FEITEES
YEN
@hristian
Festival of
=U ETE
= HE Christian festival of Eas-
i ter was grafted onto the pa-
gan feast which ushered in
the spring, and so some of
{ our customs belong to one
era and some to another.
pia to you often wondered what eggs
ad to do with the Crucifixion of
rist? As a matter of fact, there is
kno connection except an incidental one
between the two. In pre-Christian
days folks celebrated the renewal eof
Bpring and sunshine at the time of year
‘when Easter now comes, and the egg,
lwith its suggestion of new life, was
‘the most natural symbol in the worid.
IChristianity consecrated the idea, as it
were, by coloring the eggs red as a
reminder of the blood spilt on the
lcross—a custom which survives in
France to this day.
! The hot cross bun is another curious
blend of heathen superstition and
IChristian symbolism. Many centuries
[before Christ little round loaves were
baked and marked with a cross; some
were even discovered in the ruins of
‘Herculaneum, one of the ancient Ital-
idan cities which was buried by an erup-
tion of Mount Vesuvius and afterwards
ncovered and explored. Some say
ithat these cakes were sacrificed and
offered as an act of worship to the
heathen gods of the day, particularly
to the moon, called the queen of
heaven.
Others assert that the cooks of that
day were as practical as the toffee-
maker of ours, who mark the toffee
to small squares, so that it will break
up more easily when cold.
Then came the Christians, who saw
dn this bread marked with their own
sacred symbol a fit association with
Easter. They made their Good Friday
icakes from dough first used for the
Host, and the buns were blessed by
‘the priest and given out at the end of
'service in church. Worshipers rever-
‘ently kissed the cross before eating
ithe symbols, and believed that the eat-
'ing of one would keep them from harm
until next Easter.
For the same reason it used to be
‘customary to hang a bun up in a house
to bring good luck, just as the horse-
shoe is set over a doorway. In par-
ticular it was supposed to guard the
house from fire—a real menace in the
days when houses were of wood and
thatched with straw and fire engines
almost unknown.
Were you born on Good Friday?
Legend has it that anyone so blessed
possesses the gift of second sight. And
if you have sufficient fortitude to turn
vegetarian just for Easter Sunday, an
old superstition promises you good
health for a twelvemonth. It seems a
small price for so long a benefit,
doesn’t it?
Another way of insuring good health,
which is much n:ore drastic, but was
often practiced in olden days by spar-
tan maidens, was to leave a linen
cloth out in a field all night, so that it
became soaked with the cold spring
dew. Then they washed themselves
all over with the clear, chilly moisture.
Another quaint superstition is the
rather ridiculous custom of lifting or
iheaving, which is still practiced in
‘some parts of the country. On Easter
[Monday the men lift the women, and
ion Easter Tuesday the women lift or
(heave the men. The process is per-
‘formed by two lusty men or women
{Joining their hands across each other's
wrists; then, making the person to
be heaved sit down on their arms, they
lift him up aloft two or three times
and often carry him several yards
along a street. In other parts the men
claim the privilege of faking off the
women’s shoes on Xasternm Monday,
and the next day the women retaliate,
Her Basket of
Easter Enos
Colored Easter eggs continue to play
an important part in the celebration of
the day. The colored eggs, packed in
a dainty colored basket, appeal to the
kiddies.
Faster Lilien
By Mabel W. Phillips
Be ae che of ot ae a® oe oe ate ote ots le oe ae oe ae ote ste of ob Be
BET RRTEREVT ERR RTRTRTEP
N THE vast aisles of His temple, '
Where a hundred soft lights glow,
Pouring through the stained-glass
windows
Over lilies pure as snow;
He is walking midst the silence,
Listening blossoms bow their heads
To His voice 80 low and gentle
That a benediction sheds.
In the dim aisles of His temple, |
When the lights have ceased to glow,
He still lingers midst the fragrance
Gently pacing to and fro;
Hark! the anthem of the angels
Wakes the dawn, for Christ is near,
Vibrant is each tender flower,
For the night is reft of fear.
In the hushed aisles of His temple,
As the organ music grows,
He is standing midst the lilies,
See the light that o'er them flows?
Safe they rest upon His bosom
Fadeless through eternity,
Stooping with the lamb held gently
Even thus He stoops to me.
o
« ?
