Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1856-11-27
MisrflIaltfnlts.
THANKSGIVING SERMON
BY HENRY WARD BEaCHER.

'.And all the people departed, every man to
his house; and David returned to bless his
house, CHRoN. xvi. 49,
l have read in your hearing the ceremo-
ny and worship Of Thanksgiving, recorded
in the Old Testament, performed by David
and his servants, upon memorable occa-
sion of the restoration of Gods long-exiled
Ark to its House. You will observe that
/ have selected the closing verse of this
chapter for a text,
When the public ceremonies Of thanks
giving were done, every man returned TO
his own house, and David, the chief man of
the nation, its king set the example, and
returned to bless Ais House. The sanctua-
ry and the House, the public Congrega-
ton and the private Household. the Church
and the Family-these were the features of
that Hebrew polity, which, acting through
ages, has stamped its influence upon West
ern Institutions. For when the Jews had
been torn up, and part of them destroyed,
and the rest scattered like chaff in all the
world, the shadow of their old institu-
tions fell upon modern days; and like the
shadow of the Apostles, it has had more
power in it than the living presence of most
institutions which theworld has had.
The Greeks have left to the world rem
nant and an ideal of art-a language, and
not philosophy, but motive toward
philosophizing-but not a single Institu-
ton. An institution is an organized power,
either of ideas or of implements of power.
l do not remember one that came from the
Greeks.
The Romans-less than the Greeks in
language, less in philosophising tendency,
less in art-have left to the world power
full organized tendencies. The Law of the
World has had Roman leaven in it.
The Jew and the Roman have left insti-
tutions to the world. The first institutions
based upon natural instincts; the second,
based upon ideas and artificial wants. The
Jew organized the affections; the Roman,
the civil rights of man. The family is
Jewish; the Civil Law is Roman. Both
of these are yet Living Forces. But one
works at the root, the other in the branches,
The one shapes the inward life and sub
stance of mems nature, the other shapes
the outward life and actions.
Our Puritan ancestors were men of the
Old Testament Dispensation, planted in
New England. They were mighty, but
not normal. They were driven by disgust
into reaction against amenities, graces,
innocent sports, and the spirit Of art and
beauty. No man formed by reaction can
be normal. They were driven by suffering
and persecution clear back of the New
Testament into the Old. And as the Jews
were sometimes driven out of Old Jerusa-
lem and compelled 10 hide from their enc
mics in the mountains round about, so the
Puritan was driven out of the New Jeru-
salem of Gospel and compelled to find rest
and refuge in the mere rugged passes
of the Old Testament. The Old Tesla
ment was Child of Storms. 1t was the
gradual product of times of suffering and
wrong. It contains the view of truth
which peculiarly sustains a man under such
Influences. Theviews of God; the exhibi-
ton of Divine Justice; the whole revela-
tion of Providence, are such as to comfort
men who are stripped by misfortune and
failed by persecution. And, in every age
men who are deeply religious, and called
to suffer persecution for moral principle
have taken refuge in those views of God
which Che Old Testament gives. And they
will continue to do so till the end of the
world. Criticism may destroy it, and skept-
icisrn turn it under like sod double deep
but the moment men are brought into dis