Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1896-04-02
IT Is THE DAY.
By Stanley Waterloo.

1t is Easter. II is the day perhaps
nearest to the hearts of those who hold
the Christian faith. 1t is the ami
versary of the day upon which tbs
gentle crucitled Jew, Jesus whom we
accept as the Son of God, came forth
alive again from a coffin made from a
space hewed in a rock and blocked
by great stone.
That rising was in the sequence of
events which made Christian the
world of today. That rising was wha,
is making strong the course Of the
controlling mass among the creatures
who fit about upon this particular
planetary crust, and who have be-
lief i'll their own Immortality. Had
the more potent Eortion of humanity
not accepted Christ as risen, there
would have been some other belief
some other hope and grasping for
after-death welfare among the inhab-
itants of this one among the millions
and billions of planets revolving in all
space. The rising completed the
Christian story. The Son had gone to
the Father as an emissary, forever
pleading in behalf of the creature we
call man, Himself a man, He went
back to Heaven to be ever our AM
bassadoT And so it is that through
out the Christian world it is the
sweetest of all hopeful days, this an
nlVersary of that day when Christ
assembled to His own again.
What matters it that learned skeptics
says that Easter is but the adaptation
to Christian use of an ancient holiday
in gloritication over life and spring
and the birth of all things. It matters
not what the beliefs or legends were
before, since we accept the story of the
Child of Bethlehem, and stake our flu
ture upon the promise of the man
grown who died for us. The heather
legends of the early man are but as
nothing, whether the Son of the Ruler
of the Universe came to us nearly 1000
years ago or yesterday. We accept
the belief and we are happy in Easter
day
1t is wonderful and very sweet the
thought of that morning when the
gentle, murdered Man, who was both
Man and God, felt from the Father
the quickening pulse and knew that
His awful trial was over and that the
world had been redeemed.
1t was of all mornings the most
beautiful, if we may judge from the
weak human story, or if we judge from
our own conception of what it must
have been. The gloom of night was
dissipating, the lighter haze of morn
was apparent upon the far Instant
Judcan hills, though there was dark
ness in the valley still.
But i'll an instant, just as the morn
ing broke, all changed. There was a
rustling Of wings, the wings of angels,
in the darkness; the huge stone
which filled the entrance of that cavern
tomb roled away as lightly as if it
were something wind might lift.
There was a sudden light about the
place and, at the same moment, above
The far eastern hills, the sun, earth'S
light and Ole of Gods OwningS, flung
forth a million brilliant banners. 1t
was day. And, just as day came, went
from earth the Son who is pleading for
us with the Father
1t is very sweet and wonderful, the
story of this Easter day, one of the
greatest observed in our religion 1t is
the day recognized as full of all hope
and promise. 1t is beautiful in the
manner of its observance, with its
flowers and its ringing anthems and
with it's atmosphere of the springtime
and of faith and courage. 1t is blessed,
this Easter day.
rrIII. nEHrT1%INIrT NrISSc ON INTTp