The Washington times., 1902-03-31
INTERVIEWER WITH LOVE
AND DUTY
Elaborate Services Held in st. Johns
Episcopal Church-The True Meaning
of the Day Not Felt by Those Who Are
Outside Its Privileges.


o'clock. and Sunday school carol service
. at AIS p. m.
80 The services were conducted by the
Rev. Alexander Mackay-Smith, DID,. rec
tor of the parish, assisted by the Rev
Frank H. Bigelow, L. H. D.. and the Rev.
Edward 5. Dunlap. N. A.
The Roosevelt children were in attend
ance at the II o'clock service, but Mrs.
Roosevelt. who is q member of the parish
was not present. Among other people of
prominence who were present were Ad-
miral Schiey. Chief Justice Fuller. Ad-
miral ONeil, and Senator and Mrs. De-
pew.
The chancel of the church was beauti-
fully decorated with flowers. The altar
was hidden beneath masses of white
roses. Easter lilies, and tulips, the bios
soming symbols of reawakened life. 1t
was OF the renascent life of the soul that
DR.. Mackay Smith spoke. taking for his
text the words of Christ found in st.
Matthew, xxii:S2. God is not the God of
the dead. but of the living" His SER
mon was an eloquent and forceful ex-
position of the true meaning of the Eas-
ter festival. He said in part:
A Festival of Life.
Easter is a festival of life, but not of
the bodily or physical life. These flow
ers about us are but perishable emblems
of the truth that We celebrat =. There
seems TO be no fitting emblem OF the
spiritual life that knows no sunset. The
life OF the body wakes and wanes, dies,
decays. and reappears in various shapes,
but the life of the spirit is eternal. Mat
ter dies, but not spirit. There is no
true symbol of that magnificent truth
with which to deck our churches. the
flowers typify resurrection, but not i'm
mortality.
Easter Day is the anniversary of the
broken tomb of Christ. Whether we con-
slider the gospel of Christ as philosophy,
a revelation, or principle OF action, we
must recognize the story of the resurrec-
1ion as first and foremost the story of
something that happened. Without the
resurrection Christ becomes simply
,eacher like Socrates. Plato. or Savanna
rola. St. Paul said: If Christ be not risen,
then is all our teaching vain
THE fact OF Christ's resurrection is so
stupendous that once it is accepted all
his teaching is accepted. That one miracle
overtops and overcounts all others. If be-
lief in the resurrection is rejected all else
is vain. The resurrection is tn. arch
which binds together Gods upper and his
under world
Speaking of the power of the resurrec-
tion, Dr.. Mackay- Smith said that the be-
lief in it was behind all our duties and
privileges and gave them motive force.
Agnostics, he said, who flattered them
selves they were a new thing because they
had given themselves new name failed
of the accomplishment of their duties and
the enjoyment of their privileges, be-
cause they had not this hope. He said:
A New World Force.
"AIl the duties and the privileges OF
man die out in darkness unless iilumined
by the light of the resurrection
DR.. Mackay-Smith then told cloduently
of the new force that passed into the dead
world when the heather wall OF Pan is
dead" was answered by the cry Of the
apostle, Christ is risen"
For those who needed the words of the
apostle" he said, every privilege of hope
and JOY took an added meaning, which
gave it life and reason
The thought of Immortality, he said, has
had TO make its way against all the wild
passions OF men. against kings and
princes and against immortality. He con-
tinued:
THE world outside does not keep Eas-
ter in its true sense, because it does not
really believe in love and duty
DR.. Mackay- Smith then told of the con-
solations TO the Christian in the thought
of Christ's resurrection. He spoke of the !
Joy felt in the belief that every grave, no I
matter if the memory of the one who lay /
there did aot endure long on earth, was |
watched over by God.
Every life." he said. 'is grave in one /
sense. In every one of US there are bur F.
led opportunities and possibilities, and 7
too often in our Incidence we let them I,
lie None OF US are what we might have /
been. We are but crippled lives at the /
best"
Crippled Lives Restored.
Continuing, the speaker advanced the 4
idea that through the belief in the doc
trine of the resurrection the crippled /
spiritual lives of men would be restored I
and magnifed. He said:
I'VE are crippled here on earth There /
we will expand into the measure of the /
stature of the fullness of Christ"
He closed his sermon by the expression
of the thought that on Easter the veil be-
tween the seen and the unseen world was
very thin. saying:
1T may well be that today they who .
have departed hence may be permitted TO
return to their old familiar hauntg and I
join their voices to ours. On Easter Day
there are no barriers between the upper
and the under world. Every Christian I
home is today an antechamber to the
throne room of God"
The musical services were directed by
Prof. II. H. Freeman. organist, the vest
ed choir Of thirty-fiyc voices being assist
ed by Miss Anita Cluss, harpist. Among
The selections rendered were: Process
Bional hymn. Bodine; Easter anthem; TIE
Deum Laudamus in ID, by King; Jubilate
Dec. in ID, by the same composer; service
Of the Holy Communion. in E fiat. by
Cramer; Introit anthem, by GOss; Kyrie
Eleison; the offertory anthem, by Adams;
hymn, Uglow. and the Recess
sional hymn. by Neander.
Members of the Choir.
The personnel of the St Johns choir is
as follows:
II. II. Freeman. organist and choirmas-
ter; Miss Anita Cluss harpist; John X
Holmes. librarian; GailIard Ravenel as
;istant librarian.
sopranos-Edward Haller. Carl Barrett,
Herman Harrison, James Richie. Eugene
Moody, Thomas Dobson. Jr., Crosdale
Wits, Neil Finch, Robert Jonscher, Ar
-hur Nelson, Lafour Raymond, Eugene
CASTORIA FGllfants and chlana J
lEs Kind You Have Always Bought