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

| "~ SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY 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 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. secular How many have viewed the Savior’s attitude toward man as our Easter poet has viewed it to-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 doingso2” The human frailty, the de- pendence of mankind upon the triiling turns of fate, which are so simply depicted in the Easter story on the next page of this supplement to The Call will impress the reader as no sensa- tional or exciting tale could do. The Easter of Nature as por- trayed on the second page will prove a fitting companion piece. 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 ST 2w — 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 consideration. And fre- quently it judges the one apple by comparing it with some other one. The universal significance of the immeasurable thing which it contends against fails to impress it. It is small wonder, therefore, that mere theoretical arguments by agnostic or secular dissenters against religious doctrines are so generally superficial and uncon- vincing. It is odd, of course, that the secu- lar observer should presume that he knows more about Easter than do those whose teachers designed the festival and who are them- selves perpetuating it. What he really knows is indubitably not about it, but against it and apart from it. Hence the secular view of Easter must be full of irrelevancies and void of descriptions. The soul of Easter is its religious sig cance, which is never repudiated by those who feel it, and conse- quently can never be repudiated authentically. What secular ob- servers may construe from it are such irresponsible reflections as these, As a holiday, divested of its prime significance and accepted as the world of fashion is pleased to welcome it, Easter day is as valu- able as any other holiday, and no more so. All holidays are alike in that respect. They may be or- dained at a week’s notice by the President of the United States or be founded upon the doctrines of Jesus Christ in the year 1—it is all the same from a fashionable standpoint, for fashion, while it may pose in church as a religious detail, is not Christianity by sev- eral lengths. The serene harmony with which religion and fashion with a display of finery worn upon the heads of our women we prefer to shrug our shoulders and waive the query aside as something we do not pretend to understand. Any answer that we might make would serve the questioner nobetter. The whole thing is impregnable, forti- fied by custom and clinched by practice. The world doesn’t rec- ognize the incompatibility of the twin church-goers, fashion and re- ligion, wherefore to all intents and purposes they are not incompatible. And inasmuch as we can assert nothing absolutely definite as to the virtue of religion or fashion, we can assert nothing definite as to the re- lation of one to the other. What o 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 ke 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 thinks 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 earthly 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 10 e (ROWN, Mark tothe Masters voice so sweetly calling, ¥ “Come,follow Me ; | Oer thedim mooriandwhere the dows are falling, : Oer hilland lee; orsake for Me thy dear familiar places, =7 Thy fathers shetterd house;thy cherisd biding piaces, / Qutinthe stormy nignt, Far from the warmth and héht. Ihave a (ross for thee 15e!for intheBast the dawn is breaking, And come away, Qy burden on thy shoulders meekly taking, T Nor 135 once more throyd! Hands must unloose even stay h blinding t%rs thy dearest, est, €ir hold, Earth joys drow faint and cold — fwill be 3ll tothee M’\?Aw with bleeding, breaking heart thy n Have | nat trod life3 bitter road before thee ¥ With biceding feet, Bearing alone the Cross that shineth oer thee With message sweet 2 for thy sake have [ wand®r’d faint and Thro' crowded city ways and deserts dreary, High on the mountain bare Thro' the nights of prayer Have | not thought of thee? ? When night is darkest and the way s%ms longest Press onward still, Striving in thickest fight when foes are strongest To do My will. = s book mg‘:"‘?&&" t%otlémlfi undo»;:é 3 r¢e on S Taint UINS .« 8 Whex cloud:p thee d i above th®e dose Whisper tome thy woes=— Am | not near tothee? o NSRS A "2 Tis but alittle while and then the downing = When | will come ; Inthe bright sunrise of eternal morning = Tocall th®e home . If thou hast follow'd me through ¢loom and sadness Shall Inot comfort thee with joyand gladn®ss3 When lifes dark days are ‘cer .~ Thereonthe shining shore ! have a Crown for thee. kinds of veracity that we are in this late age at a loss to decide upon which kind we prefer. True, the inception and inspiration of Easter itself are well known. First of all, it was set apart as an anniversary, as all regular holidays must be, and the great event which it has since immortalized by that process of annual recurrence is one of the vital punctuation marks in Christian history. But the ceremonies incidental to it, mostly of subsequent concep- tion, have as many origins imputed to them as there were chroniclers in the early days to describe them. Like the bones of Columbus, their location is amiably ubiquitous, as A George Byn3 oyl versatility of the ancients in fur- nishing him “‘historical facts’’ to base his yearly resumes upon gives him a chance to vary his accounts of the origin and subsequent de- velopments of the ceremonies, and makes it not unlikely that he will be continuously entertaining if his memory be not long enough to reach back to his articles of pre- ceding years. The majority of us, whether professedly secular or not, are con- tent to take Easter as we find it to-day—according its anniversary significance the fullest respect, recognizing in it the spirit- which inspired it and -which will live ‘in its heart no matter -how many 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 holidavs 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 that in 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 little 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 same writer goes on to say that ‘‘although nearly nineteen centuries have elapsed since Christ passed from among men the city of Jerusalem does not exhibit notable changes from its appearance, as judged from history, at the begin- ning of the Christian era. It is still the terminus of pilgrimages. The same queerly gowned and strangely hooded figures are seen upon its streets now that were familiar to those who lived when Pontius Pilate was a disciple of justice, so called. The famous localities which the world has learned to know are absolutely as they, were then. All about, through and through;, it is a place of memories, and one which stirs the emotions of even the most flinty hearted.”” Perhaps it is as well since we desire to make Easter a holiday for gay rejoicing that we do not live in Jerusalem to be ‘‘stirred’’ by its memories. Probably we are “better off and more at peace where we are. So let us all take Easter in what- ever light we may prefer. Most of us really regard it more as a holiday than as anything else. How we do it or why doesn’t mat- ter, and those who conscientiously preserve for it the significance of a day of resurrection above all else are not disturbed by the lighter and more elastic significance which the butterflies add to it. May all the readers of THE CALL enjoy the day and the season to their fullest measure according to their best lights, for in that lies the nearest approach to happiness that this world affords. CARROLL CARRINGTON, The importanc: of the inven- tion in army ordnance which is for the first time discloced 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 courze 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 feet-cramping will be an innovation to excite the world. Unfrequented - bicycle paths around San Francisco are pointed out on page 27. The literary page, led by a caustic critique on Gertrude Atherton’s latest novel, is number 23. The fash- ions are on page 28. Social features occupy page 20. An exceptionally appropriate juve- nile realm spreads alluringly on page 24. The d:partments follow,