GOOD FRIDAY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 18 April 1935, Page 4

GOOD FRIDAY.

Even within Christendom itself the manner of observing Good Friday and the Easter season shows a wonderful variety. National characteristics betray themselves within wide limits. The adaptability of a central creed to local exceeds and customs is admii’ably revealed. The man who sees no asset of value in a common tie so widely extended is no true friend of humanity. He may deplore in a cynical mood, as the Christian does in a mood of sincerity, the world’s failure to keep perpetually alive some spark from the fervour of its recurring festivals. But the true moral to be drawn from that fact is not that the world should abandon, or even diminish its all-too-rare and inadequate perception of the Easter spirit, but that, on the contrary, its one transcendent aim should be to retain and realise that spirit not for a day, but for all time. If that could be done, crime between individuals and that crime between nations which is called war would cease. Exactitude of dates, differences of tradition, variations in ceremonial form —these things are of little or no importance when weighed against the spiritual significance of Good Friday, followed so closely by Easter. When social order fails, it is we who are at fault, not the faith we profess to hold.