Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-04-02
THE EASTER HOPE.
By Rev. II. w. Harr.

By Rev. II. w. Harrington.
But now is Christ risen from the
dead and become the first-fruits Of
them that slept. Cor, XIV, 20.
The days of spring come laden with
promise. 1t is a strange nature that
is not stirred into rejoicing at the vic
| tory of the new season over the old,
at the return OF life after death. Ev-
cry swelling bud and opening flower
is q pennant waving in triumph over
the field where the long fight between
| life and death has been waged. The
flowers speak of more than the passing
of time; they speak Of the passing of
the tyrant who robbed US of them last
year.
| Easter is more than a church festi
val: it is the festival of all nature. AS
at the creation the morning stars sang
| together. so at this new creation Of
another years beauty the birds, the
trees, the flowers, the weeds Of the
wayside, join in their great oratorio
| of happiness. 1t Is the birthday of
| hope He who had never seen the
changes of the season might well have
wept bitterly when autumns winds
swept bare the trees and the flowers
dropped in the gardens, thinking that
he was bidding them farewell forever.
How now would he rejoice at their re-
turn to learn, in spring, that death
| had been with them no more than q
seeming, its victory pretense. Grad
ually, as the spring came year after
year. he would learn the great secret
of nature, that all its endings are but
beginnings, that life can never cease
! to be.
/ Easter is the birthday of hope in
i greater realm. Our lives are but as
| single seasons; then comes the
autumn, the falling leaf We say this
is the end there will be no more the
flower, the leaf, the life; the dread
winds of winter sing their dirges Of
despair. But if the weed Of the way
side is worth bringing back to it's brief
beauty, if the buds break forth again
lives have no returning springtide
, after their winter? Is there only one
| set of seasons for humanity? Are we
! separated from the law that no life
can cease to be? Sown in sorrow, like
seeds in the fall, shall we not come
to fairer life? And every living thing
in all our fair world answers clear
that life is ever lord of death"
| This is the message Of the Easter
tide, a new life out of the old death.
Death has lost it's terrors. Instead
of a prison it has become an avenue.
life comes into our world, so shall we
also rejoice when a life goes out,
knowing that it goes into larger liv-
ing, a fairer springtide awaits it. We
see that God makes winter as we'll as
summer, our exits as we'll as our en-
frances; that the winter is essential
to the spring, the exit on one level to
the entrance on another.
Why, then, did men, with this les
son of nature writ broad before them,
sit so long in darkness? Why failed
| they to read the promise Of natures
| dSlCu PAL OlCdL SOulS ulu ScC
its meaning; large hearts hoped for
larger things. Many dimly felt that
| their longing would be satisfied, and
they waited for more sure word.
Then came One who so lived as to be-
come the authority on life. He so
| lived as to make all listen when he
spoke on life. He so lived as to teach
men how to die and so died as to
J teach them the secret Of life forever.
! He faced death without fear, with the
| sublime confidence that in some meas
ure has come to so many men in that
hour when decisions fall away. He
went down into the shadows with the
| light Of the coming dawn on His face
| He went down declaring he would re-
| turn
Then somehow, it is little matter
how or even just why, men learned
that He who had taught them how to
live had not felt the lesson half COM
pleted; He had faced and solved the
greatest mystery of life. He had
shown that beyond the winter there
was springtide for their lives, too.
They did not stop to discuss foolish
not been overcome by death, that the
great law of nature held true here,
| that no life could cease to be. 1t was
word for which the word had wait
ed They saluted one another saying,
HE Is risen!' Henceforth men had
| 1o;r ~ in vrin onfhnr,o of
| all nature.
HOW TO GROW.