The Elbert County tribune., 1905-04-20


ton have had their seat in the temner
ate zone. There the four seasons are
acutely marked and the solstices and
equinoxes, the lapse of plant life into
sleep in the fall and its resurrection
in the spring. are events of the deep
est material significance to man. If
no spring were to follow the winter.
then the sleep of plant life would be
eternal and that part of the human
race dependent upon the fruits of the
soil would disappear from the face
of the earth. No wonder then that
man devoutly celebrated the burst
ing of the buds and the return of YER
dure.
The observed resurrection of the
fruitful possibilities of the earth soon
underwent an application to the state
of man. AS some power brought
bloom and fruit back to life from the
tomb of winter. why should not man
have glorious resurrection and
second life? st. Paul, in preaching
the resurrection, made ample use of
the observed facts of renewal of life
in the fields. This was because the
people to whom he preached, by long
custom were familiar with the change
in the vegetable kingdom and had
learned for ages to regard it with feel
ings of awe and thankfulness.
Indeed, they had gone beyond that.
The ancients, who worshiped at the
family hearth, had long believed in
never quenched, had long believed in
what they called 1.-The second life" 1t
was with them confirmed and posi-
tive faith. They believed that the in
fluence of those who had entered upon
it was around the living, and so they
invoked their ancestors and looked
upon the family tomb as the abode of
those who had entered upon the sec
ond life. This belief was brought into
the civil polity of the ancient nations
and races. Rome was prepared for
the acceptance of Christianity by it.
and the transition was made easy by
the Christian. story of the resurrec-
ton.
So. from past ages, and practice
reaching beyond the horizon of his
tory, this season and its celebration
as time of hope. renewed life and re-
joieing came down and has become
the most firmly seated of modern
Christian traditions and celebrations
To-day many millions, under the high
er lights of Christianity, are Joining
many other millions living in lesser
light in solemn and cheerful obsery-
ance of the great feast which has the
same significance for all.
1t is remarkable that observation
among the ancients we call pagan
caused the use of the egg as a symbol
of this season of the resurrection of
life. In Christian homes the children
expect the gayly colored eggs at Eas
ter, and art has wrought the egg form
out of many materials for Easter use.
The pagans used the egg to symbolic
the source of life as st. Patrick
used the shamrock to explain the
Trinity.
That was far gone time, out mod
ern science finds the source of life
just where the ancients found it-in
the egg, the cell. From cells proceed
the life of man and of other animals.
and from cells the life of plants
energies, and by them is built up. If
the egg failed, if the cell persisted. life
would have no renewal, no resurrec-
ton, and the influence of the vernal
equinox would conjure with a barren
world.
To-day in every zone the story of
the resurrection is told, and music
and ritual and high expression of hui.
man hope lead the thoughts of men
from the renewal of material plenty
and comfort upward to the unfailing