Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-12-01
THANKSGIVING SERMON.
By request Of a large number of G

Johns Church, IN this city, has furnish
ed a copy of the discourse preached by
him on Thanksgiving Day. 1t will re.
pay perusal and enable all to review the
past year with its manifold causes of re-
joicing for personal and public benefits
received and enjoyed. His text was
from Thess. l, Is: I'm everything
give thanks"
THANKSGIVING II DUTY OF ALL.
Thanksgiving has been recognized as
a duty incumbent upon all, in almost or
quite every form Of religion, r or
false, ~elevating or degrading, which the
world has ever seen. The pious Isra-
elite brought his thank-offering to the
altar, when God had bestowed upon
him special blessings, and often the
smoke of a free will sacrafce assembled
from II victim brought and slain by
one who would thus testify his graft
tudc for general mercies. The Hindoo
brings his gift of rice or flour, and pre-
SentS it TO the minister of the object Of
his worship as q token of remembrance
for kindness and deliverance. The an
cient Greeks and Romans brought their
first fruits to the guardian of the fields,
the rcwarder of the laborS of the hus-
baudmau, gave thanks for family bless
ings to the hearth and household gods.
The man rescued from shipwreck hung
up in Neptune's temple n votive offering
and for Il national success or deliver
auce, the magnateS of the land went
with the people in procession with
abundant offerings, testifying their
thanks and praise to the tutelar di-
vinity of the nation. This goes to show
that the duty of rendering thanks to the
object of worship is universally felt and
acknowledged, whether we believe this
duty to have been impressed upon the
progcnitorS of the race by the mouth OF
God himself, or whether we suppose it
to have arisen in the mind OF man in
the earliest ages as Il natural outgrowth
and expression of feelings appropriate
To him and due TO his Maker.
Let us next endeavor to ascertain the
reason of the appropriateness OF thanks
given so universally felt. This, | sup
pose, to arise
FROM \ SENSE or OUR necessities.
Man is II needy being. No animal comes
into life with so trail, so fragile, so
delicate an organization as is his. y
moment of neglect II slight mistake, or
even a little misapplied kindness, nips
in the bud an immortal lite-and so
through all his early years, ceaseless
care, constant watchfulneSS and eXer-
ton upon the part of others are ncedtul
to the happiness, the culture, and even
the existence of every human being.
And when the child has grown to man
or womanhood, the necessities and
wants of nature have increased with in
creaSing years {; and now the white
winged ships spread their sails in every
sea the steamboat pants in every
stream ; the shrek of the locomotive or
the sound of the Transfers wheel, is
heard from almost every hill-all to
supply mans wants, to minister to his
necessities, to bring him something to
eat, to drink, TO wear, TO use.
But when we leave the region OF ply
steal things and go up to the higher
plane of intellectual and spiritual needs,
man is here, so far as we know, with
out a competitor and in each of these
particulars how needy is he so desti-
tute that often he does not know his
poverty ; but, like the maniac, who
shows his insanity by %supposing him
self some prince, or hero, or d%eml-god,
while he is scarcely clad, and filthy and
crazy, so men often show their destitu-
ton by their utter darkness as to the
importance and necessity of mental and
moral culture. But if, in these respects,
he is kindly cared for by others, his
mind is an empty receptacle, and his
moral sense exceeding dull and indis-
tinct. He does not perceive the rela-
tons of things, their points Of similarity
and difference; he cannot reason from
cause to effect and from effect to cause;
and though he may know something OF
right and wrong, he discovers an almost
invincible inclination to follow the
wrong and neglect the right. But when
he is what the world calls educated, he
feels his ueedinesS, of which he was
before wholly or partially ignorant. He
feels his neediness when he realizes,
though family, the breadth of the field
before him; and feels, though feebly,
how circumscribed are his powers, and
how short the time allotted him for
their exercise. But the wants of his
moral nature are most urgent, most
important, and most deeply felt. The
pleasures and pursuits of earth are
seen to be transitory and unsatisfying.
The immortal soul needs something
more. The man crying out, ''who will
show US any good" hopes that in this or
that employment he may find the hap
piuess, permanent and satisfying, he
seeks; and so he flies from one thing to
another, or he plunges deeper and deep
er into business, thinking that if he
cannot find peace, he may forgetfulness.
A second reason for the appropriate
ness of thanksgiving as found
IN A SENSE OF ILL DESERT on II PART OF
MAN.
This has ever been prominent in the
minds of men. Our first father felt II
when he shrunk from God and hid him.
self among the trees of the garden. Tit
bloody sacrifice which has smoked upon
affairs in every land, the long pilgrim
age to the tomb of the prophet, or the
holy sepulchre, the infant struggling
for one moment in Gauges sacred
stream, its mothers offering to appeaSe
her god, have though the ages all told Of
the sense of sin, of personal ill desert,
which is so deeply imprinted in the
heart and nature Of nan that the mos
degrading idolatry, the most abject su.
perstitions, the darkest ignorance, anC
, the most hopeless slavery, instead o.
: efacing or obscuring the impression
, only brings it out in such CHASTITY
, gloomy light, rs is the token of decay
and death, and as shines brightest II
the dark; and so men the most emf
nent, living in times most enlightened
feel that they have left undone wha'
t they ought to have done, and haV'
done what they ought not to have lone
-, - 1l.ol hanly from a hnf