The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-04-14
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EASTER
(Goodwin's weekly

TREMENDOUS SlgnlHcance or the even
1t celebrates at any time. 1t stand.
out by itself alone; it is day tina
has no duplicate in all the rolling
ages.
Men had entertained angels; it wa.
told that gods had talked with men
but the dividing line that separated
the mortal from the immortal hat
never been broken down; the one
was to live on and on forever; the
other had been given divine faculties
thoughts that comprised all the
heights and depths, from the stars
to the deepest abysses; it thought tt
go up among the angels and feel al
their joys; to mount the heights oil
literature and touch its divine chords
to open door after door of science and
bring out the onders to the light;
to grasp and hold for little space
the ecstacy of love; to feel the cling.
ing arms of their children around
them; to scale the heights of glory
and feel the thrill-that thrill that
comes when human valor tried by
fire triumphs; to feel the Joy of
commanding wealth and power; but
just before them always they knew
there awaited funeral pyre or a
grave and that the point of an arrow,
the kiss of a serpent or breath of
fever was enough in an hour to
convert them into dust.
So they lived as century after CEN
tury unrolled, and the question was
continually asked; ''Is this all?"
with no answer except its own echo
coming back from empty space.
Men chung to the belief that there
must be something beyond; they in
vented gods and gave them immortal
ity; they filled the earth and the air
with them; when the spring came and
kissed the earth and the. SHOWS dis
appeared and the world again put
on its spring hsbiliments, they as
cribed it to god or goddess and built
affairs to him or her and offered their
oblations.
When storm shook the world and
left in it's path only wreck and death,
then some god was offended and must
be propitiated; when they went into
battle they offered sacrifice to their
gods; the blaze of lightnings, the
fight of birds, the roll of thunder
down the stairs of the sky, were
signs to them which cunning men
interpreted to the masses to suit their
own. designs and called the interpreta-
ions messages from the gods.
But the old doubts continued to
distress them for back from the i'm
past there came no sight,
10 sound. IF man die, shall he
i've AGAIN." remained unanswered.
B t at last the seal was broken. A
devoted woman went to the grave of
me whom she believed was divine,
Who had been slain to weep for him {.
here. But the toomb was empty,
md looking within, radiant one
Gated there thrilled her soul with
he words; HE is not here; He is
isen."
AT last the answer had come and
he glory of it, the comfort of it, the
Mighty significance of it, is as start
Ing and as sweet as. when those
lords were first pronounced to the
)wly woman. She could not begin
D comprehend the wonder. The wis
st man who has lived cannot COM
rehend them in their significance r
, man. Is
In ancient days, when in the capt.
Ills of southern Europe and western
STA, the storm-tones went out of 6
he winds, the frost disappeared, the {
arth awoke from her winters sleep ,
nd put on her spring blooms; when /
lie migratory birds returned and men
card the robins call and the lark
hen she rose to hail the sun; they
It aside day of thanksgiving and e
raise that the world had awakened a
'om the wreath of the winter and v
'ring had come. s
With the event described above a II
wv wisdom had come to men; this +
lcient day of praise and thankful
,ss for the divine blessings which
me of the proof that this life is but F
e dawn Of an everlasting golden u,
". s a
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