The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1909-06-09

Encyclopaedia that upholds his position:
which the scholars OF the world will &C
cept, will then bow out of the discus
sion so far as alien authority is concern
ed. Otherwise, 1t seems to me that he
is endangering his scholarly reputation
by his insistence to the contrary. Ia his
"Scholarly Reply" mark the title.) he
says, The word Easter, but nOo the
Festival itself. is admittedly of pagan
origin, I'VE admit frankly that the word
Easter, is OF pagan origin: but the
'Pascha. 10 which it was then applied,
is of Christian origin" Do I need TO
call attention to a fallacy and inconsis-
tencies of this statement together with
the logical result Of his frank confes-
sion?'
First, he confesses frankly that the
''word" is Of heather origin. Now, can
didly, if the thing itself was IN use
among Christians before they found the
New, pagan name for it, what did they
call it? They must have had name for
it that would have passed in Christian
nomenclature, and why did they swap
it off for purely heather name: If the
name was first found about l20 years
thing got to be quite old before they
named it.
But this is least of the troubles he is
in. in his statemen .le says, but the
'Pascha. to which it was then applied,
is of Christian origin" If we believe
him, the devotees of Easter observance
took a thing OF Christian origin and de-
liberately exchanged it for a thing that
was Of heather origin, and without his
protest. That is just the thing [ have
been proving in all that have said. He
has at last confessed the truth il he
would consistently stand by it. How can
man by any civil means eXtricate him
self from such self-imposed dIema? I
said it was of heathen origin He said
the WORD" was but it had been taken
in exchange by the Christians for their
Christian word.
If the folly of his statement has not
been clearly enough shown in the above
analysis, let US give it one more test IN
the crucible. He utterly disclaims the
pagan origin of the practice.
After being routed from his conten-
tion in his first article. that it was OF
Christian origin, and sacred, oh, too
sacred to be spoken by human lips, he
is using his lapse in the last by admit
ting that the word Easter" is of heath
en- oHgin but not the custom or rite.
Let the reader turn to Chambers En-
clyclopaedia OF Universal Knowledge,
Page 242: 'Many of the popular obser-
vances connected with Easter" mot the
name only ''are clearly of Pa gan
hrrlo- 20
name OF April was Estormonath: and it
is still known in Germany as Ostermon-
ath. The worship of this being mark
the languagel "seems to have struck
deep root in Northern Germany, and
was brought into England by the Sax
ons With her usual policy,
the church endeavored to give
Christian s-i-g-n-i-6.c-a-u-c-e to-
just the name only as Prof. New al
tirms?- -''to such of the rites, what
does that mean9-''as could not be root
ed ou5: and in this case the conversion
was particularly easy" see above par
agraph in full. The text says that the
worship Of this being" was adopted IN
England, not the name only, and with
her usual policy, the church endeavor-
ed to give a Christian significance to
such of the rites, Pagan rites) as could
not be rooted out: and in this case the
conversion was particularly easy"
Now, what does this mean? In the
name of high heaven what does it mean:
Can mans scholarship, who can read
at all, be so wanton as TO deceive him IN
language so clear and authentic: 1t
means what it says, that the Christian
church(?) fell in love with heather
custom, adopted it, name and all, and
became thereupon heatheniZed to that
extent. They found an idolatrous peo-
pie worshipping an idol: they were
drawn to the custom. and they too wor-
shipped that same thing Easter Cod
dess. After the heather manner.
They left the legacy to such as would
choose to be their successors IN the Gus
tom, and to this day they were patrons
of that same custom. Now I have only
quoted one out of many faithful wit
nesses as to the origin Of the custom
and not the name only, but this will be
hard one for the Prof. to get out OF his
way to the satisfaction of the scholars
of the world, all of whom, universally
accept the authority. If there is single
reader of this paper who cannot under
stand now, where the custom origiuat-
ed, thing and name) let him go with
me little further and find, upon auth
ority he can fully examine for himself,
where it did not originate, and 1t Will
add much strength to the affirmative
witness who has already spoken.