The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1874-12-04
THANKSGIVING ADDRESS
DELIVERED BY
REV. ;. I. GRE YER.
At the, Union Congregational
Church, in Worthington, Nov.
rs, 1874.
Abundant Reasons for Thanks
giving.
The Heritage ofthe North
west.
Progress and Prospects
The National Colony.

The National Colony.
THE ADDRESS.
Let US enter into his gates with Thanksgiving
And into his courts with praise.-Ps. lOO-4.
Uunder the Mosaic Institute provis-
ion was made for religious observances
in the homes Of the people, where, espe-
cially, the rising generation were to be
diligently instructed i'll the principles
and precepts of the Law. 1t accorded
however with the genius and aim of the
Levitical system to establish one select
center of divine worship, and to invest
this chosen locality with great aud pc
culiar interest.
This single fact. has been sufficient,
in the worlds history, to rescue from D.
bliviOn and exait to unequelleu emf
nellce, what had been but a paltry ham
let-the Jebus Of the Canaal,ites. The
solemnity OF interest and divine signif-
ticance with which Jerusalem is invest
ed, belongs to no city on earth besides.
With what eloquent emphasis and va
ried expression does the Psalmist assert
this fact:-The Lord hath chosen Zion;
Lord lOveth the gates OF Zion more than
all the all the dwellings of Jacob. Her
walls were SalvatiOn; her gates praise.
Contemplating it from distance lie
exclaims:-Our feet shall stand within
thy gates q Jerusalem Whittier the
tribes 60 up. the tribes of the Lord un-
to the testimony of Israel, to give
thanks unto the name of the Lord
Peace be within thy walls and prosper
ity within thy palaces. For my bretl-
rem and companions sake will now
say, peace he within thee.
These sacred Gates have been long
since dismantled; Zion is desolate and
waste; but to this day pilgrims from
every cline under heaven, tread, with
flushed solemnity, the heights and ave-
nues over which passed, III joyous null
titudes, the SONS Of Jacob; and in lone
illness the Son of God.
Gods chosen people were to enter ill.,
to his gates with thanksgiving and into
courts with praise. 1t was not enough
that they should give tithes all tuat
they possessed; that they should bring
to God the tirStlings of tlOcks and herds
that they maintain the daily sacrafice.
This was solemnly eijoined. Through
these types and shadows devout Israel
ties were encouraged to look forward
to some etlicaciOuS provision for the
worlds woe; but it did not cover the full
measure Of obligation. The heart must
superadd some independent and gener-
GUS expression of loye. Such expression
OF hearty and loving devotion as is e.
qually embraced i'll the great schedule
of religious duty.
This grateful element of divine wor-
ship necessarily perpetuates itself in
every change of dispensation. The
sensuOuS and scenic ritual of the an
Gent temple has persisted, but i'll ten
thousand temples, under the economy
OF grace, the grateful, voluntary offer
ing reappears.
Praise and Thanksgiving offered to
the Most High, is the highest express
sion of worship. 1t is pre-eminently
characteristic OF the christian assembly.
This grateful homage of the soul, UNI
der our American civilization, has as
Sumed the character of 4 national sent
iment, aud this sentiment has cllryst;.l-
lied into the form of an annually recur-
ring public observance.
We are to-day, for the third time
Ony, in the presence OF this Thanksgiy-
ing Festival. Tie reflections of !, gen
eral character, which present them
selves are neither few nor unimpres-
Siye:-
ADVANCED CIVILIZATION.
It ought to awaken thrill of CRATE
ful emotion, in every true and )ble
mind, that God has given us our being
in All age Of the worlds history that is
distinguished by such astonishing pro-
gress in every department of human
activity and investigation. A single
generation, in our modern civilization,
moves through cycle of progress eQui-
VIOLENT to many centuries of the remote
past. Man has but i single breif pro-
baton i'll which to act his part, and
who, it he could control Ills desti-
ny, would choose to come upon the
stage when, as yet, science and art and
philosophy had scarcely lit their lamps;
to creep across the plain Of existence
with scarce star or two twinkling i'll
the gloomy vault of night. 1t is Il lux
ury to live in All age Of daring adyen-
ture that searches the planet from the
equator to the pole; an age of locomo-
ton that places remotest continents in
virtual proximity; All age that i'll a trice
sends sends the culver OF al electric
flash around the globe, seconded by a
Journalism that lays 4 transcript OF the
worlds life each day upon our breakfast
table. An age of discovery and invel,.
tlon, that is rapidly placing man on his
destined emlnence-;l godlike superior
lty above nature and the drudgery of
life; a scientific age that sounds all
depths, scales all nights, and wrings
from natures grasp her Utmost mys,er
les; an age when learning, and science
and art and invention lay their achieve
ments at the feet of Christ and take
their part in the worlds evangel; AL
age when the thrones and palaces OF
kings are giving place to the forum and
senate Ut men; and the shrines Of boar,
error aud superstitution are making
way for the tenpel of God.
We live, to-day, in such an age anC
who, that is alive indeed, can fail OIL
such an occasion to send the insence Of
q grateful soul to the author Of his ex
istence. There are those, indeed, wh(
can scarcely he said to live. They ma,
in some sence exist, but they are like
bats clinging to the carved portals anC
groined arches of sunlit tempels; the,
are sheer earth upon the wheels of pro
,gress; .barnacles to tho ship that sweeps
The seas of time. We must leave such
to whatever they are capable Of in the
low plain of their animal natures; but
let us see to it that we put ourselves ir
sympathetic aud grateful contact with