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Show THE HERALD - JOURNAL, LOGAN, UTAH. SATURDAY, PAGE SIX G G & The Significance of Easter G G G G O G G Delivered By The Late Elder Orson F. Whitney Of The Quorum Of Twelve, In The Logan Tabernacle On A Sermon April 16, 1911 Raster day means something more than an opportunity to wear spring bonnets and feast no see colored harm I upon eggs. in allowing these innocent observances which have grown up around the central idea of this great Christian festival, so long as they do not detract and draw our minds away from the solemn facts that are thereby commemorated. The Easter service has become the great annual festival of not because it was instituted by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but because it commemorates in the minds of millions of busy people the great and solemn fact of His resurrection. Like Christmas the Easter festival is an adaptation from older usages than Christianity itself. IS FEAST OF THE PASSOVER The Easter service is nothing more or less than the ancient Jewish feast of the passover, instituted in the days of Moses, fifteen centuries before the birth of Christ, and established on the night before the children of Israel led by Moses began their exodus from Egyptian bondage into the freedom of the wilderness and the land of Canaan. It is a continuance of the festival feast, that which is now celebrated by Christendom as Easter, and it takes its name from Teutonic mythology, after the name of the goddess of Spring, EoBta or Ostera. The first Roman Catholic mistribes sionaries to the Anglo-Saxo- n found them celebrating this festival, to Eosta, the Goddess of Spring. They hit upon the idea a happy one, Indeed of substituting their Easter festival or the passover for this festival to bo i pagan goddess with the view, no doubt, to popularize Christianity tribes, among the Anglo-Saxo- n and facilitating the consideration of Christianity. A similar myth to that permitted the Christian church to adopt Christmas, another pagan custom, and call it the birthday of the Son of God, which we now commemorate Tbe custom of presenting eggs upon Easter day is a brief por lion of a Magian custom the eggs standing for the idea of reproduction just as spring stands for that Idea, and therefore symbolically correct in its application to the great principle of the The coloring of the resurrection. egg is to denote the blood ofChrist, the blood of our redemption that is when the eggs are colored- red. Leaving this introductory phase, I desire now to rail your attention to the feast of the passover, of which the Easter service is the continuation, merely remarking in advance that as early as the second century, controversies arose in the Christian church as to the proper time of observing this festival. The Jewish Christians Insisted upon observing it on the same day that the Jews observed the passover, but the Roman Catholics turned the question and made it apply to Sunday, declaring that day should always be held upon Sunday, the day that our Lord rose from the Jead, and the council of Nice in 325 A. D. was called for the 'pecial purpose of settling this controversy, and since that time it has been practically observed through Christendom. The old idea waned and the new idea grew until now the Easter Sunday is an established institution of the Christian church. NOT INSTITUTED BY SAVIOR The Savior and the apostles did not institute any of these festivals. They were too much occupied with making history, with the events that crowded upon them, to institute feast days and ceremonials of this character. But ' we all appreciate the significance of Easter day and it matters not that this was not the day that is precisely the day that our Savior arose from the dead, any more than Christmas day is not the precise day He was born in- -. to the world. The main fact to be remembered is that He came into the world, that He died for man, and rose again the third day. We Latter-da- y Saints rejoice in the observance, in the memory, in the commemoration of these facts, so glorious. The passover was undoubtedly instituted with the symbolical reference to the resurrection of Christ, to the atonement of Christ, the and consequent resurrection of the human race. The children of Israel under the command of their great leader, Moses, on the night before the beginning of the oxodus, slew in each household of Israel a lamb prepared carefully beforehand, a lamb without spot or blemish. They put that lamb up on spits arranged in the form of a cross and roasted it before the fire, and