EASTER DAY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2427, 5 April 1915, Page 6

EASTER DAY

CHURCH SERVICES

THE WAR AND THE EASTER FAITH. The usual Easter services were held in the Anglican aud Roman Catholic Churches yesterday, and services appropriate to the festival were also held in many churches of other denominations. At St. Paul's Anglican Pro-Cathedral at the 11 o'clock service the Bishop of Wellington (Dr. Sprott) gave a very striking address on the Resurrection faith. There was a very large congregation. The Bishop said no attempt was made by the New Testament writers to depict the actual resurrection of Christ or its process. We were given no picture of the Resurrection, but only of the appearances of the Lord already risen. The main stress was laid upon the meaning aud lessons of the Resurrection. Christ appeared after he had risen not to individuals as such, but to persons representing vaiious types of mind. His idea seemed to be to satisfy certain fundamental wants of human nature. Men needed an assurance that immortality was something more than a splendid guess or mystic intuition— not a mere possibility, but an actual fact. Mary Magdalene, to whom the risen Lord first showed Himself, was a type of the simple loving heart. The tragic fact of death is one of' the greatest trials of love, and this fact was being brought home at the present time to thousands of hearts throughout our Empire and the world. The older psychology regarded our emotional nature as something of secondary importance, and not part of the very stuff of life, like will and intellect. But a great change was passing over modern thought in this connection, and it was now recognised that the emotions wore the most fundamental part of our being. Life might, in fact, be described as emotional energy. Men acted from hope and fear, love and hate. The emotions were the springs of conduct. Love faced with the fact of death was one of the great tragedies of life, and it was significant that the first revelation of the risen Christ was to one who had a broken heart. The Bishop said they could not forget on that Easter morning those countless smitten hearts who had given of their best without staying to count the cost. "Shall we not pray that they may be able this bright Easter morning to take home the Easter joy and consolation and assurance of hopeP Shall we not pray that the risen Lord Himself may come and whisper an individual message of love's eternal victory over death." At the Hill Street Basilica yesterday Kaeter-day was marked by the celebration of Solemn High Mass at the 10.30 a.m. service. The Rev. Father Seymour was the celebrant, the Rev. Father M'Carthv was deacon, and the Rev. Father Smith sub-deacon. At last evening's service the 6ermon, appropriate to the day, was preached by the Rev. Father Smith, and Solemn Benediction was pronounoed by Dean Regnault. Solemn High Mass was also celebrated !at St. Mary of the Angel's, and 6t. Joseph's Churches yesterday morning. . . '