Easter Brings
Message of
Assurance
RCHEOLOGISTS exploring
the 3,400-year-old tomb of
King Tut-Ankh-Amen are
Jimpressed with the evi:
dences of the ancient ruler’s
belief in immortality. Every-
thing in the sepulcher proclaims his
expectation of a future life. Ancient
Egypt believed as firmly as does mod-
ern Christendom that for the soul
there is no death, :
Indeed, the memory of man runneth |
not back to the time when he did not |
look forward to a hereafter and ex- |
press his belief in some way. This !
belief, apparently, is inborn in human
consciousness, a characteristic of all
the ages of the race.
The doctrine of the resurrection is
not new. The pagan before the Chris-
tian era glimpsed the truth. Natyre |
proclaimed it to him in the bursting of |
the buds and the song of the birds in ;
the springtime. In the seasons he read
a confirmation of his belief.
But the Christian, fortunately, has
something more than the pleasing sym-
bols of nature to fortify and strengthen
his belief in immortality. The mate-
rialist may read his fate in the proc-
esses of the natural world, but the
Christian finde his assurance in the
well-authenticated, personally con-
veyed message from the Creator Him-
self.
Before Christ men merely speculated
on the future, prompted by their be-
liefs and wishes. When He broke the
bonds of death and became “the first
fruits of them that slept,” He threw a
flood of light upon the gates of eternity
that forever solved the mystery and
illumined the way to the future for all
mankind.
Easter, the anniversary of the resur
rection of the Son of God, brings a
message of assurance and- victory to
every soul. It cheers with the procla-
mation that all are citizens of the
eternal. It enables men to look across
the grave and hurl defiance at death.
With the proper understanding of this
divine message, the capability of men
becomes unlimited, for they know that
this life is only the beginning.
Without the courage that this day
inspires, life would not be worth the
living.
The Message nf Easter
By Rachel Ann Neiswender
IFE is a gift eternal,
How do I know ‘tis so?
Because I have planted a tiny seed,
Then watched a flower grow.
I have seen the leaves come tumbling
down.
Then spring, and a budding tree,
Oh, God's ouidoors so big and wide,
Has told its secrets to me.
Now at this gladsome Easter
When the world is bursting with
SONNE,
Let us face life with high endeavor,
Let us bury the old years wrong.
Let us take from it only the lessons,
The good, that comes sifting through,
Let us cherish the hope that is given
And cling to the paths that are true.
The Eternal
Life
By Nathan Howard Gist
Glorious Gospel
of Easter Bay
By Rev. Stephen Paulson
in Grit
HE world places a premium
| on attainment. It praises
I the man who gets things
done. It erects hi sstatue in
| our parks and public squares
that young manhood and
womanhood may catch inspiration
from his life, and emulate his virtues.
Halls of fame give him fitting recog-
nition and a large place. Music, lit:
erature, all art immortalize him.
Historical text-books make him the
hero who led that others might follow.
Great men come in groups. KEpochs
make them, and they make great
epochs. Each is dependent on the
other.
Human greatness is largely a matter
of attainment. A man is great or
small according to what he is able to
give the world. But his output must
show visible achievements and tan-
gible results. ;
Now all of this is well enough. No
fault can be found with such rewards,
except that greatness through attain-
ment never tells the story. The whole
story cannot be related because there
is much greatness of the heart. It is
greatness not through doing, but in
heing.
In the long last effort, rather than .
attainment, is the greatness that
counts. To disregard effort is to min- |
imize the very force that holds the
world together.
Many of the finest achievements oi
our world are not lasting. They are
ephemeral. Books, schools and
churches, empires and great nations
have all lived their allotted time, ac- |
complished their quota of good, and .
then perished. Such achievements are |
not failures by any means, but any of
them may suffer the fate of oblivion. |
But what about noble efforts? What |
about character, and service, and right- |
eousness? What about example? |
Easter is the crowning Sunday ot |
the year because it teaches that lesson °
vear after year. It ever brings forth
the potent truth that the life eternal
is the life that knows God serves the
great teacher Who brought life and
immortality to light, and finds life's
deepest and truest meaning in serv-
ice and worthy example.
