The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1905-04-21

s r caster s
F. t g r

When mankind began to merge
from the brute condition, and to be
dimly conscious of himself as related
to others, and to what went on in ma.
ture all about him, one of the first
things to impress him strongly must
have been the changes from season
TO season, and especially the marvel
Gus transition from the bleak frigidty
and seeming death of winter to the
opening life and Astounding joyous
ness of spring.
Driven for shelter during the long
prevalence of cold to the dark cav
ems, where his remains are found
with those Of many extinct species
of animals, it must have been like
the dawning of a new existence when
he was able to come out into the
genial sunshine and feel the fresh life
r%eclothing the trees and fields and re-
newing for his use the denizens Of
stream and forest. Everything that
he could not explain was to him a
miracle, and every separate manifes-
tatiOn OF power, whether beneficent
or hostile, he attributed to different
deities. 1t was doubtless in the early
stages of civilization, perhaps eve1
~antedating it, that the propensity of
m nature to signaliZe marked
periods and great events in individual
life or tribal and national existence
by some observance first manifested
itself, and among the earliest festi-
walls established was the Il which
celebrated the Goddess of Spring. aEt
which is perpetuated in our Easter.
Her A~nglO-SaXon name was EOstre.
from which our name Easter comes
There was no such observance in
the early church, as. testified to by
historians, but il oon grew up, and
was at first preceded by only a sin
gle fast day. Gradually. based on a
Babylonian fast of forty days, on le-
gends of Buddha and Zoroaster hav.
ing been tempted and having tasted
forty days in the wilderness. and on
the story of Jesus fasting and temp
tation by the Devil, the period was
prolonged to forty days, and after
long disputes growing out Of differ
ences in the Gentle and Jewish
churches the time for the celebration
Of Easter was fixed, supposedly by
Pope Plus L.; but it was not till the
Council of Nice that the controversy
was finally settled and the rule estab-
that Easter must be celebrated
IN the first Sunday after the 14th Of |
he calendar moon which happens on
next after March 81. 1t com
nemorates, Of course, as now in use
story of the resurrection of Jesus.
md at the same time bears evidence
o the persistence with which old le-
sends and customs survive.
The ecclesiastical historian Socra.
es says that neither Christ nor his
Apostles %enjoined the keeping of this
n any other festival. "The Apos-
les he says, had no thought of az.
pointing festival days, but of promct-
ng a life of blamelessness ana
and he says Easter was intro.
luced as the perpetuation of an Old
Usage, ."just as many other customs
ave been established"
we have seen that the ancient An.
had a spring festival, an!
lind that the Egyptians celebrated
he death of Osiris with sad rites aru
lis resurrection with joyful feasts ard
ceremonies for untold generations
With all the confidence and s~atisfac.
ion that believers now experience
The great central fact was, and re-.
Mains, the renewal of life. TO us. as
o all who have gone before us, life is
he supreme mystery. The astron.
'mers and microscopists sweep tho
'kies and peer into the minutest mr..
'anized forms, asking what it is. and
whence, but no answer comes hack
The chemist pursues its manifesto.
ions through all his manifold proc.