Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1905 — BEAUTIFUL EASTER CUSTOM. [ARTICLE]

BEAUTIFUL EASTER CUSTOM.

Advent of Resurrection Hoy Hailed with Melody and Praise. “No more divinely appropriate expression of the Moravians’ love of music and their appreciation of its inspiriting power is to be found than in their sublime annunciation of the Resurrection day,” writes Clifford Howard, descriptive of “A Moravian Easter Dawn,” in the Ladies Home Journal. “Through the quiet streets (of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) in the early morn, the trombonists walk from place to place, pouring forth their grand, inspiring anthem that arouses the slumbering town to the welcome knowledge of the advent of this glorious day. -Now here, -now there, now everywhere the lights appear within the windows of the dwellings, and the streets are thronged with people, young and old, wending their way from all directions toward the church, and greeting one another with loving salutations of the day. The Easter service is begun within the church and is continued there until tho brightening sky announces the advent of tho dawn. Then, in slow procession, subdued and reverent, the people pass without the doors, and, headed by the trombonists, solemnly ascend the winding hill to their beloved and.quaint old burying ground. “Within the closure, of this consecrated spot the congregation assembles and stands in a large semi-circle facing the eastern hill in fond anticipation of the emblem of its cherished faith. A little apart stand the ministers, and the trombone choir. Thus assembled, the service of song and responsive readings, begun in the church, is continued, A sense of deep, religious awe pervades the gathered throng, as on this cold, gray morning of the early spring they await, in spiritual communion with their departed loved ones, the Resurrection hour. Above the hill the dawning light appears. Then from the voices of the assembled host there bursts a melody of raptured song, a heartfelt liyninu of praise and adoration, a spontaneous symphony of joy, thn,t starts in glad expression of triumphant hearts, and mingling with the full, resounding strains of sweet-toned trumpets and resonant trombones, arises with the warbling song of joyous birds in glad hosannas to the splendent sky. For see! a radiant light o’erspreads the earth. A wondrous glory hails the new-born day. The sun appears in fulgency sublime — God’s symbol of the resurrected life; and earth and heaven in exulting joy peal forth in glad, antiplioual accord: ‘The Lord is risen! Hallelujah, praise the Lord!’ ”