The Sunday Oregonian., April 23, 1905, PART FOUR, Page 39, Image 39

EME SUNDAY . 0REG0NIA1S', PORTBAOT, APRIL'1 23; 4905.
,39
CHURCH "which does not observe
i Easter Eunday? Banish the
thought! Yet. less than 40 years
tago, right here In the United States, that
church, other than Roman Catholic, Epis
copal and Lutheran, which paid the slight
est attention to what Is now easily the
Jsreatest of all church festivals, was
'scarcely .known to exist. And it is less
than a quarter of a century Elnce the
'universal spirit of Easter may be said
to have finally trlumphed.
Thls growth of the Easter spirit was
peculiar. At no time was there a con
certed, movement in its behalf. Un
consciously the feeling'' became manl--fest
in various quarters that it would
&e a fitting thing to observe the day
named as the one on which Christ rose
from the dead, and so to take advan
tage of an opportunity to impress es
pecially upon mankind the central
themes of the Christian religion
Gradually this church and that took
up the custom which, but a year or so
before, it had derided as a survival of
paganism. There were many forebod
ings. There were many schisms.
But in spite of all this, slowly, sure
ly, the Easter spirit grew. People
who left this church because of its
observance of Easter and went to the
church around the corner to worship
in the old way, soon found -there, too,
a pulpit hid behind flowers, the air
laden with their fragrance, an aug
mented choir, and a pastor pronounc
ing the text peculiar unto the day: T
am the resurrection and the life."
In a few 5 cars there was no place
left "to these objector in. which, they
could worship in the manner of their
youth on Easter Sunday. So, at last, :
they, too, were compelled to fall in
line. "With them won over, the Easter
spirit filled the land, as it does today,
hosannas rising from the humblest
houses of worship, in the meanest of
hamlets, as well as from the most ,
stately edifices in our wealthiest cit
ies. Intolerant of Easter Spirit.
"The Puritan way of looking at
things was largely responsible for the
tardy recognition of Easter by all re
ligious bodies," said the Rev. Dr..
Charles H. Parkhurst, the noted Pres
byterian divine of New York. "For a
long time all our Protestant churches,
with the exception of the Episcopal
and the Lutheran, clung tenaciously
to the austere Puritan religious Ideals,
and one of the things that Puritanism
frowned down upon was any recogni
tion whatever of the times and sea
sons not commanded to be observed in
the Bible. Such churches as the Pres
byterian, the Baptist, the Methodist
and the Congregational shunned Easter
as a survival of pagan worship,
and only thought of it to denounce it.
I do not have to go back in memory
more than 30 years to recall the time
when all New England, which gave
religious allegiance to the vast ma
jority of the Protestant bodies, would
have none of Easter; and when I came
to New York some time later many,
many churches here were likewise in
tolerant of the Easter spirit.
Religious Viewpoint Changes.
"But the religious viewpoint
changes, as well as the temporal. Ev
olution is constantly at work, and so
gradually practically, unconsciously
at first a more tolerant way of look
ing at Easter grew up. Perhaps the
fact that the churches which observed
Easter were invariably crowded on
Easter Sunday, while those which did
not were invariably minus their
younger element, had something to do
with bringing about the change. At
any rate, pastors began to see that
after all tner was some gooa m tne
day's observance, especially since it
offered them a splendid chance to em
phasize to all mankind the glorious
doctrine of the resurrection at tne
time when it is uppermost in men's
minds. Objection to the festival on
the ground' that it savored of heathen
ism was gradually swallowed up in
this new thought. The next step, the
observance of the day by those very
churches which had .hitherto ignored
It. was only natural.
"To my mind, the present universal
Easter spirit is due to the slow but
sure evolution of the tolerant reng
ious spirit which is now so evident
throughout Christendom. It is this
spirit which is drawing all the
churches closer together. All recog
nlze that their one great theme is
Jesus Christ himself. All are making
every effort to emphasize his life and
teachings, and so we have all the
churches of Christendom celebrating on
.Easter sunaay tne doctrine that is
expressly peculiar to it that of th
resurrectlon.
Growtli of Easter Spirit.
In this country the growth of the
Easter spirit began In the cities, and
from ' them spread, to the towns and
country. Among the cities Now York
was the first to experience the effects
of the change of heart towards
Easter on the part of the Protestant
bodies.
