BY REV. D. MACFARLANE, DINGWALL.
IT is well known that the custom of observing Easter is still kept up in Ritualistic Churches from year to year as a season of a religious festival, and we are accustomed to hear of the “Easter Holidays.” Now, there is no foundation in Scripture for the religious observance of Easter. The word Easter is not a scriptural term.
It may be objected that the word Easter is in Acts xii. 4. Yes, the word is there, but it is a mistranslation of the original. The Greek word there is “pascha,” and all who know the Greek language know that the word is used by the Apostle Paul in I. Cor. v. 7, where he says—”Christ our passover (pascha) is sacrificed for us.” Those who observe the Easter festival say that they do so to commemorate the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. But as the Lord’s Supper is the ordinance Christ instituted to commemorate His death, the Christian Sabbath is the ordinance He appointed to commemorate His resurrection. Every Sabbath reminds us of the resurrection of Christ; and to add Easter to that memorial of His resurrection has no divine authority. It is a mere human invention.
The observance of Easter is of Pagan origin. There was a Pagan goddess of the name Eastre, and her worshippers celebrated an annual festival in honour of her in the month of April—the month in which Ritualists observe Easter! Some think the goddess Eastre was the same as Astoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians—I. Kings, xi. 5, and that she represented the moon, which was an object of heathen worship. As the Ritualistic Churches borrowed a great deal of their religion from the Pagans, they borrowed this part of their religion from them too.
This of itself is a sufficient reason why men calling themselves Christians should give it up as a heathenish practice. But some may say it is an ancient custom, and that Easter was observed in the Christian Church at an early day. But the antiquity of a thing is no reason for its continuance if it is not sanctioned by the Word of God.
There was no observance of Easter in the days of the Apostles; but it was introduced into the Church, along with other heathenish practices, soon after they had left the world.
The observance of Easter is not the only heathenish practice to be found in Ritualistic Churches; there are many more. Among others, may be mentioned the clergyman’s practice of turning his face to the east when he is conducting public worship. The Pagans did the same, and especially the conductor of worship. What was the reason for this attitude? The reason was that they worshipped the sun, as the sun rose in the east, the conductor of worship turned his face to the east when leading the worship of his god.
Now, it is lamentable, not to say sinful, that men and women bearing the Christian name should, in the 20th century, be imitating the dark heathens in their worship of the living and true God!
The poor heathen did not know better; they had no Bible to guide them. Both men and women who have God’s Book in their hand are left without excuse if they do not worship God according to the rule of His Word.
These heathenish practices are pointed out that those who are guilty of them might be led to discontinue them, and begin to worship God in a Christian manner, and that those who worship Him according to His Word might not be led astray by the example of Ritualists who borrowed much of their religious observances from the benighted heathen.
Should this friendly warning fail to produce the desired effect on either party, the blame must lie on them and not on the writer of this article.