The Appeal., 1905-04-29


"As many times. as the origin Of Easter
history in a Western university, Il have
never never seen it correctly told in. in news.
RssIlii RRsnIaliy get together few facts out Of
an Encyclopedia, draw slightly upon their
i'm imagina tions, and then proclaim that
Easter is pa, Ragahh hagtsr atsr'vh has nothing 'a in
cenom cer mon M with paganism except certain
Similarity E@tween Easter and Eoster, the
lavish wish PASSOVER, held at about the sams
time, gradually became confused IN name
"The Jewish Passover is itself of very
respectable age It dates, you remember.
from the time of Moses. and the & feast
was Instituted at ms from Judaism o to
Christianity continued to celebrate the
feast, but with double meaning. They
inally a form Of petition that the youth
of Egypt should be spared the wrath that
fell upon the youth of Israel. but first in
iEii Injunction: @ : 'Christ our Passover IS sac
rihced for US. therefore, let US keep the
A Question of Propriety.
zone Of the very oldest Of church con-
troversies concerns the exact time at
which Easter should be observed: This
When Jews and Christians were hardly
now discover, the original controversy
arose over mere question of propriety.
Was it right and proper that Christians
should commemorate the resurrection Of
Christ at the, same time the people who
most naa 'tiT mportant Of their church festivalse
the Passover?
'sEastern Christians wanted to celebrate
the Passover was observed, for In the
East the bonds Of tradition and family
We're We're much stronger than they were in the
of of Oh Christianity in the early days Of our
era radicalism prevailed, and anything
that gave an opportunity to break with
the cruciiers of Christ was welcomed. So
far apart were the two ends Of the church
that at one time Eastern Christians feast
ed and tasted on one date and their
Western brethren adopted others sovvi1i1 which
In course of time the older element Of
Christianity-that which held. to the old
eradn na aTaX contro OF the
aoW the hso First FL st'ea Easter Days wer.
cd Of determining the date of the Easter
festival. The lunar calendar had to he
adopted and It is on record that the an.
was maintained by the manner in which
they settled th1s protlep Of chTistian n
found in the astronomical designs on the
walls and ceilings of the temple at
Thebes: On! these bishops, therefore, fell
the duty Of calculating the date for the
ce1ebra ton of Easter, and Of announcing
it far enough in advance for the informa-
ton to reach every member Of the Chris
tian world Special messengers eng were
Epiphany to ali the towns and monas-
teries Of the Western church and to the
Roman and Syrian bishops announcing
the Easter day that the Alexandrian bish-
OPS had designated. Did you know that
in this custom was the origin Of the Fes-
tai or Paschal Letters Of Athanasius?-
documents which have been preserved
down to the present time by a series Of
Incidents which would make a romance
in themselves.
"The present method Of fixing Easter
! day was adopted nearly 800 years later.
I need not tell you what the method is,
for every prayer book is very explicit on
this point.
pagan in the origin Of Easter. I cannot.
Probably all of our religions festivals Ils
match with those of antiquity, but that
hardly justifies US in calling them pagan,
.. according to my way Of looking at It,"
.Now, SIR" said Willie's father. don't
be a little jackass. IT can't help bein'
I>rsSrr ~ n