The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1907-03-28
AN EASTER MEDITATION.

work-bending to their tasks In snop anu
fold striving toward some coveted end,
irving to bring things to pass, putting
forth every energy to add their mite to the
mass of created things. But let US hope
that Easter morning it will rise upon world
of quiet. thoughtful men, who have laid
aside their business and the cares OF yes
terdav for while and are ready to turn
to other thoughts.
1t is a great thing to have business, to
be doing something, bringing something to
pass. 1t is natural and proper for men to
work. and to work with such TENSION that
they forget all else for the hour but the
scheme in hand. The most pitiful OF hu-
man sights is the tramp, the man with
nothing to do and no inclination to md
anything. He has no place in the economy
of these busy times of ours. We pity him.
It is great thing, George Eliot said, to Ole
on fire. Men need to work. tits essential
to their welfare, in every sense. They
cannot be healthy in body or in mind with
out it. 1t surely must have been wise
Providence which placed imperfect men IN
a plastic world and gave them the inclina-
ton to work Some one has said that every
man is as lazy as circumstances will permit
him to be- But to-day We might almost
reverse that. and say that every man IS as
busy as circumstances will permit him to
be. We are so busy!
1t is well therefore, for the calendar to
bring TO US days now and then which call
upon us TO look up from our work and
stop from our striving. The true workman
laws down his tools at times and steps away
from his task to view it at distance and
consider it as whole. The lights and
shadows, the proportions, are not seen best
while he is bending to his work.
The iEaster-tide calls men to step back
from their tasks and look at their work
from distant viewpoint. 1t says to men,
first Of all, that they are not creatures OF
the hour, that their lives are not cut off
with the end of days. To men and women,
old and young, however busy they may be
with their plans and projects, this comm
Easter morning would speak the same
message which the first Easter morning
spoke to the faithful few who waited in the
garden Of Joseph of Arimathea, the great
est message that has ever been delivered
to the human race--that it is not all of life
to live, nor all Of death to die.
The Man Of Galilee never upbraided men
for laboring, but rather praised them, APP
proving their industry in the parallels OF
the talents, the husbandman, and the la
borers in the vineyard. He believed in
work He worked himself, with the saw
and hammer and plane. But in his resur-
rection on that first Easter morning he said
to the busy men and women of all ages that
life is more than material accomplishment
And this approaching Easter morning in
vites every man and woman to stop and
view his work from the viewpoint OF
eternity.
Business houses, corner lots, blocks,
farms, factories, railways, are SO large that
they ill our vision when we stand close tC
them. They loom nightly before ou1
ardent gaze. They must look pitifully
small to the sun as he shines down upoI
them from the meridian; tiny specks Of
microscopic dust, resting upon that little
far-off ball of llght-hardly large enough
to justify a soul in FORGETTING its own proper
growth and destiny for the sake of thei
possession during few of his yearly
rounds. You remember what Carlyle sale
to Louis of France, in that famous apos
trophe, about the size of empire wher
viewed through the parallax of eternity
Every Easter morning invites US to view
our work through the parallax of eternity
Ii it stands for anything in the secula
calendar that hangs in office and home, i
stands for the reality of eternity, and if i
brings to men any message it is the mes
sage that every man is made for tina
eternity.
We must live, says the working man, a
he bends to his task for the winning O
daily bread. Yes, true enough. But lie
us not forget entirely the other half of that
We must die. Let us not forget to cultivat
those things that abide-faith and hop
and charity-while We are so busy winnin.
our bread and heaping up wealth for GU
children-for not only may we cultivat
these rich and imperishable qualities in GU
daily tasks, but it is only there that we cal
cultivate thenl-we get them through thi
same exacting work, or remain foreve
without them.