Postcards from the Past: Easter’s Symbol a Glorious Promise

Example of Nature

As a fact in nature – and certainly the resurrection of our Lord was no example of the reversal of the order of nature – Christ’s victory over the grave was a demonstration of this wondrous system exemplified by every bursting bud of spring, by the birth of every sentient being, by the constant expansion of the powers of intellect and of the love of the heart.

In nature, resurrection is continuous, and science has found no place or thing where the germ of life is not. In fact, although we may know a little about change, we know nothing whatsoever about death – the thing we fear most. 

For by death we mean absence of consciousness. Yet, while we remain conscious, such a condition is unthinkable or at least impossible to realize. In fact, if one should actually be conscious of death, it would not be death, for one would be conscious of unconsciousness – a proposition contradictory on the face of it. 

The very conception of a so-called “state of death” is but an indication of the limitless shores which it is possible for human consciousness to traverse.

In springtime, the lily bulb in the Earth begins to expand as if with the fever to live – this is hope. Later, a watery, white shoot climbs spirally upward toward the light – this is faith. Then, a tiny green blade appears above the ground, glad in its newborn freedom – this is knowledge.

The dews gather round the bright growing thing, the sunbeams kiss it, the rain falls upon it, the soft winds sing to it, until having assimilated something from all of the elements of its blessed new life, the plant bursts into a blossom of matchless beauty – and this is wisdom. – The Encampment Echo, March 24, 1921

Easter lesson 

From the stars of the night and the dewy grass of the spring mornings, in the notes of the birds and the music of little rills, through all of the myriad voices of nature, there comes the healing touch of patience, the consciousness that vast, eternal forces go on their majestic way quite untroubled by the ferment of human brains and the hot impulses of human hearts. 

Man and woman are inspired and calmed by the spectacle of the wonderful resurrection, which every spring brings to renew their faith in ultimate good. – The Encampment Echo, March 24, 1921