EASTER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 20 April 1935, Page 4

EASTER.

Easter is a joyous . season. Its whole message is one of joy and hope for the world; and yet, after nearly two thousand years of Christian ministry and precept, the world is beset with trouble, and nation watches nation with jealous and envious, eyes. If we solve one problem it is only to find new problems awaiting us. There is nothing new in this. It has been the same all down the centuries—a long, unending struggle against difficulties which we have neither the power to prevent, nor, it would seem, to overcome. Yet the struggle is not in vain. For every reverse there is some compensating advantage; and, on the other hand, there is no triumph without some sacrifice. On this theme Emerson has written one of his greatest essays. Crime and punishment, as he says, grow out of,,one stem; punishment is a fruit that unsuspected ripens within the flower of the pleasure which concealed it. Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed. There is a law which runs through all things, irrespective of the laws made by man, and it is vain to build or plot or combine against it. If a Government is cruel, the Government’s life is not safe; if a nation wrong us, we will retaliate; if we wrong another nation it will retaliate. After making allowances for all national prejudices, the great principles of Christianity remain, clear-cut and sure. In how far we have followed these principles, we ourselves know best; and on how far we follow them depends largely on our ability to meet the problems of the times.