In accordance with the custom we have observed on this program since 1949,\u00a0tonight’s broadcast will be devoted to Easter. From its beginning, Little\u00a0Talks on Common Things has been scheduled for Sunday. When one of those Sundays\u00a0is the most sacred day of the Christian year, we prefer to recognize it.\u00a0So tonight we are thinking not so much about old days in the Kennebec Val ley\u00a0and elsewhere in Maine as we are about the meaning of the Easter message for\u00a0this and any other time.<\/p>\n
Obviously we need that message today. The fighting war in Korea has stopped,\u00a0but co I d war that at any moment may break out into hot war is very much\u00a0with us. In IndO-China, in Egypt, in India-Pakistan, in the very valley of the\u00a0Jordan where Jesus once walked, are powder kegs of war. Any day American\u00a0boys may be going into battle again. Less than forty days ago, when the Lenten\u00a0season had already begun, we learned of the i ncredi b Ie destructi on wrought\u00a0by the new hydrogen bomb, so unbelievably vast that its extended use in warfare\u00a0would almost certainly mean the end of civi lization. When in thousands of\u00a0years on earth man seems to have learned little more than how to ki II his fellow\u00a0men more efficiently, more horribly. and in immensely greater numbers, we\u00a0may well ask God the question asked Him by the Hebrew psalmist, “What Is man,\u00a0that Thou are mindful of him?”<\/p>\n
Into our time of fear, frustration and folly comes the Easter message,\u00a0not of fear but of faith, not of frustration but of hope, not of death but of\u00a0life. The gtod ouscry of Easter is th is: that wh i ch was dead sti II lives.\u00a0The last lone hope of the Gall lean disciples had been nai led to a Roman cross\u00a0of grim despair. It had been confined to a dark, si lent tomb in Gethsemane.\u00a0Then someth i ng happened TO change despa i r to hope. defeat TO vi cTory. That\u00a0which was dead sti I I lived. Out of death had come life. What is man that\u00a0Thou are mindful of him? Man is the embodiment of life — life to be made eterna\u00a0I because the Angel of the Lord rolled away the stone from the door.<\/p>\n
Without death life cannot continue. That Is an important fact of Easter.<\/p>\n
Let us see what it means. Jesus once sa i d, “Un less a gra I n of corn fa lis into\u00a0the ground and die, it remains alone. But if it dies, iT brings forth much\u00a0fruit.” That is the way Jesus summed up the truth that is so hard for us to\u00a0accept — the Truth thaT life is ever dependent upon death.\u00a0Before iT comes to life as a plant, the seed must be buried in the earth.\u00a0Before it can soar a lofT on butterf Iy wi ngs, the caterp i liar must enter the\u00a0long sleep in its chrysalis tomb. Before the awakening of spring, the earth\u00a0is shrouded in the cold death of winter.<\/p>\n
The biologist knows how true it is that life is dependent upon death. He\u00a0sees it in the carbon and nitrogen cycles of the plants. Photosynthesis, the\u00a0miraculous way plants manufacture their own food cannot take place without carbon\u00a0dioxide. Yet only 3 parts of the atmosphere in every 10,000 parTs Is carbon\u00a0dioxide. In less than 40 years plants would use up al I the carbon dioxide\u00a0in the air if it were not somehow rep I aced. I f a II the carbon in exi stence\u00a0got locked up in the bodies of plants and animals, all life would stop. How\u00a0does the rep lacement of used carbon take p lace? A very I ittle gets back into\u00a0the air through respiration, the ordinary breathing of animals. But by far\u00a0the most of it gets back by the action of bacteria which begin decomposing\u00a0plants and animals just as soon as they die. By the action of these bacteria,\u00a0certain substances in dead bodies of plants and animals are broken down into\u00a0carbon dioxide and water, and thus return to the soi I and the air to begin a\u00a0new cyc Ie.<\/p>\n
The biologists cal I the life substance — the stuff which distinguishes\u00a0living from non-living things, grass from rocks, for instance — the biologists\u00a0call this stuff protoplasm. It is a very complex protein substance.<\/p>\n
And what is an essential, an absolute must of proteins? It is nitrOgen. Where\u00a0is nitogen found? Its sole storehouse is the supply of nitrates in the earth.<\/p>\n
