The morning journal-courier., 1908-04-18
THE EASTER FESTIVAL.

THE EASTER FESTIVAL.
 Easter always presents queer in- terminglng of dyed eggs and rabbits new spring hats and religious ser vices Although t ls regarded as q 1 Christian festival commcmorsting the . resurrection of Christ t ls in its origin pagan in many of its featurds The word Easter comes from the name of the Anglo-saxon goddess of spring Easter, of which some in- terestlng legends are told Many of the customs as the use and symho- lism of dyed eggs. have come down from our Teutcnlc forefathers
 But in the New Testament there Is no trace of Easter as a Christian ' M..lval, nor in the writings of the eafh apostolic fathers are there any alusions Early Christians were too absorbed in the significant events of developing Christianity to give
 
 much time to the eXternalatles. The sanctity of special times or places was an idea foreign to the carly Christian mind. In the latter part of the fourth cen- tury we find Chrysostom. called the golden mouthed preacher of Constan- tinople, saying: "The whole of time is n festival unto Christians because of the excellency of the good things which have been given" The early church historian, Socrates, in com menting on the fact that neither Christ nor the Apostles knew any thing of the festival, says: The Apos- ties had no thought of appointing festival days, but of promoting a life of blamelessness and plety." He al so attributes the coming of Easter to the perpetuation of usage or some old custom This would seem to he the fact Easter has come from the human intuition to celebrate in some way the new manifestation of Ma ture's forces in the springing forth of life everywhere in the spring time. Here is cause for joy and an annual encouragement to the hope for im mortality.
 The distinctive part of Christianity in the matter has been the adapta- ton of the Easter thought and GUS toms to the resurrection of Christ. To determine the date when Easter should be celebrated was a perpleX- ing problem to the church after the second century and also the occasion for long and bitter controversy. Tn the year 325 A. D., at the council of Nicea, called by the emperor Con- stantine, an effort was made to fix the date, but the only result was to decide that the church every where should hold Easter on q Sunday. The festival had been question of dis pute between the Eastern and Vest ern churches. Jewish Christians eS- pecially wanted Easter at the same time as the Passover. The whole matter of date was left to the Alex andrian astronomers, but even then the date was not settled until some centuries later, for the western church at any rate, Easter comes on the first Sunday after the full Of the moon following the vernal equnox March 21. But this moon about which there has been SO much trouble is not the moon of the hcay- ems, nor the mean moon of tna as- tronomers, but all ecclesiasticaI or imaginary moon All believers in tht Easter festival can be thankful that there was found any moon at ali < settle the date.
 It is . day for joy In the new life of the spring time is the evidence that God renews His creative labor In the consideration of the lessons ot the resurrection of Christ the great thought to take into account is that of life. 1t is not dead Christ wht is held in remcmherance It was what He was while He lived, and is evermore living that gave to tn, world the Easter message of life be. yond the horizon of this physica world His death was such as 1t was because His life was what 1t was strong, pure, loving, The peopl, about Him loved Him not becaus, they saw His risen body but becaus, He was lovable There was that il Him that led men to believe that Hi life was infinite and eternal Tn, spiritual character of Jesus Is the bes evidence of His eternal life
 There are good people to-day wh,