Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1856-11-27

was fortunate for us that it wasso. Ther,
are no such influences in the world for th'
formation of the Family as the Old Tesla
ment influences. All other institutions
were subsidiary to the family-this was th'
paramount one. Customs, festivals, wor
ship, retual temple-all were to give way
at length-the family never. And whilt
these lived there was but the servants o
the family, and whatever influences came
fror, the more genial and public Hebrew
institutions ran by the peculiar channels
appointed by God, down into the families
SO that the whole polity of the Hebrew;
was not.a central lake of theocracy, fed By
all the streams and head-springs of fami
lies, but rather a reservoir, and familie:
were supplied with influences by drawing
from it. The Government and Churcl
were made for the family, and not the fam
lily for the Government or Church. Wher
David and the people had finished the
public service of Thanksgiving they went
to their HOUSES, That was the right
place to go to. Whatever man gets IL
the sanctuary he should store up in The
House.
In the beginning the Thanksgiving Festi
val of New England was festival for har
vests-a festival of in-gathering. 1t told
the history of the year. Its meaning, in
the Westinghouse, was expressive of JOY
and gratitude for the years fidelity to its
laws and the applications of them to hui
man wants by human skill and industry.
On such day one might 60 back to the
first burrows of spring; to the birds swarm
ing after the plowman and seedman; to
the tender lifting up of the willing earth
by the seeds first peeping up to see if il
was time to wake up and grow. We look
back through the long files of summer
days, whose glittering rays were brighter
with heat and sunlight than all the lances
of an armed host. Warm rains patter on
the roots of our memory; we see the black
bellied cloud; We hear the voice of thun-
der which is the only voice of God, except
the ocean when it breaks upon the shore.
We look back and smell the orchards, and
see the yellow harvest-feld. We hear tie
creaking of the wheels, as the wains bear
home the grain-feece of the earth. Stand
ing in the month of November, which is
the porch of winter, we look back through
ruddy boughs and gold-ranks of multitu-
dinous harvests, into the open bosom of
summer and into the very eyes of spring,
and lifting our hearts we thank God for
furrow and seed, for grass and flower, for
corn and fruit, for rain and dew, for light
and darkness, and for the whole mystery
of that sublime year, through whose evo-
lutions God brings forth all the treasures Of
our outward life.
But though this day is and wss day
of Harvest Thanksgiving, the peculiar An
glo-Saxon, Hebrew, Puritan spirit has coy
cred it over with another feeling. The
whole abundance of the year is but Gods
offering of love to the Family. The House
hold is the grand centre. And fruit and
grain, wool and flax, root and seed, all
take their value from what they do for the
Family.
The plow doth not serve the field, but
the owner. 1t is the right hand of the
farner-family. The scythe and the sickle
are but the fingers of the household cutting
the locks from the head of. the year. And
what thing is done, on the farm, in the
shop, along the street, but it is done for
the family! Only the navy and the army
do not work for families. They are unnat-
uraL They are not Institutions founded
on natural instincts, but organized medi-
cines to be administered to the diseases of
natural instinct But the merchant runs
not through an inch of gold alone-it is
the family behind him that works more
than mere love of money. 1t is not the
love of work or skill that drives up the
shop--it is the love of wife and child
and the holy sanctities of the Roof.
Hence Thanksgiving has its heart in the
Family. We 60 first to Church. But
then, like the people and David, we go back
to our house. And on that day there was
not Hebrew who, once within his own
door, did not feel every inch as great as
King David. He was as great. The King
of Israel was nothing but a father and a
husband in his own family. King was less
than father, and the greater swallowed up
the latter in the family. And, among us,
every man that hath home hath throne
such as King David never sat upon, nor gold
and ivory Solomon neither.
When God calls together man and mai
den, wedding its ordination: they are priests
of God. When He trusts them with a
cradle, then he crowns. But in the family
the Heart wears the crown, not the Head.
And when with triple CROWNS multiplied,
the parents at length resent their chill
dren to the Lord, safe and saved, not Solo
mon in all his glory was arrayed like one
of these parents! And the Queen of She
ba, who came leagues and days to hear
Solomon talk might double the leagues and
multiply the days of journey, to hear the
superior wisdom of mother venerable
and good, lingering on earth that we may
know the temper and disposition of Saints
in Heaven!
The Thanksgiving Day, then, is in heart
and spirit the FESTIVAL OF THE FAMILY
Now come home the children. Now all
forbiddings cease, and rules relax; un-
wonted places are laid opea; locks give
back their bolts; jars and cakes are common
as grass; no rooms are too fine for tread
ing-no clothes too fine for wearing-no
places too select for familiarity. The chill
dren may go up and down through and
through pantry and cupboard. Frugaity
is the only thing locked up to-day, and
Parsimony is expelled; Generosity comes
in stead, and open-handed abundance. 1t
is the grand day of Family joy and liberty,