THE WEANING OF EASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 March 1921, Page 4

THE WEANING OF EASTER.

THE GREAT RENUNCIATION. (Specially Wriitteo for the News.) Opinions and customs differ on the observance of sacred days. Christian churchegr are noit agreed on tlie The old-time strict observance of Sun* day is passing away, even in Men feel that the day >f rest and wor* ship need not, and should not. be a day of gloom. Lent is not regarded with anything like ite old severity. Christ* mas und Easter are subject x> the process of change. But the great major* ity of Christian people have hitherto 0 agreed to keep “holy” the day of th® Redeemer’s cross and passion. In gujj Paris, where Sunday is generally dfa* regarded, the shops and theatres arq closed on Good Friday, not by legal en* artmenit, but by force of public opinion. The same is true of England. and thoughtful people would no think of making Good Friday a time ofi sport and pleasure than a decent mart would dream of dancing on his mother# ; grave. Whatever views we may hold on the|. subject of the great mystery of it is a simple fact that the dread even® witnessed on “the green hill far a Way’’ was one of the vital events of th< world, and, a® such, demands and de* serves fitting recognition and reverend commemidnation. Modern life in somq aspects is so coarse and benumbing that we cannot afford to part with any of! its tender and sacred associations. Ou» finest feelings need our kindliest oaW, Any dying lied is a holy place, but “the place called Calvary” is the holy? holies. We may visit the spot in ijjafa lowed imagination, but not as ground. We may speak of H, bdt no!0 with the hard, ready rattle of thought*’ less syllables. We may unveil the but ; should be with trembling handset We may gaze upon the Divine Suffereri but it should be through a mist od» tears. <r VVith eye abashed and munmur low, “We name the name most dear.” This is not the place to discuss grave, questions of theology, or fight over again the battles of warring sects. But we may with advantage remind ottrselvee that history has crowned self* sacrifice aa one of the cardinal virtues. Selfishness, like a flame, consumes, and, like a sword, lays waste; but sacrifice makes haste to restore and heal. The world owes so mhch to it<s martyrs, w’hose blood has crimsoned ita pages; the State is so deeply debtor to patriots, who have given their Jives for truth and liberty; and every maw owee so much to those who welcomed fetter and faggot, rather than' play false to conviction, that we should think with reverent regard of Him who, in down 'his own life for the race, came to renown through self-renunciation.

If we oa'll over the Bede Roll of the Sons of Greatness, it is to discover that they are the sons of sacrifice. Phocflon is an example. When the brutal mob surrounded his house, and strove to batter down his door friends offered him escape and asylum, but the hero went calmly forth to meet his death. Phocion lost his life, but found immortality. William the Silent, a prince in wealth and station, for Holland’s sake made himself a beggar and an outlaw. His career reads like that of a man who with naked fist captured blaring cannon. Falling at last by the dagger of an •assassin, he cried: “I commit my poor people to God, and myself to God’s great Captain, Christ.” Whan he died, little children cried in the public streets, and old men spoke of him with white, wet faces. He lost hia life but tsaved his fame. So it has ever been. Selfishness is no Jess a blunder than" a crime. The law of sacrifice fa the secret of Messiah; and Earth’s great men learned the secret from Him. Henceforth There are no gentile oaks, no pagan pines. The grass beneath our feet is Christian grass. The wayside weed is sacred unto Him. Human society can be saved only ae the spirit that breathed on the first Good Friday becomes the climate of the common days. Out of the anguisluand travail, cries of pain and racked' souk, the new age will be born. There will be liberty, for men will bear each other’s burdens. Equality for the down-trodden and the oppressed will be raised to the level of the more fortunate, and fraternity for the love of God will be the all-inclusive bond of humanity. Not by the crash of revolution, but by the spiral stairway of eocial evolution will the world pa<&s from the void of formless chaos to cosmic order; and the woes of creation changed for the joy of a mother over her fire-t born. When that glad day dJawns it will be tho fruit of self-renunciation, which found! its. highest expression at the Cross W Calvary.