An Easter Prayer fingers into>the contribution has ket; the dainty skirts and the furled para-ol._ \\ith the other hand she broke off the long-stemmed lilies, raised them caressingly to her cheek, whiffed their fragrance, and stepped hack. Her foot slipped and turned on the forgotten terrace, there was a lit tle cry, as she fell, with all the snowi ness of her garments about her, and the violets and the Easter lilies upon her breast. Shf1 lay quietly a moment, dazed and sickened by the suddenness and pain oi the fall. She tried to move, Imt warning pains shot up in the foot doubled under her. Then she called and waited, and called again; but no body answered. Again she waited, then she became drowsy and a faint ness stole upon her. The bells rang out. I am the resurrection and the life ' over and over again. Then all was still. Faint sounds beaan to force themselves upon her dull ears—the drip, drip, drip of the hydrant into a stone basin, the rippling note or two of a meadow’ lark, the fainter song of a mocker, as he gave the gossip of the bird world from the topmost tip of a eucalyptus tree; and always the bum of the bees, so persistent that drowsi ness came with it. Also she saw the Originated in Old Festival. ! lie illuminating of the churches on Kaster eve is doubtless a relic of the old festival of Beltein. when fires were built in honor o' the god Bel, or Baal. Often the Easter candles light ed on Easter eve have been marvels of the candle-maker's skill, some weighing as much as :;00 pounds. In the records of some churches of an cient date there is ample proof that bonfires as well as candles were lighted. In the parish records of St. Mary-at-Hill, in London, there is this entry: For a quarten of Coles for ye hailued Fire on Easter Even, 6d." Dates of Coming Easters. In very early times Easter was always spoken of as the "great day,” and such it surely is, the very great* est day in the year's calendar—a day that brings with it eternal hope to the sorrowful, a blessed peace to all man kind and crowns the glad springtime with the promise of life everlasting. Perhaps some readers will be glad to preserve the table given below, showing the date Easter will come on for the next three years. Calcula tlon* for Easter bongets may thus | low, spreading house, with its pillared verandas', rose-embowered, a beautiful home, hers and—his. His. Her slow ! mind stopped again. Hers and his for till time—‘•till death do us part”—"for better, for worse"—"in sickness or | health .... to love . . . and j honor . . . and cherish." Yes, to cherish. So they had proni i ised—they two. standing alone together, in all the solemnity of the marriage rites. Hut somehow the sweetness had gone out of it all; the love; or was it the comradeship? And who to blame? Not he. Xo, not he. Herself? She shook her head uncer tainly. Mostly it was "duties," she said. Oh. yes. all of one's duties to so ciety—church duties; club duties; so cial duties; and she shivered. Here they all were, in pointed caps, with little silver spurs on their feet, with which, when she lagged, they prodded her. with these and pointed tongues | of uncharitableness. Presently be ' bind them all she saw the figure of i her husband, his eyes upon her lov ! ingly; but ever and again they turned i sorrowfully upon the group about her. | and as often as ho would approach ! her, she was pushed back; be could ! not reach her for the barrier of Du : lies which stood between them. The woman wept, she tried to brush them all aside, for to her terror her husband seemed to recede and recede I and she was unable to reach him. In i an agony of remorse and grief she ! stretched out her arms. Then from among the Easter lilies came a fairy shape—a tiny child. A moment it : nestled on her breast, then it advanced ; and as it advanced, the Shapes drew i away, grew fainter, and were gone; j and the tiny thing, leading the man by ] one brown finger, brought him to her. I Was it only Cupid, the little god of love, or was it the spirit of the little child which some day might come to dwell with them? The woman held out her arms and clasped them both and held them to her. When Mrs. Chester roused herself from her swoon, or dream, or what ever it was which held her bound, it was to find her heart throbbing with a new hope and joy and longing; and she wondered whether or not she had dreamed, or had been the priv ileged listener to an Easter sermon preached out of doors by Nature, Na ture now in her most blessed mood. Through the open windows of her home came a low cheery whistle. She pressed the Easter lilies to her lips in a passion of joy. In some way she felt that she owed them something— a deliverance from something, and in the depths of her religious soul she cried: “This is the resurrection and the life," eveu as the bells had said it—while her face was baptized with tears. It was so that her husband found her, on that most blessed Easter day, when the sun stood high over the val leys, and spring brooded over the foothill country.