The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-31
A DAT ron REMEMBRANCE.

Once again has the eyer-revolving cycle of seasons brought to us the day on which the Christian Church cele- brates the wonderful resurrection of Christ Tn all lands and countries where the Christian religion prevails. people will celebrate Easter Sunday as the anniversary of the rising from the dead of the Savior of fallen man. Christian people may differ as to creeds and articles of faith. they may dispute about points of doctrine or practice. and they may worship God under different forms and church orr ganizations, but all may unite in the one Fundamental belief of the resur- rection and its signifieanee In some form Easter. Sunday appeals to all who believe that there was a Christ. that he died on the cross and that he rose on the third day. Whether they are Catholic or Protestant. and what ever branch of the Christian Church they may hold fellowship with. the broad end tolerant spirit of our com mon humanity and common Christian ity is sufficient to overcome minor diff ference and unite all on the one para mount fact for which Easter stands. And we feel that we cannot so we'll express what we mean as by copying the following from an eminent min- ister. Rev. Albert Parker Fitch, on The Hope, Memory and Reality of Easter"
 The Resurrection. which we cele- brate on Easter day, means one of two things to most people. It is either a whose souls the wise years have not ground their experience of pain, their proof of the utter unreasonableness and malignant cruelty of life, if this far-on fading memory which has no especial significance for today. Je- sus resurrection is an infinitely re- mote event, magical wonder. It oc- cured under other skies, in distant land amid wornout and forgotten torical evidence for it. but they accept as much vfyidness of perception as they accept the death of Alexander or the assassination of Julius Caesar.
 Then. to older men and women, the resurrection is not so much a memory as hope 1t is hope born of a des- perate necessity. We remember little children who sleep in tiny graves to-
 
 be Easter graves. We remember great souls, passed on now, to whom we gave our worship in our youth. We have lived beside them and seen their death- less effort, their far-reaching aspira- tion, their virtue, strength, wisdom, power. light--all the persistent hero- isxn of the soul. And then, when the highest station had been reached, when the noblest song was quivering at last upon their triumphant lips, we've seen 1t all end Virtue, strength, wisdom, power, light, all vanishedl Nothing left but dust to dust, ashes to ashes, rottenness to mother earth. And, see- ing all this, the resurrection is not a fading memory to such souls. O, mol 1t stands for a desperate hope. There must be something beyond Some- where. sometime these shall live
 But to the Christian, to that happy man whom Jesus has found, the resur- reatIon is not a memory and not a hope; he forgets both of these in his joy in its present reality. The Easter assurance of immortality is not a far off promise, it is 8 present gift; not a future hope, but an immediate posses sion. For God has come into him and taken possession of him. and he is liv- ing for the things of God in the eter- nal light and power of God, and he is already one of the immortals.