The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-12-02
CENTENNIAL THANKSGIVING.
Observance of the Day in this City.

| Our Centennial Thanksgiving passed of very
| quietly in this city. The weather was pleasant,
but cold, especially in the later part of the day,
| when the wind blew freely. The cool weather
few days previous AFFORDED the boys fine
skating which they improved readily. There
| were the usual pleasant family gatherings and
| many families held good old-fashioned reun-
| ions. The criminal classes evidently revered
our Centennial Thanksgiving, for there was
but little for the police force to do during the
day or the night following. There was scarce
ly drunken man seen on the street.
RELIGIOUS SERVICES.
The praise meeting at City Hall was not as
we'll attended as on previous years. the hall not
being more than half full. The contribution
was correspondingly small, there being but lit
tie over $50 collected. The services were fully
as interesting as on former occasions, but the
novelty of the meetings has passed off. The
Methodists held largely attended praise meet
ing at the Chestnut street church Services
were held, but no sermons were preached, at
st. Luke's Cathedral, st. Stephens, and St
Lawrence street churches.
STATE STREET CHURCH.
The Free street Baptist, High street, State
street and Williston churches united at State
church delivered the sermon from Ecclesias-
ties vii 10: "Say not thou what is the cause
that the former days were better than these ;
for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning
this" In the days of Solomon the people of
Israel reached the highest pitch of earthly
glory. Jerusalem was the metropolis of the
whole earth. Before the time of Solomon they
had experienced nothing but tumults; changes
and vicissitu6es. Yet in view of all this,
there were some who were discontinued with
their condition, and asked "What is the cause
that the former days, were better than theses"
Howl we, woe worth the day the prophet
of old was commanded to proclaim to the
proud and corrupt land of the Pharaoh's,
and many who never obey any other COM
mand of the Bible never forget to obey this.
so ten,porG, 0 nsores,' cried the Roman
orator two thousand years ago:
"The world is very evil,
The times are waxing late"
sang the sweet bard of Cluny in the 18th CEN
fury; and ever since, the world has been re-
peating this refrain. In fact from much of
the talk that one hears, it would be surmised
that with the old fashioned stage coach, every
thing good went out of the world, and every
thing evil came in on the new fashioned rail-
road.
But the "good old times" were never
known to be actually present. We find them
in the early days of our Republic; the Tories
OF Washington's time found them under the
reign of George Ill; the subjects of George
Ill, found them under George II, and so as
we go back, the good old times continually
retreat and can never be found. The good
old times which were better than the present
never existed We live in the good new
times, and we have cause to be thankful that
our times are no worse, but better than the
ancient. Our age is more honest than any
that has preceded it. The corruption of our
times has come to the surface, but for this
reason it is less dangerous. The fraud, and
bribery and treachery of our times are more
than matched by the times of Bacon and
Walpole. Again the popular admiration for
great thieves has of late years abated. Dis
honesty now wears its own livery and no
longer the beautiful garment of romance and
chivalry. Again, modern times are more
sensible than the ancient. Every folly of
modern spiritualism, of socialism and COM
munlsm, in fact all the sum of modern folly
is far outweighed by the single delusion of
witchcraft Add to this the decisions of
alchemy and astrology, and necromancy,
and fortune telling and the scale of modern
folly weighs but as a feather against the
mountains of nonsense of the "good old
times"
Our times are also more religious than the
ancient. Our churches have increased three
times as fast as our population. Sunday
schools have sprung up. Christian associa-
tons have entered the field; and lay workers,
who formerly were hardly accorded hear
ing, can now with difficulty find halls large
enough to accommodate their audiences.
Even if We could not prove that modern
times are better than the ancient, we have no
reason to despair of our age, so long as we
the blessed fact that the unseen |
and untrumpeted good in the world is far |
greater than the we'll known and apparent |
evil.
FIRST PARISH.
The music at this church, two anthems,
and two hymns was particularly fine, es- |
pecially the original anthem by Kotzschmar. |
DIR. Hill took his text from l Tim. ~, 4,
every creature of God is good if it be re-
ceived with thanksgiving" Abiding at first |
to the prevalent expectation that minister |
should take occasion on Thanksgiving and |
Fast Day to air his political speculations, he |
gave his reasons for not indulging in the lux
urY of having his say upon such matters. |
He thought that political discussions, prop
erly so called, turned upon questions of ex-
pediency, not on questions of morality and |
he thought the pulpit and the religious press |
had as much as they could properly do to |
discuss moral and theological subjects. This |
centennial year, the temptation is strong to |
branch into politics, especially in view of the |
and awkward political situation. |
However, he resisted the temptation, in the |
hope that our centennial pride has now been |
sufficiently humbled, and that it will not be |
necessary for Divine Providence to deprive |
US, like Nebuchadnezzar, out of reason, and |
plunge us into renewed civil war. The |
preacher then passed to the general consider
alton of the text, and endeavored to show |
that if we run through the whole encyclo- |
pedia of sciences, we should find in each |
science, at each step of the way independent |
testimony to the wisdom and to the goodness
of God. He acknowledged the constant pres
ence of suffering, sorrow and sin in the |
world. but thought the preponderance of hap
piness so great as to afford the basis of an |
induction of the benefcence of |
the Creator, and justify a faith that the |
sorrow and suffering and even the sin, in the |
world are passing discord: whose resolution
will only reveal more clearly the skilled love |
Of harmony in God. In mathematics, Bah |
bage's Ninth Bridgewater Treatise would illus |
trate how religious spirit found cause for
gratitude, in bending even geometry to the |
support of faith. In general and celestial me-
,hanics, we have unnumbered instances, in |
which the contemplative mind can not re-
sist the evidence of benefcent foresight in the |
Creator. For chemistry he referred to Prof. |
J. P. Cookies admirable volume on "Relgion |
and Chemistry" In botany he alluded to |
the stores of coal and wood, and the advent |
with man of so many of the |
fruits and flowers suited to his use and en-
joyment. In zoology he referred to Agassiz's |
introduction to his essay on Classification,
and to his introduction Of the prophecy of
man, found in the type of Vertebrates. Then
after running more briefly through the in
tellectual and historical studies, and abiding
to the testimony which they bear to the di-
vine goodness, he closed by showing how all
this Conscience of inductions to the one
end of establishing the divine benefcence
and forethougnt, ought to confirm our faith
that God rules in the affairs of the creatures
yboy, bo hos do. al ~