Columbia democrat and star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1867, 1866-12-12
Extract from a SERMON.

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AS have already intimated, brethren, we
have met for the purpose of thanksgiving
and, as have already said, that there are
innumerable causes of gratitude to God, is
known to you just as well as it is to me, and
that there is no particular period, as 1 have
already intimated, when we are to pay par
tlcular grrtitude, know not, unless it is
when we receive an exuberance of fayors
from our Divine Father.
Gratitude is one of the highest gifts of
our nature The grateful man is always an
honorable man. A non-grateful man, and
what we usually deem an ungrateful man, is
; a mean creature. You cannot feel for him
as the heart feels for the grateful man. In
the ordinary walks and business of life this
is so throughout every age. The gentlemen
before me, and these ladies, that are familiar
with the duties and intercourse of the social
relations of life have observed it.
The grateful person you cannot forget, and
you cannot help respecting him, because in
one who possesses gratitude there is honor in
that heart-there is principle there; but
the ungrateful man is always an object of
contempt and disgust. You may pity him,
and you cannot help pitying him and having
compassion for him. At the same time, his
ingratitude you talk about as base. For the
migrate, Il did so and so, and conferred this
favor and that, and now see how he has
treated me- and you look at his ingrati
tude, and it naturally excites in the mind
4 fo0l of< II, Il
womap.
Speaking of the ingratitude of the pres
ent day. in order to prevent the spread of it,
he said the pulpit should pour out an un-
broken storm of life, peace and of charity,
and that the public press, instead of being
filled with bitterness and vengeance and
wrath, and trying to infame the passions and
arraying men In bloody hatred against one
another should be constrained to adopt a
a different course, and if they continue in
this should be banished from every hearth
stone in the land. They should pursue the
divinely appointed course What we want
now in this land is peace. We are an un-
happy people.
There Is an amount of unhappiness in this
land that is unknown to any one but God
himself The question which 1 propose to
you Is whether, as nation of people, we
ought not to-day to be mourning? We have
met for the purpose of thanksgiving and to
be grateful to God. say it is question
whether this nation should be clothed in the
garments of mourning or garments of praise,
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reached that point yet. There is a vast deal
to be done. There is great deal of hatred
and enmity and of evil feelings in this land
that must be taken away.
We must have all these clashing. dashing
roaring nladmen, who are endeavoring to
lntiame the passions of the people, comfort
! ed, and clothed and in their right mind and
have them to learn the doctrines of right
eousness. Look at the condition of the
country at the present day. Thousands and
tens Of thousands of the people have scarce
ly any bread to eat. In one single region of
the State of Alabama, | am told by one of
the most intelligent men, there are seven
thousand five hundred men and women,
black and white, that are in a state of star
vation, and in every direction it is so.
find in paper published in the city of
Washington, called the Star that in that
! city there are at least twenty thousand col
ored people that do not get upon an average
one days work in six They are literally
running right into the jaws of starvation.
The poor-house is overdowing, says this
paper, and not able to afford shelter for the
swarms of vagrants that infest the city.
Think of it. that within one hundred and
thirty miles Of the city of Philadelphia, in
the Capital of the country, there are twenty
or thirty thousand people that have not
comfortable homes and are in a state of
starvation. | say we are hypocritical in our
thanksgiving if we do not take care of these
people.
That man is not grateful to God, and he
has not the spirit of God, that sees these
things as they are, and does not do some
thing to alleviate their suferings
When | go along Chestnut Street that
public thoroughfare, | see the poor, worn
out soldier, with both his legs or an arm off,
lost in the service of thei. country, grinding
barrel organ, soliciting the aims of the
passers by.
These poor men, instead of being in that
way, should have comfortable homes for |
life, and should be well taken care of. My |
soul swells with Indignation when see these
things. young man came to me yester-
day with his right hand mutilated in the |
service of his country, and said he could not
get anything to do. He had been up and
down, but nobody would employ him.
He urged the people not to let this thing
go any farther, but to subscribe literally and
furnish home for these brave boys