The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-14
PASSOVER AT TEMPLE.
Appropriate Remarks of Rabbi A. !.
 Messing. W

Passover services of Kahl Montgomery were duly observed in the ancient cere- monies and rites at Temple Beth-Or Sun day morning at 10 o'clock.
 The altar was beautifully decorated fn white The auditorium was crowded to the doors. The singing under the direction of Prof F. L. Merriam was soulful and inspiring: Miss Alma Cohn sang as so- violin.
 The subject of Rabbi Messins's dis of Agreements and pifferences.''
 The fact that Easter and Passover ai- ways occur at the same season of the year seems to suggest that both festivals
 may have a common origin, and strange as 1t may sound to Jewish ears a little reflection will strengthen and confirm stand at the turning point of the sea. sons and they herald the advent of spring lovely spring when the spirit of beauty enters so many tabernacles, when grance through the baimy air. Soft whis- pering winds, the hum of bees. the buzz of insects. rustling of leaves, bleating of lambs, soft trickiine of long frozen riv- air is full of tongues.
 Those of you who have studied the childhood of the world know with what marvel and surprise primitive men watch. - shifting panirama of the heavens, and what crude and childish accounts they gave even for the simplest of natures transformations that was being wrought When winter ceased, when the sun came back. as 1t were. from prison. when the brooks resumed their purling and meath the lifted cloak of snow-enian's heart could not but break forth in joy in the thought that the Creator lived though he had been apparently. asleep.
 the returning spring Pesach with its pas chai lamb and Easter with It's lilies ex- isted long before Israel came out of the Nasarine burst the shaekies' of the tomb.
 Tn the fifteenth idyi of Theocrftus we have q slowing account of Adonis day in Alexandria. the third century before flied sun. and when the sun dies the earth is full of mourning. With disheveied hair and ar the manifestations of violent grief the woman shriek out the death of the beautiful god in his early youth. But death cannot conquer him: The winter is passed and 10. he comes from his tomb strewins the earth with flowers:
 tian Church. in their pilgrims se @ to con vert the world came from Jerusalem to Alexandria, Adonis day is transformed and spiritualized. Jesus Is now the light,
 he Is the sun setting on the cross. he Is buried. breaks the portal ef the grave and rises the conqueror of death. And that Is Easter.
 But this resurrection of the dead was the belief of men long before the Chris tian dogma was proclaimed. twas the common heritage of antiquity. We see 1t in the Ishtar legend. we behold 1t in ins, waters of the Nile suggested the res urrection of the god Osiris. we see 1t in Rome where the goddess Prosperpina. confined in winter to the realms of the sunshine of spring. In Virgil and in Ho- mer the thought fs embeilished poeticaliy and even the Hebrew Bible bears testi-
 mony to enduring & sway the s belief in res. E.
 pot Samuel called up from the tomb by the witch of Endor? and in the vision of Ezekiel Is not the vallew of the dry bones Has Easter been bereft of its signIH- canoe if In this wise we remember how t developedf Has Pesach lost its value7 I say No. Man facing nature finds himself to be one of natures works and yet above nature. If for Christianity Easter peals forth the gospel of the risen Christ, for the Jew Pesach sounds the message. man dead and of the dust. thy spiritual life Is of the divine.
 "The true Easter story is this. The great and the good that die live always Washington dead? Is he dead that fath- omed the milky way and read the secrets of the celestial arch? Are they dead who gave up their mortal blood that others might iive-Horatio at the bridge, Galli- leo at the stake Winkelreid at sempach. Somers at Tripoli? When. Rufus Choate took ship for that port where he passed away friend said, You will be here a year hence Sir, said the great lawyer. I shall be here a hundred years hence and a thousand years hence. No life is lost and no life Is dead exc@pt 1t live for the dead. He rises who lives for the light "All that we have willed or dreamed or