The Independent 1897-11-25: Vol 49 Iss 2556

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““ EVEN AS WE HAVE BEEN APPROVED OF GOD TO BE INTRUSTED WITH THE GOSPEL, SO WE SPEAK; NOT AS PLEASING MEN, VoL. XLIX .NEW YORK, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 235, 1897 hLasJ BUT GOD WHICH PROVETH OUR HEARTS.”’ No. 2556 A Thanksgiving Hymn. BY MINNA IRVING, Wuerr the trackless forest flung Leafy boughs against the blue, And the Indian chieftain sailed In his fragile birch canoe, There are groups of gilded spires, Stately ships go down to sea, And for this our thanks we give, Lord, to Thee! Where the harvest reeked with blood, And the air was thick with sighs, And the smoke of battle hung Like a cloud along the skies; And our fathers fought and fell For the boon of liberty, There is peace, and thanks we give. Lord, to Thee. For the splendor on the hills, And the crimson of the leaves, For the bursting barns and bins, And the gold of garnered sheaves, For the grapes upon the vine, For the fruits upon the tree,— All thy bounty, thanks we give, Lord, to Thee. For the sturdy strength of soul That the Pilgrim Fathers taught, For the ghosts of Bunker Hill And the rights their sufferings bought, For the flag that o’er us floats And the power to keep it free,— All the glory and the praise, Lord, to Thee. Tarrytown, N. Y. Ships. BY ARTHUR WILLIS COLTON, Now are harbored ships asleep Beside their shadows, Home from the wind-winnowed deep And unscythed meadows Of the bright green gliding sea, From the windward gliding to the lee. And one ship, in port to-day, On the morrow Southward bound will far away The swift sea furrow, Whom the loud Antarctic waits, And frozen citadels with creaking gates. WaAsHINGTON, CONN. Giving Thanks. BY CHARLES M. LAMSON, D.D., PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN Boarp. IT is not easy to give thanks either in our individual or corporate capacity. It is more than saying thanks, much more than a transient emotion; it is an act, a habit, a character. To thank God demands thought, definite and earnest meditation, and a sin- cere resolution. Real thanksgiving is gratitude ut- tered and lived, and is therefore costly and rare. It is a comprehensive quality of character, an acknowl- edgment by one soul of all that another means to his life. Thanksgiving Day suggests the question, What is it to give thanks? Its history and present use afford an answer. It isthe union of our memories and our hopes in the conscious presence of God. It is the mem- ory ofa past that is not yet ended, and the hope of a future that has already begun. Part of the spirit of Thanksgiving is the consciousness that there has been a Providence, informing, guiding, divinizing our past. It isthe confession of the God of history, and that history is part of us, and we are part of it, that we are the living treasure-house of what God has given the world in the process of its growth. Thanksgiving is the just vision of what God has done by the penetration of his Spirit, the gift of his life and power, and the joy that comes from that vision. This spirit makes the Psalms. significant. They are memories, historical visions, set to music. The He- brew consciousness, individual and national, was sure that Jehovah had been with his people, and it was natural that such memories should burst into song. This isthe Christian view, God has been in this world. This spirit of truth has vitalized the past. There is no elevation of soul to be compared with this, the sure knowledge that God has been in our personal and national history. Such reflections are not easily reached; but they are worth reaching, for they make a man psalmic. Another part of the spirit of Thanksgiving is the sure expectation of His assisting presence in the fu- ture. History meets prophecy when we are thankful. The belief in the God of Abraham needed a faith in the coming Messiah for its completion. In the Christian view the assurance that God has been with us is joined with the faith that he will bless us. That joy- ful act of the soul that in God’s presence joins its memory with its hope is thanksgiving, the just and glad acknowledgment that the God of the present is the meeting in us of the God of our past with the God of our future. Thanksgiving Day is more than a day for personal giving of thanks to the Source and Preserver of one’s own life. It is not rightly observed if thanks are not given also for the home, the nation and the Church. Such observance means the confession that each man is a social man, and that God is the Creator aud Pre- server of the social life. Any sympathy with the Pil- grim spirit and purpose declares the fact that man is born into each of these institutions; that he is of ne- cessity, if he be a complete man, a member of the family, the State and the Church. It gives elevation, meaning and power to life for a man to be thankful that in such membership he has a long history and a long future; for God is in each of them. He has been in the home. One may say that without him in the home there is no true family. The home, as defined to-day in Christian lands, is a Christian institution, and has existed only since the time of