The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1903-04-21
RANDOM THOUGHTS.
EASTER).

Like ancient Nilus past each gloomy mound
Of glory buried In an endless sleep
So sad our souls we cannot choose but weep,
And fain would die where all seems dead
around
When curving as It were, with sudden bound
Lies laughing waters into sunshine leap.
And on the ever verdant Easter slope,
To where pure snow mets into heavenly blue.
We see the lilies watched by angel eyes,
And feel that from its summit, crowned by
hope.
We might perchance at last have vision true,
And learn the meaning OF earth's mysteries.
If the ideas that underlie East
er, Christmas and other church
festivals are really expected to
teach deep spiritual lessons-and
that is what they ought to do
they are weakened in their effect
by being associated with only one
time in the year; for, the two
first mentioned of these festivals
are found to be but the continual
ton of heather festivals at a
similar time of the year, with the
rites and ceremonies of heather.
ism modified to suit the present
day. The spiritual lessons can
get lost to sight in them; in fact
Knockers might say that there
are no spiritual lessons to these
periods, since they are nothing
but changed forms of festivals
that were not at all spiritual.
Take Easter as an instance. All
northern nations have always,
so far as we can trace, comment
GRATED the revival of nature at
the magic touch of Spring. The
Greeks had as one of their myths
the escape of Persephone from
Hades and her immediate inhu-
ence on the flowers and trees,
calling them back to life again
after her burial in the lands of
the shades. Our day has it's
rabbits, it's chickens and its
stained eggs as childish accom-
paniments of religious idea
is as far beyond mere revival of
nature as revival is beyond death.
The Christian belief is more
than the glorifcation of Spring.
1t is more than mere revival of
suspended life, and its far reach
ing influence upon human aspira-
ton is, it seems to us, hindered |
rather than aided by being as.
ISOLATED with such forms of cele-
bration as cluster around a mod
ern Easter. The modern church
can therefore. attach blame to the
early fathers of the Christian
when they, for reasons of policy,
assigned Christian festivals as
substitutes for heather festivals.
Think for moment what
Spring means. IL is encourag-
ing, and it proves to us that we
can-as we said in last weeks
MESSENGER-force inert things
to yield to our wills; but after
all, Spring, as it is shown in the
plants and trees, is a continual
ton of life in the same place.
under the same circumstances;
with the same certain end
whereas the idea that the Chris
tian fathers had to proclaim was
a new life without any end in a
new place; and the yearning for
such life is not confined to one
day or one season or one age. 1t
comes surging over our hearts
when they aspire TO the highest
things only to find themselves
hindered by weakness; it comes
into the heart when the sorrow
of great loss is felt and the yearn-
ing within, for another sight
somewhere somehow of the loved
one passed beyond. prevails till
there is absolute discomfort with
the idea of life's ending when
we cease to walk our daily
rounds. The student who bath.
es his spirit in the history of the
past, who knows what has been
and the men and woman who
have brought it all to pass, his
spirit insists that all these great