Thirty-five years ago the great ma
jority of the churches of the metrop
oils refused to have anything to do
with Easter. Many pastors even went
so far as to avoid any reference to
the doctrine of the resurrection on
Easter Sunday, though-they felt them
Selves -at liberty to proclaim it on the
El other Sundays of the year. As for
flowers and special music, they were
the Inventions of the devil, which he
was using to win the nations back to
heathenism.
Two or three years later the change
came.
On the Easter before the one which
saw a scattering of churches abandon
the old way for the new, their pas
tors had been mortified to-find at the
morning services that the younger
members of the congregations had de
serted bodily and .gone to see the
flowers and to hear the music In the
churches which observed Easter with
special services. These preachers wero
of the younger generation themselves.
and had not that abiding intolerance
for Easter which possessed their old
er colleagues. Therefore, they deter
mined to try the experiment of ob
serving Easter, let come what may.
The experience of ono pastor was
representative of the trials and tribu
lations of these bold pioneers.
This minister, who is now one of
New York's leading orators, took a
trusted few of his congregation into
his confidence a short time before the
next Eustcr season, and they saw to it
that the church was tastefully, though
simply, decorated with flowers, the
blossoms being massed about the pul
pit. Besides lilies and palms and oth
er potted plants, there were a few
wreaths sent by some of the pastor's
confidants in honor of the memory of
friends and relatives recently dead.
The night before Easter Sunday the
pastor did not sleep a wink for think
ing what would be the effect of the
flowers and his sermon on his flock.
The next morning he was up bright
and -early and on his way to the
church to tear down the decorations.
But when he got there ami beheld the
blossoms and caught their fragrance
filling the church, he resolved to let
them stay and take whatever might
be the consoquences.
With the ringing of the first bell for
service- he took his seat behind the
pulpit. He has always been a mili
tant shepherd, and he wished to let
his congregation know by his pres
ence that he approved of the flowers
and that he proposed to break away
from the old ways of the church.
To his dying day he will never forget,
the faces of his church members as they
entered the church and suddenly beheld
the" flowers before their eyes. Some, liter
ally overcome with astonishment,' sank
into the pews nearest them and gazed
awestricken at the decorated pulpit. Oth
ers, livid with anger, as soon as the full
significance of the flowers came over
them, abruptly turned their backs on their
pastor and strode wrathfully out of the
church. Men and women alike showed
their disapproval of the Easter spirit In
this unmistakable fashion, and whole
" families refused to' take their seats in a
church which had been so outrageously
desecrated. Many of these revolters were
among tho church's most Influential mem
bers, and one family in particular was
noted for its participation in all of tho
church work and for the money it con
tributed for the various charitable under
takings of the church.
That Easter Sunday was a trying one
for the pastor. On all sides he heard
the Innovation roundly denounced as a
revival of heathenism. The wreaths were
declared to be an attempt to graft the v
principles of Chinese ancestral worship
upon the Christian religion, and he fur
ther had the doubtful pleasure of learn
ing that many of his hitherto stanchest
supporters intended to seek elsewhere for
a church where God alone was worshiped
and the rites of Paganism, were not prac
ticed for the damnation of all concerned.
So the day passed. But while the pas
tor's temerity stirred up much strife
among the congregation and led to Its
depletion in quarters that could be least
afforded, It was not without gratifying
results. Many of his fellow ministers,
learning of his experience, consulted with
him, and. though his congregation had
been noticeably reduced, they decided to
hazard an Easter service the following
year, for they could find no harm in
such an observance, but much that prom
ised well In the long run.
Somo of these ministers were they to
whom many of the pioneer's congregation
had turned for religious guidance, and
In the light of this their feelings may
be easily Imagined when the next Easter
they beheld their new church homes even
more elaborately decorated than their old
ono had been a year previously. Of
course there was more revolting, more
denouncing of the heathenish practice,
and more scurrying to find churches in
which Easter was not recognized by so
much as a text, a lesson or a bud.
In such fushion came the observance of
Easter, with its decorations and specHl
services, into tho vast majority of the
churches of the metropolis which had
never before paid any attention to the
day in any part of the public service. As
the custom spread from congregation to
congregation, outside churches, hearing
about tho innovation, fearfully took It up.
Many experienced the opposition that wasV
the portion of the pioneers in the move
ment, and not a few churches were so
rent by dissensions that they ultimately
went out of existence. This was particu
larly the case in New England and In
those parts of the West largely settled
by Now England emigrants.
THE HOMING INSTINCT AND THE IMMORTAL HOPE SZZSggL
"In my Father's house are many mansions."
John xlv:l.
