Connecticut western news., 1896-03-26

U 1t grows in public esteem
 and becomes more closely associated with social and religious ob- :crvance. On the other hand, Whitsuntide, orpetuating the Penteoostal miracle of he gift of tongues, once ur'iar the old lapal regime, crowned with quite as much ceremony and romance, has been greatly shorn of It's dignity. The skill of human ,rtifce, by which the teaching, Jesus, so imple, practical and pelluojd, has ramifled ato such complex structure of theory md organization Is moro wonderful than my marvel of steel and iron. The one has .,arnessed the spirit; the other matter The record of either Is moro fascinnt- ug story than any chapter of wholesale laughter from Nebuchadnezzar to Na2o- con. Thcse and nll like them have been ant to grass, while tho splendors of reh
 .ious conquest shine with increasing glory nd have shot their tentaoles through all he parts of the social body. Nowhere do ye find better example of the subtle policy by which Christianity has subju- gated the most intelligent sections of the human race than in the institutions known
 $ It's holidays. While the growth of t!csse 7as in part spontaneous 1t was further
 unrtle<i by the wisdom of the serpent us we'll as by the innocence of the dove.
 It was inevitable that the birth of the founder of Chr ,tianity should become a celebration of paramount importance. There was no Jew to the exact day nor he month nor even tho season In which he Prince of Peace" to use the most beautiful of all the titles of Jesus, wa lorn into this wicked, bloodth hirsty hu- nanity of ours. At different times In the very early period it was supposed to be Al 1e No lst to the 9th of January, and again about tt the time of the ivernal equinox. Finally the primitive fathers manufactured suit. ,,le date, which would conneot the evanl adissolubly with the religious naturalisn. sad symbolism of the pagan world, there v disarming opposition and linking tho ,hristian faith with the whole continuity religious belief The time of the win ar solstice witnesses the very earliest re- laissance of dead nature. Then the sum- be- .ins his northward journey, which is so i'd in the fervor and exuberance of sum- Ter. That was the period of the Roman aturnalias when universal peace and good will relaxedakhe iron discipline of society wherever the Imperial eagles were plant |. Then the Druids, crowned with mis- letoe and holly, performed the most sacred acriflces of the year in the depths of the Yrest. Then the Teutonio pagans lit grent
 res, and for a week worshiped with a ort of mad jubilee at the altar of the sun od, Balder. The philosophy of adopting ais most universal and joyous of all
 eathen festivals as the period uf celebrat- ag the birth of Jesus Christ is at once ap-
 lrent It helped to make the heathen at ome in their new religious clothes.
 The date of Easter, oommemoratiDg the esurrection from the grave of, the oruci- led Saviour, needed no such selective and arbitrary choice. It's motive, being the inal climax and oonseoration of Christ 8 mission in the minds of his followers, was not less thrilling and significant than that ,f his birth. From the earliest period of ,cclesiasticism 1t was endowed with the most gorgeous pomp and attire of outward devotion. The church then smiled @be- nignly on Its devotees, bade them dance 70 tho sound of pipe and tabor, enjoined he wearing of the freshest garments as If Ioing to 8 bridal and permitted the free enjoyment of all reasonable fieshly as well IS of spiritual delights. As one of the fa- thers of the church quaintly observed, "For as by this day all flesh was raised rom it's swinish detoulment, to be cleansed sn a spiritual fountain, so all its delights 10 become Innocent and of sweet savor to he children of God" This was before the lay when savage austerity and hate of the harmless things of the body were made ny ohurchly teaching the highest evolution If the saintly life
 The Biblical record, of course, fixed the ate by its association with the Hebraie assover. Whatever controversy there cew out of 1t was narrowed within cer- ain definite bounds not connected with | any uncertainty as to time. Yet this | tempest in a teapot embroiled all Chris | tendon for hundreds of years and is today | one of the cardinal points of difference be | tween the Greek and Roman churches. Ii l may be expressed in a nutshell. The early | hristians promptly adopted the symbol | 'sm of the situation. Christ was the tru> Pasohai Lamb, pre1gured In the animal sacrifice of the ancient passover feast So the Christian passover was the resur rection, and the oommemoJation of thu season fixed itself by the analogy. Thos, churches of the first century most closet, Hebraic in their sympathies followed th' nld rite e1actly-that is, made the celebra tion on the I4th day of the first month being the lunar month of which the 14tt day either falls on or next follows tn vernal equinox. But the western Chris tian calendar attached more importance t. the fact that Christ arose from the deat on Sunday. the first day of the week, an, SO they celebrated Easter on the Sunda, following the 14th day of the moon o March From this slight rent widened great ohasm, and the question of disoiplin finally hardened into one of dogma. Aft CT three centuries of battle the majorit of the churches accepted the rule announc ed by the council of Nice in S25, whicl allowed for the differences between tn Jewish and Julian calendars. This con stitutes the rule of the church today, 8 that the Easter festival ranges betwee the possibilities of March 22 and April 2s So much for chronology dressed up into
 theological puppet, about which disciple of the Prince of Peace imprecated the tel TOTS of endless hell on e"ch others head for more than three oentufiesl As Christ mas gradually crystallized about itsel other beautiful myths which had fowere out of heathendom, 50 like wise Easter. Tn period of the vernal equinox, the begir ming of the true or astronomical spring was one of religious observance and rejoit ing in all the religions which Christianit supplanted in Europe as we'll Rs In tn east. The name of Raster indeed wa adopted from that of the Teuronio goddas of spring, Ostera, or Eastre. The ne' Christmas brought with them the jooun thoughts and associations inherited froi the more beautiful side of the old paganrJ and these were wisely accepted and assim Hated. The meetings of the elves in thei fairy rings on Easter eve (there was salyf
 ton even for them); the dancing of tn
 sun in tho sky (who will not recall thos
 lovely verses of quaint old Sir John Suol ling entitled ''Ths Brids," among whio