There is no death when things are
considered in that light. The Eternal
life is measured by the immortal
things of the spirit, and not by the mor-
tal things of the flesh. It is a matter of
quality, and not of quantity, It is
indestructible because it is of Gods It
lives for all time. Not long quiescent,
it is ever alive and awake to the build-
ing of the best world of which human
minds, and hearts, and hands, are
capable. |
This is life Eternal. It is the Joy
and triumph of the Easter morn.
The Place Where
Gur Lord Lay
esos
———
HE place where the Lord
lay, from whence He came
on Easter Sunday, the first-
born from the dead, may
not have been the gite of
the Church of the Holy Se-
pulcher in Jerusalem, after all!
Recent investigations incline many
to the belief that Gen. “Chinese” Gor-
don was nearer right in picking upon |
a tomb in the rock, which has the
form “of a skull,” and is probably the
Golgotha of the crucifixion outside the
city wall of Jerusalem, as being Joseph
of Arimathea’s appointed burial place.
St. John tells us: “Now in the place
where He was crucified there was a
garden; and in the garden a new sep-
Holy Women at the Tomb.
ulcher, wherein was never man yet
laid. There laid they Jesus therefore,
because of the Jews’ Preparation day;
for the sepulcher was nigh at hand.”
That presupposes a tomb close to the
place of execution, and makes probable
General Gordon's presumption. St.
Mark says further that the sepulcher
“was hewn out of a rock,” as is also
this tomb.
At any rate so probable did it ap-
pear that this was the garden tomb,
that in 1894 Miss Louisa Hope, an Eng-
lish lady, and others bought the prop-
erty and formed a society to keep the
garden and tomb “sacred as a quiet
spot and preserved on the one hand
from desecration and on the other
hand from superstitious uses.”
And when the Sabbath was past,
Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother
of James, and Salome, had brought
sweet spices, that they might come
and anoint Him. . Ye seek Jesus
of Nazareth, which was crucified: He
is risen; He is not here: Behold the
they laid Him.—Mark
place where
16:1. 6.
| HE Sabbath came and went
over the grave of its Lord.
Silence reigned in Joseph's
garden, broken only by the
mailed sentinels who chat-
ted and laughed by the
sealed sepulcher.
what the disciples did on the Sabbath
day. Probably they spent the day in
close retirement in some upper room, §
Their thoughts were nailed te that
Cross on Calvary, and their spirits
were under the heavy pall of that trag
edy of Good Friday.
We can never understand the utte.
misery and desolation of those hours
between Christ’s death and His Resur-
rection. Our faith rests on the cen-
turies; and when we read of the Cru-
cifixion we have in mind the glory of
Easter morning. But to the disciples,
all their hopes had been shattered, all
their plans frustrated, and all their
love buried in Joseph's toinb, A resur-
rection did net enter into their
i thoughts at all, and therefore their
' testimony is the more valuable. Trre,
they had heard Jesus say that He
We do not Know |
|
|
would rise again, but they had inter- !
preted that in a sort of future and |
| «gince Jesus lives, we cannot die,
symbolic sense,
Before dawn, the women mentioned
in our text, perhaps with some others,
started for the sepulcher bearing their
spices and ointments with which they
expected to finish the embalming of
the blessed body of their Lord. A
resurrection had no place in their
thoughts.
the dead, not to greet the living. Their
one great concern was: Who would
help them to roll away the stone which
sealed the tomb, and which was too
great for their united strength? As
they draw near they see that the stone
is rolled away, and so little did they
think of a resurrection, that the open
tomb brought them only perplexity and
grief.
The Gospels were not written for the
curious, but for the devout. They are
most silent therefore, where myth and
They came to minister to
legend would be most garrulous. Here
we are told nothing of the wondrous
Resurrection. Did He awake alone?
Or was He attended by the heirarchy
of heaven? We are told only what
concerns mankind, viz., the sufficient
manifestation of Jesus to His people
of His Resurrection.
We can reconstruct something of the
events of that first Easter morning |
from the Gospel accounts. First the
women come and find the tomb empty.
