The San Francisco call., 1904-04-03
EASTER TIME.

T IKE many other great Christian holidays, Easter
is expressive of thought and aspiration and
IL spirit of rejoicing that in the world and
among ancient ages before the day acquired its
present devout significance. The refinement of thought
and the faculty of observation have had their seat in
the temperate There the four
acutely marked and the sostices and equnoxes. the
lapse of plant life into sleep in the fall and its
rection in the spring. events of the deepest
rial significance to If spring to follow
the winter then the sleep of plant life would be eternal
and that part of the human dependent upon the
fruits of the soil would disappear from the face of the
earth. No wonder then that devoutly celebrated
the bursting of the buds and the of verdure
The observed resurrection of the fruitful possibilities
of the earth underwent application the state
OF man. AS power brought bloom and fruit back
to life from the tomb of winter, why should not
have glorious resurrection and second life? ST.
Paul. in preaching the resurrection, made ample of
the observed facts of renewal of life in the fields This
was because the people to whom he preached, by long
familiar with the change in the vegetable
kingdom and had learned for ages regard it with
feelings OF and thankfuness.
Indeed, they had gone beyond that The ancens, who
worshiped at the family hearth, on which the fire
quenched had long believed in what they called
'the second life" 1t was with them a confirmed and
positive faith They believed that the influence of those
who had entered upon it around the living, and
they invoked their and looked upon the family
tomb the abode of those who had entered upon the
second life This belief wrought into the civil poly
of the ancient nations and Rome prepared
for the acceptance of Christianity by it, and the transition
made easy by the Christian story of the resurrection
So, from past ages. and practice reaching beyond
the horizon of history, this and its celebration
time of hope renewed life and rejoicing down
and has become the firmly seated of modern Chris
tian traditions and celebrations To-day many millions
higher lights OF Christianity joining many
I,1b+ 0ta.
cheerful observance of the great feast which has the
significance for ALL
is remarkable that observation among the ancients
call pagan caused the of the egg a symbol
of this of the resurrection of life In Christian
homes the children to-day expect the gayly coored
eggs, and has wrought the egg form of many
materials for Easter use. The pagans used the egg
Symbolic the source of life ST. Patrick used the
shamrock to explain the Trinity.
That far gone time but modern science finds
the source of life just where the ancents found tin
the egg, the CELL From cells proceed the life of
and of other animals and from cells the life of plants
emerges, and by them is built up. If the egg failed, if
the cell perished, life would have renewa resur-
recton and the influence of the verna equinox would
conjure with a barren world
To-day in every the story of the resurrection
told and music and ritual and high expression of human
hope lead the thoughts of from the renewal of
material plenty and comfort upward the unfailing
benehcence of the power that is the final of it all
In all this there is such wide distance between
the materiais and the supernaturalist upon
the surface The experience of provides that neither
can put aside the impulse of the One
may in it only the working of law that is mani
tested only in the unerrng Of its phenomena
while the other explores the mysterious and seeks
ation for the final of the law But each is
PEELED reverence, in admitting that is dependent
upon some system which he cannot create for himself
but of which he is part
Philosophers and metaphysicians have failed to
observe the long leading and prolonged preparation of
for Christianity and the further progress which it
for the In every old system there the
shreds and fbers of the 1t required surpass
ing influence these together into fabric that
surpassed all of which they had been parts This in
huence came into the world and did its work. and in
the observance of this old and universal feast are
saluting it the fact in the life of the race