St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-04-22
SERMONS OF EASTER.
Rev. H. M. Simmons on east
err, the Goddess of
Morn
Rev. D. j. Burrell Considers
the Resurrection of the
Body.
Rev. M. D. Shutter on "The
Thought of immortal
ity."
Rev. w. j. Lhamon on "The
Proof of the ReSurree-
tiOn.''

Rev. H. NJ. Simmons, at the First
Unitarian church, told of the orthodox
woman who said to some heretics,
'What right have you pagans to keep
Eastern" But he said the Easter name
and the Easter festival originated
among pagaDs, and were kept by our
ancestors long before they ever heard
OF Christianity, and cannot be truly
kept to-day without large regard to
their pagan meanings. Easter was first
the name of the goddess of the dawn,
and takes US back to the poetic and
plous days when men saw every sun
rise visit of the gods and call to wor-
ship. This meaning might still be kept
with advantage. For the rosy morning
sky, which seemed to them as the robe
OF goddess, is still more wonderful
when science tells how the robe is
woven with threads of light shot from
the sun in ceaseles shuttles that fly so
many thousands of miles every second
and do their work SO truly. Each dawn
still tells of divine power more faith
ful than the Roman JOve OF Jewish
Jehovah. Easter afterWard came to mean
the arrival of the rising sun at the
exact Eastern point in spring. and the
new dawn of life that then begun. This
meaning can still be kept with growing
worship. For better than the stories
told of the origin of the old Easter
Paschal feast, are the familiar facts of
spring to-day. The rod with which
Moses raised the waters to drown the
Egyptians, was OF small account CON-
pared with the myriad rods and twigs
and tree-trunkS which are raising waters
high over our heads this morning to
bring, not death, but life and leaf and
flower and fruit; and that PaSchal
feast for single people was poor COM
pared with this one spread SO impartially
for all nations and creatures, and our
natural feelings of thanks and Joy for
these blessings are just as religious as
singing psalms, and more religious than
thanking God that we are holier than
other people. The lambs and doves
offered in the old religion were sacred;
but so are the birds singing in our trees
to-day. and to hear them sing is better
worship than to sacrifice them or to
teach that God demanded the sacrifice
of his own son.
Growing grasses from the sod,'
Stlll reveal the smile Uf God;
Buds upon the balmy air
JON III anthem and in prayer;
Birds upon the dewy lawn
Chant their mathis at the dawn,
And at evening in the grove,
Sing their vesper hymns of love-
And even the third and peculiar
Christian meaning of Easter is far
greater than that mere res direction of
Jesus body which the churches are
wont to celebrate. He has risen in far
better ways than his disciples taught.
His name has lasted longer than they
thought the world was going to, and
has spread through continents which
they never knew; and his spirit of hui
manity and love is still spreading with
good men, when they die, only s:ioin
the choir invisible whose music is the
gladness of the world" does more than
any story of bodily resurrection to con-
firm the faith in the immortality of
spirit.