The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1939-04-07
EASTER-GLAD SEASON OF
RENEWAL

RENEWAL
A season of rejoicing is here
Easter. with it's spirit of renewal.
Life that has ben dormant through
1.-THE winter months renews itself; the
snow and ice that have covered The
earth disappear; brooks and rivers
swell. the sap runs from the trees;
the migratory birds return from, the
southland as the advancing sun
warns the chilly surface of the
Iearth. All that was seemingly dead
becomes again infused with life.
Men feel vaguely that they, too,
should renew themselves. The body,
1along with all nature, is renewed
lin the spring and mankind should
seek to reawaken spiritually as well.
BY a happy circumstance Easter
fell in the season when spring was
Just beginning, at the vernal equinox
when day and night are practically
Of the same length all over the
earth.
The goddess of spring was vener-
ated, sometimes, with excess Jublla-
ton. and the Resurrection took place
! inst after the Jewish feast OF the
Passover-the first and greatest or
the three annual festivals of the
Jews by Moses in COM
incarceration of the deliverence OF
the Israelites from the Egyptian
bondage. The very Jewish Passover
was a renewal of the natural life OF
the people, long held in bondage by
The pharaohs.
The early Christians carried over
nto their new faith many of the ira
jitions of old. The ancient feasts
md celebrations did not at once die
ont among them. They gave new
meanings to their feasts. 1t was only
natural that the day of the Resur-
| rection-the day upon which the
Savior, after having tasted the bit
| terness of persecution, betrayal
and death, after having borne his
cross for the salvation of mankind,
arose from the dead into life never
ending, triumphant over everything
should appeal to the imagination
as no other feast day.
The Sunday the first day of the
week, succeeded the Jewish Sabbath
the seventh day of the week-as
he day of rest. And thus Easter
even may be said to mark the first
differentiation of the Christians
from the Jewish faith, as in many
ways it symobized their essential
continuity.
The very first Christians set their
easter feast by the Jewish lunar cal
endar of 354 days and celebrated 1t
lpon week days or upon the Sabbath
IS an annual observance. But about
The year 100, in the time of Pope
Victor, and when Septimius Severus
vas emperor of Rome, a controversy
,rose over the proper date for cele-
Drafting the feast, because the Cen
tile Christians in part of the empire
we're reconing their calendar by the
Roman year. The Asiatic dioceses
aeld with the Jewish Christians
hat Easter should be celebrated on
he fourteenth day of Nissan, even II
lpon week day. The supporters OF
his contention were given the name
Of Ouartodecimans. The western
| iioceses, following apostolic tradi-
ton and the Roman calendar, were
,or an Easter upon Sunday only,
hat Sunday to be determined by
reference to the fourteenth day OF
the venal moon. A synod Of bishops
decided in favor of the western con-
tention and the decree was gradu-
ally respected throughout the Re-
man empire.
The Crucifixion actually took
place upon the day following
the fourteenth of the first
Jewish month, Nissan. Thu foul
teenth was the day for slaughter
ing of the lamb for the Passover UNI
der the Jewish law. On that day the
head of the family killed the lamb
and it's blood was sprinkled ON the
door sill in commemora ton of the
night preceding the exodus from
i Egypt, when the angel went through
the country and slew all the first
born but passed over the houses al
the Israelites. Thus, the Crucifxion
was on the day of the Passover it
self There is, therefore, 10 the
Christian mind, connection both real
and ideal between the Old Tesla
mept and the New Dispensation as
constituted and typified by this coin
cidence of the Jewish Pasch ard the
Passion of Jesus-the lamb of the
sacrifice and the Lamb of God.
New York Herald Tribune.