~ 104 ~
Ere thy fair light had fled.
Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus giving
New splendour to the dead[1].
The thought might well have been applied to Good Friday. No idea was dearer to the early Church than that the Lord passed on the ninth hour of that day to 'preach to the spirits in prison' and to 'harrow hell,' an idea which has left its mark on the Apostles' creed. That Jesus was in this way evening star to the dead and morning star to the living when lifted up on the cross is a conception which might well have appealed to the convert who came to the Church fresh from the lore of Hesper-Phosphor.
However, the fact remains that the Church instinctively chose Sunday and not Friday for her weekly festival and turned the latter into a fast-day. This seems to us from long association more than natural. I am not sure that it really is so. The work of redemption was accomplished and the victory really won on Good Friday and, apart from the doubtful question whether the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist was to be held to belong to Thursday or Friday, one line of thought might easily have looked upon the latter as a day of triumph
- ↑ ἀοτὴρ πρὶν μὲν ἔλαμπες ἐνὶ ξώοιοιν ἑῷος | νῦν δὲ θανὼν λάμπεις ἕσπερος ἐν φθιμένοις. (The translation is Shelley's, though not printed with Adonais.)