—Edna Heald McCoy, in Los Angeles Herald. be made'some time in advance: 1909, April 11; 1910. April 27; 1911, April 16. To Tell Easter Sunday. Many have been puzzled to know how to tell on what day of the month Easter will fall. The rule was laid down at. a council held in the y«gr 714 that Eastef day should be always the first Sunday after the full moon, which happens upon or next after the 21st of March. If the full moon hap pen on a Sunday, Easter diy is the Sunday after. Something New to Wear. The idea of having a new frock and hat for Easter Sunday is not alto gether flippant. On the contrary, it is of religions origin, an old English rite requiring that every person should wear three new articles on that day and a superstition which declares it unlucky not to do so. ‘•Feast of Caps." Good Friday is often called the “Feast of Caps" from an old-time cus tom which required every iady to ap pear in a new house cap, while Easter Sunday was known as the “Feast of Hats" for a similar reasor t% 31a Not Him; Hii' 31a Hltant Iinlg Wn'k in imtu' HUondrrfuI E,astrr Sseruirrs Hrld in (Old i*t. d’ctrr's fir 3i:nt (SrrrmBfll 1Ux(£ltrsnri) Inexhaustible in its mystic signifi cance, the Holy Week in Rome, how ever familiar to the memory or im agination. stirs always a renewed wonder in those who witness it. Above all else Rome is a city of memories. The walls and arches of imperial days, the Renaissance pal aces. and the churches which mark every step in the long march from primitive Christianity to papal su premacy—these stamp themselves on the mind. The incongruous modern elements are as transitory in their impression as is the whirling dust from a motor car blown past the tombs on the Appian Way. The walls of Aurelian, the statue of Marcus Aurelius, benignant on the capitol, the august disarray of the Forum—these are actual and imperish able. So. too, is the spacious splen dor of St. Peter's, with its solemn sequence of ritual, in which, as the Holy Week advances, so mystic and superb a drama of divinity is en acted. There are many moods in which to approach the great Easter services in the great papal city, from that of the devote to whom the ever-burning lamps round the apostle's tomb mark a spot only less sacred than that of the holy sepulcher itself, to that of the casual sight seer, who flutters his Baedeker unabashed through the aw ful mystery of the mass Perhaps those do not see least of the signifi cance who look on the magnificent ceremonies with a haunting conscious ness of Rome's twofold greatness, and who never quite lose sight of the city of the Caesars in the city of the saints. It is impossible even to approach St. Peter's, where most of us choose to see the services, in spite of the ri val claims of the Lateran, mother of churches—it is impossible to reach the curving colonnades and mighty front without passing by memorials of an earlier, hostile life and creed. Per haps in driving thither the wanderer may catcli a glimpse of the immortal pair, the Great Twin Brethren, who guard in stone the stairs to the capi tal. Or, it may be. the shattered, ma jestic columns of the temple' of Mars Ultor have lifted for a moment their stern memorial of Caesar's death and Augustus’ vengeance. Once within St. Peter’s, however, conflicting memories fall away, lost, as is all sense of minor faults in the building itself, in the impression of vastness, of ar. all-enfolding and all reconciling hospitality. That hospital ity is taxed by the crowds which gather for the services of Holy Week. Palm Sunday initiates the series of elaborate ceremonies with its beauti ful rite of blessing the palms. A mot ley throng it is which streams up the wide steps and gathers about the altar above which glows in a golden halo the holy dove. There are the foreign