each family partook of it, having previously sprinkled the Blood of the lamb upon the lintel and the two side posts of the door for this was the command of God, who had promised that that night the angel of Death in passing over Egypt, and bringing upon this proud and haughty nation a great judgment, would slay the first born of every Egyptian household, but would spare every household, upon the doorposts of which and the lintels thereof, should be cprinkled the Mood of this paschal lamb. The lamb was to be eaten with bitter heA, and was to be partaken of by that family. But before they partook of it, they were to gird themselves for a journey. It was to be partaken of in haste. unleavened bread Consequently, , was used, such as could only be chis-tendo- I j prepared in haste. Some authorities think that the unleavened bread symbolizes the insipidity and the fear meted out to these lsraelitish bondsmen. It is evident the bitter herbs typified the bitterness of their Egyptian bondage. The fact that the angel of Death was to pass over each household of Israel gave the festival its name. It is also significant of the great prediction that This all Israel shall be saved. festival was first established in but the of homes people, the afterwards it was made a part of the ceremonial of the septu-agiin their travels through the wilderness. FIRST CELEBRATED IN HOMES The first time the passover was celebrated was in the homes of the people and the father of the family took the place of the high priest. There are some facts connected with the passover which have both a historical and symbolical meaning. Historically, it was meant to keep alive in the hearts of the children of Israel, a grateful sense of what God had oone for them in sparing their first born. Next it was meant, undoubtedly, to keep alive in their i earts the great fact for which Ch'-ist- , the Savior, stands, deliverance from bondage, ar.d the ushering in of God's chosen nation to freedom and the futuie life. When the Savior came, He partook of the passover, just before His crucifixion, and made it evident to His disciples that He was the substance of all these which had come down through the centuries before, fifteen hundred years before Ho partooa of the passover and fulfilled the figure and the law concerning it. Ho instituted in its place, it would seem, the sacrament of the Lord's supper, the broken bread and the wine that His symbolizes His crucifixion, broken body upon the cross and His blood that was spilled to atone lor the sins of the world. It is a remarkable fact that when our Savior was hanging up- on the cross between two thieves, the Jews besought the Roman authorities that they would not allow the bodies of these malefactors to hang upon the crosses and desecrate the Sabbath day that was approaching the Jewish sabbath being Saturday Christ being crucified just before the d that sabbath. It had been predicted concerning Christ batnot a bone of Him should be broken, and so it was an ordinance in connection with the passover that not a bone of the Iamb of the passover should be broken, and that the remnants of the feast of which the family partook should be carefully gathered up and thrown into the fire and consumed next morning, least they should see corruption. These two facts I wish to call to your attention. When Christ hung upon the cross, the Homan soldiers the request of the Jews having been granted to them that these bodies should be taken down and buried before the dawn of the sabbath came to the crosses on Calvary for that pui pose. They went first to the cross upon which hung one of the thieves. He was still alive. They broke the bones of his legs and put him to death, and then removed the body for burial. They then went to the other cross, found the other thief broke his legs in like and living manner and buried him out of When they came to the sight. cross upon which hung the Son of God, He was already dead and not a bone of Him was broken, nor did He see corruption. The gathering up of the remnants of the feast and their being burned in the fire, so that they should not see corruption so they should not decay, but foreshd-owe- d the fact the Redeemer, when sacrificed, should not see corHe ruption or suffer decay. lay in the tomb until the third day, but His body did not decoy, as your bodies will and mine, but He rose from the dead quickened, glorified, the spirit reuniting with the flesh. He thus fulfilled Vie great type of the lamb of Gcd. the lamb of the passover symbolical of the lamb of God, who had been slain in theory from before the