The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-04-16
THE SPIRIT OF SPRING AND THE
SPIRIT OF EASTER.


Frosts of an unending winter must
have benumbed the spirit of the man
who does not feel the revivifying in
fuences of these spring days. Every
aspect of nature is hopeful The first
flowers, pale as tho colored by the
snow, are touched with the promise
of the richer color of the summer
The sweet note of the phoebe and the
chirp of the robin seem but the pre-
lude to the woodland symphony of
June. And we ourselves are not so
far from nature that we do not feel a
new expansiveness stir within u.s.
A new life is all astir; the old is
cleaned for new use. Housecleanings
and spring openings are the order.
Think you then it is strange, with
the atmosphere charged with such i'm
pulses that woman's fancy lightly
turns to thoughts of new adornment?
No one but the soberly dressed Dunk
ard who has learned to admire the
ever brown bonnet, because of the
wearer, could fail to appreciate the
spirit that prompts the spring adorn-
ment. In men there stirs the old in
stincts of wild life, or they forcibly
give all attention to easter bust.
ness. " 1t is the expression of the
new and fresh life of spring that pos
sesses us all. Even hurry and worry
cannot crush the JOY of the season.
Ever since the early Greeks cele.
brated the return of Adonis, and pa
gan Saxons kept their joyous feast to
the goddess Eastre this spirit of
spring has found an expression in a
festival of hope And we are not
without such cele bration, for all this
spirit has clustered around the church
festival of Easter. The church might
discredit the feast to the goddess and
substitute its own feast day, but
around the new is gathered all the
real significance of the old. And
should an old Saxon return he would
find familiar spirit in the festival of
Easter. But he would also find some
thing deeper, spirit new to him.
There is another feeling of hopeful
JOY that has associated itself with
these days, fraught with the promise
Of new life, and has turned the very
springtime into parable.
1t is the same JOY for the victory of life
over death, but far more sublime. Not
merely natures short triumph over
the death of winter, but the abiding
victory of the soul of man over the
winter of death. This spirit of Easter
springs from the assurance that the
grave has no victory, that soul shall
yet stand triumphant over matter, and
shall endure the chill of apparent
death. The promise of life that is to
be thrills the soul of man. The first
sign of the coming life is apparent in
the resurrection of the Son of Man
The spirit of the festival that express.
es this is fraught with exceeding
peace, joy and hope. 1t throws halo
around the humblest, and gives added
nobility to the greatest lives. The ex-
ultant hymn, the prayer of praise, the
| devotion of thankful hearts, and the
earnest seeking after beauty of soul
are the expressions of this spirit of
Easter.
Do paganism and Christianity war
still in these two spirits that possess
us? The man who rejoices in the new
life of spring is right. The woman
who expresses the spirit of spring in
new beauties of dress is right. But
sad it is for any person if this leaves nc
room for the other, better spirit. He
who takes the Easter time to cele-
brate the lower stands only in the
vestibule of the temple Of JOY He
needs to learn that there is higher
and IA lower and each has its place.
1t is we'll to rejoice that from the
death of winter springs the new life
of summer, but it is better to remem
Der that from the death of selfshnesi