Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-11-29
Centennial Thanksgiving.

j. u j. NJ. POLAND, Montpelier, Vt
Centennial Thanksgiving.
The song Of Home, Sweet Home" was
written by man who never had home of
his own, and yet it finds an echo in the
heart OF every one who has once tasted the
enjoyments Of home. Thanksgiving is pc
culiarly home festival, aud the peculiar
delights Of the day are extending far beyond
the old Puritan domain in which it had its
birth, and for years, its home. For it was
Of Puritan origin. The home itself was al.
most of Puritan origin. 1t certainly received
from the Puritans a fuller development and
purer meaning, and nober enforcement
than it used to have in the days of feudal
ism and medieval ecclesasticism. Father
llyaointh used to say that the Roman church
destroyed the idea of home, and it never ex-
listed in even its proximate purity and power
in any papal countries. Aud there was rea-
son, philosophical and historical, for the
statement. For it does not seem as if the
true meaning of home could ever be given
to people under the religious care of those
who neglect the primary duties they owe to
the human race, and whose system, as Vol
taire once said, excuses its priests for adul
terry while it excommuncates them for mar.
riage. The home would hardly be likely to
thrive under the religious nurture of cell
bates. The festivals of countries, subject to
their instruction, would be more likely to be
fasts than feasts ecclesiastical than domes-
tic. 1t was reserved for the Puritan, in res
cuing the elementary teachings and princi-
pies Of Christianity from the grasp of &C.
clesiastical aud feudal supremacy, to estab-
fish peculiar festival in this land that
should lay its warm hand on the domestic
affections, and render the home sanctuary
full of rare joys and delights. 1t is pleasant
to see this festival extending its observance
over the whole country. Once it was
state institution. Only the New England
states adopted it, and they observed it often
on different days. But now the leaven of
the old Puritan institution has pervaded the
entire mass The mustard seed has become
a great tree, and the birds under the whole
heaven sing in its branches. The President
Of the United States calls us to observe il
and what was once a state institution, re-
garded with affection only in New Nngland,
has come TO be national festival observed
in all the states. II it could take with it
the peculiar flavor of its origin; if it could
become domesticated in all the families of
the land, and make the home of each one
the Mecca to which all its members, how
ever widely separated, would annually return
to renew for day the primal sentiments of
our nature; the sympathies of childhood;
the joys of flial gratitude, and of fathery
and motherly tenderness, and the reciproci-
ties OF brothers and sisters, it would be the
symbol of the highest civilization the world
has seen, and the pledge of social and civil
life still higher and grander.
Some have imagined that the Puritants
were severely sanity, of a vigorous aud aus
tere virtue, of settled and holy melancholy.
But the saint Of pale visage and wasted
form, of clasped hands in constant prayer,
OF sombre dress and hair shirt and self-in-
ilicted chastisements, did never belong to
Puritan Protestantism. The popular con
ception Of Professionalism is not correct. 1t
was not of the John the Baptist kind. 1t
was not the same with the religion of st.
Francis. The most bigoted and severe
Puritan was greater in the kingdom of
heaven in all the cheerful virtues than the
Baptist The representative Puritan loved
God with great love, feared Him with great
fear. trusted Him with great faith, obeyed
His will, honored His Word and ordinances,
kept His Sabbaths and walked in His light,
but he was not CHASTITY mournful or fanat-
zeal. His head was very level. His heart
was very hopeful, His sorrows were very
light and his joys were very great, Many of
the Puritans were full OF wit and humor
and laughter, and had merry hearts in their
bosoms. There was no asceticism in the
eminent saints Of Puritanism. They were
stern and heroic, but they never had 81.
mon Stylites in their company, nor believed
that godliness and personal filthiness were
ever associated. Lord Macaulay says that
they objected to bear batting, not because
it gave pain to the bear, but because il gave
pleasure TO the spectators. But Alacaulay
in this sacrificed truth to an antithesis, as he
often did in other things. The Puritans in
England and in New England were very far
from being grim and gloomy, and often in.
dulged, as Milton said, :" in mirth that after
no repenting draws"
We have no objection at all to Christmas
and Easter, save that it is not well for us to
know Christ too much after the flesh, or
bring Ills wonderful career as the Son of
God to the level of our mirthful and sensu-
GUS ideas, TO have them associated with
feasting drinking and carousing. These
great feasts Of the Roman, the Greek and
the English churches are becoming natu-
rallied among all Protestants, and if they
can be purely commemorative and reli gious,
they are welcome as il they were to the
manor born. But we delight in the purely
domestic festival Of Thanksgiving Our
dearest memories cluster about home. Its
potent charms extend from the cradle to
the grave. They attract us when business
or pleasure lead us TO the most distant lands.
They hover around us at the last and cast
over men everywhere the spell of their
power Wherever New Englander goes,
he will carry with him this native festival
Just as the English colonist transported TO
Australia, whose forests teemed with birds
OF a thousand colors and songs, the old eoun.
try linnet, lark and sparrow, so Thanks
giving viii be carried this year to ak lands
where Americans are found, because it is
the peculiar symbol and festival Of our home