foundations of the world, and slain in fact literally here upon the earth in the meridian of time. JESUS HAD RISEN FROM DEATH Jesus rose from death as He had promised His disciples He Yet it staggered their would. faith when He fulfilled the prediction and the promise He had made to them. The crucifixion of it had Christ, notwithstanding been predicted, was looked upon as a calamity by His own disciples, who had heard Him declare repeatedly that the Son of man had power to lay down His life and take it back again; who had heard Him declare that He would have to drink of the bitter cup prepared for Him and die, that the world might live. There is something so great, so oversolemn these whelming about events that it la not surprising the of faith should stagger they man and amaze the natural man, unenlightened by that spirit which enables the finite to grasp the infinite. The fall of Adam and Eve, for instance, was looked upon, and is today by those who do not comprehend its meaning, its significance it is looked upon as a the that calamity, something world would have been better Our father Adam and without. our mother Eve are looked upon, almost, as malefactors even by Christians because they have not learned to take the correct view of these things. They have not grasped the full meaning of the fall of Adam and Eve. So it was in the case of our Savior and His disciples. They went murmuring bac. to their fishing, after their Lord had been betrayed and crucified. We hear them giving utterance to such We trust sentiments as these: this was He who should have redeemed Israel." They went sorrowfully back to thoir nits thinking the kingdom of God was no more. Yet, there had been consummated the grandest victory in the history of our race. They looked upon it, forsooth, as a defeat and a disaster. Well, it was strange no one had been resurrected up to that time upon this The doctrine had been planet. Good old father tHUght vaguely. I know that my Job had said: Redeemer Uveth, and that He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth. And though the worms destroy this body, yet in the flesh shall I see God. The Egyptians had faith in a resurrection, the preservation by mummifying the bodies of their dead showed they had faith in something of that kind. We find in one of our principal sects among Jews, among whom Jesus lived and died, faith in the resurrection. The Pharasees, of whom Paul was one, believed in the resurrection, but up to that time no one had risen from the dead, not even our " father Adam. NO WONDER APOSTLES WERE ASTONISHED No wonder they were astonished when our risen Lord burst the shackles of the tomb and appeared to Mary and Magdalene and to the other women at the sepulchre and told them to go and tell His disciples. When He appeared to them, no wonder it was a surprise, an apparition, and that they were frightened it was so. But He assured them saying, Feel of me and see it is I, for a spirit has no flesh and bone as ye see me have. And then they accepted Him as tnelr risen Lord. They not merely believed it, they knew He had risen from the dead. This was a special priviIt was lege of these apostles. not the prerogative of every man to know that Christ had risen, not by His personal appearance But it v;as the preto them. rogative of the Twelve special witnesses, the apostles of our Lord, it was their right and the right of every apostle to know that His Redeemer had risen, because of the character of their mission. They could not go forth to the world and proclaim merely that they believed. Christ had risen. They must know that He had risen, but the rest of the world were required to believe. And there, it these seems, apostles knew, because they had the privilege if they chose to exercise it of Reting of the body of the Lord, as well as seeing Him and hearing His voice. But one of them was absent when Christ appeared to the others, Thomas, called the doubting apostle. He was not a bad man. There are some men who grasp spiritual truths much more quickly than 0(1 CU0DSM&- - . TP lOv't To escA ft, A . . slow to For As in Adam all died, so in others, but believe are not necessarily bad Christ all are made alive. and men. Thomas was not a bad Adam fell that man might be man, but he merely wanted to The gospel is not of earthly origin. know and be had a right to know, It was instituted in heaven befor he was one of the Twelve, fore the world was. It s the one of the special witnesses cho- plan of eternal progress instisen. He said, I will not believe tuted by the glorious intelligence unless I can feet the