Des Arc citizen., 1859-01-08
A THANKSGIVING SERMON.

The following humorous, but withal sensible production, will be found pecu- liarly appriate Ion the present occasion.' It appeared in the Boston Courier num- Der of Thanksgivings ago, but is still as good as ever:
 A Amerry heart doth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones.-[ Proverbs, xviii, 23.
 The words of the wise men deserve especial regard, for this an occasion when it is good to be merry and wise. There are three hundred and odd days in the year besides this, when a man may be melancholy without setting at naught the Governors proclamation; but once in the year there is reason in feeling com fortabe. The wise man is assuredly right in prescribing his medicine for unhappy mortals, sick of sin and sea coal, the pinch in the money market, and the palptaton in the prlce of breadstuffs. Ho, every one that thirsteth for relief from the cares that cash is heir to; come ye to Doctor Solomon, and take a little of his balm of Gilead in the shape of merry heart. It is not to be "taken fasting" nor will it make any person quake with fear, though when taken 1t may be well shaken-not under the cork stopper of wry face, but through the liberal tunnel of a broad grin. A merry heart doth good like a medicine and who does not wish to do good to himself with such pleasant kind of doctors stuff? Verify, the faculty in old times were wiser in their genera ton than many of the modern M. D's.
 There are three things under the sun, yea, four, which on Thanksgiving day, are to be eschewed of men; The small soul of parsimony and the grumbling bow els of covetousness, the broken spirit of thankless repinng and the dry bones of cold uncharitableness There is none of the right medicine in these drugs, which deserve to be all pounded in the same mortar and worked up into blue pill of more infnitesimal littleness than any quantity yet prescribed in homeopathic formula. But to-day we are bidden 10 be thanllful and whether we think of the bidding or not, it is to be hoped we can all find cause to offer thanks.
 To be thankful this day is a duty both enjoined upon us by the Executive author ity and urged by our own feelings of what is fit and becoming. Thankfulness im- plies content-content indicates good hu- nor and cheerfulness--and whoso has a cheerful heart, has perforce merry one. It is, therefore, as clear as preaching, that King Solomon and the Governors are both of one mind as to the proper way of keeping Thanksgiving, and where is the son of man in this commonwealth who will undertake to controvert their joint au- thority? If there be anyOuch dry bone of doubter among us,s let him suck the wooden spoon of perversity, gnaw the dry drum-stick of his own dogmatism, and sit down in skeptical sackcloth and ashes, till his more sensible and rebellious stomach barks for dinner. Let him dine upon dish of doubts, and go to bed in the gruel of grumbling and grooming. But we hope there is none such.
 So let us be reasonably thankful, and not unreasonably may we also be ot a merry heart. Let those who are in health be thankful for their good case; and those who are out of health be thankful that they are no worse. Let those who are rich be thankful for their wealth; and those who are poor find cause for thanklulness in having so little to do with the root of all evil. Let old folks be thankful for their wisdom in knowing that young folks are fools; and let the young ones be even with them in thankfulness and good opinion, by thinking the compliment back again. Let the lean folks be thankful for their spare ribs, and let fat folks be thankful that they can laugh at the lean ones, and
 grow fatter and fatter every day. Let him who is in debt be thankful that he is ( ! L.