New-York tribune., 1879-04-12
rp, vopx n.uy SUPPLEMENT-

telligence to see in the budding of the Spring
! q prophecy of the final triumph OF lire over
! death and singularly enough, they each SGT
| apart n day in April to rejoice III that VIC
tory. II WAS AIriman struggling WIN
Olmuzd: it was the sun destroying DarkneSS'
il was the good goddess Ocstre bringing ire
from under the snow but whatever fantaNuc
shape the belief assumed it was always
prompted by that supreme yet feeble nope ID
the soul of the poor hcathen, grODIng MS
life long for the truth" When ! am dead, II
"shall not be forever. / too shall I'VE
"again"
cone accent of the Holy Ghost the heed
L" less world hath never lost " /; and the Holy
Ghost sometimes spoke very PLAIN words 10
these people through Nature and the pam anu
affections of their own human hearts 1here
is nothing more pathetic than this w0rld-"lde
hope in "A life beyond death, which expressed
itself in the feast OF Spring. We are OF one
blood after all Pagan, Turk, jew, or Christian
in any age. II il only a man IN dlltereht
dress. with mother or child, somebody VINO
loves him; and with his dead buried under
the earth. and with that horrible doubt In his
mind that he too, going down some day as he
but death and corruption.
Until that Easter Day when Christ arose,
there was no logic nor proof on earth to re-
move that reasonable doubt from any mans
mind Why, then, should not the day be
keptl What does it matter to what sect we
belong. or if we belong to anyf There is not
man among us who will not DIE; ana II
Christ be not risen, there Is not Il man VINO
can hope to rise again. Why not make real
to ourselves this one supreme hope by sym
bolS, by prayers. sermons, flowers or anthems,
or any sign of joy Surely mankind can al
ford one day in the year to thank GOd that
he has made them immortal.
Among all the superb and significant cere-
monials with which the day is celebrated
throughout ChrstendOm there is none which so
touches us or seems so fitting as that OF the
MOravians. On Easter morning before day the
whole community assemble in the graveyard,
or Gods Acre, as they call it, and when the
first beam of the sun touches the earth they
all, to the sound of joyous music, break forth
in triumphant hymns to the risen Christ. Old
men and little children, the husband beside
his wlfe's grave, the mother whose baby
slipped but little while ago from her breast
to sleep in this cold earth on which she stands,
come to tell their dead that He hath arisenj
that there is indeed another world where they
shall meet again.
We may not be Moravians nor Epscopalans,
nor members of any church which observes
the day But there are few of us who do not
sometimes keep our Easter morning. When
the fraud and wretchednesS of this diSjOinted
world grow too hard problem tor us to recon-
ellie with Gods goodness when our own pain
or har,lships are more than we can bear or
when We too, 90 to the Gods Acre we know
of, and stand beside a little green hillock
which las more meaning to us than all the
great earth beside, we sing a pTan in our
souls, to which no man can give words, TO
Him who on that Spring morning, eighteen
centuries ago, rose and gave to the world and
to us a hereafter where all wrongs shall be
lishted, and from which no friend shall
ever 90 away"