prints of who gives of His intelligence, to the nails in His hands and thrust institute these laws whereby the my hand into His side, and feel race might advance like Himself. the wound made by the Roman IN MIDST OF spears. AND GLORY Now, do you think that Christ SPIRITS In the beginning He found himwould have given to you or to me, if we had stood out and final- self in the midst of spirits and He instituted these laws, ly demanded, as it were, a sign? glory. I do not believe it. But Christ as we now call them, and accept-ha- d chosen this man, Thomas, as ed them as a means of progress one of Twelve, who had the and eternal glory. In order that right to know, to see, to hear and man might progress and become to feel; consequently He finally like unto his Father and His God r he had to come down upon a morconsented, condescended to and say to Thomas, Reach tal earth and pass through a pilhither thy hand, feel of me, feel grimage in this vale of tears. to be provided of the prints of the nails, feel of A means had the wound in my side, and be not whereby man as a spirit might and world become the come into it. faithless, but believe living soul. Thomas, overwhelmed, felt His a Adam and Eve we-- e appointed Oh, Lord, M feet, exclaiming, God. And Thomas died for his to be the parents of the human race. They came here. They fell testimony just as others did for that man man might be that theirs, with one extption, who lived on because God granted his might come down and take upon become living desire to remain to testify before them bodies and and souls and go on to perfection. nations, kindreds, tongues As they had been promised people, but ready at any time to this spirits as part of their progress and give bis life as the others gave That is what hudevelopment. theirs, for the word of God and man life means. The spirit is imthe testimony of Jesus Christ. The Savior took occasion to ad- perfect without the asbody. asTheit far minister a wonderful lesson. He spirit had advanced before it took up the body. said, Thomas, thou has believed could not become perbecause thou hast seen. Blessed The spirit could The spirit could not be are they who have believed and fect. is merealone The body glorified. have not seen. The body ly a lump of clay. One would naturally suppose quickened by the spirit, redeemed that those to whom the Savior from resurrected by virhad appeared, who had heard Him, tue ofdeath, the atonement of Christ, seen Him, and felt of Him, had can on to not as a go perfection experienced a most blessed con- spirit and not as a body, but as dition. That is because of our both, combining and constituting human interpretation of divine the immortal of man. That is It is belter to be- why we came soul philosophy. here. lieve in God without seeing Him, walked by sight and kept than to believe because we see theWefirst estate. Now we walk him. This life was instituted for by faith and are trying to keep the exercise of faith. It is our our We have been estate. second second estate. We are required added upon hy beiig given our to walk by faith and thus have for opportunities our spirituality exercised and de- bodies with We and development. veloped, our spiritual needs ex- progress have been promised that if we panded and improved a condiour second estate wo shall tion impossible if we knew every- keep added upon our heads have thing and if God should pour up- foreverglory and ever. on us prematurely all knowledge There were some who did not that will yet cover the earth all of the first esta'.e. Lucias the waters cover the channels keep and all who followed him, of the great deep" as he prophets fer failed to walk by sight, failed to have spoken. demonstrate their integrity in WERE NOT ONLY keeping their first estate. They ONES TO SEE were cast out of heaven and beBut the apostles were not the came the devil and his angels, only ones to see the Lord. Paul evil spirits, without bodies, withsaw Him. Paul of Tarsus, who out the means of progress, wanpersecuted the church and then dering up and down the world became an apostle, saw Him. He tempting and trying the children rebuked Him for persecuting the of men. All over the world, whersons of God. He also declares that ever you find human beings, be 500 brethren saw Christ on a certhey white, black, red, yellow or tain occasion. When He ascended brown, you find spirits who kept it was before the eyes of many the first estate. There is a bond while an angel of God declared of union between us and every to the men of Galileo who were son and daughter of Adam. Now the greater problem