NCE more comes the joyful Sunday
U Easter. For those who journey on
with empty arms and treasures lost,
this Is the golden day of the year. The
immortal hope clothes the overarching
sky with splendor. Those who have wait
ed Jong for a voice that Is silent and the
sound of the step that Is still will today
recover faith and .courage. Again mem
ory waves her wand, and through our
tears we behold the glorious company of
fathers and mothers and little children, of
merchants and jurists, and noble citizens.
Faith whispers, "They shall not return to
us, but we shall go to them." Tonight,
when tho day is done, many will sit in
the fading twilight and the open window
with Monica and Augustine, and look long
and silently into the open skies, while
they ask, "What are our beloved dead do
ing yonder, beyond the star fires?" For
the noble army of dead, the paths of glory
led but to the grave, but beyond the path
of light leads up the happy hills of God.
Soon also tho grave will be digged for
our fee; "but so rich Is this good world
so wondrous the rewards that follow
work. Industry, books, friendship and
duty so marvelous the achievements of
genius, through tools and arts and wis
dom, that one longs to postpone death and
behold the Golden Age for our beloved
republic The very thought that soon we
must leave these familiar scenes brims
the eyes with tears. Now comes this
glorious Easter morn, like an angel with
wings of healing, and with messages of
delight
Meaning of the Homing
Instinct.
For men of vision the world is the Fath
er's house, and death Is entering the
other room. Dying is home-going. This
homing instinct also is man's earliest
latest and profoundest instinct Inex-
pungeable is this immortal hope. No
white clover field ever allured honey bees
as the unseen realm allures and holds
the thoughts of philosopher, poet and
sage. So powerful Is Its hold that some
times the thought of immortality seems
like an unconscious recalling of that "im
perial palace whence we came" a recol
lection of "the glories we have .known."
Heaven tugs hard at the heart strings
The soul's Summer land influences hope
as tho magnetic pole holds the needle.
Universal also the homing instinct The
birds feel it and when the October days
are come they plume their wings for the
long flight to the far-off Southern lands,
where the sun ever falls on sweet flower
beds. The traveler, lingering in some for
eign land, feels it and at last unable to
postpone his return longer, he goes down
to the seashore, and with exultant heart
strains his -eyes toward that horizon where
sea -and -sky meet and stretches out his
hands toward those who are hidden from
sight, but who still live. Witness tho
homing instinct as illustrated in Xeno-
phon's Ten Thousand. The heroic band
were left without a leader In the heart of
the enemy's country. Mountains, deserts.
deep rivers, separated them from home.
Hundreds of miles through the enemy's
country lay before them. Then they took
up their march toward home. Enemies
assailed them by day. All night long the
arrows fell unceasingly. Hunger and cold
and sickness fought them. Fleeing
through the forests, -boughs tore tho face
and hands. One day the ragged heroes
stood on the top of a hill and looked down
upon the blue water. In that hour they
shouted, "The sea! the sea!" Beyond lay
Athens and the homeland. What support
ed them in their Journey across that con
tinent? That which supports every soul
In Its journey across the continent of the
years the homing Instinct Therefore,
when Tennyson was approaching his
death, and was to describe his going away
from this world, he used these. words:
When that which drew trovx out tho bound
less deep.
Turns home again.
The Desire to Meet the
Noble Dead
The homing instinct also explains
man's desire to meet the noble dead.
Deeply earnest minds long to visit old
cities, the ruins of pyramids and par
thenons, ancient castles, and, much
more, the galleries, the museums and
cathedrals, that assemble the treas
ures of the world. Deeper still the
longing to see the. great men, the
statesman, or Prime Minister, or the
General who has led a nation to vic
tory'. For the great soul that lives,
makes the great dead pile o,f stone
seem petty and contemptible. "Who,
then, shall measure the desire to be
hold all the good and great who have
lived and made our laws, won our lib
erties, written our songs and crim
soned the banners with their life
blood? Even Socrates felt this. Just
before he took the cup of poison he
exclaimed: "If death is a removal to
another place, and if all the dead are
there, what greater blessing can there
be than dying? At what price would
you not estimate a meeting with Or
pheus and Homer? "What price would
not one pay for the chance of ques
tioning that Agamemnon who led his
'army against Troy? Or, indeed, to
meet the thousand others that one
might mention, both of "men and wom
en?" For the scholar- who lived a life
of prayer, and stood every moral test
as it came, heaven meant an oppor
unity of meeting the good and great
and engaging in refined talk and glo
rious "conversation. Sometimes our
earth seems poor. Gone or- going are
the great of this generation, both for
America and England. Death spoils
the cities of their richest treasures, as
the soldiers stripped tho Parthenon of
Its richest marbles. Joyously we turn
our thoughts toward some cathedral
named St Mark's or St Peter's. But
Infinitely more alluring the thought of
that noble army of great souls who
have lived upon the earth, and kept
the faith, and then have dropped the
tool. . the song, the law, the liberty,
and left the battlefield, and now have
entered in to the home-land, where
the wicked cease from troubling and
the weary are at rest
and streaming eyes, we ask. Will thej
know us? "Let not your heart be
troubled." They have disappeared,
but are not dead. We know not now,
but wo shall know hereafter. Be
cause God lives, our dead live also.
