The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 18, 1897, Page 1

MORNING, APRIL 18, 1897. Among all the Easter articles that have been written in the perpetuation of a custom as old as the lestival itself, rarely has cne been ventured from a can- didly secular point of view. From the original dissertation on this page of The Call to-day it may be discovered that the secular view is really not a terri- fying one after all has been said. How many have viewed the Savior’s attitude toward man as our Easter poet has viewed it te-day? Without sentiment, but with a practical demand accord- ing to justice, the Lord here points out to man the chosen path and says, “ Dii I not tread that path before thee, with bleeding feet? Why shouldst thou be excused from dcing so2” §Ifll L Easter from a secular point of view bids fair to furnish a disserta- tion which he who runs may stop running to read standing still. Not, however, to discover why a secular view of a church function should interest any one. If he should go to that unusual trouble sincerely of course the view would speedily cease to engage his thinker so un- profitably, for he would perceive that 1t was only the promise of some uncommon commotion that had appealed to him from the men- tal spectacle of a worldling about to poke a pen into a religious bee- hive. The love for innovations and the enjoyment of unconventionalities exploited by some one else are or- dinary human prerogatives, which no one has the right to call either failings or virtues. Suffice it for mere man to recognize that they afford him and all of his kind a large share of the pleasure which this capricious life admits of. As a matter of fact, though, the secular mind is in no position to discuss a divine festival of any de- scription in its strict religious sense. The secular mind solemnly believes that it is. .In truth, it assumes quite a superior air, and intimates that it has the whole affair com- prehended in the hollow of one hand, and that the same is but a mere incident to the many more ex- tensive things which the secular intellect has gathered about it. Secularism is not necessarily agnos- ticism, but it resembles it in so far as agnosticism imagines that each great doctrine which it opposes is only a small detail among many which comprise the whole scheme of agnostic reasoning. Secularism dwell side by side in church and ride in the same carriage in the park on Easter or any other Sun- day furnishes a problem which no one dares to understand, even if he imagines that he could do so by bold figuring. A flat charge of in- consistency would, if ' proven, smash in a twinkling something that centuries full of kings, sol- diers, scholars and prelates have pinned their scepters, their swords, their learning and their faith to. We all feel that there is a discrep- ancy somewhere—that the church harbors certain proceedings which we do not care to explain in public. When asked how we reconcile the celebration of Christ’s resurrection is prore to measure things witha * “‘yardstick’’ as wide as the uni- verse, and thinks it can mark Christianity off in inches. The question of a God is to it as one apple among a basketful equally worthy of consideratior And fre- quently it judges the one apple by comparing it with some other one. The universal significance of the imme: “thinks we think concerns only ourselves and makes no difference in the gen- eral result, nor would it do so if we were to howl it from the housetops until doom were split kke a rock by the blast of our voices. Since whims and not judgment influence man in his administrations, social as well as political, what a person according to logic seldom matters in the disposition of the world’s impassively revolving af- fairs. Most of us know that the festiv- ities attendant upon Easter had re- markable origins, albeit none of us are willing to assert positively what they were. They have been described by historians of so many pliable to the ingenious fancy of each historian as Christopher’s relics are accommodating to the de- mands of each earthiy spot which claims the proud distinction of be- ing their grave. The idea of the Easter egg is particularly variable and owes its origin to no less than a dozen sources. In that, however, it does not fail to afford a manifesta- tion of divine forethought, for it furnishes a rich field for the writer of the annual article on Easter, who is as regular every Easter morning with his grave narration of the festival’s history from first to last as is the passing of the earth around the sun. And the IRom ThE CROSS 1o me (ROWN, Mark tothe Masters voice so sweetly calling, ¢ “Come,follow Me : i Oer thedim moorlandwhere the dews are falling, ¢ Oer hilland lee; rsake for Me thy dear familiar places, Outinthe stormy nignt, / ?7/ “Thy fathers shetter'd house,thy cherisd bidng places, far from the warmth and light. I have a (ross for thee %nw'firmt}\efisfl the dawn is breaking, & And come away, My burden on thy shoulders meekly taking, Nor even stay i) == To s once more throudh blinding trs thy dearest, 10 clasp with biceding, breaking hearT thy néarest, { Mands must unloose 7= Carths joys drow Cir hold, famt and cold = twill be all tothes Have | nat trod life bitter road before thee - With bleeding feet, Bearing slore the Cross that shineth cer thee With message sweet 2 for thy sake have I wand®r’d faint and weary Thro' crowded city ways and deserts dreary, High on the mountain bare Thro' the nights of prayer Have | not thought of thee? i ?When night is darkest and the way s%ems longest by 2 Press onward still , 2 Striving in thickest fight when foes are strongest y To do My will. Look not b%hind thee to thy souid undoing s Urge on thy footsteps faint,yet still pursui When clouds above thee dose Whisp®r tome thy woes— “Am | not near tothee? £ r ~Tis but alittle while and then the dawning g when | will come " Inthe bright sunrise of eterpal morning 5 Tocall th®e home , fancy layers of bark are wrapped around it, and caring seriously for only that prime cause of its ex- istence — without regard for the origin of the various manners of celebrating it. And in taking the day as it is we shall proceed to en- joy it to the utmost. As a day of enjoyment it is of course better than other days only in so far as it is specially recognized as a par- ticular occasion for seeking enjoy- ment. It is our duty toenjoy our- selves every day, and as much more on holidays as their radiant particularity will permit. Of course there is one phase which we children of a new world will not be likely to think of in our own pursuit of Easter for the gay- ety which it affords us. That is the circumstance thatin the Old World, on or near the spot where the inspiration of Easter took place, the annual anniversary is not ob- served as a day of gayety at all. In Jerusalem Easter is observed for what it seriously, actually is, and not according to the convenience of any mortal plan for plea- sure or any temporal fashion. The material reminders of the crucifixion are right there before those people. The reputed tomb from which Christ rose on Easter and the arches under which He walked on his way to the Cross are still in evidence. To-day the httle children of Jerusalem will be taken to these arches and led under them and told what they signify. The story of the wonderful events which occurred there ages ago will be illustrated by actual relics, grimly and gauntly eloquent with their dumb evidence pre- served upon them through all the centuries. One writer has truly said that these are ‘‘the only chil- dren in the world to whom the true significance of Easter Sunday is made apparent by an object lesson, and such an_object lesson as no Christian mind ever has the ad- vantage of realizing.”’ The ne writer goes on to say that Ithough nearly nineteen centuries have ela t passed from The imporianc: of the inven- tion in army ordnance which is for the first time discloed in to-day’s Call (page 26) may not bz e t'mated in m:re words. A little ref ection upon it will convince the reader that it is des ined to lead to cne of those innovations which mark epochs in the course of modern progress. It is already a practicable reality, On page 19 of this paper will be found two articles which com-~ bine novelty and interest with important disclosures of news, ‘The preservation of Montezuma Castle in Arizona will enthrall the attention of scholars all over the land, and the move toward abolishing the fashion of Chinese female f:et-cramping will be an innovation to excite the world.