Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1906-04-11
Eartb's Glaooest Dav

pany other members of the
family in their new frOcks
and hats to church. There
you will listen to some of the
most elaborate music of the
year, gaze upon beautiful
floral displays, and hear a ser
mon on the Resurrection" ASH
you wend your way home
ward you will remark upon ~
the extraordinary number of
people who go to church on
Easter Sunday, and incident 3
ally you will comment, either
orally or silently, upon the
stylish now spring costumes
which greet your eyes. After
the usual Sunday dinner
perhaps little better than
usual in quantity and quality
you will read the paper,
take nap, saunter out for
a walk, or call upon some
acquaintance And so another Ea,
tel deg will have passed into histor,
for you.
But man alive, is this all tha
Easter in this year of grace, 1906. 4
going to mean 10 you? Have you n,
realization d the fact that this is in,
gladest day of all the 365; that the
merry May day with all its jollity o.
which the poets sing, cannot compare
in point Of real joyousness with the
glad Easter festival? Can you not
By any possibility catch little OF
the universal Joy. and weave it into
your own life? For whether you are
rich or poor. wise or ignorant, you
are none too happy. Nobody Is And.
therefore, Easter comes once a year
to open TO every one foodgates
through which new and lasting joy
may pour itself into depressed and
wearied humanity.
Doesn't it make you happier to
think that your life is not going to be
snuffed out like candle by ana by,
that you are rot going to die like r
dog in the ditch and be buried. forgot.
ten, worst of all, lose your own ident-
ity? To say nothing about others, you
are worth something to Yourself to-
day You are conscious of powers
of mind and soul. The world has
opened itself to you in many inter
esting ways. You don't want to die
today, tomorrow, next year or
twenty-five years hence; for if you be-
have yourself properly you will be add
ing yearly to your inward resources.
TO the strength and worth of your per
sonality. What waste it would be,
simply from the standpoint OF politi-
cal economy, to have it all disappear
at the touch of some wasting disease.
No, you are not destined for the
grave; therefore leap for JOY in the
consciousness of your own immortal
ity.
Your dear ones are immortal too.
That ought to make you even happier,
for you do not really care to go along
century after century, aeon after aeon.
never feeling again the touch Of the
vanished hand or hearing the tones Of
the voice now still. Immortality apart
from those whom you loved and hon.
ored here would be a tedious exist
ence But Easter is the pledge that
you are going to get your own back
again in Gods god time. You are go
ing to see again that little face which
once looked up so trustingly into
yours You are not building up here
upon the earth year by year through
mutual love and sacrifice, deep and
noble friendships, only to have them
forever blasted by the touch of the
death angel Don't be afraid, then,
TO twine your life around your dear
ones, or let them love you with all
their hearts. You may grow with
every passing year into a deeper con
sciousness that the great elemental
relationships of human life are not for
time, but for eternity. He who does
not grow into this consciousness must
grow more wretched in proportion as
his love for his dear. ones grows, for,
as Whittier has sung
'AIas for him who never sees
The stars shine through his cypress
trees,
Who, hopeless, lays his dead away,
Nor looks to see the breaking day
Across the mournful marbles play
Who has not learned in hours of faith
The truth to flesh and sense unknown,
That life is ever lord OF death,
And love can never lose its own
Do not these thoughts Of our i'm
mortality and Of the immortality Of
our loved ones make Easter the glad
dest day of the whole year And be-
Meve me that all this Is not fancy.
The world would not be celebrating as
it is today If the basis Of it all we're
some beautiful myth put into circula-
ton by weak and credulous minds.
No, there is solid basis for Easter
JOY, and on that foundation you, as
we'll as others. may rest,
Inc rars0n.