The daily gazette., 1879-04-12
Easter Sunday.
A brief Sketch Of the day and its I'm
DOrt


With tomorrow comes the close of
Lent. For forty days the followers of
Christ have been in the desert of mourn
ing and humiliation, but ihe season of
penitence Is nearing It's close, and in a
few hours they will be joining in peans
OF Joy and praise commemorative of the
Saviour's triumph over sin and death.
There Is no time in the Church like Eas-
terrible. With Christmas she has rec oll-c.
tions Of the birth of Christ, but with
Easter comes the RESURRECTION the corner
stone upon which the structure Of Chris
tendon stands.
Eighteen and half centuries have
slipped by since that Sabbath day when
the Roman guards kept sentry over the
sepulshre in which the remains of tho
Christ crucified had been LAID. "On the
third day l shall rise again." He had
said TO his murderers. and they, fearing
that the predictions of the man whom
they had secuted as a false prophet
might still be fulfilled, induced Pontius
Plate to surround the tomb with cor
don of knights of the Empire. But fu-
tile were the precautions. The Sabbath
passed away, and then came Mary with
spices to perform her mission of love.
The scene that met her gaze showed
that the prediction had been fulfilled.
The guards were speechl ess. The pom
derous stone no longer blocked the
mouth of the tomb, but, some distance
away, was affording seat for an angel.
G Greater than all, where once was the
corpse the Saviour himself appeared in
glory. 1t is this grand event which on
Sunday the Church commentaries, and
the voices of joy and praise fifty demon
strate the continued devotion Of Chris
tendon TO the anniversary of the dawn
of the Church.
Unlike Christmas, Easter Sunday has
no fixed date, 1t is what Is known as a
"movabe feast" IL may come az early AZ
NJ arch 22 or as late as April 25. Centur-
les ago the churches in Western Europe
observed the Sunday nearest to the jew
ish month Nisan, or March, about the
time of the vernal equinox.
The Asiatic Churches changed this,
and, adopting the fourteenth day of Nj
san, celebrated the festival Of Easter on
the third day following, no matter what
day that was. Thus two sections Of the
Church celebrated the festival at differ
ent periods Finally a council at Nice
decided that the festival should be cele-
brated upon the first Sunday after the
full moon which happens upon or after
Mar. q land ifthe fullmoon happened the
Sunday then Easter should be the Sunday
following. This arrangement has since
been s:eadfastly adhered to. The word
Easier comes from the Saxon "oster,"
meaning arising. Easter ushers in spring,
the season in which all nature rises anew.
The Lenten services in the Catholic
and Episcopal churshes are now drawing
to close. In the former, they are of the
most impressive character, and yesterday
the usual services commemorative Of the
crucifixion and death of Christ were
held. In the evening the Tenebrae was
sung, and at st. Peters Church Bishop
Becker preached an able sermon appro-
pirate to the occasion. To-day the ser
vices will be of deep solemnity, indica-
tive of the Saviour in the tomb, while to-
morrow they will joyfully celebrate the
| resurrection of Christ from the dead. The
The altar and church decorate ans will be
the most elaborate character, in both the
Catholic and Episcopal churches.