The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1861-12-05

reHtOsT 20, 1901, oy TIE FGStoT, ReC. T.. COTU51-
Psalm cxLvn: IL, l.. IL. Kings o, the earth, and all peO-
naidensi Old men and children: Let them praise the name q
earth and heaven.
We have in these verses an important part of
a Divinely inspired thanksgiving proclamation
Having called upon the heavenly hosts, upon the
lnanlmate creation, and upon every beast and
bird and creeping thing, to Join the general jubi-
lee of praise, the Psalmist here calls to all the
rational inhabitants of the earth, of every class
and condition, saying, Let them praise the
name of the Lord No matter how great their
authority, or how exalted their position, none
can be above the reach of this obligation and
no matter how obscure or insignificant, none can
be beneath the privilege or excluded from this
invitation to praise Hum. The proclamation is
ali-comprehensiye. Ii addresses itself TO persons
OF every age, class, creed and condition. Ii does
not say-come n few of you more pious people,
unite in praising the Lord, while the majority of
men drive on at their trades and .heir trafhcking.
No. God is worthy TO be praised by all his
rational creatures. There is a fitness in a concert
of thanksgiving. There is occasion for everybody
To unite in praising the Dame of the Lord.
Say not that IL is sufficient that each one should
be thankful in heart, without expressing graft
tude IN words. Ont of the abundance of the
heart shall the mouth never speak? Say not that
public and united thanksgiving is neither essen
tial nor important. \ religion which is never
demonstratiye, and that holds no jubilees, is like
q private and silent patriotism that never votes,
never fights for ones country, and never hurrahs.
Such plety and such patriotism are very selfish,
very shallow and very seedless. They never pro-
Tagate their kind. The language of true piety,
and of right reason in every age and under both
dispensations, has been
Give unto the Lord o ye kindred Of the people; give unto the
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; bring an
Let US come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make
knter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts
l win offer to thee the sacrifice Of thanksgiving, and will call
his people, IN the courts Of the LorIs house.
III then the secular rulers feel not that there is
any special occasion to recommend to the people
the keeping Of such a festival if from any deli
cacy of feeling, lest they should seem to be inter-
fering with the religious prejudices of the people,
or lest they should appear to dictate in ecclesias-
teal affairs, they decline to appoint, at least once
a year, q day of public thanksgiving, recommend
ing to all of every creed to acknowledge the good
ness of God to the nation it is not for Gods
ambassadors, who are appointed to watch over
the spiritual interests of the people, to be in any
wise fastidious or delicate about reminding rulers
and subjects alike of their common dependence
upon God, and of their obligation gratefully to
acknowledge His goodness, saying:
Kings Of The earth, and all people princes, and all judges Of
dren: Let them praise the name Of the Lord.
You will not expect at this time a special plea for
the fitness, If we may not say duty, of observing
such n day as one of our national JeStiUaLs. The
ilCt SusLt 1Ou IL W III luc lOusc Vi OOQ III iii
time is an evidence that you approve of the reli-
gious observance of such a day. Nor will you
expect 4 labored and logical argument to prove
that men ought to be truly grateful to God for
his benefits bestowed. To suppose such an argu-
ment necessary, Is to pay you the poor compli-
ment of being no better than so many heather.
For the Apostle declares this to be a Characters
tic trait of the heather, that when they knew
God they glorifed Him not Us God, neither ,cere
Mankfuk. What then is the province of the
nraIpuar ON sl,ah an OQa.slnn1 SImnlu this-fn
call to mind such facts, and to set forth such con-
siderdiOnS as shall be adapted to kindle every
grateful heart to an intenser glow, and to call
forth Il louder song Of praise from every tongue.
The first spontaneous prompting of our hearts
rs we assemble here to day, is TO thank God that
we are alive to praise HIM. To live is the first es-
sential condition in order To the receiving or the
approaching of any good thing. We praise God
first of all then that lie has graciOusly heightened
out our days, and that We are in the enjoyment of
such health &C body and of mind that we can
enter His gates with Thanksgiving and His courts
with praise.
Viewed in this relation, and used for this end,
life and health, 50 far from being confined to the
lower order of good gifts, come to take their
place among the highest. We are Thankful. for
them, not merely because of the physical comfort
thus secured to us; nor yet alone for the condi-
tons of intellectual progress and happiness thus
supplied but, first and chiefly, for the relation
they bear to our higher moral well-being.
But even regarded IN the lower sphere of mere
physical benefits, we find here no slight cause for
public and personal gratitude. / look around
me among the foreign population and see almost
every one possessed of a sound mind in n sound
body. Preserved from loathsOme diseases and
gripping accidents, comparatively few are here
subjected to the severe discipline of pain. l see
the many large families of children training up
in the enjoyment o. vigorous health, exposed to
none of those malignant diseases which in other
lands yearly claim so many victims, and hang
like a threatening cloud over every household
and l thank God that here so few children die,
and that so few little graves preach their short
sermon in the churchyard. When 1 take the
gauge of physical happiness aud rational enjoy
ment which here abound when | take the CEN
sus of the many happy families that have remained
for another year each an unbroken circle when
| think how much more of household comfort and
of real rational living are the portion of a people
who are not all the year round driven and over
travelled in the endless treadmill of traffic with
no time to think, to rest, to study or to enjoy the
good things of this life l thank God that, for a
time, my lot has been cast among a people at
once SO thrifty, and so much ut ease content in
the enjoyment of what they have. And you who
think of it will thank Him too.
Nor less will the thoughtful thank Him that
here there is so little real suffering from ablect
that the native population are able,
with little labor, to provide themselves with the
necessaries of life; that wholesome food is SO
that none but the LATEST need to know
the pangs Of hunger and that a genial climate
smiles upon the humblest dwelling, and takes not
n mean advantage of the meagerest wardrobe.
literally in the language of the hymn: ;
December is as pleasant as May.
And yet | feel more than half inclined to recall
this last consideration, doubling whether it is a
motive for unmingled gratitude for l seriously
whether u more rigorous climate, an in =
crease of artificial wants, and a less easy supply
Of the necessaries of life to the native population
might not induce a salutary change in the habits =
Of the people, morally, as well as physically, =,
b~enefting those among whom ease and idleness :
ire the pioneers of a whole battalion of vices. :
Shall i venture so near to the so-called filthy
pool of politics as to say that the residents of this ,