
the pier the hands of loved ones wave
to you, the steamer ties up to her
wharf and you are again in the arms
of those so dear. So it is at death.
You-have been long away from those
at home, but the vessel that has car-
ried you—your body—ties up some
day to the little green wharf on some
quiet hillside and you again are with
| your dear ones.
There rolls the last stone away.
Rev. John Brittan Clark.
The Eastertide.
HEN this corruptible shall have
W put on incorruption, and this
mortal shall have put on im:
mortality, then shall be brought to
pass the saying that is written,
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave,
where is thy victory?’—for when
the Christ, nailed to the Cross on that
far distant day, turning to the
“Today shalt
‘thief beside him cried:
Our King returns to us, forever ours
JAMES WHITCOMB HILER LK
He told |
owers
GL
Copyright by the Bobbs-Merrill Company.
him who is risen from the dead. And
man, looking up from his work, re
joices.
In city and country; in art-domed
cathedral and isolated church; in
mansion and cabin is sung in har
monious cadence, sometimes soft and
low, and, then again, in accelerated
movement, the glad tidings of Easter:
tide, with its message of the day and
to the day’s toilers, “Christ is risen!”
So man must ever seek to rise
superior to the destructive forces
around him. He must measure up
to his ideal if he would escape the
debasement wrought by the domi:
nance of his lower self. In no other
way can he expect to live the ideal
life. His inspiration and ideal are
found in Christ. His entrance as an
amateur into the Christian life is
but indicative of his growth into that
of an artist. And in this'progressive
cumulative ascendancy he is con-
scious of the leadership of One, who,
by one decisive stroke of matchless
power, in the resurrection from the
death, proved his Sonship, authority,
superiority and divinity.
Therefore, however wild and steep
your path may be; however mighty
the sweep of sinful propensities and
habits; however dark and threaten-
ing the clouds that cross your path,
take heart and press on! KEaster’s
message is for the world. It puts a
song in the individual heart. So 28
nature responds to the touch of
spring, may mankind everywhere en-
ter into the spirit of Easter.
Albert M. Ewert.
THE ETERNAL YEARS
RANSCENDENT light, with |
Easter born,
Fill with thy glow the battle-torn ;
“Seek the living among the dead,’’
Awaken those whose blood was shed;
Dim with thy glory cannon'’s flame,
Cleanse humankind of all its shame
Ere day is done.
WAKE, O nations of the earth!
Comes morn of hope, of life,
new birth,
Heed ye the Resurrection call,
Rulers of kingdoms, foemen— all;
Let strife be o’er, the tumuit cease,
Crown Him anew the Prince of Peace
Ere day is done.
—T. Elliott Hines in New York Saturday Evening Mail.
= MUST
PRECEDE SOUL'S
EASTER TRUMP
H. C. TOLLMAN, D. D,, LL. D.
through the events of daily
DIVINE Father near to. each
| Av soul, acting in and
life, and a risen Christ reveal
, ing God’s nature to us through our
| personal communion with him!
This
is the Easter triumph.
Modern Christian criticism may dis-
* cuss, as it is now doing, the historical
and quasi-physiological problems as to
| whether the risen Christ had a “ma:
terial body spiritualized” or a “spirit
ual body materialized,” whether his
actual flesh and blood came forth
from the grave, as the Gospel narra-
| tive most distinctly gives us to under-
stand, or whether he bore that celes-
tial and incorruptible body which St.
Paul declares is the body of the res-
urrection. Yet we need have no fear
| that the conclusion—if one be ever
i reached in the future—will affect that
vital truth on which our Christian
faith has been grounded for nineteen
| centuries.
The lesson of the Resurrection is
purely a personal and individual one.
We do well to ask ourselves soberly
and seriously what that lesson is.
Like all divine truths, it is wondrous-
ly simple, yet deeply significant and
full of transcendent responsibility. It
means nothing less than such life-
union with Christ as to effect in us a
participation in his immortal and di-
vine character—assuredly no easy
process, but the struggle and achieve.
ment of a life in constant touch and
fellowship with him,
The lesson of Easter plainly tells us
that we must die to our selfish selves,
to our littleness, narrowness, pride
and hate, and rise to the eternal life
of service.
No Easter triumph can come to any
goul without first a Golgotha of indi-
vidual sacrifice and self-renunciation.
Heaven is no fit place or condition for
Easter Bells
Ring happy bellsof Easter time!
The world takes up your chant
sublime :
“The Lord has risen!’’ The
nighe. .of fear
Has passed’ away, and heaven
draws near;
We breathe the air of that best
clime
At Easter time.
Ring, happy bells of Easter time!
happy hearts give back
your chime:
“The Lord is risen!’’ We die
no more!
He opens wide the heavenly
door;
He meets us, while to Him we
climb
At Easter time.
& = Lucy Larcom
~~ Pdr +
a man who knows not what service is.
The risen Christ reveals the immor-
tality of love realized in the soul of
man, a conception briefly summarized
‘by our Lord in the seeming paradox,
“He that saveth his life shall lose it,
and he that loseth his life, the same
shall save it.”
The risen Christ reveals the immor-
tality of truth. The self-opinionated
whose prejudices and preconceptions
shut out honest inquiry cannot coms
mune with a God of truth. The rev-
elation of Christ was the revelation of
truth, and intellectual integrity is the
liberty of every son of God: “Ye
shall know the truth and the truth
shall make you free.”
The risen Christ reveals the imi
mortality of service. The divine ac4
tivity is continually self-giving. God
is forever showing the divineness 3
service. This is the life of God an
it is a uniform, inflexible and eternal
law that we must enter into such a
life before we can approach the infil
nite ideal of humanity which reveals
God. The flowers and starry heavens
sing together because there is between
them the affinity of showing God's
beauty. But between a selfish soul
and God there can be no communion.
The risen Christ reveals what was
central in the mind of God from eter
nity. This darling thought in diving
evolution was the perfect humanity
revealed in the Son of Man. We call
Christ our Lord, our King, our Mas:
ter and our God, and justly so, but the
dearest title to him and the one often:
est upon his lips is that of the Son
of Man, because it shows what man
can be in him and through him. To
that humanity we link our hopes of
immortality, and we are confident they
will not disappoint us.
The lesson of Easter is simply this,
that we live the immortal life here,
the life of love, sacrifice, truth, beauty
and hope as revealed in Christ; that
we enter into such individual fellow:
ship with our Lord as to enable us to
realize in him the life of God, for he
has said: “He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father”; that we ap:
propriate his divine life expressed in
the joy of self-denial, though it leads
us to Calvary.
EASTER MILLINERY
The Lily.
THe Fried Egg.
The Hen Coop. The Egg Shell.
Great Mystery Is His.
All the mysteries of land, and wa-
ter, and air are being solved one by
one; but the mystery of life and death
‘are his. Know that, of a surety, had
he wished us to break the seal which
binds them in his grasp, he would
have made the way clear. Heaven is
with him. Let that suffice, until God's
time to make it plain,
§
Lb"