Preface
The addresses in this volume were mostly given in
S. Mark’s, Philadelphia; those on the Seven Words on Good Friday, 1897, and the
greater part of the others at different Eastertides. They are reproduced from
the stenographer’s notes, and are intended for devotional reading or as helps
to meditation, and as sermon notes for the Clergy.
As every picture needs its background, so the joys of Easter require the
gloom of Good Friday to show them in their true light. Easter is not only a
revelation of life, but of life from the dead; it tells not only of the rising
of our Lord, but of His
resurrection from the dead. Hence this book begins with the Death on Calvary,
with the last Words from the Cross as a background. These are taken as the
heptachord of love; the relation of the notes of the musical scale to their
tonic and to one another being used to illustrate the relation of our Lord’s Seven Words to their great
key-note, Love. Each of the Words is considered as a manifestation of some
special characteristic of love.
After the Words from the Cross come the Eastertide addresses; the first
one taking up the Good Friday thought, the power of love; and they deal with
all the recorded appearances of our Lord
after His resurrection, concluding with His appearance to S. Paul on the road
to Damascus.
The book is the result of a remark made by a parishioner last Easter,
that while the supply of devotional reading for Lent is so abundant, there are
but few books which treat of Easter and the Great Forty Days. If this little
book in any way helps to supply this need, I shall be more than thankful.
Alfred G. Mortimer.
S. Mark’s, Philadelphia,
Feast of the Purification, 1898.