The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-09-22
EDITORIAL NOTES


 In the calendar of the church, the tw wenty-first of September is the fesh- val Of St. Matthew, the Apes#leF~and Evangelist. Matthew-whose name, in Hebrew, means Gift of Jehovah- was a publican. It was the business of pubEcans to collect taxes from the people for their Roman masters, and collectors are today. Moreover, the art of swearing off taxes had not then been developed, and the publ1- cans not only collected the full amount due the government, but many of them often resorted to extortion and fraud to enrich themselves. Thus, to the Jews, the words publican and sin ner'' came to have synonymous meaning, and the collectors of customs were abhorred enemies of their country, outcasts and notorious sin ners.
 Little is recorded of the Apostle Matthew before his meeting with Je- sus. He was probably man of wealth, or so it would appear from the description of the feast given at his house at the beginning of his dis cipleship. He received his call to be- come a follower of Jesus as he sat at the receipt of custom or tax of fce'' in one of the towns on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. At single word, says St. Bridget, Matthew the Publican t1aid down the heavy burden of the world to put on the light and sweet yoke of Christi
 St. Matthew made a great feast, to which he invited Jesus and his dlsci- pies, and a number of his colleagues in the publican business. No Pharisee would so denean himself as to sit at table with a tax col1ector-an attitude uncharitable, ungracious and entirely repr rehe hensible, but for which many will a SnN91<inc inv. When the Pharisees saw Jesus at the ban quet board with publicans, they be- gan to murmur and Peproach him for his breach of etiquette. Te was then that Jesus said: They that are in health need not a physician have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance"
 St. Matthew was present in the tup per room at Jerusalem after the as- tension, and was elected to be the sue cessor of Judas. He remained some years in Judea, where he wrote his gospel. He afterward preached Chris tianity far and wide, and is supposed to have finished his course in Par thia-
 Followers of the Greek Orthodox Church celebrated yesterday the fes- tival of the Nativity of Theotokos, or the birth of the Virgin Mary. Among eastern Christians, and especially in Russia, this feast is one of the most important in the calendar, and is one of a series devoted to the veneration of Theotokos, or the Virgin. The Re- pose of Theotokos, similar to the west ern festival of Assumption, is celebrat- ed in August, and is followed by the Nativity of Theotokos in September, the Patronage of Theotokos in Octo- Der, the Entrance Cor Presentation in November, and the Conception of The otokos or Feast of the Imma cu1ate Conception, in December.
 The separation between the Eastern CT Greek church and the Western or Roman church was effected in 729. The Greek church established itself in Rus sia. in the tenth century. The Council of Lyons, held in 1274, resulted in a re- union of the Greek and Roman church. es, but it lasted only a few years. In 1723 reunion between the Greek church and the Church of England was proposed, but the plan failed.
 H. G. Wells, one of the most distin- guished and philosophic of modern