Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1907-04-01
he IS RISEN.

Yesterday was Easter Sunday the
most joyful feast in the church oalen-
dar. II Is observed in commemora-
ton Of the Resurrection Of the Sa-
Vionr Of men. II the birth Of Christ
was the greatest event in the history
Of the world His resurrection was
second in importance.
This placed the final stamp Of the
supernatural upon His life and work
and gave Him that stamp Of Divinity
which has satisfied millions Of doubt
ers other than Thomas. 1t also gave
that proof OF life after the tomb
which has comforted the faithful for
many centuries. When God saw 1T in
Ills blessed and infinite wisdom to
dwell for a term in one Of the forms
made in His image the way and the
plan were OF course foreordained and
it is idle TO speculate on what might
have been'had any part Of the whole
been omitted. We may however dwell
with reyerent admiration on .the com
pleteness Of the plan.
Glorious as was the life Of Christ,
wonderful As were His works. sub
lime as was His death, we must re-
member that all the great events con
corning His APPEARANCE on this earth
took place in a restricted portion of a
small kingdom-that He lived.
loved, suffered and died within a few
miles Of the place where He was
born. During Ills whole human ex-
istence He never travelled beyond a
section any larger than one Of our
American counties. The means of
dinusing information then were meagre
and the task of recording was labor
ions and expensive, tradition being
largely depended upon to present the
history Of events TO posterity.
Under such conditions it required
an event Of such startling strangeness
as the arising Of Christ from the dead
% command the lasting and serious
attention Of the people, nearly all of
whom, 1t should be remembered, were
then unbelievers. The memory of
this event carried with it the recol-
lection of Ills whole life, ministry
aud death, and stimulated further in
quiry. Christ cannot be forgotten
now, but had ii not been the crown
ing miracle Of His resurrection, lie
might, one hundred years after Ills
crncilxion, been only spoken Of in a
limited section as a great teacher, a
philanthropist, we would say nova
days. With good reason, then, does
the Christian world at this season of
the year rejoices that their Lord tri-
umphed over death.
But this is only one of the thoughts
which occur at Easter, which though
possibly secondary to Christmas in re-
gard to its influence upon the secular
history Of the world, is so bound up
with II that il is impossible TO distin-
guish between the two festivals from
"A religious point of view. one is the
necessary complement of the other; but
the sentiment associated with Christ
mas is more robust. more human; that
Of Easter being mystic and spiritual.
In this latitude the symbolism of Eas-
ter is made more complete by the
opening of spring. The bare earth
revives and clothes herself again in
garments OF living green. The brown
boughs bring forth bright blossom
and leaf according TO their kind, the
seed and the egg give us tokens Of
new life, and life springing eternal
and the birds with their melody seem
breaking forth with the hosts Of the
ransomed in the glad reclamation
"lIe Is RISEN