Soon comes the day when all our hard
questions will be answered. '
Immortality and Our Be
loved Dead
Our personal losses also strengthen
the homing instinct. What a world is
this, "one family in heaven and in
earth!" What a theme for an artist
that page in the diary of one of the
heroes who landed in the Mayflower!
In old England sits the beloved moth
er and wife and children. They recall
the day when from the shores of
Holland they saw the ship sail away.
It disappeared beyond the horizon.
Disappearing, the father was not dead.
On that very day In the New World
with joy the father was lifting th
ax upon the trees laying the founda
tion of a new fireside altar, lighting
the lamps of love, and storing the new
homo with treasure against the com
ing of his beloved ones. By day and
by night his love tugged at their
heartstrings until he drew them across
tho sea also. On this Easter morning
do you mourn your dead? You have
given hostages to heaven. "With gol
den cords of love God's angels will
draw you in. You have sent your lit
tle children on. your bravest boys,
your beautiful daughters. Ah! this is
the great mystery! Who shall explain
the early death of the gifted young?
Where is that boy, that orphan boy
of eighteen, who died in the little
English inn but the other day? He
left in his notebook a hundred imma
ture songs and poems, with a half
dozen lines of such genius that we
know, had he lived, he would hava.
ranked with the greatest Is young
Keats still writing his songs? Is Ar
thur Hall am still toiling on his es
say? Are Raphael and Mozart still
painting and singing? The history of
every village holds the dust of one
above whom we might write these
words, "A mute, inglorious Milton
here doth rest." Oh, our earth holds
biennial flowers, that need one Sum
mer to grow the root and one the
blossom. Let us believe that the gift
ed young were needed there; that
there arts and industries and noble
work co on. But with empty arms
There Wrongs' Shall Be
Righted
Most men die as unfulfilled pro
phecies. Here and now only the oc
casional man "finds himself" and works
out his career. The Winter falls and
finds some fruit fully ripe, some half
ripe and some corn In the milk anJ so
with men. In the apple blossom is
latent the ripe fruit The one-talent
man represents the bud and blossom'
that asks only time and the resources
of God and his love to develop Into a
ten-talent man, named the poet, sage,
'inventor or seer. Oh, how cheap men
are! How do the strong exploit the
vsak and poor. What limitations are
involved in poverty, invalidism, enmity,
and the closing of tho doors of op
portunity through class privileges. The
multitudes live and drudge for bread
and raiment They die, never having
had the leisure to grow ripe, or the
opportunity to grow wise. Yet many a
man who Is called a failure is stored
with latent talent. Men end their ca
reer and they aro to be likened to
bundles of roots unplanted. If they
are cut down, they will be transplanted
and grow on the happy hills of Para
dise. How bitter the cry, "I have
never had a chance." But you will
have it when death comes. This angel
of the iron mask comes, not to destroy
you. When the angel lifts his mask
you will welcome death as the mes
senger of joy that comes to open a
door of opportunity that swings on
goldon hinges. My heart Is with the
poor, the heart-broken, the ignorant,
the despoiled. The good things of life
have been denied them here. But
surely the universe is not immoral or
unmoral. Somewhere, sometime, full
justice will be done; all wrongs will
yet be righted, all hard questions an
swered. Ours is a world, as has been
said, where we crucify the Savior in
Jerusalem, poison the teachers in
Athens, burn the prophets In Florence,
imprison the poets- in Bedford, murder
the President and emancipator In
"Washington. In every generation the
one great man of each city has been
unrecognized during his life. The
fathers kill -the prophets, the children
build their sepulchres, the- grand
t children w.ear deeply the pathwajt that
leads to the hero's tomb. If there were
no future life, we had best boat our
foreheads against some granite eliff
anJ end the struggle. But what if the
glory of life is In Its battle and its
victory? "If there be a meetiifg place
of the dead. I can understand," ex
claimed the Roman orator. Ah. there
Is a meeting place of tho dead. 'There
the day dawns and the shadows flee
away." We shall awake In His like
ness and be satisfied. Therefore, on
thi3 . Easter day take courage. Look
up. Do not stoop with your ear toward
the ground, but listen with your face
toward the sky. Hope on, faint heart
All shall yet be well. In the Father's
house'a.re many mansions.