Just as is true of carbon, so must nitrogen get back to the soil; otherwise it\u00a0would all be locked up in the bodies of plants and animals and all life would\u00a0cease, Here again it is the bacteria that do the work. By a process involving\u00a0several steps and several kinds of bacteria, the protein molecules in dead bodies\u00a0of plants and animals revert back into nitrates so that the cycle can begin\u00a0a I love raga in.<\/p>\n
Everyone knows that without plants there could be no continuance of animals,\u00a0for even those animals which eat other animals for food, the flesh eaters\u00a0s distinguished from the plant eaters, would soon be without food if there\u00a0were no plants, for the animals on which the flesh eaters feed are themselves\u00a0dependent on plant food.<\/p>\n
So this is the great lesson learned by every high school student of biology\u00a0— that plants and animals have to die in order that life itself may go\u00a0on.<\/p>\n
In ancient times men gathered the precious kernels of grain, then groundthem to death under the gri ndi ng stone. Out of that death came bread, the\u00a0staff of life. That bread was again burled in the human body, that that body\u00a0mi ght live and grow. Then that human body i tse r f returned to the earth. There\u00a0the ancient knowledge stopped. Now we know that the chemicals of that body\u00a0returned to earth and air, giving life once more to the burled seed. That is\u00a0the great cycle of life.<\/p>\n
A hundred years ago the newspapers pa j d Ii tt Ie attenti on to Easter. Just\u00a0how long the Easter Parade has been a New York custom I do not know, but the\u00a0New York papers of 1854 are silent on the subject. In 1859 our own Kennebec\u00a0Journal made no mention of Easter. Although Its Issue in the week before Eas~\u00a0ter in That year contained plenty of church notices and other religious Items,\u00a0there is no evi dence that Easter was regarded as dl fferent from any other Sunday\u00a0In the state capital a century ago.<\/p>\n
Colby students and their parents often ask why the annual spring vacation\u00a0does nOT include Easter Sunday. The answer is that Easter Is such a widely\u00a0shifting date in the calendar that any attempt to adjust the college spring\u00a0recess TO It would be exceedingly awkward and unwieldy. In some instances, It\u00a0would make the recess end so late that the remaining time before final examinations\u00a0would be much too short.<\/p>\n
Eas te r sh i fts so wide I y because the date depen ds upon the moon. and th at\u00a0satelliTe of the earth is a most fickle lady. Many years ago, Colby’s great\u00a0teacher of German, Dr. Anton Marquardt, fami Ii arly knOtin as “Outchy”, taught\u00a0me how TO state in German the way Easter is fixed. Believe It ot not, I can\u00a0stili do it — Den ersten Sontag nach den ersten Vollmond nach den eln und\u00a0zwanzigsten Maertz — In plain English, the first Sunday after the first full\u00a0moon following the 21st of March. The almanacs tell you it is the Sunday following\u00a0the first full moon after the vernal equinox; that is, the time when the\u00a0sun crosses the equator in the turn from winter to spring. Although that date\u00a0Is usua I I Y the 21st of March, th I s year It fe II I near Iy afte moon of the 20th.<\/p>\n
The March full moon this year came just 24 hours too early to give us an early Easter because the moon reached full on March 19. The next full moon — that\u00a0is, the fl rst one after the equinox of March 20 — comes on the 18th, but so\u00a0few minUTes after midnight that, for all practical purposes the moon is full on\u00a0the 17th. Hence, th I s year the 18th of Apr! I I s Easter Sunday. Next year Easterwill\u00a0come on April 10, in 1956 itwlll be April 1, then In 1957 It will be\u00a0a Imost as late as possible, Apri I 21 \u2022 Only twice I nthe next ten years wi II\u00a0Easter come in March — in 1959 on March 29 and in 1964 on the same date.<\/p>\n
It is possible for Easter to come as early as March 21 which can happen\u00a0only once in hundreds of years, when the equinox precedes the ful I moon by only\u00a0a few hours and both come on March 20. It is very unusual for Easter to come\u00a0as early as March 22. In fact the earliest date for Easter in the 200 years’\u00a0from 1900 to 2100 is March 23, which wi II be Easter Sunday In 2008, and that is\u00a0the on Iy ti me in the whole two centuries when Easter wi II be earlier than\u00a0March 24.<\/p>\n