Mary Magdalene immediately runs
back to the city and tells Peter and
John about it. They rush out to the
garden of Joseph, John, the younger :
man, taking the lead. The women
have left. Peter enters the tomb and
sees the linen clothes which had cov-
ered the body of Jesus, and there
begins to dawn upon them something
of the meaning of the words of Jesus,
“On the third day I shall rise again.”
Mary comes back and Peter and
John have gone, and no one is there
to explain what has taken place; so
she stands by the sepulcher and pours
out her distress in tears.
Now comes the first revelation ot
the risen Christ. “Mary,” He says, in
the well-known voice of love and ten-
derness, and in a moment all her sor-
row is turned into joy. It is always
so when the risen Christ comes inte
a life. The living Christ is the world's
great joy-bringer. Without Him, our
thoughts can only be thoughts of
death. With Him we enter into the
conception of the larger life, of which
tis is only the outer court,
Life! Death! They seem to be the
very antipodes of thought. We have
come to look upon them as mutually
exclusive, but Jesus has taught us
that out of life death is to arise.
The Resurrection of Jesus is the
anchor of our Christian faith, We live
in a day when men seek positive
grounds of thought and action, and the
enduring power of the Resurrection is
not a sentiment but a fact. A senti-
ment has its day. Phases of mere
feeling pass rapidly over the genera-
tions of men, like clouds over our
heads, but the fact of the Risen Christ
remains. In the strength of that cer
tainty Paul went forth to his great
missionary labors. In the strength of
that, Peter went unafraid to his own
crucifixion. In the strength of that,
the soldiers of Christ in all ages have
stood fast in the faith, quit themselves
like men, and endured unto the end.
The Easter Gospel is the Gospel ot
all comfort. “If Christ be not risen
then is our preaching vain, and your
faith is also vain.” So says St. Paul,
and then comes his triumphal shout of
certainty: “But now fis Christ risen
from the dead, and become tle first.
friuts of them that slept!” That is the
Gospel of comfort which this world ot
sorrow and death needs so much, That
is the glad and glorious Gospel of
Easter Day. Today we seek, not a
dead Christ, but a living one, and then,
may it soon be our bliss to see the
Risen Savior face to face, as did Mary
on that very first Easter morning.
. Roman,
faster Baw
By Elsye Tash Sater
a
a | 4 IS Easter dawn,” the
say,
“And Christ, our Lord, is
risen today.
Let every heart be glad.”
But in God's acre far away,
@ lies, who once was blithe and gay,
My heart with dole is sad.
lilies
“What means the Easter dawn to me?"
{ asked in gray despondency;
“My life is drenched and dead.”
The lillies quivered as in pain,
‘The one you love will live again,
And ever live,” they said.
Tor us He came on earth to buy
A life eternal. There
Within a mansion safe, they, too,
Now live, the dearest ones we knew,
Secure. from pain and care.”
“0 lilies, teach my heart to sing
This anthem of your risen King,
That I may learn to live.”
Their fragrant censers looked at me
*n love, and whispered tenderly:
“Yourself more freely give.”
Jerusalem,
Holy City of
the Jems
==] EW cities in the world have
Z | had a history so varied and
0 tragic as Jerusalem, the holy
EAR
7
— ter all Christian eyes are
turned. So catastrophic have been the
changes that have taken place that
the modern traveler in Jerusalem can
scarcely visualize the city as it ex-
isted in the time of Christ. So com-
plete was the destruction of the old
city that it has been only with the
greatest difficulty that the sites men-
tioned in the life of Christ have been
sven approximately identified.
It was probably in the year 29 thau
the crucifixion occurred, and in 70 the
rity was completely destroyed by Ves-
pasian and Titus. With the exception
»f several towers left a8 monuments
to Titus, and a quarter of the city on
nigh ground, Jerusalem was razed to
the ground, and for a period of 60
years lay in ruins. It was not until
136 that the Emperor Hadrian built on
the old site the new city of Aelia
Oapitolina as a home for veteran sol-
fiers. Jews were rigorously excluded
from Aelia, which became a typical
Greek city, reflecting all the phases of
Byzantine development. When the
smperors became Christians the name
of the city was changed back to Jeru-
salem, and Christian rather than Jew-
‘sh memories were cherished.
In the Seventh century the Saracens
captured Jerusalem, holding it until
1099, when it was wrested from the
Moslems by the Crusaders, who held
it for a stormy and uncertain 90 years.