sight-seers, of course, made evident' by their camp-stools and red guide books, but there are also soldiers in picturesque variety of uniform, priests i wearing their black draperies iu the classic folds which recall the toga. | shepherds from the Campagna, beard 1 ej and wild-eyed in their sheepskins; ■ pilgrims from far countries with the fixed visionary gaze of those who look i on their sacred places after long do ! sire. Sacred indeed is the spot to those who hold the faith of Rome. In front of the high altar with its baldacehino —the twist-'1 bronze columns tower ■ ing up superbly, yet dwarfed by the firmament of the dome above—burn I the golden, never-dying lamps which i mark the resting place, so tradition 1 says, of the apostle. - j But on Palm Sunday the attention is fixed on the altar in the Cappellu Giulia, and the pressure of the eager people increases cruelly as the has ! kets of palms are set down by the i alta»- stairs and the canons slowly ! move to their places. The priests are in violet, tile Lenten color. The deep hue brightened by wonderful inter weaving of gold and silver, and the crucifix on the altar is also violet veiled. There is no organ music, and | the deep notes of the chanting swell , with a strange solemnity through the ! echoing vaults. At last the solemn final word and 1 gesture of blessing have been given, and one by oue the priests lift and bear away the palm branches. Then the olive, which is given in their stead to the people, is brought for ward in great sheaves, and a priest in gold-embroidered violet robe holds out the silvery branches to the hands which reach and clutch for them, till all the nearest of the throng have re ceived their portion and pass on twigs to those behind. Peace and blessing is that olive to bring to those who reverenly receive Hie gleaming leaves. The distribution completed, the cardi nal and canons with their attendant train move in stately procession down the church, out into the portico, and so back to the altar. They bear aloft, with ttie tall tapers and the shrouded crucifix, the golden palm branches; not simple houghs such as were cast before Christ by the people of Jerusa lem. These are fantastically dipped and twisted til! they look more like furled standards, a significant touch in that church which is so ready to turn the martyr symbol into the con quering banner. DORA GREEXWELI. MCHESXEY FRIENDSHIP TRIBUTE Mrs. Hitt (trying her gorgeous East er bonnet)—How do you like the ef fect? Mrs. De Witt—Why. it's wonderful. You have the right idea. There's nothing like contrasts, is there? Famed as Cat Photographer. A Boston woman photographer makes a feature of her cat photo graphs and has an exhibition in her studio of the pampered cats of Back Bay that is attracting much attention. There are probably more of these pampered cats in Boston than in any other city in the country. Quite the Reverse. “Come into the dining-room. Mary, and get some of the sweets papa brought home." "Thank you. but I have to go up stairs and take my bitters." (Etrarlrs gugrnc ^Battks Upon a circle of the sands Chat front the round, desiring sea, I sit alone with folded bands Chinking on Rim of Galilee. Row like a perfect lily grows fils love in this e’er-selfish world; Its glory no distinction knows But is for all alike unfurled. Von trustful gull that rocking sleeps Upon the heaving ocean’s breast, 71s closely in Bis heart Re keeps 71s we who have Ris name confessed. Che tiger in the jungle weaves 71 perfect rondure on his coat, Tlnd clear among the budding leaves Che wild bird spheres bis liquid note. Che curving mountain ranges grace Che arching azure’s magic rim; Tlnd in the dewdrop’s form T trace Che same perfection born of Rim. enwrapped within its seed the rose Tlwaits the word unquestioning Cill everywhere the tombs unclose In resurrection of the spring. In Rim is all the joy we know, Che way, the life, the final goal, Che fount of Cove whose outward flow Is never-ending birth of Soul. Easter Day! The young year pauses on the threshold. of the spr:ng. Stops a moment there, amt crosses* to a wprid .of'blossoming. . v" 1 ■ ' *: -**■ Faster Day! The breezes vagrant winder from ihe Soi^jth, and set Loose a flood of odors fragrant—hyacinth and violef. Faster 1 ay! The Lord is risen—and, with punlight overpoured. Nature, bursting from her prison, fiscs with her risen Lord! Or. the round of years eternal. It