Why was Easter fixed in connection with what is called the Paschal full\u00a0moon, the first full moon after the spring equinox? Allover the early Christian\u00a0world Easter was a time of great rei igious festivities. In 325 A.D. the\u00a0famous Counci I of N I cea fixed the date I n accordance with the fu II of the moon\u00a0because the pi I gri ms trave ling to the festi va I s needed moon light to II qht them\u00a0on the journey.<\/p>\n
Since the reasons for tyi ng Easter to the moon no longer ext st, noth I ng\u00a0but the habit of tradition forces us to retain the awkwardly shifting date.\u00a0Perhaps some day we sha II have a defi nl te Iy fl xed Easter, as we have a fl xed\u00a0Christmas. Ever since 1900 various organizations, notably the International\u00a0Chamber of Commerce, have passed resolutions favoring a fixed date for Easter.<\/p>\n
When the International Chamber met in Rome .in 1923, they addressed to the Pope\u00a0an ardent resolution to stop the widely ranging date of Easter. In 1925 the\u00a0matter came up before the League of Nati ons at Geneva, wh i ch proceeded to summon\u00a0a conference of the Roman, Eastern and Angl ican churches, at which it was\u00a0agreed that there existed practically unanimous, opinion throughout the Christian\u00a0world in favor of a fixed Easter. But so binding is the force of custom,\u00a0and so slow are church dignitaries to consider anything that savors of change,\u00a0that nothing was done about it.<\/p>\n
In 1925 the British Parliament became Interested. A bill was introduced\u00a0to fix the date of Easter in the Anglican church as regularly the seoond Sunday\u00a0In Apri I. FI na” yin 1928 Par I lament actua Ily passed a bill statl ng that Easter\u00a0should always come on the fl rst Sunday following the second Saturday in\u00a0Aprl I. Why, then, does Easter come in England, just as it comes In America or\u00a0Italy or France this year on the Sunday following the third Saturday, or as it\u00a0so happens on the third Sunday? Don’t they obey their own laws in England?<\/p>\n
The answer is that the British law contained a joker — the provision that\u00a0it should not go into effect in England untl I it secured International acceptance.<\/p>\n
Not even the British lords and cornrrons wanted to celebrate Easter on a\u00a0different day from that recognized by the rest of the world. It goes without\u00a0saying that international acceptance has never been secured, and Easter conti\u00a0nues to fluctuate over a span of 35 days, just as it has done ever since the\u00a0Counci I of Nicea 1,629 years ago.<\/p>\n
Whether or npt you have been -to church today, you cannot escape the sl gn fficance\u00a0of Easter. The new life which the risen Christ brings to man is not\u00a0mere biological life; it is more than the cycles of carbon and nitrogen. The\u00a0gift of Easter is not bodi Iy life, but spiritual life. But like the life cycle\u00a0in nature, th is too comes as the frui t of death. The passage from Good Frf day\u00a0to Easter Sunday is the passage from the gloom of death to the dawn of eternal\u00a0I I fe.<\/p>\n
To S~9J:est that desperate clinging to one’s rrortal I ife, as we all do, Is\u00a0only delusion, hits many of us as a violation of all common sense. But what did\u00a0Jesus say? “Except a grain of corn fall Into the ground, It remains alone; but\u00a0if it die, it brings forth much fruit.” “Whosoever would ~ave his life shall\u00a0lose it, but he that loses his life shall find it.” The King of Kings and Lord\u00a0of Lords is born I n a stab Ie manger; he dies on a “torturing cross. Why? Because\u00a0by that strange contradi ctl on he ful fi lis the seedtime and the harvest,\u00a0the setting and rising of the sun, the never-ending cycle of the seasons — in\u00a0a word, he bri ngs out of death eterna I I I fe to man.<\/p>\n
Year: 1954<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #223, broadcast on April 18, 1954<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[749,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}