Litchfield enquirer., 1857-04-16
For the Litchfeld Enquirer. Easter-Day,

! The solemn season of Lent has passed away, and to those who have followed Lord in his tempta- &tions, his lasts, and his sorrows-who have stood the Marys at the foot of the Cross and watched with them beside the sepuchre, the festival of Eas l ter must be heiled with emotions of joy We all love Christmas, with its song of the angels, s'the goodtidings of great joy, proclaiming the advent of Him, who should be unto Prince and Say four. But amid it's most peang anthems, ever lmingles sad refrain, whispering of weary path those sacred feet must tread-of thorny crown-of bleeding death In our songs of Easter, there are none but notes of rejoicing for the theme is risen Lord We gaze not upon the manager of Bethlehem,
 but upon an open tomb; while feel that His suf-
 fering work earth is finished, and He has but to ascend unte His God and our God.''
 Neither do VIC deck our altars and our homes with evcrgreens at Christmas although they a,e a fitting token of immortality for the outward world wears no longer her wintry garb-and each blade of grass with its '' timid hue of green-each l bursting bud-are sweet emblems of the resurrec- tion As the warm breath of Spring leaves its trace on the widening earth recalling it from it's tran sient sleep to another life, the Spirit of the Lord ' breatlles but upon the slan and tcy shall live Nor is the recurrence of Spring the only wonder of Nature which may bc regarded as symbolical of 1 the immortality of the soul The bursting of the butterfly ill its new form, from the chrysas, ap- peared even to the partial knowledge of the an cients, dim promise of their own escape from the
 tomb. Under the clearer light of the Gospel, it is still prizcd as an ever present type of our destin- tion to existence joyous as theirs and not like theirs, eplcmcral.
 Surrounded VIC arc by these assurances of a re- surrection how swcety do our thoughts revert to these loved ones, who sleeping in the grave, will yet arise at their Redcemcrs call to a home above How surely does Hope. like the fabled bird of old spring from their buried ashes and soar above the Earth, until our dim eye, it follows her upward flight, spark.cs in the pure sunshine of Heaven
 While Easter brings to us then such sweet medit;.- ! tions, it cannot be too highly prizcd.
 We know i'll many countries. where religion is more q form than reality, the ceremonies of Holy Week remind us strongly of the pomp and absurd ties of pagan rites And among the throng who kneel beneath the dome of St. Peters on Easter , Sunday there is perhaps but little more of {, pure Christian belief than could have been found eighteen hundred years ago, with the heather crowds at the temple of the Pantheon
 But we trust all to whom it appears day teem- ing with dear associations and cheering promises do not celebrate it with empty show ceremony or as
 signal to return to the casting and frivolity of worldly life, after the sefdcnials of Lent The pa rade and folly of its celebration by the Romish Church, like the gaiees of their Carnival, is an exhibition peculiar to their shewy but hcartless cer emonials As commemoratins the most glorious event that ever occurred upon the earth may it long be honored in Church nor will We ever
 love less the other Sabbaths of the year, because one link in the golden chain of happy days is brighter 1 than the others. ",