The Crusaders were driven out by
Baladin in 1187, and from that time
until the capture of Jerusalem by the
British in the great World war the
city was under the rule of the Mos-
tems. Saracen caliphs, Egyptian sul-
tans and Ottoman Turks in turn were
masters of the Holy City, but it was
not until 1840 that the European pow-
ers officially recognized Moslem suv-
ereignty in Jerusalem. Through the
long centuries of misrule and oppres-
sion, Christian and Jew dreamed of
the day when the crescent would be
driven out of Palestine forever, a day
that has only recently dawned.
Taken as a whole, the Jerusalem ox
today is a typical Saracen city. Its
more conspicuous features date from
the time of Saracen occupation, and
even where Saracen builders used old
material they gave the remodeled
architecture their own peculiar stamp
that makes it Moslem. The ‘'l'emple
area Is Saracen; the old city walls are
Saracen, although the foundations are
The older churches and a
ramber of substantial structures date
fiom the occupation of the Crusaders.
Or ancient Jerusalem there is little
to he discovered and much less to be
seen. Little remains as it was prior
to the coming of the Saracens and the
Crusaders. Oniy a few tombs and the
substructure of the Temple are left
to tell the story of the Jerusalem of
Christ, of David and Solomon,
city of the Jews and the
sacred city to which at Eas-
ip
. x
* An Easter 1
+ Message nf I
+ Hope I
Sefer fee dee
! HRIST is risen!” is the
regular salutation all over
eastern Christendom on
Easter Sunday morning,
It is the re-echo of the
wonder cry of the first
Christians as the realization at last
forced !{iself upon them that the im-
possible had happened ; Christ js risen!
They had found it such a bitter thing
to lay their beloved Master dead In
the grave. Death always is bitter, us-
ually almost impossible to bear un
against.
Of His death the disciples were cer-
tain; of their grief there could be ne
doubt. Every one of us who owns a
little plot of holy ground. consecrated
to us by what we could see through
tears of an open grave, of falling clods
of earth going to earth, can sympe
thize with them. We know what the
blackness of that darkness is, from
whence there comes no response te
wr cry.
“Christ is risen!” The message
came on the first day of the week, with
the risen Savior Himself as its proof.
Sorrow fled, the blackness of the grave
was changed into brightness of joy un-
speakable; “Christ is risen!” The
grave had not imprisoned Him! Death
had not conquered Him! His own
pierced body was there again, endued
with thrilling life once more. Ask His
mother. She knows her Son. In the
ecstasy of love, too full of joy even
to wonder, hear her answer—‘'He fig
| sen, indeed!”
| Ay, Christ is risen! And the grave
has not hurt Him. Nay, He is the more
glorious for it! His body is now su-
perior to time and space, or to any of
. their laws; just as the Easter lily Is
superior to the bulb you hid in the
ground ; or, as the waving core field is
Yetter than the bare grain in the sack.
And the loved ones, even the little
ones we laid with such sorrow in the
. grave, they, too, will rise in like man-
ner, all the better; ay, ever so much
better for the death which makes the
resurrection possible! Just as we, too,
taken apart, bit by bit, by the tender
alchemy of the grave, as the watch-
maker takes apart a watch, shall be
put together again, purified, glorified,
‘0 go on forever, and forevermore.
Easter Bay
By Mary Graham Bonner
Many people are wearing
flowers,
fi The church bells are ring.
ing, people are hurrying to
thurch in a new, vigorous, glad spirit.
The choirs are singing. The congre-
gations sing, too.
“Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!™
The air still holds some of the win.
ter’s chill within it, but there is, too,
the warmth of spring to be felt.
Everyone feels it. Everyone is smil-
‘ng, happy, gay.
They are wishing each other “A
Happy Easter.”
Children have been given gay Easter
“ggs and they have been given choco-
late bunnies with sweet chocolate eox-
pressions on their little chocolate
fices; even their ears are alert in their
chocolate fashion.
New clothes are being worn. Or old
ones are spruced up.
There is new life, new courage, nex
joyousness in the alr.
“Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!”
Risen With Christ
It is not possible to he risen with
Ohrist and yet remain on the level nif
those who neither know nor serve Him