is worth a winter's pain Just to lisit ii to tin? vernal wind among ilie trees again' . *, It is worth a iifo of sorrow, jitst. to know, whrn it is past. That a glorious To-morrow dawns uTpon the heart at last It is worth tho throe days’dying In tlio Sepulchre alone. ; Just to Jtear the angel Hying down to roll away the stone’ For 1 lie hope of future laughter gives to tears their one excuse Just the crown that followed utter made the cross of any us«. I.eaten saekeloth, T.ent'-n asltes what have we to do with them. Only that in eontrasi llasltes brighter Easter's diadem? It is not the blood of Jesus that releases you and me Hut liis risen soul, that frees us from the dread.of Calvary, i Faster Day! The world expects it—waits the larger Easter dawn 'When the • Christus Kr*surr« *\it” tells of wrongs forever gone. When America, victorious o’er a world-old. worn-out lie. Comes at last, serene and glorious, to her greater destiny— Turns her hack upon the whining cry that gold alone is good. Turns her eyes up to the shining mountain p:*aks of Brotherhood! Hope and trust of all the nations! Thou must burst this gilded shell. Ere unnumbered gem rations hail thee ;1S Emmanuel; Thou must kill the curst condition where Hie many f.1 the few. Crucify the Superstition that the Old must nee ds bt-’tr Then, when thou hast trampled under foot the gliosis .,f geld and gr —I Thou mayst burst the tomb asunder Ha il si,ail Christ ris.-ti ind. -d: (£>be 0^aml,(£>be d^canin^ anb (i>be3?ovc>er of tbe Jf^esurrection 3Sv ^ClilUam Crcswell ©cane CiBbop of 5!ban? WHEN the mod ern mind staggers before the story of the resurrec tion of J e s tt s Christ from the dead it fails to realize what its only actual diffi culty is. St. Paul's question: "Why should it be thought a thing incred ible with you that flod should raise the dead? still has bat one answer— namely, that there is no reason why it should be thought incredible; be cause raising the dead, as the Apos tle illustrates it in his Kpistle to the Corinthians, is the most natural and usual thing in the world under certain conditions. "That which men sow is not quickened except? it die." Life not only after. but> through and by means of tteath. is the univer sal law and the universal event. Only there must come first the undoing by decay of the bondage within which the principle of the seed is held. So long as it is imprisoned in the shell it is “bare grain," but when its outer cov ering is shed in the cocoon, or broken in the egg. or rotted in the grain, then the latent life comes forth and God gives it a body, and "to every seed its own body." So after death and burial, when the wrappings of this earthly flesh are dissolved and done away, ‘‘the body that shall be." "the body of glory," shall emerge in the fullness of time. lan oiulook beyond the grave and con I sole us in the hour of bercavemerr i God forbid that there should be an ' shadowing of this hope. But th pi a i tical question concerns our daily lit.* row. Humanity stands to-day, as ir ha stood for all these centuries fa. nig the fact of the wonderful life that on Lord lived here on earth, with th** strange and inexplicable combination j of fleshly reality without the restraint.* i and hindrances of the flesh. And tha‘ j means, in the first place, the pattern set, and in the next place the power | given to us to live our lives on high** I lines. Translated into plain English, th** great Easter thought is that we m:i not he absorbed and immersed in j merely earthly, temporal. carnal i thoughts and things. Life, neyer mar.' I than in our day. is crowded with bu* | ness, with pleasure, even where i’ : | not choked with indulgence and sue cess. The idlers and loungers, with r > j thought but amazement, are far to > i many. | The craze for accumulation of nv | terial wealth is wearing out th * | strength and dulling all the finer face | ties of men and women. An.l the carelessness and idleness of iieoph* who. with opportunities of sendee t.