[Rev. Dr. Henry K. Sherrill, as quoted in the Boston Traveler, Massachusetts]

Easter is infinitely more than a sentimental spring festival. It is more than a belief that there is life beyond the grave for mankind. Easter has not to do with the quantity but with quality of life. It is our thanksgiving for the victorious life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For us to be victorious we must try to live his way. Easter makes the moral struggle worth while. It answers our doubts and questions, gives us faith and courage. The living Christ raises us to a vision of what life may be. As we are risen with him, so day by day in every relationship we shall seek those things which are above.

[From the New Outlook, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]

One of the beautiful things that the coming again of a great anniversary occasion like the Easter time does for us is to stir us, at least for a little, out of the humdrumness and flat level of our ordinary thinking and feeling, and to fill our all-too-stale and barren minds and souls with the freshness of new thought and sentiment and aspiration. Common days and ordinary duties are so apt to be filled with the ordinary and uninspired and uninspiring; and anything which quickens and uplifts us in the midst of them is a boon and a blessing beyond all estimate. Easter speaks of flowers and of beauty; and how much our lives need the touch and feel of these, we know all too sadly. Easter speaks of life and immortality and enduring goodness and love; and how very much do we need to set thoughts and convictions and feelings touching these great things in the midst of daily life and duty is all too evident. Easter speaks of triumph and glorious victory; and is it not true that a sense of defeat and fultility has often come near to spoiling life for us all! May we not all this year know the blessing of Easter!

[A Correspondent in the Times Weekly Edition, London, England]

On "the third day he rose again." Such is the announcement of the victory over sin and death, and he who had been crucified was manifested in the glory of a new life. In his victory lies the power of the Christian faith, the source of the confidence it inspired and of its continuing energies throughout the centuries. Christ had triumphed completely and was manifested to be the Lord of a victorious life. The resurrection was not merely a confirmation of the claims he had made, or a proof of the truth of what he had taught; it was the culmination of his redemptive work, the act by which he overcame death and became the source of a new life to mankind. He gave the fruits of his victory to his people. The life he had won was to be their life....

The reader of the New Testament cannot but notice the sense of victory which animated the disciples after the resurrection. It is apparent in everything they do and say. They moved among men unafraid and confident, as if they were conscious that they possessed a new sense of values and found a new purpose in life, making them free alike from the world's flattery, its censure, or its hate. The opposition of the Jews, or later of the authorities in the great cities of the empire, never dismayed them, for they knew that the risen Lord was with them.... Here and now they knew themselves to live in the power of the resurrection, and they went forward with victorious joy to ever greater conquests, confident of their attainment of the plenitude of life "in Christ."

More than anything else to-day Christians need to recover this sense of matery. How has it come to pass that they are so apologetic, so depreciatory, so hesitant? Why are they so fearful that their faith should perish, that either they seek to protect it by barriers of traditions which more often restrict its power than shield it from attack, or present it in so attenuated a form that it is difficult to tell what precisely is its meaning? Why do they hesitate to attack the strongholds of injustice, covetousness, and vice, and instead contemplate compromises in which they are inevitably worsted? The victory of Easter is offered to us now. We need not wait for it until we enter another world. The power of the resurrection is ours. The seer of the Apocalypse represents the risen Lord making great promises "to him that overcometh," to him who in this life is overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil, and gives way to no obstacle or opponent in his progress to the city of God. With faith in the resurrection we may go forward without fear. Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through the risen Lord!

[Ex-Governor Frank G. Allen, in the Boston Herald, Massachusetts]

To the Christian soul, Easter has a profound meaning that needs no explanation. The story of the resurrection of our Lord lies at the very core of our religion. We lean upon the message of hope that Easter brings, and draw from it the inspiration so sorely needed in the material pursuits of our everyday life. As springtime comes to free us from the rigors of winter, so the discouragements of the past, the failures which come to us all, the doubts and griefs of life fade before the vision of faith reborn and courage renewed.

One often hears severe reflections upon the declining piety of our modern civilization, the worldliness of this age, and the mad struggle for money. There is no doubt but that the church faces a mighty problem in her combat against these soul-destroying evils. It is, however, the glory of our Christian faith that out of the darkness and depths of discouragement comes the light of hope. In his triumph over death and his resurrection to life immortal, the Master has opened for us the gates of heaven. The joy of Easter lies in the revelation and perpetual message which it brings to mankind of new faith, new hope, new courage, and new strength.

[From the Journal, Milwaukee, Wisconsin]

More and more, in recent decades, we have come to look upon Easter as a religious event that finds an explanation in nature. It is the season of spring, of returning light, of flowers and birds and beauty. It is the time when the dreariness... of winter is vanquished, when life is renewed.

And this picture is very well in a broad sense. It has an appeal, for it shows in a homely way man's relationship to a marvelous order of creation, and in turn to God Himself. Moreover, it creates a gratefulness within our hearts that we are participants in a universe which is perpetually renewed.

But that is not all that Easter means. There is another story of Easter, not so old, to be sure, as the nature story that goes back to the dawn of history and tells how men celebrated the beginning of a new season. This newer story applies very specifically to men's lives and hopes, and is worth retelling in the clearest account that has come down to us, the words of Matthew:

"1. In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

"2. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

"3. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:

"4. And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.

"5. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

"6. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said."

... It does not say anything about food and clothing, prospects of bountiful crops, or even the beauty of flowers. It says simply that a man sent from God was able to arise from the dead, and thus promises immortality. If the Christ is immortal, we all are.

With the nature thought of Easter we have no quarrel. It is a beautiful picture, and it touches men's hearts. But at best it is a material explanation. By no stretch of the imagination can it mean so much to mankind as do those other words: "He is not here: for he is risen."

[George Clark Peck, in the Christian Advocate, New York, New York]

Again it is Easter. Again the tender thrill which none can explain, and none, feeling it, can mistake. Easter,... as the anniversary of a man's supreme triumph, is more significant than his birthday. ... Easter is to be lived. It is an experience rather than a date. It is both history and prophecy, with a living chapter lying between. "Because I live," said our ... Lord, "ye shall live also." That ought to mean life abundant, here and now. Let the form and fashion of life in the future await the event. A good life is already touched with immortality. A Christ-life is eternal.

[Editorial in the Morning Press, Santa Barbara, California]

If someone had not given thought to the things that are intangible to the ordinary person we never should have developed steam, the internal combustion engine, electricity with its infinite applications, and the other advantages that we now possess. These later developments are demonstrating to us that the things that seem intangible are the most important things that exist. This is as true of the higher life of man as it is of the forces of the physical universe. As we develop the ethical and spiritual part of our lives we shall have opened to us such knowledge, understanding, and power that man's present accomplishments will dwindle into insignificance in comparison to what he will be able to know and to do through this enlargement of his higher life.

[Dr. W. Russell Bowie, as quoted in the New York Times, New York]

He "being raised from the dead dieth no more," and when we remember him [Christ Jesus] we know that no good can die. No real labor of love is lost. No purpose which we cherish, no loyalty we follow, no courageous sacrifice we make, will ultimately be in vain.

The message of Easter enables us to believe also in the continuance of life.

[Rev. Alden Lee Hill, as quoted in the Times, Los Angeles, California]

It is well for us to reëxamine the purpose of Jesus. His teaching affected society profoundly, but his main purpose was to bring life more abundantly to every individual.