New-York tribune., 1882-04-09
TO.D1Y.

There is no change so marked in the last
twenty years in American social life as the
rapidly increasing Difference paid to the great
religious festivals, OF which Easter is chief. 1t
was not likely that they would lie respected
during the first century. Our Puritan and
Quaker forefathers abhorrcd and disrcgarded
them all, including Christmas, as relics Of
Popcry and the cavalier Ylrgnians, though
nominal ChuIchmcn, too often harddrnlting,
gambling and profpne scapegraccS, were not
likely to bring any profound reverence for holy
days over the seas with them. Now, however,
apart from the churches which always keep
them, in almost all the various sects Obscrv-
ancc, more or less marked, is paid to Good
Friday and Easter and Il general recognition
is given to them by the non n-church- going
public, IN trade and social usages The reason
is probably that as We as Il Nation grow
broader and more refined in our culture, we
are apt to indulge more in symbolic expIes-
sions of truths, emotions or beliefs We do
not perhaps believe Il whit more firmly in the
birth of Christ than did the grim Puritan, wor
shipping with his gun cooked beside him ready
TO shoot his Indian brother; but it suits the
kind and temper of our civilization now better
to make that event and its meaning tangible in
Christmas emblems of brothelly love, in blazing
household fires, happy children and gifts.
Staid old MethOdists and Quakers genera
ton or two ago were just rs certain as we are
that they should rise from the dead but it
peases this generation to set apart one day on
which this great hope for the world shall be en-
forced and brought home to everybody 10y SYM
bOlc pictures, by the first flowers Of the spring,
by the pIans of triumphant music and rejoicing
psalms a great many good people frown on
all such observances, and hint cynicaly that
the keeping of Good Friday is passing fashion
derived from the Catholics and Epscopaians,
and that the festival of Easter itself was first
III reality Pagan feast. Yet is not that
fashion, or any one, useful and commendable
which brings those who follow it for whatever
reason to face the gravest and most vital of
truths } What sound objection can the most
vehement enemy of church forms who pro-
fesses to be a Christian give to the surrender of
one day in the year to the consideration of his
Saviour hanging upon the accursed tree
Even to the secular outsider it seems unreason-
able in him to be willing to close his bank or
shop to do honor to the anniversary of his
country's birth into freedom and to refuse to
of its salvation. Every day in the year, in our
driving, practical American life, is given up to
making preparation for comfortable old age,
or securing material provision for the lives OF
our children; the more days that we snatch
from this work to contemplate OF prepare for
that other wider life beyond death, the more
we prove our claim TO the higher kind of reason
and prudence the less we living souls resem-
bic the beasts III our aims.
Easter was Pagan feast, but it did not
originate in Paganism; it had its birth back Of
those earliest and partially true religions, in
Nature itself. Did it ever occur to ouI readers
to imagine what agonies OF terror and despair
those earliest human beings endured when the
fist night fell in the yet unknown world or
when the first winter left the earth bare or
when the first dead body lay before them
Easter is the sign of their rejoicing when the
sun rose again and brought the morning, and
the spring came and warmed the earth into in