The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-04-24
" CHRIST Is RISEN"
BRIGHT, JOYOUS EASTER SUNDAY.
A Day Made Sacred by the Resurrec-
ton of Our Blessed Saviour.
New York Herald, April 6.

A Day Made Sacred by the Resurrec-
tiOn of Our Blessed Saviour.
New York Herald, April 81
Easter Sunday, when compared with
the rank and file of the year, is like a
general who rides amid the plaudits of
his army, the symbol Of victory on his
helm.
AS Mont Blanc rises amid the lesser
Alps, piercing the clouds with its sheen
of weird and mystic beauty, SO towers
this day above all other days, bearing
OH its front significance more pro-
found and splendor more transcend
ent.
On Good Friday the shadow OF
death, horizons wide, covered the heav-
ems from view. So o'erclouded was
the earth that grief and loss were alone
in sight. The life the Nazarene, a
life of self-sacrifce for the peoples
sake, had ended in the martyrs doom.
He was born of race that has never
ceased to excite the admiration OF the
historical critic. He followed IN the
footsteps Of the earlier prophets, but
was so much more far seeing and au-
tocratic that His claim to be the Son
of God was acknowledged with hosan
mas when he entered Jerusalem in tri-
umph. But His career was abruptly
brought to a close and His body laid
in the tomb.
That grim tyrant, Death, who rules
mortality with relentless sway, drives
young and old alike, disdaining all
favoritism, into the gloom OF the Here
after, had demanded and accepted His
surrender. From that Friday after
noon until the third morning there
after, when the sun rose above the hill
tops of the Judean landscape, his dis
ciples were broken hearted, and the
prophecy that He would rise again
was regarded as the hgment of an en-
thusiast's fancy. They were drowned
in the rising tide of their unspeakable
disappointment and chagrin. The
King had succumbed and apparently
contradicted His own glowing words
of promise. There was nothing left
but to return to their humble voca-
tions and forget their hopes and
dreams as best they could.
But the third morning came, and
with it the most astonishing occurrence
that ever stirred the pulse. The tomb
was empty! Death had been robbed
of his victory! Grim Death, who
claimed all, had surrendered to a
mightier than himself.
With that empty tomb in view, i'm
mortality became a radiant fact.
Hearts stood still in unutterable amaze
men: and eyes unused to tears were
drenched in brine. The doors of
another world swung wide on their
golden hinges and new and higher
motive throbbed in the bosom of the
race.
Since then larger faith like an
anchor, has held our vessel in the
storm. As Lowell sings:-
And when our breakers to leeward
The tattered surges are hurled,
will keep our head to the tempest
With its grip on the base of the world.
Another life assured when this one
is spent changes men into gods.
Since there are numberless other
horizons when the soul in its journey
has passed the boundary line of time
we count all present Joys as mere buds
which shall blossom and bear ripened
fruit in some distant cline.
If the resurrection be falsehood it
is the most blessed untruth that was
ever vouchsafed to man.
From that falsehood is fashioned by
the cunning hand of smiles and sor-
rows the manifest character, ennobled
by the loftiest aims which philosophy
can conceive or rhetoric portray.
If the resurrection be a fact, the
very mountains, which crumble with
the ages, are moved to envy of the
high estate OF humanity.
The earth itself shall grow feeble
with time and fall at last into the air
like handful of dust, but the spirit of
man, undimmed by passing aons, shall
live forever in the "house not made
with hands,
Easter Sunday, then, allows us the
sacred privilege of planting flowers on
the graves of dear ones of submitting
with calm resignation to the ordeal Of
separation of gazing through hopeful
tears into the infinite spaces of Gods
universe in the firm and immeasurable
conviction that what seems the end is
but the beginning, and that parting is
only the nrelude to rerninn