The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-04-18
THE EASTER BELLS.
WHEN THEY FIRST BEGAN TO RING
THEIR INSPIRING MESSAGE.

The First Church Bell Ever Made-How
1t RevOlutionized Church Architecture
and Implanted a New Ceremonial In
the Rites of the Church.
There is nothing more expressive OF
Easter joy than Easter bells. Even more
than the chaste and modest beauty of the
lily, or of vernal flowers massed around
altar and chancel, do their thrilling, exult.
ant tones typify the gladstone spirit OF
Christianity's chief festival, proclaimine
the glorious tidings of Christ triumphant
over death, the inspiring message of eternal
life forevermore. A benson, a psalm of
thanksgiving, an anthem of victory, peals
forth from Easter bells in every Cline cir
cling the earth from pole to pole and softly
| f1uttering heavenward to the great white
throne.
When and where did the first bells ring
out at Eastertide? What manner of folk
were the first worshipers who listened
with rapt attention to their commanding
and clamorous call? Was it in Palestine
or Egypt or Greece or the farther western
countries? Many times have thoughtful
Christians asked themselves this same
question, and great is the number who
would be glad to know the answer. TIC
learn it we must take look backward
over nearly Is centuries, before the great
| schism of 720, when the Christian church
was one and undivided.
About the year 431, when Naples was a
settlement of Roman villas in the luxu-
RANT plains of Campania, there lived in
Nola, a considerable city of that province,
one Paulinus, now duly canonized saint
! of the Roman church. He was not only
i bishop of Nola, but also the abbot of q
f1ourishing community Of monks, monastic
life even at that early date having OBJ
tanned firm foothOld in the primitive
church. And he was a bishop of consider
able note, whose name and fame have been
handed down to us both by history and
tradition.
Besides that, he was church builder
In Nola, the seat of his bishopric, he erect
ed basilica, or church modelled after
the style of the Roman courts of justice,
many Of these structures having been
handed over by Constantine to the early
Christians as places of public worship.
| Paulinus dedicated his basilica to st. Felix,
in celebration of whose virtues he annually
composed an ode, calling him his patron,
his father, his lord.
Now, it happened that in the monastery
ruled by Paulinus small hand bells were
rung to notify the flock to betake them
selves from the refectory or the dorlnitory,
as the case might be, to their lectures and
prayers, this usage of the bell being de
rived from the ancient Romans, who were
summoned to their public baths by these
little tintinnabulators and they were used
in their public professions as well Oh
serving their great convenience and noting
further the great carrying power of their
tones, Bishop Paulinus conceived the idea
of utilizing this effective instrument Of
sound to notify the monks and the neigh
boring worshipers at the shrine of St. Felix
of the times for holding the church serv
| ices.
1t seemed to him more appropriate as
well as a more orderly call to prayer than
many of the rude methods then in vogue