Beliefs, Practices, History Edward Everett Hale, "Easter" in
Easter: A Collection for a Hundred Friends (Smith: 1886), pp.
60-6. The sects in the Church might be judged by a comparison of
their favorite holidays. And so might eras in history be judged.
It is matter of real interest, then, to see how all poets and
prophets of all divisions of the Church unite on this day, to
proclaim it the Sunday of Sundays, the High Holy Day of the
year. For this is to say that poet and prophet, of every sect
and those least sectarian, have found out at last that the
Christian Religion stands for Life. Life instead of form; Life
instead of Laws; Life instead of Grave-clothes; Life instead of
Tombs; Life instead of Death ; — that is what Christianity
means, and what it is for. You would be tempted to say that the
Saviour had already enforced this completely in what he said to
men; tempted to say that Easter morning was not needed either
for illustration or enforcement. Certainly the gospel texts are
full of the lesson. "Becau