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Show Easter in Jerusalem FTER the wonderful midnight mid-night mass on the eve of Easter, when at 12 o'clock bells sounded within the church, and, as each one of 1 the thousands assembled lighted his candle, the cry went up, "Christ is risen!" H-r-- came the Easter morning ceremony In the court of Ai) tue holy sepulcher. yiV3 Ah, how gentle, how ten- der, how touching, how vi-Y vi-Y tal it was, that simple ft greeting of the wonderful morning after the delirium and the fury of the holy fire! Robert Hichens says in the Century- All hearts were excited to frenzy by the holy fire. The Easter morning procession pro-cession moved hundreds to tears, held them tensely silent. Instead of the blue dome, spangled with artificial artifi-cial stars, a faint blue sky was over our heads. Instead of the glare of the torches, the sunbeams fell mildly upon us. Instead of the yelling multitudes, multi-tudes, we heard the sound of the wonderful won-derful bells. They began to peal forth just before the procession entered the court from the city. Down below me I saw tears streaming stream-ing over the seamed faces of many Russians as they signed themselves, kissed one another, told one another, "Christ is risen!" answering' to the triumphant proclamation of the bels, which, unwearied, reiterated their marvelous message to the children of men And the canvasses ln blue and red and gold came slowly into the court, and a man carrying the cross, and boys in red and gold with swinging swing-ing lamps on chains, and many priests in hjack. And there followed a priest with his arms full of flowers, and behind be-hind hfm another bearing on high the , risen Christ crowned with a halo of gold and framed in a glory of blossoms blos-soms Then there rose from the thousands of pilgrims a cry of sweet exultation, exulta-tion, and the bells seemed to grow louder as they told Jerusalem that the marble house was empty, that the stone had been rolled away. The bishops appeared In pale yellow, pearl color and gold, all holding lighted candles. And last of all came Dam-ianos, Dam-ianos, bearing a staff and a jeweled picture of the risen Christ. The procession pro-cession stopped. The bells were silent. si-lent. There was a pause. Then the patriarch took a step forward, gazed at the immense crowd of adoring pll-gTims, pll-gTims, lifted the jeweled picture of Christ, held It out toward them and said, "Christ is risen!" As his voice died away the priest with the flowers raised his arms and showered blossoms over the crowd; the bells pealed forth again; the procession pro-cession moved on and the pilgrims, eagerly lighting their candles and embracing em-bracing one another, closed in behind, crying. "Christ is risen! Christ Is risen!" And so into the darkness of the great church, quietly, softly, the procession pro-cession gradually vanished. The gloom was lit up by the candles of priests and pilgrims. Through the doorway I saw Damianos In his gorgeous vestments vest-ments sink humbly down to kiss the Btone of unction. Then the Russians, weeping with Joy, moved forward and hid him from my sight |