Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-12-05

tlVal was kept at Trinity Church, OF
Thanksgiving Day, something as it La.
long been observed in many localitie.
in Old England, and is coming tc
be more and more observed il
this country. The church was pleasant
ly decorated with various ''fruits Of the
earth" Upon and above the steps, be.
tween the nave and chancel, a pile was
raised, flanked by sheaves of grain, and
composed of great variety of field and
garden vegetables and other fruit, the
larger and coarser at the bottom, with
ruddy apples, golden lemons, purple
grapes, and glasses filled with grains of
wheat rising above them, the whole
crowned with the bread and wine which
man gets for himself from some of these
fruits, and which the Lord Jesus so en-
nobled by selecting them to represent,
unto the end Of time, His body broken
and His blood shed for man. At each
side of the chancel, sheaves of grain
and punches of Indian corn filled the
corners, and upon the altar were two
large vases of dried grapes of various
sorts.
The Rector preached from l. Thess
:18, ''In every thing give thanks. 7"
The first point which he made was, that
this great Puritan Festival of Thanks
giving belongs to that church in this
land which is the lineal descendant of
the Church of England, even more than
it does to the Puritans and their lineal
and theological grandchildren. For long
before the Puritans came here, similar
festivals of thanksgiving for the fruits
of the earth had been from time to time
observed in various localities IN Old
England. The Puritans simply made
annual and universal here that which
they had at home known only as occa-
sional, irregular and local. In doing this
they fully recognized the propriety of
setting apart one day each year on which
to give special thanks for those material
blessings, for which they were wont also
to give thanks in due measure every day.
AT the same time, they sternly refused
to apply the same principle to thanks for
spiritual mercies, even regarding it as an
abomlnation to keep Christmas and Eas-
ter in special memory of our Lords birth
and resurrection from the dead. This
inconsistency was not due to an eXces-
sivc regard for material benefits, but
rather to an indiscriminating, fanatical
adherence of everything which charac-
lied the established usages of the Church
of England. They probably never would
have appointed an annual ''Thanksgiving
Day." if there had been special service
appointed for such day in the English
Prayer Book, as there is now in that of
the Protestant Episcopal Church in this
country. "We," said the preacher,
''may well thank them for their unin-
tended recognition of the underlying
principle of our annual round of special
services: we may well thank them for
the establishment of one festival, in
which they and we can unite most hear
tily; we may well thank them for help
ing us to perfect our own round of an
nual observances through the introduc-
ton into our Book of Common Prayer of
special service of Thanksgiving to Al
mighty God for the fruits of the earth
and all the other blessings of His merci-
full Providence, things which mean so
much to us. while we are of the earth.
earthly"
The remainder OF the sermon was a
brief recital of some of the lessons sug-
gested by the pile of fruits, before de-
scribed, and an eXhortatiOn to a
real thanksgiving, which should find its
expression in deeds as we'll as in words.
After the Sermon the Holy Communion
was celebrated bread and the wine,
which crowned the pile of fruits, being
used for the purpose. A large number
of communicates remained to avail
themselves of the privilege, suggested
by the Rector, of putting those fruits
of the earth, which God has given us,
to the highest of all possible uses, by
seeking through them to gain that spirit
ual food and sustenance promised to
every humble and true hearted guest at
the Lords Table"
. THANKsGIvING SERVICES. - Union |