Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-11-26
Thanksgiving.

There is no more agreeable day in the cal
endar. Fasts are necessity, but thanksgiv-
ings are joy. We leave the one and APP
proach the other with pleasure. II is very
needful indeed TO confess sins, but we should
be great wretches not to be grateful for the
mercies that have overtopped all our wrong.
There is no sacrifice so pleasing to God as
thankfulness, because none is so becoming
to us, or shows so true an apprehension Of
the divine benefits. We ought not to forget
to praise him for his common favors, nor for
our innocent mirth and pleasure, nor for the
reasonable qualification of our senses, the en-
joymert of our intellectual powers, and the
comforts and order and peace of social and
domestic life. We ought to praise him for
the pleasant things we have seen, the good
things we have enjoyed and the hopes he has
inspired We ought to thank him for the
heaven to which he invites, for the earth
which he gives us. We ought to praise him
for the sun and moon and stars for the
fields, streams and flowers for our houses,
families and friends he has made for us. We
ought to thank him for health and good
conscience; for riches if we have them, and
for content, If we have not got them.
Life ought to have more thanksgiving, for
with all and after all, IL has a great deal Of
sweetness. Pleasant things are infinite. All
things are good, and nothing is to be refused
If it be received with thankfulness. There
is no wrong in enjoyment. There need be
no suspicion of an after punishment for any
honest, healthful present pleasure. SourDess
is not holiness. 1t is not wrong for children
to move about gaily, and laugh and play.
The streets of the new city are filled with
their sports. 1t is not wrong to enjoy whole
some recreation, social interchanges or a good
dinner. Christians ought not to be like those
Mohammedan saints who imperil their health,
and render themselves cross and unpleasant
to their neighbors believing they are doing
God service by their austerities. Nor ought
they to be like those Hindoo or Romish faua
tics who punish themselves, decorating their
flesh and starving their bodies, and mortify-
ing their backs with hair skirts, and thereby
acquiring great repute for holiness The
enjoyment of the next life is not necessarily
proportioned to the discomfort which we can
contrive to put into this. God does not de-
light to make us unhappy and miserable all
our lives. He never rebukes honest, cheer
full, generous love. He never denounces the
grateful satisfaction of our household. In
fact God made us for the enjoyment of beau
tiful and pleasant things, and he is never
better pleased than when we are pleased
with them and use them in remembrance
of the giver. This world is by no means
without comfort, and the great beauty of
knowledge is that it so widens our minds,
that the more we know, the more pure pleas
ure we have. There are sensual and low
pleasures, no doubt, which ought not to be
sought. When man gives his life to the
enjoyment of good dinners, he is not only
wicked but foolish but good man may en-
joy good dinner without any sin, when it
comes in his way naturally There is no
sense in despising good things any more than
there is in giving ourself up to them. Peo-
pie who 60 out of their way to seek extra
humiliation and to deny themselves of the
good gifts of God, are grievously to be sus.
pected of enjoying their humiliation and
their abstinence, and like the man in the
farce liking to be despised." He was
very sensible divine who said that "God
has two dwellings, one in heaven and the
other in meek and thankful heart" May
the good and merciful God grant all our
readers the honest, grateful heart, and then
they shall be welcome to all the pleasures
and good cheer of the annual thanksgiving.