con- gazing into Heaven for their Ye men of Galilee, fronts us, the keeping of the sec- risen Lord, why stand ye here gazing into ond estate, walking by faith, with Know ye not that this the promise that when we die we heaven? same Jesus who has ascended into shall rise again and go on to heaven will in like manner come perfection, through the merits of the atonement of our Lord and again, descending out of heaven? For that reason the second com- Savior who wrought out this prining of the Lord Jesus Christ is ciple of redemption by the shedanother great fact we bear in ding of His own blood. mind on a day as this. We reIt was by means of the sacrifice member He not only came in the of Adam and Eve that we came meridian of time, but that He into the world, that we acquired rose from the dead, appointed the the bodies that have been given twelve apostles previously chosen to us this tabernacle, the means of our everlasting and other servants and commandincrease and and eteril ed them to go into the world and onward progress kinis But to means it of the every glory. by preach the gospel dred. Lo, he says, I am with redemption wrought out by our ' you, even unto the end of the Lord and Savior that we take these bodies with us and go back world. What then is the great signifi- to where we came from with the cance of Easter day? It is the promise that eternal glory shall be resurrection from the dead. What added upon our heads forever does that signify to us? What and ever, if we are faithful in and does it mean to you Latter-dakeeping His commandments Saints that Christ came and oied living the laws of Kis gospel. for us and rose from the dead? It is as if the by the I have already called your at- fall of Adam and Eve had been tention to the fact that the part placed in pawn and the name of played by Adam and Eve in this the pawnbroker was Death and the fall, great drama of progress and re- his claim considered demption is not properly under- death of tile spirit and death of stood by the world at large. The the body, eternal banishment from Latter-da- y Saints understand the tne presence of God. That was And there was significance of the part played by death, indeed. our first parents. We do not re- no hope for it. Thrre was no We malefactors. as them for it this side of heaven. gard help The world was dead and doomed. do not berate them. We acknowledge the hand of God in their fall, No part of that v.hich had been just as we acknowledged the hand pledged, or put in pawn, could be of God in the death and resurused as the means of redemption. rection of the Redeemer. Something sinless, without ipot or These two great facts were blemish, symbolized by the spotmeant to- balance each ot'ier. It less lamb of the passover, somewas the breaking of a divine law thing that was not under the and the vindication of the law curse, and something that had the balancing of the scale. That not sinned, that was under no is the relationship oetween them. penalty at all absolutely inno- - Owe complete- wabit pictured below is ideal TOR. EARLY SPRING OfJ A group of relatives and friend3 a delightful surprise arranged party Saturday evening at the home of Postmaster and Mrs. N. G. Allen, the occasion being in honor of the birthday of Mrs, and of Mr. Alien on Saturday The evening Allen on Monday. was spent in music, social chat and 500 playing. At 11 p. m. a delicious luncheon The Easter idea was served. was carried out effectively in the decorations and refreshments. Those included besides the guest of honor were Messrs, and William H. Maughan, Brigham Maughan, Heber Maughan, Joseph Maughan, Peter Maughan, Leroy Hall, Lamont Allen, Melvin Ed Heber Bassett, Archibald, Bankhead, J. H. Williams, Herman H. Darley, WilTheurer, William liam M. Haslam, John A. Leish-maMarshal Allen of Salt Lake, Luther Baldwin and Mrs. Fannie Brown, Agnes Price, Mae Jensen of Hyrum and Ernest Hall. Mr. and Mrs. Allen received a number of beautiful gifts. Mrs, Elsie Poppleton entertained at a quilting Tuesday evening. A luncheon was served to Mesdames Mary Baldwin, Annie Poppleton, Lcola Bailey, Clara Stuart, Alta Baldwin. Blanch and Bradshaw, Leona Waiters Emma Glenn. Mr. and Mrs. Herman Theurer were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Sjoberg at Logan Sunday evening. Mr. and Mrs. David Hurst and son of Paradise were the guests Tuesday of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Maughan. Mrs. Howard Jones entertained at a quilting Wednesday evening. D. W, W. Henderson of the U.S.A.C. will be a special speaker Sunday afternoon at Easter services in the Wellsville ward. The choir will furnish special musical numbers. The U. S. A. C. band, under the direction of Prof. N. W. Christiansen will give the program Sunday in the Wellsville ward at 8 p. m. The Second ward will also meet in the tabernacle. Mrs. Margaret H. Maughan spent Thursday at Salt Lake accompanying Mrs. Maude Liljenquist of Hyrum. