An Easter Prayer
<r iz it
Now may He who from the dead
Brought the Shepherd of the* sheep,
Jesus Christ, our King and Head.
All our souls in safety keep.
* ☆ ☆
May He Iraeh us to fulfill
What is pleasing in His sight:
Perfect us in all His will.
And preserve us day and night!
☆ ☆ ☆
To that dear Redeemer’s praise.
Who the covenant sealed with blood,
f.et our hearts and voices raise
Rotid thanksgivings to our God.
HER EASTER
A Sermon Delivered Out of
Doors by Mother Nature
,ASTER in the foothill coun
try. among the low-lying
valleys, with the white
capped, blue vastiiess of
the mountains in the back
ground. and all the end
less variety of sunshine
and shadow! Divine, indeed, with the
divinity of spring. The very smallest
and sweetest of the early wild flowers
bloomed in the sheltered places, and
the quail nesting on the hillside, called
melodiously across the valleys.
It was a day to revive old loves and
longings, and to arouse the fires of old
passions—to let slip from you dis
content and all uncharitableness. And
over all the quiet of the morning the
hells pealed their ' Christ is risen,”
and the tremor of their echoes thrilled
you to your finger tips.
Mrs. Chester dressed herself slowly
and with much deliberation, that Eas
ter morning. The gauzy spring gown
lay. in all its dainty flufliness of laces
and rutiles and tucks, upon her bed.
Reside it lay the dainty hat and gloves
and the creamy parasol which was to
cast just the right tinge of white over
the piquant face of the pretty little
woman who was to carry it.
The bells again rang out their
‘ Christ is risen” as she stepped from
the door. She paused a moment, then,
turning, walked rapidly around the
house, beyond the pepper trees, across
the rose garden to where, in a stately
row. the great white Easter lilies lift
ed their heads to drink in the beauty
of the morning. A little terrace led
tip to them, and upon this she stepped
daintily, one hand grasping the little
niceties of her toilet—the white gloves
the hit of lace, the pocketbook where
in were the pieces of gold to be
dropped, with a musical jingle, from
tin> 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.
