Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-04-01

tributed to him by Col. Ingersoll? It requires no argument to demonstrate that the mistakes if real. would have been fatal to the commcmOratiOn of the day. The ages cannot pause to cele- brate the anniversary of an untruth, much less can a Christian civilization be perpctuated upon fallacy. The highest flights of American patriotism would not be equal to the task of hon. bring the Fourth of July if there was no anteccdrnt truth upon which to base the national jubilee. The nations natal day means something; it is founded upon historical fact, and because it is fact mighty people unite in anthems and peanS of national rejoicing.
 Historically. Easter commemorates a risen Saviour. Spiritually, it means moro than that. For Redeemer, risen from the grave, enthroned in Henven, typical of human hope and the assured life beyond the tomb, is the embodiment of all religious truth. Jesus predicted his Mcssiahship upon the truths of the Old Testament as well as those he came to reveal. A Messiahship based upon the mistakes of Noses and the other prophets would be incongruous and farcical. Easter, therefore, stands forth as the eternal signal light of great and undying truth. The waves of skepti- sism in all ages have beaten against this rock in vain. Noltaire and Paine and Hume assailed it from varied stand points, but there it shines more luminous than ever. Ingersoll would disdain the tools of the earlier Skeptical writers as others in turn will refuse to use his; but there stands Easter, century after century, to herald to increasing millions the glory of the truth.
 It is sometimes helpful and inspiring to look upon truth from fresh vantage grounds. If we study the truths of the Old Testament as Jesus studied and pro- claimed them, we get better insight into all that is meant by His descent into the dark tomb and His glorious emergence. The books of the Bible, written by various authors at different periods of the worlds history, par taking so largely of local coloring, nodded by the environments of the writers, unless inspired must have ab- sorbcd inevitably some of the contem- porancous beliefs, creeds, maxims and traditions in morals, political economy, philosophy, astronomy, geology, med icine and kindred sciences of the pagan nations. Outside of the Bible all the writings of those ages are more or less pcrmeated with gross errors The most fantastic notions prevailed about the cosmogony of the universe, the nature of the elements, the structure of the globe, the cause and cure of disease, the movements of the heavenly bodies and all the physical phenomena known to man. There was absolutely no escape from the infiltration of these false con- cepts into the books of the Bible, written by variety of authors un. known to each other and living in periods widely separated, unless the writers were inspired by superior ex- istence whom we call God, and whom \ Christ calls by the precious name ot Father. There is no escape from this conclusion by any accepted rule o1 logic.
 But the Bible is free from all these errors. This one characteristic of the sacred writings is alone the greatest miracle of the ages. For though Christ raised the dead He had not the power to raise such tremendous historic fact out of the grave of untruth.
 Easter, then, in commemoratine Christs resurrection, commentaries al ! truth. It is a beacon light of tremen dous significance reaching across the
 ages to the cradle of mankind anc
 sweeping onward into the cons of eter
 nity. J. L. WAITE.