Show glad giad season of 11 eneval A season of rejoicing Is here easter with its spirit of renewal life that has been dormant through tile the winter months renews itself the snow and lee ice that have covered the earth disappear brooks and rivers swell the sap ap runs from the tree the nil birds return from the southland as the advancing sun wanna the chilly surface of the earth all that wax waa seemingly dead becomes again infused with life men feel vaguely that they too should renew themselves the body along with nil all nature Is renewed in the spring and manal mankind 11 d 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 cally of the same length nil all over tile the earth the goddess of spring was ve ed sometimes with excess jubilation and the resurrection took place just atter the jewish feast of the pass over the first and greatest of the three annual festivals of the jews instituted by moses in commemoration of the deliverance of tile 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 phara oha old tradition preserved the early christians carried over into their new falth many of the traditions of old the ancient feasts and celebrations did not at once ile die out among them they gave new meanings to their feasts it was aris only natural that the day of tile the resurrection the day upon which the savior after having tasted the bitterness of persecution betrayal and death after having borne his cross for tile the salvation of mankind arose from the tha dead into a life never ending triumphant over everything should appeal to tile imagination as no other feat feast day the sunday the first day of tho the week succeeded the jewish sabbath the seventh day of the week as the day ay of rest and thus enster easter even may be said to mark the first differentiation of tile the christians from the jewish faithan fai fal thas in many ways it symbolized their essential continuity tho the very first christians set their easter feast by the jewish lunar calendar of days and celebrated it upon week days or upon the sabbath as an annual observance but about the year in the time of pope victor and when severus was emperor of rome ft a controversy arose over the proper date daie for celebrating the feast because the gentile christians in parts of the empire were rec reckoning honing their calendar by the roman itoman yetti year the asiatic dioceses held with the jewish christians that easter should be celebrated on the fourteenth day of nisan even if upon a week day tho the supporters of this contention were given the name of the western dioceses following apostolic tradition and the koman rom an calendar were w ere for an easter r upon sunday only hat haf sunday to be determined by reference to the four day of the vernal moon A synod of bishops decided in favor of the western contention and the decree was gradually respected through throughout oat the roman empire time of crucifixion the crucifixion actually took upon the day following the fourteenth of the first jewish mouth month nisan the fourteenth was ana the day fur for slaughter ing of the lamb for tile the Pas passover under the jewish law lav on that day the head of the family killed the lamb and ats ts blood was sprinkled on the door sill in commemoration of the night preceding the exodus from egypt when the angel went through the country and slew all the first born but passed over tile the houses of 0 the israelites thus tile the crucifixion was on the day of tile passover itself there is therefore to the christian mind connection both real and ideal between the old testament and a the new dispensation as constituted and typified fled by this coincidence of the jewish pasch and the passion of jesus jesua ti tile lamb of tb the e sa sacrifice and the lamb of god new york berald tribune |