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wyatt and Mrs. Julia Wyatt were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Wyatt at Ogden on Wednesday. Mr. and Mr?. David Tarbct of Logan, Mrs. Flora Grant, Mrs Alton Hunsaker of Honcyviile were guests of Mr and Mrs. Herman Theurer the forepart of the week. RIDING-- . TdE LEFT, BELOW A BLUE.D0U8LE-BREAST-E- BROAD -- SHOULDERED JACK- SHOW? DECIDED MILITARY INFLUENCE. IT 19 WORN WITH ET CADET BLUE BREECHES AND A NAVY PANCAKE BERET. The POLO COAT LOW I? CLASSIC CEPT FOR THE BE- Above, a EX- stock op . Mes-dam- NAVY BLUE AND POLKA COLOR. WHICH DOTS OF RED. 0 I? CADET OELOW, CROCHETED BLUE. CLOVES OF RED STRlNGt two-cour- cent had to be given that scale might be balanced. - TwoulO 'St, A) Cbioi oeelC , hi f the 1 a faithless He wandered through world, A Prince in Shepherd guise; He called His scattered flock but few The voice did recognize. For minds upborne by hollow pride Or dimmed by sordid lust, Ne'er look for kings in beggar's garb, For diamonds in the dust. -- isla Jw'tfiH' eof NAVY I Mtsmf HKHStCt TCUION 1 IN re;u-pea- . tpc PIDING HIGH QGGGGGGGGGG-GGGGGGmen who are G G MARCH 26. 1932. j pessimist is UMHAPfV ORDER To BE' HAPPV MUST APPEAR - IN Hell's dungeons burst, wide open swung The everlasting bars, Whereby the ransomed soul shall win, Those heights beyond the stars. fourth assistant U. Post- S. master general. Col. Henderson's Idea is to have this commission control air traffic and grant franchises to airline companies. Newhouse Hotel Spring Rates LOTA HOftM taught. Transfixt He hung For flashing on its wing of light A falchion from its sheath. It cleft the realms of darkness Dissolved the bonds of death; ; NATIONAL AIR BOARD WASHINGTON An Interstate Commerce Commission of the Air is urged by Col. Paul Henderson, airline official and formerly Wept He above a city doomed, Her temple, walls and towers, O'er palaces where recreant priests Usurped unhallowed powers, I am the way, the life, the light." Alas, twas heeded not. Ignored may, mocked, Gods messenger And spurned the truth He O' crime of crimes The God whom worlds adore, "Father, forgive them. Drained the dregs. Immanua! was no more. No more where thunders shook the earth, Where thwart the lightning gloom, Saw that unconquercd spirit spurn The shackles of the tomb. amnIwho ITUUIU- - AUL CbMC OUT l THE l MM? TmvJKS To PT UJAYACglW). When registerask for ing. "All - Expense Rates. Or write for reserva-tion- s or further details. CE ' paying off any outstanding Indebtedness incurred by the council during its operations thus far this season. The next check from the city employes' unemployment fund will pay off the past indebtedness of the council and leave nearly $100 to be added to the vaudeville receipts. As soon as the project activity is launched, bishops of the Respective wards will name the' men who should come first in consideration as workers on the project. Those selected will be notified from the council office. PLAN A 2 Persona 2 Days and 1 Night Room, dinner, breakfast, garage, one theater ticket each. (Good week-end- s only). PLAN B 350 2 2 Persons Days and $A50 O 1 Night garage, dinner, breakfast, luncheon, 2 theater tickets each. (Good any time.) ONE PERSON, $5.0 Room, NEW PROJECT TO Butter Prices GIVE MANY WORK - SAN San FRANCISCO. Mar, 26. (tU! Francisco butter today, 92 score 23. HOTEL NEWHOUSE Halt Lake ' CHy A new unemployment aid project is to be started at once by the Logan Employment council. This was made known Saturday morning at the Chamber of Commerce, headquarters of the council's activity. Nearly $500 will be cleared for the council treasury after all expenses of staging the Boosters Vaudeville have been paid, it was announced. The vaudeville was given Wednesday as a means of raising funds for unemployment relief. Mayor A. G. Lundstrom, chairman of the employment council, said Saturday will be used in Easter Season Special ! PERMANENT WAVE 03.35 !e v V--5 Dellas Beauty Shop Call Preston 80-- W Happy Easter FINEST EASIER EGGS Per Pound EASTER ICE CREAM BRICKS Special Bulk Ice Creams 20c4 50c4 at Any Bluebird Ice Cream Dealer. The Bluebird iT k5Vf eUst I etvu? f i its.-a- . 'raiO a sou Ksoo rk( O' ttRxaO OlSuLfS OK foP 19 North Main |