The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1915-04-01
THE MESSAGE or EASTER.

Waiter Williams, In Pueblo Chieftain
Easter is a promise that weeping
may endure for a night, but Joy
cometh in the morning. There are no
cemeteries in the New Jerusalem.
mere is no sorrow there, nor tears.
lis always Easter morning in heaven.
30 Easter means a shutting up Of
az ~ lountalns OF grief, an enclosing Of
the sources of smiles. 1t brings back,
IN n bloom of health. the stricken
IoIm We laid away but yesterday, out
worn with life's battles, in the vault of
sarth. In Its glorius lige we see, tod
allng up from the tomb, the dear little
ngure, 50 dear to use that we listen for
t.s patter1ng feet with every passing
hour, 80 dear that we can never close
U eyes to the memory Of its face on
our ears to he echo of it's long silent
volce-the little child comes back to
oWeI with use forever. There shall
pc no night there" and no tired chill
uien pc called away from use at eve
ningttde to rest.
Bearer dead than child or friend or
prother somtise are hopes and aspira-
lions. NO mourners go about the
streets when we lay therese away. We
wear no Grape, we show no outward
signs OF grief. save a certain grimness
ABOUT The mouth or downward droop
o1i WHICH VIC j. SifOllc
IN our chamber or when we unbare our
hearts holy of holes to our closest
friend do we ever admit the death and
burial. Yet when a great hope is put
IN eme forever, when an aspira-
zion Is stricken unto death, the soul is
in sorrow deeper than that for
Which we wear the worlds sack cloth.
Easter comes to bring comfort ever
mere. There is resurrection ever for
the graces of buried hopes. No right
eous cause is ever lost. No hope has
come in to man. heart to uplift and
inspire that will not bless him again in
the days to come beyond. Buried as
pirations have their Easter mornings.
No great thought, no great desire. nc
large n loving ambition, has ever
yet or will exist in vain.
Defeat is sometimes success. The
largest disappointment often means
the greatest victory. The hymn Of the
conquered Is to be desired. many times,
more than the paeans Of triumph. The
failures Of history are, in the Easter
time OF the present. the worlds great
est successes. Pau was executed. Lati-
mer beheaded. ~Savonorola burned at
the stake. Ignatius Loyola was misin-
terpreted and misunderstood, Roger
Williams was driven from Boston,
John Wesley was made a social out
cast n John Knox an exile. The
Master died upon the cross-but
Easter came.
The %happiest Of ell funerals is that
where we bury ourselves. There is this
lesson in Easter also. We amount to
little in this world as long as we are
~unburied. We must lose this snarltng
thing we call self before we can be Of
service. He who would save his life
must lose it This is the glorious par
adox that comes as corollary to the
great truths of Eastertime. When we
sing self we find service md tranquil
tty. With service and peace comes
happiness. The death of self must
precede the Easter OF the soul. We
must be crucified before we can rise
from the dead. When self learns this
lesson there will be Easter all the
year. 1t will no longer be a yearly
miracle. but a daily fact. 1t will bring
sunshine to every soul and peace to
every heart. We shall all dwell con-
tent. for having lost our lives we shall
have found them our own forever.
And when the world learns this para
dox and lives it. there will be no more
poverty and war and bloodshed. The
Master will lie no longer in the tomb,
nor any of His children suffer.
The Easter lily mods at the altar. 1t
Is prophecy Of purity to come when
the w~hiteness of soul shall never more
be stained with seeking Of self. 1t Is
yet dark. but the stone has been rolled
away from the sepulcher and Dawn Is
at hand.