> society and the demands of home du ties, waste daylight hours and t- . . r.ight into day with games of chance, accenvuated too often with the cover cusness of gambling, are a reproach to the best inheritances and instincts of Americans. “You have no leisure class in Amen ca.” an Englishman said once to a:t I American girl. I The miracle or marvel of the resur i rection of Jesus Christ, like other miracles, lies in the fact that it dis regarded the element of time and also did away with the conditions of de cay. "He saw no corruption.” So much for the marvel of it. Now for the meaning of it. First of all: of course, it means that all the dead shall rise and live again. “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even • so they that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.” The corollary to the article in • the creed, “the third day He rose again.” is the article “I believe in the resur rection of the body, I look for the resurrection of the deail' or' from the dead." One does not need, one would not dare, to draw away the hearts and hopes of men front this great and blessed revelation of Holy Scripture, this strong and positive assertion of the Christian faith. But it is wrong to postpone the meaning of our Lord's resurrection to this final point of hu man history. It has a clear and more immediate application of what the Apostle calls “the power of His resur rection.” “dead indeed unto sin. but alive unto God. through Jesus Christ our Lord." This must be recognized and realized as the immediate practi cal purpose and result of the great fact of Easter Day. What is its message to men and women? It is easy to dream a dream of hope and delight about the future; easy to have a sentiment and emotion that en able us to face physical death with "Yes," she said, “we have, but w call them tramps. Leisure there ought to be. Men an ! women there must be who are free | from the strain and strenuousness of i incessant occupation, but it ought to be a leisure for Inteljeciiial, cultiva tion, for philanthropic interest. for the storing of energy, physical, mental and spiritual, which shall benefit man kind. i “Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead!” This is the Easter call, the Easter cry. Hiding even one talent ii) tlje nap kin of refined indolence or self-indu: gence or burying it in the dirt of sensuality and sin. either one makes an "unprofitable servant" and lays up against the second coming of the Lord an account of wasted powers and lost opportunities which will then be be yond recall. Symbol of Christianity. We dare not forget to-day that we venerate an empty Cross: ii is empty forever of that Harden which once hung there, tortured, dying, dead; and banished, too. is that blankness of despair, that sad dis may and disillusion with, which it was veiled until the first Kaster morning. The Cross—not the Cru cifix—is the symbol of Christianity.— Walter Lowrie. fasten too often made hideous and horrible. On Easter day eveh the most disor derly classes regard the occasion with a superior respect if not with rever ence. This Easter day is one of the two grand, festivals- of the Christian relig ion. One commemorates the birth of Christ who was announced as the Sa vions and Redeemer of mankind from the penalties incurred through sin. This, the other, celebrates the resur rection of Chrifet from death an'd the grave, and declares his divine immor tality and authority. The overpowering importance and value of the Christian religion in civ ilizing. enlightening and raising up to better things the human race, are seen in the fact that the nations which pro fess this faith have reached in every way, morally, physically and socially, a vast superiority over the peoples and races which possess other cree.ds and reject the God of the Bible. Easter is always a joyous occasion, and is happily tree from the noise, the unseemly behavior and the debauchery w'th which the Christmas festival is Coloring Easter Eggs. There still exist plenty of old faah ioned mothers who spend the day be iore Easter coloring eggs' arid staining ‘them with printed calico: If the.chii dren are permitted to’participate it is a rpally gloriously mussy event, in which they revel and . scream with delight. There is no pastime so charm ing to. the , youthful , heart as those particularly delicious kinds of plays that cause* all .sorts of havoc to one’s garments and one’s countenance. Irik bottles and coal pails have ever been the favored playthings of infancy. These may possibly be-considered miserable makeshifts for the delights of digging in mother earth. Anyway the Easter egg dyeing process has qualifications not unlike those of the ink well and the coal bin. After the dyeing there Is sure to be a cleaning. But what matters that? The fun is the main thing. The results are nothing.