The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-02
Easter, 1899.

~ ASTER commentaries the CEN
trail fact of the Christian re-
lgion, that death does not end
all. 1t is the chief festival of the church
year, it's celebration is attended with
impressive ceremonial throughout the
world. In sermon, in prayer and song,
and in the silent eloquence of fairest
flowers is the theme of the resurrection
exalted.
In the magnitude and majesty OF it's
significance the only other religious fes-
tival that approaches Easter is Christ
mas. Easter is the more comprehensive.
1t is a day not only of peace on earth
and good will toward men, it is a day
of inspiring hope-the hope of a
brighter and more radiant future both
here and in the undiscovered country
This is the meaning and mission of
Easter. The meaning may be wider and
deeper, the mission greater and grander
than at first appears. The Nineteenth
century is dying, and with it at times
seems to be dying much that makes
life lvable and lovable. Historians
have noticed the curious coincidence
that the last decade Of every modern
century seems to die down in faith,
morality and creative fertility. The
world of to-day vaunteth itself and is
much puffed up over its liberties and
luxuries, it's ingenious inventions and
scientific discoveries, but it has very
little to boast of as respects individual
honor, or honesty, or heroism, or self
sacrifice. If the Rev. Dr. Parkhurst
may be believed, New York city is rela-
lively wickeder place than Sodom or
Gomorrah; and New York city serves
as model to the rest of the country.
Divorce is increasing, lax notions of the
sanctity of the marriage relation are
rapidly spreading, greed. vanity, sell
fishness and lust are dominant forces
in society. Literature, now as always,
reflects the moral conditions of the pc
Rod OF poetry-until the advent of
kiplng-there has been little or none
for twenty years. England is undergo
ing the humiliation of having for her
poet laureate a fool. End of-the- CEN
1msy dilettanteism of a Mallock; the
higher criticism of literature and art in
the pessimistic materialsm of a Nor
deau. Fiction has degenerated into a
mask for refined lasciviousness and
Zolaesque bestiality on the one hand
and petty psychological studies on the
other. Thomas Hardy, the grea test of
living English novelists, with a grasp
of language as firm and true as Thack-
eray's, holds up tc view only sad, dread
full, unwholesome pictures of life, ira
dated by not a single CLEAN Of Chris
tan hope or Christian charity. The
average novel f1aunts the sexual rela-
tons under the guise of discussing
great social questions Salacity is
dressed up by the more educated writ
ers, like Saltus, in brilliant epigrams,
flashing wit and ornate rhetoric. Even
Quo Vadis' is not exempt from a
strong dash of suggestiveness. The
drama keeps time with the novel. Jour
nalism even has not been able to escape
the contagion for the spectacle is pre-
scented of the two dailies that boast of
the largest circulation in the United
States pandering to the populace's dis
eased and abnormal appetites. Thus
encouraged vice, which at ordinary
times and under ordinary circumstances
is confined to the two extremes of So
ciety, the arstocracy and the slums,
is eating it's way into the middle classes
which constitute the very heart of the
social system.
The religious world. moreover, seems