The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-04-09

The lessons of devotion flowing from the
look more to their grand general meaning
than to their individuality. There is. per-
haps, In the popular regard Of this Holy Week
too much of the idea that it was, as it were,
an automaton sacrifice, wherein the Goldman
endured q prescribed agony and then arose
triumphant over sin and death. This, how
ever, is not the light In which it sbonld be
regarded. There is subtitle undercurrent,
pregnant with deep significance, which muir
murs it's solemn tones through it all. This is
the heroic nature of the Passion, which, even
looked on as purely human, places it above all
other of the heroisns Of man. Men die for
ideas, for country, for religion; but the
supreme idea of an existence, TO be butchered
for all mon and for all time, that only the
immortal of humanity might be saved, is a
spectacle which challenges the reverence Of
Atheist and Israelte alike. Sceptical Renan
sentimentalizes over that agony in the Garden
of Olives upon Gethsemane He says, weakly
and insuficiently, 'there is always with great
minds a moment of sad retrospect when the
image of death presents itself for the first
time" Let US look upon that torture Of the
spirit In the dim twilight of the dying day
beneath the shadows of the olive trees. Let
us recall the bitter words uttered at the Last
Supper, showing the supernatural forcknow-
ledge of His doom-"But I say unto you
will not henceforth drink this fruit of the vine
until that day when l drink 1t new
with you in my Fathers kingdom"
We see now all the weakness Of the man war
ring against the assertion Of the God. Bent
upon the earth, His soul tortured by the strug-
gle, tho weakness cries, 20, my Father if it
be possible, let tits cup pass from me-" The
agony proceeds, but the God triumphs, and
He cries, "Thy will be DONE" Here is the
point to be grasped in all our struggles. The
victory Of the cody must, even through the
sweat Of blood, be written high above the
frailty Of the flesh. The soul saddens and
mourns as II sees the dread Lord led in
chains, scoffed al, spat upon, revled and
scourged. A sense of agony absorbs the
heart when it hearkens to that lorn cry upon
the upright cross, my God ! my God why
hast thou forsaken mel" and the tentative
anguish is at last relieved when the story gives
breath to the final stately triumph Of the God
Father, into thy hands / commend my
spirit Down to the rock-hollowed tomb we
follow Him, and the work Of evil seems &C.
complished. The gibing Jews are filed with
scorn because the Truth has persisted, and q
guard of Roman soldiers watch before His
tomb. Can we not avert our eyes from the
miracle of the morrow that will spread the
Word on snowy angel wings over the world,
and gather our lessons from the life and death
alone? The life we can, in its severe sim
plicty, parallel with the trials a1d dangers,
the temptations and agonies which beset US.
In the death the inevitable fate of humanity
is before us. They tell us to develop the
same unruf1ed front to adversity, the undying
boldness for the good and beautiful, the I'M
yielding majesty of the spirit which follows the
line of duty even unto death. No wonder the
Roman Church drapes it's temples, sings its
tenebral services Of shadows, aud strips its
affairs in Difference to the Passion of our Lord.
Others Of less demonstrative crecds may con-
tent themselves with the shadows of the
spirit, but all who believe in the saving grace
OF Christs sacrifice feel the solemn presage of
the week just merged in the light of this
Eastern morn.