The Joy of Death
Christ felt the homing instinct, as hath
no one else, trusted it fully, and won the
victory over all fear of death. What
marvelous word Is this, "And he spake
to them concerning the death that he
should accomplish." "But what I do ye
know not now, but ye shall know here
after." The difference between January
and June is not so striking as the con
trast between the ancients' views of death
and Christ's. For Solomon, death was
utterly terrible. The grave was full of
fear. The image of dying was the skull
and cross-bones. Death went up and
down the land with a sharp scythe. The
only word to describe death was the word
"enemy." Death was an enemy of the
body's fair temple, pulling down the
comely parts, breaking the golden bowl,
darkening the windows, loosing the silver
cord. Then came Christ. He said that
heaven was the other room, and. that the
grave slab was a door. When the life
work was over God sent angels to release
and convey. Men were to welcome the
angel of death with outstretched arms.
Death was the furlough, releasing the
soldier, scarred with his battles on the
far-off frontier. Death was the sailing
of the ship, and. Its entrance into a har
bor of peace. Death was redemption out
of the body, with its frailty and sins,
into fullness of reason, perfection of
judgment and satisfaction of love. There
fore, Christ's disciples swept all the
world in search of images rich enough
to express their Idea of death, their Joy
at the thought of death. No child, home
sick, away at school, lying awake at
night with happy thoughts, and pressure
of golden dream, forecasting the coming
day, the journey home, the leaping into
mother's arms, the thanksgiving Joy-
all this is as nothing to the tumultuous
joys that surge and crowd through the
Christian, heart, in the hour when we
forecast dying and death and the home
Aomlng to our. Father's houc.
Death a Disguised
Angel
To all troubled ones to whom tho
thought. "This year I may die," brings
terror, should come another thought, that
death is an angel In disguise, God's latest
and best messenger. The old legend tella
the story of a noble man. who. tired with
the day's work, made his way to the out
skirts of the city. There he found a
shady tree on the bank of a little stream
that went singing by. One by one the
lamps pf night were lighted in the sky,
and a great, deep peace fell on the man's
heart Suddenly he was conscious of the
approach of a stranger, who staid hi3
steps and asked a question. Because he
was new to these scenes, the man gave
the stranger explanation. "I have lived
here for three score years. It is a good
world, all its fruits, fruits of paradise.
Our books are full of wisdom, our arts
are full of beauty, our houses are full of
happiness. But there Is one defect.
There is a black mark that lies
across the page for the scholar, there
Is a cloud that eclipses the sun for the
artist, there Is an enemy that enters the
home to destroy its happiness. If you
are indeed a stranger, from another
world, stay not on this our earth, but
seek some other star." And then ths
man. overcome with the beauty of thla
stranger, and won by his gentleness, said,
"I do not know why you have made so
groat an impression on me; I seem to
have lost my heart to you. Much as I
would desire you to stay, I can but urge
you to seek another world, as your home.
For here we have an enemy named Death.
Flee, lest this destroyer find thee here."
And then It was that the glorious stran
ger, with gentle smile, stretched forth
his hand, and said, "Why, this Is strange,
My name is death.' (Copyright, 1305, by
McClure, Phillips & Co.)
Reassurinpr.
Harper's Weekly.
A number of prominent actors were
telling stories one evening at the
Players' Club to illustrate how. In time
of threatened panic In a theater, a lit
tle presence of mind may save life. Mr.
Goodwin, the comedian, wa3 reminded
of one he had heard in England. It.
appears that during a pantomime per
formance at a Liverpool playhouse, an
alarm of fire had been given and a ter
rible panic seemed Imminent But Ar
thur Roberts, a well-known British
actor, came to the rescue in handsome
style. Advancing rapidly to tho foot
lights, he addressed the audience as
follows:
"Believe me, ladies and gentlemen,
there Is no danger; if there -were, do
you. think. I would be here?"