Christ. In the unity and love of the home is seen the life of Christ prolonged. To thank God for the home, for our home, is to acknowledge him as its author and life. With this is joined the sure hope that the home is to be continued as a sacred, necessary institution of human life. He will bless it. To work for the home and in the home is to work for permanent values. To thank him for the home is to thank him for an abiding fact and influence. It can never per- ish from off the face of the earth if men are thankful. No one can think of the family merely as a prudential agreement nor association of individuals if he be thankful. Love would be wiser and sweeter, the sorrows and sacrifices of the home would be seen as of value in God's sight if we knew that our homes were the place where the God of the past and the God of the future meet. Thanksgiving is a day of gratitude for the nation. Since the days of Brewster and Hooker the thought of the nation kas been part of our religion. The con- tinuity of our State is a religious fact. We do not believe in a State Church, but we have never failed to believe in a religious State. Our Declaration of In- dependence has always signified a dependence on God. To be thankful to confess the God of our fathers is a great and helpful act in these days of political vagaries, of incalculable, inconsequent poli- tics. It sobers, steadies and elevates patriotism to feel that our nation is one of God’s growth, that he prepared emigrant peoples and kept a continent hid from the eyes of Europe till the time“was ready tor a new State. To be a citizen with a just idea of his privilege one must be thankful; that is, confess that God has been with us as a father is with a child of his love, and be possessed with the conviction that what has so long been sacred in his eyes must be sacred in ourown. The citizen, if thankful, is also prophetic. The nation is to improve, grow in real worth; for God is to bein it. The thankful citizen does not rejoice in increasing population nor commerce nor wealth, nor improvements of life merely, but in improved life. Ruskin says one may cross England at sixty miles an hour and be as great a fool at the end of his journey as at the beginning. Because God has been in our nation as a power to make men better one may be sure that he will guide the future. The State now needs thankful citizens, who cherish the thought of a God-directed nation, and an ideal of a people to be more divinely directed in the future. Man is also, if he be a complete man, a member of the Church, defining church as the real unity of man- kind in a race in which Christ lives and reigns. In this sense Christ did not found, he discovered the Church, and has revealed it with greater and greater clearness in the work of the Spirit through the cen- turies. In this thought the greatest act of which man is capable is to thank God for the Church. God has been with mankind. The advance ofthe race in his- tory has been the development of this thought, a clearer expression of himself. History is the expres- sion ofinspiration. To be thankful is to confess that “in the beginning, God,” ‘‘szzce the beginning, God.’’ But gratitude feels more of power and joy when it knows that mankind is not yet full grown, and that God will influence its future. There is no psalm more jubilant than ‘‘till we all come to the stature of the perfect man.’’ ‘ It ought to make Thanksgiving seem more, be more to all who participate in its restand joy that we as men, as members of the home, the State and the Church may join such memories and such hopes in God. Hartrorp, Conn. Living on Thanksgiving Street. BY THE REV. DANIEL A, FERGUSON, DovuBTLEss all Christians are in sympathy with the special praise services held in the churches, around on Thanksgiving Street, every twelvemonth. But it is evident, from Paul’s letter to the Christians in Thessalonica, that, in his opinion, there was some- thing even more desirable—to take up a permanent residence in that vicinity; ‘‘in everything give thanks.’’ It may be remarked that some people attend church on Thanksgiving Street, but have their home around on Grumble Corner. Apart from the inconsistency of so doing, it may be added that it is difficult to see how such people could get along were it not for these occasional sunshiny periods in their existence. Grumble Corner is not noted for its sunshine or good cheer. It is not that the people who live there dwell in dingy hovels; there are some grand resi- dences in that vicinity; but it is not considered good form, by the residents, to let the sunshine in. So, even when the sun shines there is a measure of gloom that hangs over that section. The people themselves look as if they had not much sunshine in their hearts. What a blessed thing for themselves and for others that they, occasionally at least, get over to church on Thanksgiving Street. It is hard to walk down that broad avenue, with its inviting lawns, its shady trees, to look into the cheery faces of the residents, to sit down in the house of God and join in the songs of thanksgiving, and not be uplifted and sweetened in spirit. But it is even better to /ive there seven days in the week.