Smyrna times., 1877-02-21
sc eI/u22 z OMS
The Lanten Season.


To-day begins the Fast Of the Forty Davs
IN the Wilderness. Yesterday was Shroye
Tuesday and Feastias; to-day is Ash We'd
nasday and .ng--~9rc;al and ccremo-
nous fasting We mean, :ov many Of Gods
poor have had something like Ash We'd
nos'4y ali Winter long. Nor VIII there
now among the wril-to-do, however precise
iii religious observance, be any abstinence
very trying to the mortal frame. save with
the rrofessad religious and ascetic. The
Church, IN this country at least, consider
;tteiy teInpara the aUSter!tios Of the season.
permits suilieient consumption OF flesh to
inalntain hard workers in health, and
leaves the general regulation Of the matter
to the bishops. The material pecularitics
OF Lent are soon disposed of, and the morti-
lcatlon Of the body is an old resource for
strengthening faith and weakening the
heshly appetities. Its spiritual suggestions
are OF higher import. 1t recalls that divine
seli-abnegation, that terrible suffering, that
anguish OF which mere mortals can form no
conception, which preceded the ultimate
agony OF the cross. 1t renews, or should
renew, our awful sense of that mysterious
struggle between the divine and human
nature, which resulted in the victory over
death and the gravc-the infinite traredv
and triumph Of the REDEMPTION. To all
who are making OF life only long career
OF woridiiness and Of seihshness: to all who
SHRINK from any pain, physical or mental
70 all who see in existence only an oppor.
tunIty OF aggrandzement or of qualification.
Tue whole story Of those days that preceded
the death at which all nature shuddered
must De simply incOmprehensibe. They
speak the words which are ritually pre-
Scf!oed; they attend carefully to the admO-
A!tlons OF the Church, and are dilgcnt fire.
quehters OF her temples; they sing what is
70 DC sung, and they say what is to be said;
Out OF the Infinite significance Of all this
little!
Men who make no professions, but who
are OF a spiritually philosophical or of
rIeverently poetical nature sitting in the
loneliness Of their chambers. and recalling
the unsatisfying bitterness of their lives,
may catch giimpcs Of the perfect Justice
ana !niieXlble yeracity Of the divine scheme.
winch never come to eyes often closed in
prayer, or to deyotees kneeling daily under
the fretted vault, and every morning bathed
N the prismatic glory of the orole. For il
Is true that while our religion is fitted alike
Tor the thoughtful and thoughtless, and
''''' CibCil H. lilG attention OF the ignorant
While 1t fails to arrest that Of the cultivated.
yet not the less is it full of the loftiast
truth, and in its whole immeasurable
sublimity cannot be. humanity speaking.
comprehcnded by the deepest intellect
But to all, and this is the chief of its
miracles, it brings all which is necessary
consolation, courage, and hope, and even
true sense Of that woudrous mercy and
that divine plan through which came the
teconcilatlon. The world, in this nine
,eenIh century, has grown very rcstive
IIr IIHter the perfectly congruous conditions of
,.:.n el and OF unbelief; and many sharp
..''ed men have sought to sweep con
soHiptuously aside all the great doctrines
ppm which the Church is buiIded. One BY
m oi:e' under the exorcism of philosophy, of
YS'eIee, OF chronology, of logic, they disap-
pear, the eyes Of the skeptical are to be
ttLeai'ed. ttd Yet it is perfectly literal fact
tl,. tl"' TINS very morning greater number of
o:eheVers in the whole scheme Of Chris.
Iahity walk the earth or kneel ,upon il.
. AUNT Its temples and cling to its altars,
ttpt"t Its creeds and sing its doxologics,
desert. '''0 "i'' '"'U III 'iic
=, we sometimes say that the day Of mira
CSs; 1es mas passed; yet this very perpetuity of
rG;nnl!ssllanlty, its constant growth, its supe-
aoy aooilTy over science, its dominion over all
rSa r"olal arrangements, its steady influence
mon npon our methods of thought, its perpetual
PPi;Sscnce P;SS:nce which will not down at the
,ng Utaaing OF any charmer, charm he never SO
"i.seiy-what is all this but a greater
a. ,LLlracie than most which are recorded in
ro,, rnc sacred narrative? According to all
%o %Urlaly rules, the Church should long ago
tIn s'e utterly disappeared from the face of
ia".. .e"rtil, destroyed, if in no other way, at
ob;IS & oy the errors and infidelities of its
wbattn' ben' But of all human powers,
perpetual and immortal mistross States.
men must heed it moralists must rsrse recog.
"iAe 1t; philanthropists, must invoke its !